According to a notification issued here, the apex court has given the said task to Director General Pak-EPA, Farzana Altaf Shah along with Dr. Mohammad Ahsan Siddiqui, Dr. Mohsina Zubair (Deputy Director (Lab/NEQS)) and Ali Hasan Syed (Assistant Director (Pollution Control)).
The team was on the task of comprehensive inspection of bottled water companies located in Punjab namely Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Gourmet, Aquafina and others.
According to details, the monitoring has been initiated in order to gather the details of amount of water being extracted from underground aquifers, procedures and methods of water extraction, purification, quality assurance, environmental compliances and other practices being followed by such companies.
Dr Mohammad Ahsan Siddiqui, an environmental scientist and team member said, the team was working with full dedication on day and night in true letter and spirit, however inspection in some of the districts was completed.
“We only aim at getting pure water accessible to every citizen at his door step,” he added.
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2018

BENTON HARBOR — The test results for Benton Harbor Area Schools’ water fixtures in the city are in, showing that only five of 135 were dispensing water that exceeded the federal action level of 15 parts per billion for lead.
He said that an additional 20 water fixtures will be replaced because they exceed the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s voluntary water standard of 5 ppb.
“We’re in the process of contracting with a local vendor to replace the fixtures,” he said.
Herrera ordered the test, though by law, school districts only have to test the water as it comes into the building if they get their water from a municipal system.
The buildings that were tested were STEAM Academy at MLK, the Charles Grey Teen Center, Dream Academy, Benton Harbor High School, Discovery Enrichment Center and the Cosmetology Center.
That fixture tested as having 642 ppb for lead.
Two fixtures at the high school tested high, at 35 ppb and 15 ppb.
The Cosmetology Center had one fixture testing at 15 ppb.
The teen center had a fixture testing at 19 ppb.
“The results show that the elevated readings were not due to the building plumbing systems but were directly associated with the fixture sampled,” stated a press release from the school district.

BENTON HARBOR, MI — Lead testing results for Benton Harbor Area Schools show elevated levels of lead in five fixtures in the district.
Benton Harbor schools immediately began using solely bottled water for consumption, the district said in a release at the time.
A total of 25 fixtures tested above 5 ppb and were immediately turned off by school staff.
"Therefore, please know that it is highly unlikely any students or staff members consumed water that contained contaminates," the release said.
Five of the fixtures tested at or above the Environmental Protection Agency’s action level for lead of 15 parts per billion.
A table of test results provided by the district showed one testing location in the MLK STEM Academy on Britain Avenue tested at 642 ppb, more than 40 times higher than the EPA action level.
School spokesperson Amy Nichols said this fixture was a prep sink in the school’s kitchen that is not used by staff.
The lead levels are high there because the water sits stagnant and is never flushed through the faucet, Nichols said.
The next highest locations tested at 35 ppb, 19 ppb and 15 ppb, the results table showed.
The district will replace all fixtures that tested high and retest for lead levels before they are in use again, the release said.

Residents must drink bottled water because boiling the water does not make it safe.
The city says the utility will be providing bottle water for drinking and cooking to the affected customers.
The area affected includes county residents who were previously serviced by a private utility.
Businesses and residents in the area should stop consuming tap water until further notice.
On October 25, the water utility discovered sediment plugging a residential water meter.
On November 7, a second sample was pulled from a plugged water meter.
The samples were sent off for analysis.
The analysis showed the presence of excessive levels of barium, nickel, lead, thallium, iron, copper and manganese.
Residents who are affected can also pick up bottled water at Public Works, 1201 S. Nappanee Street in Elkhart during normal business hours.
Click here for a map of the affected area

FLINT (WJRT) (11/15/2018) – More free bottled water is available to Flint residents.
The Flint Police Department Police Athletic League and Flint Community Schools received 76,800 bottles of water thanks to three private donors.
The donation comes two weeks after Judge Greg Mathis organized a water caravan to bring free bottled water to Flint on Nov. 1.
Four Flint churches are planning several bottled water giveaways to distribute water provided by the former Detroit district court judge who now stars in a daytime TV courtroom show.
Four of the churches who distributed some of that water still have ample supplies, so more giveaways are scheduled.
The schedule is: — First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church at 1226 Beach St., 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
— Fairhaven Seventh Day Adventist Church at 1379 Louis Ave., 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
— Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church and Salem Lutheran Church, call 810-235-0863 for delivery to homebound residents.
Weekly water distributions are continuing at the three Flint Help Centers thanks to donations from Nestle, the United Way and other donors.
They are open: — Bethel United Methodist Church at 1309 Ballenger Highway from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays.

Courtesy photo 1 / 1 Dawn-Marie Stevens and her family are stocked up on water in bottles and jugs, which they and their pets are drinking while they wait to see if nearby homes in Robinson Township are contaminated with PFAS.
Officials were helpful, Barlow said, but they did not have all the answers.
“They’re looking for answers.” Barlow, a president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Robinson Elementary School for seven years, said she and her family switched to bottled water when the initial results were released Oct. 29.
While the school was immediately supplied with bottled water for drinking and cooking, many township residents have also switched to bottled water at home to avoid drinking their well water.
“There’s always something new you can test for.
He said it took less than a week to receive the results, which found no traces of PFAS, and cost him $275.
“I am responsible for my family’s well-being.” Wagenmaker, who is married with five children, has lived on the Robinson Township property for almost 20 years.
“I can see if you had water that was contaminated and an entity that was found to be responsible, they should be held responsible to the extent that they had knowledge,” he said.
Michigan is in the midst of a statewide study of PFAS, which led to the discovery at the Robinson Township school.
“Nobody’s given anybody clear-cut answers of what the next course of action is going to be if this is found in the few homes that they did test,” Stevens said.

By: WCTV Eyewitness News CAIRO, Ga. (WCTV) — Students in Grady County will return to class as usual Thursday after being released early Wednesday due to a water main break.
Grady County Schools said in a statement that the City of Cairo completed repairs to the water main and that water pressure is expected to return to normal by the end of the day.
According to GCS, all schools will be open Thursday, and bottled water and hand sanitizer will be provided under the boil-water advisory.
The district issued the following notice on Wednesday: Good Morning, The City of Cairo has a water main break on the main line from the Airport.
Therefore, we will be releasing students from all schools at 9:00 this morning.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
City officials says the decision to close schools was made because the school cafeterias could not prepare and serve meals and sanitary conditions at the schools in Cairo could not be maintained.
Cairo Mayor Booker Gainor says city employees are currently working to correct the problem.
City officials say repairs could take until noon, if not longer, and it will be early afternoon or later before the water supply will return to normal.
Officials say once the distribution system is back up and functioning properly, the city will immediately begin taking water samples and transporting them to an EPD-certified lab operated by the City of Bainbridge.

Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN Business – A new startup called Tap has a bold ambition: convince people to stop buying plastic bottles of water.
Tap launched an app Tuesday that displays nearby clean drinking water locations, from restaurants and retail stores to public water fountains, so you can refill your water bottle.
"Water is a mispriced public good," founder Samuel Rosen told CNN Business.
"I believe we, as consumers, have been robbed of our own water and sold back to us by corporations."
Rosen is the cofounder and former CEO of on-demand storage startup MakeSpace.
Consumers may also start seeing blue "Tap" signs in store windows signaling the business is friendly to thirsty guests.
Earlier this month, the UN Intergovernmental Panel released a bombshell climate change report that warned global warming is on track to have a disastrous impact if nothing changes by 2030.
The report said the impact could result in extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages for hundreds of millions of people.
Eight million tons of plastic enter the water each year, according to the World Economic Forum, and more plastic is expected in our oceans than fish by 2050 in terms of weight, if our current usage of plastic continues.
But Tap isn’t the first to connect people to clean drinking water.

Ever since Flint’s water crisis, people in other communities have watched for signs of tainted water.
He’s been talking to contractors about replacing them, and hopes to get the work done in the next few months.
But his children may have been exposed to tainted water anyway — at school.
The water fountains in all 106 schools run by the Detroit Public Schools Community District have been dry since classes began in August.
“We are talking about Detroit now because we proactively tested all water sources, and defined the problem with a solution,” said Nikolai P. Vitti, the superintendent.
In Newark, N.J., officials insisted for months that drinking water was safe before reversing course last month when a new study showed lead contamination.
After the Flint crisis erupted, Michigan stepped up blood testing of children for elevated lead levels.
Others voiced outrage that the problem had gotten as far as it has, including Roslyn Markhal, whose daughter attends Chrysler Elementary, another school found to have elevated copper or lead levels in its water.
In the schools in Baltimore, officials have been using bottled water for drinking since 2007, after tests revealed elevated lead levels there.
Over the past 18 months, the Detroit Health Department has ramped up efforts to test children who may have been exposed, including sending workers to knock on the doors of every resident in neighborhoods where children have been found with elevated copper or lead levels, according to Tamekia Ashford, a spokeswoman for the department.

A senior is localizing a national campaign to promote the use of tap water and encourage sustainable practices on campus.
Senior Mia Simonetti brought the Take Back the Tap project to GW last month in an effort to preserve water resources by discouraging the use of bottled water.
“It shouldn’t be privatized or be something only certain people can have.” Simonetti said by next semester, she hopes to register with the Center for Student Engagement and propose a resolution for one of GW’s buildings to install one or two more water refilling stations.
Simonetti said she is working with a team of 10 students who have made it their mission this semester to regulate single-use plastic on campus.
“It needs to happen at college campuses because not only are we learning how to shape what we want to do for the future, but we need to take into account that our future is what’s going to be impacted by all these changes,” she said.
Simonetti said her team has been in touch with several sustainability advisers and managers to articulate the campaign’s goals for the future.
She said she hopes to reach out to and speak with Provost Forrest Maltzman and leaders in the Student Association this academic year.
She said she hopes that working with organizations like Green GW and Campaign GW to co-sponsor events will help the group get more name recognition on campus, and some members of these groups have circulated Take Back the Tap’s petition.
Simonetti added that she hopes to remove plastic water bottles from vending machines on campus, saying that funding for refillable stations on campus could come from reduced spending on contracts with machine vendors for plastic water bottles.
Meghan Glynn, a senior and member of GW’s Take Back the Tap’s marketing and finance teams, said the campaign has the potential to make an impact on students’ and administrators’ plastic bottle usage.