“And I can’t answer that.
I take a precautionary approach, and I think we all should.
I think we shouldn’t be drinking the water.” Wilmington is downstream of the Fayetteville Works plant run by Chemours (formerly by DuPont), which has for years been discharging a chemical called GenX into the Cape Fear River that serves as the main source of drinking water for southeastern North Carolina.
Charlie Rivenbark, a city councilman there, is heavily involved in local water issues.
“I’ve been drinking that water all my life, and I don’t have a problem drinking it,” said Rivenbark, a Wilmington native.
He said that’s enough evidence for him to state that Peterson shouldn’t be telling people not to drink the water, “unless there’s something he knows that we don’t know.” Peterson acknowledged after the meeting that he didn’t have hard evidence to back up his worries.
“I can’t connect it to water quality, but there are a lot of other families in Wilmington that have had that problem,” Peterson said after the meeting Thursday.
Roy Cooper requested several months ago, and that while he appreciates the legislature’s work Thursday moving forward a bill that will call for more studies into pollution and regulations, he believes it also should have come with more funding to accomplish those goals.
He blamed the state regulators at the time – who were led by a Democratic governor, Mike Easley – for not taking them seriously.
So we’re here today.” While none of the lawmakers on the committee went as far as Peterson did in casting doubt on the safety of the state’s drinking water, the bill approved by the committee asks for a study of whether people can sue their local water utilities over pollution issues.

Securing access for all would go a long way in reducing illness and death, especially among children.
“Since 2000, 1.4 billion people have gained access to basic drinking water services, such as piped water into the home or a protected dug well.
In 2015, 844 million people still lack a basic water service and among them almost 159 million people still collected drinking water directly from rivers, lakes and other surface water sources.” says United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
In an effort to help address the challenge of accessing clean and safe drinking water in Freetown, EcoBank Sierra Leone over the weekend donated eight 5,000ml water tanks to schools in Freetown.
The donation of the water tanks to eight vulnerable schools in the municipality according to Aina Moore, Managing Director, Ecobank is part of the fifth celebrations of Ecobank day through needs assessment in the various schools.
With the theme “safe water, healthy living” Moore underscored the importance of water to the survival and development of children.
Moore continued that without water, the lives of children are at the risk stating that most diseases common among children are related to water and sanitation challenge.
Ecobank she noted strives at improving the living standard of people especially in communities they exist, adding that since the establishment of Ecobank Day, the bank has undertaken development steps in addressing most common challenges.
Access to clean and safe drinking water is a huge challenge in most schools the head teacher pointed out, and the effort by Ecobank in reaching vulnerable children with clean water will not only help promote the wellbeing but also push the holistic development of the country.
By Sylvia Villa Comments are closed.

Would you like your water sparkling, from the tap or hauled out of an unsterilized river upstate?
For proponents of the expensive new drinking trend known as "raw water," the choice is as clear as a Poland spring.
According to a New York Times article published last week, a growing number of American hydration connoisseurs are turning off their taps and switching to unfiltered, untreated water from natural sources, shelling out up to $36.99 for a 2.5 gallon jug of the "raw" stuff.
Even America’s most pristine-looking springs can harbor natural contaminants that make drinking their waters a sickly mistake, said Vince Hill,chief of the Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.It’s hard to say without an intimate knowledge of where your water comes from, what’s in it, and who handles it on its journey from spring to bottle — this is why water gets filtered in the first place, Hill said, and why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces strict quality guidelines on America’s public water providers.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), contaminated drinking water is one of the most dangerous preventable health risks facing the world.
"Contaminated water can transmit diseases such diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio," the WHO says, adding that contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 502,000 diarrheal deaths around the world each year.
America’s public drinking water is among the safest in the world, according to the CDC, thanks in part to a multi-step purification process that includes filtration, sedimentation (a process by which heavy particles of dirt are separated out) and disinfection.
"There are many sources of water contamination, and some of those sources are naturally occurring," Hill told Live Science.
For this reason, the agency recommends that all backcountry water (sourced from a spring or otherwise) be properly filtered, disinfected or boiled before consumption.
That’s why we talk about treating water, filtering water, disinfecting water to make it safer — the data we do have is more about the disease-causing effects of microbes in our water."

Earlier this year, Nasir Iqbal, a senior officer of the Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department in Kasur district – to which Kulalanwala and Kot Asadullah belong – visited the two villages and told locals that the provincial government’s Khadim-e-Punjab Saaf Pani (clean water) Programme would soon set up a water filtration plant for them, using the most advanced technology.
The outgoing CEO of Punjab Saaf Pani Company, Farasat Iqbal, informed participants of the meeting that 135 schemes for the provision of clean drinking water – as a pilot project – had been shortlisted for “rehabilitation in Bahawalpur region” at a cost of 896 million rupees.
The chief minister, as per the official minutes of the meeting, “desired that high-quality third-party international consultancy should be hired to validate” that all the payments made to the project contractor are done on the basis of completed work.
By the time KSB started working on the project, its entire technical and financial design had changed.
Punjab Saaf Pani Company issued an advertisement on April 1, 2015 to invite foreign and local companies to bid for the next phase of the project to be carried out in 17 tehsils across Punjab.
The chairman of the Planning and Development Department informed the meeting that Sinohydro Corporation Limited, a Chinese company working on a number of water sector projects in Pakistan, has been “briefed” on the Punjab Saaf Pani Company “and the contracts being offered” for setting up clean drinking water supply schemes in Pattoki tehsil.
He directed Punjab Saaf Pani Company to “ensure that no substandard company” is shortlisted for the bidding process.
The process of shortlisting the firms that qualified for bidding was not complete even by July 23, 2016 when the provincial chief secretary told the participants that 64 international companies had submitted the bids.
By August 23, 2016, Shehbaz Sharif was having second thoughts about the entire operation of Punjab Saaf Pani Company.
More than 30 months have passed since the process began for inviting and shortlisting companies to take part in the construction of clean drinking water supply schemes.

“We are still on a precautionary boil water advisory, since 2008,” Maracle said noting the measure was implemented by Health Canada almost a decade ago.
“We have to service the community with an alternate water supply.
There are about 318 homes connected to the Deseronto system.
“Water holding tanks have been an interim measure until the water lines are built.” Maracle will be looking to the government for additional supports to complete the $5.5 million water tower project he champions as the solution to ensuring the entire community can have dependable supply.
The total cost of the tower and water line service extensions will be at least $16 million.
With more than 60 communities still turning to alternative water sources, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to eradicate all drinking water advisories in First Nations communities by March 2021.
“There is often blue-green algae that forms along the bay, so people can’t use drinking water from shore wells and we have 102 wells along the Bay of Quinte,” the chief said.
Budget 2016 included a commitment of $1.8 billion over five years, beyond existing spending, to help achieve that goal.
MP Mike Bossio lauded the chief for pushing the federal government to implement change.
The federal government has allocated $145,000 to address infrastructure work such as digitizing water meters and engineering studies for watermain expansions, and have earmarked $2.5 million (of a $7 million project) to facilitate expansion of the Deseronto plant, which services a segment of the reserve.

Ever stopped to wonder how crucial it is to have access to clean drinking water?
In rural areas alone, 63.4 million of our fellow citizens live without access to clean water—more than any other country in the world—according to Wild Water, State of the World’s Water 2017, a new report by WaterAid, a global advocacy group working to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.
Sukruth Krishna Kumar (Class 12) and Suprith Krishna Kumar (Class 9) from The International School Bangalore (TISB) and Tarun Kumar Reddy (Class 12) from Canadian International School came together to ensure that about 150 families (approximately 500 individuals) in Hegganahalli have access to clean drinking water.
“A 5-rupee coin gets you a can of clean drinking water,” said Sukruth to the Bangalore Mirror.
The money collected goes to the zilla panchayat for the unit’s upkeep.
“When we went to the village with my family, we saw that the water was not clean.
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These three students hope that this act of theirs proves to be an inspiration to other students.
After few hits and many misses, they thought that the best course of action was to set up a charitable trust by themselves.
The boys also hope that their efforts will inspire others like them to take up such initiatives.

The New Mexico Court of Appeals has sided with a coalition of environmental groups that had repeatedly sought a public hearing related to the cleanup of chromium contamination at one of the nation’s premier federal laboratories.
The court in a ruling issued last week found there was no evidence to support the decision by state regulators to deny requests for a public hearing.
The coalition, Communities for Clean Water, has concerns that discharging the treated water could end up pushing the plume of chromium closer to drinking water wells.
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"The court has ensured that the public’s concerns must be heard before discharges of pollution into our state’s waters are authorized," she said.
The state Environment Department did not return messages seeking comment on the ruling.
Then-Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn denied the request for a public hearing, saying his agency had accepted comments and that the permit was in the public interest.
The state Water Quality Control Commission backed up Flynn’s decision, saying concerns raised by the coalition had already been addressed by the Environment Department in a private meeting.
Under the permit, the lab is allowed to discharge up to 350,000 gallons a day of treated water associated with pumping tests, well development and groundwater remediation.

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday said that his government is committed to total cleanliness under the Swachh Bharat Mission of Government of India.
While addressing a public meeting after launching the drinking water reservoirs cleaning campaign here, Thakur said it is necessary to undertake such cleanliness drives to keep drinking water safe.
“Maximum water borne diseases occurs because of lackluster approach as water reservoirs or tanks once constructed goes unattended for a long time,” he said.
e directed the IPH Department to undertake the regular cleanliness drive of drinking water tanks all over the state and this would be our priority.
Thakur said not once but the department concerned should ensure that water tanks were maintained properly and such campaigns should be undertaken twice a year.
“Besides, the traditional water resources need to be cleaned regularly.
The CM said due to tough topography of the state, it was often witnessed that people carry water on their back and head even in his constituency which was quite an interior.
But now a days, the people have access to drinking water at their doorsteps, inside their home.”I assure that every kitchen and bathrooms will have water taps,” he said.
He that the fare for HRTC taxis to IGMC would be Rs 10 now, which was rupees 20 earlier, adding that the senior citizens will also pay the same fare of Rs 10.
Under AMRUT mission we will make sincere efforts to include an over-bridge at Sanjauli to avoid inconvenience to people from heavy traffic, said the CM Irrigation and Public Health minister Mahendar Singh Thakur, Education minister Suresh Bhardwaj, Shimla MC Mayor Kusum Sadret, Deputy Mayor Rakesh Kumar Sharma and Engineer-in-Chief IPH Anil Bahri were present on the occasion.

If we truly want California to shine as an example of progressive leadership, then we cannot allow people living in the Valley to be treated like second-class citizens, without access to clean drinking water.
These families deserve clean water that is safe to use and safe to drink.
I recently went to the San Joaquin Valley and visited with families who unfortunately live with deadly contaminants in their drinking water.
Here are the facts: • As many as 1 in 4 schools in the Valley have been impacted by unsafe drinking water.
• As many as 1 million Californians are exposed to unsafe drinking water each year.
In this past year, I became the co-author of Senate Bill 623 by Sen. Bill Monning, which was introduced in order to create a Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund.
The fund was the result of an historic agreement between the agricultural industry and environmental activist groups, who both agreed to contribute to the fund in order to help ensure that every California household has access to clean water.
After meeting with the hard-working families of the Valley, I couldn’t help but think of my own family – my mother and father and the struggles they faced as they raised a family in the working-class city of La Puente.
We have a strong, fair proposal for a real, sustainable solution to the problem that will provide relief for California families without overburdening the rest of the state.
Our neighbors’ struggle is our shared struggle, and we must all ensure that every Californian can access their right to safe and affordable drinking water.

State Representative Chris Afendoulis (R-Grand Rapids Township) today supported legislation, for which he advocated, which will make critical investments to help address growing public concerns over PFAS contamination in Kent County and across the state.
The expedited appropriation bill will help the State of Michigan address PFAS contamination.
Some of the most notable parts of the package include:  Funding to support the efforts of county health departments (including the Kent County Health Department)  Financial assistance which will go toward remediating known contaminated sites  Investments in upgrades to existing state laboratories.
Currently, all testing for PFAS must be done at out-of-state labs, and the results take weeks to process.
These investments will allow for testing in Michigan and will give concerned residents and state and local leaders more timely information.
Rep. Laura Cox (R-Livonia), Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, applauded Afendoulis’ effort.
“Rep.
Afendoulis’ input has been invaluable in this process, and he has been a tremendous advocate on behalf of his constituents,” Cox said.
“However, our work is far from finished.
I won’t be satisfied until all of my constituents have access to the highest quality drinking water possible.”