In fact, the majority of some 90 million people who live in the Punjab areas of Pakistan and India drink and cook with untreated well water that they collect themselves from privately-owed wells on their properties.
The main contaminant of the well water in this region of South Asia is arsenic—high levels of which can cause a range of illnesses, including cardio-vascular disease for adults and impaired cognitive function in children.
In the study—which was published online in Science of the Total Environment in November—Columbia University earth scientists partnered with Southeast Asian research professors and students to test more than 30,000 water wells in nearly 400 Pakistani and Indian villages.
They found that nearly a quarter of all the tested wells contain more than 10 micrograms per liter of arsenic, the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) threshold in safe drinking water.
Fortunately though, the study found that 87 percent of households with a high-arsenic well live within 100 meters (or about 330 feet) of a private well that meets the WHO guideline for arsenic.
“If it’s 500 meters away instead of 50 meters,” he said, “that makes a big difference.” The students advised Punjab households with unsafe well water to switch to neighbors’ wells that are considered safe based on the test results.
“‘We hope you can [get along] with your neighbor so you can use their well.’” When the researchers returned to five of the Pakistani villages a year later, about two-thirds of the 150 surveyed households with high-arsenic wells claimed to have switched to a neighbor’s safe well.
In a previous test involving some 12,000 villagers’ wells across 60 Bangladesh villages, about 60 percent of households surveyed also made the switch to safe wells.
The testing campaign closest in magnitude to this kind occurred between 2000 and 2005, when Bangladesh’s national government tested nearly 5 million wells—an effort that convinced approximately 10 million local villagers to switch to safe wells.
And the only way to do that, is to actually test them all.”

Facilities where food is prepared for public consumption (such as restaurants and fast food outlets) will be closed for the duration of the boil water advisory currently in effect in parts of Milton.
Halton Region staff said the closures are necessary because when sewage has potentially contaminated drinking water supplies it is extremely difficult to operate food premises safely using bottled or boiled water, based on the volume of food production and production methods.
In addition, proper hand hygiene and premises sanitation are difficult to perform adequately during these incidents.
Region staff noted that allowing the businesses to remain open could put patrons at risk of illness, as they might potentially consume contaminated food, drinks and ice or use contaminated utensils.
On Friday evening, Halton Region’s medical officer of health issued a precautionary boil water advisory following a water main break in the Commercial and Pine streets area.
Halton Region staff say the break occurred as a result of construction activity in the area.
The advisory will remain in effect until at least Monday, Dec. 10, or whenever laboratory tests can determine if contamination has occurred.
The area affected is roughly within Thompson Road South to the east, Derry Road to the south, Steeles Avenue to the north and Bronte Street South to the west.
Halton Region staff confirmed they mistakenly contacted the Sobey’s grocery store, which is located outside the affected area at 1035 Bronte St., S., and instructed them to close their food preparation areas.
The store was contacted again on Saturday, Dec. 8 and told their entire store operation is not impacted by the boil water advisory.

Even before the war, few households had access to running water.
George, Moradeke, Luciana… Like them, they are a legion of unknown heroes who face the reality of migration every day.
We never think of them, but public service workers are at the frontlines providing basic services to migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.
They are the ones who deal, not only with water, sanitation, healthcare, housing, education, and administrative support, but also provide services that are critical in emergency response, disasters, displacement, and reconstruction.
About 258 million people – one in every 30 – were living outside their countries of birth in 2017.
Because of them, the level of public schooling will drop.
Moreover, some private companies are now exploiting what is presented as a migrants’ crisis for profit.
Needs that should be met by public services are delegated to private companies.
As George, Moradeke, Luciana and many others show every day, public service workers and their unions are uniquely placed to facilitate the addressing of global forced displacements happening in our century.
Geneviève Gencianos is the migration programme coordinator at Public Services International.

Governor Hassan Joho said the plant would start desalinating seawater in 2021.
However, we are happy it is finally taking shape," the governor said yesterday after signing an agreement with the company in Mombasa town.
SEE ALSO :Who is right on Ndakaini Dam ownership?
The plant is expected to produce at least 100,000 cubic meters of water every day.
"The project, to be located in the north mainland, will supply quality water to more than 1 million people,” Joho said.
He added: "The water crisis that has dodged this region for the last three decades will now be a thing of the past, as this plant will supplement the present supply from Mzima Springs, Voi and Malindi."
The county’s three main water sources are only able to supply 48,000 cubic meters per day, which was not adequate.
The governor said the county government had awarded another tender to Aqua Swiss Company, from Saudi Arabia, to put up another desalination project in Likoni.
The plant Aqua Swiss Company will build is smaller and will provide 30,000 cubic meters per day.
I’m keen on fulfilling all the promises I made," Joho said.

New bores drilled into the Sue Coals Measure are shaping up as the most feasible option to deliver a non-potable water scheme to Dunsborough.
But the plan does not involve servicing sites closer to the coastline like Dunsborough Primary School, which is currently forced to irrigate with drinking-quality water and has racked up an $84,000 water bill for the year so far.
It is also unlikely to be implemented until the mid 2020s, and will probably have the City of Busselton — and, in turn, ratepayers — as its sole customer, at least initially.
City of Busselton planning and development services director Paul Needham has been charged with investigating a range of options, including new bores, the use of treated wastewater, and taking over Water Corporation bores.
However, after the developer of Dunsborough Lakes Urban Quarter transferred a “substantial allocation” of water to the club, also allowing the City access, Mr Needham said the sense of urgency had “fallen away”.
While acknowledging the plight of places like the Dunsborough Country Club, Mr Needham said the scheme’s benefits had to stack up against the cost, and stressed discussions were under way on how sites closer to the coast could be supported.
“It doesn’t make sense to get water up the hill to the country club or Dunsborough Primary School,” he said.
“There are potentially some other options for water at the country club and the City has been having discussions on that.” Vasse MLA Libby Mettam recently presented a grievance motion to Water Minister Dave Kelly.
She took aim at the Government’s rejection of a proposal that involved Busselton Water supplying a non-potable scheme, but Mr Kelly said the plan would have cost taxpayers too much.
“This is a short-term solution and does not address the longer term issue of a non-potable water supply to the country club or the existing primary schools.” One of the other preferred options was the use of treated wastewater currently being discharged to Station Gully over winter.

Kerr is treasurer of the Martin County Water District, a utility that’s made national news amid reports of poor water quality and long outages that have left hundreds of families without running water for days at a time.
The crisis?
Whether people in this mountainous and economically distressed region will have access to clean, reliable and affordable drinking water in the coming years.
You’re gonna start seeing these things pop up all over the country.” While Martin County has received more attention than other water districts, people from across Eastern Kentucky tell similar stories: brown water coming out of their taps; outages that leave families struggling to bathe their children; water bills that keep getting higher, leaving people in one of the poorest parts of the country wondering how long they’ll be able to afford city water.
In some cases, districts refused to raise rates gradually even at the request of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, the state agency that regulates most utilities in Kentucky.
We can’t take out a loan,” Kerr said.
“Grants, anything like that we can get our hands on, yes, absolutely we’ll get every dollar that we can.” Sandra Dunahoo, chair of the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority and commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Local Government, offers a more optimistic story of water infrastructure in Kentucky.
Then-governor Paul Patton made a plan to provide adequate and clean drinking water to every Kentuckian by 2020, saying “An adequate source of safe, clean drinking water is nothing to get upset about unless you don’t happen to have any; then it becomes a matter of life and death.” Much of that progress has come from projects funded by low-interest loans through state and federal agencies, and through grants awarded by organizations like the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Since 1990, the authority has awarded about $597 million through a federally assisted wastewater revolving loan fund, and more than $717 million through a safe drinking water revolving loan fund, along with more than $48 million of grant money.
In some districts with high rates of water loss, including districts in Floyd County, Martin County and Harlan County, residents have reported spending days without running water.

CHIKKABALLAPUR: Just 60km from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) is Deshmar Thanda, a Lambani settlement where 23 families have been living for the past four decades without access to basic amenities, including drinking water, primary healthcare, roads and even education.
TNIE visited a government school in Bagepalli town, about 8.5km from Deshmar Thanda, where a group of girls narrated to this reporter the ordeal of their daily lives in a village forsaken by the government.
Eleven-year-old Kalpana (name changed) said: “In our thanda, we walk 1.5 km every day to get water; there are no pucca roads either.
We walk for almost 2km through thorny paths to reach the bus stop, and then take a bus to reach school.
Kids walk 2 km to school The villagers, who have at least three families with children of ages eligible to be admitted to anganwadis, refuse to do so as they dread walking almost 2km over thorny, muddy paths with their children to reach the anganwadi.
However, the government school at Bagepalli has now provided them with free hostel facilities and the authorities are trying to convince parents to send their children.“We have no choice but to leave our children at the government hostel.
If we have to give them an education, we have to let go of our children and see them only once a month or during holidays,” said Kanchana, whose daughter is in Class 9 and stays at the hostel.
Our women walk 1.5 km to fetch water from a stored borewell water pit from someone’s farmland, to wash clothes and take a bath.
They have to walk till Nellampalli and wait for the bus to take them to Bagepalli Government Hospital.
Meanwhile, a human rights activist based in Kolar, said there is heavy flurosis in the water they drink, which further complicates their health issues.

Medical staff from the Health Ministry are now visiting villages in the Naitasiri province on a daily basis to closely monitor the recent Typhoid outbreak.
This comes after there were thirty-one confirmed cases of Typhoid from only certain areas of Naitasiri.
Minister responsible, Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says with a lot of functions happening in the lead up to the festive season, its crucial the disease does not spread.
Dr. Waqainabete says Typhoid can be fatal as it’s a bacterial infection that can lead to a high fever, diarrhoea, and vomiting.
He adds that villagers are to boil all drinking water.
” I can assure that obviously the public health team have been working daily in these villages and one of the strategies is identifying the water source to ensure people in these areas have access to safe and clean drinking water that they’ve been utilizing.” Meanwhile, the public health teams on the ground are educating families on safe food preparation, food handling and proper hygiene practices.
The Ministry is urging Fijians to postpone non-essential travel to the affected areas and exercise precautionary measures.
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Nobody’s certain who said that, but it’s been a fact ever since they invented booze.
But progress last week means that when the state Legislature convenes Jan. 14, there could be a whole lot more agreeing than fighting.
When’s the last time you heard that kind of cooperation out of Phoenix?
That’s makes passage of a Drought Contingency Plan important this session.
It brought stakeholders together and came to an agreement on how shortages would be handled; that plan goes to the Legislature in January.
There’s no doubt a shortage is coming, the question is how to manage it, and do so fairly for Nevada, Arizona and California, and interests such as agriculture, tribes and developers.
Ducey backs a plan that protects water levels in Lake Mead (lake levels trigger shortage declarations).
He also wants us to look at “a drier future” through conservation.
In February, Ducey released a policy paper on “Arizona’s water future,” which you can access online.
It didn’t get much traction in the Legislature, but now that some big questions have been addressed, lawmakers are eager to act.

One villager says he has sold many of his animals over the last three months — a camel at 60,000 rupees; 13 goats for 3,000-4,000 rupees each.
“I am also planning to leave along with my family and animals,” he says.
Many of those still in the village may do the same soon.
This year, some parts of Tharparkar got no rain at all.
In other parts, the amount of rain was much less than normal and many villages did not receive all the three spells of rain they usually do.
He left behind four other children, all older than Hajra.
In 2014 and 2015, according to government officials working in the district, average per acre yield of major crops declined by 50%.
Sindh’s provincial government has set up as many as 600 Reverse Osmosis (RO) water filtration plants across Tharparkar to address the problem of drinking water in the district.
The provincial government has been distributing free wheat among the residents of Tharparkar every year since 2014.
This time round, he says, the reservoir has run out of water in the third year of the dry spell.