The water is disappearing in San Felipe Ecatepec, an Indigenous town three miles outside of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, in southern Mexico.
“In the past four years, our wells have started drying up,” says Juan Urbano, who just finished a three-year term this February as the president of the Communal Territory of San Felipe Ecatepec.
In between San Felipe and San Cristobal lies a Coca-Cola bottling plant, operated by the Mexican company FEMSA.
“Many people don’t drink pozol anymore,” Urbano laments.
Despite the government’s responsibility, most Mexicans do not have safe drinking water in their homes.
The impacts of the earthquake on water infrastructure are still being assessed.
Civil society organizations published the Report on Violations of Human Right to Drinking Water and Sanitation in Mexico, this year, which called out Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Danone for profiting off Mexico’s water resources without paying fairly.
During decades working in Chiapas as a doctor, Marcos Arana found that water access issues were at the heart of public health problems in the state’s Indigenous communities.
Coca-Cola previously had billboards in Indigenous communities around San Cristobal, such as San Juan Chamula, showing men and women in traditional dress with Coca-Cola bottles.
“They’re worried about all the criticisms.” In San Felipe Ecatepec, Juan Urbano doubts the current Mexican government will help the community with its water problems.

13 Countries with Least Access to Clean Water.
So before we move on to our water poor countries list, let’s consider how many countries don’t have clean water at all?
Well, no nation is that far gone.
Well, according to WHO, from where we have constructed our list and ranked countries based on the percentage of their population using improved drinking water sources, an improved drinking water source is one which “by nature of its construction and design, is likely to protect the source from outside contamination.” Interestingly, bottled water alone, unaccompanied by any other source, is not considered an improved water source by WHO, even though some large bottled water companies, which include the 10 largest bottled water companies in the world and top 10 healthiest bottled water in the world, provide very safe and healthy water.
Mauritania Percentage of population using improved drinking water sources: 57.90% Mauritania, a country located in the midst of Northwest Africa, has actually done quite some work in the water department as its access percentage given above used to be 42% in 2000.
Eritrea Percentage of population using improved drinking water sources: 57.80% Not only does almost half the population of Eritrea not receive clean water, but the government does not even proffer the citizens basic human rights.
Maybe the destruction caused by the earthquake is the reason that the percentage of the population using improved drinking water sources actually reduced in the nation from 60.8% in 2000 to 57.7% in 2015.
Afghanistan Percentage of population using improved drinking water sources: 55.30% Afghanistan is one unfortunate nation.
Angola Percentage of population using improved drinking water sources: 49.00% We have arrived at the point in our list where more than half the country’s population does not have access to clean water, which is a very sad fact indeed.
Equatorial Guinea Percentage of population using improved drinking water sources: 47.90% Unfortunately, Equatorial Guinea hasn’t improved much since 2000 in providing access to clean water to more people.

Unchecked pollution of city’s water sources poses health risks to residents.
Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) secretary-general Stephen Mutoro is categorical that it is criminal for anyone to discharge sewage into a waterway and blames the lapse on the county government’s poor surveillance in efforts to end the mess.
Mr Mutoro said due to rampant contamination of water sources, urban farming needs to be licensed to curb practices such as using water polluted with sewage.
“The waste water also contains pathogens that settle on the vegetable leaves since the farmers carry out open field irrigation,” Mr Opondo said.
Prof Ratemo Michieka, a veteran environmental scientist at the University of Nairobi, told the Saturday Nation that lack of access to clean water is a key factor in the use of waste water for irrigation by peri-urban farmers.
“In addition, surface runoff during the rains mixes with clean water in the burst pipes, resulting in contamination.”
Less than two months ago, the country was hit by a devastating cholera outbreak that claimed more than six lives in Nairobi alone, while over 400 others were admitted to hospital.
“Nairobi’s population growth has been accompanied by rapid development of housing units, both informal and formal.
In rural areas, however, access to water sources increased from 33 percent to 57 percent during the same period.
In some instances, the cartels close valves in certain areas to create artificial water shortages to make business for their vendors, according to Mr Mutoro.

Less than 4% of $4M in school lead testing funds have been used.
Less than 4 percent of $4 million in state funds, approved last year amid the Flint water crisis, to partially reimburse schools for lead testing or installing new fixtures has been used, according to state records.
And officials say it’s important that more work is done to get schools to apply for and use those dollars to help ensure that children have access to safe drinking water.
Schools can receive up to $950 per-building for testing or fixture replacements.
He said his department is working with the State Budget Office to look at the rule covering the timeframe under which schools are eligible for reimbursements.
MDE is also looking at developing a "tiered" system where larger schools with more sinks and drinking fountains to be tested can receive a reimbursement of more than $950 per-building.
The crisis generated nationwide attention and resulted in policymakers and public health advocates pushing for more lead testing, including at schools, child care providers and other buildings with aging infrastructure.
State board member Pamela Pugh, D-Saginaw, who pushed for the guidance on lead testing, said she doesn’t believe the low amount of funding dispersed through the grant program means school don’t take the issues seriously.
According to data from MDEQ, the Wayne-Westland Community School District has received the largest reimbursement thus far — $17,411.
But he echoed the same barriers discussed by MDE as a reason for the low interest in the program – a relatively modest reimbursement rate and the fact that some districts conducted testing prior to the availability of the grant.

Underground drinking water sources in parts of the U.S. and three Asian countries may not be as safe as previously thought due to high levels of manganese, especially at shallow depths, according to a study led by a researcher at the University of California, Riverside.
Of the four regions, the Glacial Aquifer had the fewest contaminated wells.
While groundwater can be contaminated with a number of heavy metals, more emphasis has been placed on assessing the levels of arsenic than manganese, although the latter also poses a threat to human health.
Although the WHO suggests a health-based limit of 400 ppb, manganese is not listed as a contaminant on the EPA’s National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, and therefore the levels are not monitored or enforced.
In the current study, the researchers collected and analyzed chemical data from 16,000 wells in the Glacial Aquifer, the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Mehta Basin in Bangladesh, the Mekong Delta in Cambodia, and the Yangtze River Basin of China.
When accounting for both metals at levels suggested by the WHO, the percentage of contaminated wells across all depths increased as follows: Glacial Aquifer (U.S): 9.3 percent contaminated when considering arsenic only; increased to 16.4 percent when considering arsenic and manganese.
Ganges-Brahmaputra-Mehta Basin (Bangladesh): 44.5 percent contaminated when considering arsenic only; increased to 70 percent when considering arsenic and manganese.
“However, due to increasing knowledge on the detrimental impact of manganese on human health, particularly on children, manganese levels in these sources should be monitored more closely and governments should consider introducing manganese drinking water standards.
The title of the paper is “Depth stratification leads to distinct zones of manganese and arsenic contaminated groundwater.” In addition to Ying, UC Riverside contributors include: Michael V. Schaefer, a postdoctoral researcher and Jun Li, an associate professor of statistics.
Co-contributors include Scott Fendorf, a professor of soil biogeochemistry at Stanford University, and Alicea Cock‐Esteb, program manager at Aquaya Institute.

Rohingya refugees in B’desh suffer from lack of food, medicines, clean water.
The Rohingya Muslims, who have taken refuge in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf border areas in Bangladesh after they fled the barbarous persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, are now suffering due to an absence of food, shelters, medicines, sanitation facilities and clean water.
People involved in providing humanitarian assistance to the refugees have called for a central coordination and proper initiatives, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said around 4,00,000 refugees have fled from the violence-affected Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine state and sought refuge in Bangladesh, where the limited shelter capacity is already exhausted.
Many of over 3,50,000 refugees, staying either under open sky or at the new refugee camps and shelters, are suffering from diarrhoeal and different diseases and don’t have an access to even clean drinking water and proper medicines.
Despite the aid from the government, NGOs and many voluntary organisations, there is no relief to the refugees as medicines, sanitation facilities, clean water and shelter remain scarce.
For the proper and equal distribution of aid items to the refugees the Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner’s (DC) has already opened a control centre to receive donations and relief items.
Yesterday, India decided to send consignments of humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh, in response to the humanitarian crisis.
The statement further read that India stands ready to provide any assistance required by Bangladesh in the hour of need.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

In Texas, the concern is E.coli, a bacterial infection from contaminated water that can cause mild to severe diarrhea.
Dr. Pritish Tosh, an infectious diseases specialist at Mayo Clinic, says, “There are issues that happen during a hurricane where you can have mixing of drinking water, floodwaters and potentially even bringing sewage into that mix so you have water that’s no longer safe to drink,” says Dr. Tosh.
“There are several different kinds of pathogens you can get like E. coli, shigella, and other types of coliform bacteria that normally you would see in stool and can cause diarrheal diseases and potentially even more serious diseases in the right person.” Access to safe drinking water is a major concern for those affected by hurricanes Irma and Harvey.
“I worry about the aftermath of a hurricane,” says Dr. Tosh.
“If people don’t have access to clean water, they may be drinking what’s available without boiling or filtering it first, in which case, they are at high risk of getting a diarrheal pathogen from that water.” “If there is any concern about the safety of the water, it should be boiled.
Dr. Tosh says, “Ideally, it should be boiled for one minute, allowed to cool, then filtered.
This should kill any bacterial or protozoal infections in the water.
You have to make sure the water you are drinking is safe.
In the aftermath of a natural disaster like a hurricane, people may be tempted to drink any water available assuming it’s safe.
If you are not sure about your water, boil it, cool it, filter it.” Most healthy people recover from E. coli though some people including young children and older adults are at risk of developing hemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening form of kidney failure.

An infrastructure priority: Ensuring safe drinking water.
While that’s an important part of our nation’s infrastructure, an often-overlooked component is our drinking water delivery systems.
Just as roads and bridges create stable communities and economies, so does safe, clean drinking water.
While drinking water quality does remain high across the country, the recent crisis in Flint, Michigan, should serve as a stark reminder that more can, and should, be done so communities can effectively and efficiently pipe safe drinking water to peoples’ homes.
Instead of waiting to react to the next crisis, the Energy and Commerce Committee, which I chair, has been hard at work on legislation to ensure that Americans across the country have access to clean drinking water.
3387, the Drinking Water System Improvement Act.
3387 authorizes $8 billion over five years for the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund Program — a federal-state partnership to help assist states in ensuring the quality of water Americans drink remains high.
Doing this is an important step in ensuring the quality of our water and provides us with the tools we need to monitor water quality in real time.
Rep. Greg Walden, Oregon Republican, is Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
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EU Auditors: Drinking water quality improved in Romania but investments still needed.
The quality of drinking water available to consumers in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania has improved in recent years thanks to EU funding, but significant investments are still needed, according to a report from the European Court of Auditors.
The auditors examined EU action on drinking water quality in the three countries, the audit covering the period from the Member States’ accession to the end of 2016.
However, although the report found that the quality of water has improved in the three countries, the auditors point out that there are still areas where water from the public network does not fully comply with the 1998 EU Drinking Water Directive.
Moreover, significant further national public and private investment will be needed to provide access to good quality water for all the inhabitants of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, and to ensure that EU-funded investments can be adequately maintained.
“Financial support from the EU budget to these water networks has been substantial, but it should not replace expenditure by the member states,” said George Pufan, the member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report.
“Overall, these three countries will have to invest more than EUR 6 billion by the end of 2020 to cover their needs.” Between 2007 and 2020, the European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund support for the management and supply of drinking water in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania will total EUR 3.7 billion.
The auditors recommend the three countries to require, as part of the selection criteria for water facility projects that contribute to national targets, the inclusion of plans to reduce water losses, to ensure that tariffs provide for sustainable infrastructure and, if necessary, to provide financial or other forms of support to households for whom water costs are above the affordability rate.
Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com Sign up to our free daily newsletter and stay up to speed with major topics and reliable local info from our team of senior journalists.

"In the past four years, our wells have started drying up," says Juan Urbano, who just finished a three-year term this February as the president of the Communal Territory of San Felipe Ecatepec.
Where is all the water going?
In between San Felipe and San Cristobal lies a Coca-Cola bottling plant, operated by the Mexican company FEMSA.
Despite the government’s responsibility, most Mexicans do not have safe drinking water in their homes.
The company declined to specify how much it pays for the water extracted in San Cristobal.
Meanwhile, public health organizations, such as El Poder del Consumidor (Consumer Power), based in Mexico City, have argued that soda consumption was contributing to Mexico’s soaring diabetes and obesity rates.
Another study found that one in six diabetes cases could be directly linked to soda consumption.
"The long-term strategy is to increase access to safe drinking water and drinking fountains."
Coca-Cola previously had billboards in Indigenous communities around San Cristobal, such as San Juan Chamula, showing men and women in traditional dress with Coca-Cola bottles.
In San Felipe Ecatepec, Juan Urbano doubts the current Mexican government will help the community with its water problems.