Nigeria: Over 180 Million People Lack Drinking Water in Nigeria, Other Countries Facing Conflicts – Unicef.
Over 180 million people living in countries affected by conflicts, violence and instability do not have access to basic drinking water, a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has revealed.
These include over 3.6 million people in the north-east of Nigeria where the Boko Haram insurgency has damaged about 75 per cent of water and sanitation infrastructure, the report noted.
The report also states that lack of access to clean water is the major cause of malnutrition and cholera among children in the world.
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Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.
"In Syria, where the conflict is well into its seventh year, around 15 million people are in need of safe water, including an estimated 6.4 million children.
"In Yemen, for example, children make up more than 53 per cent of the over half a million cases of suspected cholera and acute watery diarrhoea reported so far.
And in South Sudan, the cholera outbreak is the most severe the country has ever experienced, with more than 19,000 cases since June 2016.
"In famine-threatened north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, nearly 30 million people, including 14.6 million children, are in urgent need of safe water.

Residents open taps to hygienic water supply.
RESIDENTS of Lau settlement in Ra now have access to safe drinking water after the opening of a hygienic water supply and sanitation system in the area.
The new system was made possible through the assistance of the Rotary Pacific Water project which was funded by VaiWai, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Pleass Global Ltd marketing director Cate Pleass and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints country welfare manager Frank Stanford officially commissioned the new water supply system on Monday.
Prior to the new water supply system, Lau residents trekked daily to wash clothes and collect water in barrels from the Wainibuka River.
"Community water security is now ensured by a gravity feed system that brings water direct to people’s homes," a statement from Rotary Pacific Water said.
"This consists of a five-metre concrete dam, a 10,000 litre storage tank and tap stands near the houses.
"A backup 10,000 litre tank was also installed to ensure continued water supply in times of natural disaster and drought.
"To provide safe potable water, a slow sand filtration unit has been installed on each of the 10,000 litre tanks."
Two new flush toilets with off-set double pits were also constructed to provide settlers with better sanitation for improved health and wellbeing.

Local water officials object to proposed state ‘water tax’.
Water officials in San Diego County have come out against a proposed state law that would impose a new monthly fee on all residential and commercial water users in California, to pay for programs that provide access to clean and safe drinking water in communities where water sources are contaminated.
At its meeting in August, the board of the Santa Fe Irrigation District voted to oppose the proposed law, Senate Bill 623, authored by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel), unless it is amended to remove the proposed fee on water users.
The Santa Fe district doesn’t oppose the goal of providing clean drinking water to communities that lack it, said spokeswoman Jessica Parks, but the district does object to the imposition of a new state fee on water customers.
To add more fees and taxes will only harm our customers.” In a recently published op-ed piece, Water Authority chairman Mark Muir wrote that money for the “Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund” should instead come from existing sources such as the state general fund, federal safe drinking water funds, the newly authorized state cap-and-trade program or general obligation bonds.
“We don’t at all dispute the intent of the bill,” Farrel said.
Supporters of the bill said 300 communities across the state, home to as many as 1 million Californians, lack access to clean and safe drinking water.
The bill would also provide emergency water supplies and money for operation and maintenance of water treatment facilities, Rempel said.
The old adage about the camel’s nose under the tent is appropriate, Farrel said.
The bill would have to be approved by both houses of the Legislature by Sept.15 to become law during the Legislature’s 2017 session, officials said.

UNICEF provides water kits, hygiene kits, temporary sanitation facilities for Marawi.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday said they are working hand-in-hand with other partners to address the concern on the lack of access to basic drinking water of chidlren affected by the Marawi siege.
“In response to the Marawi conflict, UNICEF has been working with the government and NGO [non-governmental organization] partners with support from the Government of Japan and the United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund to address critical needs of displaced children and their families, providing water kits, hygiene kits and temporary sanitation facilities," UNICEF Philippines Representative Lotta Sylwander said in a statement.
“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene.
More than 180 million people around the world affected by conflict, violence, and instability do not have access to basic drinking water, UNICEF warned on Tuesday, as World Water Week approaches.
According to a recent UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO) analysis, of the estimated 484 million people living in fragile situations in 2015, a total of 183 million lacked access to basic drinking water.
In the Philippines, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has the lowest coverage of basic drinking water services and sanitation facilities, UNICEF said.
According to UNICEF, "Only 62% of households in ARMM have access to basic water services and only 22% of households have their own hygienic toilets (compared to, respectively, 91% and 75% at the national level)."
When children have no safe water to drink, and when health systems are left in ruins, malnutrition and potentially fatal diseases like cholera will inevitably follow,” said Wijesekera.
—Akari Nakano/KG, GMA News

Local water officials object to proposed state ‘water tax’.
Water officials in San Diego County have come out against a proposed state law that would impose a new monthly fee on all residential and commercial water users in California, to pay for programs that provide access to clean and safe drinking water in communities where water sources are contaminated.
At its meeting in August, the board of the Santa Fe Irrigation District voted to oppose the proposed law, Senate Bill 623, authored by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel), unless it is amended to remove the proposed fee on water users.
The Santa Fe district doesn’t oppose the goal of providing clean drinking water to communities that lack it, said spokeswoman Jessica Parks, but the district does object to the imposition of a new state fee on water customers.
To add more fees and taxes will only harm our customers.” In a recently published op-ed piece, Water Authority chairman Mark Muir wrote that money for the “Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund” should instead come from existing sources such as the state general fund, federal safe drinking water funds, the newly authorized state cap-and-trade program or general obligation bonds.
“We don’t at all dispute the intent of the bill,” Farrel said.
Supporters of the bill said 300 communities across the state, home to as many as 1 million Californians, lack access to clean and safe drinking water.
The bill would also provide emergency water supplies and money for operation and maintenance of water treatment facilities, Rempel said.
The old adage about the camel’s nose under the tent is appropriate, Farrel said.
The bill would have to be approved by both houses of the Legislature by Sept.15 to become law during the Legislature’s 2017 session, officials said.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — Floods and landslides in South Asia have killed more than 1,200 people and affected living conditions for more than 41 million people this summer, U.N. estimates indicate.
Monsoon season typically brings heavy rains and floods to India, Bangladesh and Nepal between June and September, but this year has been seen heavier than normal rains, officials said.
"This is the severest flooding in a number of years," Francis Markus, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies currently working in Nepal, told The New York Times.
India has seen most of the damage, with more than 600 deaths and 31 million people who have lost homes, caught disease and lack access to food and clean water, according to the United Nations.
On Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveyed the damage in the Indian state of Bihar, one of the areas most devastated by monsoon season where government officials say nearly 400 people have been killed.
Modi pledged $78 million for relief efforts there, Al Jazeera reported.
But recovery is likely to be prolonged due to the damage done to the farming industry, which will result in a loss of jobs in an area of India where employment is already scarce.
"This year farming has collapsed due to floods and we will witness a sharp rise in unemployment," said Anirudh Kumar, a disaster management official in Bihar’s capital city of Patna, where many poor people come to find jobs.
In Bangladesh, half of the country’s 64 districts are flooded, but water is beginning to recede, PRI reported.
In Nepal, Markus said flooding has impacted the poorest parts of the country, where homes are typically made of mud bricks and families rely on subsistence farming for survival.

Gulp!
State Senate may tax drinking water from tap.
The California Assembly’s Appropriations Committee held a hearing on Senate Bill 623 last week, which would establish the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund.
SB 623 authorizes a monthly 95¢ tax on drinking water.
As the customer’s pipeline increases, the monthly tax would be $4 for a 1- to 2-inch pipe and up to $10 monthly if the pipe were larger than 4 inches.
The proposal authorizes two other tax levies: a $0.005 per-dollar sales fee on all fertilizer materials is estimated to yield about $17 million annually.
Having access to clean drinking water is a basic human right that should be guaranteed to every person in California, and it is time that we act on this issue.” According to the Appropriation Committee’s report, the target beneficiaries of these funds would be the more than 300 drinking water systems in disadvantaged communities — serving about 200,000 people — that are unable to provide safe drinking water.
At the Tuesday hearing, representatives of the Association of California Water Agencies strenuously opposed the bill.
This is a state social issue and yet local water agencies are being asked to collect money through a tax and send it to Sacramento.” The Appropriations Committee report noted that the water tax had not been included in any previous versions of the bill.
The committee may wish to consider whether there has been adequate time for the public to review the provisions of this bill,” staff wrote.

The Middle East and North Africa region loses about $21 billion each year because of an inadequate supply of water and sanitation, the World Bank said Tuesday, warning that urgent action is needed to prevent ripple effects on stability and growth.
"As the current conflict and migration crisis unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa shows, failure to address water challenges can have severe impacts on people’s well-being and political stability," the report said.
Overall, 183 million people lack access to basic drinking water in countries affected by conflict, violence and instability around the world, it added.
Better management With the urban population in the Middle East and North Africa expected to double by 2050 to nearly 400 million, a combination of policy, technology and water management tools should be used to improve the water situation, the World Bank report said.
"Water productivity — in other words, how much return you get for every drop of water used — in the Middle East in general is the lowest on average in the world," said Anders Jägerskog, a specialist in water resources management at the World Bank and one of the report’s authors.
To reverse the trend, technology and innovation are "essential but not enough," Jägerskog told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Water governance — in particular, water tariffs and subsidies — must also be addressed, he said.
The region has the world’s lowest water tariffs and spends the highest proportion of GDP on public water subsidies.
Such policies lead to excessive use of already scarce water supplies and are not sustainable, said Jägerskog.
Untreated wastewater Another challenge is that more than half of the wastewater collected in the region is fed back into the environment untreated.

Over 180 million people lack drinking water in Nigeria, other countries facing conflicts – UNICEF.
Related News Over 180 million people living in countries affected by conflicts, violence and instability do not have access to basic drinking water, a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has revealed.
These include over 3.6 million people in the north-east of Nigeria where the Boko Haram insurgency has damaged about 75 per cent of water and sanitation infrastructure, the report noted.
The report, which was released Tuesday, is in commemoration of this year’s World Water Week holding August 27 to September 1.
The theme of the 2017 World Water Week is “Water and Waste – Reduce and Reuse”.
Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.
“In South Sudan, where fighting has raged for over three years, almost half the water points across the country have been damaged or completely destroyed”, the report states.
“In Yemen, for example, children make up more than 53 per cent of the over half a million cases of suspected cholera and acute watery diarrhoea reported so far.
And in South Sudan, the cholera outbreak is the most severe the country has ever experienced, with more than 19,000 cases since June 2016.
“In famine-threatened north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, nearly 30 million people, including 14.6 million children, are in urgent need of safe water.

Gulp!
State Senate may tax drinking water from tap.
The California Assembly’s Appropriations Committee held a hearing on Senate Bill 623 last week, which would establish the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund.
SB 623 authorizes a monthly 95¢ tax on drinking water.
As the customer’s pipeline increases, the monthly tax would be $4 for a 1- to 2-inch pipe and up to $10 monthly if the pipe were larger than 4 inches.
The proposal authorizes two other tax levies: a $0.005 per-dollar sales fee on all fertilizer materials is estimated to yield about $17 million annually.
Having access to clean drinking water is a basic human right that should be guaranteed to every person in California, and it is time that we act on this issue.” According to the Appropriation Committee’s report, the target beneficiaries of these funds would be the more than 300 drinking water systems in disadvantaged communities — serving about 200,000 people — that are unable to provide safe drinking water.
At the Tuesday hearing, representatives of the Association of California Water Agencies strenuously opposed the bill.
This is a state social issue and yet local water agencies are being asked to collect money through a tax and send it to Sacramento.” The Appropriations Committee report noted that the water tax had not been included in any previous versions of the bill.
The committee may wish to consider whether there has been adequate time for the public to review the provisions of this bill,” staff wrote.