The populations of Genieri, a village located in the Lower River region of the western Gambia, recently witnessed the laying of the foundation stone for phases I and II of their Genieri Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (G-WASH) project.
In the west of Gambia is Genieri, a village where more than 1,200 people live.
The population of this village had repelled the assault of jihadist Foday Kaba Dumbuyaa in the 19th century.
Another form of heroism….
In the absence of a public water utility capable of relieving these women, the people initiated the Genieri Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (G-WASH) project.
It is for this reason that they massively came on November 21, 2018 to attend the laying of the foundation stone for the first phase of the water project.
Community funding The work has been entrusted to Sky Light Electricity and Water Management Company.
The financing was entirely provided by the people.
It should be noted that 15% of the natives of this village live abroad, mainly in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.
After the completion of phases I and II of the project (ongoing), phase III, dedicated to sanitation, will have to be launched.

The Federal Ministry of Water Resources has planned to construct two additional laboratories for water quality to ensure that Nigerians have access to potable water.
Mr Habu Jamilu, the Deputy Director, Water Quality in the ministry, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the new laboratories would complement the six located in the geo-political zones.
Jamilu stressed the need to ensure that water quality was not compromised from the point of production to consumption, “saying it is in the overall interest of the government to promote adherence to water safety plans.’’ “We are testing villages under our comprehensive Rural Water Surveillance Programme.
For now, we are supplying the kits, we believe that one day, it will be available everywhere.” He called for adherence to the Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water, adding that water had sometimes been polluted through pipes and reticulation process, among other factors.
According to him, the government’s target is to see that each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have one laboratory and all 37 laboratories will be well utilised to achieve the objectives they are established.
“In order to ascertain the quality of water consumed by the people, the need for more laboratories cannot be overemphasized.
“The laboratories take care of the chemical side of testing for water, the micro-biological side where the pathogens that cause diseases are discovered.
“When the physical aspects of water have been sorted out, the chemical aspect of it has to be taken care of by the laboratories.” The deputy director said that when potable water is made available, most water-borne diseases would be eliminated, adding that bad sources of water accounted for majority of tropical diseases in the country.
He said the ministry was collaborating with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to enforce the National Standard for Drinking Water Quality, and urged borehole drillers to abide by the National Drilling Code of Practice.
“The ministry is calling on all Nigerians drinking water from borehole and other sources to regularly test their water in laboratories across the country to reduce consuming unwholesome water.’’ The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) said that 90 per cent of households in Nigeria consume contaminated water and other impure substances.

It requires Chemours to dramatically reduce GenX air emissions, provide permanent replacement drinking water supplies and pay a civil penalty to DEQ.
“People deserve access to clean drinking water and this order is a significant step in our ongoing effort to protect North Carolina communities and the environment,” said DEQ Secretary Michael S. Regan.
I appreciate the hard work of DEQ’s dedicated and talented staff to help achieve this result.” The order requires Chemours to pay to DEQ a $12 million civil penalty and an additional $1 million for investigative costs.
The consent order includes specific conditions to ensure the protection of human health and the environment.
Among its many requirements, the order states that Chemours must: Provide permanent drinking water supplies in the form of either a public waterline connection or whole building filtration system for those with drinking water wells with GenX above 140 parts per trillion or applicable health advisory.
Provide, install and maintain three under-sink reverse osmosis drinking water systems for well owners with combined PFAS levels above 70 parts per trillion or any individual PFAS compound above 10 parts per trillion.
By Dec. 31, 2019, install a thermal oxidizer to control all PFAS from multiple process streams, demonstrate PFAS reductions at an effectiveness of 99.99 percent efficiency and a 99 percent reduction facility-wide for GenX emissions compared to the 2017 baseline level.
Submit and implement a plan for sampling all process and non-process wastewater and stormwater streams to identify any additional PFAS.
Notify and coordinate with downstream public water utilities when an event at the facility has the potential to cause a discharge of GenX compounds into the Cape Fear River above the health goal of 140 parts per trillion.
Comments on the proposed order will be accepted until Dec. 21.

Many people in Australia do not have access to safe drinking water.
In our research and conversations with residents and water operators in remote Indigenous communities, we have been told that their water is not safe to drink, and that they have no reasonable or practical alternatives and no help.
Hearing from the locals One Indigenous custodian from Katherine, NT, told us that the levels of PFAS from fire-extinguisher foam were high in their soil and water.
Over in the Kimberley, WA, an traditional owner said, "our water is contaminated with nitrates … They say the level is … too high for babies under three months and pregnant women … now the whole community (150 people) cart water from this one tap for drinking and cooking.
Community representatives told us, "[We were told] we should not drink it, and then they said it was safe and that the high lead had come from our pipes and not the mine … a monitoring group said that our fish are toxic with lead from the mine, so we stopped fishing and started worrying … We can’t live with this contamination anymore.
Safe water for all Treating drinking water can be different and difficult in remote locations compared to cities.
Only now are government agencies and water utilities starting to realise that there are no "one size fits all" or simple technological fixes for treating water in remote areas.
Sometimes the simplest technologies are going to be longest-serving as they can be fixed, will not be damaged in cyclones, and can be operated by one person.
And they addressed the "technology factor" by upgrading the technology for water disinfection.
Innovation and attention is required to achieve the United Nations’ Resolution to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all – especially in our remote communities.

A new report in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology found that U.S. public-supply tap water generally meets all enforceable standards.
Samples from private wells, public water supplies and a water cooler were checked for 482 organic and 19 inorganic compounds.
However, lead was detected in 23 samples.
Although none of these samples exceeded current lead regulations, the EPA drinking water goal of zero indicates that no lead exposure is considered safe.
The researchers note that little is known about the cumulative health effects of exposure to these mixtures of low-level contaminants among vulnerable populations, such as children and pregnant or breast-feeding women.
Tap water monitoring will provide the exposure data needed for public health researchers to address this gap.
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Big data involves analyzing massive quantities of information with tools that can process it much faster than humans could without that technological assistance.
However, there’s also a move toward using big data to solve the water crisis.
Studying Satellite Images to Spot Leaking Pipes Leaking pipes lead to higher operating costs for utility companies, in addition to wasting resources.
But, in that country and others, utility providers are turning to big data platforms to become more aware of water usage and other critical statistics.
By relying on big data to streamline operations, utility companies can lead the fight against water scarcity in various ways.
Making Water Safer for Everyone to Drink Anyone who has ever traveled to a country associated with impurities in the water supply knows that even when water’s available, it’s not always drinkable.
Moreover, the utility companies tested for the substance during times when farmers weren’t actively using it, meaning the levels could be much higher during other times of the year.
If a big data platform gives a notification about contamination in the early stages, the likelihood of minimizing the damage and overall reach of the contamination increases.
This approach allows utility companies to save on customer service costs because people can get answers about their water bills without having to contact their respective providers.
No matter if utility companies, individual customers or entire countries use big data to tackle the issue, making progress becomes possible when people work together for the greater good and deploy advanced big data technologies.

ANN ARBOR, MI – Ann Arbor officials have agreed to release information about where there were once lead components in the city’s water system and where some residents may need to have their water service lines replaced due to potential contamination.
The City Council voted 11-0 Monday night, Nov. 19, to direct the city staff to compile the information by Dec. 31 and release it in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Ann Arbor News and MLive.
After enactment of stricter Michigan regulations for lead, city officials said in September that thousands of Ann Arbor homeowners may need their water service lines replaced with new copper piping if they still have galvanized steel pipes that were once connected to lead "goosenecks" in the city’s water system.
Even though all known lead parts have been removed from the city’s water system, the city maintains, remaining galvanized lines that run under lawns or driveways to homes still can harbor lead and be a source of drinking water contamination.
The News put its FOIA request on hold when two City Council members, Jack Eaton and Anne Bannister, announced intentions to support publicly releasing the information without charge.
"The public wants to know about where the lead was, where the galvanized pipe remains, and MLive is willing to disseminate that information to the public," said Eaton, D-4th Ward.
They received some pushback Monday night from the city administrator, who continued to raised concerns about releasing information under FOIA without charging for it.
In its FOIA request in September, The News asked the city to release the following information: Records showing the known locations of lead components removed from the city’s water system.
Council Member Chip Smith, D-5th Ward, said he looks at FOIA fees as simple cost recovery for the city, though he agreed the information requested in this case should be public.
That’s due to the state by Jan. 1, 2020, and then the city must gradually replace the old pipes — potentially around 2,500 of them — starting in 2021.

I’m afraid," Mrs. Brown said.
Liz: "Have you had this happen before where a mayor has denied you access to testing the city’s wells?"
Suspicion in town skyrocketed when the mayor told us why he wouldn’t allow the professor to test.
Mayor: "I thought it would be a sort of an insult to the folks at DHEC to have him come behind them and to do the very test they recently done."
Liz: "Oh he works for the city?"
Liz: "So you must know the mayor pretty well?"
Denmark resident: "I know him quite well."
you want doctor edwards….dr. edwards has a lot of slanted views."
"This is the only utility in the united states to add this unproved chemical in their water for a decade," says Dr. Marc.
Ten years of an unapproved chemical in Denmark’s water.

The city is now rethinking how it uses its wastewater, with the goal of converting it from a burden to a resource.
The city’s Regional Water Quality Control Plant, which serves Palo Alto, the East Palo Alto Sanitary District, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Stanford University, treated about 7.5 billion gallons of wastewater in 2017, of which 97 percent was dumped into the San Francisco Bay.
Building a small plant on the west side of the regional water plant site would address that concern, said Phil Bobel, assistant director at Public Works.
Such a plant could take up to 10 years to plan out and construct, Bobel said, and it would require both a deal with the water district and — because the new water plant would have to occupy a parkland site — it would need the approval of Palo Alto voters.
Under the latter option, treated water would be shipped from Palo Alto Baylands to the advanced-treatment plant further south.
Both Palo Alto and the water district have representatives on the Joint Recycled Water Advisory Committee, which also includes officials from Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Mountain View.
"We know from our planning that we have additional needs in 2050 and beyond that can’t be directly served by imported water.
Bobel said he expects the agreement with the water district to cover a period of about 40 years, a period that several council members suggested was too long.
Drekmeier, policy director for Tuolumne River Trust, made the case for "advanced purified water."
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Italy and the European Union EU are launching two initiatives to foster the quality of Primary and Reproductive Health Care, nutrition services and to promote the access to safe water and sanitation for migrants, IDPs and host communities in Eastern Sudan.
The Delegation of the European Union in Sudan, the Embassy of Italy together with the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation are launching two projects tackling migrants, IDPs and host communities in Eastern Sudan.
Awareness raising on health risks The two initiatives invest in capacity building and in promoting the community involvement and awareness raising on health risks and behaviors as well as encouraging hygiene and sanitation, in partnership with Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Water and Irrigation both at Federal and State levels.
“Access to water, sanitation and health services in these areas is critically low.
“Our main goal – he affirms – is to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of our actions.
Our joint interventions are in line with the SDG’s 3 and SDG’s 6 aimed at respectively ensuring healthy lives and well-being at all ages and ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”, concluded the Ambassador.
Eu major provider of humanitarian assistance to Sudan Ambassador Jean-Michel Dumond, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Sudan, said that the EU has been and is a major provider of humanitarian assistance to Sudan.
“The EU and its Member States agree with the Government of Sudan that we have to move towards more longer-term, development cooperation”.In the European Union “we call this the ‘Humanitarian -Development Nexus’.
We are currently identifying new programmes in the context of the Humanitarian-Development Nexus and I expect we will conclude a new joint programme on health with the Italian Cooperation next year", concluded Ambassador Dumond.
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