Lagos and the Floating Village of Cambodia.
Today, it has become a major tourist destination where visitors from across the world are introduced to the country’s majesty, tragedy and rebirth.
Like Abraham Lincoln once said: “God must have loved poor people, because he made so many of them.” The streets of Cambodia were littered with child beggars, but what is, however, remarkable is the resolve of a new generation propelled by survivors of the genocide to step out of the ashes of the past and build a new future of the country they all cherish.
One of the interesting sites visited was the Floating Villages scattered across the Great Lake Tonle Sap in Siem Reap, which is everything beautiful about our not-too-desirable Makoko, creating an eyesore on the Lagos lagoon.
Static buildings made from bricks and mortars are almost totally unable to respond to climate change.
But if your development can react and move according to the rising or settling of the tide, it provides greater opportunity for protection,” a tourist guide told me.
As the water levels would change throughout the year, the villages would be forced to relocate, meaning peoples’ houses were never in the same location.
In some ways, the Floating Village was just like any other township, but how do the people of Tonle Sap live?
I was informed that due to the lack of power lines in the middle of a lake, every household used car batteries to power their cell phones and other electronics.
“All of their trash, scraps and waste become pollution in this water, which is the same water they use to drink and clean their dishes.” It’s the same water they go to the bathroom in, the same water they clean themselves with, and the same water they drink to survive.

Government urged to maximise economic benefits of water resources.
• ‘70% of Nigerians lack access to safe drinking water’ Water management experts, under the aegis of Association of Professional Rig Owners and Borehole Drilling Practitioners (AWDROP), have called on governments at al levels to put in place friendly policies that would enable Nigeria maximise the economic benefits inherent in water resources.
The group, which, said that about 70 per cent of Nigerians are lack access to safe drinking water, urged government to establish a commission that would regulate the activities of extracting the underground water resources.
The National President, AWDROP, Micheal Ale, who made this call during the mid-term assessment meeting held in Ekiti State, said: “The Ministry of Water Resources should have something of economic value attached to it.
Water provision by the government when commercialised would provide billions of Naria for our government and add greatly to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he said.
The experts, at the meeting listed the consequences of the foregoing as spread of water-borne diseases and threat to healthy lifestyle of many Nigerians.
“Government giving drilling projects to quack is inimical to providing safe drinking water for the masses.
The quacks don’t use good equipment for the job and therefore end up providing bad water for the public.
“ We have training of international standard and we have continuous interfaced with international borehole drilling bodies,” he said.
The group, in a communiqué issued after the meeteing resolved that: “All members should partner with their state governments in addressing moribund boreholes within their vicinity as contained in the resolution of water council meeting held in Kaduna in 2013; that all state chapters should introduce KYC otherwise known as “Know Your Customers” to all members to enable the association has a database of all borehole dwelling development companies in the state.

Across China: From dirty to clean: a tale of Xinjiang drinking water.
Flood pits were still a common scene Hotan villages until the 1990s.
Many farmers still heavily depended on flood pits.
Local residents were finally liberated from the heavy labor of fetching water from flood pits and had more time to pasture and farm.
To supply high quality tap water to local residents, construction started again in the water treatment plants in Hotan this year.
This is one of the major projects led by the city of Beijing to aid Hotan’s development.
Beijing cadres in Xinjiang have come to understand the water quality in Hotan over the past six years.
An investment of 97.46 million yuan was raised by the Beijing municipal government to renovate collecting tanks, purify equipment, and monitor facilities in water treatment plants in Hotan, as of March.
Hotan people can finally drink healthy water.
"I never dreamt that I could drink water of such high quality," Yarmamat said.

Across China: From dirty to clean: a tale of Xinjiang drinking water.
Flood pits were still a common scene Hotan villages until the 1990s.
Many farmers still heavily depended on flood pits.
Local residents were finally liberated from the heavy labor of fetching water from flood pits and had more time to pasture and farm.
To supply high quality tap water to local residents, construction started again in the water treatment plants in Hotan this year.
This is one of the major projects led by the city of Beijing to aid Hotan’s development.
Beijing cadres in Xinjiang have come to understand the water quality in Hotan over the past six years.
An investment of 97.46 million yuan was raised by the Beijing municipal government to renovate collecting tanks, purify equipment, and monitor facilities in water treatment plants in Hotan, as of March.
Hotan people can finally drink healthy water.
"I never dreamt that I could drink water of such high quality," Yarmamat said.

Florida women’s prison loses pump; some inmates complain they have to buy drinking water.
Florida’s Lowell Correctional Institution — among the largest women’s prisons in the country — has been without water for several days, state officials confirmed Monday.
However, Glady insisted that all the women were being provided with water at no cost.
A local fire department has brought a tanker to the prison to provide water.
The prison, located in Ocala, houses more than 2,600 inmates in two buildings.
“They say they’re bringing water in but they’re telling the girls they have to buy it off the canteen,’’ one former Lowell inmate said on Facebook.
“They have no water to bathe in nothing — no AC in the dorms.’’ Glady said in addition to the water, the prison’s geothermal system, which cools the dorms, was also affected, although Glady said it was working on Monday.
Another woman, whose sister is at the prison, said families have been told that fans have been brought in to cool the prison.
“All inmates have access to drinking water.
It currently houses female youthful offenders as well as pregnant inmates in its Annex, Main Unit and Work Camp.

Novato Water Tank Drained After Vandals Breach Security.
NOVATO (KPIX 5) – Authorities are draining water from a public tank in Novato after vandals breached a chain link fence and two locks last weekend.
Tucked into Marin’s golden hills is a rusty green water tank that’s almost as hard to get to as it is to spot.
There was no evidence of contamination, but the 290,000 gallons of water contained in the tank were being drained Monday.
“We could tell the locks had been broken, the fence had been cut open and that someone had gone up to the top where the access hatch is to the water,” said Drew McIntyre, the general manager of the North Marin Water District.
“I just couldn’t believe that someone would do that,” said Wildhorse Valley resident Patty Proaps.
“That’s our source of drinking water.
We were very upset.” This is the second Bay Area water tank to be breached in just over a month.
A tank in South San Francisco was targeted with similar vandalism.
Anyone with information about the Novato water tank vandalism is asked to call the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

Florida women’s prison loses pump; some inmates complain they have to buy drinking water.
Florida’s Lowell Correctional Institution — among the largest women’s prisons in the country — has been without water for several days, state officials confirmed Monday.
However, Glady insisted that all the women were being provided with water at no cost.
A local fire department has brought a tanker to the prison to provide water.
The prison, located in Ocala, houses more than 2,600 inmates in two buildings.
“They say they’re bringing water in but they’re telling the girls they have to buy it off the canteen,’’ one former Lowell inmate said on Facebook.
“They have no water to bathe in nothing — no AC in the dorms.’’ Glady said in addition to the water, the prison’s geothermal system, which cools the dorms, was also affected, although Glady said it was working on Monday.
Another woman, whose sister is at the prison, said families have been told that fans have been brought in to cool the prison.
“All inmates have access to drinking water.
It currently houses female youthful offenders as well as pregnant inmates in its Annex, Main Unit and Work Camp.

Yemen: Urgent Need for Improved Water and Sanitation to Curb Cholera in Abs District.
Water and sanitation was an issue even before the cholera outbreak, but it is especially concerning now.
Since then, the number of cholera cases has exploded, with MSF’s cholera treatment center in Abs town receiving as many as 462 patients in a single day—more than anywhere else in Yemen.
With more than 376,000 displaced people among an estimated population of two million, Hajjah hosts more displaced people than any other Yemeni governorate.
About a quarter of those displaced are sheltering in Abs district without access to basic services, often living in remote areas to reduce the chance of being targeted by airstrikes or caught up in other types of violence associated with the conflict.
In the cholera treatment centers set up by MSF in Hajjah governorate, teams are distributing disinfection kits, which include mops, brooms, soap, and chlorine tablets for purifying water supplies.
However, these activities are not being done systematically at present."
Even before the cholera outbreak, MSF teams in Abs rural hospital were seeing substantial increases in emergency consultations, pediatric admissions, and surgical interventions.
There have also been outbreaks of measles and whooping cough and peaks of malaria—all diseases that should be either limited or controlled.
In November 2016, MSF resumed its support to Abs hospital; currently MSF has 200 Yemeni staff and 12 international staff working there.

The state agency fined the Detroit district $4,000 and ordered it to provide clean water at the school in the next three weeks.
In 2016, King was among 15 district school buildings that tested positive for high lead levels.
On Monday, district officials said testing in March showed the water was safe to drink across the district.
On Monday a group of teachers held a news conference to note the MiOSHA ruling, challenge the district’s safe water assessment and call for new pipes in all schools where students cannot drink water from the system.
Nicole Conaway, a district teacher, said the water is not safe to drink at King.
Just minutes after the press conference on Monday, the school district and the Detroit Health Department issued a joint statement that said water tests performed in the district in March showed no lead or copper over the allowable limits.
The statement says the district began testing for copper and lead in 2016 and found two samples exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency limit for copper.
“In cooperation with the Detroit Health Department, the District will continue to test and follow established protocols to ensure the water is safe for public consumption.” Katarina Brown, a former King Academy teacher, said she filed the complaint with MiOSHA after she learned in September she had elevated copper levels from drinking the water at King.
Brown said it’s been three years without safe drinking water at King and has accused the district of telling parents the water is safe when it is not.
Steve Conn, a teacher at Western and a former Detroit Federation of Teachers president, said he is again calling on teachers and students in DPSCD to take action to force Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to fix, clean and repair all district buildings before the start of the school year.

The state agency fined the Detroit district $4,000 and ordered it to provide clean water at the school in the next three weeks.
In 2016, King was among 15 district school buildings that tested positive for high lead levels.
On Monday, district officials said testing in March showed the water was safe to drink across the district.
On Monday a group of teachers held a news conference to note the MiOSHA ruling, challenge the district’s safe water assessment and call for new pipes in all schools where students cannot drink water from the system.
Nicole Conaway, a district teacher, said the water is not safe to drink at King.
Just minutes after the press conference on Monday, the school district and the Detroit Health Department issued a joint statement that said water tests performed in the district in March showed no lead or copper over the allowable limits.
The statement says the district began testing for copper and lead in 2016 and found two samples exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency limit for copper.
“In cooperation with the Detroit Health Department, the District will continue to test and follow established protocols to ensure the water is safe for public consumption.” Katarina Brown, a former King Academy teacher, said she filed the complaint with MiOSHA after she learned in September she had elevated copper levels from drinking the water at King.
Brown said it’s been three years without safe drinking water at King and has accused the district of telling parents the water is safe when it is not.
Steve Conn, a teacher at Western and a former Detroit Federation of Teachers president, said he is again calling on teachers and students in DPSCD to take action to force Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to fix, clean and repair all district buildings before the start of the school year.