The Board of directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, convened in Abidjan, approved 117 million Euros in financing for the implementation of the «Project to ensure the sustainability and security of access to drinking water» in Morocco.
The project «consists of securing access to drinking water in the provinces of Guercif, Zagora, Al Hoceima, Tangier and Beni Mellal, which have a population of 2.5 million, through new investments in treatment plants and drinking water supply networks», an AfDB statement said on Tuesday.
«Ensuring access for all to drinking water is the necessary prerequisite for any form of sustainable development.
This is a strategic contribution for us», said AfDB director general for the North Africa region, Mohamed El Azizi, at the time of the project’s approval.
By ensuring sustainable access to drinking water to meet the needs of the population and industrial operators, the program addresses two of the Bank’s five priorities, namely «Improving the living conditions of African populations» and «Industrializing Africa».
The half-century-old partnership between Morocco and the AfDB Group includes more than 160 projects and programs with a total financial commitment of more than 10 billion dollars.
These funds, more than 80% of which are dedicated to basic infrastructure, cover various sectors, notably energy, water, transport, agriculture and social development.

“I look forward to learning about how the Malaysian water and sanitation sector, after having started a reform in the mid-2000’s, is organised to provide equal access to water and sanitation for the entire population in Malaysia,” said Leo Heller.
“I would like to further learn about the crucial role of the recently established Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources and how the federal and local governments cooperate in ensuring access to those services in Peninsular Malaysia and the federal territories as well as in East Malaysia, namely, the States of Sabah and Sarawak.” The Special Rapporteur will assess whether the entire population in Malaysia has sufficient, hygienic and safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water and sanitation services, without discrimination.
The UN independent expert will travel to Gua Musang, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Miri, Putrajaya and Sandakan.
In a recent report, the Special Rapporteur focused on the human rights to water and sanitation of forcibly displaced persons, in particular, the internally displaced, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented populations and migrants in vulnerable situations.
A news conference to share the expert’s preliminary findings will be held **in Kuala Lumpur **on 27 November, at 11am at the JW Marriott Hotel.
Access is strictly limited to journalists.
Mr. Léo Heller_ (Brazil) is the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, appointed in November 2014.
_ _Learn more: http://www.ohchr.org/SRwaterandsanitation _ Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.
They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
UN Human Rights, Country Page – Malaysia For more information and media requests, please contact: _During the mission: Ms. Ahreum Lee +41 79 201 0119 / __ahreumlee@ohchr.org_ _For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts please contact: Mr. Jeremy Laurence, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+41 22 917 9383 /jlaurence@ohchr.org) _ This year, 2018, is the _70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN on 10 December 1948.

The government of France has donated around €6.2 million to strengthen water availability and mitigate water shortages in the municipalities of Maputo, Matola and Boane, in the southern province of Mozambique.The project, which is expected to be completed by 2020, is expected to put more than 40,000 cubic meters of water per day available to serve a total of 348,100 people.
It is a project that essentially aims at the exploration of groundwater, equipping 16 holes, building a pumping station, as well as laying main pipes for transport to the water reservoirs.
To that effect, an agreement was formalized on Monday in Maputo by the directors of the Fund for Investment and Heritage of Water Supply (FIPAG), Pedro Paulino, and the French Development Agency in Mozambique (AFD), Julien Darpeaux.
The ceremony was witnessed by the Deputy Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, Victor Tuacale, and the French Ambassador to Mozambique, Bruno Clerc.
Speaking minutes after signing, Tuacale said the support will provide improvements in the availability of water produced in the system, covering the neighborhoods of the country’s capital, mainly Albasine, Costa del Sol, February 3, Rail, FPLM, Hulene, Laulane, Magoanine, Mavalane, Maxaquene and Polana-Caniço.
“With the friendly gesture of France the country has been increasing the number of home connections and the number of people with access to drinking water; the ability to produce and distribute water, as well as the storage of precious liquid, “Tuacale said.
The official referred to AFD’s strategic support for water supply and sanitation, with an example of the recent construction of 16 small water supply systems in the municipalities of Maputo and Matola, rehabilitation of section three of the treatment plant of Umbeluzi in Boane, the distribution center of Matola, the tertiary network in Machava and Matola districts, Alto-Maé, Maxaquene and Laulane, including the municipal district of KaTembe.
“This means an improvement in the sanitary conditions and quality of life of the populations covered,” said the official.
For his part, Bruno Clerc expects that the exploitation of groundwater will improve the quality and the continuous supply of drinking water.
He added that within the project a loss reduction program could be implemented by the company Águas da Região de Maputo.

Sir: Water is a basic human need.
Today, nearly one billion people in the developing world don’t have access to clean water.
Every human have right to access clean water and to take essential step toward improving living standards.
Pakistan is facing water shortage problem is the most critical problem of different countries we can say that both the urban and rural areas suffer from water shortage problem.
Water shortage involves water stress, water deficit and water crisis.
The causes are lack of water and pollution overuse of water due to over use of water then shortage occurs.
The governments should concentrate on education, producing more fresh water and reducing the waste.
One process could be part of the solution of water shortage if we work on recycling that provides large volume of water.
Recycled water can satisfy most water demand.
Our canal system is inefficient adding to this shortage due to lack of dams and proper controls on water usage.

Local utilities and low-income Americans could benefit from a new bipartisan bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).
Both Sens.
Wicker and Cardin are members of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
“Economic development requires basic infrastructure, including clean drinking water and wastewater services,” Sen. Wicker said last week in announcing S. 3564, which would amend the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to establish the pilot programs to assist low-income households in maintaining access to sanitation services and drinking water, among other purposes, according to the text of the bill.
“Our bill would encourage utilities to improve the affordability of their services,” added Sen. Wicker.
Water bill prices are predicted to increase 41 percent by 2020, according to Wicker’s office, which noted that if bills are sustained at that rate, almost one in three American households may not be able to afford running water.
In turn, utilities won’t have the available money to make critical infrastructure upgrades to maintain safe drinking water and wastewater operations.
“If consumers cannot pay their water bills, then utilities cannot make the needed repairs and upgrades to their drinking water and wastewater treatment plants, nor to the pipes and pumps that deliver water throughout their service area,” said Sen. Cardin.
“The federal government requires these upgrades to our water infrastructure because these upgrades keep people safe, but we then have the responsibility to make sure that our citizens are financially capable of meeting these requirements.
S. 3564 is under consideration by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) – The Kentucky Public Service Commission has granted Martin County Water District a permanent rate increase but also ordered the embattled utility company to contract with an outside party to manage the troubled utility.
The PSC in March granted Martin County Water an emergency rate increase that brought the average bill to $51.07, an increase of $11.17, from the previous $39.90 for a customer using 4,000 gallons per month.
Today’s order also authorizes a separate temporary monthly surcharge of $3.16 per month that would take effect only if Martin County Water obtains outside management and submits and receives PSC approval for a plan to repair its crumbling water system.
With both surcharges in place, Martin County Water residential customers would see a total increase since March of $17.53 per month, or about 44 percent.
“Martin District’s current commissioners will either comply with the requirements of the rate increase and will proceed with contracted management or the (PSC) will be forced to pursue even more extraordinary means through appointment of a receiver who can implement the changes needed to provide safe, clean and reliable water service.” The PSC left in place the stringent financial controls and reporting mandates it imposed on Martin County Water when it granted the emergency rate increase in March, including a requirement that Martin County Water receive prior PSC approval for all disbursements of funds collected through the debt service surcharge.
Those provisions, all with a Jan. 30, 2019 deadline, include: Issuing a request for proposals (RFP) to qualified management entities, including seven identified by the PSC.
Had Martin County Water implemented the PSC recommendations and increased rates on an incremental and regular basis, its customers “could today be the beneficiaries of a clean reliable source of potable water” through new infrastructure at a cost likely to be much lower than what it will take to repair the current system, Schmitt said.
“The residents of Martin County are, unfortunately, the captive customers of what most certainly has been, over the last two decades, the most poorly operated water district in the state of Kentucky,” Schmitt wrote in his concurrence.
It is also a party to the investigation case.
The investigation case is 2016-00142.

In a country where pipes can stop short of reaching home, cheap sachets of water sold on the street could be an unlikely solution, but at what cost?
Nearly two billion people still drink water from faeces-tainted sources, according to a 2018 World Health Organisation (WHO) fact sheet.
That water kills at least half a million people each year with diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid.
The number of people in the world who have access to an "improved water source" – one not contaminated by faecal matter – has increased by more than two billion since 1990, a 2012 WHO report shows.
Instead, millions get their water in 500ml plastic sachets – some from Johnnie Water.
Today, the little plastic packets are more sought-after than bottled water – which is for the rich – and more popular than tap water, which people don’t trust.
Osei is a microbiologist at the Ghana Standards Authority and lead author of a 2013 study on the quality of sachet water in Accra published in Food Control.
Osei believes tap water is safe to drink – with major caveats.
"You have this gap in supply, so the private sector steps in and fills the demand.
Better-quality producers rise to the top, the market incentives produce better-quality products and – without tons of overregulation – the market has ended up with a pretty good product."

In a country where pipes can stop short of reaching home, cheap sachets of water sold on the street could be an unlikely solution, but at what cost?
Like most of his fellow Ghanaians, Johnnie has been chasing after water his whole life.
Nearly two billion people still drink water from faeces-tainted sources, according to a 2018 World Health Organisation (WHO) fact sheet.
Instead, millions get their water in 500ml plastic sachets — some from Johnnie Water.
Today, the little plastic packets are more sought-after than bottled water — which is for the rich — and more popular than tap water, which people don’t trust.
Osei is a microbiologist at the Ghana Standards Authority and lead author of a 2013 study on the quality of sachet water in Accra published in Food Control.
“You cannot tell me that if I don’t have money to buy bottled water that I should buy [lower] quality water.” Osei believes tap water is safe to drink — with major caveats.
Although several studies have found contaminated sachets, Stoler wrote that very few of them — not excluding Osei’s — had too small of a sample size, for instance, to make broad conclusions about quality, even at a local scale.
“You have this gap in supply, so the private sector steps in and fills the demand.
Osei believes it might be time for Ghanaian authorities to step in and regulate the industry.

At least 31 per cent of households in Uganda lack access to clean and safe water and 19 per cent do not have access to sanitation.
In Maddu Sub-county, Gomba District, residents have to walk for close to 10 kilometres to find safe and clean water for domestic use.
His is an example of the difficulty the rest of the communities go through to access water in a sub-county where 69 per cent of households do not have access to clean and safe water.
The minister’s promise comes against a recent survey by Water.Org, a non-governmental organisation, that 61 per cent of Ugandans lack access to safe water and that 75 per cent do not have access to improved sanitation facilities.
The report also adds that 78 per cent households harvest rainwater as Plan B.
In Maddu Town Council where a solar-powered water pump has already been installed, residents pay Shs100 for a 20-litre jerrycan of water.
Mr Godfrey Kiviiri, the Gomba District chairperson, says: “As the population increases, safe water coverage will as well increase and save our people from the burden of sharing water sources with animals.
Water stressed districts need to be considered in a special way and given reasonable funds to increase safe water.” Not spared The water scarcity does not end at household level.
Ms Grace Kizito, the secretary for health and education, says health centres are ailing.
“It is lack of clean water that has seen Maddu Health Centre IV theatre non-functional for close to four years now yet it is the top ranked government facility in the district,” she reveals.

Maria Alejandrino, 34, and Teresa Serrano, 42, are like most people in their community in Cabañas, in that they must get their water at a well during the dry season.
Nearby, poor residents complain that they lack water service.
“Poor people are the ones who tend to end up drinking contaminated water from natural sources”, says Andrés McKinley, an expert on water and mining at the Central American University José Simeón Cañas (UCA) in the capital city of San Salvador.
According to the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES), nearly a quarter of the population in rural areas has no access to running water either in their homes or at public taps.
The Nejapa aquifer serves as the water source for the majority of metropolitan San Salvador, and damages to pipes earlier this year cut service to more than one million people for days.
Residents like Carlos Melara, 45, who lives in the community of San Antonio Abad on the outskirts of San Salvador, fear that development is taking precedence over poor households like his.
The region’s drought-prone Dry Corridor, in particular, is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the disasters resulting from a changing climate, and it blankets El Salvador.
Tackling the crisis The government of El Salvador has made progress in recent years by improving water services and creating systems to monitor water quality and supply.
“We need a joint effort from the central government, municipal governments, civil society, [and] the business sector.
“All of these issues related to climate change or to other causes of the crisis of water in El Salvador keep coming back to the lack of institutional structures to regulate water”, he says.