Min.
Al-Jabri shows Kuwait’s efforts to tackle water scarcity.
Speaking at the 40th Session FAO Conference on tackling the water scarcity and improving food security amid climate change, Mohammad Al-Jabri, Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs, said Kuwait has been suffering from a sharp shortage of water resources.
The State of Kuwait has only a resource of water, limited to groundwater, while most of the country’s water needs are met by desalination, he added.
As a result, the country had to depend on wastewater treatment as an additional source for agricultural purposes, and to reduce pressures on indispensable groundwater, he told the conference.
Kuwait is taking part in the conference to share expertise and views, and supporting the initiative launched by FAO in 2013 in collaboration with the Arab League in the Near East and North Africa region, he stressed.
Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Abul Gheit said the future of the Arab region in tightly linked to the problem of water scarcity, referring to a major gap between supply and demand in water and food in the Arab region.
For his part, FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said the Arab countries should continue to seek innovations to overcome the water scarcity crisis in the face of climate change.
"Population growth and the impacts of climate change will put more pressure on water availability in the near future.
He pointed out that farmers and rural households should be at the center of strategies to tackle water scarcity.

It is sad that a country like Ghana with her enormous water resources could not provide her citizens with adequate drinking water.
Statistics says more than 40% of Ghana’s 25 million people do not have safe water access despite an investment of roughly a half a billion US dollars over the past twenty years from the government and its development partners.
Several factors contribute to the lack of safe water access in Ghana.
Most Ghanaians rely on surface water and these sources have life-threatening parasites and high microbial content.
Communities, particularly in rural areas, also lack basic skills and the capacity to maintain the wells, hand pumps and other systems well-intentioned organizations have provided.
Business Day is calling on government to stand up to its responsibility and provide for the sector a special fund that must not be stolen.
Awareness of the inter-linkages between water and energy is expedient, just as we must focus on the broad range of issues related to the nexus of water and energy.
Our decision makers in the energy and water sectors should integrate into the global plan on the water-energy synergy to achieve greater economic and social impacts.
Our government needs to be more pro-active.
A multi-sector approach is needed to address inequities, especially for the "bottom billion" that live in slums and impoverished rural areas and have to survive without access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and energy services.

Improving water and wastewater infrastructure for Lethbridge residents and businesses.
The City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge County will provide the balance of funding for their respective projects.
This project is critical for meeting demand in the city’s industrial park and will support future economic development in the area.
Rural residents in the Hamlet of Monarch in Lethbridge County will benefit from a second project, which will include a new reservoir to provide emergency drinking water services, new distribution pumps to meet peak hour demands, and a truck fill station to provide potable water.
Projects like the expansion of wastewater infrastructure in Lethbridge will help the community better manage wastewater and runoff from severe storms, while the new reservoir and pump station for Lethbridge County will enhance the area’s capacity to meet water demands.
These improvements will both support future economic growth, and ensure that the region remains healthy and sustainable for years to come."
Quick Facts Water, Wastewater and Stormwater Capacity Upgrades for Industrial Park Expansion Project: The Government of Canada will be contributing $11.2 million for this project, which has an estimated total cost of $22.4 million.
The Government of Canada will provide more than $180 billion in infrastructure funding over 12 years for public transit, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, transportation that supports trade, and Canada’s rural and northern communities.
The Government of Canada is providing Alberta with $196,714,129 under the new Clean Water and Wastewater Fund, and will fund up to 50 per cent of the eligible project costs.
Associated links Government of Canada’s $180-billion+ infrastructure plan: http://www.budget.gc.ca/fes-eea/2016/docs/themes/infrastructure-en.html Federal infrastructure investments in Alberta: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/map-carte/ab-eng.html CWWF projects in Alberta: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/pt-sp/projects-list-liste-projets-ab-eng.html The Clean Water and Wastewater Fund: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/cwwf-fepeu-eng.html SOURCE Infrastructure Canada For further information: Kate Monfette, Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, 613-301-0894, kate.monfette@canada.ca; Renato Gandia, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, 780-638-9466, Renato.Gandia@gov.ab.ca; Carly Kleisinger, Corporate Communications Manager, City of Lethbridge, 403-393-8452, carly.kleisinger@lethbridge.ca; Mattie Elliott, Communications Coordinator, Lethbridge County, 403-328-5525, melliott@lethcounty.ca; Infrastructure Canada, 613-960-9251, Toll free: 1-877-250-7154, infc.media-medias.infc@canada.ca

YES BANK signs MoU with Western Railway to install water purification systems in 360 stations across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector Bank, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Western Railway to provide access to safe and clean drinking water in 360 ‘D’ and ‘E’ category railway stations across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, as part of its flagship CSR intervention, ‘Livelihood and Water Security’.
The MoU, is part of YES BANK’s partnership with Indian Railways, to provide safe and clean drinking water at 1,000 ‘D’ and ‘E’ category railway stations across India by 2019, and will help YES BANK cover all such stations in Maharashtra by the end of FY17-18.
In the last two years, the Bank in partnership with Konkan Railway and Central Railway has setup water purification systems across 276 ‘D’ and ‘E’ category railway stations in Maharashtra and Goa.
YES BANK’s ‘Livelihood and Water Security’ intervention (since inception in 2014) has provided access to safe and clean drinking water to more than 50 million beneficiaries.
In FY14-15, the Bank deployed over 9,000 household water purification systems with the help of NGO partners in Raigad, Pune, Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli in Maharashtra.
In FY15-16, the Bank installed 150 community water purification systems at key locations including government schools, government hospitals, orphanages, old-age homes and local communities.
The Bank also provided 1,558, household water purification systems in Raigad.
The stock hit an intraday high of Rs.
The net turnover during the day was Rs.

It is sad that a country like Ghana with her enormous water resources could not provide her citizens with adequate drinking water.
Statistics says more than 40% of Ghana’s 25 million people do not have safe water access despite an investment of roughly a half a billion US dollars over the past twenty years from the government and its development partners.
Several factors contribute to the lack of safe water access in Ghana.
Most Ghanaians rely on surface water and these sources have life-threatening parasites and high microbial content.
Communities, particularly in rural areas, also lack basic skills and the capacity to maintain the wells, hand pumps and other systems well-intentioned organizations have provided.
Business Day is calling on government to stand up to its responsibility and provide for the sector a special fund that must not be stolen.
Awareness of the inter-linkages between water and energy is expedient, just as we must focus on the broad range of issues related to the nexus of water and energy.
Our decision makers in the energy and water sectors should integrate into the global plan on the water-energy synergy to achieve greater economic and social impacts.
Our government needs to be more pro-active.
A multi-sector approach is needed to address inequities, especially for the "bottom billion" that live in slums and impoverished rural areas and have to survive without access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and energy services.

Malnourished Children at Risk of Death from Cholera in Yemen, Africa.
The U.N. children’s fund warns tens of thousands of malnourished children are at great risk in Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan, which are on the brink of famine.
UNICEF reports an estimated 4.7 million children in the cholera-stricken countries are malnourished.
Of these, UNICEF spokesman Christofe Boulierac tells VOA, more than one million are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
“Let me remind you that a child who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition are nine times more likely to die of disease than a well-nourished child," he said.
"So, having cholera and diarrhea in countries where so many children are so fragile because of malnutrition among other things because of such a bad access to safe water is extremely worrying.” Sudan outbreak UNICEF says it also is extremely worried about an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea in Sudan, where the Federal Ministry of Health reports more than 20,000 cases of the disease, including over 400 deaths.
Boulierac says the disease has spread to 14 of 18 states and children account for more than 20 percent of the affected population.
“The situation in White Nile State, which is in central Sudan, is deeply worrying, since it is the most affected with 7,200 reported cases and since it has almost 100,000 refugees living in camps,” he said.
UNICEF says it needs access, security and more money to contain cholera and acute watery diarrhea in all four countries.
It says aid operations must be scaled up.

Malnourished Children at Risk of Death from Cholera in Yemen, Africa.
The U.N. children’s fund warns tens of thousands of malnourished children are at great risk in Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan, which are on the brink of famine.
UNICEF reports an estimated 4.7 million children in the cholera-stricken countries are malnourished.
Of these, UNICEF spokesman Christofe Boulierac tells VOA, more than one million are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
“Let me remind you that a child who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition are nine times more likely to die of disease than a well-nourished child," he said.
"So, having cholera and diarrhea in countries where so many children are so fragile because of malnutrition among other things because of such a bad access to safe water is extremely worrying.” Sudan outbreak UNICEF says it also is extremely worried about an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea in Sudan, where the Federal Ministry of Health reports more than 20,000 cases of the disease, including over 400 deaths.
Boulierac says the disease has spread to 14 of 18 states and children account for more than 20 percent of the affected population.
“The situation in White Nile State, which is in central Sudan, is deeply worrying, since it is the most affected with 7,200 reported cases and since it has almost 100,000 refugees living in camps,” he said.
UNICEF says it needs access, security and more money to contain cholera and acute watery diarrhea in all four countries.
It says aid operations must be scaled up.

i-book to help global water utilities become more resilient.
CRANFIELD, UK – Cranfield University has embarked on a major research project, funded by the Water Research Foundation (WRF), focused on the implementation of risk management practice in international water utilities.
The $300,000 project, called Real-life enterprise resilience, aims to develop a toolkit of resources including an interactive i-book, based on academic research, for practical use by utility managers in the field.
The University said: “This will subsequently provide senior and executive management with cutting-edge advances to ensure their companies can operate efficiently and prosperously in the decades ahead.” Cranfield’s work will support the recent call from the Effective Utility Management Steering Group – a consortium of leading US bodies with strategic interests in utility governance – who have called for “enterprise resiliency”; a utility-wide, strategic approach to organisational resilience.
Project partners who have provided funding include; City of Calgary (Canada), Seattle Public Utilities (US), Water Corporation (Australia), EPCOR (Canada), SA Water (Australia), Scottish Water (Scotland), EPAL (Portugal), UKWIR Limited (UK), Yorkshire Water (England), Northern Ireland Water (Northern Ireland), and Thames Water (England).
Dr Simon Jude, Cranfield Institute for Resilient Futures and principal investigator, said; “The desire for resilient water utilities has become an international keystone of utility governance.
This project aims to close the gap between regulatory calls for greater resilience, academic thinking and practical application.
This is applicable, hard science for the workers in the field and executives in the board room, with the purpose of delivering a more sustainable, resilient water supply for future generations.” Rob Pritchard, general manager, Utilities & Environmental Protection for the City of Calgary, said: “Utility companies rely on the WRF and others to translate academic concepts into usable tools in practical formats.
While there is a plethora of resilience programs and projects, even at the international level, there is no practice-led resource for water utility managers that supports a response to regulatory calls for improved resiliency.
This project will address that need, and Calgary citizens will benefit as a result.” ### Read more Nano membrane toilet helps Cranfield University win Queen’s anniversary prize

Water Governance: Institutional alternatives and development cooperation.
The recent policy of Trump administration of pulling the United States (US) out of Paris accord is the perfect example of how much we are concerned with the well-being of our planet.
World Economic Forum has also identified water crisis as the highest impact risk facing the world.
The plot of 2008 James Bond blockbuster ‘Quantum of Solace’ showed a similar situation, where a criminal syndicate aimed on global domination plans to seize control of water supply of Bolivia.
The Organization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) estimates that by the end of year 2050 the demand of water in the world will grow by 55 percent.
Government seems to be least interested in the issue, though federal budget 2017 has identified 33 water development schemes all over the country, from which 24 have been embarked for Baluchistan, however past record of the government and state of corruption and politics in the country has made the fate of these projects dubious.
With the funding from PPAF, BRAC Pakistan has completed twenty five drinking water schemes in Lasbeela district of Baluchistan.
While talking to BRAC Pakistan Project Manager in Lasbeela, Saif Ullah Mengal, he underlined the significance of the project and risks associated to it.
Motivation and awareness were also disseminated through meetings to ensure that the water management committees are functioning well.
Changing the conditions for water management and distribution in Pakistan is not only about taking new steps forward.

Afghanistan’s all-girl robotics team can’t get visas to come to the US.
https-%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F525028%2Fcdb885e3-71ac-4143-becb-af141f9560c2.JPG Members of Afghanistan’s robotics team work on their robot.
The competition called on participants to "build a robot that could complete a variety of engineering tasks focused on access to clean water, and faced a variety of challenges throughout the process."
“We want to make a difference and most breakthroughs in science, technology, and other industries normally start with the dream of a child to do something great.
“I can’t tell you why exactly [their applications were denied], but I do know that a fair opportunity was given by the US State Department and embassy,” said Joe Sestak, a former congressman and president of FIRST Global.
"They’re young and they were very upset.” Although the young women won’t make it to the US, their robot is now on its way to participate in the competition.
The team of six will tune in to the event via Skype, and a group of young Afghan-American women will represent them at the event.
The team from Afghanistan isn’t alone in being rejected, according to Sestak.
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