Water and War: The turbulent dynamics between water and fragility, conflict, and violence.
Masses of people in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
However, poor rains are not the only water problem that creates havoc.
Floods, water-borne diseases, and transboundary water conflicts can all cause severe human suffering and disruptions to political, economic, and environmental systems.
As we rush to mobilize resources to respond to the famine, we also need to ask ourselves why this downward spiral continues to happen.
When institutions fail to prepare, predict, or respond to water-related risks, the impact of a dry well, of a cholera outbreak, or of a flood have much greater human, political, and economic consequences.
In countries experiencing fragility, conflict, and violence, it is particularly challenging to achieve water security – that is, to deliver water services to the population and to protect them against water-related risks.
By 2030, virtually half of all the world’s poor will live that way.
A new report, Turbulent Waters: Pursuing Water Security in Fragile Contexts, describes what happens when institutions in fragile countries fail to manage the range of challenges related to water.
In turn, this contributes to destabilizing already fragile contexts, aggravating the challenges of water management, and perpetuating a vicious cycle of water insecurity and fragility.

WHO: SA among countries with cleanest energy and safest water in the world.
This is according to data published in the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) annual World Health Statistics 2017 report, which compiles data from the organisation’s 194 Member States on 21 health-related SDG targets, providing a snapshot of both gains and threats to the health of the world’s people.
Access to safe water South Africa is among the top six African countries with safely managed drinking water sources, with 93% of the population receiving access to it.
Mauritius has the highest number of residents accessing safe water at 100% of the population.
One of WHO’s goals is to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030.
Clean energy South Africa also ranked high in the provision of access to clean sources of energy for its population.
It placed third in sub-Saharan Africa after Algeria, Seychelles and Mauritius, with 82% of the population receiving energy that is not harmful to their health and environment.
Generally, clean energy access was common across many high and mid income level countries around the world.
Tanzania ranked lowest in Africa, with less than 5% of its population getting their energy from a clean source.
[Image – IUCNweb]

Juba, South Sudan – By 10am, the unforgiving morning sun begins to beat down on the dusty streets and mud huts of Hai Gabat, a neighbourhood in the east of Juba, South Sudan’s capital. Sam, a 45-year-old water seller from Uganda, has been up for four hours. He is busy securing the last of six jerrycans on to the rusty frame of his old, heavy bicycle. Around him women, children and men gather beneath the sprawling boughs of a leafy tree, seeking shelter from the sun and filling dozens of yellow jerrycans with running tap water. ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads The cluster of taps is one of Juba’s two UNICEF-installed water points, where water from the River Nile is treated with aluminum sulfate and chlorine before some 50,000 litres are pumped out daily for private and commercial use. This small oasis offers a source of potable water in a city where access to safe water isn’t readily available. Only 15 percent of Juba’s residents are able to access municipal water. Much of the population is left vulnerable to waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and the Guinea worm disease. According to the United Nations, water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of the global population with 1.8 billion people worldwide drinking water that is fecally contaminated and some 1,000 children dying each day from preventable water and sanitation-related diseases. Since June 2016, South Sudan has recorded 6,774 cases of cholera, including 221 deaths. Sam, who did not want to give his last name, and his colleagues provide a vital service. They are an integral part of Juba’s water system, given the job of delivering safe drinking water to some of the city’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods. ALSO READ – South Sudan: ‘There are only dead bodies’ Dependence on mobile water vendors Juba’s water vendors start getting ready for their gruelling day’s work as soon as the sun rises at 6.30am. After paying their daily fee of just under $1 to use the water facilities, they fuel up on a breakfast of bread, eggs and tea at a nearby restaurant. Then they begin their rounds, which continue throughout the day. They only stop when the sun sets at 7pm. South Sudan has plenty of surface and ground water potential, yet, according to an African Development Bank report, “access to water supply services is among the lowest in Africa”. Over the years, the state-run water services have increasingly deteriorated, with little government investment to expand the availability of water to households. “People in this area depend on us,” says Sam, barely audible against the roar of UN charter planes taking off from a nearby airport. The Kampala-born water vendor moved to South Sudan five years ago, drawn to Juba by the promise of better work opportunities at a time when the newborn capital appeared to be flourishing. That period was short lived. A violent civil war tore through the country just two years after its independence from Sudan. The clashes were triggered by a falling out between President Salva Kiir and…

Waterwise: Additional funding needed for drought relief.
Laurel Firestone, co-executive director of Community Water Center, and Tom Collishaw, Self-Help Enterprise CEO, said Central Valley residents are in need of clean water.
According to the State Water Resource Control Board, there are California communities not able to finance long-overdue drinking water solutions.
In some communities, according to the resource board, water has high levels of arsenic for more than 10 years.
“California has been a leader in drinking water, but we have to commit sustained funding if we want to solve the crisis this year,” Firestone said.
Collishaw said the need for clean water must be addressed.
Arsenic, nitrate and disinfectant byproducts are the most common contaminants.
The CWC said 300 communities and one million California residents are still lacking access to clean water.
Earlier this year, state administrators recognized there are communities in need of finding a water solution.
“The Administration is committed to working with the Legislature and stakeholders to address this issue,” according to Brown’s budget.

Dais enters desalination market.
DLYT), a commercial nanotechnology materials company selling its Aqualyte™ membrane nanomaterial with engineered processes for use addressing needs in the worldwide air, energy and water markets, today announced it has received an order for delivery of its first NanoClear™ product targeted to be used in for the growing market for the estimated 88.6 million cubic meter/day desalination market of water.
According to www.gwi.com, 2016 is was the third consecutive year that the international desalination market has seen year-on-year growth.
The desalination project is one of three projects that Aquabaero is undertaking with NanoClear systems.
The other two systems will be used in projects that focus on NanoClear’s proven ability to clean industrial wastewater.
"Dais’s entrance into the desalination market is the result of 3 years of research into how to optimize our NanoClear system for the desalination process," says Tim Tangredi, CEO and President of Dais.
"We believe NanoClear’s ability to use waste heat to generate potable water that is 1,000 times cleaner than global standards require and our ability to handle wastewater concentrated up to 3X 3 times the normal limit of a reverse osmosis system uniquely positions the Company to establish higher performance standards for desalination projects," continued Tangredi.
"The market for desalination is diverse and there are specific applications where NanoClear is particularly suited," said Brian Johnson, Chief Technology Officer for Dais.
To find out more about Dais, visit www.daisanalytic.com.
Aquabaero offers an extensive and complete range of services, including consultancy, design, project management, supply and installation of equipment, implementing many different types of biochemical and mechanical processes as part of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment solutions.

With around 80 households, Bador is a small village located in Godda district of Jharkhand. The population here consists of a primitive Paharia tribal community that is recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Like any other PVTG, this Paharia community also led a life of hardship for several reasons, including drinking water scarcity. The village had hand pumps and wells, but due to its location on a hill slope, the hand pumps would only provide water for three months and then go dry for the rest of the year. The wells were open, and due to their location on the slope, all the dirt rolled down from the hill and entered the well. The community was left with no choice but to consume dirty water from the well as there was no other drinking water source. The population suffered from a range of health issues like jaundice and cholera. The village also suffered from high infant mortality rate. A team from WaterAid India (WAI) and SATHEE first visited the community in 2014, and engaged the community people to understand their challenges related to access to clean water, safe sanitation, and hygiene. The team organised a joint meeting involving…

Aqua America to invest $450M on water infrastructure upgrades in 2017.
With plans to invest $450 million in 2017, Aqua America will help rebuild and replace water infrastructure in the communities it serves.
Photo:Wikimedia Commons.
BRYN MAWR, PA, MAY 16, 2016 — Aqua America (Aqua) is recognizing Infrastructure Week, May 15-19, 2017, to help raise awareness about the significant need for investment in the United States’ water infrastructure.
With plans to invest $450 million in 2017, Aqua will help rebuild and replace water infrastructure in the communities it serves.
Projects are planned across all eight of Aqua’s states to ensure clean and safe water reaches each customer.
Between 2012 and 2016, Aqua invested $1.5 billion in infrastructure renewal, including replacement of more than 700 miles of water mains.
"As a leading water utility, our number one priority is delivering safe, reliable drinking water to our customers," said Bill Ross, senior vice president, engineering and environmental affairs.
The 2017 American Society for Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card ranked the United States’ drinking water and wastewater infrastructure "D" and "D+" and illustrates the following challenges: Drinking water is delivered via one million miles of pipes across the country, but many of those pipes are approaching 100 years in age There are an estimated 240,000 water main breaks per year in the United States, wasting more than two trillion gallons of treated drinking water It is estimated that leaky, aging pipes waste 14 to 18 percent of each day’s treated water, which could support 15 million households Aqua’s 2017 infrastructure investment plan includes replacing 150 miles of water mains across eight states, helping to save billions of gallons of water leaking from pipes and water mains.
"Aqua employees understand the challenges facing the nation over the next few decades, and we work every day to do our part to help revitalize the nation’s infrastructure," said Ross.

Far fewer people in Bangladesh have safe water than the state government has estimated, new research shows. In addition, many people who do not have access to safe drinking water are under the mistaken impression that their water is safe, drinkable, and clean. According to the latest national assessment, 85 percent of the people in Bangladesh have access to safe drinking water. However, the new research uncovers two major problems that the national statistics don’t reflect. “The most surprising and disturbing result of this research was discovering that, in the communities we studied, there was almost no reliable year-round access to safe drinking water, while most residents did not know that their water…

Borealis and Borouge, the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), and the the UK Government’s Department for International Development have funded a project that has helped bring safe and affordable drinking water to more than 50,000 people in Kenya. The Water for the World project was intended at Kenya’s capital Nairobi, where an estimated 60% of the population have little access to water and sanitation. The partnership has worked to improve drinking water supplies in Korogocho and Kahawa Soweto informal settlements of Nairobi. The usage of polyethylene (PE) pipes allowed to install pre-paid water dispensers, which would…

In the face of the Southern California’s semi-arid Mediterranean climate, compounded by several years of drought throughout the state, the region has developed local resilience through state-of-the-art groundwater management.
Paving the way for a more resilient water system, authorities in northern and central Orange County have partnered to develop imaginative approaches to reducing dependence on imported water.
There are two key features of OCWD’s multifaceted strategy to efficiently use every drop: wastewater reuse and groundwater basin governance.
Wastewater reuse Boasting the largest planned indirect potable reuse system in the world, OCWD’s Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) captures and reuses recycled water that has been treated to exceed federal and state drinking water standards.
The Orange Country Sanitation District (OCSD) served as a key partner in helping Orange County fund the System instead of building a second ocean disposal pipeline.
Groundwater basin governance The creative case of pursuing water sustainability in Orange County may serve as an example of an integrated water paradigm that presents tools and guidance to other urban centers, particularly including cities in developing countries.
OCWD’s focus on groundwater basin governance through a diversified recharge strategy not only protects the quality of water in the aquifer from seawater intrusion, but also increases the storage capacity of the basin over time.
Orange County is sharing successful strategies, technologies, and approaches to water resilience with developing countries through the Water Scarce Cities Initiative.
WSC is documenting cases, such as that of Orange County, and sharing the successes and challenges of with cities in water scarce regions in the global South.
[1] Refers to projects that will use reclaimed wastewater and inject it, through wells drilled along the coastline, to create an underground barrier against seawater intrusion into the fresh groundwater aquifer.