DEHDADI DISTRICT, Balkh Province – Shiny new pipelines connect the water storage tank to the tanker parked beside the main road of Karmalik village.
The tanker provides sufficient drinking water for all the residents of the village.
Abdul Ahad, 45, is responsible for making sure every house in the village has access to water.
“When the water supply was disrupted, things were very difficult for us.
The village main road was being paved recently, making it easier for locals to transport goods, but the road works ruptured the existing water supply network.
With the supply system collapsing, households could no longer access drinking water through their pipeline system.
This was hard as well as unhygienic because stream water is not very clean,” says Aqela, 50, a resident of Karmalik village.
Every time we need water, we just turn on the tap in our homes and have access to clean water,” she says, smiling.
The village water supply network was restored by a Maintenance Cash Grant (MCG) awarded by NSP.
We have access to drinking water in our homes now,” says Abdul Ahad.

by Tharanga Yakupitiyage, originally posted on December 20, 2016

 

NEW YORK, Dec 20 2016 (IPS) – Since the decision by the U.S. army to suspend the Dakota Access pipeline on 4 December, many are still unsure of the controversial pipeline’s future or its implications for other mega infrastructure projects affecting indigenous communities across North America.

After months of demonstrations by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of allies from across the world, the Army announced that it will not allow the 1,172-mile long pipeline to cross Lake Oahe in North Dakota.

The statement was met with celebrations and tears by those who have taken up residence in camps along the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers as part of the #NoDAPL movement.

“Everyone was very excited, very pleased at the camp,” said Sioux County native involved in #NoDAPL Cannupa Hanska Luger told IPS.

Among concerns over the pipeline is its risk of contaminating the Missouri River, the tribe’s main source of water.

However, the excitement over the Army’s decision did not last long, Luger said.

“Primarily this is an issue of Native people not being too comfortable and too steadfast with government decrees. All of our treaties have been broken…we were elated in the moment but then we also readied ourselves for any future statement or outcome,” Luger told IPS.

One such treaty is the 1851 treaty of Fort Laramie which defined Sioux territory as the land where DAPL is being constructed. Though it was later taken away under a 1868 treaty, the land remains disputed as some say they never ceded the territory.

Despite the recent decision and territorial disputes, Energy Transfer Partners, the oil company in charge of the  $3.8 billion project, has vowed to continue DAPL, stating: “[We] are fully committed to ensuring that this vital project is brought to completion and fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting in and around Lake Oahe. Nothing this Administration has done today changes that in any way.”

Many also fear that incoming President-elect Donald Trump will overturn the decision as he has vowed to divert billions of payments to UN climate programs towards building up domestic coal, oil and gas industries.

His cabinet nominations also suggest an increased focus on such industries including ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt – who has been battling President Obama’s climate change policies – as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Rick Perry as Energy Secretary who, during his time as governor of Texas, expanded oil and gas development.

“This fight is not over, not even close. In fact, this fight is escalating,” said a coalition of grassroots organisations including Sacred Stone one of the Dakota Access resistance camps, pointing to the new administration as a source of uncertainty.

The struggle is far from over, not only for DAPL, which is just one of many extractive projects that threaten access to clean water for many indigenous communities on the continent.

One such case is the legacy of uranium mining in the Navajo Nation in the Southwestern United States.

During the Cold War, the U.S. government extracted uranium from the Navajo Reservation, which is home to the largest indigenous population in the country. According to the EPA, over 30 million tonnes of uranium ore was extracted from or adjacent to Navajo lands.

Executive Director of global water organisation DigDeep George McGraw remarked on the similarities between DAPL and uranium mining to IPS, calling it “if not sister problems, cousin problems.”

“The Sioux, like the Navajo, have struggled to maintain water access for the majority of their population in general…so to come in and threaten, in a really meaningful way, the resources that they do have like a river is an even more gross offense,” he said.

Decades of uranium mining have contributed to a water crisis leaving approximately 40 percent of Navajo households without clean running water.

McGraw noted that water contamination has only worsened because mines have not been cleaned up. There are over 500 abandoned mines with radioactivity levels as high as 25 times above what is considered to be safe.

Such exposure has led to alarmingly high rates of cancer in a population which the medical community previously thought had “cancer immunity.”

By treaty and law, the United States is responsible for protecting the health of the Navajo Nation. However, McGraw pointed to unfulfilled treaty obligations, similar to that of the Sioux Nation.

Despite a recent settlement between the Navajo Nation and the U.S. government to help clean up 16 abandoned uranium mines, access to clean water remains elusive as ongoing coal mining in the Navajo reservation poses a further threat to drinking water sources.

McGraw noted that such extractive processes tend to take place more often on Native American land.

“That’s symptomatic of our treatment of Native Americans when it comes to all these energy issues…most of the country ignores this place and they can get away with that, “ he told IPS.

Chair of the Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS) Rudolph Ryser echoed similar sentiments to IPS, stating: “The indigenous world is invisible to the rest of the world…so it’s easy for developers, corporations, governments to press economic development projects that advantage them at the expense of indigenous nations and it’s been going on for a long time.”

Ryser particularly pointed to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in Canada which was recently approved by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The expansion will create a twinned pipeline which was increase oil transports from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day.

Some First Nations have strongly opposed the project, citing concerns of an increased risk of an oil spill. Oil company Kinder Morgan only garnered support for the pipeline from one-third of the 120 indigenous groups it consulted.

The Canadian province of Alberta also approved another three oil sands projects including Husky Energy’s Saleski project, the same company responsible for a July oil spill in the North Saskatchewan River from a different pipeline.

Approximately 250,000 litres of oil was leaked, impacting numerous cities including the James Smith Cree Nation territory. Five samples from the First Nation’s water revealed levels of toxins unfit for human consumption.

Though the DAPL movement was important in that it brought different tribes together, Ryser said that as long as these projects continue, the “struggle is not over.”

Similarly, Luger noted that stopping one pipeline does not mean the end.

“The solidarity that was created within Native communities at Standing Rock…set a precedent where we went and decided that we must help one another. And because most of these extractive resources are taking place on or near Native borders, we also know that we are readying ourselves to work towards the future and help one another within our communities nationally and internationally,” he concluded.

by Ari Phillips, originally posted on December 19, 2016

 

first realized that the fight against the Dakota Access pipeline was really about water and not oil at a rally in Washington D.C. in September. A crowd of several thousand people gathered in front of the White House, and the enthusiasm peaked as Bernie Sanders, just weeks after ending his presidential campaign, took the stage.

Sanders told the eager group that there are a lot of people who believe future wars won’t be fought over oil, but over water, and that now is the time to focus on the ultimately more precious resource.

“We cannot allow our drinking water to be poisoned so that a handful of fossil fuel companies can make even more in profits,” he said. “We stand united in saying, ‘stop the pipeline, respect Native American rights and let us move forward to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels.’”

In the intervening months, the North Dakota demonstrators—who prefer to be called “water protectors”—continued to gain momentum along with increasing national media attention.

After the Obama administration announced in September that the government would discuss with tribes how to better ensure meaningful tribal input, in early December the news came that the Army Corps was going to consider alternate routes for the pipeline and that construction in the contested area would not move forward for the foreseeable future.

Leaders of the movement celebrated the unexpected victory while also turning an eye to the future. With President-elect Donald Trump setting up a Cabinet full of fossil fuel industry advocates who denounce federal environmental regulations, the next four years will likely be filled with even more high-stakes confrontations between industrial interests and environmental activists, and clean water may well continue to be the focal point. While the seeds for a new era of environmental activism were sown in North Dakota and Flint, MI, this year, they will have to grow into something much larger to live up to the demands that will be placed upon them in the coming years.

The increasing value of clean water is not only crystal clear from an environmental perspective, but also a business one—the U.S. Water Industry grew 3% in 2015, generating $160 billion in revenues according to the Environmental Business Journal (EBJ).

EBJ Editor-in-Chief Grant Ferrier attributed the growth to new monitoring requirements to deal with the regulation of new contaminants.

“Even in the most highly regulated countries like the United States, water pollution problems continue to grow as new contaminants are unleashed and discovered,” he said. At the same time regions suffering from climate change-driven drought, like California, are seeing increased investment in water recycling and reuse technology as the resource becomes even scarcer.

“Climate change is water change.”

Michael Kelly, director of communications for Clean Water Action, said that already overwhelming challenges like climate change, environmental degradation, and industrial pollution will be compounded by the severe setbacks of a Trump-led government intent on opening the floodgates for oil.

“Climate change is water change so pulling back on our commitments in the Paris Agreement, repealing the Clean Power Plan, and slowing our efforts to reduce climate change emissions will impact our water,” he said. “Oil and gas activities have huge impacts on our water—from drilling to transport to power transmission to disposal of drilling waste—reducing or undermining safeguards will impact our water, especially in front-line oil and gas communities.”

Mark Yaggi, executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance, said the biggest challenge that the incoming administration poses is the “erosion of democracy and the creation of a corporate oligarchy” that could screw up the current government structure designed to prevent water pollution. He said existing laws like the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act will keep waterways clean if they are enforced.

“More people need to understand that there are political decisions made every day that jeopardize water,” Yaggi said. “Cost-cutting measures, failure to invest in infrastructure, these things happen all the time. Unless you have an informed public and advocates for the cause, deals can fly under the radar of public attention.”

Just look at what happened in Flint, MI, when a plan to provide the city with a new water source unfolded in a national drama when the water was found to be contaminated with lead.

In another example of how these problems can arise, in a large new study the EPA recently determinedthat fracking for oil and gas can contaminate drinking water in certain circumstances, a strong claim that the agency had not previously officially asserted. Fracking is currently only subject to a few federal regulations, and while the report suggests that tighter regulations might be necessary to prevent water contamination, Trump’s pick to run the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has made it clearthat he’ll be fighting regulatory overreach as head of the EPA and is not interested in adding new regulations. Pruitt, who has close ties with the fossil fuel industry, has sued the EPA numerous times over the course of his career.

“We’ve done a poor job of recognizing and respecting the rights and values of native communities to water.”

Yaggi said that the model that was displayed and led by the indigenous community at Standing Rock is a great model for environmental and social advocacy for a new era, and that communities need to continue to organize locally.

John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexico Water Resources Program and author of the new book Water is for Fighting Over, recently told me that the Standing Rock conflict adds to a long history of disregard for Native American water rights.

“We’ve done a poor job of recognizing and respecting the rights and values of native communities to water,” he said. “We can’t keep doing that, both for legal reasons—Indian rights to water have a special legal status in U.S. law—but also for moral reasons. Solutions to the nation’s water problems have to incorporate the values of all the affected communities.”

Nives Dolsak, a professor of environmental policy a the University of Washington and Aseem Prakash, director of the UW Center for Environmental Politics, recently expanded on the notion of involving all affected communities by applying it to the future of the overall environmental movement. They argue that the rise of Trump and his fossil fuel cronies needs to act as a wake-up call for the U.S. environmental movement—a movement that needs to “go local” in its quest to reinvent itself.

They believe that environmental concerns, which failed to gain much traction during the 2016 election, will sway the votes of more minorities and working class people if they address local issues like air and water pollution and clean drinking water. In order to expand the movement from its historical base of middle- and upper-class white urban voters, leaders will need to stop telling people what they ought to do and instead pay attention to their perspectives.

“For Native American groups, DAPL protests provide the platform to initiate a social movement that asks basic questions about environmental justice and the rights of native communities in resource-hungry systems,” Dolsak and Prakash wrote in November. “For environmental groups, DAPL protests offer the opportunity to focus attention on the social and environmental costs of fossil-fuel addiction. If they work together, these groups could create a partnership that pervades beyond the Dakota standoff, and advance each other’s agenda in meaningful ways.”

Perhaps the environmental movement can give new meaning to the old saying “water is for fighting over.”

by Ellen Knickmeyer, originally posted on December 17, 2016

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The first winter storm of 2017 to drop welcome rain over the rivers, pumps, pipes and canals that move California’s water north to south likely will open a new era of tension over how much water goes to fish or farms under a new U.S law.

Legislation signed Friday by President Barack Obama dictates that the federal portion of California’s heavily engineered water systems gives agricultural districts and other human users the biggest possible share of the most fought-over resource in a state with a six-year drought.

Water experts and conservationists expect that new mandate to conflict with state and federal laws and court orders meant to ensure enough water stays in Northern California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and delta for endangered native fish.

Dueling interpretations over what the new law means for water deliveries could foster tensions between the state and the incoming Trump administration and worsen the water wars among farmers, fishing industries and conservation interests.

“There’s going to be fighting, and it is going to commence almost immediately,” said Peter Moyle, a professor emeritus of biology at the University of California, Davis.

Moyle has spent much of his career tracing the decline of the minute fish called the Delta smelt and dozens of other native species since operations at California’s giant state and federal water projects started more than a half-century ago.

Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, is one of many, including farming groups and agricultural water districts with considerable political strength, that welcome the water bill.

As heavy winter rains ease the drought, “this bill is going to help us catch some of this water and move it down south,” Wenger said.

And if the state’s fishing groups and conservationists try to stop that, “shame on the environmentalists,” he said. “Lawsuits haven’t helped the fish.”

The law includes new directions on how hard to run giant water pumps during the winter storms that bring much of California’s rain for the year.

Typically, the storms trigger recommendations from wildlife officials to ease up on pumping. That is meant to help keep the nearly extinct Delta smelt and waning native salmon on course as the fish take advantage of the storms to move up or downstream.

When Donald Trump visited California’s Central Valley during the presidential campaign, he cited complaints from water districts and farmers that easing pumping after heavy rains wastes storm water that could be captured for the heavily agricultural region.

Environmental groups say allowing winter rains to flow to the Pacific Ocean is essential to the health of the West Coast’s largest estuary, the San Francisco Bay.

Among other changes, the new law is expected to require biologists to show more hard data on endangered fish in real time when they ask for a reduction in pumping. Moyle, the Delta smelt expert, believes that’s possible because of “smelt cams” and other monitoring systems already in place.

Jay Lund, longtime water policy expert at the University of California, Davis, expects the law to provide up to an additional half-million acre-feet of water for human users.

That’s roughly equal to enough water to supply a half-million homes for a year and would be worth several hundreds of millions of dollars to agricultural interests in drought years. Both fish and farms received less water during the worst of California’s drought.

Fish advocates were expected to go to court if the law takes away water from native species under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts and related court orders, said Doug Obegi with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Some agricultural interests hope to challenge the U.S. Endangered Species Act itself, loosening or doing away with its restrictions on pumping in California.

More pumping for farms and less water in the two rivers would be bad news not just for smelt but for other California fish listed as endangered, from salmon to sturgeon to steelhead, Moyle said.

All of that could bring the Trump administration and its supporters in Congress into conflict with California over the state’s protections for threatened wildlife.

“Dueling legislation between Congress and the state Legislature, and parallel legal battles in state and federal courts, and everyone’s paying attention to that instead of paying attention to making the system run better — that’s my worry,” Lund said.

Originally posted on November 14, 2016

 

JEDDAH — Residents of Al-Nuzha district-2 in Jeddah have threatened to take legal action against the National Water Company for not supplying drinking water regularly through pipeline for the past eight months and forcing people to depend on private water tankers.

Al-Nuzha-2 is located near Baraa Bin Malik Mosque, north of Jeddah and its residents say they have not received water through NWC pipeline for more than eight months. “This situation has turned lives of people in the district upside down,” said Mohammed Al-Motairy, one of the residents.

He said lack of drinking water has hit Al-Nuzha residents morally and materially as they had to spend a lot of money to fetch water by private tankers. “We have decided to sue the water company for failing to supply water for the past eight months,” he added.

Shortage of water has caused material damages to residents, who have urged authorities to intervene to end their difficulty, said Saad Waalan, another resident. “The problem is getting bad to worse months after months,” he told Okaz/Saudi Gazette.

He said the lack of water has affected all members of family. “We’ll sue the National Water Company for causing us problems for the past eight months. We have not received any positive response from the company although we had lodged several complaints,” he added.

Hamid Al-Mustadi also emphasized the need to sue the company for Al-Nuzha-2 residents’ material damages. “The presence of water tankers has become a hallmark of the district,” he said. “Tanks in our homes have not received water from NWC since Rajab 1437H,” he added.

Abdullah Al-Farsi also held NWC responsible for the suffering of Al-Nuzha-2 residents. “We have approached the company several times to end our suffering but they have ignored our pleas without taking any action to solve the problem,” he explained.

“Even last week we visited the company’s office requesting action but they did not realize the intensity of our problem,” Al-Farsi said while urging higher authorities to intervene to solve the problem and punish negligent NWC officials.

Dakhilallah Al-Radadi expressed his hope that the Makkah governorate would intervene and force NWC to solve the water problem in the district as quickly as possible.

Originally posted on October 18, 2016

 

The troubled Harare city council has launched a 100 day service delivery improvement strategy targeted at purifying the human waste contaminated water.

Harare city council is not only failing to provide adequate water to residents, but also struggling to purify the scarce precious liquid it pumps to the people’s houses.

The water, Harare city council pumps to residents is undrinkable and produces an unpleasant smell.

At a recent residents’ meeting a senior official Local Government official confessed that she was not consuming Harare water.

Part of the 100 day service delivery improvement strategy the, Bernard Manyenyeni, led Harare city council tasked itself with, is to reduce water pollution from the current 2.5 milligrams per litre to 2 milligrams per litre by the end of the year.

Harare city council which started water rationing in May also said they wanted to increase supply and access to portable water from the current 45% to 55 %.

They also said they wanted to revise their refuse collection schedule from current 60% to 90% by the end of this year.

“If water is available we will be able to eliminate water borne diseases, residents and stakeholders will pay, if refuse is collected, the City will be clean and habitable, if there is proper planning, we will not have illegal settlements and if the one stop shop for issuance of municipal licenses is created, business will comply, the process will be less cumbersome and the City will get much needed revenue,” said Local Government minister ,Saviour Kasukuwewere ,who was guest speaker at the launch of the strategy dubbed “ 1st One Hundred Day Rapid Results Initiative” in, Harare, last week.

by Daniela Pardo, originally posted on December 16, 2016

 

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – More than 130 homes in Far East El Paso County could be one step closer to having their own water system for the first time.

The homes at the Hillcrest Estates and Hillcrest Center subdivisions are less than a mile away from city limits, near Zaragoza Rd. and Montana Ave.

The County’s Public Works Department is applying for a grant with the USDA that can change the way residents get their water.

NewsChannel 9 spoke to County Commissioner Vince Perez who represents the precinct where the colonias are. He says it’s one of the largest colonias in the county that still doesn’t have access to drinking water. Residents use water storage tanks, with a capacity of 2,500 gallons.

“While their neighbors have access to these basic amenities that everybody should have access to, they’ve been without it for decades,” adds Perez.

We talked to Gabriel Olivas, who has been living at the colonia for more than 12 years.

Olivas says the water situation is frustrating and he’s thought about moving twice because it’s tough and expensive to fill the tanks every month.

“That’s great news. Those are prayers being answered for a long time. I mean I’m going to tell my wife, she doesn’t know, but it’s something that we never thought was going to happen,” said Olivas, when we told him about the grant the county is applying for.

The proposed project would provide a permanent connection to the EPWU water system from Zaragoza Rd.

Commissioner Perez says the estimated cost of the project is $13.5-million.

On Monday, County Commissioners will discuss this item and Judge Veronica Escobar is expected to sign the grant application.

originally posted on November 22, 2016

 

As the drought affecting Western North Carolina shows no signs of letting up, all municipalities in Haywood are now under some level of water restrictions, ranging from voluntary to mandatory.

Canton / Clyde:

The Town of Canton and Town of Clyde have both implemented Stage 2 Mandatory Water Conservation Procedures. All water users are instructed to reduce their water consumption and improve water use efficiency. Water supply conditions indicate a water shortage.

Customers are expected to use 25 percent less water in comparison to their previous month’s water bill as measured by the water meter. The following restrictions apply to the use of potable water: (1) landscape irrigation; (2) washing impervious surfaces such as driveways, sidewalks, patios, roads, or parking lots; (3) filling …

By Associated Press, originally posted on November 18, 2016

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Environmental groups will appeal a ruling that allows Nestle to pipe and bottle millions of gallons of water from the San Bernardino National Forest.

The San Bernardino Sun newspaper reported Thursday that three groups have given notice that they’ll appeal September’s federal ruling.

A U.S. Forest Service permit to remove the water expired in 1988. A judge found that the permit remains in force because Nestle had sought a permit renewal – even though the Forest Service never responded.

The Center for Biological Diversity and two other groups sued the government last year. They argue that with California suffering years of drought, the public water must be protected.

The groups have until May 1 to file the appeal.

Nestle spokesman Chris Rieck says the company would welcome an appellate review.

by Hayley Day, originally posted on November 30, 2016

 

When you live on an island, water has the potential to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

About 45 people listened to a public presentation on San Juan Islands’ water at noon, Monday, Nov. 14 at the San Juan Island Library.

Paul Kamin, chairman of the San Juan County Water Resource Management Committee, presented on island water sources, preservation, catchment systems and desalination for about an hour and 30 minutes, while fielding questions throughout. The meeting was presented by the League of Women Voters of the San Juans.

“We need to shift the culture to believe that water is for all of us,” said Kamin. “We need to work together as effectively as possible.”

Kamin explained that a recent Washington Supreme Court case ruled counties are responsible for ensuring there is enough water for new wells, before building permits are issued.

“It attracted our attention because it was the first time the county was responsible,” said Kamin. “We are moving to a more cautionary approach. There have already been discussions in San Juan County around this.”

In San Juan County, owners of new wells that are located 1,000 feet from shoreline are responsible for ensuring their wells do not deplete their neighbors’. The code helps to prevent seawater from leaking into aquifers that supply the well.

About 22 percent of island residences rely on private wells, and the rest use water systems regulated by the county or the state. In San Juan County, there are 5,000 wells — that’s one well for every three people, according to the Washington Department of Ecology.

Kamin said water on the island is replenished only by precipitation. Unlike on the mainland, water is not transported from different locations, like rivers, snow caps or aquifers that span through several states.

The island uses saved water from about May to September — when it’s the most populated and rainfall is the scarcest.

“A lot of the problems with water in the county is our proximity to the ocean,” said Kamin.

According to a 2001 study, only 10 percent of the annual rainfall in San Juan County becomes groundwater to be used by people. Most of the islands’ rainfall runs back into the ocean, instead of into the ground like on the mainland. In Skagit County, about 30 percent of the annual rainfall is used for “groundwater recharge,” said Kamin.

Lopez Island has the most groundwater and well problems because it has the lowest elevation, and therefore the least amount of precipitation.

“Despite all of these challenges, I’m going to be bullish and say we can meet our water needs,” said Kamin.

Kamin said that a 2006 study on the county proved that if every resident collected rainfall for water use, it would not decrease groundwater replenishment. Eventually, water collected from roofs and used in houses, would travel to households’ septic systems and back into the ground.

Of the 17 desalination systems in Washington that treat seawater for potable use, 15 are in the San Juan Islands because there are areas on the island without access to fresh water, said Kamin. Desalination removes minerals from salt water so it can be used by people. Shoreline property owners most commonly use desalination systems, which can require large amounts of energy, permits and funds.

Kamin said an average American uses 150 gallons of water a day.

“We are water pigs, us Americans,” said Kamin.

In Friday Harbor, residences use 110 gallons and in Eastsound, 87. Advances in low-flow appliances, like toilets and dishwashers, help to conserve water.

The LWV of the San Juans has held a position on freshwater issues since 1996 that includes promoting water conservation.

“Water issues are important because it is a limited resource and we need to know how to conserve it,” said LWV of the San Juans President Clare Kelm.

The next LWV of the San Juans members meeting will be a holiday luncheon at 11:30 a.m., Dec. 12 at Vinny’s Ristorante with Superintendent of the National Historic Park Elexis Fredy. The public is invited to every monthly LWV members meeting, but must reserve a spot and pay for themselves at the luncheon.