More than 400 California communities have drinking water that does not meet safe standards, says the State Water Resources Control Board.

by Joe Kukura, February 09, 2017

The drinking water crisis of Flint, Michigan may be happening again, right here in California. That’s the assessment of the State Water Resources Control Board, who note that approximately 400 communities in California have water that does not meet safe drinking standards.

At a Wednesday, February 8 public workshop, the board showed analarming map of all of the California towns whose drinking water may be unsafe. Most of these communities are located in the central valley of California, but the central coast and southern California are also affected.

“Many drinking water systems in the state consistently fail to provide affordable, safe drinking water to their customers,” the State Water Board said in a release. “Lack of safe drinking water is a problem that disproportionately affects residents of California’s disadvantaged communities. The State Water Board has previously estimated that roughly 400 disadvantaged communities in the state receive water from a public water system that does not meet drinking water standards.”

California does have some lead contamination, though. A Reuters investigation published in December found that children in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood tested with higher levels of lead exposure than children in Flint.

by Ronron Calunsod, originally posted on February 09, 2017

MANILA – The water security threat in the Philippines has assumed alarming proportions because of mismanagement, misuse and the impact of climate change, officials from government, international aid agencies and other stakeholders said Wednesday.

Speaking at a forum on Water Security and Climate Change organized by the U.S. Agency International Development, Sen. Loren Legarda cited a 2015 study that showed the Philippines will likely experience a severe water shortage by 2040 due to the combined impact of rapid population growth and climate change.

“We’re already experiencing severe water shortage. I would like to ring the alarm bell closer to 2017 than 2040,” said Legarda, who chairs the Philippine Senate’s Committee on Climate Change.

Mona Grieser, the lead implementer of a USAID project in the Philippines called “Water Security for Resilient Economic Growth and Stability,” echoed Legarda’s concern, saying, “Yes, there is a certain cause for alarm, obviously.”

“We know that the forecast for climate change has certain parts of the Philippine to be having major water scarcity. And we’ve already seen that in El Nino years, and even in years where we don’t have El Nino,” she said, referring to a complex meteorological phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean that manifests as a drought in the Philippines.

Grieser, whose four-year project ends in April, noted how a number of cities, including Zamboanga on the southern island of Mindanao and Cebu and Iloilo in the Visayas islands of the central Philippines have in recent years resorted to water rationing.

Clay Epperson, deputy head of USAID Philippines, said projections for 2025 indicate that two-thirds of the world population “could be living in severe water stress conditions.”

“These are unusual times, so we’re preparing for them,” Grieser told Kyodo News, citing her project’s accomplishments of improving access to drinking water for some 1.5 million Filipinos and access to sanitation for close to a million others, as well as related efforts of the Japan International Cooperation Agency in the country.

Legarda cited figures that more than 3 million families in the country of 104 million people still have no access to safe water, as is also the case for 337 municipalities in its 10 poorest provinces.

“But water security is not only about the provision of sufficient water for the needs of our people and our economic activities,” the senator said. “It is also about having healthy ecosystems and building resilience to water-related disasters, including storms, floods and droughts.”

“In the context of climate change, water management is very crucial…Water stress, amplified by climate change, will create a growing security challenge,” she warned.

Echoing proposals of stakeholders to reduce water leakage and improve conservation measures, especially in households, Grieser also underscored the need to improve the country’s forests and watersheds.

Amid the overlapping mandates and conflicting programs of more than 30 water agencies in the country, and inadequate enforcement of environmental laws, Legarda trumpeted the “need to have a national center for water to coordinate everyone’s efforts.”

She said there is also a need to establish “a steering committee for planning collaborative workshops towards a comprehensive roadmap for water security.”

“All these issues and recommendations will be discussed in a National Water Summit hopefully that will happen this year. The main goal is to create an Integrated Water Resource Management Framework, as well as short-term, medium-term, and long-term strategies and programs for the National Masterplan for Water,” Legarda said.

“Let us not wait for the well to be dry before we act, because by then it would have already been too late,” she said.

by Hope Ford, originally posted on February 04, 2017

CHAPEL HILL, NC – At least 80,000 people in Orange County are affected by a water shortage. Orange County officials said a ruptured water main in Chapel Hill caused supply issues Friday morning.

Authorities in Orange County said Saturday afternoon that water is now safe for drinking and other uses, but customers should limit the use because supplies are still low.

“(Officials) tested samples from across the service area to ensure the water is safe for public consumption,” Orange County Health Director Colleen Bridger said in a statement.

“All of the tests came back safe earlier this afternoon. In light of these results, Orange County Health Department is rescinding the do not use order. Restaurants and hotels are free to re-open. However, we encourage our residents to continue to practice water conservation strategies until OWASA’s storage has been replenished to normal levels.”

Despite the all clear for nearly all areas, officials said that residents in the Foxcroft Drive area are under a boil water advisory due to a broken water main. Residents will be notified when this precaution is no longer needed, officials said.

The boil water area includes 250 residents at the Midtown 501 apartments, officials said Saturday afternoon.

“Affected customers will be receiving a notice advising them to boil water before consuming it until we can confirm that the water quality is acceptable,” said Ed Kerwin, OWASA Executive Director. “We will know by 7 a.m. Sunday morning if the boil water advisory can be rescinded.”

Saturday morning residents were flocking to distribution sites for bottled water to help them through the crisis, which canceled schools Friday and even postponed a Saturday UNC Chapel Hill college basketball game.

The water distribution site McDougle Elementary ran out of supplies in just two hours Saturday morning.

Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger and Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle issued states of emergency for their towns on Friday.

On Saturday, authorities released a lengthy explanation of two incidents that combined to create the crisis.

The problems began Thursday when too much fluoride was pumped into an Orange County Water and Sewer Authority on-site tank, officials said in the statement.

“We immediately shut down water distribution from the water treatment plant, containing the fluoride overfeed at the plant,” officials said.

Orange County then began receiving water from Durham through a pipeline and called for conservation efforts.

Then, on Friday morning, a major water line broke and was not repaired until around noon.

The incident happened on the northeast side of Chapel Hill near Foxcroft Apartments, which was very close to the pipeline from  Durham.

At 2:15 p.m. Friday, the Orange County Health Department issued a notice directing residents not to use the water.

During this incident on Friday fire protection was not affected, authorities said.

Officials managed to open a water connection with Chatham County on Friday afternoon, which helped bring in at least 200,000 more gallons per day.

These are the water distribution areas open Saturday:

Town of Chapel Hill’s Southern Community Park – 1000 Sumac Road

Hargraves Community Center – 216 N Roberson Street

McDougal Elementary School — 890 Old Fayetteville Road

Carrboro High School — 201 Rock Haven Road

originally posted on February 04, 2017

The men’s basketball game between No. 12 North Carolina and No. 20 Notre Dame scheduled for Saturday in Chapel Hill has been postponed a day and moved to Greensboro, N.C., because of a water shortage.

In a news release, UNC said the game — originally scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday at the Smith Center — would be played at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Greensboro Coliseum.

The postponement comes after the water system supplying the Chapel Hill campus and surrounding area instructed its 20,000 customers not to drink or use the water because of critically low supplies brought on by a water-main break and the shutdown of a treatment plant. Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger has declared a state of emergency, while the school canceled classes Friday afternoon as well as the pregame news conference for Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams.

In an email to the Associated Press, UNC spokesman Steve Kirschner said the Tar Heels would spend the night in nearby Durham — home to rival Duke.

Notre Dame spokesman Alan Wasielewski said the team was originally going to fly in late Friday afternoon. Now the Fighting Irish will fly down Saturday morning to Raleigh and then take a bus for the roughly 65-mile drive to Greensboro.

originally posted on February 06, 2017

The community of Westhoek, in the Elundini Local Municipality, is forced to walk three kilometres every day to access drinking water, which is nothing more than a river, which horses and cattle drink from too, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Eastern Cape said on Monday.

“This is a tragic reality for an entire community, at the hands of an uncaring ANC government, denying them access to running water,” said Kekeletso Mahlelebe, a DA Councillor in  the Elundini Local Municipality.

“African National Congress (ANC) promises before every election, to provide water, are always broken and expose the ANC as a party of broken promises.

“The community does not just lack running water; but electricity and safe roads, a community hall, as well as basic recreational opportunities that other villages have.”

Mahlelebe added that “competent and caring” councillors are central to making municipalities work, “but ANC Councillors in this area are nowhere to be seen – in fact, the ANC councillor has not visited the community since the 2016 elections”.

She said that the DA will therefore write to Eastern Cape MECs of Health, Cooperate Governance and Traditional Affairs, Transport, Safety and Liaison, Pumza Dyantyi, Fikile Xasa, and Weziwe Tikana respectively, to visit the community urgently, and direct the Elundini Municipality to address this dire situation.

“The DA will keep working towards protecting the dignity of all South Africans and allow them to live the lives they deserve.

“We expect that the Eastern Cape provincial government will step in where the local municipality has dismally failed,” said Mahlelebe.

Two billion people drinking contaminated water: WHO.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on 13 April 2017 published a report, Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2017, that states that nearly two billion people currently use contaminated water.
The revelation was by made in the new report published by WHO on behalf of UN-Water.
Key highlights of the report • The report states that countries will not meet global aspirations of universal access to safe drinking-water and sanitation unless steps are taken to use financial resources more efficiently.
• Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause more than 500000 diarrhoeal deaths each year.
• Contaminated water is also a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis and trachoma.
• As per the report, countries have increased their budgets for water, sanitation and hygiene at an annual average rate of 4.9 per cent over the last three years.
• However, 80 per cent of countries report that Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) financing is still insufficient to meet nationally-defined targets for WASH services.
• Planned investments have yet to take into account the much more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals targets, which aim for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services by 2030.
• Water and sanitation official development assistance disbursements increased from USD 6.3 to USD 7.4 billion from 2012 to 2015.

originally posted on  February 03, 2017

Beirut (AFP) – Water to the Islamic State group’s Syrian bastion of Raqa has been cut after suspected coalition raids on the city’s main pipeline, a monitor and activists told AFP on Friday.

“After coalition air strikes, the main water line was ruptured and water was cut to all of Raqa city,” said Hamoud al-Mousa of the Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently activist collective.

His group said the overnight strikes hit several bridges in the north of Raqa, including one known as the Old Bridge.

Mousa said a pipeline running along the Old Bridge into Raqa — the only way residents could get water — had been destroyed.

“People were heading to the river at dawn today to get water,” Mousa told AFP.

Raqa, 90 kilometres (less than 60 miles) south of the Turkish border, is IS’s de facto capital in Syria and remains home to more than 300,000 people.

The city and surrounding province have been battered by air strikes carried out by the US-led coalition fighting IS and by Russia, a key ally of Syria’s government.

The coalition raids are backing an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters who launched a major offensive against Raqa in November.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed water to Raqa had been cut after “probable” coalition raids.

“Air strikes on the city destroyed a huge water pipe. It’s almost certain they were coalition raids,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

by Vanessa Vasconcelos, originally posted on February 02, 2017

It took nearly 3 hours to shut off water spewing from a water main break in Northwest Fresno. Before 5:00 Thursday morning an AT&T crew was repairing damage to a utility pole when they hit a water main.

Sierra and San Pablo may be where the problem erupted but it trickled to dozens of homes.

“It wasn’t like off, it’s just the water pressure was really low and so we like couldn’t wash clothes or anything,” said Cori Butler, neighbor.

Butler is thankful she and her children took care of their morning routine, including showers, the night before.

In order to allow city crews to patch and repair the water main– seven other homes had a complete shut off. Water district officials said getting it shut off was their biggest challenge.

“That’s because of the valves being an old county district. The valves are in bad shape, sometimes they don’t hold sometimes, they get covered and their hard to find,” said Bud Tickel, City of Fresno Water Division.

This mop up was no easy task; at one point the water was so high it covered this half of the street.

The problem stemmed from a car chase Wednesday night, not involving police. A driver sped into the neighborhood jumping the curb hitting the utility pole. While working to repair the pole AT&T hit the water main line.

Ishsha Garza did not just wake up to the sounds of gushing water.

“I just heard a bunch of noise. I looked out the window and there was a big– it looked like if it was a storm, I thought it was raining.”

Garza was the one who called 911 when the car plowed into the utility pole In front of her house. The water gushing feet away, got into her car, and though she was thankful they finally shut it off, it also affecting her day.

“It does impact your day, like having to brush your teeth you know, do what you have to do in the morning.”

I reached out to AT&T for comment and they referred me to the following statement.

“We are committed to ensuring repair work is completed with the least amount of disruption possible. In this case, our team inadvertently damaged a water line while repairing facilities damaged by a traffic accident. We worked with the utility company to quickly resolve the issue. We apologize for this inconvenience.”

They have yet to comment whether the water line was marked.

The water supply to the Syrian city of Raqqa, a stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) group, has been reconnected after US airstrikes caused a temporary cut.

originally posted on February 03, 2017

The main pipeline was damaged when a bridge was hit, according to IS and anti-IS activists.

Citizen journalist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently confirmed, on Friday, that IS has mended the pipe.

Syrian rebels backed by the US-led coalition are trying to capture Raqqa.

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said the strikes had targeted local infrastructure.

originally posted on November 30, 2016

Up to 500,000 civilians in Mosul face a “catastrophic” drinking water shortage as Iraqi forces advance in the city, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.

“Nearly half a million civilians, already struggling to feed themselves day to day, are now without access to clean drinking water. The impact on children, women and families will be catastrophic,” said Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq.

Operations to retake Iraq’s second city have damaged water pipes in recent days and residents in east Mosul say they have resorted to pumping water from wells.

Iraqi commanders said around 40 percent of the eastern half of Mosul has been retaken from the Takfiris since a huge operation began on October 17.

The forces have told civilians to stay at home in order to avoid massive displacement from the city, which was believed to have a population of a million-plus before the operation started.