Meeting the World’s Food, Water, and Energy Needs: A Reason for Optimism.
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that we will need to increase world food production by 60-70% to feed 9 billion people.
To keep up with population-driven food needs there will need to be an over 19% increase in water consumed just for agriculture.
Recent growth in non-renewable consumption has been particularly noticeable in the developing world, with China – – getting most of its energy from non-renewable sources.
Breakthroughs for water have come in three main areas: access, quality, and conservation.
Beyond health concerns around consumption, a lot of water worry centers around industrial production processes and “”—or goods that require a lot of water to be produced.
Food companies who rely on agriculture in their supply chain, such as , have moved production to less water scarce growing regions.
These companies have also invested time and effort in thinking about how to improve public policy around water management.
plans to grow to its reuse of sewage from 25% to 80% in the next 10 years.
Though the – China, the U.S., and India –still rely on and will rely on non-renewable sources to provide power for their economies for many decades into the future but the renewables are going to be an important part of the energy mix of the future.

by Andrea Castillo, originally posted on December 27, 2016

 

Tulare County officials are urging East Porterville residents to opt into the city’s water system for free before the extended deadline of March 1.

For some, it’s not much of a choice. Those with dry wells are advised that if they choose not to participate, their property will be in violation of health and safety laws and subject to enforcement, including marking their homes as uninhabitable.

About 60 percent of those eligible for the relief have agreed to connect to the city of Porterville’s water system. But county officials say that’s not enough.

“We did not get as many signups for connections as we had hoped,” said county spokeswoman Carrie Crane. The original deadline was September, but Crane said that the lack of signups, plus delays in construction of a new city well, caused them to move the deadline.

With no central water system, families in the town of about 7,500 have relied on shallow private wells, which started drying up after the nearby Tule River stopped flowing. Rain and snowmelt usually replenish water below the ground, but 2013 and beyond saw many rainless months.

At the height of the drought in 2015, nearly half of East Porterville residents had dry wells. Tulare County began supplying 2,500-gallon water tanks, towering black plastic jugs that take up most of the front yard at some residences and carry nondrinkable water so people could shower and wash dishes again.

Not everyone who needs a tank has one, as demand outpaced supply. Some people survived without running water for months or longer. Many in the farmworker community can’t afford to drill deeper wells, which can cost as much as the median family income of $30,000.

Last summer, The Bee found that the drought had led to a growing health crisis in East Porterville, one of the first communities to go dry in 2014. The town’s problems already include air pollution, water contamination and poverty. Drought upped the burden for sick residents, worsened respiratory conditions, and elevated stress and other mental conditions.

Then the state stepped in. The first East Porterville home was connected to the city’s water system in August. State officials hope to add more than 1,100 homes before the end of 2018.

The California Department of Water Resources is paying for the program. Hookup costs can be as much as $10,000 per home, but the hookup service is free to East Porterville residents.

Porterville residents pay $54 a month for water, on average, which is what East Porterville residents likely will pay.

Steve Doe, East Porterville water supply program manager for DWR, estimates the state will pay $45 million that will cover the cost of three new city wells, a 1.2 million-gallon water storage tank, 14 miles of pipeline, 300 fire hydrants and other infrastructure.

Agreeing to get connected requires residents to complete three steps:

▪ Complete a consent form.

▪ Complete an extra-territorial service agreement (which means they agree to someday be annexed into the city).

▪ Open a utility account with the city.

Doe said 678 people have given their consent, while 59 have declined to connect. Less than half have completed the third step, and just 58 homes are now receiving water from the city, he said.

Doe said the program gives priority to the 322 homes with dry wells first. But he said some of those residents either haven’t submitted their consent form or have declined to participate. He and county officials warn that choosing not to connect to the city’s water system will result in having the water tanks, which were billed as an interim solution, removed and emergency bottled water shipments ended.

“Once the county takes the tank away, those residences will be tagged as uninhabitable,” Doe said.

He said the county and affiliated nonprofits have sent letters and held educational forums to warn residents of the implications. Anyone who chooses to connect to the city’s water system after the March 1 deadline will have to pay the hookup fees.

One East Porterville resident who won’t connect is Donna Johnson. She was the first to alert county officials of the growing number of well failures in 2014. Since then, she has delivered water to her neighbors and advocated on their behalf with county and state leaders.

But Johnson moved to a 1.5-acre plot in East Porterville 30 years ago to get away from city noise and city fees, and to enjoy the quiet of the country with her husband and two horses. After her well went dry in 2014, she received an $11,500 loan to drill it to 150 feet, which supplies her with water.

She said it doesn’t make sense to connect to the city’s water system if she still has a loan to pay.

“I feel caught between a rock and a hard place,” she said. “I’m grateful for what they’re doing for the people that really need it, but I’m just a Kansas farm girl in the state of California. I’m not a city person.”

Radical increase in water and sanitation investment required to meet development targets.
"Today, almost two billion people use a source of drinking-water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio," says Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health.
The report stresses 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 and increase efforts to identify new sources of funding.
Yet, 80% 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 SDG targets, which aim for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services by 2030.
In order to meet the SDG global targets, the World Bank estimates investments in infrastructure need to triple to US $114 billion per year – a figure which does not include operating and maintenance costs.
Additional Findings: Official development assistance (ODA) disbursements for water and sanitation are increasing, but future investments are uncertain.
However, aid commitments for water and sanitation have declined since 2012 from US$ 10.4 billion to US$ 8.2 billion in 2015.
Considering the greater needs to make progress towards universal access to safely managed WASH services under the SDG targets, the possibility of future reductions in aid disbursements is at odds with global aspirations.
Safe drinking-water and sanitation are crucial to human welfare, by supporting health and livelihoods and helping to create healthy environments.

originally posted on December 29, 2016

 

Abuja – The Federal Government has advised Nigerians who drink borehole water to test the quality regularly to reduce its negative impact.

Mrs Elizabeth Ugoh, the Deputy Director, Water Quality Control and Sanitation, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, stated this in Abuja on Thursday.

She said the ministry was working with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), to enforce the National Standard for Drinking Water Quality toward ensuring the quality of water being supplied to the public.

“The ministry is calling on all Nigerians drinking water from borehole and other sources to regularly test their water in laboratories across the country to reduce consuming unwholesome water.

“We are also calling on borehole drillers to abide by the National Drilling Code of Practice”, she added.

According to her, six new laboratories are being constructed in the six geo-political zones by the Federal Government to improve water quality and standard in the country.

Ugoh said that the six existing laboratories were inadequate due to the country’s large population.

“We have six operational laboratories; we are building additional six now.

“Our target is that each state will have one, so that all together, we will have 37 laboratories in the whole federation.

“In order to ascertain the quality of water consumed by the people, the need for more laboratories cannot be over emphasised.

“The laboratories take care of the chemical side of testing for water, the micro-biological side where the pathogens that cause diseases are discovered.

“When the physical aspects of water have been sorted out, the chemical aspect of it has to be taken care of by the laboratories”, she stressed.

The deputy director said when quality potable water is made available, most water-borne diseases would be reduced, saying they accounted for majority of tropical diseases in the country.

“Seventy per cent of tropical diseases are water-borne.

“If we provide potable water, all occurrences of water-borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, diarrhoea, and scabies will be non-existent.’’

She, however, said that people could prevent the diseases by using test kits to test for iron, magnesium and other essential elements.

The deputy director maintained that laboratories were necessary for more thorough tests on water for consumption.

She said it was a matter for regret that diarrhoea alone kills no fewer than 150,000 under-five children annually.

According to her, diarrhoea is responsible for one-quarter of all child deaths for the poorest Nigerians as this requires collective efforts to tackle.

“We are testing villages under our comprehensive Rural Water Surveillance Programme, for now, we are supplying the kits, we believe one day it will be available everywhere’’, she said.

On guidelines for drinking water quality, Ugoh explained that WHO has the sole responsibility of providing guidelines.

She, however, stated that the ministry had a National Drinking Water Standard already in place.

To this end, she noted that the ministry was working with all stakeholders to strengthen river basins across the country to increase access to potable water for the populace.

originally posted on December 30, 2016

 

MAMOUTZOU, France – The Indian Ocean island of Mayotte has been forced to impose severe water restrictions on tens of thousands of people due to the late arrival of seasonal rains.

Around a third of the 200,000 residents on the island, which is administered by France, have seen their access to piped water at home cut to one day in three.

Hotels, an important part of the local economy, have been told not to fill up their swimming pools and many are having to hand out bottled water to customers.

Local officials met on Wednesday and decided to extend the measures until the end of January when rains are forecast to arrive and replenish the island’s two dwindling reservoirs.

“This is a crisis situation,” local official Florence Ghilbert-Bezard told AFP, adding that the restrictions were necessary “to maintain our resources at any cost until the start of the rainy season.”

The drought has exacerbated Mayotte’s water problems. The island’s resources were already under pressure from a rising local population which saw water consumption jump by 9.7 percent in 2016.

Low-lying island nations have lobbied hard for global efforts to combat climate change, arguing that they are the most vulnerable to extreme weather events such as drought, as well as rising sea levels./rga

by Lisa Barrington, originally posted on December 29, 2016

 

Four million people in Damascus have been without safe drinking water supplies for more than a week after springs outside the Syrian capital were deliberately targeted, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Water supplies from the Wadi Barada and Ain al-Fija springs which serve 70 percent of Damascus and its surroundings had been cut, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

OCHA said in a statement that supplies had been cut because “infrastructure was deliberately targeted and damaged”, without saying who was responsible.

The Wadi Barada valley is a rebel-held pocket of territory northwest of Damascus that the Syrian army and its allies have been trying to recapture in an offensive that started last week.

A resident and rebels in the area said air strikes had damaged a water pumping station. The government accused rebels of polluting the springs with diesel, forcing authorities to cut the supplies on Friday and use reserves instead.

A Damascus resident said each neighborhood only gets water for about two hours a day and bottled water prices had increased dramatically on the open market to more than double the cost at state-subsidised grocery stores.

“The U.N. is concerned the water cut could lead to diseases transmitted through dirty water, especially in children, in addition to the extra financial burden for families,” OCHA said.

“(People) are having to purchase water from private vendors, where prices and water quality are unregulated,” it said.

Wadi Barada lies on a road from Damascus to the Lebanese border that is a supply line for the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, which is heavily involved in fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army.

Government forces have been bombing the area heavily for a week, though the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there was a lull on Thursday before the air strikes resumed.

The rebels in Wadi Barada have allowed government water authority engineers to maintain and operate the pumping station and supply Damascus since they took control of the area in 2012.

Fighters have, however, cut water supplies several times in the past to put pressure on the army not to overrun the area.

The U.N. called on all sides to reach a peaceful settlement to reduce civilian suffering and avoid targeting infrastructure.

OCHA said 15 million people needed help accessing water across Syria after nearly six years of conflict and households were spending up to a quarter of their income on water.

by Alton Mitchell, originally posted on January 11, 2017

 

LaFayette’s bi-weekly city council meetings often serve as very informative sessions for what is going on at the local government level of LaFayette. However it also offers a platform for local residents to express concerns to the community’s local officials. On Monday evening one LaFayette residents brought a list of his concerns before the city council and brought light to some issues that have plagued LaFayette residents.

Randy Talley of LaFayette came to the city council meeting with a list of issues he felt were facing the city as a resident. One of the greatest issues was the city of LaFayette’s water system. The issues dealt mainly with the issues of the aging system and leaks within the water system.

In one statement Mr. Talley stated that, “the city park should not be a priority over the safety of local water.” Council member Matthew Hurst seemed to understand where the concerns of Mr. Talley where coming from. Councilman Hurst acknowledged that he is ecstatic about the new park, and that it is time to address the issues associated with local water. Those actions came shortly after Councilman Hurst stated that he had received images from local citizens with photos of the quality of water in the city.

Mr. Talley requested that city officials in LaFayette look into alternatives for improving the aging water system to LaFayette to include the possibility of obtaining new grants. Those grants would be used to improve the water system.
Prior to the meeting closing LaFayette City Clerk Louis T. Davidson gave a status update on some of the actions that city officials have taken to improve local water supply systems. Mr. Davidson advised that the city had completed phase one of a water project in the city that came with a $90,000 grant. That grant money was used to replace some of the water lines around the city.

According to Davidson the city was looking to start phase two of those water improvements as well with a second grant. However word was just received that the second grant had been denied and city officials just received word of that denial within the past month. It had been in a hold period for nearly 8 months before they got word that LaFayette had not been awarded the grant. The city is now exploring other options for making those improvements.

Mayor Moody and council members agreed that they would look at the concerns associated with the water situation in upcoming work sessions. In those sessions the local officials will look for the best remedy to the problem that has been addressed to them.

In additions to his concerns about the water leaks and LaFayette water system Mr. Talley also brought up a safety concern that he and other residents had observed in the city of LaFayette. This was a needed extension of city sidewalks near Highway 77 and U.S. Highway 431 in LaFayette. Mr. Talley expressed his concerns with safety in the area as the area is one that is difficult for pedestrians to travel through including mothers with baby strollers. “I’m pleading on the issue of safety not cosmetics for this sidewalk,” Mr. Talley stated to council. Council members agreed to look at his concerns more deeply during their upcoming work sessions.

Mr. Talley brought up an issue that did relate to the cosmetics of LaFayette in another complaint. The complaint concerned the placement of political signs on local utility poles around LaFayette. Mr. Talley came in with the request to ask LaFaytte officials to look more closely at policies for political signage being placed on local poles. He advised that some surrounding municipalities such as Auburn and Opelika fine individuals for placing these signs on poles.

In a final complaint before council Mr. Talley brought a complaint to the attention of council that council has previously discussed and sought a remedy to. Mr. Talley was concerned with the intersection of 1st Avenue Southeast near the County Courthouse. That intersection was previously a one way street, but when repaving occurred last year it was opened up to two way traffic since that point there have been accidents and near misses at the intersection.

The previous city council was taking a look at concerns with the intersection and possible solutions to traffic concerns and residents making an illegal left turn at the intersection. Council members thanked Mr. Talley for bringing his concerns before them and advised that they would be looking into issues in their work sessions.

by Natalie Brandt, originally posted on January 11, 2017

 

The Chamberlain City meeting started with City Engineer Greg Powell presenting the water/ wastewater annual rate increase to the board. In 2003, City adopted a policty that the rate would increase 3 percent annually. State auditors recommended that the City pass a motion endorsing that increase annually, to keep the City eligible for water agreements. The board approved the 2017 rates as $24.20 for 3,000 gallons of water for residential customers, and $25.70 for commercial customers. One flat rate of $31.50 will apply to all customers for sewer service.

Take a hike

by Nat Stein, originally posted on January 11, 2017

 

‘It’s amazing, really, how it worked out,” says Roy Heald.

Heald, general manager of the Security Water and Sanitation District (SWSD), is referring to perhaps the only piece of good news in the ongoing story of water contamination in communities south of Colorado Springs.

“We got into planning [the Southern Delivery System] two decades ago for redundancy, thinking we’d use it if anything happened, and then it comes online not three weeks before we really needed it,” he says.

In May, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a health advisory lowering what’s considered a safe amount of perfluorinated chemicals — a highly prevalent but unregulated toxin that’s been linked to low birth weights, heart disease and cancer. Wells drawing from the Widefield aquifer, which supplies around 80,000 people’s drinking water, then tested at nearly 20 times the EPA’s recommended threshold in some cases.

Right away, SWSD took mitigating steps by instigating watering restrictions, fast-tracking an infrastructure project to boost connectivity between service areas and negotiating more access to surface water through the newly operational SDS pipeline. By September, all groundwater wells were shut off. But all that came at a price.

“The exact cost is hard to pin down at this point because we’ve still got bills coming in,” Heald says, “but yeah, this was a huge unanticipated expense.” To get an idea, consider groundwater typically accounts for half the district’s total water supply. Forgoing cheap groundwater in favor of more expensive surface water, even if just for the last four months of the year, cost SWSD around $1 million in 2016, when it expected to spend $100,000. The district has deferred other capital projects, prioritized new ones and diminished its cash reserve, meaning it needs money.

But from whom?

At the very least, the Security, Widefield and Fountain water districts are all expecting some portion of the $4.3 million the Air Force pledged over the summer after Peterson Air Force Base admitted a chemical-laden fire retardant used for decades on base could be the source of contamination.

Air Force spokesman Steve Brady gave the Indy a rundown of how the money’s being spent: Homes on private well water will get reverse osmosis systems installed; NORAD and Security Mobile Home Parks will get granular activated carbon systems, as will Stratmoor Hills, Fountain and Widefield public water systems; First United Pentecostal Church will tap into Security water; SWSD will construct new piping to hook into Colorado Springs Utilities; the Fountain Valley Shopping Center, private homes that don’t agree to take ownership of a filtration system once installed and the Venetucci farmhouse will continue getting bottled water.

The Air Force’s pledge has been messaged as a “good neighbor” gesture and not a signal of responsibility, meaning that for now, available funds are finite. The Air Force Civil Engineer Center is working to confirm or deny the possibility that contaminants came from Peterson Air Force Base while public health officials (and private litigants) continue to investigate other possible polluters.

A damning outcome of those inquiries could warrant additional compensation, but until then, affected parties will have to just deal on their own.

“I know we’ll get some share of that $4.3 million, but whatever it is won’t be enough to cover our costs,” says Heald, whose district hasn’t received a check from the Air Force yet. “There could be grants available at the state level, but those are in the thousands or tens of thousands range. We’re looking at millions. I’ve talked to our congressional representatives but I don’t know about federal sources. Maybe folks will have other ideas, because whatever the source, our ratepayers didn’t cause this so they shouldn’t have to pay for it.”

Security residents will start seeing higher water bills immediately. Rates were already scheduled to rise in 2017 before this situation arose, but now the hike could be steeper. Unless some new windfall comes through before the next rate study gets underway in the fall, you can guess what direction rates will continue to go. Still, a typical water bill in Security during 2016 was $36 —about half of a typical Colorado Springs bill.

Fountain is in a similar, though not identical, position. “We don’t need to use groundwater in the wintertime — that’s been the standard for years,” Utilities Director Curtis Mitchell tells the Indy, explaining that groundwater only ever flowed through taps during peak demand over the summer. Ahead of that time this year, Mitchell has negotiated extra surface water through a capacity swap with Colorado Springs Utilities. Groundwater will only enter the equation once filtration systems are installed and working reliably.

Widefield has been off well water since November, according to department manager Brandon Bernard, who says four pilot projects are underway to find the best technology for filtering out PFCs. He’s aiming to get a small treatment facility built by May and another, bigger one “in the near future.” (Because Widefield isn’t an SDS partner, it has limited surface water, hence the primary focus is on treating well water.)

“All of the capital costs to pilot and build the treatment will be taken from cash reserves,” Bernard wrote by email. “The only costs the customers will incur through rates will be to cover operation and maintenance of these facilities. … We aren’t sure how much of the $4.3 million is portioned for WWSD and have not heard when we will receive it.”

Fountain and Security‘s increased reliance on SDS may cost their customers, but it provides some relief to Colorado Springs — primary investor, owner and operator of the $825 million pipeline. As partners, Fountain and Security already contributed their share of construction costs, but moving more water through it offsets operational costs.

“We’re running at really low levels right now, so there’s plenty of room in the pipe for our partners,” says Colorado Springs Utilities spokesman Steve Berry. “The bottom line is we’re one big community here in El Paso County, so we’re happy to be flexible for them, but it also takes some of the financial burden [of running SDS] off our customers.”

The costs of getting SDS up and running have been factored into CSU’s rates over the past five years, Berry says, so Phase 1 is pretty much paid for. Phase 2, including new storage construction and reservoir resurfacing, has yet to be reflected in customers’ water bills. Other capital improvement projects like maintaining aging pipes elsewhere in CSU’s raw water system, replacing main lines under downtown and modernizing storage tanks and treatment facilities are coming later.

So whatever reprieve Colorado Springs water users get will be overshadowed by other expenses. “Unfortunately, base rates typically don’t go down — they either stay constant or they increase,” says Berry, who emphasizes that partners’ usage won’t compromise CSU’s access to water. CSU still has precious “first-use” water rights and plenty of redundancy built into its overall system. “But to have a high-quality, reliable water source requires a hefty investment,” Berry adds.

Reliable is the key word there, as demonstrated by the crises playing out in Security, Widefield and Fountain, and communities across the country where drinking water is compromised. Part of the trend is having better detection instruments and part is better science showing potential harm, Heald observes. But, he says, what remains constant is America’s “leap before you look” approach to regulating toxins in our environment — chemicals get introduced to the market before anyone really knows what risk they pose.

Heald offers this summation: “You don’t know what you don’t know, but when you do know, you know it’s going to cost more.”

originally posted on January 9, 2017