On The Navajo Nation, Special Ed Students Await Water That Doesn’t Stink

Woodie, who also works at Saint Michael’s, says the only problem with the school is its water.
Many of the kids at Saint Michael’s are medically fragile.
And at some of the places that do, like Saint Michael’s, people don’t want to drink it because it smells, tastes funny and looks bad.
In another classroom, volunteer Jacob Lundy helps two young girls with autism wash their hands at the sink.
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority tests the water at Saint Michael’s monthly and says it meets national primary drinking water standards.
"People typically won’t drink water if it tastes bad or if it looks bad or if it stinks," says Adam Bringhurst, who studies water resources at Northern Arizona University.
But those secondary standards are still very important, he says.
George McGraw, Dig Deep’s founder and executive director, is especially concerned for the disabled kids.
And what’s more basic than having access to clean running water?"
It will be something kids and staff actually want to drink.

CASE STUDY: Designing a reverse osmosis system for real conditions

Experts from the company presented the latest results – allowing an even better description of the separation behavior of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes under realistic application conditions – at the 3rd International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology, on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria from April 2-5, 2017.
Understanding complex correlations The behavior of RO membranes is determined under realistic service conditions by a large number of parameters.
In practice, not only the common salt normally used in tests is dissolved in the feed, but other salts too.
The pH and the temperature of the salt solution have, for each salt or ion, an individual influence on the success of separation.
They are also noted for their high stability even in extreme pH and temperature ranges.
The separation behavior was examined both on isolated membranes and on complete reverse osmosis elements.
Response surfaces for many application scenarios The response surfaces derived from the test series describe the behavior of the membrane with regard to individual salts or ions over the entire pH and temperature range.
The results were completely different, for example, with boron, where, in addition to the pH dependence, there was also a marked dependence of rejection on temperature.
The results allow the parameters for RO elements to be specifically selected so that optimal separation results can be obtained for the respective application.
Detailed information on the products of the LANXESS LPT business unit can also be found there.

Kamstrup taps Neuron ESB to drive transformation and agility

Kamstrup taps Neuron ESB to drive transformation and agility.
Data islands are eliminated by modernizing Kamstrup’s existing point-to-point environment, facilitating reuse of data and functionality between applications.
"Kamstrup’s solutions are resonating in the market, demonstrated by its strong growth in revenue and employee count.
Neuron ESB aligns well with the global opportunity they are facing, helping poise the firm to play an even stronger role in the future of intelligent energy metering," said Marty Wasznicky, Vice President, Neuron ESB.
"All of the data communication is being handled by Neuron ESB, and we are well-positioned to fuel our vision for growth, internally and at our many projects and sites across the globe," said Frederiksen.
For more information, contact Neuron ESB sales at info@neuronesb.com.
About Neuron ESB Neuron ESB is an application, service and workflow integration platform that simplifies messaging, system integration and Web service enablement.
Neuron ESB has clients around the globe in a variety of industries.
To learn more, visit: www.neuronesb.com.
About Kamstrup Kamstrup A/S is a subsidiary of Danish energy company OK and a world-leading supplier of energy and water metering solutions.

What can we learn from Atlanta’s water challenges?

Atlanta faces many challenges and opportunities related to water infrastructure. These are problems that are (or are soon-to-be) common across American cities.

-Jenny Hoffner, originally posted on  

 

American Rivers believes all people should have access to safe, clean water and healthy rivers. To this end we are working nationally and regionally to advance integrated water management (IWM) approaches to ensure enough clean water, with a specific focus on Atlanta, GA; Harrisburg, PA; Raleigh/Durham, NC; Richmond/San Pablo, CA; Toledo, OH; Milwaukee, WI; and Tucson, AZ. We work with partners to advance IWM by advancing policy, providing technical support and convening water utility, city, and community leaders.

American Rivers was recently invited by the US Water Alliance and the Atlanta Regional Commission to share our take on critical water management challenges and opportunities in Atlanta that have national relevance. The way we see it, Atlanta’s primary challenges and opportunities are:

  1. Water sharing & governance
  2. Access to safe, affordable water
  3. Building all infrastructure as water infrastructure
  4. Multi-benefit infrastructure without displacement

Water Sharing & Governance

Communities across the country are challenged to manage water sustainably, economically and equitably. Within the context of the 27 year Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) water conflict (in the courts again as of last week) and another emerging drought, communities across Georgia are struggling with questions such as how to manage this finite resource in the face of uncertainty, climate change and increasing demands, How much water is enough for our communities, industries, and rivers given the likelihood of more frequent and intense drought and flood? How do we manage our rivers so that communities throughout the basin share water equitably, among stakeholders, and sustainably, with the resource itself in mind? These are very difficult, very big questions and thus far the answers have been elusive.

To develop answers that work for all stakeholders and the rivers, we need a number of things: we need better data, we need better management practices, we need state level policies and enforcement protective of river flows, but most of all we need a representative group of stakeholders to agree upon a clear framework for decision making and water sharing that will enable the sustainable management of this finite resource, a recommendation put forward by a group known as the ACF Stakeholders.

Access to Safe, Affordable Water

The Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis exposed the challenges that cities continue to face as they struggle to provide basic services, such as drinking water, to their citizens. The water crisis has also highlighted the challenges that low-income communities face as they attempt to have their voices heard on water infrastructure issues by decision-makers at the local, regional, and national level. With some of the highest wastewater and drinking water rates in the country, water affordability is a serious issue in Atlanta. The City of Atlanta has some good programs, namely Care and Conserve, which can serve as models for other cities. However, these high rates still serve as a disincentive to creating a stormwater utility, leaving the city with significant urban flooding and water quality issues without a revenue stream to address them. We need to find ways to make water infrastructure at the system level affordable by securing reliable revenue streams, while at the same time making sure that access to affordable, safe, clean water is available to all.

All Infrastructure is Water Infrastructure

Building all infrastructure as water infrastructure will be critical to effective water management and infrastructure affordability. Streets and highways can provide stormwater conveyance, treatment and infiltration as well as transportation corridors. Buildings can (and some already do) incorporate wastewater, stormwater, and drinking water infrastructure. As we look ahead in many cities, including Atlanta, to adding population and redeveloping our urban cores, we have an opportunity to incorporate water into all planning (transportation, public health, etc.) at all scales. We can transform linear processes that produce waste into loops that use waste products as resources – like the Emory Water Hub. We can keep the resource closer to its source helping to restore the natural hydrological cycle. Moreover, we can make infrastructure less costly overall by having all our infrastructure multi-task and provide more benefits.

Multi-benefit Infrastructure without Displacement

In our race, urgency and excitement to build the next generation of infrastructure, we must be careful not to make the same mistakes or commit the same injustices as in the past. In previous generations, the infrastructure of choice was the highway, or the stadium, or the public housing project. Today’s transition toward green infrastructure must be careful to avoid committing these same injustices.

One amazing accomplishment of Atlanta’s is the recently released Green Infrastructure Strategic Action Plan, which is moving green infrastructure forward across the city to address flooding and relieve capacity in combined sewer areas. As more green stormwater infrastructure is implemented across the city, communities will see improved quality of life in the form of increased greenspace, trees and stormwater management. As quality of life improves in low income and culturally diverse communities, there must be policies in place to address gentrification and displacement as property values rise. In Atlanta, equity is not built in to the process yet, this is a critical next step.

Pulling it together

Ensuring access to clean water and healthy rivers requires that we address water sharing and governance, access to safe and affordable water, building all infrastructure as water infrastructure, and multi-benefit infrastructure without displacement. Each of these issues has growing relevance in Atlanta and across the U.S.; each requires that we engage in solving our water challenges at multiple scales (neighborhood, city, watershed); and each requires engaging with diverse partners and forging unprecedented collaborations. Stay tuned for our At the Water’s Edge series of blogs expanding on each of these four issue areas.

Update: City of Nowata declares State of Emergency amid water outage

by Paris Burris, originally posted on November 24, 2016

 

UPDATE — Oklahoma officials have found no contaminants in water samples taken from the Verdigris River — the source of Nowata’s water supply — after an explosion at an upstream Kansas chemical plant.

Despite Thursday’s findings of samples taken Wednesday, Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Erin Hatfield said officials will continue to test more samples from the river.

Results from samples taken Thursday should be available Friday, she said.

In the meantime, Hatfield said the city couldn’t pull water from the river. Water was shut off to the city around 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

UPDATE — Nowata officials have declared a State of Emergency as the city’s drinkable water supply is expected to deplete Thursday afternoon.

 

Mayor David Lynn said safe tap water likely will run out sometime between 2-4 p.m., and bottled water is being handed out to residents.

 

The city’s water shut off about 12:30 a.m. while the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality conducts tests for possible contamination in the Verdigris River — Nowata’s water source — caused by a chemical plant explosion in Kansas.

 

The city had an estimated 10 hours worth of usable water, but Lynn said he’s been informed the outage would last a minimum of two days.

 

As a result, city officials declared the State of Emergency on Thursday morning in an effort to receive assistance from the state and the Red Cross.

 

“We’re trying to get all the aid we possibly can to make sure our citizens have safe water,” Lynn said.

 

Walmart also has donated over a thousand cases of bottled water to the Nowata community.

 

The results of the testing are expected to be announced Thursday.

 

The story below originally appeared in Thursday’s edition of the Tulsa World.

 

NOWATA — The city of Nowata’s water supply was scheduled to be shut off early Thursday due to possible contamination in the Verdigris River caused by a chemical plant explosion in Kansas.

 

The water was to be shut off around 12:30 a.m. Thursday, said Jeff Grissom, Nowata County emergency manager.

 

Nowata stopped pulling water from the Verdigris River on Wednesday afternoon as a precaution, said Erin Hatfield, Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman.

 

The city has about 10 hours worth of usable water in its storage tower, Hatfield said, and once that runs out, emergency management officials and the Oklahoma National Guard will provide bottled water and water tanks as needed.

 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials were also responding to the situation, Hatfield said.

 

The river runs through parts of southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma, through Lake Oologah and into the Arkansas River near Muskogee.

 

The Department of Environmental Quality is conducting tests to see what chemicals may be contaminating the water, but the contamination would be due to the Airosol chemical plant explosion in Neodesha, Kansas, on Tuesday, Grissom said.

 

The results of those tests won’t be available until Thursday, Hatfield said.

 

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued a do-not-drink order for Wilson County, Kansas, on Tuesday, saying “raw, untreated water is being pumped into the distribution system for fire suppression at the Airosol Company, Inc. plant.”

 

Officials said in a news release that the Kansas order will remain in effect until “conditions which place the system at risk of contamination are deemed by (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) officials to be adequately resolved.”

The City of Coffeyville, Kansas, declared a Stage 3 Water Emergency effective at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

 

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback issued a disaster declaration after the explosion, The Associated Press reported.

 

The declaration, announced Wednesday, allows the Kansas National Guard to respond, according to the AP.

 

To prevent contamination from substances used to fight the fire caused by the explosion, public water systems have been urged to close water intakes on the Verdigris River downstream from the plant.

 

The blast sent one employee to a hospital with burns that weren’t considered life-threatening, The Associated Press has reported.

 

The plant manufactures and packages aerosol, liquid and other specialty chemicals.

 

Market conditions account for at least 41 percent of wastewater disposal cutbacks from oil and gas production in a nearly two-year span, with regulatory actions comprising the rest, according to an ongoing study by an Oklahoma Geological Survey scientist.

 

The combination of the two factors has forced the industry to look elsewhere for more efficient fossil fuel operations, with the oil bust and regulatory cap limiting production in a 15,000-square-mile area rocked by induced seismicity.

 

Industry experts point to the “SCOOP” and “STACK” regions as the next development boom, with billions of dollars in the past couple of years poured into acquiring rights by a handful of companies. Those experts believe the state’s seismicity woes won’t tag along because of geographical differences in the producing formations, specifically minimal water coming up with oil and natural gas deposits.

 

Wastewater disposal volumes into the Arbuckle — the state’s deepest geologic formation — are a crucial component to evaluate because scientists point to it as the culprit behind Oklahoma’s seismic struggles.

 

Tim Baker, director of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Oil and Gas Division, said he isn’t aware of any permit applications for Arbuckle wells in the SCOOP and STACK plays because they are “much too expensive and unnecessary” for operations in those producing formations.

 

“We’re monitoring those developments, and we aren’t looking at any restrictions at this point in time,” Baker said.

 

The market-regulatory study

OGS hydrogeologist Kyle Murray recently told the Tulsa World that economic trends likely contributed to more than 41 percent to the decline of saltwater disposal volumes in the earthquake area of interest, pointing to the oil bust as the catalyst.

 

Oil prices plummeted seven months consecutively by more than $50 a barrel, from a high above $100 a barrel in June 2014 down to less than $50 a barrel in January 2015. A downward trend continued into 2016.

 

“I think if the (Oklahoma Corporation Commission) hadn’t done anything, the (disposal) volumes would have declined regardless,” Murray said.

 

The data cover October 2014 through August. The study is underwritten by a portion of Gov. Mary Fallin’s emergency cash infusion in January of nearly $1.4 million to help address induced seismicity.

 

The study is important because the state’s man-made earthquakes are tied to disposal well operators injecting tremendous volumes of wastewater into the Arbuckle, mostly from oil and gas activities in the Mississippi Lime play. The Arbuckle contacts and is in hydraulic communication with the state’s “basement” layer of crystalline rock. The basement contains faults that are critically stressed and optimally aligned for quakes.

 

Murray said that if the state is serious about managing induced seismicity, regulators must be plugged into market conditions and how industry reacts.

 

“I think they have to be prepared to act in the future and respond to not just earthquakes but to the price of oil and activity in terms of well drilling completion and projection,” Murray said of regulators. “They have to be nimble, able to follow the trends in the industry and anticipate where those disposal volumes may be able to creep up.”

 

That concept is a “common topic” at the Corporation Commission, Baker said, particularly discussing how the agency might respond to a dramatic increase in the price of oil.

 

The agency also is investigating opportunities for real-time data reporting, he said.

 

Oklahoma’s oil prospects

Industry experts tab the future of fossil fuel production in Oklahoma as in the SCOOP (South-Central Oklahoma Oil Province) and STACK (Sooner Trend Anadarko Canadian Kingfisher). The two shale plays predominantly stretch across several counties west and south of Oklahoma City.

 

The Mississippi Lime play, responsible for the vast amounts of wastewater linked to man-made quakes, generally is to the north and east of the upper reaches of the SCOOP and STACK.

Chad Warmington, president of the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association, called the SCOOP and STACK “world-class reservoirs” that weren’t discovered until about five years ago.

 

Warmington said four companies have invested $3.5 billion in the past two years simply obtaining acreage and rights to drill in the SCOOP and STACK. Those companies are Devon Energy, Newfield Exploration, Cimarex Energy and Marathon Oil, he said.

 

“They’ve got decades worth of production that they can get to,” Warmington said. “How fast they get to it is dependent on market price.”

 

The volumes produced water from the SCOOP and the STACK are “miniscule” compared to the Mississippi Lime play, Warmington said. So much so, he said, operators typically don’t use the Arbuckle to dispose of wastewater in those areas because they don’t need that formation’s huge porous capacity.

 

Another benefit, the produced water is less salty than the Mississippi Lime play, Warmington said. That means companies can reuse the wastewater in fracking and completion of wells to cut down on the need to purchase surface or stream water for those jobs, he said.

 

“That’s a really exciting play for Oklahoma, but for that I think we would be in some pretty significantly dire economic consequences,” Warmington said.

 

Kim Hatfield, chairman of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association induced-seismicity work group, highlighted the SCOOP and STACK’s “superior economics.”

That has allowed the industry to “maintain a fairly high level of production” during depressed market prices while still being able to reduce wastewater volumes that has significantly reduced the frequency of quakes, Hatfield said.

 

“So the level of activity hasn’t suffered nearly as much as it has in some areas of other states,” he said.

 

On a list to 10 with the highest priority being a No. 1, Hatfield described the Mississippi Lime play as a No. 3 prior to quake-related restrictions. Now it’s an 8, 9 or 10, he said.

 

Hatfield said oil companies are making decisions each day on where to invest in infrastructure, suggesting Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, North Dakota and Wyoming may be or become better options than Oklahoma. No doubt the state’s oil industry has been hurt, he said, the question now is, “How much incremental pain do you want to inflict?”

 

Hatfield suggested further reductions may harm industry and not yield a seismicity-related benefit. He referenced massive earthquakes in the past couple of weeks in Argentina, Japan and New Zealand where “no disposal wells are in sight.”

 

“Sometimes the Earth just moves,” Hatfield said. “We have normally occurring events here. Sometimes it just happens, and it’s not something that we have triggered or can do anything about.”

Bottled drinking water is unnecessary and wasteful

Bottled drinking water is unnecessary and wasteful – Water New Zealand

originally posted on November 29, 2016

 

Soaring sales of bottled water means that New Zealanders are throwing away millions of dollars on an unnecessary product.

This follows reports that sales of bottled water in New Zealand have for the past two years, grown by 25 percent per annum.

Water New Zealand chief executive John Pfahlert says that in the majority of cases, buying bottled water is a huge waste of money.

He says it’s ironic that New Zealanders are prepared to pay many times more for water than they need to when most people have access to freely available, quality drinking water simply by turning on a tap.

“It is understandable that recent cases such as the contamination of Havelock North’s water supply have made many people nervous. Havelock North should never have happened and I certainly hope the government inquiry will help to fix any systemic issues that may have led to the crisis.

“However, New Zealanders can be assured that, in the vast majority of cases, the water supplied from their local authority, has been monitored and treated to ensure that it is safe for drinking.

“For instance, the latest data from the Ministry of Health shows that between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2015, nearly 3.7 million New Zealanders had access to drinking water that met drinking water standards in relation to bacterial standards, which is the most important criteria.

 That’s 96.8 percent of the population supplied by a utility that served 100 or more people.

Mr Pfahlert says while there is less known about the safety of some small supplies and rainwater systems, for the vast majority of people there is no need to waste money and add further.

“Most New Zealanders are on a supply that is safe so there is no need to waste money and add to our growing mountain of plastic in landfills.”

Water New Zealand is a national not-for-profit organisation which promotes the sustainable management and development of New Zealand’s three waters (freshwater, wastewater and storm water). Water New Zealand is the country’s largest water industry body, providing leadership and support in the water sector through advocacy, collaboration and professional development. Its 1,600 members are drawn from all areas of the water management industry including regional councils and territorial authorities, consultants, suppliers, government agencies, academia and scientists.

Sudan: Drinking Water Crisis As Militiamen Bar Access to North Darfur Wells

originally posted on November 23, 2016

 

Kabkabiya — The displaced of Kabkabiya camps in North Darfur are fast running out of drinking water as armed groups block access to the Kobe wells, west of the camps.

On Tuesday, the coordinator of the Kabkabiya camps told Radio Dabanga that militants have prevented several organisations’ tankers from drawing water from Kobe wells west the camp since Thursday. They have, however, allowed Unamid tankers to do so.

 The Coordinator said that water has run out in the camp, and explained that the displaced are in danger of thirst and hunger if they don’t get water by Wednesday.

Sudan: Drinking Water Crisis As Militiamen Bar Access to North Darfur Wells

originally posted on November 23, 2016

 

Kabkabiya — The displaced of Kabkabiya camps in North Darfur are fast running out of drinking water as armed groups block access to the Kobe wells, west of the camps.

On Tuesday, the coordinator of the Kabkabiya camps told Radio Dabanga that militants have prevented several organisations’ tankers from drawing water from Kobe wells west the camp since Thursday. They have, however, allowed Unamid tankers to do so.

The Coordinator said that water has run out in the camp, and explained that the displaced are in danger of thirst and hunger if they don’t get water by Wednesday.

Slovenia makes drinking water constitutional right

originally posted on November 18, 2016

 

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia –  Slovenia has made access to drinking water a constitutional right in a bid to protect the Alpine nation’s water resources from excessive exploitation.

Lawmakers late Thursday approved the change in a 64-0 vote in the 90-member parliament. Center-right opposition lawmakers abstained saying the vote was nothing more than a publicity stunt.

Lawmaker Branko Grims said the this is “nothing but PR.”

Slovenia’s constitution now states everyone has the right to drinking water. It says water resources are a public good managed by the state and supplied in a nonprofit service.

Prime Minister Miro Cerar says “being able to drink tap water around Slovenia should not be taken for granted.” He says “it is a huge privilege that we must preserve for us and generations after us.”

Water Situation Alarming in Gaza

by Ahmad Dalloul, originally posted on November 22, 2016

 

People will need water, already scarce in the Middle East & North Africa, even more desperately if temperatures rise because of climate change. In Palestine, water resources are critically scarce, and the situation in Gaza is alarming.

Adnan Ghosheh, Senior Water & Sanitation Specialist, remembers a time not so long ago when everyone in Gaza could drink water from their tap. That was in the late 1990s, but so much water has been pumped out of the natural aquifer underneath Gaza since then that seawater has seeped in, making it too salty to drink. These and other factors mean that only 10% of Gaza’s population has access to safe drinking water, compared to 90% in the West Bank or about 85% in MENA in general.

What danger does the drop in the level of the aquifer pose?

Raw or poorly treated wastewater, which comes from densely populated areas and refugee camps in Gaza, infiltrates the aquifer or goes to the Mediterranean. As a result, you have a shortage of water coupled with high demand, given the high growth of population now close to two-million.

So there are issues both with the quality of water and the quantity of water, both are making access to improved drinking water very low. As such, people in Gaza are not able to use the water coming into their houses for drinking; they use it for household ends, but for drinking, they have to rely on trucks. There are some 150 operators who provide some kind of desalinated water that has been filtered to make it acceptable for drinking and for cooking. It’s more expensive and not an improved source of water, according to our definitions of water clean enough to drink.

Q. What other sources of water can possibly be considered?

In the past, Israel used to deliver good quantities of water, but the demand has increased with the population growth, and the volume of freshwater provided by Israel under the 1993 Oslo Accords falls far short of what it needs now. So the quantities from the aquifer and Israel are simply not sufficient for Gaza, although this issue had been raised by numerous studies. There were ideas to build a desalination plant, to import water from Egypt or from Israel—transboundary water—and now the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) is pushing for a central desalination plan with the support of the World Bank. Strengthening the capacity in the Palestinian water institutions to sustainably manage the sector and build such complex infrastructure is being taken into consideration as part of another Bank’s project.

At the end of the day, people need water. We, at the World Bank, do development, however, our work in Gaza has also a humanitarian nature because water is a basic need.

Q. What is the Bank’s approach to helping address the water crisis?

The World Bank is working closely with the Palestinian Authority in line with its strategic water framework. We are interested in developing infrastructure but also in having the institutional capacities in place to enable the government to sustain it. This is a challenging task.

The PWA and its stakeholders have developed their water strategy for 2017–22. Under this strategy, one of the main objectives is to develop desalination plants as unconventional sources of drinking water because the wells are depleted. They couple this with efficiency measures, so there are less water losses in the system, particularly in Gaza where, due to different conflicts, the infrastructure has been damaged and there are a lot of leaks: we have had projects working on ensuring that services were restored and leaks were detected and fixed.

So, the priority is to secure resources and supply, and of course improve wastewater management. We have a wastewater treatment project in North Gaza, one of the oldest projects on the World Bank’s books. It started as an emergency response project, but is currently working on a long term solution where the treated water will be used for irrigation, saving potable water for drinking and other uses.

Q. What about governance issues?

The PWA water strategy includes an institutional and financial objective to ensure economic viability and sustainability. And this is probably the biggest challenge in Gaza, where the governance system is not fully intact, and people cannot afford to pay for water services.

We understand that there are limitations: there are matters that are within the control of the Palestinian Authority, and others that are not. Getting water from Israel, as well as material and experts into Gaza are beyond its control. We try to intervene on a technical level to ensure services are delivered. In our wastewater treatment project in North Gaza, we finally got approval from the government of Israel for a dedicated power line to operate the treatment plant, a request that was submitted three years ago.

Everyone agrees that environment does not have boundaries, so when a waste water treatment plant is developed, this will serve the interest of all parties because otherwise the wastewater is going to flow to the other side. It’s a mutual interest on the Palestinian side but also on the Israeli side. Addressing this necessity is therefore not a luxury.

Q. How quickly has this water crisis happened?

The issue became more acute about 15 years ago, when water supply and availability quickly deteriorated. This water crisis has already led inhabitants to leave Gaza. If we start implementing the measures to secure the water supply and improve water management, the aquifer would clean and replenish itself. But, if by the year 2020, those measures are not in place—if the 55 m3 of water a year from the desalination plant is not coming to replace the water being taken out, if the waste water plants are not built—we will basically have an irreversible process.

Q. What about other areas of Palestine?

In the West Bank, there is also a challenge of access to water. There are some areas where the daily water consumption per person is of 25–30 liters while the World Health Organization recommends 120 liters per capita per day, mainly because inhabitants of the West Bank are not getting enough water from the supplier. The bulk supplier is Palestinian, but much of the resources in the West Bank are controlled by Israel. The demand is particularly acute in summer time: in Hebron, the municipality is able to deliver water only once every 21 days, and this is generating discontent among the population who are less willing to pay for such poor service. Despite the challenging circumstances, we believe that Palestinians, like any other nation, are entitled to adequate water and sanitation.