by Gregg Jones, originally posted on October 29, 2016

by Lisa Rathke, originally posted on October 28, 2016

TOPSHAM, Vt. (AP) — For much of the summer, Vermont escaped the drought that shriveled up crops and depleted some drinking water wells in parts of southern New England. Despite recent rain and snow, much of Vermont is now in a drought and the state is encouraging residents to conserve water when possible and report shortages.

All eyes are on what happens with the weather in the coming weeks and months.

“The soaking rains that we’ve been getting have been helpful, but we’re going to need to continue to see these type of soaking rains sort of spread out across the rest of the fall and into the winter,” state climatologist Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux said Friday.

The water needs a chance to infiltrate into the ground and recharge the aquifers, she added.

The state has set up a task force that has met with Dupigny-Giroux , meteorologists and the emergency management team. The state Agency of Agriculture has heard from about a half dozen farmers who are out of water and having to haul it for animals. The task force is encouraging residents who have low or dry drinking water wells to report them to a website so the state can monitor and map water supply shortages.

Low rainfall, combined with little snow last winter, has created a severe drought in parts of Chittenden, Addison, Rutland and Windsor counties while the southern end of the state and a northern section were in a moderate drought, according to a map released Thursday from the United States Drought Monitor. The Northeast Kingdom is having abnormally dry conditions as of Thursday.

Since January, precipitation has been below normal by 8 inches in Burlington, 14 inches in Springfield and 12 inches in Morrisville, according to the National Weather Service.

Areas of Massachusetts, western New York and parts of New Hampshire and Maine have been dealing with drought conditions since this summer.

In Vermont, the village of Jeffersonville is planning to haul in water next week as springs that feed the municipal water system continue to drop.

“The recent rain and snow hasn’t really turned things around for us. The spring yields are still declining just a little bit each day,” said Trevor Welch, the head water and wastewater operator for the village of 750 residents.

The village asked residents recently to conserve water.

“They’re all trying to help out,” he said.

A well drilling company in Morrisville has been busy in the last month responding to reports of wells running dry or springs not producing what they were. Nick Manosh, owner of N.A. Manosh Corporation, said his company is doing 25 to 30 percent more well-drilling this fall.

originally posted on October 29, 2016

Recent news items raise concerns about California’s ongoing struggle to deal with the punishing drought.

The Desert Sun’s Ian James reported this month that Coachella Valley water agencies have logged a huge drop in conservation compared to the great efforts seen during 2015 and the first half of this year.

Coachella Valley Water District customers used just 4.3 percent less water in September than they did in September 2013, the benchmark year the state has been using to measure conservation. In August, the cut was measured at 15 percent. For reference, in July CVWD reported that its customers had cut use by 28.6 percent from the 2013 baseline.

The trend seems similar at Desert Water Agency, the other large Coachella Valley provider. DWA reported an 18.5 percent cut in August, and that fell to an 8 percent cut last month.

In the past two months it looks like we’ve started to tank when it comes to saving water.

This should be alarming to everyone in the desert, but we’re not the only ones who appear to be returning to our old ways.

Statewide, urban water use was down 17.7 percent from the 2013 baseline, officials reported. Last August, when a conservation mandate was in effect, Californians reduced their consumption by 27 percent.

Though it should be a shocking wake-up call, what we’re seeing isn’t too much of a surprise.

The State Water Resources Board – following Gov. Jerry Brown’s order in the wake of a somewhat “normal” rain and snow season last winter – eased the state’s conservation rules. The board decided that local water agencies could decide what conservation efforts their customers should follow in order to guarantee supplies in case the drought continued for three more years.

All six desert-area agencies, which have long argued that our region is well-positioned to handle such shortages, quickly proclaimed that a “zero percent” conservation target was OK under the state formula.

And today we see CVWD and DWA customers – and residents across the state – are quickly falling back to usage levels they had before all of the effort was made to cut our collective thirst for the precious resource.

This is more than just disappointing. We in California, and especially in the arid Coachella Valley, must renew our efforts to cut water use in order to ensure that the Golden State can continue to thrive. The progress we’ve seen in cutting our collective use, such as replacing thirsty turf with more appropriate drought-resistant landscaping, must continue. What cannot continue indefinitely is our drawing of more water from our aquifer than is being returned.

Indeed, the state water board has warned that mandatory drought restrictions could be re-imposed if it becomes clear users have shifted back to wasteful ways and the drought continues unabated into a sixth straight year.

The other news item mentioned above was a report by the Pacific Institute that put a price on the various methods the state could use to ensure it has the water it needs in the future. For those looking to the vast, salty Pacific Ocean, the study indicates desalination is the most expensive way by far to boost our water supply.

Researchers suggested that while different communities should study all options, including desalination in coastal areas, conservation remains the most cost-effective way to increase the water that is available.

For us in the desert, conservation means taking steps like shifting to water-saving plumbing fixtures and low-use plants in an overall strategy that allows us to keep more of our water in the ground now, banking it for when we truly need it the most.

Mid-Illovo among affected communities in uMgungundlovu District Municipality’s area

-By Michelle Izatt, originally posted on November 7, 2016

Mid-Illovo is among the communities that will be affected when a 30-hour planned water shutdown takes place tomorrow (Tuesday, 8 November).

The water supply will be affected from 8am on 8 November and supply is expected to be operational by 5pm on Wednesday, 9 November.

uMgungundlovu District Municipality’s water service needs is rapidly growing. As a water services authority and provider it is fulfilling its mandate and obligation to supply clean and potable water to all communities it serves.

Umgeni Water (bulk water supplier to uMgungundlovu District Municipality) has planned a shutdown at the Midmar Works. The following municipalities will be affected:

• Umshwathi: Swayimane, Bruynshill, Wartburg, Dalton, New Hanover, Trustfeed, and Mpolweni.
• Richmond: Central Business District, Indaleni, Phatheni, Hopewell, Thornville
• Mkhambathini: Camperdown, Lion Park, Mandastone, Estone, Gagwini, Mid-Illovo
• Umngeni: All areas in Howick, Mpophomeni, Merrivale, Merrivale Heights, Hilton.

While residents will have water during the shutdown, as the reservoirs have adequate water stored, residents are required to use it sparingly during the shutdown. Residents, businesses, factories, schools, clinics and all consumers are strongly recommended to store water in receptacles or vessels.

uMgungundlovu District Municipality apologises for the disruption and inconvenience.

by Corry Elyda, originally posted on October 29, 2016

riyanto, a 28-year-old Kemanggisan resident in West Jakarta, said he did not have problems getting access to clean water for daily use.

“My house is equipped with a well to access groundwater and we also have piped water,” he said.

He added, however, that the usage was a bit complicated.

“We mostly use groundwater for bathing and laundry. We only use the piped water if…

by David Mcfadden, originally posted on October 28, 2016

COTEAUX, Haiti (AP) – It’s been nearly a month since Hurricane Matthew tore through southern Haiti and people like Kettley Rosier and many of her neighbors still have to spend their meager savings to buy drinking water.

Reservoirs and pipe networks that people depend on for water across the country’s southern peninsula were contaminated or damaged by a combination of ocean storm surge and sewage from the overflowing latrines that are commonly used in rural Haiti. Wells were submerged by rivers that topped their banks and carried cholera bacteria, which epidemiologists suspect has sickened thousands of people since the Category 4 hurricane.

That means there is just not enough clean water to drink, let alone bathe, in places like the town of Coteaux, adding to the misery in an area where many people lost their homes, as well as the crops and livestock they need to survive.

“We’re tired of this,” Rosier said on a recent morning, scratching at skin irritated after bathing with murky well water. For drinking water, she has to buy small bags from street vendors. “God only knows when the good water will come back.”

An army of international relief teams have put enormous work into cleaning contaminated wells, distributing millions of water-purifying tablets and installing water treatment stations in areas that bore the worst of the hurricane. But it’s not yet enough.

Roughly 90 percent of the piped water supply systems in southwest Haiti were damaged by the storm that struck Oct. 4, according to Haiti’s National Water and Sanitation Directorate. Communal and private wells were contaminated across three provinces.

The extensive contamination of wells and the large amount of rain dumped by Hurricane Matthew created ideal conditions for spreading waterborne diseases including cholera, which causes rapid dehydration and can kill a human within hours if not treated. Authorities and aid groups say they have detected fecal matter and E. coli bacteria in drinking supplies.

“A lot of sources are contaminated at the moment,” said Leo Tremblay, a Canadian water and sanitation coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, which is overseeing a cholera treatment center in the village of Port-a-Piment and has sent staff by donkey to provide aid to remote mountain villages.

The humanitarian group said Friday its teams were seeing “deteriorating health conditions” in heavily hit zones.

In the devastated city of Jeremie, two water purification stations operated by French government emergency workers have so far transformed river water into 450,000 liters of potable water. But international specialists say many communities right along shorelines still aren’t getting adequate supplies.

Complicating matters, some storm victims are taking chances with their health.

In parts of the city of Les Cayes, people could be seen drinking straight from a contaminated well, bypassing treated supplies set up by a South Carolina-based organization known as Water Mission.

“Our bodies are used to dirty water. Maybe if we go to that new water place we’ll fall sick,” said Ephraim Bernard, a jobless 24-year-old standing by the contaminated well, located by a trash pit where three people were openly defecating on a recent morning.

Cholera was likely introduced to Haiti in 2010 by U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal and it has killed about 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000. Haitians are generally aware of the risk and families often go to great lengths to ensure they stay healthy.

Yvette Dorival, a 22-year-old who lives in hills above the devastated beach town of Port Salut, is making two-hour treks three times a day to carry a jug filled at a water treatment site set up by Bomberos Unidos Sin Fronteras, a Spanish aid group. On the way, she passed Swiss Humanitarian Aid workers patching up a splintered water supply system.

“Why is it I only see the blan out here working hard to get water to us Haitians?” she asked, using the Creole word for foreigners.

There are some locals pushing to increase supplies, including Georges Edouard Elie, a businessman who owns a reverse osmosis plant in Les Cayes that produces Eau Kay water for a string of south coast settlements He is working with Arkansas-based nonprofit Heifer International to install a network of 1,500-gallon tanks that can be fed by water trucks.

He said he is motivated in part by anxiety that his business could be attacked if the situation doesn’t improve. “In my 24 years that I’ve been living here, this is the first time that I feel insecure,” he said.

Authorities say the water situation isn’t likely to be resolved soon. Jean-Martin Brault, a water and sanitation specialist with the World Bank, said it’s likely there will be a need to distribute water-purifying tablets and safe drinking water for six months in hard-hit zones.

Public services in general were shabby before the storm. Portions of some coastal towns in the southwest have gained piped water networks in recent years, though there is essentially no sewage treatment in the area. Only about a quarter of Haitians nationwide have access to flush toilets or latrines that hygienically separate waste from human contact, according to the World Bank.

Now local authorities see a rare chance to improve the situation. Matthew’s aftermath coincides with recently announced plans by the U.N. to invest more in clean water and sanitation systems as part of a new approach to dealing with cholera in Haiti.

“This is an opportunity for us to get our systems more up-to-date,” said Oswald Hyppolite, a water official for Haiti’s South province.

Sustained help couldn’t reach Rosier’s community soon enough. Vendors have raised the price of drinking water by 25 percent and her family was struggling to pay. “We need water to survive, just like anybody else,” she said.

originally posted on October 28, 2016

Philippines/Kuala Lumpur, 28 October 2016 – The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is deeply concerned about the welfare of thousands of people affected by Super Typhoon Haima in Northern Philippines, as details of the damage left behind by the disaster begin to emerge.

It is estimated that there are more than 1 million households within the 100-kilometre radius of the typhoon’s track, which spread over 185 municipalities and cities in 13 provinces. One week after Haima made landfall, more than 46,000 houses were reported damaged, while the estimated cost of the typhoon’s destruction of agricultural land in the affected areas amounts to 1 billon Philippine Pesos (around 20 million US dollars). These numbers are expected to increase as more details are gathered in the coming days.

In many parts of the typhoon-hit areas, farmers, sharecroppers and casual labourers who rely on rice and corn fields or high value crops like coffee beans for income now find their livelihoods crippled.  “It is bad enough that many of these farmers’ homes have been badly damaged – they rely on these crops to feed their families. Now, most have little choice but to consume what they can salvage,” said Kari Isomaa, IFRC Head of Delegation in the Philippines.

“There is an urgent need for support in the areas of shelter and livelihood to help these communities recover from their ordeal. We need to act fast and help them get back on their feet, as it has been projected that more typhoons may affect the Philippines before the year ends.”

The Philippine Red Cross had deployed its response teams including staff, volunteers and Water and Search and Rescue units before Typhoon Haima hit landmass, as a preparedness measure. To date, the Red Cross chapters in the affected provinces have assisted more than 12,000 people with various services including search and rescue, hot meals and psychosocial support. As the emergency operation continues, the Red Cross is distributing relief items including mosquito nets, sleeping mats, blankets, jerry cans and hygiene kits. An unconditional cash grant will also be provided for 2,000 families to help them meet their most urgent household needs.

On 23 October, the IFRC launched an emergency appeal of 3 million Swiss francs (3 million US dollars) to support the Philippine Red Cross in providing immediate relief and humanitarian assistance to 20,000 people affected by Typhoon Haima. The appeal, which covers a period of 10 months, focuses on meeting people’s most urgent needs including food, access to safe drinking water, essential household items, shelter and cash grants to help people restart their livelihoods. The appeal will also focus on supporting health awareness and disease prevention activities, as well as psychosocial support.

Ministry says ‘hundreds of water theft cases’ now being examined in court

-By Hana Namrouqa, originally posted on November 05, 2016

AMMAN — Three years after the government started removing violations on the water network, more than 26,000 illegal fixtures on water mains and resources have been removed, officials said on Saturday.

Under the campaign, authorities sealed more than 806 wells and seized and confiscated scores of drilling rigs, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

“More than 50 drilling rigs are now in the possession of the central workshops directorate; an affiliate to the Water Authority of Jordan. The vehicles were seized and confiscated during raids on locations where illegal wells were being dug,” Water Minister Hazem Nasser said in the statement.

Owners of the drilling rigs and those involved in the drilling of illegal wells have all been referred to court for legal action, according to an official at the ministry, who noted that hundreds of cases of water theft are being looked into at court.

“Articles 3 and 4 of the Economic Crimes Law regard water theft as an economic crime,” the official reminded.

In the statement, Nasser noted that the ministry is enduring hefty financial costs to end violations on the water network and resources, in addition to mobilising several teams around the clock to detect and protect the resources from violations.

The minister added that the campaign to stop violations on the water network and resources is succeeding in protecting underground water.

The ministry banned the drilling of wells in 1997 to limit random pumping of water and to preserve aquifers from depletion and salinity.

International studies indicate that water levels at several aquifers have been dropping at a rate of one metre per year, according to the ministry, which noted that more than 50 million cubic metres of underground water are being extracted in indiscriminate pumping.

In the Jordan Valley, authorities also ended 1,414 violations on state-owned land and 10,019 infringements on the King Abdullah Canal, which is supplied by the Yarmouk River to irrigate 40 per cent of the Jordan Valley’s crops.

The canal also provides some 40 per cent of the capital’s supply after it is treated at the Zai Water Treatment Plant.

Water theft in Jordan is blamed for 70 per cent of water loss, according to the ministry, and around 110 million cubic metres of water have been saved since authorities launched the campaign.

The amended Water Authority of Jordan Law stipulates stiffer penalties against those who abuse any element of the water system.

Those who abuse water carriers and mains, wastewater, pumping, purification or desalination stations; or cause the pollution of water resources, pipes or stations used for drinking water; and those who dig or are involved in the digging of wells without obtaining a licence face a prison sentence of up to five years and fines of up to JD7,000.

In addition, violators of water and wastewater projects are jailed for up to three years and fined up to JD5,000 under the amendments.

All penalties stipulated under the law are doubled in the case of repeat offences.

The construction of the pipeline would violate the human right to water, the right of Indigenous peoples to practice their cultural traditions, and several federal statutes.

-By Marjorie Cohn, originally posted on November 4, 2016

Originally posted on November 4, 2016

FRANKFORT — Many Kentuckians have modern appliances at home. It’s their public water infrastructure that may date back to the era of the avocado green dishwasher, or before.

Division of Water Director Peter Goodmann told the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Environment yesterday that over 58,700 miles of the state’s drinking water lines are an average of 38 years old with 16 percent of those lines dating back 50 years or more. Goodmann said the estimated cost of drinking water infrastructure improvements will total $1.9 billion through 2025, although many systems don’t have the customer base to cover the cost.

“Many systems are selling 18 – 20 percent less water than they used to,” Goodmann told the committee. “People are buying appliances and fixtures that use a lot less water … so you have no growth in customer base and a decline per capita in consumption.”

The solution is for utilities to receive grants or borrow money to cover infrastructure maintenance and operations, said Goodmann. Borrowing would require more utilities to increase their rates, which he said could lead to annual water utility rate increases of six to 10 percent over the next 10 years. Inflation, he said, “could exasperate this situation.”

Rep. Hubert Collins, D-Wittensville, said he remembers when only around 50 percent of his home county of Johnson had access to water. Today, around 95 percent of the county has water access — about the same percentage of total Kentuckians served by public water systems, said Goodmann — thanks to the availability of coal severance funding for water projects. Now that coal severance funds are drying up, Collins asked Goodmann about specific grants and loans available to communities.

Goodmann said low-interest loans through state revolving loan funds, federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money and some rural development loans and grants are “the big three” to help with water needs. Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) grant funds many also be of help, he said.

“The AML program has financed quite a few line extensions out into rural areas. A lot of that in mining areas has been done through the AML program,” he told Collins.

Questions about efforts to clean up the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River, impacted by a 2015 sewage spill in Virginia, and to remove trash from Pike County’s Fishtrap Lake were asked by Sen. Ray Jones, D-Pikeville. Goodmann said the water quality of both the Levisa Fork and the lake are “very good” although there is a significant amount of trash in the lake. With prompting from Jones, Goodman said the state may ask the Corps of Engineers to help place some device in the area of the Levisa Fork to catch trash traveling into Fishtrap.

From a state agency standpoint, Goodmann said Kentucky has been successful not just at providing access to drinking water but also in reaching compliance with health standards. The state holds a health standards compliance rate of 99.7 percent, he told lawmakers. After water safety violations were revealed in Flint, Mich., Goodmann said a state lead working group is reviewing Kentucky’s lead and copper protocols, although he clarified that the state’s public water systems have “a very good compliance record.”

“I don’t have any desire to sit in front of this group and try to explain a Flint situation in Kentucky,” said Goodmann. “We wanted to make sure our protocols are appropriate.” That drew a response from committee Co-Chair Rep. Fitz Steele, D-Hazard.

“No, we definitely do not need a Flint, Mich. in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” said Steele.