By The Times Editorial Board, originally posted on October 21, 2016

 

Tobacco executives must be thrilled that soda has become a prime target of public health activists. These days, it is seen as a slow-acting poison that contributes to type 2 diabetes, obesity and other health disorders. To some health officials, it is as threatening as cigarettes.

One result has been a surging interest in taxing it and other sugary beverages — a move designed to reduce demand just as tobacco taxes have deterred smoking. The nation passed its first soda tax in Berkeley two years ago. Philadelphia adopted one earlier this year, and now three California cities — Oakland, Albany and San Francisco — have a penny-per-ounce soda tax on the November ballot. And there are efforts to launch a statewide soda tax as well. Other states and cities are looking at soda taxes too.

A report released this month by the World Health Organization will help take the movement global. The WHO is urging governments around the world to consider adopting taxes of between 20% and 50% on sugar-sweetened beverages as well as incentives to spur the consumption of healthy food and drinks as a way to slow the spread of diabetes and obesity.

So is this a move in the right direction? There is certainly plenty to be concerned about when it comes to the heavy consumption of soda, sports drinks and other sugary beverages. Research increasingly shows a link between sugar consumption and metabolic diseases such as diabetes. But before they determine that such taxes are the appropriate policy prescription everywhere, public health advocates need to know that consumers have affordable, accessible, healthy alternatives to soda. Fruit juice, for instance, may not have added sugars, but it is packed with natural ones that have a similar effect on the body. Artificially sweetened soda may not always be a healthy substitute, or may not lead to weight loss. Drinking water is clearly the best answer, but that assumes everyone has access to clean water. They don’t.

According to the U.N., about 11% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to safe drinking water. And that’s not just people in faraway countries (or in Flint, Mich.). It includes people all over the United States. Here in California, 1 million people are exposed to unsafe drinking water in their homes, schools, parks and other public places, according to the Community Water Center. Does it make sense to slap on a tax before clean and safe alternatives to soda are available?

It’s also not clear yet how well these taxes work. Data out of Berkeley offer encouraging initial results, including a substantial drop in soda consumption among low-income residents. But there is also a suggestion that some people facing local soda taxes may simply drive across borders (from Berkeley, say, to neighboring Oakland or San Francisco) to buy cheaper beverages.

And so far there’s no way to know whether people who drink less soda compensate by increasing their consumption of Ho Hos or other sweets. That would be a problem because of evidence that added sugar in processed food is connected to diabetes and other health disorders.

Our diets are complicated, and the solutions to poor nutrition are equally so. But here is one thing we know for certain: It’s better to drink clean water every day than load up on sugary drinks. That’s where we should start.

originally posted on October 24, 2016

 

The 2016 presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has become a substance-free fight between “two teenagers” who don’t like each other, according to environmentalist Erin Brockovich, who told CNN that she has not decided whether she will be casting a ballot November 8.

“I don’t know what we’re resolving. There’s a lot of name-calling and accusations and innuendos,” Brockovich said. “We’re watching a campaign and I feel like I’m watching some reality show of two teenagers in high school who don’t get along.”

The famed consumer advocate and environmental activist lamented the state of American politics and called out the Republican and the Democratic parties for failing to recognize that “we have a national water crisis.”

Including the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Brockovich cited 18 states that are dealing with water contamination with substances like lead and hexavalent chromium, and said that politicians have failed to recognize that clean water is “a national security issue.”

Brockovich began her work on ground water issues and contamination in 1992 in Hinckley, California, and became a household name in 2000 when Julia Roberts portrayed her in the Oscar-winning film, “Erin Brockovich,” which chronicles her lawsuit against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Brockovich won the lawsuit against PG&E but said that she soon learned that this case was not a “one-off situation.”

“The issues that we’re having with water are worse and the magnitude is bigger than anything I imagined possible,” Brockovich said, adding that over the years, “the situation has not gotten better.”

Brockovich grew up in a staunchly Republican family in Kansas but has been living in the blue state of California for decades. She said that she has never associated with a particular party.

She said that too often, officials “politicize water” and “nobody will meet each other in the middle.”

“I’d like to find and vote for a candidate, whether Republican or Democrat … that has the best interest in the health and welfare of everybody in this country,” Brockovich said.

originally posted on June 7, 2016

 

An international human rights advocacy group is condemning the federal government’s failure to address ongoing drinking water advisories on reserves.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch published the 92-page report, called Make It Safe: Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis, details the extent and impact of drinking water advisories in First Nations communities across the country. According to Health Canada, as of March 31, 2016, there were 133 of these advisories in effect in 89 First Nations communities across Canada, excluding British Columbia. Among these, some of the longest-standing are found in Shoal Lake 40 — the source of Winnipeg’s drinking water — parts of which have been under a boil water advisory since 1997.

In addition to Human Rights Watch, international organizations including Amnesty International and the United Nations have criticized Canada’s record on water access for First Nations communities.

Human Rights Watch did research in Ontario First Nations communities — where the majority of advisories are concentrated — from July 2015 to April this year, focusing on the impacts of the advisories on the communities and the residents themselves. Researchers undertook water and sanitation surveys with 99 households, home to 325 people, in five reserves, and conducted 111 qualitative interviews with community leaders, members and experts.

“We found that the Canadian government has violated a range of international human rights obligations toward First Nations persons and communities by failing to remedy the severe water crisis,” the report states. As a signatory on at least five international human rights conventions that can be interpreted to guarantee access to clean water, Canada is obligated to respect and protect that right, and provide access when communities can’t.

Raymond Harper lives in St. Theresa Point First Nation, in the Island Lake region. He was involved in a recent University of Manitoba research project into water access issues in the area. Seventeen per cent of the community lives without running water, he said, and 32 per cent still rely on cisterns brought in by the government as a temporary solution.

“It’s a health issue,” he said.

Many students don’t go to school because they don’t have clean clothes and can’t have showers at home, Harper said. The school itself, which is at the end of water line, is also frequently shut down because water pressure in the building is unpredictable, sometimes shutting off for an hour or more without warning.

“I think it’s a major human rights infraction,” he said. “There should be a lot more investment in water infrastructure in our reserve, and surrounding communities.”

Karen Busby, the director of the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba, said the report is significant not only because of the research itself, but because of the clout and resources Human Rights Watch can offer the cause.

“Once the Human Rights Watch writes a report, then they are committed to lobbying around that report,” Busby said. “Their credibility and resources bringing to bear on a problem are really important… That’s significant to be able to do that.”

by Debbie Laplaca, originally posted on June 6, 2016

 

CHARLTON – Residents with tainted drinking water will get a look at plans this week to bring clean water to their homes.

ExxonMobil Corp. representatives will meet with residents regarding groundwater contamination, remediation efforts and the installation of new water lines to bring clean water to their homes and businesses.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Charlton Middle School.

The town reached an agreement with ExxonMobil in April to permanently alleviate well water contamination caused by a large gasoline spill in the 1980s at the former LaMountain’s Exxon station on Route 20.

The state Department of Environmental Protection holds ExxonMobil responsible for the spill from its underground fuel storage tank, which sent MTBE, formerly a gasoline additive, into the water table.

DEP spokesman Edmund J. Coletta Jr. said Friday ExxonMobil has tested 82 drinking water wells in the spill vicinity since January. Lab results identified MTBE detections ranging from 0.6 to 5.5 parts per billion in seven of the wells.

The DEP drinking water safety standard says MTBE is not to exceed 70 ppb.

ExxonMobil is providing households with bottled water or whole-house filtration. The one school where the contaminant was detected, Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High, began filtering its drinking water two weeks ago.

The push for ExxonMobil to remediate by paying for new municipal water lines began in earnest when Charlton signed supply pact with Southbridge for more water in April 2015.

After a year of talks, Town Administrator Robin L. Craver announced the agreed-upon concessions made by ExxonMobil have an estimated value of $30 million.

The new water infrastructure part of the deal calls for ExxonMobil to install six miles of water line from Main Street, over Old Worcester Road, across Morton Station Road, along Old Muggett Hill Road to Main Street, where it would form a loop.

The so called “school loop” would supply clean water to Bay Path, Charlton Middle School, Heritage School and to all homes along its route.

According to Ms. Craver’s press release, new water lines will also be installed on Hammerock Road, Dodge Lane, L. Stevens Road and H. Putnam Road. Additionally, a new water line off Main Street will connect the Overlook Masonic Health Center.

Ms. Craver said the agreement includes a $7.7 million cash settlement for the town to pay off its water infrastructure debt, cancel water betterments assessed on existing lines, and credit those who have already paid.

Because ExxonMobil is funding the new water lines, Ms. Craver said, the town will not assess betterments to abutters.

Also, she said, the company has agreed to provide free hookups to the new water lines for all properties with MTBE detections.

Uncontaminated residential properties abutting the new lines will also receive free connections if they sign up within 12 months of activation of the system.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson said the public information meeting Wednesday is designed for two-way dialogue “to share information with the community, but also to ensure individuals get an opportunity to ask their questions.”

After brief opening remarks, residents will be invited to circulate among three information stations. One will focus on the spill at LaMountain’s, another on the ongoing testing and monitoring of groundwater contamination from that site, and the third on the water line construction timeline.

All information stations are expected to be staffed by experts who can answer residents’ questions.

Among those presenting will be Scott Wybro, project execution area manager for ExxonMobil Environmental Services, and engineers from Kleinfelder, the company handling remediation.

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — Officials are delaying plans to distribute bottled water in two north Alabama counties where a utility is warning residents not to drink tap water because of chemical contamination.

originally posted on June 6, 2016

 

Fire departments will hand out bottled water in parts of Lawrence and Morgan counties beginning later this week. Plans to distribute water starting Monday were pushed back because of a delivery delay.

The West Morgan-East Limestone Water and Sewer Authority warned residents last week not to drink their tap water. The authority issued the warning about two chemicals in water from the Tennessee River.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently tightened its standards for the chemicals, resulting in the change. The authority’s warning goes further than guidance from the EPA, and the state says there’s no water crisis in the area.

In Sanders, Arizona, residents drank uranium-contaminated water for years.

by Julia Lure, originally posted on June 6, 2016

 

n a sweltering day last July, a team of scientists stood before a crowded room of people from the tiny town of Sanders, Arizona, and showed them a photo of a dilapidated wooden shack covered by hole-filled tarps. This, the scientists explained, was the town’s water source.

Tonya Baloo, a longtime resident and mother of two, did a double take. “It looked like a Third World country,” she says. “I was like, ‘Is this Africa?'”

The researchers’ next image—a chart with a flat red line cutting through yellow bars—was even more worrisome. Tommy Rock, a Ph.D. candidate studying water contamination at Northern Arizona University, explained that the red line was the Environmental Protection Agency’s threshold for uranium allowed in public water systems: 30 micrograms per liter. The yellow bars represented uranium levels in Sanders’ water supply dating back to 2003. They hovered around 50 micrograms per liter.

For more than a decade, the chart showed, people in Sanders had been drinking contaminated water.

Residents listened, dumbfounded. Sanders sits on the edge of the Navajo Nation; uranium mines, relics of the Cold War, have long dotted tribal lands across the West. Long-term exposure to the heavy metal can cause kidney disease and cancer. But locals had never been notified of the contamination. Nor were they aware of the nearly 200 drinking-water violations that the local utility had amassed over the previous decade, ranging from uranium and bacterial contamination to failure to test the water.

“The initial betrayal,” Baloo says. “It was shocking.”

The meeting happened two months before researchers in Flint, Michigan, revealed that their city’s water was laced with lead. In both cases, curious scientists exposed years of drinking-water violations that affected predominantly poor, minority communities. (Most Sanders residents are Navajo and live on less than $20,000 per year.) But unlike urban Flint, Sanders is home to just 630 people and consists of a cluster of single-family homes, a gas station, a dollar store, two churches, and a trading post—all surrounded by miles of red rock and sage brush.

he town is one of thousands of rural communities across the country where water quality has quietly evaded federal health standards for years. Many small utilities simply cannot afford advanced water treatment technology, says Jeff Griffiths, a public health professor at Tufts University and a former adviser to the EPA on drinking water. (An inspection of the Sanders well in 2012, for example, found that “the owner pours an unapproved bleach product down the casing vent daily as the method of disinfection.”) According to EPA data, roughly 6 million Americans use one of 2,300 public water systems that qualify as “serious violators”—defined as having multiple, continuous, or serious health or reporting problems. Ninety-nine percent of those utilities serve fewer than 50,000 people. Together, they serve a population 25 times the size of Flint.

A week after Rock’s presentation, Sanders residents received a notice in the mail from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) informing them of the high uranium levels in the local water supply—a first since the contamination was reported to the state in 2003. Long-term exposure can increase the risk of kidney disease and cancer, it said, but the situation wasn’t an emergency. “You do NOT need to seek an alternate (for example, bottled or hauled) water supply,” it read. “The water remains safe to use until treatment is put into place.”

Many residents, wary of the state’s assurances, avoided the water. Baloo brought her kids an hour away to her mom’s house for baths. Genevieve Lee, a 73-year-old retired teacher, resorted to eating canned food and taking sponge baths out of a bucket. She made 40-minute treks to Gallup, New Mexico, for water and often found herself wondering about the uranium’s impact. Did it contribute to her breast cancer in 2008? To her neighbor’s kidney disease?

Lee, Baloo, and others formed a water task force, petitioning for the town to connect to a nearby, well-maintained utility in the Navajo Nation. “All we think about is water,” Baloo told me this spring.

The hubbub led Sanders school system superintendent Dan Hute to test the schools’ water supply, which comes from a private well unaffiliated with Sanders’ water system; the water in Sanders elementary and middle schools was also contaminated. Hute tapped into school budgets to provide bottled water to roughly 500 students and 150 teachers. “I’ve gotten no help from anybody,” Hute told me earlier this spring. According to Rock, no local, state, or federal agency provided the town with bottled water or filters.

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, utilities are required to notify their customers if water has contaminant levels above the EPA’s threshold. If they fail to do so, the law calls for the “primacy agency”—in Sanders’ case, the state—to intervene. After 30 days, the EPA steps in.

Though the policy sounds simple enough, the reality is far murkier. Dr. Bruce Macler, an EPA toxicologist who helped decide to tell Sanders residents that their water was safe, explains that when it comes to uranium, the feds have a standard in place. “It’s no joke,” he says. “That’s why we go after them if they exceed it. But it isn’t terribly worrisome if they’re a little over the level.” If the contaminant were an “acute toxicant”—say, giardia—being over the standard wouldn’t be tolerated, he explains. But “when you’re looking at something that takes a lifetime of exposure” to produce health effects and the benchmark is already conservative, Macler says, it doesn’t make sense to tell residents to use other water sources: “The stuff isn’t that risky.”

Many disagree. “It’s unbelievable to me that they would have such a cavalier, unconcerned attitude,” says Chris Shuey, a researcher at the Southwest Research and Information Center who studied Sanders’ water with Rock. “These people have been drinking this for years. It’s not a short-term exposure,” says Doug Brugge, a biologist at Tufts University who studies the impact of uranium. “I’m a little baffled by their lack of concern.” (An EPA spokeswoman says the agency was concerned about the contamination of Sanders’ water and was working on establishing an alternative source.)

State records show that over the past two decades, environmental regulators repeatedly approached the local utility’s owners, an elderly couple named Pat and Lillie Paulsell, about the poor water quality. (Pat maintained the well until his death in 2014, when Lillie took over the utility, Arizona Windsong Water Company. Lillie Paulsell declined to be interviewed for this article.) An inspection in 1995 found that Windsong wasn’t testing for bacterial or lead contamination. By 2002, the utility had risen to the top of the EPA’s “Significant Noncompliance” list due to a host of reporting and health problems. Yet, according to an ADEQ representative’s notes from that year, Pat Paulsell “continued to make no effort to comply other than to send me a package of analytical results, which I have not yet received.” In 2012, a state-commissioned water quality report noted live wiring on the floor of the well. Uranium contamination continued to be a “major problem.” In 2014, the utility paid a $1,000 penalty to the EPA for its violations—but the uranium levels continued to exceed federal standards.

The records also show that the Paulsells were struggling financially and unable to keep up with the growing number of required tests and treatment plans. “I don’t know what you mean by emergency operations plan. Also a microbiological sample plan,” Pat wrote to the ADEQ in 2001. “I have tried very hard to keep all samples done that are supposed to be done.” When an ADEQ representative asked if he had a copy of the rules for water utilities, Pat replied, “You people are always changing them!” In 2002, an inspector found that the couple’s “current health is poor.” Pat, 69, was using a wheelchair. In 2009, he faxed a handwritten letter along with water sample results. “It costs between $35 and $45 each month to send this water sample. The power bills have more than tripled in the last 3 years. I have worn out a ¾ ton new pickup just on the water co…I can’t continue to operate this co with this small income.”

“There are Sanders equivalents all over the country,” says Macler, the EPA toxicologist. “Small little communities that have limited ownership, no money, no resources.” Many, adds Griffiths, the former EPA drinking water adviser, are unwilling to cooperate with state and federal regulators, which don’t have the financial capacity to force the matter. “We have a foolish system for how we deal with this stuff,” he says.

In early April, eight months after the state distributed a water advisory and more than a decade after the first reported uranium, Sanders residents got some good news: Arizona and the Navajo Nation agreed to let Sanders switch water sources to the nearby Navajo utility. Within the month, water from a new source was flowing through the old pipes, which will be replaced this summer.

“From my standpoint, this is more of a success than a failure,” Macler says. “Could it have been sooner? Yeah. Are we glad that it’s done? Yeah.”

“It’s a really big sigh of relief,” says Tonya Baloo, who’s now watering the trees in the yard and letting her kids bathe at home every once in a while. Her family still drinks from jugs of water she buys from Walmart. Maybe after the pipes are fixed, she says, they’ll once again start drinking from the taps.

Hafeez Tunio, originally posted on January 1, 2017

 

KAMBER-SHAHDADKOT: 

We are ready to provide a one-time meal but don’t ask us for drinking water, says Qurban Chandio, who lives in a hilly area that falls in the Kirthar mountain range in Kamber-Shahdadkot district.

Potable water, which is a basic amenity that must be ensured for all residents by the state, is a distant dream for the locals of this area. Qurban lives in a makeshift shanty village in Karo Har area of Gabi Dero union council, which lies around 54 kilometres from Kamber town. As he travels around three kilometres on his donkey to fetch water, he doesn’t seem perturbed by the fact that the pond from which he is collecting the water is shared by humans and animals. “All the wandering animals come here to quench their thirst,” he says while scratching his head. “We also fill our utensils from the same pond for drinking purposes.”

A few naked children bathe in the same pond from which animals and residents of the area quench their thirst. Meanwhile, a few women wash their clothes simultaneously as some sheep and cows drink from the pool. The fact that the same body of water — an accumulation of rainwater — is used for bathing, washing and is also accessible to animals for direct consumption raises questions on how safe the water is for humans.

According to Hawa Guramani of Sono Khan Chandio village, diarrhoea is a common disease among the children of the area. “This year, two children in our village had diarrhoea and vomiting and died on the way to the hospital,” he shares.

Official apathy

Access to potable water is not the only problem looming large in the faces of people living in scattered villages, including Sono Khan Chandio, Seeta, Kehri and Shaallo. Donkeys and camels are the common means of transportation in the villages as not even a single road has been built in the neglected areas. The areas fall under the domain of provincial assembly seat PS-42 and National Assembly seat NA-206, from where chieftains of Chandio and Magsi tribes, Nawaz Sardar Ahmed and Nawaz Aamir Magsi, respectively, have been elected.

According to local residents, politicians, elected representatives and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have neglected their regions in similar manner. An elderly woman, Hawa Guramani, walks barefoot. “If nothing else, drinking water should be provided to us,” she says. “I, along with other women of this area, have spent most of my life searching the sweet water wells and reservoirs as underground water is not fit for drinking.” The abject poverty that these people live in reflects from their faces.

“It takes around a half day to reach district headquarter Kamber, which is hardly a one-hour drive of a car if roads are built,” says a herdsman, Ghulam Mohammad Marfani. According to him, in cases of emergencies, they carry their loved ones on camels and donkeys to reach a nearby small town, Gabi Dero, wherefrom they get transport. “There is only one bus on this route, which leaves for Kamber early morning and comes back before sunset,” he says.

Since the land is barren, people’s source of income is mostly livestock. “We grow different kind of vegetables and crop when rain lashes this area,” shares Marfani. However, he adds, lots of animals and people, especially children, die in the area due to malnutrition and drought, which hits the area every year. “No one takes notice,” he laments.

Official version

When The Express Tribune tried to contact Nawab Aamir Magsi, he did not attend the phone. Meanwhile, Nawab Sardar Ahmed Chandio, the most influential person of this area, counted a number of initiatives on his part. “We have included some roads schemes in the annual development plan and provided water to those areas where contamination level is high,” he said, adding that a few Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants have also been installed in nearby town so that people can get potable water.

“We have also started tanker service in some areas,” he said, adding that the right bank outfall drain, which carries the contaminated water from Balochistan, has created a mess by contaminating the underground water. “The drain’s poisonous water penetrates wherefrom it crosses,” he said. According to him, the water crisis has worsened due to lack of rains in the area.

Shamshir Bhutto, the deputy commissioner of the area, said that he has recently taken charge and will probe into the problems. His assistant said that the district government has installed solar panels in these villages to resolve electricity and drinking water issue. He added that water pumping wind mills will be installed and this scheme is in the process of approval.

Group worries about industry pushing back
against long-standing regulations to keep water clean.

by Mitch Reynolds, originally posted on January 3, 2017

 

 

Some conservationists are warning that Wisconsin is in the midst of a clean water access crisis.

As industry tries to push back against long-standing regulations that aim to keep the state’s water supply clean and available, Kerry Schumann from Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters says 2017 is setting up to be another year of challenges in the legislature.

“There were a number of pieces in legislation in the Wisconsin legislature that, frankly, were really bad for conservation and really bad for people in Wisconsin,” Schumann said.

Her group contends that access to clean drinking water in the state is at a crisis point, and blames a chronically understaffed Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources for a lack of enforcement of laws pertaining to safe water.

“They want safe drinking water,” she said. “They want places to hunt and hike and fish. They want to know that their well isn’t going to run dry.”

Schumann also says the issue is a big one for voters of any political party.

 

A life and death issue in Bangladesh

by Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, originally posted on January 3, 2017

 

There is no exaggerating how crucial water is for human survival, particularly in countries like Bangladesh, which is crisscrossed by rivers. The level of water in a river here directly affects the lifestyles and livelihoods of the people living on its two sides, so much so that rivers and water bodies of varied sizes are an inseparable part of Bengali culture and heritage.

Several hundred rivers and their tributaries flow through the country. However, some of the rivers — often called the lifelines of Bangladesh — are dying, inflicting prolonged suffering on the people. For example, the 309-kilometre Teesta flows through northern Bangladesh and drains an area of 12,540 square kilometres on its way from the Himalayas to Fulchhari of Gaibandha in Bangladesh where it meets the Jamuna.

The river, which can be up to 2.5 kilometres wide, is reduced to a width of about 70 metres during the winter and is even narrower or completely dry at some places during the very dry season (March and April). This leaves fishermen without work and farmers in acute need of water for irrigation.

While a dearth of water plagues the people of northern Bangladesh, particularly during winter, the middle and southern parts of the country reels from its overabundance, particularly during the monsoon. Also, salinity ingress in the surface and groundwater in the coastal region has reached such a state that not even grass can grow in some areas and people face an acute shortage of drinking water.

Someone said that a third world war may be fought over water. And it indeed is turning out to be a serious issue, not only in Bangladesh but also worldwide. In any case, quality water access on the one hand and devastation caused by flooding on the other are the hallmarks of water being the cause of large-scale suffering of people in many parts of the world. Water-related natural disasters have occurred in the past, but are increasing in recent times in terms of both frequency and extent of the devastations caused.

The reasons behind various water sector problems include a growing population, fast expanding economic activity, spreading water pollution, and the consequences of climate change.

In Bangladesh, as a matter of fact, the average annual per capita availability of water is robust — 7,568 cubic metres per capita, around five times higher than that in India. However, the highly uneven seasonal and spatial distribution of available water in Bangladesh poses serious problems. Adequate water access for drinking or for other purposes by certain groups of large numbers of people and in certain areas of the country is becoming increasingly serious.

Another set of problems related to the water sector arises as Bangladesh is at the bottom of three major rivers systems—the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. A particular feature in this context is severe water scarcity in certain parts of Bangladesh in the dry season, Jan. 1 to May 31, particularly in March and April, due to low-flows through transboundary rivers as a result of excessive upstream abstraction. Also, floods in Bangladesh mostly originate upstream. Hence, regional cooperation in water management is an important issue.

Increasing salinity in water in coastal areas, arsenic contamination of water, and water pollution caused by human actions are becoming increasingly serious problems. Devastating floods and prolonged droughts also affect various areas of the country from time to time.

Clean, accessible water for all is the sixth among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. The Sheikh Hasina-led Government of Bangladesh is working relentlessly to achieve the goals well before the 2030 deadline. The country already has necessary policies to save the rivers and other water-bodies and to ensure even distribution of quality water.

What the country now needs is stricter enforcement of the policies and relevant laws, and more effective efforts from both government and non-government actors in realising the goal of ensuring accessibility to quality water for all.

Ensuring accessibility to quality water for all is a must for sustainable development. And this has to be ensured before it is too late.

 

by Kelly Bostian, originally posted on January 11, 2017

 

Dead fish and turtles, a creek with 100-degree water twice as salty as seawater, and a public water supply scare for the city of Pawhuska — and nearly five months later, answers are yet to come.

The Environmental Protection Agency continues to look for a pollution source on North Bird Creek in Osage County that was first reported on the Chapman Ranch on Aug. 14.