originally posted on June 3, 2016

 

Bong County – Citizens of Kuwah Town located Kpatolie Clan in Salala District lower Bong County are appealing to government for the provision of Safe drinking water.

The citizen said they are finding very difficult to have access to safe drinking water especially during the peak of the dried season. Speaking in an interview with the Liberia News Agency in Kuwah Town today, the Town Chief of Kuwah Town, Mr. Bigboy George said his town lacks access to safe drinking water, road, clinic and school in the town. Town Chief George further to the Liberia News Agency currently his town only has a hand pump that is in a dilapidated condition as a result each household are compelled to draw a bucket of water for drinking on a daily basis. Talking on medication of any of his citizens when they gets critically ill and needs medical attention, they have tote them in hammock miles away for treatment adding ,” if a woman is between 4- 5 months pregnant, she and her husband will have relocate themselves to avoid any foreseeable situation”. Kuwah Town currently has a population of over 600 persons that have to drink from a dilapidated hand pump that was constructed by an NGO, Concerned World Wide. Town Chief George also lamented that the only school building in the town lacks furniture and all basic instructional material and just one instructor to teach the entire school. Speaking further on education, Town Chief George said his town has just an elementary school with just one teacher and when graduates from there will have to walk miles away from the Town either to Salala in Lower Bong County or Gibi District and Kakata City, Margibi County. “f these students parent cannot afford to support them further they usually just a mere elementary school graduate as they are located in a area in Bong County that is so difficult for them have their children supported to further their education as life was very difficult for them to do so”, Town George averred.

by Liesl Peyper. originally posted on June 2, 2016

 

Cape Town – Although 89.4% of households in South Africa have access to piped water, less than half of them enjoy water in the comfort of their own homes.

According to the General Household Survey 2015, released by Statistician General Pali Lehohla on Thursday, an estimated 45.8% of South Africans had access to piped water in their dwellings. A further 27% could access water on-site and 14% relied on communal taps, while 2.7% had to use a neighbour’s tap.
Generally household access to water improved since 2002, but 4.4% of South African households had to fetch water from streams, rivers, stagnant water pools and springs. This is down from 9.5% of households in 2002.

While access to piped water has significantly improved, a number of households around the country are not satisfied with the quality or provision of water.

Less than two-thirds (62%) of households said water services were “good” in 2015 – slightly higher than the 60.1% recorded in 2012, but significantly lower than the 76.4% approval rating in 2005.

The dissatisfaction rate with water services reflected in the Household Survey correlated with the results of the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Blue Drop Report of 2014, which was released in January this year.

According to the report, the quality of South Africa’s drinking water has dropped by 8% between 2013 and 2014, while the number of municipalities that received Blue Drops (systems that supply excellent water quality) more than halved from 98 in 2012 to 44 in 2014.

originally posted on June 1, 2016

 

The government has admitted that an inquiry commission set up last year to look into the issue of contaminated water at public housing estates has flagged several concerns, but said there is no need to pin the blame on any particular individual.

At a news conference Tuesday, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said a flawed regulatory system in various government departments led to the tainted water scare, but there is no evidence to suggest that any single official was responsible for the problem.

Blaming it on a systemic failure, Lam said she doesn’t believe that any individual should be made to resign over the scandal, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported.

The comments came after the Independent Commission of Inquiry that was established last July to look into the water contamination issue submitted its final report to the government on May 11.

Unveiling the panel’s findings Tuesday, Lam said the problems arose to due “collective” failure of multiple government departments, and that the report does not apportion the blame on any individual.

The government accepts the inquiry panel’s criticism, Lam said, stressing that the right approach is to look at the recommendations and fix the systemic defects that have been revealed.

Lam did not respond to a reporter who asked why the top government official did not bother to apologize to the public openly for the tainted water scandal, even though some of her colleagues –transport and housing secretary Anthony Cheung, development secretary Paul Chan, water supplies director Enoch Lam and housing director Stanley Ying — did so at the press conference.

The water contamination scandal came to light following revelations by Democratic Party lawmaker Helena Wong on July 5 last year.

Tests showed lead-tainted drinking water in a total of 11 public housing estates where tens of thousands of families reside.

Urging the government to review the laws and rules on water safety and quality, the Independent Commission of Inquiry said in a 266-page report that all related government departments are responsible for the scandal.

It singled out the Water Supplies Department (WSD) as the one that should take the most responsibility. The department’s testing process of water samples is problematic, resulting in failure to confirm the range and level of seriousness of lead-tainted water, the panel said.

As for the Housing Department, the report blamed it for failing to establish a system that can effectively prevent use of lead solder in water pipelines.

Without asking any official to step down, the commission made 17 suggestions, including re-launching tests on drinking water in all public housing estates as well as establishing an independent team to monitor the performance of WSD as well as drinking water quality.

The police said on Tuesday that they have received the commission’s report and that the commercial crime bureau will look into the issue.

Meanwhile, China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong), which was the major contractor of pipeline work at the affected public housing estates, said in a statement Tuesday that it respects the conclusions of the inquiry commission and that it will work closely with the government to follow up on the suggestions.

originally posted on June 1, 2016

 

Villagers in rural Ahwaz, already deprived of basic services by the Iranian regime, warn that conditions are worsening as the regime fails to repair aging and broken water pipes, leaving residents without any water in summer temperatures that routinely exceed 40 Celsius.

Speaking to the regime’s official Fars News Agency, Shoja Lattifi, the head of the rural health department in Shush(Susa) city in the region, said that the current water services provided to the surrounding villages are of a sub-zero standard. Lattifi explained that the irrigation networks in the area are malfunctioning severely, with most of the pipes completely out of service. He said that the main pipe carrying drinking water to the village of Esteghlal had burst in two separate places two months ago, massively reducing the water pressure levels and leaving at least 20 households with little or no water at all. He added that despite repeated requests to the relevant regime departments requesting materials and repairs, no action had been taken to rectify the situation, with residents forced to dig wells in order to obtain water, which is brackish and unfit for human consumption. In the meantime, he continued, the original holes in the pipes supplying the village have grown, worsening the already intense water shortages.

The water shortages and resulting sanitation problems in the village which is located in the Shush’sShavoor area of Ahwaz, particularly as the soaring summer temperatures reach their height, have led to many complaints from the residents, more than 100 households.

Another Ahwazi village in the area, Kazim Jabirerat, also faces similar severe water shortages, the official told Fars, adding that, like many villages and rural communities across north of Ahwaz region (also known as Khuzestan province), it has suffered from long-term deprivation and neglect by regime officials.

The problems in these Ahwazi villages are not limited to water shortages, Lattifi told Fars, also extending to basic services like education and healthcare. The endemic poverty in the region and the lack of any high school leads to many children, particularly girls, dropping out of full-time education after completing their primary education.

Hadi Kaab Omer, a senior village official in Kazim Jabirerat interviewed by Fars about the water problems, said that the people of the village had been deprived of potable drinking water for years, with many residents forced to dig ground wells to provide water for themselves and their livestock. Omer added that he and other representatives from the area had repeatedly informed municipality officials in Shosh about the problems, requesting urgent action to be taken to remedy this critical situation which poses potential risks to public health from water-borne diseases contracted from drinking brackish water from ground wells, but had received no response or assistance.

Omer added that another severe problem for the village is the lack of any sort of health centre or clinic in the area to provide basic healthcare services to the 92 households there.

The problems afflicting the villages and rural areas around Shush, also including intermittent electricity services, have led to widespread discontent and unhappiness among the Ahwazi Arab residents, Fars reported, adding that they pose a massive challenge to providing any sustainable rural development.

Unfortunately, these problems are common across Ahwaz region, where deprivation is a norm rather than an exception, despite the fact that over 90 percent of the oil reserves claimed by the Iranian regime are located in the region. Many Ahwazi Arabs feel that the regime’s negligence and discriminatory policies mean they are not viewed as citizens; despite nominally having the same rights granted to all citizens, Ahwazis appear to be denied even the right to have rights.

The world does not bother to observe what goes on to such persecuted people. It seems that the plight of the oppressed and impoverished Arab people of Ahwaz who doomed to live under the Iranian regime’s atrocious oppression does not run counter to the interest, moral and democratic values of the West. Preferably, they start doing business with the theocratic regime at the expense of oppressed ethnic minorities in Iran.The West should stop pretending that they are standing for the right.

by Henry Beaucejour, originally posted on June 1, 2016

 

If Canada is considered to be the best country in the world to live in, then without a doubt Haiti with all of its very big problems, political, economic and social, must currently be one of the worst countries to live in

There are huge problems as far as water resources and also sanitation infrastructure is concerned. Only 70% of the population has access to safe water resources and fewer than 20% has access to adequate sanitation. The problems experienced with sanitation in this country are very similar to some countries in sub-Saharan Africa and it doesn’t even come close to the regional average of 80% sanitation for most Caribbean and Latin American countries.

Even more astounding, the number of people with access to sanitation has decreased between 1995 and 2010 and this is in large measure due to the huge earthquake that struck this country in 2010, which led to the death of over 250,000 people and a further 500,000 injured. These calamities have to some degree contributed to the issues relating to sanitation.

According to statistics for 2010, only 85% of people in urban areas had access to drinking water, while those figures were only 50% of people in rural areas. When it comes to sanitation, even people in urban areas only 24% has satisfactory sanitation. However, when it comes to rural areas, fewer than 10% of the population has access to sanitation.

Currently there are so many things that are against the people of Haiti and it is an open question when effective assistance will be available. The infrastructure problems, especially surrounding sanitation and water is causing a very large problem as far as the country’s cholera epidemic is concerned. In 2010, there was a huge epidemic that resulted in over 630,000 cases of cholera, of which over 8,000 led to death.

This disease is spread primarily through water consumption and in particular when that water has been contaminated with human waste. Because of the almost nonexistent sanitation infrastructure and because there are no means of effectively treating drinking water this leaves the people of this country exposed to serious cholera epidemics and it becomes all the more serious because the people do not yet have a natural resistance to this sickness. There was no previous exposure to cholera in this country.

There are some organizations internationally that committed themselves to decrease the proportion of people on this planet that are facing problems with water and sanitation by at least 50% in 2015. As anyone can see from the available statistics, it will require a gigantic effort to accomplish this goal in Haiti.

It will need considerably more commitment by international organizations to achieve even a small measure of their objectives, especially as far as Haiti is concerned. The problem with water is already very severe but it is three times as bad when it comes to sanitation and it is unlikely that this problem could be successfully addressed in the near future.

The problem is if those problems of water and sanitation are not addressed simultaneously then there is still no guarantee that contamination of water resources may not take place. One of the most important issues in this country in the ongoing war against cholera is the need for high-quality water.

by Kim Glas, originally posted on May 31, 2016

 

Let’s face it: our water infrastructure is crumbling. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that there are 240,000 water main breaks in the United States each year, averaging to about 700 each day. Leaky water pipes and other water waste accounts for the loss of an estimated 7 billion gallons of clean drinking water each day.

Meanwhile, there are as many as 10 million lead service lines that connect water mains to homes and public buildings such as schools and hospitals across the country. The information about where these pipes are, and their potential for leaching lead is largely unknown. Across the U.S. there are over 90,000 schools and over 500,000 childcare facilities that aren’t required to test their water for lead; potentially leaving America’s most vulnerable citizens—our children—exposed to lead poisoning.

The communities exposed to the potential consequences of lead poisoning are increasingly coming into focus. Cities like Washington, D.C. and Newark, New Jersey, are taking action to address elevated lead levels in their school water supplies. The health effects of lead poisoning are dire and long-lasting, affecting many generations of a community. Decreased cognitive function in children, premature birth, cardiovascular disease, and decreased kidney function are just some of the consequences of drinking lead-contaminated water.

We would be remiss not to mention that repairing America’s water infrastructure would create and sustain quality jobs across the country. Every $1 invested in upgrading water infrastructure in America result in increases by more than $3 to national economic benefits(accounting for multiplier effects of activity through all sectors of the economy).

In the wake of the events in Flint, the U.S. Senate Environmental, and Public Works Committee took action to help repair water infrastructure in communities across the nation—recently approving legislation to reauthorize the Water Resources Development Act or WRDA. This bill includes innovative provisions to ensure clean drinking water and to provide effective action to address lead contamination in Flint and around the country. The bill builds out a comprehensive plan that recommits the federal government to a critical role in water infrastructure investment, lead remediation and the strong drinking water protections provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this week approved their version reauthorizing WRDA, a bill that now heads to the House floor. But this bill falls short in addressing water infrastructure issues. It is critical that the final WRDA legislation addresses drinking water infrastructure in addition to investing in ports and protecting waterways, and keeps in place measures to ensure advanced U.S.- made materials are used in federally funded water projects and those efforts pay American workers fair wages.

Fixing our water infrastructure will ensure all Americans have access to clean, safe drinking water, will protect public health, and will create good jobs rebuilding the systems meeting our nation’s water needs. Congress needs, now more than ever, to work together to pass a strong WRDA bill with critical infrastructure investments.

If we don’t do something now, the problem is only going to get worse. The question is: how much worse does it need to get?

High court judge dismisses claims by mining firm Vedanta Resources that water contamination case against them and subsidiary KCM should be heard in Zambia.

by John Vidal, originally posted on May 27, 2016

 

Eighteen hundred Zambian villagers claiming to have had their water supplies polluted and their health affected by a giant mining company’s subsidiary have won the right to have their case heard in the British courts rather than in Zambia.

Vedanta, which is headquartered in London, had argued strongly in the high courtthat the villagers’ case against them and their subsidiary, KCM, should be heard in Zambia, where the alleged pollution took place near the town of Chingola and the giant Nchanga copper mine.

But high court judge Sir Peter Coulson dismissed the multinational’s claims, saying he feared that villagers would not get justice in their own country because they would not be able to afford lawyers, and because the Zambian legal system would not be able to cope with such a large and long trial.

“I am conscious that [this] could be seen as a criticism of the Zambian legal system,” he said. “I might even be accused of colonial condescension. But I am not being asked to review the Zambian legal system. I am bound to conclude [from the evidence] that the claimants would almost certainly not get access to justice if these claims were pursued in Zambia.”

People from the four villages of Shimulala, Hippo Pool, Hellen and Kakosa are seeking compensation for loss and damage they say they suffered to their land and their health. Their primary sources of water for drinking, washing, bathing and irrigating farms are surface water and shallow wells next to the giant Nchanga copper mine, which is operated by KCM.

Multinational companies based in rich countries mostly prefer to have environmental and human rights cases against them heard in developing countries. But in recent months several have challenged a trend by British lawyers to bring cases against them in London.

“For the last 15 years there have been no jurisdictional challenges from multinational companies against claims which we have successfully brought here on behalf of some of the poorest people from around the world,” said Martyn Day, of the law firm Leigh Day, which is representing the villagers.

“This year we’ve had three. The judgment today is the first of the three to be considered by the high court. Hopefully it will encourage UK-based multinationals to recognise that London is the appropriate place for these claims to be heard and for justice to be done.”

A full trial is unlikely before late 2017.

by Senator Ben Cardin and Gene Karpinski, originally posted on May 27, 2016

It is a daily routine for them during summer months

by T. Appala Naidu, originally posted on May 26, 2016

 

“If I can bicycle, I bicycle,” said renowned naturalist David Attenborough.

The girls of Kankatava panchayat on the outskirts of Machilipatnam remind the onlookers of Mr. Attenborough’s views on cycling.

The girls have taken to pedal to make available water to their families!

In several habitations of the panchayat, girls can be seen fetching at least four pots of water on the bicycle despite the total weight of pots being almost double the weight of the each girl.

Like Kodali Sukeerthi and K. Radhika, many from Nandana Colony pedal at least three kilometres to Saradayapalem to fetch sweet groundwater drawn from a hand pump. They have an option to fetch water from a well nearby, but the water isn’t that sweet.

At the age of 12, the two girls fetch at least eight pots of water in two trips from the well, which is almost going dry.

“Fetching water has become a daily routine for us during summer. Our friends too join us to fetch water from the well,” say Sukeerthi and Radhika.

“Since I know cycling, my mother need not walk all the way to fetch water. I am happy to play a key role in mitigating water woes of my family,” says Suni Kalluru, who is pursuing her bachelor’s degree.

Interestingly, girls outnumber boys in fetching water from the hand pump.

“The prospect of having to go all the way to the hand pump in case the well dries up is causing us a lot of worry,” says Ms. Suni.

Lack of access to potable water is causing a lot of hardship to at least 4,000 inhabitants of the panchayat, which comprises three hamlets — Nandana Colony, Gundetigunta, and Kattukuvanipeta.

“We hope the skies will open up sooner than later. We have survived this summer despite poor access to safe drinking water,” says Kolluri Rama Koteswara Rao, a villager.

Joana Bacallo, a Filipino flight attendant in a Middle East-based airlines, makes it her mission to bring clean water to rural areas

by Kim Rojas, originally posted on May 26, 2016

 

MANILA, Philippines – The problems we face are very basic but what we do about them will determine our future, said Joana Bacallo, a senior flight attendant and a balikbayan who fights to conserve and produce clean water.

Bacallo shared during a Rappler Talk on Tuesday, May 24, how her attendance in the World Water Week 2015 in Stockholm changed her life. This is how she discovered her advocacy for clean water.

“What shocked me was the fact that I was the only Filipino there,” she said.

Organized by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) – which provides water-wise solutions for sustainable development in 5 thematic areas: water governance, transboundary water management, climate change and water, the water-energy-food nexus, and water economics – World Water Week is the focal point for the world’s water issue.

In 2015, 3,000 individuals and almost 300 convening organizations from 130 countries joined the event. They “believe water is key to our future prosperity, and that together, we can achieve a water wise world.”

Every year, experts, practitioners, decision-makers, business innovators and young professionals from a range of sectors and countries come to Stockholm to network, exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions to the most pressing water-related challenges of today.

Solutions for PH

Bacallo thought that she needed to do something. She approached various global leaders and advocates and introduced herself as a “student of water.” After learning much about water, she learned the value of water and energy. She also realized that water is the number one global problem where every other issue stems from.

“That’s the start of me opening up some doors about water as energy. Water as a gender issue. I didn’t even know that water can be connected to gender. Then, I discovered, through my travels and I’ve seen it firsthand in Uganda, that women there have to get water. They spent 90% of their time collecting water instead of tending to other household activities,” Bacallo said.

This prompted her to start a water shop called Agua Pura in her apartment in Pasig City. She hired anyone near her apartment, even tambays (bystanders).

Bacallo, however, wanted to create a bigger impact to society. So from May 27 until June 1, she will hold her 30th birthday up at Mount Pulag, the 3rd highest mountain in the Philippines, and plans to provide a year’s worth of school supplies for the students of Mt Pulag Elementary School.

Through this event, Bacallo also wants to engage with people and the children at Mt Pulag to have fun, learn crafts, like photography, and most especially, talk about the water issue.

“My advocacy for clean water started with frustrations,” Bacallo shared. When she gets home after a long flight, she needs potable water, but the water in her place is not drinkable.

In the Philippines, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated that 26% of Filipinos do not have access to improved santiation. This is ironic considering the fact that that the country is an archipelagic nation surrounded by oceans and seas.

“Water is the fuel that burns inside my heart, and everywhere I go, this is what I see,” she added.

With El nino and global warming, water crisis comes into view in the Philippines. In April 2016, the country recorded a new heat index, reaching 51 degrees Celsius in Nueva Ecija.

According to the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), Metro Manila, Angeles City, Baguio, Cebu, and Davao will face severe water shortage, at least 10 years from now.

Water issue

Experts declared that with a 2 or 2.3% increase in annual population, the Philippines would have water shortage by 2025. How many years do Filipinos have left before their throats get dry?

More than that, half of Filipino households, as of 2011, did not try to make their drinking water safe, according to the latest National Nutrition Survey (NNS). Many households also do not have access to proper sanitation and hygiene. This can impact on individual health, and in the long-run, the country’s overall productivity.

ECCP stated that the Philippines is rich with freshwater supply. To effectively use them, proper management and usage must be applied. Through this, water can be more potable.

The question is who would initiate this?

Bacallo has been living in Dubai when she decided to come back home and confront the water crisis directly. When asked why go back and help in solving this problem, she answered: “Without my country, I would not have what I have now. Regardless where I go, I have to go back to my backyard.”

She added: “I have to go back because our countrymen need hope. If we start doing something, people will follow.