by Masembe Tambwe, originally posted on May 20, 2016

Amost every day, water makes the headlines somewhere in the world. Droughts, floods and pollution are all big news, as water becomes the most precious, and most contested, essential resource.

Today, however, the biggest story is that more than 650 million of the world’s poorest people are living without access to an ‘improved’ source of drinking water.

The price paid by these communities – in wasted income, ill-health, and lost productivity – is extremely high and has a devastating impact from the family to the national level.

According to the WaterAid state of the world’s water 2016 report, in 16 countries, more than 40 per cent of the population does not have access to even a basic water facility such as a protected well.

People from impoverished, marginalised communities have no choice but to collect dirty water from open ponds and rivers, or spend large chunks of their income buying water from vendors.

“This water is always a health risk; in many cases, it proves deadly. Globally, diarrhoea diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation are the second biggest child killer after pneumonia, taking 315,000 young lives every year,” the report reads in part. What’s more, water resources are becoming increasingly fragile as populations grow, land use changes and deforestation continues.

These threats will be exacerbated by the effects of climate change and have a disproportionately large impact on poor people without a safe, reliable water supply. Ignoring this reality is not an option.

Access to affordable water is a human right: “Paying for water and sanitation services must not limit one’s capacity to pay for other essential goods and services.”Achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development will be impossible in a world where one in ten people are trapped in a cycle of poverty and disease for want of a safe, affordable water supply of their own.

In Tanzania, recent projections indicate that the annual average of available water per capita in Tanzania will fall by 30 per cent from 1,952 cubic metres to 1,400 cubic metres between 2014 and 2025 as a result of diminution of water resources and population boom.

Speaking at the opening of a symposium organised by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with the theme ‘Making catchment governance work for all in situations of water scarcity and complexity’, the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Eng Gerson Lwenge, said that the annual renewable water resource is 87 cubic kilometres and the annual average of available water per capita was 1,952 cubic metres in 2014 contrary to 2,700 cubic metres in 2001.

“The government has been and is keenly implementing water sector significant reforms in terms of policy, institutional and legal frameworks, to enhance efficient and effective management of water resources,” he said.

He said that this transformational set up strengthens sector institutions for improving the integrated water resources management and development and ensuring that the number of people with access to sustainable water resources reaches the targets aspired by macroeconomic policies such as the National Development Vision 2025.

It was due to such disheartening statistics that Tigo Tanzania is trying to lend a hand in helping out by digging and donating water boreholes in areas that have serious water shortages.

Studies show that even in most rural areas where there is water, the rural communities have to walk for two to three kilometres in search of the commodity either to the public taps or where there are natural streams and rivers.

Among the areas that have, year in, year out, borne the brunt of water scarcity is Singida Region. The region was Tigo’s first point of focus in the telecom’s quest to support the government in its efforts to provide the important social amenity to its citizens. Despite the government’s formulation of a major water sector reform policy in 2002, water availability and sanitation remains low in most areas.

Early this year, Tigo donated 12 water boreholes worth over 174m/- in villages in Singida in a bid to ‘alleviate the existing shortage of safe and clean water in the country’.

Speaking at a handover ceremony held at Mtinko Village in Singida Region recently, Tigo North Zone Director, Mr George Lugata, said the donation is in line with the company’s commitment to support community initiatives seeking to uplift people’s living conditions. The villages that benefited from the donation with their districts in bracket are Lulumba, Kisana, Kisonzo, Songambele, Kinyeto and Damankia.

Others are Muungano, Ighuka, Kamenyanga, Sasajila, Mtinko and Kinampanda. “The donation is part of Tigo’s investment on social projects that have high impact on the community. We believe that through these boreholes, Tigo is helping to solve perennial water shortage in this part Singida region partly caused by lack of sufficient rains particularly in the past four years,” Lugata said.

Mr Lugata said the scarcity of water in most districts in Singida Region has led to residents wasting a lot of time in search of the commodity, a practice Tigo hopes will now come to an end with the provision of wells.

The handover was witnessed by the Minister for Water & Irrigation, Eng Gerson Lwenge who thanked Tigo for the timely donation, saying the boreholes will greatly reduce the persistent water shortage in the area and help to bolster the residents’ social and economic wellbeing.

Calling other stakeholders to join the effort the minister said: “We sincerely thank Tigo for supporting us in our effort to solve the existing shortage of water in Singida and indeed in other regions in the country.

We believe the 12 boreholes will go a long way in reducing this recurrent social problem.” Ms Elizabeth Kingu, a resident of Mtinko village, thanked the telecom saying: “Am very grateful for the donation of these wells because I can now access clean, safe drinking water near my home.

Previously, I was travelling for over ten kilometres to access water”. Echoing her sentiments, John Makalla, a father of four children said: “My family was wasting a lot of time trekking for kilometres to look for clean water.

Now, with the donation of these boreholes from Tigo, my wife and children can get water easily and have ample time to perform other core duties”. The impact of water shortage in most cases leads to a combination of epidemic diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and typhoid.

In 2010, statistics from Tanzania’s ministry of water indicated that only about 44 per cent of people in the rural areas had access to safe drinking water. The availability of the commodity in urban areas, the report noted, stood at about 79 per cent.

VietNamNet Bridge – A number of organisations have signed a joint action programme in Ha Noi yesterday  (May 19) to support farmers affected by drought, saltwater intrusion, and massive seafood death.

orginally posted on May 20, 2016

The signatories include the Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee along with the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour, the Vietnamese Farmers Association, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Association of Vietnamese War Veterans, the Viet Nam Red Cross Society, the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Viet Nam Fisheries Association.

President of the VFF Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan said with the goal of developing closer and more effective co-ordination, the involved parties agreed to directly support 450,000 households amounting to 1.8 million people suffering from water shortages.

Due to massive fish deaths in central provinces, 12,500 fishing boats are yet to head back out to sea, affecting 63,000 fishermen, he said, adding that the Government had put forth a programme to assist locals with rice, money and loans.

In the next three to four months, there is an urgent need to help 6,000 households buy social insurance cards and enable their children to go to school, he said, adding that this required close co-ordination between relevant agencies.

Accordingly, the involved parties would mobilise necessary financial resources in June 2016 and transfer the money to support the affected localities next month, he said.

The action programme aims to supply fresh water to around 45,000 families affected by saltwater encroachment in the Mekong Delta, and drought in the Central Highlands and south central region, while purchasing health insurance cards for around 6,000 underprivileged households affected by massive fish deaths.

The involved parties will also inspect the delivery of the State’s urgent assistance to fishermen in central Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien-Hue provinces in accordance with the Prime Minister’s Decision 772/QĐ-TTg issued on May 9, 2016.

EU aid

In a related move, the European Union is providing 90,000 euros (about US$101,000) in humanitarian funding to assist the most severely-affected populations in the Central Highlands and the Mekong Delta regions.

This EU-funding is part of the 178,000 euro package allocated from the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to support the Viet Nam Red Cross Society (VNRC) in delivering much-needed assistance, including the provision of safe drinking water, the promotion of good hygiene and health care practices, and unconditional cash transfers for the poorest households to meet food and other priority needs. The humanitarian aid will directly benefit 17,600 of the most vulnerable individuals, impacted by the climatic events in seven of the hardest-hit provinces, namely Ben Tre, Binh Thuan, Gia Lai, Long An, Soc Trang, Tien Giang and Tra Vinh.

The drought, which has hit the southern and central regions of Viet Nam, has caused water shortages affecting some two million people. Approximately 1.1 million people are in need of food aid, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In the Mekong Delta, prolonged drought and the reduction in groundwater levels have resulted in the most extensive saltwater intrusion in 90 years into more than 400,000ha of crops with varying degrees of productivity loss. Another 25,9000ha have not been planted at all.

Governor Jerry Brown announced today that the California drought is over and lifted the executive order throughout the state except in four counties.
Monster storms this winter erased nearly all signs of drought, blanketing the Sierra Nevada with deep snow, California’s key water source, and boosted reservoirs.
“The new executive order keeps in place monthly water reporting from local agencies and prohibition of excess water waste,” he said.
“With the governor’s plan going forward, wasting water will be enforced perpetually to make sure our water is being used properly.” As California’s population grows, the most efficient way to stretch and ensure water is to conserve, Kostyrko said.
As for the city of Folsom, Marcus Yasutake, director of the environmental and water resources department, said the city is in the same boat it was last May.
Last May, City Manager Evert Palmer required Folsom residents to conserve their water usage by 10 percent and Yasutake said the city will continue to keep this requirement in place.
The four counties still under the emergency executive order are the counties of Fresno , Kings, Tulare and Tuolumne.
These four counties have emergency drinking water projects that will continue to help boost diminished groundwater supplies.
“This could mean the ground water dried up or was contaminated.
They will continue to receive tanks and bottles water for drinking.” For more information on the new executive order, go to waterboards.ca.gov.

Fifty three per cent of Fiji’s population living in rural areas do not have access to proper drinking water.

originally posted on September 18, 2016

This has prompted the World Health Organization to donate thirteen Potatest and four Potalab kits to the Health Ministry which will be used to test the quality of drinking water in rural areas.

In his last address as Health Minister, Jone Usamate highlighted the lack of access to drinkable water.

Rural water drinking quality is a major issue in this country and I have come to realise this over the two years while being here. Water is a basic necessity for life and that is in making sure that our people can live well, stay well and get well.

Usamate says the portable kits donated by the World Health Organisation will enhance and strengthen the Ministry’s role in monitoring drinking water.

WHO and UNICEF are providing technical assistance towards a national water quality surveillance system.

To the editor: The Fryeburg Water District was established by a special act of the Maine Legislature in 2006.
The enabling legislation (L.D.
The mission statement of the Fryeburg Water District declares: “The trustees of the Fryeburg Water District promote stewardship of all relevant natural resources to ensure safety and access to water sources for the purpose of extending quality and quantity to future generations.” It further recognizes that “preservation and conservation with oversight and management by local communities and citizens is vital for our independence and security.” We, the trustees of the Fryeburg Water District, take our responsibilities under the law and our mission statement seriously.
We are charged with ensuring that the residents and businesses within the district enjoy continued access to an adequate supply of clean and safe drinking water.
To this end, we are given certain powers under Title 35-A, Chapter 64 of the Maine Revised Statutes, which allow the trustees to carry out duties pursuant to the authority granted by the state.
We were surprised to learn recently that one of Fryeburg’s selectmen proposed to abolish the District at the Fryeburg Board of Selectmen meeting held on March 16.
As recently as 2013, the voters of Fryeburg rejected a measure to place the trustees into “inactive status” by an almost 2-1 margin.
We were further perplexed because the selectman in question had attended our regular meeting two days prior to making his proposal and had failed to raise any concerns about any aspect of the Fryeburg Water District’s activities whatsoever, whether on the part of any individual trustee or the board as a whole.
Our open public meetings are intended to give an opportunity for all of Fryeburg’s citizens to share their opinions and concerns with board members, and we invite all who are concerned with the continued viability of our water resources to come forward and make their views known.
The trustees of the Fryeburg Water District are convinced that the continued existence of the district is vital for the well-being of all of Fryeburg’s citizens and businesses.

by Luke Broadwater, originally posted on December 20, 2016

As Baltimore switches to monthly water billing, some residents say they have received bills for tens of thousands of dollars more than they actually owe.

One homeowner in Baltimore’s Medfield neighborhood got hit with a $35,000 water bill. Another in Northwest Baltimore received a bill for more than double that amount. A third, in South Baltimore, was even higher: Nearly $81,000.

“Obviously, we were startled by such an absurd amount,” homeowner Michael Matten said.

Joanna Handley of Medfield said she thought about moving out of the city after receiving the $35,000 bill this month.

“It was terrifying,” Handley said. “You’ve seen things on the news where they take people’s homes over water bills. I almost burst into tears.”

City officials say they’ve corrected Handley’s and Matten’s bills, and are working on other complaints.

City public works officials, who began moving some 200,000 city water customers from quarterly to monthly billing in October, acknowledge that there have been some issues. They have also switched to new wireless water meters that are supposed to improve billing accuracy, after years of complaints.

Previously, workers checked each meter individually, and sometimes made errors when recording readings.

A public works spokesman said the problems have been relatively few, considering the large number of accounts involved.

“While we switched over nearly 200,000 accounts, after putting all the new meters [in], a handful of accounts needed additional work,” spokesman Jeffrey Raymond wrote in an email. “We have taken steps to make sure the system is, in fact, catching these rare mistakes.”

originally posted on December 19, 2016

Many small towns do supply water to their residents through taps but the water, in fact, is getting pumped up from the ground

-by Rahul Chandran, originally posted on December 19, 2016

Bengaluru: The census of 2011 says that a little more than half the population of India’s 5,705 towns have access to treated water supply, but that statistic may be disingenuous, some analysts say.

Many small towns, including three on the outskirts of Bengaluru, do supply water to their residents through taps but the water, in fact, is getting pumped up from the ground.

The town of Hosakote is an example.

Hosakote is a small municipality of 56,613 people just to the north-east of Bengaluru in Karnataka. But unlike its far larger neighbour to the south-west, Hoskote does not have the benefit of surface water. It gets all its water from 107 tubewells, 74 of which are within the town limits and 33 are outside of the town area, according to R. Mudharangaiah, a municipality official.

The town’s website says it supplies 1.15 million litres of water a day to its 56,613 people, which is about 20 litres of water per person per day.

The average bucket holds between eight and twenty litres.

Nearly 42% of India’s 377 million urban people live in the so-called metropolitan towns, many of which have cropped up around existing urban centres.

Doddaballapur to Bangalore’s northern outskirts, just past its airport, has 85 borewells, which supply water to the town’s over 93,000 residents. In Nelamangala town, the municipality owns 105 borewells of which 102 are operational according to the municipality’s chief. It provides water to an estimated 3,500 connections.

The census makes a distinction between tap water and water from a tubewell or handpump, among other things. However, one expert says the distinction it draws is merely in the mode of supply of water, not the actual source.

In water “they confuse between the source of supply and the method of supply, and in the sanitation, they confuse between the mode of disposal and the point of disposal,” said S. Viswanath, who runs the India Water Portal.

Viswanath said the problem was that the census data is based on citizens’ responses. “So, the citizen may or may not know the source of water at all. Now if I get water in my tap, generally, I am not aware where it is coming from.”

Viswanath said that while there were no numbers on where much of urban India gets its water from, the general assumption was that at least half of the water came from underground sources.

Where India gets its water from becomes more important with the pace and extent of our urbanization. Apart from 468 so-called class-I cities (cities with populations in excess of 100,000 but below one million), India has 5,648 of the so-called class-II towns or those with populations up to 100,000.

“You cannot assume that tap water means surface water,” said Usha Raghupathi, a professor at the National Institute of Urban Affairs. “A lot depends on where the city is located.”

A 2016 study by the National Institute of Urban Affairs said that a mere 15 of the country’s more than 5000 towns formally classified urban has 100% coverage of tap water.

“This is nothing new. So, census is not the appropriate source for information on how much water is coming from the use of surface water, how much from ground water. This is maintained essentially by the central water commission with inputs from the (Central) Ground Water Board.,” said Pronab Sen, former chief statistician of India.

Sen said small towns could not have access to surface water for the simple reason that the economics of water treatment plants don’t work out.

“So, all habitations, as they grow, will continue to depend on groundwater up to a point. But by and large, these places draw very little water. Because most of these places require water essentially for drinking and household purposes and if you look at water usage in India, drinking and household purposes accounts for less than 10% of the water use. 90% is for agriculture and industry, of which agriculture is the dominant with about 78%,” Sen said, adding that just saying many towns got their water from tubewells wouldn’t mean much because urban water requirements were much lower than the rate of recharge of the underground aquifers.

originally posted on July 6, 2016

Huarochiri (Lima region), Jul. 6. Government investments worth S/2.50 billion (about US$757.57 million), in water projects, will ensure full access for Lima and Callao residents, President Ollanta Humala Tasso announced on Wednesday.

Project to cause temporary disruptions as main replacement project moves through downtown

– by Andrew Doerfler, originally posted on July 6, 2016

NORTH ATTLEBORO — Residents and businesses on the side streets off North Washington Street should brace for interruptions to water service as the downtown water main replacement project continues.

Revoli Construction, the contractor for the project, has finished pressure-testing and chlorinating the new water main between Elm and Fisher streets, and will now move to connecting the side streets.

To do that, workers will have to shut off water in certain spots for a few hours at a time. The department of public works will be using the Connect CTY notification system to alert residents before water is shut off.

The interruptions should occur overnight into the early-morning hours from now until early next week. Work is being done between 10 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., though on two occasions issues have caused it to extend later into the morning.

A tie-in on Church Street went until 8 a.m., leaving some without water in the morning.

Regardless, Public Works Director Mark Hollowell said the work is on schedule and going as smoothly as possible for an inevitably disruptive project.

The work drew some flak from selectmen after it stalled for multiple nights at an intersection in front of Pace Plaza, keeping residents awake. About two-dozen residents filed a petition for selectmen to intervene, and board members responded by saying construction shouldn’t be done in one spot two nights in a row.

But Hollowell said because of the linear nature of the water main project, workers can’t hop to other spots.

“It really is unavoidable,” Hollowell said. “The project is not like planting a garden.”

The department of public works has boxes of earplugs available to residents, though none have been taken.

The department is hoping the night work on the stretch between Elm and Fisher streets will be done by the end of next week. Revoli Construction will then start daytime work on the more residential stretch between Fisher and Park streets.

To report any problems, residents can call 508-643-6636 or fill out a form on the town’s website, nattleboro.com.