published on March 19, 2016

Guwahati: With election enthusiasm rising to fever pitch, the drinking water crisis in Assam has turned into a key poll issue.

According to the 2011 census, drinking water is available in only 55% households and only 27% houses have a source of water nearby. As per Census 2011, the availability of drinking water in households in Assam within the premises is 55%, near the household premises is 27%, and away from the household premises is 19%. Census 2011 defines the concept of ‘within the premises’ as the area of the household, and ‘near the premises’ in an urban scenario as 100m from the premises and 500m from the premises in a rural scenario. ‘Away’, in the urban scenario, is defined as beyond 100m from the household premises and in a rural area as beyond 500m.

published on March 17, 2016

17 March 2016 – Concerned about the continuing impact of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine on civilians, the United Nations today called on all parties to ensure access to safe water in Donetsk, after security concerns forced the evacuation of staff from a water treatment facility that serves thousands of people in the area.

Currently, availability of clean water for over 300,000 people living in the Donetsk area is at risk because staff of the Voda Donbassa water treatment plant were evacuated on 13 March due to increased insecurity in the area, according to a press release from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“Disruption of the water system is a serious problem. If the water station does not resume operations immediately, the consequences for innocent civilians are severe. I call on all parties to the conflict to respect civilian installations,” said Neal Walker, Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine.

The plant normally provides half of the demand for treated water for Donetsk city and the surrounding area. OCHA says that at least 30,000 people living in Avdiivka are experiencing water shortages. Local authorities are providing water through trucks to schools and kindergartens but this is not a sustainable solution. Officials indicate the city has sufficient water reserves until this Thursday.

“Access to reliable and safe water supply is of particular importance for children and women. Disruption of basic services for undetermined periods of time severely impacts on the most vulnerable,” said Giovanna Barberis, Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine.

originally published on March 13, 2016

BHUBANESWAR: Even after expenditure of hundreds of crores of rupees under drinking water and sanitation schemes, access of people to drinking water and latrine facilities in Odisha remains one of the lowest in the country.

According to the Economic Survey for 2015-16 released by the Centre recently, only 13.8 per cent of households have access to tap water while only 22.4 per cent of the people have drinking water facilities within the premises they reside.

Odisha remains far behind the national average of 43.5 per cent of households which have access to tap water and 46.6 per cent who have drinking water facilities within their premises.

The disparity across the States in terms of access to household amenities like tap water and latrine facilities is sharp. While access and coverage of latrine facilities is as high as 95 per cent in Kerala, 91 per cent in Mizoram and 89 per cent in Manipur, less than 25 per cent of households have access to latrine facilities within the household premises in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha. Odisha has been bracketed with States like Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam where less than 15 per cent households have access to piped water.

Official sources maintained that only 1,06,787 of total 81,73,296 rural households have pipe water connection. Of 47,149 villages in the State, only 17,210 have pipe water connection. The State Government has set a target to connect all villages with pipe water by 2025 and construct latrines for all households by 2019. However, the State Government is yet to fix a target as when all households in rural areas will be provided pipe water facility.

Meanwhile, the Centre has asked the State Government to enact State Water Resources Regulation Act to regulate water resources of the State in the event of any scarcity. Besides, the Centre has advised the State Government to establish State Water Board headed by the Chief Minister and State Water Council headed by the Chief Secretary to manage water resources.

Poor Show

Of 47,149 villages in the State, only 17,210 have pipe water connection

Less than 25 pc of households have access to latrine facilities

Access and coverage of latrine facilities is as high as 95 pc in Kerala

Govt has set a target to connect all villages with pipe water by 2025 and construct latrines for all households by 2019

• Around 3,700 homes in Derbyshire and Leicestershire still have no water

• Problems started yesterday after high levels of chlorine found in reservoir 

• Water company didn’t disclose exact chlorine levels or how problem began

• Superstores in the area are now completely sold out of bottled water

-by Lydia Willgress, Jay Akbar, Thomas Burrows, Kate Samuelson and Sophie Freeman

Thousands of homes in Derbyshire and Leicestershire are still without water as officials battle to flush out the contaminated supply.

As many as 3,700 Severn Trent Water customers were told they still could not access their water supply this morning after the company yesterday warned they could not drink, bathe or even ‘wash their toilets’ with it.

The contaminated supply has triggered panic buying across the region with thousands rushing to convenience stores and supermarkets in a desperate bid to buy bottled water.

Photographs showed a Tesco store in Ashby-de-la-Zouch with empty shelves after nearby homeowners stocked up – despite Severn delivering 48,000ltrs of water to the region’s supermarkets overnight.

Families were also forced to grab water from collection points, stocking trolleys with dozens of bottles so they could take some home.

A spokesman for Severn this morning confirmed a team was ‘working around the clock’ and said they hoped the problem would be sorted by lunchtime today. They added that homeowners should now be able to flush their toilets.

A statement on their website added: ‘We’re making good progress with flushing the system and will come back with an update for all our customers by lunchtime.’

Yesterday Severn Trent spokesman Jonathan Smith told MailOnline he could not disclose the levels of chlorine found in the Castle Donington reservoir.

He said: ‘There is more chlorine than there should be in the water… We can’t give you the levels that are in the water.

‘We don’t know if the level will be high enough that it will do damage to your skin.’

When asked if Severn Trent knew what caused the high chlorine levels, Mr Smith said: ‘No, we have to look at that in detail.’

He said the systems should be flushed by midday tomorrow and claimed people will have safe running water by evening time.

But the lack of information given out to residents has concerned many, with one mother, Maria Fowler, tweeting: ‘Will this affect my pregnancy? Slightly concerned as I have been drinking the water?’

Mother of two Sarah Yarnall, 34, of Woodville, Derbyshire, tweeted Severn Water at 7pm to ask if she was in the affected area.

Her husband Lee Shakespeare, 39, only found out about the water issue when his children’s school texted him.

The concerned father told MailOnline: ‘We went straight to the superstore Tesco in Ashby but all the water there had sold out by 5pm. My mother, who lives in Tamworth in Staffordshire, went to Co-op and ASDA to get some water for us, but it had sold out there too.

‘Other family members are now putting their tap water in bottles for us to pick up when we can.

Because Mr Shakespeare’s eight-year-old son Alistair is susceptible to sugar, which makes him hyperactive, they give him natural cordials diluted with tap water.

He said: ‘Obviously we can’t give him that at the moment. The only drinks available are sugary ones which we don’t want to give him.

‘Ariana [his one-year-old daughter] has a bath normally at around 6.30pm, so we’ve had to disrupt her regular routine. She’s a duck to water and absolutely loves bath time.’

‘We’ve been told that we can’t even flush the toilet in case the water splashes our skin. I’m also worried because I’ve washed dishes in the washing machine. It’s quite frightening – it sounds like it’s corrosive acid or something.

Mr Shakespeare said he was not surprised by the water problems today, adding: ‘Outside our house is a manhole cover for water and on Wednesday there was loads of what looked like sewer water coming out of it and it smelt like rotten eggs.

‘Severn Trent were racing up and down the road trying to fix it. We thought it was due to the heavy rain the night before. But now I’m not so sure.’

Others have told of feeling ill after drinking the tap water before Severn Trent warned them not to.

Darren Smith, 27, from Chellaston, told of feeling sick after drinking water in his home as he recovered from a cold.

He told the Derby Telegraph: ‘I feel very ill. I have been drinking loads of water all day to try and get better from a mild cold and now I’m much worse. I’m sure it’s down to drinking the water.’

Owen Pritchard, from Chellaston, knew something was wrong when he noticed an ‘extremely strong’ smell of chlorine coming from his dishwasher, telling Sky News: ‘It smelt a little like a swimming pool.’

And Sarah Durrant said: ‘The lack of communication [from Severn Trent] is really worrying.’

The One Stop convenience store in Chellaston, Derbyshire, ran out of bottled water in just two hours today, shift manager Angela Woodcock told MailOnline.

She said: ‘There is nothing at all left. People started coming in at around 2pm and by 4pm it was all gone.

‘We had a lot too – two big shelves of the big bottles (two litres) and three big shelves of the smaller bottles 750ml).

‘People are in shock, they’re panicking. Nobody knows what’s going on. They’re even buying bottles of flavoured water.

‘There have been people in shopping for elderly people, saying they’re concerned about them,’ added Angela, who will not have any water in the shop until Monday morning.

Jag Singh, the owner of Etwall Stores in Derby, sold more than 400 bottles of water worth thousands of pounds today.

Mr Singh, who made five trips to the Bestway Cash and Carry, told the Derby Telegraph: ‘It’s been absolute mayhem… People are all over the place and racing around to make sure they have water. This is a major issue and we’ve sold loads and loads.

He said people had not stopped coming to his shop since Severn Water announced the problem earlier today, adding: ‘I’ve never seen anything like it before.’

A worker at the Sainsbury’s superstore in Swadlincote said there was no water left in the entire store, adding: ‘It is a bit chaotic but we do have Severn Trent in the car park handing out water.’

Severn Trent yesterday said it has sent 24,000litres of water to the 3,700 customers – which could include homes, schools and businesses – who currently do not have access to any.

The company said it is using local newspapers, websites and social media to alert people – and it is directly calling elderly and vulnerable customers to tell them of the problem.

Assuming each customer has three dependents – meaning a total of around 11,000 people – each home is set to receive around one two-litre bottle each.

Severn Trent said they have ‘cut off the service’ to the reservoir where the problem was observed.

Principal inspector Sue Pennison said earlier today: ‘The normal level in a swimming pool is between two and four micrograms – this is a little bit higher than that.’

The company is now in the process of ‘flushing the pipes’ at the reservoir so the contaminated water is washed out.

‘This will take as long as it takes for us to be 100 per cent certain that our customers are safe,’ Mr Smith told Sky News earlier today.

Trent Water added in a statement: ‘A Do Not Use notice means that customers shouldn’t use their water supply for anything including drinking, preparing food and bathing.’

Severn Trent, which uses chlorine to make water clean enough to drink, said it does not know how long it will take to fix the issue.

Typically, chlorine levels in tap water in the UK are 0.5mg per litre, or less, according to Defra’s Drinking Water Inspectorate.

These levels are much lower than the maximum guideline set by the World Health Organisation of 5mg per litre.

by Mark Redsten, originally posted on March 12, 2016

The mishandling of the Flint, Mich., water supply directly challenges one thing we take for granted in the Midwest: clean, plentiful water. And as much as we want to believe that our water will always be clean and safe for all, it’s not.

With the national spotlight on drinking water contamination, it’s disappointing to acknowledge that Wisconsin has its own water crisis escalating in Kewaunee County. Here, unsafe levels of bacteria and nitrates have been detected in 30 percent of the county’s private drinking water wells. In a state that prides itself on having clean, safe and abundant water, this is unacceptable.

Sadly, places like Flint, Toledo, Ohio, and others have shown us what happens when we jeopardize our drinking water; Kewaunee is no different. Citizens here are experiencing sickness, rashes and other health issues, and they are burdened with the economic struggle of relying on bottled water for their daily needs. Strong scientific evidence suggests this contamination is linked to spreading too much manure on the local landscape; this is especially troublesome with the county’s Karst topography, where a thin layer of soil over porous rock allows contaminants like nitrates and bacteria to easily seep into the groundwater and residents’ drinking water.

We know the cause, the consequences and the solutions. Yet, there has been a failure to act.

The DNR’s recent announcement of forthcoming stakeholder group recommendations still leave Kewaunee County residents without access to safe, clean drinking water. In October 2014, our group joined with other local and state organizations and called on the Environmental Protection Agency to step in with three simple tasks: Help Kewaunee County citizens obtain clean drinking water, determine the source and extent of the contamination and hold the responsible parties accountable. Sixteen months later, Kewaunee residents are still seeking clean water.

In part, the DNR’s hands are tied. Their state funding has been cut, and the legislature continues to limit DNR’s authority to manage our state’s water resources; proposals to increase groundwater protections in places like Kewaunee County or to provide additional funds for well compensation programs have failed this session. Quite simply, we are letting the people of Kewaunee County — and Wisconsin — down and the consequences are severe: people become sick, homeowners cannot use their tapwater, economies suffer and quality of life plummets.

Kewaunee is the latest victim of a fundamental, systemic problem in our state, and surely won’t be the last. Because we can no longer wait for the state to act, we need the EPA to step up. Additional resources and oversight from the EPA would provide much-needed support to quickly implement workgroup recommendations, especially those aimed at providing immediate relief for citizens who need clean drinking water.

The state’s recklessness with Kewaunee County’s water resources and the health and safety of its residents qualifies Kewaunee to join Flint, Toledo and others on the list of drinking water crises in the U.S. This is unacceptable, and the time for responsible oversight and action has come. The people of Kewaunee County deserve better. They deserve clean and safe water.

In developing countries, women and girls spend an estimated 40 billion hours a year collecting water.

-by Jo Geere, originally posted on March 12, 2016

Since humans established permanent settlements and systems of agriculture, efforts to develop water supplies and waste management for the successful maintenance and growth of societies have been apparent. Archaeologists have found evidence of ancient wells, water pipes and both public and private bathing and toilet facilities in the Bronze Age. In ancient Greece and Rome, the importance of water for public health was recognized, and inequalities of access according to wealth and status must have been present.

In Europe, in more recent times, links between better water and waste management systems and improved public health were recognized in 1854, from the work of the physician John Snow in London’s Soho district during the cholera outbreak of the time. Snow’s communication with residents and careful observations traced the source of the cholera outbreak to a public water pump. The pump drew water from a well found to have loose bricks, allowing sewage from a nearby cesspool to easily contaminate it. This led to changes in water and waste systems of London and other cities, which were implemented to attempt to keep sewerage separate from water supplies. Since then, the public health, social and economic benefits of safe water and sanitation have been well-supported by research evidence.

Globally, people of many nations—or high income regions within nations—now enjoy the health benefits of vast, reliably maintained infrastructure and water management systems that pipe safe, clean water into people’s homes for drinking, cooking, washing and flushing their waste into sewerage systems. In these regions, people no longer have the responsibility of maintaining their own supply of safe water, or collecting water from a shared source outside of their own house or yard. Instead, people are billed, with variable levels of efficiency and cost recovery, for water services provided by government or private utility companies.

GAINING ACCESS

Despite the overwhelmingly clear evidence that providing safer, accessible and more reliable supplies of fresh water leads to healthier populations and economies, millions of people still struggle to access safe drinking water, and more than 840,000 people die each year from poor water, sanitation and hygiene.

The most commonly used definition of “access” is defined as having a source of safe water within 1 kilometer of the dwelling. It is estimated that in 2015, 663 million people still lacked access to “improved” drinking water sources. Improved sources are those deemed to be relatively protected from contamination and, therefore, likely to provide water safe for human consumption and household use, such as piped water supplies into the house, yard, boreholes or protected wells or springs.

Most unimproved sources—for example, surface water or unprotected wells or springs—and many improved water sources are located away from the home and publicly shared. Transportation of water from the supply point to the house is, therefore, required, and globally this is most often achieved through unpaid, informal work performed by women. In developing countries, women and girls spend an estimated 40 billion hours a year collecting water.

Significant inequalities exist at regional, national and even local levels. For example, within communities, particular households and individuals who must physically collect and carry their own water can face barriers to accessing sufficient safe water due to poverty, disability, ethnicity or age.

Jessica Budds and researchers at the University of East Anglia Water Security Research Centre, United Kingdom, highlight that only about 0.5% of water on Earth is usable freshwater, as most of the 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water on the planet (70% of the planet) is seawater. Water scarcity affects 40% of the world’s population, and water use is predicted to increase by 50% in developing countries and 18% in developed countries by 2025. It is thought that water scarcity will be exacerbated by population growth, expanding agriculture and climate change. However, physical availability of water is not a good indicator of access, with 70% of global freshwater used by agriculture, and only 10% used for domestic purposes.

OCCUPATIONAL INJUSTICE

Water is not an easy substance to transport: It is heavy, unstable and energy-intensive to move. The infrastructure that supports piping water into houses is expensive to install and maintain. Many cities currently reap the benefits of past investments in infrastructure and face huge costs of repairing and replacing old materials. Piped water services are simply unaffordable in many communities of low-income regions or countries, particularly in remote rural areas.

The health and social impact of the work of water carriage on people who must regularly collect water from out of home sources has received little attention to date. It is likely that for healthy, fit, working-age adults, the physical health impact of collecting water may not be problematic. The regular physical exercise of walking to a water point may be beneficial and counteract lifestyle changes leading to reduced physical activity in many developing regions.

Water carriage may be a valued role that facilitates family and community cohesion and creates opportunities for reciprocity in providing care and support to extended family. It can be a source of income for adults or school-age children and an activity that supports engagement with and conservation of the local environment.

However, this assumes the absence of population tensions, violence, corruption and health problems, which can individually or in combination create a very challenging or unsafe environment for water collection, such that individuals or households struggle to obtain sufficient water to meet their needs. Distance to water source, frequency of trips, terrain and climate in which water fetching is performed will also influence the level of difficulty that households face in accessing water. Injury, disability, age or long-term health conditions may further compromise an individual’s capacity to physically collect enough water.

There is growing evidence that regularly carrying heavy loads on the head, typical of water carriage in Sub-Saharan Africa, is associated with musculoskeletal pain and disability. The aftermath of infectious disease epidemics, conflict or natural disaster may mean that children or the elderly in poor families bear the burden of collecting water for household use, and it is clear that the very young and the elderly have reduced capacity for such physical work.

The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa tragically demonstrated this. The charity Street Child, in its 2015 Ebola Orphan Report, states that 12,023 children lost their primary caregiver and 3,241 lost both parents to Ebola in 2014-15, highlighting examples of teenagers who must provide for their siblings and take on household responsibilities since being orphaned.

As water is a basic requirement for life, and most of this work is unpaid, informal and time-consuming, it has been described as an example of “occupational injustice.” Occupational justice theory proposes that unequal access to opportunities and resources restrict people’s ability to participate in meaningful occupations, and that this restriction can be harmful to their health, wellbeing and prosperity. Research evidence confirms that time spent collecting water restricts opportunities for other occupations, such as education and paid or other subsistence work. Globally, as women and young girls perform the bulk of water fetching work, it affects them disproportionately.

WATER QUALITY AND SAFETY

Water is also not so easy to keep clean, particularly if it must be transported from a shared source to the point of use. It has been shown that “improved sources” are not always safe, and can be contaminated by chemical pollutants or human or animal excrement. Infectious diarrhea is the most common disease related to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene, mainly affecting children under 5. Globally it causes the deaths of over 1,000 children every day.

Other common water borne- or water access-related diseases include malnutrition and its consequences (which is associated with repeated bouts of diarrhea and also mainly affects children under 5), intestinal nematode infections, trachoma (a preventable cause of blindness), schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis.

Stauber and Casanova report that globally, naturally occurring arsenic contamination is the chemical pollutant of most concern. In Bangladesh, contamination of drinking water wells has resulted in exposure to potentially disease-causing concentrations of arsenic, estimated to affect 20-50 million people. Long-term exposure has been associated with skin, bladder and lung cancers and kidney disease.

Several studies have shown that even if the water quality is high at a public source point, contamination frequently occurs during transport, handling and storage in the home. A variety of household water treatment technologies have been reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be effective methods of improving drinking water quality at the household level.

VIOLENCE

Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros, in their book The Locus Effect, have collated extensive evidence of the daily violence that undermines development and safety of people living in poor communities. In the absence of effective law enforcement, women and children collecting water from an out of home source, or forced to defecate in the open, are not safe in many communities. Consider the horrific example of two teenage girls raped and murdered in India in 2014 while looking for a toilet after dark.

Poverty and local power inequalities can exacerbate inequalities of access to water. For example, in rural South Africa, the value of scrap metal can lead to theft of communal taps and water pipes. Whilst utilities and water vendors play a huge role in distributing water to homes in low-income regions, wealth and power inequalities can lead to behaviors that are not in the public interest and extract excessive payments for water from poor households.

In areas where informal providers are the only source of water delivery to poor households, and monopolies of access to water sources or vehicles to transport water exist without regulation to ensure fair pricing, extortion and bribery can inflate the cost of this essential service, such that the poorest households can in fact be paying the most for their water.

As documented by the International Committee of the Red Cross 2015 report, protracted armed conflict, particularly in urban areas, can cause and maintain water and sanitation service disruption to large populations. For example, in densely populated areas, one broken pipe can deprive 100,000 people of water. Combined with disruption of health services, deteriorating public health, increased rates of physical trauma and disability from war, and living in unsafe physical environments, collecting water in these circumstances becomes a massive challenge.

Corruption in the water sector is one of the key reasons that so many people lack access to safe water and sanitation. It can mean that public contracting does not serve the public good, but leads to inflated prices and bribery for services, dumping of pollutants into water bodies and poorly constructed facilities. For example, the Water Integrity Network describes the situation of inequalities in water service delivery in Delhi. It reports that in 2014, the average household in the city paid around $20 as a bribe—from a minimum payment of $5 for a water tanker to a maximum payment of $75 to reduce a water bill, which are considered significant amounts for low-income families in India.

Poorly constructed and maintained facilities lead to regular breakdown of supply systems with prolonged repair times. Unreliable water supplies increase the work of water carriage—people may need to access more distant sources, revert to alternative sources such as surface water, or transport as much water as possible during periods of limited availability. It can mean that ability to plan, pace and organize the work of water carriage is compromised, adding to the distress associated with household water insecurity. Combined with short-term political focus, corruption can lead to community needs for water security losing out against competing demands of other more wealthy or powerful lobby groups.

MAKING PROGRESS

The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of UNICEF and the WHO reported that target 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—to halve by 2015 the proportion of the global population without sustainable access to safe drinking water—was met in 2010. This means that some 2.6 billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources since 1990, and 91% of the global population now have improved drinking water.

Whilst much of this progress was achieved in China, the JMP reported that in Sub-Saharan Africa, 427 million people have gained access, which equates to an average of 47,000 people per day every day for 25 years. Although some 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990, the world has missed the MDG target on sanitation for 2015 by nearly 700 million people, and it is estimated that globally, 946 million people practice open defecation.

Mobile devices and networks have revolutionized communication globally, including developing countries and Sub-Saharan Africa. The communication revolution creates opportunities to improve monitoring, evaluation and maintenance of water and sanitation services, and potentially to leverage improved access to water. Smartphones, devices and networks may provide ways to improve communication between water service providers and users, for better data collection, information sharing, strengthening partnerships, better cost recovery and reduced opportunities for corruption.

Better service provider-user relationships have been demonstrated to improve maintenance and reliability of water supply systems, which would reduce the work of water carriage in many regions, particularly those unlikely to be provided with piped water services. Better communication about service disruptions could enable households to plan and choose appropriate coping strategies. For example, people may start to use household water treatment during supply failures or increase use of alternative water sources commonly used for activities such as bathing, laundry or gardening. A more consistently reliable supply, even if not available 24 hours per day, can enable women to plan and pace their water collection trips, rather than rushing to obtain as much water as possible before it runs out.

Several global initiatives provide grounds for optimism about the future. The 2013 Resolution of the International Conference of Labour Statisticians to recognize water fetching and other unpaid or informal labor as work indicates increasing recognition of the huge burden of activity currently required by many to secure access to drinking water. Integrity Pacts developed by the Water Integrity Network and Transparency International provide a framework, tools and implementation guides for reducing corruption and improving governance in the water sector.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030 builds on the achievements of the MDGs, and will ensure ongoing dialogue and monitoring of global progress and regional inequalities.

In working to achieve the SDG target of universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation, the challenges discussed in this article must be addressed. The issues that complicate and perpetuate the realities of water collection faced by so many people in the world every day will not go away easily, but progress over the past 25 years and the building momentum, dialogue and political will toward transformation indicated by the SDGs provide evidence that real change for the better is possible.

by Katharina Pistor, originally posted on March 11, 2016

NEW YORK – Nobel laureate Amartya Sen famously suggested that famines do not occur in democracies, because accountable governments will do everything they can to avoid mass starvation. The same reasoning should apply to clean drinking water; like food, it is a resource that is indispensable for our survival and wellbeing.

And yet recent events in the United States offer depressing insights about the limits of Sen’s dictum, and about how democracies can fail the people they are ostensibly supposed to serve. In 2014, the municipal government of Flint, Michigan, stopped purchasing water from Detroit and began sourcing it from a nearby river. The decision was motivated by cost concerns. Worries about the quality of the water were disregarded.

The river water, it turned out, corroded the city’s aging pipes; by the time it left the taps, it could contain high levels of toxic lead. And yet nobody seemed to care. The city and state governments looked the other way, even after companies and hospitals declared the water unfit for use and switched to other sources.

Flint’s residents complained of the water’s color and taste. But no matter how loud they raised their voices – either alone or collectively – they were disparaged as ignorant or dismissed as serial complainers. Even after doctors presented evidence that lead levels in the blood of the city’s children had doubled in the space of a year, the objections of the people of Flint fell on deaf ears.

by Lee Bergquist, originally posted on March 9, 2016

Environmental groups asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to assume a stronger role in northeastern Wisconsin to protect the public from contaminated drinking wells that environmentalists say have been polluted by heavy manure spreading.

The groups said in a letter they aren’t satisfied with the response by the state Department of Natural Resources to address well contamination using its authority to regulate groundwater.

On Oct. 22, 2014, the environmental groups asked the EPA to exercise emergency powers under the Safe Drinking Water Act to investigate groundwater contamination from manure spreading at large-scale dairy farms.

That prompted the DNR to organize a series of work groups to find ways to solve the problems. But progress has been too slow, according to the groups.

“We are insisting on immediate relief for Kewaunee County residents who can’t drink their water,” Sarah Geers, an attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates, said in a statement.

The DNR says manure issues in Kewaunee County have been a priority for the agency and it is working on short- and long-term solutions. DNR officials plan to meet with the EPA on March 16 to discuss the matter, the agency says.

Kewaunee County has become the epicenter of controversy over large-scale dairy farms and their potential to cause air and water pollution.

The county has 16 large dairy farms, regulated as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, that have 700 or more milking cows on each facility. It also lies in a region where soils can lie a few feet above fractured bedrock, making it easier for manure to reach groundwater.

The Journal Sentinel reported in December that one-third of wells tested in the county were found to be unsafe and failed to meet health standards for drinking water.

The testing was conducted by the U.S. Agriculture Research Service and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Researchers found that 34% of 320 wells tested in November failed to meet standards. The pollutants were nitrates and total coliform. Both can be found in manure but can come from other sources, too.

DNR spokesman George Althoff said five of the 320 wells tested positive for E. coli — an indicator of fecal contamination. Well owners were asked to call the DNR to investigate the source of contamination. So far, one well owner has responded and qualified for financial assistance to replace the well.

Don Niles, a CAFO operator from Casco, said water contamination issues developed over many years and won’t be solved with a quick fix. “We all understand that agriculture can have a negative impact on some wells,” he said in a statement. “But we also have to acknowledge that many wells have not been affected.”

An added frustration for those with bad wells: A kiosk at Algoma High School that provides free drinking water to households with contaminated wells has been vandalized three times in the past 21/2 months, according to the principal, Nick Cochart, who lives in a part of the county where there is well contamination.

“It’s been frustrating,” he said. “It’s just gotten out of hand.”

The environmental groups’ most immediate concern is that the DNR or EPA provide clean drinking water to residents with polluted wells.

“Our first and foremost task since Day One has been to provide people with clean water, and access to clean water,” said Elizabeth Wheeler, an attorney with Clean Wisconsin. “But they haven’t done that yet.”

Other demands:

■ EPA should conduct closer oversight of the DNR in Kewaunee County and work with the state to establish a timeline and implement recommendation from the work groups.

The DNR-organized groups were made up of agricultural interests, local residents and others to find solutions to well contamination. Some of the recommendations were made in December, and the environmental groups are concerned the DNR hasn’t acted on them yet.

Althoff said DNR is studying the recommendations. He said one key group hasn’t finished its work yet.

Niles said the groups’ work shouldn’t be dismissed. “A great deal of energy has been committed to the process,” he said.

■ EPA should conduct research and groundwater monitoring to find the root cause of water contamination. If the EPA can’t or won’t, the EPA should order farms in areas vulnerable to contamination to install monitoring wells.

An EPA spokeswoman said the agency has not had time to review the groups’ letter.

by Amanda Klasing, originally posted on March 8, 2016

In 2005, a Canadian government report concluded that First Nations people living on reserves did not have the same access to safe water as other Canadians. More than a decade later – and while more than one hundred reserves across Canada have advisories from the government indicating drinking water in their community is at high risk of contamination – it’s obvious the problem has not diminished

These water advisories, sometimes decades old, are indicative of a systemic problem with drinking water and waste-water systems across the country. The Canadian government has recognized the problem, but has been slow to find a solution. During his campaign, then candidate and now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised an end to drinking water advisories in First Nations communities within five years.

Two weeks ago, First Nations women from communities across Ontario went to the United Nations in Geneva to tell the story of poor water conditions in their communities. These women detailed not only the added burden of worrying constantly that contaminated water would make their families sick, but the ways their spiritual relationship to water, as indigenous women, is altered when water is too filthy to consume.

Yesterday, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights released its review of Canada’s compliance with its obligations and raised concerns about “restricted access to safe drinking water and to sanitation by the First Nations as well as the lack of water regulations for the First Nations living on reserves.”

At the UN review, Canada’s government made a commitment to bringing the level water and wastewater service on reserves up to the quality similar to communities off reserves. The committee’s statement today reminds the government of this commitment – but asks that it go further to ensure the active participation of First Nations and to bear in mind of the cultural significance of water.

It’s important for Prime Minister Trudeau and his government to take heed. This isn’t just a campaign promise but a human rights obligation.

by Vishal Sharma, orinally published on April 14, 2016

Abadganj. The name has come to haunt this town in Palamu district.

Years of drought and the local administration’s failure to provide tap water has forced many of its 1,500 residents to flee their homes during the summer and take refuge where water is available.

The trend started a couple of years ago, when local residents began pasting for-sale notices outside their homes and properties. Initially, they got a few customers, but as news of the area being water-starved spread, they stopped getting enquiries.

Now, they have started abandoning their houses and renting homes in localities where water is available. Dozens have left for other towns, permanently locking their homes.

Palamu falls in a rain-shadow area and has witnessed five droughts in the past six years. The district has seen interventions by three prime ministers — Indira Gandhi (1982), PV Narsimha Rao (1992) and Narendra Modi (2014). All of them promised to make the region drought-free.

“This area has witnessed three kinds of migration,” said Lilly Mishra, a local resident. “At least nine families have sold their homes in the last two years and left. At least 20% of the remaining 150 families have left to stay with relatives. Another 20% have taken homes on rent in other localities where water is available.”

BJP leader Durga Johari said selling homes is painful but there is no way out.

“You either buy water for everyday use or move out. Unfortunately, there is no buyer to purchase property in dry zones.”

Even groundwater cannot help Abadganj. The water table depleted years ago following diminishing rainfall over the years.

Those still in the locality buy 20 litres of water for Rs 15 from local vendors, who extract it from other areas to make up for shortfall in municipality supply.

The crisis is consistent across Palamu, affecting its 40 lakh population. Locals say the crisis has reached a tipping point where there is no water to even extinguish the fires at funeral pyres. Kishore Pandey, a social worker, called in earthmovers on Monday to dig pits along the Koel River bed so that mourners can get water for the last rites.

While reviewing water crisis in the area last month, state parliamentary affairs and food processing minister Saryu Rai appealed to the local population to work towards promoting water harvesting as it is the only way to check droughts.