Billionaire technology entrepreneur Elon Musk will donate $480,000 for new water stations and water filtration systems for the schools in Flint, Mich.
The filtration systems, which will be installed by January, are designed to disinfect all lead and bacteria coming from the water pipes to allow students to drink from and fill up water bottles from school water fountains, according to a release from the district.
The donation comes as Flint city and school leaders continue to grapple with the fallout from a contaminated-water crisis that began in 2015 after a local pediatrician discovered that hundreds of children in the city had high levels of lead in their blood, in part because of the state’s decision to switch the source of Flint’s water supply.
The school district shut off all its water fountains in September of that year.
Now, more than three years later, the district still refuses to use the fountains despite assurances from the state government that the water is now safe.
"The new water filtration systems will be instrumental in helping our students return to the normalcy of what should be a fundamental right: having access to safe, clean water from water fountains in their school," said Superintendent Derrick Lopez.
Hope to do more to help in the future.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2018 Flint is not the only Michigan school system dealing with a water crisis.
Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti ordered drinking water to be shut off at the district’s roughly 100 schools this fall after two-thirds of the buildings in an early test were found to have elevated levels of lead or copper.
–Carlos Osorio/AP-File

Srinagar, October 07: Advisor to the Governor, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, to Sunday reviewed the water supply position during a meeting with senior officers of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department of Kashmir Division.
In his opening remarks, the Advisor emphasized upon sustained efforts to harness the State’s abundant water resources in order to provide safe drinking water to every household.
“We receive a lot of complaints (of water shortage) during public hearing from rural pockets.
These complaints must be redressed on priority,” he stated.
Ganai asked Chief Engineer PHE to ensure that all technical processes are completed before water is supplied to the habitations.
"Random checking of various schemes can be introduced to check quality of water and plug holes," he added.
Ganai also passed directions to accelerate access to quality water supply in all schools, anganwadi centres and essential services like hospitals and hotels.
He also briefed the Advisor about the mechanism devised to complete all languishing projects in the Kashmir Division.
The SEs and Executive Engineers also gave detailed presentations about ongoing schemes and developmental works in their respective.
They informed the Advisor Ganai about water-deficient areas in their jurisdiction and steps taken to address the bottlenecks.

Years after the Flint water crisis drew national attention, another water pollution issue has emerged in House races in Michigan.
Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in Kalamazoo County after drinking water in the town of Parchment tested at over 20 times the EPA’s health advisory limit for two forms of PFAS — PFOS and PFOA — which were phased out of production in 2000 amid concerns over their risks to human health.
The state so far had found at least 38 sites, including public drinking water utilities, rivers and streams, with high concentrations of PFAS, according to the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team, a multiagency program started in November 2017 to address the problem.
“PFAS, like the Flint water crisis — they’re both examples that make it clear elections matter,” said Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee, whose district includes Flint and whose midterm race is rated Solid Democratic by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales.
Of 38 sites the state deemed contaminated by the chemicals, 23 are in GOP-held districts.
Two midterm contests in nearby GOP-held districts are rated Toss-ups by Inside Elections: the 11th District, where Democrat Haley Stevens and Republican Lena Epstein are vying to replace Republican Dave Trott, who’s not running for re-election, and the 8th District, where Democrat Elissa Slotkin is challenging incumbent Republican Mike Bishop.
“People are demanding access to clean water.” Democratic turnout in the state’s primary election, held less than two weeks after Kalamazoo County’s contamination was first announced, may be evidence of how PFAS is animating voters, especially in districts with contamination sites, he said.
Other GOP-held congressional districts with contamination sites found in the last year saw similar jumps, including Amash’s.
“When you have folks in Detroit and Flint struggling to have access to clean drinking water, and you have folks in Plainfield Township and [others] grappling with the same issue, it doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican,” said the League of Conservation Voters’ Allison.
The separate PPP poll found him within 4 points.

LAHORE – Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Sunday presided over a meeting at the chief minister’s office to review the development programme for underdeveloped areas of southern Punjab and discuss development projects for the area in the current fiscal year.
Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said the government would work with a holistic strategy to provide basic facilities to people of remote areas as it is their right to have access to education, health, infrastructure and clean drinking water.
He said the PTI government would ensure that people of less developed areas get access to these facilities.
He said that maximum relief would be provided to people in the upcoming budget despite limited resources and welfare of the common man was top priority of the government.
He said the first budget of the PTI government would reflect real change and it would not set unrealistic targets like the previous governments.
He said that PTI government’s budget focused on common man and it would work for people.
He said that prosperity and development of the people of south Punjab is part of PTI manifesto and the coming budget would bring welfare for the people of south Punjab.
Also, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said that impact of natural disasters could be reduced by taking pre-emptive measures and state of the art technology needs to be used to reduce the damages and impact of natural calamities.
In his message on International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction, the chief minister said that the concerned departments should be imparted modern training and it is need of the hour to make disaster management authorities more robust and vibrant to cope with the damages of natural disasters.
He said that it is key responsibility of the PTI government to save people from natural disasters.

Asks PHE Department to ensure dependable access to safe drinking water to every household Web Admin 5 Dariya News Advisor to the Governor, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, today reviewed the water supply position during a meeting with senior officers of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department of Kashmir Division.Chief Engineer, PHE, Kashmir, Mr. Abdul Wahid, Special Secretary, PHE/ I&FC, Mr. Majid Drabu, Director Planning, PHE/ I&FC, Mr. Mohammad Yousuf, Superintending Engineers of all Ranges and Executive Engineers of all Divisions of Kashmir Zone attended the meeting.In his opening remarks, the Advisor emphasized upon sustained efforts to harness the State’s abundant water resources in order to provide safe drinking water to every household.
He said the performance of the engineers will be linked to the success of the schemes they execute on ground so that accountability is restored in the system.While taking detailed range-wise appraisal of the water supply position, Ganai stressed upon a well-thought out strategy before framing modalities of new water supply schemes, in particular relating to source depletion and long-term viability.The Advisor passed on-spot instructions to draw ‘Quick Action Plans’ and ‘Response Teams’ to meet any eventuality on account of water shortage, especially in rural areas where the people usually face the brunt.
“We receive a lot of complaints (of water shortage) during public hearing from rural pockets.
These complaints must be redressed on priority,” he stated.Ganai asked Chief Engineer PHE to ensure that all technical processes are completed before water is supplied to the habitations.
"Random checking of various schemes can be introduced to check quality of water and plug holes," he added.Asking SEs to undertake extensive tours of their respective ranges, the Advisor noted with concern some complaints received about contamination of drinking water, especially in North Kashmir districts.
He asked the Chief Engineer to remove all dry latrines from the river banks and seek facilitation of district administrations wherever required.Ganai also passed directions to accelerate access to quality water supply in all schools, anganwadicentres and essential services like hospitals and hotels.
He also indicated at introducing Rainwater harvesting across the state by replicating the model adopted by Rajasthan, which is a water-depleted state.Later, the Chief Engineer briefed the Advisor about various ongoing works and apprised him about issues related to fund constraints which are hampering work on certain critical projects.
He also briefed the Advisor about the mechanism devised to complete all languishing projects in the Kashmir Division.The SEs and Executive Engineers also gave detailed presentations about ongoing schemes and developmental works in their respective.
They informed the Advisor Ganai about water-deficient areas in their jurisdiction and steps taken to address the bottlenecks.

Al-Shati refugee camp, Gaza – Every three days, the al-Natour family has two hours to stock up on water.
But experts say Palestinians in Gaza have an average of 60 to 70 litres each day, with many having access to just 20 to 30 litres.
The little water that residents of the Gaza Strip can access is untreated and unhealthy.
However, the severe electricity and fuel shortages which have marked life in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli-led blockade in 2007 have left these plants with only four to five hours of electricity each day.
"Not the smell of burning tyres from the ongoing protests, or the tear gas that has been used in response, but the smell of raw sewage."
While on average residents of the Gaza Strip use between 60 and 70 litres of water per day, the electricity crisis means that in effect households are only able to receive water every three days, or in some cases only once a week.
As a result, Gaza residents often find themselves with no choice but to buy expensive bottled water.
In the Natour family, Khitam said her kidney issues necessitate that she drink bottled water, but at $1.50 a day in an area where, according to the World Bank, the average yearly income is $1,826, a necessity becomes a luxury.
"Our enemy is winter," Khitam Natour said.
Water as a human right The catastrophic situation of water resources in Gaza has led some Palestinians to accuse Israel of violating internationally acknowledged human rights.

One of the advantages of being a billionaire is having the ability to not only be philanthropic but also encourage others to be as well.
Hope to do more to help in the future.
“We are deeply grateful for the generosity and the budding partnership between Flint Community Schools, the Musk Foundation and Elon Musk.
The new water filtration systems will be instrumental in helping our students return to the normalcy of what should be a fundamental right: having access to safe, clean water from water fountains in their school,” Lopez said.
The UV water purification method within the filtration systems will disinfect lead and bacteria coming from water pipes, allowing students in Flint to safely drink from school water fountains once more.
Flint school board president Diana Wright thanked the Musk Foundation for its donation, stating that it ensures that “students in Flint Community Schools have access to safe drinking water at the source — in drinking fountains — by way of the same type of water filtration system used by hospitals and colleges in Flint.” The water crisis in Flint has been ongoing since 2014 when the city decided to pull water from the Flint River instead of Lake Huron.
This move was made as a cost saving to the city but it ended up costing the people of Flint more than anyone could have imagined.
Hopefully, more help comes to Flint as they sorely need it.
What do you think of the Musk Foundation donating to Flint schools?
Let us know in the comments below or on GooglePlus, Twitter, or Facebook.

What would you do without water?
No water to drink or to cook with.
No water to brush your teeth, to shower, flush the toilet, or do laundry with.
No water to fight fires or to irrigate our food crops.
Hospitals would close, schools would close, businesses would shut down.
They experience first-hand the difficulties of trying to go a day without water, a precious and limited resource that most of us in Hawai‘i take for granted.
Oct. 10, 2018 is the annual “Imagine a Day Without Water.” This is the fourth annual day bringing attention to the importance of fresh water and appreciating its true value to our communities.
For more information go online.
DLNR Commission on Water Resource Management (CWRM) Chairperson Suzanne Case says, “On this day, let us reflect on the importance of water in our lives and celebrate the people that work hard every day to provide us this life-giving resource—from the Department of Health, which carefully safeguards the quality of our drinking water, to the many water utilities that delivery water directly to our homes safely and reliably.” CWRM Deputy Director Jeffrey Pearson added, “Take a minute to consider the importance of water in your everyday life.
Then, make a commitment to do your part to conserve this most precious of all our natural resources.” For easy, everyday tips on how to conserve water in your home, go online.

Friends of the Irish Environment said while the EPA claimed 99.2% compliance with chemical standards, their analysis showed 598,951 consumers were being supplied with drinking water over the recommended World Health Organisation and European Commission’s recommended limits for trihalomethanes (THMs).
THMs are formed when organic matter, such as suspended peat sediment, are treated with chlorine at water treatment plants.
THMs are harmful to human health and include known carcinogens like chloroform.
They are ingested by drinking, but can be inhaled in the bath or shower, or when washing clothes and dishes.
Friends of the Irish Environment said its 2011 submission showed that 24 counties had supplies breaching EU and WHO THM limits, with 14 counties having supplies double the THM limit, and one water supply, Ring, in Co Waterford, recording THM levels nine times the WHO/EU limit.
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Friends of the Irish Environment’s findings also prompted a warning from US environmentalist Erin Brockovitch that people had a right to know.
For various reasons, the European Commission didn’t begin an infringement case against Ireland until last July and it outlined what needed to be done.
Irish Water previously contacted customers only if there was a problem with their drinking water that was likely to cause an immediate risk to health.
Houses and businesses in 16 counties on 55 water supply schemes will receive a detailed booklet outlining the issues with their water supply such as elevated THMs; inadequate barriers for cryptosporidium; poor turbidity removal; or the presence of low levels of pesticides.

Irish Water is to write to homes and businesses on the public water network in County Kilkenny where there may have previously been or where there is an existing issue with the drinking water quality.
Issues include cryptosporidium and THMs.
Water is safe to drink in these schemes but Irish Water will outline specifically what we are doing to improve the supply there.
The individual booklet will explain in detail to householders where their drinking water comes from; why Irish Water are writing to them; how Irish Water know that their water is safe to drink; information about regulation and testing; what Irish Water is doing to fix their specific water supply; and where they can get more information.
In Bennettsbridge and Glenmore, there is a risk of cryptosporidium however Irish Water put remedial works in place to mitigate these issues and is now working on a long term solution in both areas.
To address the issue in Bennettsbridge, the water treatment plant serving the area is being upgraded.
In Inistioge, Irish Water will be changing the supply source for the area due to the risk of THMs.
In Kilkenny City, areas at risk of THMs will also have a change in water source.
In parts of Kilkenny City served by the Troyswood Water Treatment Plant, pesticides were detected in the water in 2017.
If there is any potential risk to public health from the drinking water supply we inform the HSE immediately.