LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nearly half the world’s schools lack clean drinking water, toilets and handwashing facilities, putting millions of children at risk of disease, experts warned on Monday.
Almost 900 million children have to contend with a lack of basic hygiene facilities during their education, putting their health at risk and meaning some have to miss school.
“You can’t have a quality learning environment without these basics,” said Dr Rick Johnston of the World Health Organization, a lead researcher on the project.
“Children may not come to school at all if there’s no toilets … Then, when they are at school, they are not going to at their very best if they not able to use a decent toilet or if they are not properly hydrated.” World leaders have signed up to global pledges to provide safe water and hygiene facilities for all and ensure every child gets a comprehensive education by 2030 under the UN’s sustainable development goals.
It found nearly a third of primary and secondary schools lacked a safe and reliable drinking water supply, affecting nearly 570 million children.
Just over a third of schools lacked adequate toilet facilities, affecting more than 620 million children.
Nearly 900 million children were affected, the report found.
Sub-Saharan Africa, East and Southeast Asia had some of the worst facilities.
More than a third of girls in South Asia miss school during their periods, often because they lack access to toilets or pads, according to a WaterAid and UNICEF study earlier this year.
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Jerry Brown and state lawmakers are rebooting an effort to pass a new tax to attack unsafe drinking water in California.
After calling off a plan in June to apply a mandatory tax on water bills, the governor is backing a new pair of bills that would apply a voluntary levy on ratepayers to fund safe drinking water projects.
protected by reCAPTCHA Privacy – Terms Privacy – Terms “These bills are now the Legislature’s best opportunity to bring clean and safe drinking water to the nearly 1 million Californians who cannot drink the water that comes out of their faucets,” said Monning, a Carmel Democrat.
The state has reported that more than 1 million residents face potential exposure to unsafe water, largely in low-income communities without the funding to fix the problems.
SB 845 establishes the voluntary tax on water bills and would only require support from a majority of state lawmakers.
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Political hot air.
360,000 Californians have unsafe drinking water.
Every day, reporters at The Sacramento Bee are investigating and researching the business of politics in California, breaking down the stories, the constituencies and the impacts of these decisions so you don’t have to.

The UK has experienced the driest start to a summer since records began in 1961, but safe drinking water remains in plentiful supply.
Others around the world are not so fortunate.
According to the charity WaterAid, millions of people are going thirsty this year despite high levels of local rainfall.
The organisation has warned that climate change is having a harmful impact by making water sources increasingly unreliable.
Increased flooding in some parts of the world has contaminated previously drinkable supplies.
Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia get around double the amount of rain that falls in the UK on average each year, yet at least one-third of the population in those countries is without clean drinking water.
The number of people without access to clean water close to home has increased to 4.8 million people – 63 per cent of the population.
“Not having clean water to drink is not, for most people, due to a lack of rain,” says Jonathan Farr, senior policy analyst on water security and climate change.
“In 2015, world leaders pledged to bring safe water and toilets to everyone, everywhere by 2030,” said Mr Farr.
The charity estimates that around 289,000 children under the age of five die from diarrhoeal diseases caused by water and sanitation problems.

Residents fear underground basin is too contaminated for potable use melissa@theacorn.com A proposal to tap into Simi Valley’s groundwater basin as a source for drinking water drew angst and anger from residents who claim the water has been contaminated by runoff from the Santa Susana Field Lab.
About 30 people urged the City Council on Monday not to act on a study by Ventura County Waterworks District No.
Since 2014, the waterworks district, which provides water to about 65 percent of Simi Valley, has studied how much water the basin can produce, the quality of the available resource and how much could be pumped out annually.
Joe Deakin, Simi’s assistant public works director, previously told the Simi Valley Acorn that the basin’s feasibility as a drinking water source would provide a vital additional option for residents and potentially reduce the cost of water.
The remaining 15 percent is treated groundwater from Simi’s basin that the agency says is used for drinking water.
it’s absolutely frightening,” Becerra told the Simi Valley Acorn Tuesday.
“But what these residents are saying should definitely be taken into account because some folks have been impacted in ways we would wish on no one.” The waterworks study is a preliminary look at the feasibility of using groundwater and any related action is at least five years away, Simi’s City Manager Eric Levitt said, adding that the concerns of residents will be taken into account.
Residents can weigh in on the matter at a neighborhood council meeting on Aug. 21 and at future council meetings.
Holly Braithwaite, Boeing spokesperson, said the groundwater from SSFL is part of a different aquifer than Simi’s basin and therefore any potential contamination isn’t from the field lab.
“No matter the source, all drinking water delivered to customers is subject to regulatory analysis and must meet rigorous state and federal drinking water standards,” Zorba said.

"Who’s going to protect our drinking water?"
We know that we can’t rely on the Trump administration to prevent pollution in our communities.
This is the same administration that tried to suppress a scientific study warning about the dangers of PFOA.
Gov.
Andrew Cuomo championed the creation of the Drinking Water Quality Council, which was charged with recommending strong, enforceable drinking water standards for PFOA and other dangerous chemicals.
The governor promised that these chemicals would soon be strictly regulated.
But the governor’s words haven’t translated into action.
Almost three years after the water crisis in Hoosick Falls was revealed, we still don’t have a maximum contaminant level for PFOA.
This is the opposite of leadership.
If Gov.

The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) says governments at all levels and private sector players should invest more resources in ensuring access to clean water.
According to a statement made available by the foundation, improved investments in water provision will boost the health of citizens and tackle malnutrition.
Zouera Youssoufou, managing director of the foundation, made this call ahead of the World Water Week holding in Stockholm, Sweden between August 26 and 31, with the theme, ‘Water, ecosystem and human development’.
We cannot be effective at fighting malnutrition if we don’t also provide clean drinking water to our beneficiaries.” “We have a global water challenge, which is what SDG 6 is focused on solving.
Achieving SDG 6 is essential for progress on all other SDGs and vice versa.
Sustainable management of water and sanitation underpins wider efforts to end poverty, advance sustainable development and sustain peace and stability.
In 2016, the Aliko Dangote Foundation launched a $100 million nutrition programme with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
This intervention includes treating affected children with Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF), combined with household level empowerment programmes to enable the parents improve their livelihoods.
Aliko Dangote, the foundation’s founder, announced the new flagship programme for the Foundation, the US$100 million Aliko Dangote Foundation Integrated Nutrition (ADFIN) programme at the 2017 UN Global Nutrition Summit in Milan.
We want to reach one million malnourished children in Nigeria by 2021 and we know that for every dollar invested in nutrition, the nation as a whole will reap huge economic dividends,” said Aliko Dangote.

EPA testing of the chemicals—perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS—have been found in public water supplies in 33 U.S. states.
There are about 3,500 different types of PFAS, and they have been in production since the 1940s.
Some forms of the compounds are expected to remain intact for thousands of years, and they are often dumped into water, the air, and soil during production.
While unsafe levels of PFAS can contaminate drinking water around military bases and factories, the EPA says 80 percent of human exposure to the chemical comes from consumer products in the home.
The Department of Defense also launched a full-scale review of PFAS contamination in water systems in 2016, despite the lack of clear regulatory limits from the EPA.
It reported that 564 of the 2,445 off-base public and private drinking water systems that it had tested contained PFOS or PFOA above the EPA’s advisory limits.
In its water quality report, the EPA said that PFOA was detected in 1 percent of water samples across the U.S.
However, when Eurofins Eaton Analytical—the largest drinking water test lab in the country—reanalyzed the data the EPA didn’t use, it discovered that the PFOA chemical was in almost 24 percent of the samples.
In early 2018, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)—a branch of the CDC—launched a nationwide health study on the PFAS water contamination crisis.
For the chemical PFOA, the ATSDR exposure limit was seven times stricter than what the EPA said was safe.

MAHONING COUNTY, Ohio – Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-13) announced today that there will be a $2,179,000 loan and $1,874,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to help improve Mahoning County’s water infrastructure, According to a press release, the USDA is providing the funding through the Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant program.
Congressman Tim Ryan stated, in a press release, "Clean drinking water is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
We must remain committed to investing in and improving our water infrastructures.
We are the richest country in the world, every family in the United States deserves access to clean water.
This crucial funding for the Mahoning County will improve the quality of water and life for 3,759 Northeast Ohioans.
I’m proud to continue fighting for these types of federal investment and advocating for stronger water infrastructures."
The press release informed that according to the USDA, this Rural Development investment is going to be used for the phased extension of water lines to the Canyon Park, Scott Cliff, and Ellsworth Road areas of the Lake Milton region of Mahoning County.
The 150 homes in the project area receive water from private individual water systems that do not provide an adequate source of quality water.
In addition to a new water source for the area, these lines will improve water delivery to 1,400 households connected to the water system.
The project also will accommodate future economic growth for the Lake Milton area.

The best way to save lives and prevent outbreaks of threats like Ebola is water in health facilities.
Not only are we wasting billions of dollars in health care costs and lost productivity, we’re undercutting our most effective front-line defense in disease prevention and containment.
Containing the West African Ebola outbreak took years, cost billions, and claimed more than 11,000 lives in three countries.
Health crises can become catastrophic when illnesses and diseases, easily prevented with soap, clean water and basic sanitation, instead spread and require treatment with overused and misused antibiotics.
More: The five things we must to do together to end the opioids epidemic: Bill Frist Insulin is a human right for me, all diabetics.
We need to make medications free Getting WASH into health care facilities is doable.
When I served as Senate majority leader, I drafted legislation to formalize U.S. policy addressing the overall lack of safe water and sanitation in developing nations.
For the first time ever, we officially made access to safe drinking water, basic sanitation and hygiene a stated objective of U.S. foreign assistance.
The time is now.
Congress needs to support the Senate’s recommended $35 million increase in 2019 funding for the Water for the Poor Act (the law we passed, which was strengthened in 2014 as the Water for the World Act).

OSCODA – Congressman Dan Kildee D, Flint Twp., on Monday announced that Oscoda Area Schools will receive a $50,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to bring safe drinking water to students.
The federal grant will help pay to change the school’s water source and connect it to an existing AuSable Township water main after Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) were found near the school’s current water supply.
“Ensuring my constituents, including Oscoda residents, have access to clean drinking water is one of my top priorities in Congress.
“We must do more to urgently address PFAS contamination, as well as provide safe drinking water to those affected.” Plumes of PFAS were recently found on Oscoda Area Schools’ River Road campus, putting the school well in danger of being contaminated if the plumes moved, Kildee said.
+2 +3 “Because of the leadership and guidance of Kildee’s office, we feel extremely fortunate to have worked with the USDA and obtained the resources necessary for Oscoda Area Schools to ensure that our students and community will have safe water sources for years to come,” said Scott Moore, Oscoda Area Schools superintendent.
Kildee said he has repeatedly pushed the Trump Administration and all levels of government to more urgently address PFAS contamination across the country.
Kildee said last month, he and fellow Congressman Upton lead a bipartisan letter calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen protections for PFAS in drinking water.
Earlier this year, Kildee testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Veterans’ Affairs Committee to urge the Department of Defense (DoD) and Congress to do more to clean up toxic contamination, including around former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda.
Kildee and a bipartisan group of members sent a letter to Administrator Pruitt in December 2017 asking the EPA to do more to help the state of Michigan.
and the DoD’s efforts to address PFAS.