This is a community announcement from the Tompkins County Health Department.
It was not written by The Ithaca Voice.
Tompkins County is included in the current project area of the Water Well Trust.
Residents in need of a new well or rehabilitation of an existing well are encouraged to apply for low-interest loans through the Water Well Trust.
The Water Well Trust is currently accepting applications from Tompkins County until September 30, 2018.
More information and the application can be found here: https://www.waterwelltrust.org/how-to-apply/.
Priority is given to households where health risks are imminent, to those with minorities, elderly, children, or disabled persons, including disabled veterans.
Additionally, the resident must own the home and property.
Visit us online at www.tompkinscounty.gov/health.
Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TompkinsPublicHealth/.

By Franklin N. Kwenah Citizens of Butiesue Town in District #3, Bong County, are said to be in dire need of safe drinking water and healthcare services.
Town Chief Leemu Sackie, speaking to newsman, said since the establishment of the town in the late 60’s, they have never had access to safe drinking water and healthcare services.
According to Chief Sackie, they usually fetch drinking water from a nearby creek, which has resulted to many falling ill with diarrhea and other water-borne diseases that have led to the death of many children and mothers.
She further noted that due to serious water-borne diseases and diarrhea, they decided to dig a well that would help to minimize the occurrence of these water borne-illnesses and save the lives of women and children.
However, she added that problems still exist in terms of safe drinking water.
”This one well cannot serve all the houses in the town; and when it gets dry and dirty during the dry season, we have to get back to drinking the creek water,” she said.
The Butiesue Town Chief made special reference to the month of January, February and March, adding that citizens were all in the bushes looking for safe water to drink.
“In order to save lives in the district, the government and organizations need to help us; at least to construct some hand pumps in our town so that citizens can have access to safe drinking water,” Chief Sackie stressed.
“When a big belly is in pain in the town, she has to be carried in a hammock to Phebe, and the road is far,” she explained to this paper.
She further appealed to the central government to assist them to construct a motor road, in order to help them have access to a safe healthcare delivery system.

The American Water Works Association, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and the Water Environment Federation came out swinging Thursday against the Securing Required Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act, a bill that would blend elements of two federally-backed water and wastewater lending programs.
But the water groups, in a letter to the committee’s leadership, called the SRF WIN Act a "fundamentally flawed proposal."
They also threatened to withdraw support for the broader water infrastructure legislation that the committee is working on if the SRF WIN Act is included in it.
Central to the SRF WIN Act are the clean water and drinking water state revolving funds, and the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or WIFIA.
States contribute a 20 percent match, and then use the funds to provide low-cost loans and other financing assistance for water and sewer utilities to complete projects.
The legislation would effectively extend WIFIA lending terms to the state revolving funds, so that states could offer revolving fund loans, with Treasury interest rates, for water and wastewater projects that they’ve determined to be priorities.
It would also authorize $200 million in funding annually for five years to support state revolving fund projects, for a total of $1 billion.
He said the SRF WIN Act would "allow the WIFIA program to be much more helpful to some of the rural communities."
They say it’s unnecessary because WIFIA already allows state agencies that administer revolving funds to combine multiple, smaller-scale water and wastewater projects into larger, individual WIFIA loan applications.
And they make a case that the SRF WIN Act would undermine WIFIA’s ability to "leverage" federal investment because it would offer borrowers under the new framework it sets up even lower interest rates than it provides to current applicants.

It has built three water kiosks and seen a rapidly expanding network of water being supplied to homes, schools and businesses, serving 12,000 people in the Funyula community.
Alema Borehole was first designed to supply water to the residents of Funyula subcounty.
To increase pumping capacity at the Alema borehole, Kiwash replaced the old pump with a hybrid water pumping system that uses solar and conventional electricity.
The company’s main water source is Munana dam, which, due to the hotter, longer dry season, dried up entirely last year, leaving its customers with few choices of getting water.
The old pump from the Alema borehole was installed for Onana water supply to increase the quantity and reliability for Onana customers.
Taken together, the three existing water kiosks being serviced by the Alema borehole now have the capacity to reach more than 1,300 households.
During this process, Kiwash worked with the Funyula subcounty’s water office to ensure the needs and views of the community are addressed in the plan.
The reduced cost of the energy from the more efficient hybrid pump will mean increased revenues that will be used to expand services throughout the subcounty.
The USAid is working hand in hand with 23,980 water service providers tasked with the responsibility of improving the water supply and access through rehabilitation and expansion of water infrastructure.
The agency, through a programme known as Wash — Water and Sanitation Hygiene — has reached 6,380 people with improved access to water derived from 20 small and medium water projects supported to improve the efficiency of the business operations.

As natural resources go, oil tends to get more attention from investors than clean drinking water, even against the backdrop of headline-grabbing shortages in Flint, Michigan, South Africa and elsewhere.
But a few funds are showing that investing in utilities and water infrastructure and technology companies can pay off, especially for long-term investors looking to diversify their portfolio.
Each holds shares in U.S. water utilities, such as American Water Works, infrastructure companies like Aegion Corp. and technology companies like Xylem, a supplier of energy-saving pumps and controls for hot water systems.
The three ETFs are all up around 15 percent over the past 12 months.
The idea being that as demand for water grows along with the population, so will the need for new infrastructure and upkeep on water systems.
The Swell Clean Water portfolio is managed and investors own shares in the companies and can remove stocks from the portfolio.
It’s up 11 percent over the past 12 months.
For investors considering water-focused funds, it’s best to think of them as a long-term, diversification play.
“As such, the ETFs have less defensive characteristics than traditional utilities ETFs,” Rosenbluth said.
“We think there is investment merit from a diversification perspective other than from an impact investing one.” Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press.

Monrovia – A new Act of Legislature is urging citizens who are commercializing their private wells and boreholes to register with the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) in order to obtain meter and get billed.
Ibrahim Nyei, a policy maker, commented on social media, “They [LWSC] are not serious!!
They should be thinking of accounting to the people on their failure to deliver adequate water to communities.” As at 2016, only 25 percent of Liberia’s estimated 4.5 million population had access to safe drinking water, according to WaterAid.
Fears are that when the billing of water wells and borehole begins, private owners would increase the cost of water per gallon, thus, making access to safe water more difficult.
Florence Afua Aikins, commented on Facebook, “LWSC is not providing 24 hours running water, why will I want to run a line there?
Some people do not even live within water lines.
Water is not luxury.” Amin Modad, producer of bottled mineral water (PUR Still Mineral Water) also wrote, “This is not a manifestation of Pres.
Weah’s vision.
Do they know how this will impact the ordinary masses who can’t afford wells, but depend on others who have wells in their yards for free and safe drinking water?
These owners of private wells who generously allow their communities to draw from their wells will shut them out.

Government must make clean and safe water accessible to all Safe water is a basic commodity necessary for the survival of humanity.
It also estimates that 58 per cent of that burden, or 842,000 deaths per year, are attributable to a lack of safe drinking water supply, sanitation and hygiene.
This statistic is quite disturbing and can be connected to Nigeria, where lack of access to safe water is causative of waterborne diseases including Cholera, Dysentery, Typhoid Fever, Polio, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Hepatitis A, Scabies and Dengue Fever, among others.
It is also responsible for Diarrhoea, the main killer of children under the age of five years in Nigeria, and stunting, an abnormality that hampers a child from reaching their full learning potential.
UNICEF is distraught that access to safe water constitutes a challenge for majority of Nigerians, especially those in the rural communities.
It warned that for the country of 195 million people to attain the global goal of providing access to safe water for every citizen by 2030, it needs to make water, together with sanitation and hygiene, a national priority.
To realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets by 2030, the N85 billion earmarked for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in the 2017 budget should be fully implemented while governments at all levels should make clean and safe water accessible to all.
We are also calling for a policy guideline that will modulate the practice where virtually all Nigerian house owners dig wells and boreholes to meet water requirement.
This practice is carried out without considering the impact on the environment and the possibility of seismic shift in the earth crust that could result in earthquake.
Meanwhile, potable water and improved sanitation services are verifiable measures for fighting poverty and diseases.

About the size of Forsyth Park, it will provide an additional resource of fresh water that may be needed when the Savannah River experiences drought conditions at extremely high tides in hot weather.
Savannah expects to spend $300,000 a year to operate and maintain it.
(Photo courtesy of the Savannah District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)
@MaryLandersSMN The City of Savannah is preparing to take ownership of a new reservoir built and funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in connection with the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project.
Savannah will be footing the $300,000 a year operations and maintenance bill.
The Corps of Engineers built the $43.5 million, 100-millon gallon reservoir at the urging of city water officials as a solution to potential drinking water issues that could result from the deepening of the Savannah Harbor.
“The reservoir creates a pool of water, approximately 100 million gallons, so if we were to have one of these extreme high tide events, we would be able to pull from that reservoir during the high tide event and not pull salt water into our distribution system.” But while federal and state dollars built the reservoir, the annual maintenance and operation bill, now estimated at $300,000 will be city funded.
And because water and sewer services in Savannah are self-funded, that means anyone who gets a water bill will be paying to keep the reservoir operating.
City spokeswoman Michelle Gavin offered no explanation for the 40 percent reduction.
“The City of Savannah is very much a part of everything that happens in this region, we want to be a partner, so in a partnership we understand that the Georgia Ports Authority is trying to get more cargo into the port, so it may seem that the city is taking on added responsibility, but it is important for this region that we support this project,” Lloyd said.

Residents of Westmoreland who were affected by the heavy rains are being urged by the health department to take the necessary precautions to ensure their water is safe.
Speaking to JIS News, Health and Promotion Officer for Westmoreland Gerald Miller said individuals, especially those who access water via springs, rivers, ponds and community tanks, should exercise care before drinking water from those sources.
Miller says residents can treat their water by either boiling it or adding bleach to ensure its safety.
“The water should be allowed to boil for five minutes before removing it from the heat, after which you cover and leave to cool before using,” he explained.
For persons wishing to use bleach, Miller said specific measurements need to be adhered to and that treated water must be allowed to sit for 30 minutes before it is safe for consumption.
Meanwhile, individuals are being encouraged to ensure that storage containers are properly covered so that they do not become breeding sites for mosquitoes.
“Also when fetching water from these containers, a clean jug with a handle should be used at all times.
Do not use containers which have stored harmful chemicals,” he said.
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Authorities such as the municipality call it a seasonal phenomenon.
Water shortage, both for drinking and irrigation is a national issue but it still fails to make it to the national agenda.
The country, especially the urban centres are today reeling under housing and water shortage, an issue that persists despite claims of efforts being made to address them.
That residents of Thimphu municipality receive 60.93 percent of drinking water against the required quantity shows that the water distribution system, if there is one, is as good as defunct.
When the problem continues to exist despite huge budget being allocated to fix it, we have to accept that those who are tasked with the responsibility are the problem.
We have heard the authorities blaming the seasons, drying water sources and infrastructure development among others, for the water shortage.
It is time we accept that we have not done a good job in setting up the infrastructure that ensures continued drinking water supply.
A lack of concerted efforts to address water shortage in rural homes has fuelled the fear of irrigation water running short, its impact on the fields and the livelihood of the farmers.
While the 12th Plan has identified it as an area of priority, there is a need to review the roles and responsibilities of the agencies that are involved in the management and distribution of the resource.
But such is the issue with the resource.