Iran is facing its harshest drought in the last 50 years, and nearly half the country’s population will soon face water shortages, according to the Energy Ministry.
“334 cities with 35 million people across Iran are currently struggling with water stress,” said Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian April 21 in a speech to top members of President Hassan Rouhani’s administration.
Classifying cities in three different categories, Ardakanian explained, “165 cities with 10.5 million people are in yellow, 62 cities with 6.8 million are in orange, and 107 cities with 17.2 million residents are in a red alert situation across Iran.” Iran has been experiencing long cycles of drought for the last fifty years, with the average amount of precipitation per decade dropping from 250 to 217 millimeters during that time.
Despite the historic downward trend in precipitation, Ardakanian emphasized that this year will be the driest on the books.
“The water shortage is currently Iran’s most important humanitarian challenge,” said UN Development Program Resident Representative in Iran Gary Lewis.
One Iranian MP described the situation in the later province as a “danger threatening Iran’s national security.” Reports suggest five million people living in Isfahan, in central Iran, will have no access to drinking water from July onwards.
In addition to the lack of precipitation, Iran’s water shortage is compounded by poor management of water resources, critics say.
Even Ardakanian says changing water consumption practices is a key step in ending the water shortage.
“Revising the ways water is consumed in Iran is even more important than discovering new water resources in the country,” said Ardakanian, cautioning that failing to adapt consumption practices could lead to water rationing and power outages.
A 2017 United Nations report warned, “Water shortages are acute; agricultural livelihoods no longer sufficient.

UNICEF has been in the country for more than 20 years and have been working in different areas.
That means, only two-thirds of the population have access to safe drinking water sources.
Having access to sources is one thing but then the quality of the water that is been used by people for drinking purposes at the household level is different, because the source is somewhere in nature.
There are so many things that can be done by the people in the community to ensure they have safe drinking water.
First of all, meeting WASH objectives, we need to make WASH a priority in the national agenda.
One part will cover capital investment to construct new water systems and sanitation systems in areas that have not been served before.
So that at the end, they can get the water they need at the household level suitable for drinking.
PT: How much has UNICEF spent so far as part of its support for the WASH project?
Jurji: Like I said, it’s over 20 years UNICEF has been working in Nigeria, so I do not have access to that figure.
These, people will have to make sure the source is free from any contamination.

Californians have an intense concern about the potential for drinking water contamination and strongly support the bipartisan efforts by state and local governments to address it, according to a poll released today by FM3 Research for the broad coalition of more than 110 public health, agricultural, and environmental justice groups behind Gov.
Jerry Brown’s proposal to create a Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund in this year’s budget.
Voters hold water agencies accountable for action to ensure state drinking water and would also like to see their state legislator act to provide funding to improve water quality.
In fact, an overwhelming number of voters are willing to pay an additional $1 on their monthly water bills if it will help ensure safe drinking water in communities around the state.
Three in five (61%) of voters support the creation of a Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund.
The support is widespread across major demographic and geographic categories including 77% of urban voters, 65% of voters of color and 60% of white voters, and majorities in every region of the state, including 64% in the Central Valley.
Taken together, these findings clearly demonstrate that Californians are highly concerned with maintaining access to safe drinking water, and support the goals of the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund as well as the funding mechanism it specifies.
The study was conducted February 17-21, 2018 in 600 telephone in interviews and English and Spanish with likely November 2018 voters.
The margin of sampling error for the study is +/-4.0%.
A comprehensive polling memo is available here.

If we buy bottled water, we are paying from $1,100 (Zephyrhills Natural Spring Water) to $9,240 (Evian Natural Spring Water) per 1,000 gallons of the same groundwater in a fancy plastic bottle.
In Florida the water itself is free.
A common contaminant in groundwater in Florida and worldwide is nitrate nitrogen.
Even the bottled springs water for sale in Florida contains elevated nitrate concentrations.
Nitrate in fertilizer costs anywhere from 50 to 200 times less than the cost of removing it from drinking water.
Its called an aquifer protection dee.
Public utilities have learned that a tiered water rate effectively discourages excessive water use.
While there are some costs for installation and maintenance of a septic system and for lagoons associated with dairies, there is little to no cost for prevention of nitrogen pollution for rural homeowners and agricultural producers.
All groundwater uses must be monitored and users pay a fee in proportion to the amount of groundwater they use.
The proceeds from these aquifer protection fees should be used for preventing excessive depletion and pollution of the Floridan Aquifer.

UNICEF at Northwest hosted its first annual Water Walk Saturday to raise awareness for the global water crisis.
“Through it, we were also able to raise some funds for UNICEF water and sanitation efforts.” Gerhardt said despite the cold and rainy weather, the event had a good turnout.
UNICEF Secretary Mahesh Bashyal said the Water Walk was a flashback to two years ago when he carried his own water for a year.
At the third stop, participants either had a yellow or green sticker.
Those with yellow stickers had to continue carrying the bucket of water by themselves.
Gerhardt said UNICEF at Northwest sent out an email to all campus clubs and organizations, inviting them to attend.
“I think the more people we could reach, the better it would be.” Lanman echoed Gerhardt, encouraging more people to attend next year’s Water Walk.
April 5 There is an ongoing investigation for lost/stolen property at the 300 block of North Main Street.
April 12 A summons was issued to Monic Owen, 20, from Smithville, Missouri, for Littering at the 100 block of North Buchanan Street.
A summons was issued to Rickey Crowley, 18, from Conception Junction, Missouri, for driving while suspended and failure to register a motor vehicle at the 1400 block of North County Club Road April 14 A summons was issued to Charles Steeb, 19, from Omaha, Nebraska, for minor in possession at the 1600 block of North Main Street.

PHILIPSBURG–Public Health Minister Emil Lee announced on Wednesday that negotiations for the amendment of the contracts for the supply of public drinking water produced by Seven Seas Water have been concluded and signed off with a positive and desirable savings of NAf.
4 million annually for a period of three years.
And that loss, in terms of water that is paid for but consumed, was projected to be about 4.6 million guilders annually,” said Lee.
The amendments consist of Government reverting to the pre-2016 volume of 15,500m3 daily in exchange for the extension of the agreement, with the possibility to extend for two more years thereafter.
“That gives us some breathing room in terms of cash flow.
It allows us to get the hotel plants back in operation and it allows us to finalise discussions and negotiations with the French side, with the Harbour and the cruise lines as possible clients to sell water to,” Lee said.
He also mentioned that it is the utilities company GEBE’s desire to independently produce drinking water for the country.
The contract with Seven Seas Water has provisions that allow the possibility for the country to negotiate an early buyout of the contract.
The negotiated amendments to the contract include the expansion of the applicant criteria of the scholarship funds of the Desalination Resource Development Programme (DRDP), which is part of the water contract with Seven Seas Water.
Lee said, “We have broadened the terms that allow a broader participation of who can access the scholarship funds with the understanding that what we are trying to do is: we are trying to train individuals in water production in St. Maarten, equipping the country to be able to take over the water production on its own in the future.”

In most parts of the United States, we’re privileged to have access to clean drinking water with a simple turn of the tap.
Sure, we may use a filter for a smoother taste, but, by and large, our tap water feels safe.
However, a new study reveals there could be something lurking in our H2O that wasn’t previously detectable.
Researchers recently found bacteria in tap water can actually proliferate if a faucet has gone unused for a few days.
What kind of bacteria, you ask?
According to a University of Illinois study, the same microbial communities associated with such illnesses as Legionnaires’ disease.
Before you vow to never use your faucet again, first understand this: Plenty of innocent microbes already live in our tap water and researchers attest that the bacteria found in the study don’t appear to present a health risk, no matter how icky the thought of it might sound.
To collect their findings, the study authors took tap water samples from three separate dormitories on the University of Illinois campus before the school closed for a break and then again just ahead of the students’ return.
“Our results suggest that the increase in bacteria in the post-stagnation samples is a result of something occurring in the interior plumbing, not the outside city source, and in pipe segments closest to the taps,” said Wen-Tso Liu, co-author of the study and a civil and environmental engineering professor, in a press release from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Researchers believe that the influx of bacteria in the post-stagnation samples is due to the interaction between the biofilm on the inside of plumbing pipes and the tap water.

Four Lambton County municipalities have jointly secured a $7-million grant from the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF), money that will be used to make upgrades on the Petrolia Water Treatment plant.
Representatives from Petrolia, Oil Springs, Dawn-Euphemia and Enniskillen Township – including Petrolia mayor John McCharles and Oil Springs Mayor Ian Veen – gathered at the water treatment plant in Bright’s Grove on April 12 to formally launch the project, expected to cost $8 million.
Over the next two years, the water treatment plant will receive several upgrades, including new high lift pumps, a new clear well, as well as other improvements to allow for the service’s expansion.
The project is expected to be finished by 2020.
Not only is the project important in that it will improve access to clean and safe drinking water for residents of all four communities, McCharles said, but the joint effort marked the first time that four Ontario municipalities have successfully teamed together to secure OCIF funding for a joint project.
“It’s a major project worth nearly $8 million and we’re very grateful for the funding from the province,” he said.
“And I’m quite proud of the fact that it was the first time in history that four municipalities came together on a grant application …
I heard from a number of senior members of government, who were thrilled to see the municipalities to get together.” “We all thought it was a great idea because we knew how important it was,” Veen added.
“What it means is that we’ll have affordable and safe drinking water for a long time to come.
“I think for the community it means clean, safe drinking water,” he said.

The International Alliance "Chrysotile" declares that there are capabilities and technical solutions that can be applied to solve a range of problems related to the safe transportation of water resources.
The use of durable and safe chrysotile-containing pipes makes it possible in a short period of time to create an effective system of water supply and drainage.
A recent example can be found in the amendments to the "Directive on protection of workers against risks associated with exposure to carcinogens and mutagens at work".
According to the new regulations, substances such as chromium VI compounds, wood dust and vinyl chloride, classified by the International Agency for Cancer Research as carcinogens of the first group, are permissible for use at work.
Chromium VI, also mentioned in this document as a recognized mutagen and carcinogen (p. 213), is still a major element of environmental pollution in industrialized areas, and can provoke serious illnesses.
Reference to page 171 of the aforementioned document of the WHO, second edition of "Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality Analysis", includes the – relevant yet ignored – conclusion of a specialized commission which states that chrysotile asbestos pipes are considered absolutely safe for the supply of drinking.
Scientists write that "there is no consistent, convincing evidence that the asbestos consumed (together with food or drinking water) is dangerous for human health" and therefore do not see the need to establish a maximum permissible threshold of asbestos fibers content in drinking water.
Moreover, a highly relevant study was published following the July 1996 meeting of the International Programme on Chemical Safety, as well as additional studies conducted by scientists of the WHO and Specialists of the International Labour Organization.
The International Alliance "Chrysotile" considers it necessary to eliminate double standards in relation to chrysotile asbestos in EU countries and to allow its safe and regulated use.
Such a solution would help effectively solve many of the problems of water supply and create a foundation for the safe and comfortable development of all the countries of the world, preventing the death of people from water scarcity and diseases associated with its pollution.

PESHAWAR: To cope with natural as well as manmade disasters, the global children’s body has accepted a proposal from the provincial government to establish mobile water quality testing facilities in the province.
As a result, the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will set up laboratories with the latest equipment and power back-up systems.
These laboratories would have the capacity to test for 29 different types of physical and chemical parameters.
It will be a joint effort where the vehicle will be provided by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Public Health Engineering Department (PHED).
The technical and financial support for building the lab-specific canopy, procurement and installation of testing equipment will be supported by the UNICEF.
The lab, officials hoped, will provide quick and efficient means of testing water quality in the province without being bound to collect samples at specific times.
Officials privy to the development added that the labs will have power generation and storage systems built into them so that they can operate without having their power supply interrupted.
PHED is one of the key government departments mandated to ensuring access to clean drinking water in the province.
UNICEF Chief Field Office Charles Nzuki, UNICEF Pakistan WASH Chief Kitka Goyal, K-P PHED Secretary Nazim Uddin and K-P North Chief Engineer Bahramaned Khan were present on the occasion.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2018.