The Latest on drinking water contamination in a Montana county (all times local): 2:40 p.m. A Montana county has agreed to upgrade a small community drinking water system after securing $588,000 in grants.
The proposed agreement between Beaverhead County and the U.S. Department of Justice was filed Wednesday with a lawsuit that accused the Jackson drinking water system of multiple violations.
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Federal environmental officials found that the groundwater system exceeded acceptable levels of arsenic and radioactive contaminants, and that the water and sewer district failed to monitor for contamination and file required disclosures.
Under the deal, the county agrees to regularly monitor and report as soon as the deal takes effect.
The U.S. government is seeking a court order to force Beaverhead County to comply with drinking water standards, monitoring and reporting requirements for a small community water system in Jackson.
The Department of Justice filed its lawsuit Wednesday after finding the county’s water and sewer district committed numerous violations dating back to 2009, and then disobeyed multiple Environmental Protection Agency orders to fix them.
The violations include levels of arsenic and radioactive contaminants that exceeded the limits multiple times.
Despite that, the lawsuit says, the district failed to monitor for those and other contaminants and failed to tell regulators and the public about the excessive contaminants and its own reporting violations.
Beaverhead County attorney Jed Fitch did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.

RAJOURI: Overwhelmed by timely fulfillment of commitments, public of Dodason expressed gratitude to District Development Commissioner Rajouri Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary for ending their water woes with installation of hand pumps at more than 15 locations across the village.
Pertinently commitments regarding installation of hand pumps were made by the DDC during his extensive tour of the village on January 23, 2018 along with team of District and Sectoral Officers.
“We thank DDC Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary for completion of work for hand pumps installation in record time of 5 days.
We are overwhelmed by the promptness and concern shown by the DDC to address our water concerns and timely fulfilment of commitments”, they said adding that to have access to drinking water had been their long cherished dream as the area has had scarce water sources.
They further said that procuring water for daily household needs has always been a herculean task for the villagers, as women and children took up several kilometres everyday for water.
With the hand pumps coming up at several accessible locales it’s likely that hundreds of households in the area will now have easy access to safe drinking water and dependable water supply, they added.

The U.S. government is asking a judge to force Beaverhead County to comply with state and federal drinking water standards after finding excessive contamination and numerous failures to monitor and report on a small Montana community’s water system over nine years.
The Department of Justice sued Wednesday after finding the county’s water and sewer district committed numerous violations dating to 2009 and then disobeyed multiple Environmental Protection Agency orders to fix them.
Despite those excessive levels, the district failed to monitor for those and other contaminants and failed to make the required disclosures to state regulators and the public, the lawsuit said.
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Beaverhead County attorney Jed Fitch did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.
The EPA issued orders in 2009, 2013 and 2014 for the county to fix the problems, but each one was violated, prompting the lawsuit for a court order, Justice Department attorneys wrote.
High levels of arsenic were found in the Jackson drinking water system as far back as 2005, when Montana prepared to adopt new water contamination limits.
The county received a three-year exemption to comply, and only started racking up violations when the exemption expired in 2009.
The EPA lists 16 violations in its lawsuit that include not only excessive arsenic and radionuclides, but the county water district’s failure to monitor for several other contaminants — asbestos, pesticides and coliform bacteria.

Mar 29, Colombo: Nine companies showcased nature-based solutions to address water quality issues at a Trade Fair on Advanced and Appropriate Water Treatment Systems in Colombo recently in commemoration of the World Water Day.
This seven-year project (2017-2024) is aimed at strengthening the resilience of Smallholder Farmers in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone to climate variability and extreme events.
To support water purification under this program, a Trade Fair on Advanced and Appropriate Water Treatment Systems to treat water in locations with serious water quality issues was held at the Red Verandah, BMICH in commemoration of World Water Day 2018, where nine companies showcased nature-based solutions, in parallel with alternative approaches, in water treatment technologies and practices.
This was initiated by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) supported Climate Resilient Integrated Water Management Project (CRIWMP) together with the World Bank assisted Water Supply & Sanitation Improvement Project.
The above two Projects aim to improve access to potable water by enhancing community-managed rural water supply infrastructure including advanced filtration and treatment systems with appropriate disinfection processes.
According to the UNDP, globally, 2.1 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services.
Furthermore, over 80 percent of the wastewater generated by society flows back into the environment without being treated or reused.
Speaking about UNDP’s support, Ms. Lovita Ramguttee, Deputy Country Director, UNDP Sri Lanka stated, "Nature-based solutions have the potential to solve many of our water challenges.
Sumanasekara, General Manager of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board stated, "The rural communities in Sri Lanka need potable water for which new and advanced treatment technologies have to be showcased and promoted.
This trade fair explored the best solutions to address drinking water concerns at a community level in the Dry zone of Sri Lanka.

China Women’s Development Foundation (CWDF) held an inauguration ceremony in a rural elementary school of Xinglong County in north China’s Hebei Province on March 21 to upgrade drinking water facilities for local children.
It is part of the Water Cellar for Mothers and Safe Drinking Water on Campus initiative, which was launched by the CWDF in 2011 and aims to provide rural schools with necessary equipment to purify their drinking water and improve the sanitation standards of local toilets.
According to organizers, the upgraded facilities have shortened the construction period by roughly 50 percent, increased the efficiency of the recycling of water resources, and offered a broader space for interactive exchanges between volunteers and teenage beneficiaries.
Deputy Secretary-General of CWDF Zhang Jianmin said at the launch ceremony that the charity scheme is crucial to constantly improve the physical health of students in primary and middle schools and is a concrete measure to implement the national health strategy.
So far, the program has been accessible in nearly 770 rural schools from 25 provincial regions and covered a total of 400,000 students and teachers.
Zhang pledged that CWDF would make full use of its advantages, rally more social resources and work closely with governments at various levels to ensure safe access to drinking water for rural students and teachers.
On the sidelines of the opening ceremony, volunteers held interactive activities to help local students learn more about health issues around water and raise their awareness of water preservation in daily life.
Those in attendance at the event also included Yang Wenli, deputy mayor of Xinglong County People’s Government; and representatives from two sponsor enterprises.
(Source: China Women’s Development Foundation/Translated and edited by Women of China) Please understand that womenofchina.cn,a non-profit, information-communication website, cannot reach every writer before using articles and images.
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“Recent estimate based on the SDG criterial of safely managed water suggests that about 93% of Liberia’s rural residents don’t have access to enough clean water for domestic use.
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Try … Squarespace Learn more According to him, the problem in Liberia is compounded by a number of structural problems both in terms of governance and resources mobilization.
The Public Works Assistant Minister also attributed challenges facing the WASH sector to low skilled and under resourced government employees who, he intimated continue to be plagued with the problem of low service delivery output leading to ineffective WASH services.
Consequently, the Public Works Official said, WASH infrastructures’ construction and its attending software activities in Liberia have been the subject of growing attention, describing it as the most fragile part of public goods provided in Liberia.
He also lamented that low funding to the Liberian WASH sector has generally undermined the aspiration of plans needed to realize the goals of ensuring sanitation and hygiene activities are skilled up beyond fragmented and incoherent implementation.
Minister Chesson noted that there is low government allocation for Liberia WASH sector, thus leading to donor and NGOS dominance which, he noted sometimes leads to unachievable government planned priorities.
On the global scene, the CDC official disclosed that more than 700 million people (10%) of the global population lack access to safe drinking water exposing them to the risk of “unpredictable” ineffectual diseases and premature death.
That is why, he added, it is more than necessary to join others around the global to observe world water day on March 22 each year so as to occupy the consciousness of the world about the water crisis facing people who are left behind.
“663 million people don’t have access to safe managed water source not to talk of improved infrastructures close to their homes, unlike few, most people around the world must spend complex hours in Queue waiting to get what he referred to as the precious resource (water).

In 2050, Kabul’s population is expected to reach 9 million, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
As demand for water increases, excess pumping has caused a sharp decline in the groundwater level in recent years.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the groundwater level in Kabul declined by an average of 1.5 meters per year between 2004 and 2012.
Oxfam research shows that competition for water in both rural and urban Afghan communities is increasing, leading to heightened tensions and violence.
The Asia Foundation’s recent Survey of the Afghan People reveals rising concerns over water shortages in Kabul province.
Each year, the survey asks Afghans about their biggest problems in their local areas, and in 2017, significantly more (26%) Afghans in Kabul province reported access to drinking water as a biggest problem compared to the previous year (19%).
The survey also shows that over time, at the national level access to drinking water is consistently one of the most cited problem Afghans report in their local area.
The survey reveals a correlation between awareness of public services like a new drinking water project and perceptions toward issues like confidence in the National Unity Government (NUG), optimism about the direction of country, and willingness to leave the country.
Among the respondents who report that they know about a drinking water project, 41.7 percent say that the country is moving in the right direction, compared to 29.9 percent of those who don’t know about the project.
Since the NUG formed in 2014, President Ashraf Ghani has made water management and building dams a priority for economic growth and development.

“Recent estimate based on the SDG criteria of safely managed water suggests that about 93 percent of Liberia’s rural residents don’t have access to enough clean water for domestic use.” He says lack of access to water is due to shortage in drinking water facilities, noting, “This is troubling and undesirable statistics by any standard.” According to him, the situation in Liberia is compounded by a number of structural problems both in terms of governance and resources mobilization.
“They normally struggle in comparison to their NGO counterparts, who in most cases, are better equipped and well-resourced to realize their short term WASH mandates at the risk of low sustainability and discontinuity of project activities in the event that donors’ funding expired”, he laments.
Consequently, he says WASH infrastructures’ construction and its attending software activities in Liberia has been the subject of growing attention, describing it as the most fragile part of public goods provided in Liberia.
Minister Chesson continues that low funding to the Liberian WASH sector has generally undermined the aspiration of plans needed to realize the goals of ensuring sanitation and hygiene activities are scaled up beyond fragmented and incoherent implementation.
The Assistant Minister notes that there is low government allocation for Liberia WASH sector, thus leading to donor and NGOS dominance which, he observes sometimes leads to unachievable government planned priorities.
He warns that Global Water crisis will not be solved if Liberians don’t provide the necessary support and continue to work together to ensure that no one is left behind in the drive to enhance access to safe drinking water.
On the global scene, the CDC official disclosed that more than 700 million people (10%) of the global population lack access to safe drinking water, exposing them to the risk of “unpredictable” ineffectual diseases and premature death.
That is why, he adds, it is more than necessary to join others around the global to observe world water day on March 22 each year so as to occupy the consciousness of the world about the water crisis facing people who are left behind.
“663 million people don’t have access to safe managed water source, not to talk of improved infrastructures close to their homes, unlike few, most people around the world must spend complex hours in Queue, waiting to get what he terms as the precious resource (water).
-Editing by Jonathan Browne

Factors impacting water quality vary based on geography, infrastructure, industry and even climate, making water treatment a constantly evolving practice that faces new demands every day.
A new system that combines targeted circulation of standing water with a novel technique for removing pollutants just might have the versatility needed to address water contamination in a rapidly changing world.
Simple PVC Sprinkler Reduces Bacterial Infections In the municipal water tanks used to supply drinking water to communities throughout the United States and Canada, the layer of water above the tanks’ intake and outtake pipes is stagnant.
Until now, the primary method for preventing infection has been avoiding the upper water layer by drawing the drinking supply from the bottom of the water tank.
Using this mechanism, incoming water was sprinkled evenly across the surface of water contained in a cylindrical tank, and the reverse sprinkler at the bottom of the tank drew out water from more than one location.
The parallel downward streamlines generated by this sprinkler system eliminated the majority of the stagnation zones within the tank.
Magnetic Removal of Adsorbed Molecules Addresses Wide Range of Synthetic Contaminants No circulation system is going to prevent contamination by micropollutants, which can enter the water supply through discarded or excreted medication, recycled laundry water or industrial runoff.
A system that relies on adsorption by magnetic nanoparticles to remove micropollutants requires minimal infrastructure changes when adopted by a water treatment plant.
The Future of Water Treatment The newly developed PVC sprinklers and magnetite nanoparticles have only been tested in small-scale laboratory water tanks.
To bring them into real-life water treatment plants, the systems would have to be scaled up, but the adaptability makes them well-suited to widespread testing throughout North America.

22 March 2018: On World Water Day, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) launched the ‘International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development’ (2018-2028).
Delivering remarks on behalf of the UNGA President, Mahmoud Saikal, Permanent Representative of Afghanistan and UNGA Vice President, noted the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water, and underscored the centrality of water to the achievement of all the SDGs.
He said the Decade of Action needs to be defined by: water and sanitation as priorities for the budgets and policies of national governments; a surge of cooperation on water management and disaster risk reduction (DRR) between different stakeholders, including the UN, governments, international financial institutions, businesses and civil society; and increased water-related investments and innovations.
The Secretary-General presented the Action Plan of the Decade for Action, which has three objectives: transforming the current silo-based approach to water supply, sanitation, water management and DRR into an integrated one to better tackle water stress, combat climate change, and enhance resilience; aligning existing water and sanitation programmes and projects with the 2030 Agenda; and generating the political will for strengthened cooperation and partnerships.
The Minister of Water and Irrigation of Jordan called for advancing effective management of shared water resources.
Supported by Palau for the Small-island Developing States (P-SIDS), she emphasized the centrality of SDG 13 on climate action to achieving SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation.
Egypt, for the Group of the 77 and China (G-77/ China), called for developed countries to increase their investments in water and sanitation projects in developing countries.
Peru and the Netherlands spoke about water’s importance to achieving SDG 16 on peace and security through creating a conducive environment for peace.
During a panel on the ‘Contribution of the Water Decade to the implementation of water related SDGs,’ Ali Al-Ghezawi, Minister of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, emphasized that regional cooperation on water issues is especially important for LLDCs.
Priscilla Achapka, Executive Director Women Environmental Programme, highlighted the need to integrate the gender-related aspects in water planning and management.