PRINCE RUPERT — A boil water advisory for Prince Rupert, B.C., has entered its fifth week, prompting one citizen advocate group to criticize city officials for not having a preparedness plan in place.
"Five weeks is too long without any provision of access to water for people who are vulnerable," Kertes said in an interview.
Water in the city of Prince Rupert tested for high levels of cryptosporidium and giardia, parasites can cause intestinal illnesses, he said.
This represents the final phase of the city’s water infrastructure replacement project, it said.
"Unfortunately, there are no treatment options available to the city to remove cryptosporidium at the source supply, and therefore there is currently no way to prevent or manage the issue other than to wait for the water to clear itself," reads a post on the city’s website.
Kertes said there are a lot of questions on how the decisions surrounding the infrastructure upgrade were made and what the priorities were.
"We need the city government to listen and take responsibility and we need a preparedness plan."
As of Jan. 17, there were 25 short-term drinking water advisories in place in Canada, and six "boil water" and three "do not consume" advisories in British Columbia.
"It’s anyone’s guess" how long the advisory will be in effect, he said.
"This is a wake-up call that not everyone in Canada can take (tap water) for granted," Kertes said.

PRINCE RUPERT — A boil water advisory for Prince Rupert, B.C., has entered its fifth week, prompting one citizen advocate group to criticize city officials for not having a preparedness plan in place.
"Five weeks is too long without any provision of access to water for people who are vulnerable," Kertes said in an interview.
Water in the city of Prince Rupert tested for high levels of cryptosporidium and giardia, parasites can cause intestinal illnesses, he said.
This represents the final phase of the city’s water infrastructure replacement project, it said.
"Unfortunately, there are no treatment options available to the city to remove cryptosporidium at the source supply, and therefore there is currently no way to prevent or manage the issue other than to wait for the water to clear itself," reads a post on the city’s website.
Kertes said there are a lot of questions on how the decisions surrounding the infrastructure upgrade were made and what the priorities were.
"We need the city government to listen and take responsibility and we need a preparedness plan."
As of Jan. 17, there were 25 short-term drinking water advisories in place in Canada, and six "boil water" and three "do not consume" advisories in British Columbia.
"It’s anyone’s guess" how long the advisory will be in effect, he said.
"This is a wake-up call that not everyone in Canada can take (tap water) for granted," Kertes said.

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (ADV) –Botswana has cautioned its citizens to prepare for worst as the country is on the brink of drought.
This comes after the Botswana Millers Association, Chairperson, Nkosi Mwaba recently indicated that the country was facing a drought and a price hike in maize was looming.
“As of now we are importing our maize from South Africa, United States, Mexico and Argentina,” said Mwaba.
“We need our people to be prepared for any eventuality as we are trying to deal with this situation.
We are subjected to both regional and global market factors as well as the unique price-setting structures in Botswana.” An agricultural research conducted in South Africa suggested that SA as Botswana’s biggest supplier, has estimated that planted hectare in the main maize producer in provinces of North West and Free State were down to an average of 65%.
Botswana consumes 120,000 tonnes of maize meal annually, but local production only amounts to 10,000 tonnes annually.
Previously, Grain SA CEO Jannie de Villiers told media that, “the situation of current crop status planted, late plantings and even no plantings meant farmers in South Africa were in for a very rough ride in 2019.” According to Mwaba, the Botswana Millers Association is in the verge of commercialising maize farming in Botswana, where farmers could gain financially instead of importing from South Africa.
“We have various challenges working against the growth of this sector, but we are confident that we will find a workable system that is practical and sustainable specifically for Botswana,” he said.
© Bur-JHB – M.C / K.R – African Daily Voice (ADV) – Follow us on Twitter : @ADVinfo_en

The City of Boulder has had its share of issues with drinking water over the last few years.
Perhaps you read about elevated levels of chromium-6 (the contaminant discussed at length in Erin Brockovich) in a 2014 article in Boulder Weekly, or maybe you’ve seen more recent coverage of the elevated levels of haloacetic acids at Betasso Water Treatment Plant in the Daily Camera last year.
That knowledge gap was the impetus for World Water Monitoring Day, which America’s Clean Water Foundation established in 2003 as a way to commemorate the 1972 enactment of the Clean Water Act.
The event was originally celebrated on the law’s anniversary, Oct. 18, but has since been moved to its current date, Sept. 18.
Participants have ranged from local environmental education nonprofits to school groups to families, and Russell emphasizes that monitoring one’s water supply is easier than you might think.
Whether as individuals, school groups or other stake holders, the volunteer stewards monitor not only water quality but other indicators of watershed health in an effort to compile high-quality data that can be used for education efforts and to inform decision-makers about the health of Colorado’s waterways.
The City also “routinely samples nearly 100 locations in the distribution system for chlorine residual, bacteria, disinfection byproducts, lead, copper, pH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness.” The City of Boulder “goes above and beyond regulatory requirements to ensure safe drinking water and monitors for potential changes in water quality,” Dunlap says, and points out that citizens can learn about the City’s findings on its drinking water quality webpage.
Though the Sept. 18 event is a rallying cry for citizen scientists to get involved in local water quality monitoring, the EarthEcho Water Challenge and River Watch’s efforts are a year-round affair: they’ll happily take data from those monitoring their water at any time.
The publicly available water quality data collected by citizens, “may be used by local environmental education nonprofits for their own restoration efforts, or it could be used by government officials,” says Russell, who encourages citizens to look up historical data for their waterways as well.
In other words, Russell says, monitoring your local water quality is just the first step.

One million gallon of drinking water is getting wasted due to leaking water lines in district central of Karachi, exposing citizens to repeated bouts of water scarcity.
KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 15th May, 2018 ) :One million gallon of drinking water is getting wasted due to leaking water lines in district central of Karachi, exposing citizens to repeated bouts of water scarcity.
Chairman, DMC – West, Rehan Hashmi in a statement here Tuesday drawing attention of the authorities towards the issue said the problem in manageable provided there is will to do so.
"Frequent episodes of water shortage in the commercial hub of the country can be rightly attributed to poor water management," he said.
DMC – West chairman emphasized that since Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has simply failed to deliver and is aggravating problems faced by the people hence it would be appropriate to place it under the control of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
"Mayor who is directly elected by the citizens and enjoys public confidence besides having adequate understanding of the civic requirements of locals must be authorized to run KWSB affairs," said Rehan Hashmi.
In context of steady decline in the water level at Haleji lake, the main source of water supply to the metropolis, he said concerned authorities must have been fully cognizant of the situation and therefore had adopted needed interventions on strong lines.
"This should have been done prior to the onset of summers with major focus on efficient water management as well as provision for alternative sources of water supply to the city," he said.

By Franklin N. Kwenah in Gbarnga Residents of Butiesue of District #3 in Bong County are in dire need of safe drinking water and healthcare services and have called on the Liberian government and humanitarian organizations to come to their aid.
Town Chief Leemu Sackie said since the establishment of the town in the late 60’s the people never had any access to safe drinking water and healthcare.
According to Chief Sackie, they usually fetch drinking water from a nearby creek which has resulted in many coming down with diarrhea and other water-borne diseases.
Sackie noted that due to serious pipe-borne diseases and diarrhea, they decided to dig a well that will help to minimize the occurrences of these water-borne diseases and save the lives of children and women in the town.
She added that there are still problems in the town in terms of safe drinking water.
“The one well cannot serve all the houses in the town, and even it can get dirty and dry during the dry season, and we have to get back to drinking from the creek water.” The Butiesue Town Chief made special references to the months of January, February, and March when citizens go in the bush looking for safe drinking water.
Chief Sackie therefore, called on the government and other humanitarian organizations to come to their assistance.
“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,” she said.
As of the the health condition in the area, Chief Sackie explained that it is one of the challenging issues affecting her town and noted that pregnant women and the sick are transported to Phebe Hospital.
“When a big belly is at pains in the town, she has to be carried in a hammock to Phebe, and the road is very far,” she said.

Around the former Reese Air Force Base the U.S. Air Force has found at least 42 drinking water wells to be contaminated with potentially dangerous compounds and some of those are within Lubbock city limits.
In fact, officials tell KCBD NewsChannel 11 that at a February 15 information session, the Air Force discussed the potential to pay for those water lines.
At Reese Center, the compounds were first found in the Ogallala Aquifer in November, a major drinking source for area residents.
According to the Air Force, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) were at or above the EPA’s lifetime health advisory of 70 parts per trillion for drinking water in private wells in the area of Reese AFB.
"We are not drawing upon any of the ground water here around the City of Lubbock as part of our water supply," Spear said.
However, at a meeting with residents in February, officials said they will expand further and ask more residents if they can test their wells.
Our water supply is safe and we want to make sure all of our citizens have the opportunity to use the safe water here in this area."
For affected residents, including those using wells in city limits, the Air Force is providing bottled water.
Spear tells KCBD NewsChannel 11 the manmade contaminates are found in at a very small level.
"It’s moving through the gravel and sands.

Johan van der Merwe, mayoral committee member for finance in the city, said they believe that a “drought charge is critical” in order to make up the shortfall of revenue in order to “increase the security of our water supply”.
“There will be a council meeting on Friday next week to consider the comments received and to determine the way forward regarding water resilience in the City of Cape Town.” He said that any decision taken at the meeting will inform the adjustment budget “that will be tabled for council for approval at the end of January 2018”.
In a statement issued by the City in November last year, taps are set to be turned off once the dams reach a level of 13.5%.
Once this happens, residents will have to collect their water supply from one of 200 water collection sites that will be spread out across the city.
These watering sites are expected to cater to an estimated 20000 people per site every day.
Dr Kevin Winter from UCT’s Environmental and Geographical Science Future Water Institute said the idea of water points are certainly a wake-up call; however, he doesn’t believe that it will reach that point.
“The City has been quite good in helping us see what the reality is.
I really don’t think we are going to go down that route."
“To be honest, I think it is going to rain, I think we will probably get through this crisis.” Winter added he doesn’t believe the City is going to run out of water as he sees them being able to manage the crisis “very carefully”.
I think it is the approach of the drought levy that caused the real issue.

Borehole levy in Delta state: citizens call on UN, AU to prevail on Gov Okowa.
The Delta state government recently updated an order for the collection and payment of borehole levy and other water-allied levies in the state, and reiterated commitments to pursue offenders.
The order stipulates that domestic, industrial and commercial boreholes are to be levied.
While the State government license fee for domestic boreholes according to the order will cost citizens of the state N2,500.00 per annum, the license fee for commercial boreholes costs N35,000 per annum, and for industrial and government establishments, the license fee is N50,000.00 per annum.
“All Nations must enact and domesticate the law that water is life, availability is compulsory and it is human rights.
“The Delta State Government must stop and revoke its order for the collection and payment of borehole levy/levies and other water-allied levies,” the President of MAP, Chief Bobson Gbinije said.
Chief Gbinije said governments must provide drinkable, clean, clear and hygienic water for the vast majority of its citizenry.
He said the recent discovery of a sieve and sift system that can de-salinize water very effectively must be interrogated and put to good use globally, stressing that the menace of water pollution through pipelines vandalization must be forestalled.
“The apocalyptic narrative of water scarcity in Nigeria and nay our world should now be addressed with soldierly brevity by the United Nations, African Union, OAS, ASEAN countries and governments all over the world,” Gbinije submitted.
He said water is life and every government worth its salt should provide it to the people free of charge.