Funding for clean water.
In spite of considerable progress in recent years, many people still lack access to essential services including safe water supply and sanitation.
To improve matters, governments need funding.
Women across Asia, Africa and Latin America share their fate.
Many countries, however, lack funding for improving their water infrastructure.
Typically, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) programmes are co-funded by various partners, including national governments, service providers, non-governmental organisations, international donor institutions and private households.
It includes data from 75 countries and 25 international agencies.
In some countries (Pakistan and Peru for example), the national budget contributes the largest share to WASH expenditure.
In 2015, 319 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lacked access to improved drinking-water sources.
In spite of this, “aid commitments to the region have declined”, the GLAAS report points out.

Greg Abbott vetoes funding for colonias initiative.
Abbott on Monday vetoed nearly $860,000 in the state’s operating budget slated for the Colonia Initiatives Program in the secretary of state’s office.
The ombudsmen are tasked with assessing residents’ needs and advocating for improvements in communities that often lack access to drinking water and wastewater services.
They coordinate with local, state and federal officials to secure funding for water and infrastructure projects.
“Each of these agencies provides direct client services to Texans living in colonias, while the Secretary of State primarily serves in a liaison and reporting role," Abbott wrote in a document detailing his vetoes.
"It’s a big loss because a lot of these projects are complex, and have a lot of agencies involved, both local and federal," Perez said.
El Paso had 329 colonias with 90,582 residents in 2014, according to a report from the secretary of state.
About 1,967 people in those communities did not have access to drinking water or wastewater.
Lionel Lopez, director of the South Texas Colonia Initiative, said much of the work done in colonias is achieved through volunteer work and nonprofits like his own, not by state offices.
Despite the uneven workload, Lopez said colonias need more attention and funding from state officials like Abbott, not less.

President Trump recently unveiled his infrastructure plan but it did little to address the water crisis in rural America.
Some utilities lack the ability to do appropriate water testing.
Small systems in rural areas account for nearly 70 percent of all violations.
When ranked by population served by systems with Safe Drinking Water Act violations, the top five states were: Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Georgia.
In other cases, tribal communities or small communities in agricultural areas rely on contaminated water sources.
Rural utilities generally favor expanding the U.S. EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, where states can receive grants to provide loans to public water systems for drinking water projects, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development’s Water & Environmental Programs which provide grants and low-interest loans to rural communities to develop drinking water and waste disposal systems for communities with 10,000 or fewer residents.
For many small, rural communities, their publicly owned water utility can be their most expensive investment.
First, more work — like that of the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project around education and inequity in access to water infrastructure — is needed is to help identify at-risk communities.
More robust monitoring systems at the state and community level can help to more quickly identify problems in drinking water systems.
A reinvestment in America’s aging and deteriorating rural infrastructure demands financial and technical resources to address these issues in equitable and fair ways.

Symptoms if there is no Sufficient Water in Human Body – Symptoms of Dehydration: Water will reduce many problems in our body. Nothing will replace the value of water in our body. If you are drinking enough water, get ready to tackle the health issues. We have to know the problems that we are going to face if not consuming water. Water will carry many functions in our body like lubrication, moistening, detoxification, transportation of nutrients, cell functioning, maintaining the internal organs healthy etc. Drinking water early in the morning will benefit us more than taking it throughout the day, Signs of Dehydration More water will detoxify our body. The water from copper containers is good for health. We have to drink water before we feel thirsty. Once we feel thirsty it is the indication that our body is dehydrating. People has to consume eight glasses of water daily for making the body function normally. In summer we have to take more water. Here is the information regarding the symptoms if we are not drinking the enough quantity of water. Signs if We did not Drink Enough Water: Dry Mouth: The first sign if we did not consume enough water is the dry mouth. We will feel…

On World Water Day, a Spotlight on U.S. Public Water Systems.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect a change in the estimates made by Fitch Ratings, which originally reported that replacing an estimated six million lead service lines across the country could cost upwards of $275 billion.
Fitch has since updated that estimate to “a few billion to $50 billion.” Tuesday is World Water Day, that time of year when the media reminds us that 663 million people globally— about one in ten people—lack access to safe drinking water, the majority of them in the developing world.
Some 100,000 residents in Flint, a predominantly Black city, are still being forced to drink, cook with, and bathe their children in bottled water, after corrosive water from the Flint River leached lead from pipes, joints, and fixtures into the city’s water supply.
The crisis began in April of 2014 when the city, under emergency management, switched its water source from Lake Huron to the toxic Flint River.
This MLive article noted that the governor’s goals include replacing 30 water service lines in an effort to contribute to Flint Mayor Karen Weaver’s $55-million Fast Start program.
An investigation by USA Today released on March 11 revealed that an additional 2,000 water systems across all 50 states have shown signs of “excessive” lead levels in the past four years, impacting an estimated six million people.
Roughly 350 of those systems deliver water to schools and day-care centers, while at least 180 systems violated federal regulations by neglecting to alert consumers about high lead levels, the investigation found.
At an elementary school in Ithaca, N.Y., one sample tested this year at a stunning 5,000 ppb of lead, the EPA’s threshold for ‘hazardous waste.’” Meanwhile, water tests conducted last week in Newark, New Jersey, found that 30 of the district’s 67 schools had lead levels higher than the EPA’s safety threshold of 15 ppb, the New York Times’ editorial board reported on March 19.
In Chicago, where lead service lines feed an estimated 80 percent of properties according to this article in the Chicago Tribune, “city officials still do little to caution Chicagoans about the potential health risks” of lead levels in the water supply, even though a 2013 federal study found that the city’s existing testing protocols likely miss “high concentrations of lead in drinking water.” Earlier this month, the Detroit Free Press reported that replacing an estimated six million lead service lines across the country could cost from “a few billion to $50 billion.” Quoting Fitch Ratings, an international ratings agency, the article also noted that the EPA’s latest estimates for improving the entire water sector ran into about $385 billion through the year 2030, although this projection only included a plan for partial replacement of lead pipes, rather than a complete overhaul.

These Solar Panels Generate Drinking Water From the Air.
A company called Zero Mass Water has created a special solar-like panel that creates clean, drinkable water from the air.
I’m on the rooftop of a building in Santa Monica on an overcast day, checking out solar panels from a company called Zero Mass Water.
Follow KTLA Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro on Facebook or Twitter for cool apps, tech tricks & tips!
Friesen says he’s installed his special form of solar panels in seven countries.
The panels are self-contained – with everything they need to generate clean drinking water inside.
A panel produces about ten small water bottles daily and is expected to last for about ten years.
It’s fresh, crisp and doesn’t have the flat taste I had imagined.
Although their current price is prohibitively expensive for many homeowners, they practically pay for themselves in about 4 years if you’re currently buying bottled water.
It also just feels neat knowing that you’re going green and creating your own water supply, seemingly from thin air.

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) – A new study finds Alabama is tied with New Hampshire and second only to New Jersey for the number of drinking water sites contaminated with toxic chemicals. The Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University released the report last week highlighting locations contamination levels of highly fluorinated toxic chemicals known as PFCs or PFAs in drinking water. The study created an interactive map identifying locations throughout the country. “PFCs are chemicals previously used for Scotchguard for waterproofing, things like that….

The Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University released the report last week highlighting locations contamination levels of highly fluorinated toxic chemicals known as PFCs or PFAs in drinking water.
“PFCs are chemicals previously used for Scotchguard for waterproofing, things like that.
The EPA has stopped it from being used and produced any more, but even though they stopped it, they (PFCs) are still persistent in the environment,” said Dr. Michelle Fanucchi, a water pollution expert at UAB.
Among the areas identified, included Morgan and Lawrence counties, a location recently part of a settlement over polluted water.
Water systems along the Coosa River included Gadsden, Rainbow City, Southside and the Shelby County Water System.
“The data suggest we are safe drinking water at that level here,” Fanucchi said of the reported levels along the Coosa.
She did acknowledge some groups contend the EPA level should be lower than 70 PPTs.
Fanucchi said every municipal water system provides water reports and many post them online, recommending water system customers review those.
Link to study: http://www.ewg.org/research/mapping-contamination-crisis Copyright 2017 WBRC.
All rights reserved.

June is National Rivers Month – a great time to celebrate the rivers and streams flowing through our communities and think about the importance of healthy rivers to our families.
They give us our drinking water.
There are few things more fundamental to the health of our families than clean drinking water.
Let’s use National Rivers Month as a chance to highlight the importance of healthy rivers for all children, and let our members of Congress know that clean water must be a top priority for all Americans.
Your kids need clean drinking water.
Rivers flow through our veins.
As our kids grow up, we want to know that the water flowing from our taps is clean and safe.
Too many communities in our country (it’s not just Flint) do not have access to safe drinking water.
Imagine if our decision makers and members of Congress understood our bodies – their own bodies – as directly connected to the health of rivers and the natural world.
Learn more » Share your river story Why are rivers important to you and your family?

COLFAX, Wis. (RELEASE FROM VILLAGE OF COLFAX)– On June 10, 2017, a system SCADA error, water computer system, caused a loss of water pressure in the Colfax water system.
As a precaution a boil water notice is being issued at this time.
A loss of water pressure can allow contaminants to enter the water system.
At this time it is not known if contamination has occurred.
Once the water has been tested, this notice will be lifted if the water tests negative for coliform bacteria.
The presence of coliform bacteria including fecal bacteria in your drinking water is a violation of State and Federal Safe Drinking Water Regulations.
You should boil or use commercially bottled water for drinking, food preparation, and making ice.
Ice should be made from boiled or bottled water.
What is being done to correct the problem?
The earliest both results will be complete is Wednesday, June 14th, 2017.