The High-Level Panel on Water and Connect4Climate are proud to announce that the winner of the #All4TheGreen Special Blue Prize is Probal Rashid, from Bangladesh, with a photo taken in his country portraying how water stress is affecting individuals in his community.
"Rani, 9, collects rainwater for drinking.
Rainwater is the main source of drinking water in the village of Shyamnagar, Satkhira, Bangladesh.
“Rainwater is the main source of drinking water due to sea level rise,” informed the winner.
The #All4TheGreen Photo4Climate Contest Special Blue Prize aimed to award the best photo of anything related to water in the participant’s life.
Probal Rashid talked live from Bangladesh through Skype, and thanked the jury for being awarded #All4TheGreen Contest Special Blue Prize.
First, they want to change the way the world views and manages water.
This prize is very important, because it will the world change the way we view and manage water” said Juang Zhu, Director of the Division for Sustainable Development/DESA, UN.
It will help publicize the importance of water for Bangladesh, and for the region as a whole".
Climate change is making the harsh environment harder and water resources more limited."

Access to clean water improves health in rural Tanzania.
Until the pump was installed at the end of January 2017, most of Ndomoni’s 1,321 residents walked up to eight km to the nearest village to get water, or relied on surface water from ponds, which required boiling.
The Canadians are members of a PWRDF delegation that has come to the diocese of Masasi to learn more about All Mothers and Children Count (AMCC), a larger project that builds off work done during CHIP.
“Now, because water is here, it is easier for us now to educate people about [medical] treatment.” But having accessible water isn’t just about having water that is safe to drink.
Girls whose time might otherwise have been spent carrying water can stay in school longer, and mothers have more time to take their children to the clinic for a checkup, he notes.
Setting up a borehole is no small task.
Once the Canadian and Tanzanian governments sign off on it, the drilling can begin.
Once the borehole has been drilled, water samples are sent to a laboratory in Mtwara for testing.
“You may find that work is going to take place, maybe in July or in August, but the process started last year!” says Monjesa.
“Especially for a hungry person, for a thirsty person, waiting that long period is very difficult for them.” Fortunately, according to Monjesa, all 30 of the boreholes dug as part of the CHIP program hit safe drinking water on the first try.

EIB finances Bamako’s drinking water and sanitation system with EUR 50 million loan.
On the sidelines of the European Development Days, Dr Boubou Cissé, Minister of the Economy and Finance of the Republic of Mali, and Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), signed a EUR 50 million agreement to finance development of the drinking water supply and sanitation network of the city of Bamako.
This is a priority project for the city of Bamako, which is faced with rampant urbanisation and ever increasing water access needs.
It will provide the Malian capital and its surroundings with both an adequate drinking water supply and a high quality sustainable sanitation system, with the aim of meeting the people’s urgent drinking water access needs and improving their daily living conditions.
Under the drinking water component, capacity will be doubled from 144 000 to 288 000 m³/day, and 25 000 m³ of new reservoirs, 30 km of water mains and 545 km of distribution network, comprising 34 000 connections and 600 standpipes, will be built and brought into service by 2021.
“’He who brings you water, brings you life’ is a Malian saying.
On 16 April this year, in the Council of Ministers, the President of the Republic, His Excellency Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, urged the Prime Minister and his government to implement without delay the Presidential Social Emergency programme for the period 2017-2020.
Thanks to this EU financing, the city of Bamako and its surroundings will be provided with a high quality drinking water supply and sanitation service.
We are delighted to be financing this sustainable development project, which forms part of our priority action in support of Mali.” The EIB also financed Bamako’s drinking water master plan.
This project is being cofinanced by the AFD, IDB, WADB and AfDB, which has concentrated on financing the Bamako Sanitation Project.

New research from EWG and Northeastern University in Boston details PFC pollution in tap water supplies for 15 million Americans in 27 states and from more than four dozen industrial and military sources from Maine to California.
EWG and the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern collaborated to produce an interactive map that combines federal drinking water data and information on all publicly documented cases of PFAS pollution from manufacturing plants, military air bases, civilian airports and fire training sites.
[3] Drinking water contamination Despite widespread contamination and mounting evidence of health hazards, there are no federal regulations for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water.
Under the EPA’s Unmonitored Contaminant Monitoring Rule, or UCMR, from 2013 to 2016 all U.S. public water systems serving 10,000 or more customers tested their supplies for PFOA, PFOS, and four other PFCs.
[†] EWG’s analysis of the results shows that the tests found PFOA and/or PFOS in 162 systems serving 15.1 million Americans.
Because the EPA only required reporting of detections at or above 20 ppt for PFOA and 40 ppt for PFOS, all of those water supplies had detections exceeding Grandjean and Clapp’s safe level of 1 ppt.​ Several large metro areas had detections in only a small number of samples.
[7] There is no ongoing national-level testing of PFCs in drinking water, and the EPA has said it could be 2019 or later before it decides whether to set a national drinking water standard for PFOA and PFOS.
The Site Tracker provides detailed information for 50 industrial or military contamination sites in 18 states and Guam, plus Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.
Groundwater at the base was found to have 580,000 ppt of PFOS.
Of the 47 locations where the source of the contamination is known or suspected, 21 sources are military bases, 20 are industrial facilities and seven are from civilian firefighting sites.

UN chief tackles issue of global clean water shortage.
He told the Security Council that "strains on water access are already rising in all regions," noting that three-quarters of the 193 UN member states share rivers or lake basins with their neighbors.
"Water, peace and security are inextricably linked," Mr. Guterres said.
The secretary-general said the United Nations is ready to engage in preventive diplomacy to keep the competition for water from sparking conflicts.
"Our planet, the human family and life in all its myriad forms on Earth are in the throes of a water crisis that will only get worse over the coming decades," he said.
"If current patterns of consumption continue unabated, two-thirds of the world’s population will be facing water shortages as a daily reality by 2025," Mr. Morales added.
Right now, he said, more than 800 million people lack access to safe drinking water and more than 2.5 billion don’t have basic sanitation.
Morales, who presided over the meeting, said the limited availability of fresh water underscores the importance of tackling the issue and ensuring that access to clean water is shared and doesn’t become "a pretext for domestic or international conflict."
He said the world currently is not on track to meet UN goals for 2030 calling for improved water security, access to drinking water, and sanitation, as well as stronger management of water resources shared by countries.
Follow Stories Like This Sign Up In one example of regional cooperation, Ethiopian Ambassador Tekeda Alemu said that while there are differences between the six countries that are upstream and downstream on the Nile River, those nations negotiated for 13 years to produce an agreement on using its waters.

UN chief tackles issue of global clean water shortage.
He told the Security Council that "strains on water access are already rising in all regions," noting that three-quarters of the 193 UN member states share rivers or lake basins with their neighbors.
"Water, peace and security are inextricably linked," Mr. Guterres said.
The secretary-general said the United Nations is ready to engage in preventive diplomacy to keep the competition for water from sparking conflicts.
"Our planet, the human family and life in all its myriad forms on Earth are in the throes of a water crisis that will only get worse over the coming decades," he said.
"If current patterns of consumption continue unabated, two-thirds of the world’s population will be facing water shortages as a daily reality by 2025," Mr. Morales added.
Right now, he said, more than 800 million people lack access to safe drinking water and more than 2.5 billion don’t have basic sanitation.
Morales, who presided over the meeting, said the limited availability of fresh water underscores the importance of tackling the issue and ensuring that access to clean water is shared and doesn’t become "a pretext for domestic or international conflict."
He said the world currently is not on track to meet UN goals for 2030 calling for improved water security, access to drinking water, and sanitation, as well as stronger management of water resources shared by countries.
Follow Stories Like This Sign Up In one example of regional cooperation, Ethiopian Ambassador Tekeda Alemu said that while there are differences between the six countries that are upstream and downstream on the Nile River, those nations negotiated for 13 years to produce an agreement on using its waters.

Well water still contaminated 7 months after Smiths Falls fire.
It’s been seven months since a fire outside Smiths Falls, Ont., left several homes with contaminated wells, and it could still be months before residents are allowed to use their water again.
"We thought they’d be hooking wells back up by now."
Toxic runoff from the charred debris, along with firefighting foam, got into the groundwater and residents reported foam and a chemical smell coming from their taps almost immediately after the fire.
Tina and David Stevens initially purchased a house on Highway 43 as an income property.
The wells and groundwater monitoring networks were tested last month.
The results are being reviewed before they are released to homeowners, according to the ministry.
‘Still some trace levels’ "The preliminary review is that we’re seeing continued trends downward of the contaminants of concern, but we’re taking a close look," said Steve Burns, a district manager for the ministry.
But residents said they are still out of pocket for some expenses and they’re concerned about the value of their properties.
"Can you get a mortgage on a property that doesn’t have potable water?

An informational meeting about water pollution in Washington County was swamped with questions for state officials Tuesday evening. Another meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. “I don’t like it,” said Bridget Shore, holding her baby boy at the Oak-Land Junior High School meeting in Lake Elmo. “There are a lot of young families around here.” A group of about 70 people gathered to learn about chemicals in their water that were manufactured by the 3M Co. Officials have said that the chemicals are particularly worrisome for fetuses, babies and breast-feeing mothers. Traces of the chemicals — called perfluorochemicals, or PFCs — were discovered in the drinking water of about 65,000 Washington County residents in 2004. The chemicals apparently had leached into the water from waste dumps, where the company disposed of the chemicals, ending in the 1970s. The meeting was hosted by the state’s Department of Health and Pollution Control Agency. Until recently, the urgency of issue of PFCs in water had been fading. 3M stopped making the chemicals in 2002, and since then the levels in fish, river water and people…

With rising population and limited fresh water resources, at least 25% of the world population will lack access to clean water by 2050. The global demand for fresh water is projected to grow by more than 40% and highly-populated countries like India, China and Bangladesh will face a “chronic or recurrent” lack of clean water. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council yesterday that “strains on water access are already rising in all regions”, noting that three-quarters of the 193 UN member…

With rising population and limited fresh water resources, at least 25% of the world population will lack access to clean water by 2050. The global demand for fresh water is projected to grow by more than 40% and highly-populated countries like India, China and Bangladesh will face a “chronic or recurrent” lack of clean water. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council yesterday that “strains on water access are already rising in all regions”, noting that three-quarters of the 193 UN member…