Chittoor: Due to lack of perennial rivers in and around Chittoor city, ground water levels were receded drastically during the past three decades in Chittoor city.
As a result, people have been facing acute drinking water scarcity and they are forced to purchase water from private tankers.
The city with 50 divisions, has a population of 2.4 lakhs.
Majority of the people purchase drinking water from private suppliers including mineral water units The Chittoor Municipal Corporation has failed to supply drinking water to the city due to funds crunch and other reasons.
The private tankers are charging Rs.10 per three pots of water from the public , where water business has become lucrative.
The CMC is able to supply only 11 lakh MLD (million litres per day) water against the requirement of 22.7 lakhs MLD water through bore wells and by pumping water from N T R Jalasayam.
After three decades of drinking water scarcity, it was decided to launch Chittoor Water Supply Scheme at Adivipalli for diverting HNSS (Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanti) water to Chittoor city with an estimated cost of Rs.280 crore by using AMRUT funds.
The TDP Government had earlier assured supply of HNSS water to Chittoor before December-2018.
Source reveal that the proposal was dropped as Central Government had reportedly objected the diversion of AMRUT funds to Chittoor water supply scheme .
Speaking to The Hans India here on Sunday, Chittoor Mayor K Hemalatha admitted that there was no scope for supplying HNSS water to Chittoor city in near future as Central Government was restricting not to divert AMRUT funds.

For thousands of communities across India, the process of getting drinking water is now the same as the process of getting cash: they head to an ATM.
With 82 crore people who still do not have access to piped water and 70% of water in the country contaminated by pollutants, the government is increasingly starting to accept small water enterprises — such as water ATMs and community purification plants — as an alternative solution to the safe drinking water challenge.
A new report by Safe Water Network (SWN) says the government needs to spend ₹44,000 crore on 2.2 lakh small water enterprises to provide safe drinking water to about 37 crore people, mostly in urban slums where piped water infrastructure is difficult to build, and in rural areas with contaminated water sources.
A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pointed out that only 18% of the rural population has access to potable piped water, failing to meet the 2017 target of 50%.
“For those who can afford it, you buy a household RO (reverse osmosis system) to purify your water for drinking.
But for many people, that is not possible.
The community purification plants treat water locally.
The water ATM is a dispensation system, which can be automatic with a coin or smart card, or manual,” explained Poonam Sewak, vice presidentat the SWN.
“Essentially, it’s a community RO.” Community water purification plants have grown from less than 12,000 in 2014 to almost 50,000 in 2018, according to the SWN, as they have been incorporated into government planning.
SWN estimates that if the government is willing to spend less than 10% of that amount on small water enterprises, it could provide safe drinking water at a fraction of the cost.

Newark’s drinking water contains illegal levels of a group of carcinogenic contaminants and is in violation of a federal standard, the Star-Ledger reports.
State records cited by the outlet show that Newark’s water, which is consumed by at least 500,000 people, is contaminated with excess levels of haloacetic acids, which have been linked to bladder cancer in humans and liver cancer in animals.
This isn’t the first time Newark has faced a water problem: The state is already under scrutiny for elevated levels of lead in the drinking water supply, and the city was also issued violations for haloacetic acid levels between 2003 and 2005.
Newark’s deputy director of water and sewer utilities told NJ.com that the current acid levels are not an acute public-health emergency, and that the city is working to resolve the issue.
If there was an emergency, he said, the public would have been notified in early October, when the violation was first issued.
A senior scientist for Environmental Working Group disagreed with the decision to withhold this information from the public: “If I was a consumer, I would probably want to know as soon as possible,” she said.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has offered to give a hand to the provinces in terms of clean drinking water to their respective populations and assessment of water quality across Pakistan, as presently only 31 percent population has access to safe drinking water.
Pakistan is among the top countries, suffering from hepatitis and this is mainly due to polluted drinking water.
Timely remedy required to ensure provision of safe drinking water to citizens was the need of the hour in the face of so many fatal diseases-related to drinking water.
Pakistan’s dire need to come out from the polluted environment and live a healthy life.
Minister for Science and Technology Senator Muhammad Azam Swati alleged to the chief ministers of the four provinces and offered them cooperation in ‘effectively pooling and handling water resources’.
PCRWR offered a diverse range of research, advisory and consultancy services, including water quality monitoring and treatment, ground water investigation, real time flow measurement, using echo-sounds based telemetry systems, GIS mapping, tile drainage, water conservation and capacity building programmes.
The national level monitoring investigations carried out by the ministry’s body, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources had revealed that only 31 per cent population of the country had access to clean drinking water.
This alarming situation of drinking water quality entails monitoring; careful selection of drinking water treatment technologies is the need of the hour for provision of safe drinking water to citizens.
PCRWR can support in assessing and understanding the water related challenges and advise on risks and mitigation measures.
For the provision of clean drinking water the CM’s cooperation is mandatory to keep an eye to facilitate the citizens with pure, healthy water for drinking so far, to keep away from the disasters.

And like other women staying at the slopes of this mountain, Nabukwasi walks a distance of about 4Km downhill to fetch water from this flowing stream for domestic use.
Dr Muhammad Mulongo, the District Health Officer for Bulambuli says surface water sources are often dirty and hazardous to drink.
Nabukwasi is among the eight million people in Uganda who do not have access to safe water and who do not have access to improved sanitation facilities, according to the 2015/16 report released by Water Aid, an international organisation.
Another report by water.org says 61 percent of Ugandans who lack access to safe water and 75 percent who do not have access to improved sanitation facilities.
A recent report from Twaweza’s Sauti za Wananchi survey says three out of four households access drinking water from an improved source and that eight out of 10 household’s harvest rainwater.
Like should you risk drinking water from the lake, which is free and easy to access, or spend time and money collecting water from an improved source that is further away?” the report adds.
Richard Cong, a commissioner at the Ministry of Water and environment says access to safe and clean water and basic sanitation is a right and one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations.
“Safe water is essential to sustain life and a satisfactory (adequate, safe and accessible) water supply must be available to all human beings, and the government is moving in the direction where every Ugandan will have access to safe and clean water,” said Eng Cong.
Mr Paul Mafabi, the director of environment affairs, Ministry of Water and Environment says water is a fundamental human need and that each person on earth requires at least 20 to 50 liters of clean, safe water a day for drinking, cooking, and simply keeping themselves clean.
He explained that polluted water form the mountains isn’t just dirty—it’s deadly and that many people die every year of diarrheal diseases like cholera, dysentery and many others are seriously sickened by a host of water-related ailments—many of which are easily preventable Mr Mafabi said the United Nations considers universal access to clean water a basic human right, and an essential step towards improving living standards.

BENTON HARBOR — Donations of bottled water continue to pour into Benton Harbor Area Schools as the district gets the water at each school tested to make sure it is safe to drink.
Superintendent/CEO Bob Herrera ordered that all schools use bottled water for drinking and cooking after the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued an advisory last week that higher-than-acceptable levels of lead were found in some of Benton Harbor’s drinking water.
Herrera said school districts connected to a municipal water system are only required to test the water as it comes into the building.
He said the water coming into the buildings is safe to drink, but it may pick up lead from the faucet itself or from plumbing material.
He said he learned about water testing when he was superintendent of South Haven Public Schools, where the district is required to test its water regularly because it gets its water from a well.
“The water has to sit stagnant for eight hours,” he said.
“They come in at 4:30 or 5 (a.m.) and collect the water.” Herrera said MDEQ is testing the water for free at school buildings in the Benton Harbor city limits.
Donated bottled water can be dropped off at the school district’s administration offices at 1995 Union Ave., Benton Township.
Interestingly, he said, Benton Township on Wednesday advised many of its water customers to boil water for 1 minute prior to consumption because the system lost pressure due to the malfunction of two pressure-sustaining valves.
Because the schools in the township were already using bottled water, he said no changes had to be made.

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Science and Technology has offered to assist the provinces in provision of safe drinking water to their respective populations and assessment of water quality across Pakistan, as presently only 31 percent population has access to safe drinking water.
Sources in the ministry told The News Thursday that Minister for Science and Technology Senator Muhammad Azam Swati wrote a letter to the chief ministers of the four provinces and offered them cooperation in ‘effectively pooling and handling water resources’.
Swati explained to the chief ministers that PCRWR offered a diverse range of research, advisory and consultancy services, including water quality monitoring and treatment, ground water investigation, real time flow measurement, using echo-sounds based telemetry systems, GIS mapping, tile drainage, water conservation and capacity building programmes.
The minister contended that timely remedy to ensure provision safe drinking water to citizens was the need of the hour in the face of so many fatal diseases-related to drinking water.
It is pertinent that a few months back, the Senate of Pakistan was informed that Pakistan is among the top countries, suffering from hepatitis and this is mainly due to polluted drinking water.
They said the minister, through the letter, informed the chief ministers that the national level monitoring investigations carried out by the ministry’s body: the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources; had revealed that only 31 per cent population of the country had access to clean drinking water.
These investigations, he noted, had identified the prevalence of bacteriological contamination, arsenic, nitrate and fluoride and these contamination had adverse effects on the quality of life due to water-related ailments like cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, hepatitis A and E, kidney diseases, skeletal and crippling fluorosis.
“This alarming situation of drinking water quality entails monitoring, careful selection of drinking water treatment technologies is the need of the hour for provision of safe drinking water to citizens.
PCRWR can support in assessing and understanding the water related challenges and advise on risks and mitigation measures,” they quoted the minister as telling the chief ministers.

HIGHLANDVILLE, Mo.
— The city of Highlandville, Mo.
is asking its water customers to boil the drinking water before drinking.
The city fixed a water main break Wednesday.
Now, the city must test its water system to ensure its safety.
The boil advisory is expected to last into Friday.
Stay tuned for more updates.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tim Kaine is pushing for federal protection for school drinking water on top of Virginia’s state-mandated protections for students.
Kaine joined 34 others in calling the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency to protect students from lead in drinking water.
Virginia students have had some level of protection from lead in drinking water since 2017, when Section 22.1-135.1, “Potable water; lead testing” was added to the code of Virginia, but Kaine and his colleagues want federal protection for Virginia students, as well as students in other states where there are no such state laws.
Though state law does require schools in Virginia must test for lead, there is currently no state agency assigned to receive testing results from the school districts, according to Dwayne Roadcap, director of the Office of Drinking Water at the Virginia Department of Health.
Many areas of the country currently don’t require lead testing of public schools’ water.
“A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows an estimated 41 percent of public school districts did not test for lead in school drinking water, and a third of districts that were tested showed elevated levels,” Kaine’s press release stated.
“Senator Kaine and his colleagues wrote this letter to urge the Department of Education and EPA to make improvements recommended by the GAO that would give states – including those like Virginia that require water testing – clearer guidance on the best practices for testing water and what actions to take if elevated levels of lead are discovered,” Sarah Peck, a Kaine spokeswoman states in an email.
According to Peck, among the improvements recommended in the GAO report are: The EPA give information to states and school districts about “schedules for testing school drinking water for lead, actions to take if lead is found in the drinking water and the costs of testing and remediation.” Make the Department of Education’s website more user-friendly to ensure states and school districts can better access key resources to address lead in water.
“Lead is a neurotoxin, and any amount of exposure in a child can slow growth and development, damage hearing and speech, and cause learning disabilities,” wrote the senators, according to the press release.
“If lessons are learned from water crises like the one in Flint, Michigan, the Federal Government should provide all states with that information so they can update their approach to lead testing and treatment and help prevent similar failures in the future,” Peck states.

The minister expressed these views while responding to a calling attention notice regarding non-availability of potable water in all parts of the country particularly Islamabad and Karachi.
He said the federal government had formed a task force under the Sindh governor to address water scarcity and other important issues in Karachi.
The minister said water supply was a devolved subject under the 18th amendment; however, the federal government was very much concerned over it and would extend full support to the provinces in that regard.
About the K4 water project in Karachi, he said about Rs 12 billion had been released to the Sindh government.
He said the federal government and the provincial governments needed to collaborate and take steps to ensure that every citizen of the country had clean drinking water.
He said water issue required attention of all the political parties.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan recently chaired a meeting of National Water Council and stressed the need for integrated approach for conservation, storage, management and efficient utilization of the available water resources.
He stressed the need for chalking out a comprehensive roadmap in consultation with provinces and other stakeholders, for the implementation of National Water Policy (NWP).
Pakistan Muslim League Ahsan Iqbal dispelled the impression that his government had not focused on water issues.
Pakistan Peoples Party Syed Khursheed Shah alleged that no funds had been allocated by the federal government to address water issue in Karachi.