STAMFORD — The start of the Atlantic hurricane season looms only a few weeks away.
Nestlé Waters North America is approaching the 10 million mark in bottled-water donations to disaster relief and humanitarian aid nonprofit Americares.
In the 13-year parternship, Nestlé Waters has become Americares’ main partner for delivering bottled water to areas in the United States affected by natural disasters and public health crises.
A shared commitment to delivering a necessity to vulnerable communities has solidified the partnership, say executives of the two Stamford organizations.
With 30 production facilities across the U.S., Nestlé Waters North America can quickly deliver bottled water to disaster areas.
“The Americares team can provide information back to us in a timely manner,” Cleary said.
The lead poisoning of the city’s water supply affected about 100,000 families, including many who would not be able to afford a steady supply of bottled water.
In January 2016, Americares and Nestlé Waters responded.
“When our emergency teams are on the ground, they’re able to talk to partners about the needs people will have,” Weiss said.
“We hear directly from those teams on the ground, and we communicate that information back to Nestle Waters.” More than a decade earlier, the partnership faced its first major test with the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Xylem Watermark & Project 24 : Guaduas Puerto Bogotá, Colombia.
Xylem Watermark supported Planet Water Foundation and Project 24 which will bring clean water to thousands of people across five countries including Cambodia, Colombia, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines in 24 hours Xylem Watermark sponsored 6 projects as part of Planet Water Foundation’s Project 24, an ambitious undertaking on World Water Day, to build 24 clean water filtration systems (AquaTowers) in 24 communities across five countries; Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, and Colombia – in just 24 hours.
These projects reached a total of 6,000 people including the 2,739 children who attend the participating schools.
27 Xylem volunteers assisted in the construction of the community-based water systems, which will bring clean water to the world’s most disadvantaged communities.
Project 24: Guaduas Puerto Bogotá, Colombia Puerto Bogotá Village, located near the regions of Cundinamarca and Tolima, is home to nearly 4,000 people who earn a living through trade, raising livestock, and fishing.
The Magdalena River, which is the principal river of Colombia, is used by the local community for fishing, and sometimes, for consumption.
The main access to water for the local community and the school comes from a deep well that supplies water to an elevated water tank, but the water is not treated and is currently unsafe to drink.
People believe that because the village is so close to the Magdalena River, Puerto Bogota has good quality of water.
Every day he also has mothers and elderly women asking him to sell them water on credit so that they can prepare food with clean water.
As a result of the Project 24 AquaTower, this village now has access to clean drinking water for the first time.

Clean-up event held in Hanoi to mark Earth Day.
More than 1,000 volunteers from the US Embassy, associations, organisations and universities, joined hands to pick up garbage in Thong Nhat Park in Hanoi Saturday morning to mark Earth Day here.
Under the theme “Let’s join and act to ensure clean water sources in Viet Nam,” the event aimed to encourage the participation of many groups to manage and prevent water pollution, and clean up heavily polluted water.
Hoang Quoc Lam, a representative from the Environment Administration of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, which was one of the organisers, called on the public to contribute by disseminating information and education on environmental protection, as well learning to adapt to climate change and protect water resources.
Many people are dependent upon Hạ Long Bay, Red River, and the Mekong River for their livelihoods, but the resources there are threatened and need to be protected for future generations, and cleaned up in some cases, said Ted Osius, US Ambassador to Viet Nam.
There is much awareness right now about the environmental dangers to all these extraordinary resources, he said.
“The bottom line message is we have to do all we can to make sure that future generations — the children — will have clean water to drink, safe food to eat and beautiful places to go to, as they grow up,” he told Viet Nam News.
The Earth Day 2017 event in Viet Nam was organised by the Centre for Environmental and Community Research.
This year, the worldwide theme is ’March for Science’, which emphasises the importance of research and scientific discovery, as part of the decision-making process.
Since then, millions of people from 192 countries have joined the event annually to promote public awareness about environmental protection.

Islamabad-Next to Oxygen, safe and clean drinking water is exponentially indispensable as well as utmost important for human survival since around 75 per cent body is water. Notwithstanding being extremely essential for human body, over 38 million people do not have an access to clean and safe drinking water in the country, rather its paucity is surging. Federal capital is faced with scarcity of potable water let alone other parts of the country are being supplied safe drinking water. Long queues of people holding bottles at filtration plants in the federal capital territory lend credence to safe water outage. Mineral water companies are capitalizing the situation of water shortage and getting their water business flourished day-by-day in the name of supplying safe drinking water. As the residents are already worried about irregular supply of water in the Federal Capital, the situation is going to get worse owing to the onslaught of sizzling summer approaching swiftly. Talking to APP, Azaz Malik, a resident of Sector F8/1 said the issue was almost a decade old now but Capital Development Authority (CDA) could not come up with a sound plan. “The only solution to the issue for the civic body lies in supplying water through tankers. But this remedy also went ineffective besides being controversial among citizens,” he said. When contacted, CDA Spokesperson Mazhar Hussain said sufficient potable water was being supplied to the capital city from the existing sources and no abnormal situation…

Contaminated water supply puts Shopian on brink of disease outbreak.
“We have been provided 24-hour water supply but the water is dirty, mixed with sand and mud.
This water is not fit for drinking,” Muhammad Amin Wagay from Pinjora said.
Tariq Ahmed Pir, a resident of Alyalpora said that the supplied water is so dirty that on occasions, domestic animals also refuse to drink it.
The authorities are not taking the issues seriously.
The drinking water supply feeder near Killora village for 36 villages of Rampathri area is filled with sand and mud up to 11.5 feet.
Authorities say due to the huge mixture of sand and mud with water these filters gets filled with sand and mud within three days and the department has no effective mechanism to clean them regularly.
“The contractors of Mughal Road put all the soil, sand and other material on the banks of rivulet, when snow starts melting and due to heavy rain all the mud flows into the river and contaminates the water,” a group of PHE employees said.
Beig said the issue of contaminated water supply is known to the chief minister.
About 25 water supply schemes get water from Rambiara Rivulet, our filtration plants only have capacity to filter the large dirty particles, he said.

Water bowls to quench thirst of birds.
Open Adilabad: In order to bring respite to birds from the scorching sun, members of Arya Vysya Officials and Professionals Association (AVOPA) distributed 500 clay bowls to public to ensure drinking water to avian species free of cost, at Gandhi Park in Adilabad on Sunday.
About 200 members of the organisation took part in the event.
AVOPA district president Praveen Mahajan told ‘Telangana Today’ that birds are struggling to live due to water scarcity following blistering heat wave conditions and lack of care and concern of humans.
By distributing bowls, we wanted the public to make sure the birds get drinking water.
Everyone must provide water to birds using the bowls provided to help the avian community tackle the crisis, he pleaded.
“Everybody should share photos of watering birds by spending Rs 20 for purchasing the bowls instead of sharing messages and photos of the cause.
The environment is protected if we protect the avian community.
Ultimately, it leads to maintaining a balance in the food chain of ecology.
People should actively take part in this movement,” he explained.

Health authorities still not satisfied all Christchurch drinking water is safe.
Canterbury health authorities are still not satisfied 80,000 Christchurch residents have access to safe drinking water, despite shallow wells no longer being used.
Canterbury medical officer of health Dr Alistair Humphrey ordered the council to provide an assurance the water being supplied to residents in suburbs was safe.
* Chlorinating water in Christchurch’s northwest is off the table * Water in Christchurch’s northwest could be chlorinated * Health officials want assurance D-rated northwest Christchurch water supply safe * Christchurch’s drinking water contaminated 125 times in four years * Positive E coli tests ‘not surprising’ in Christchurch untreated water supply * Chlorination extends to Hastings after E coli found in tanker with ‘clean’ water In response, the council decided to spend an extra $480,000 to accelerate a $16 million programme to replace all 22 shallow wells.
The wells still needed to be available for an emergency event and could only be fully decommissioned when all the new deep wells were in service, council three waters and waste planning and deliver manager John Moore said.
This was not expected to happen until June 2019.
He said once he received the information that the new bores met groundwater security criteria he would be satisfied the residents would have access to safe drinking water.
"CDHB is aware of the council’s timeframes and to date has not raised any concerns or indicated that they believe that the shallow bores pose an untenable risk."
Water from the shallow wells had a "D" risk grading, which was classed as an unsatisfactory level of risk.
– Stuff

City lifts precautionary boil order.
After a more than 24-hour boil water advisory, the city of Fort Wayne announced about 4 p.m. Saturday that the advisory had been lifted.
A release said, “tests on drinking water completed (Saturday) show that the water (is) free from any contamination and is safe.” City Utilities and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management therefore ended the boil advisory, stating in the release that there was no further need for precautions and the water was safe to drink.
On Friday, the precautionary advisory was enacted after a water distribution system lost pressure in a few locations after a power surge at an I&M circuit breaker.
City Utilities issued the advisory as a precaution even though the water continued to be adequately treated, according to the release.
“All testing done throughout the day showed the water to be well within the parameters of safe water,” the release stated.
City Utilities apologized for any inconvenience it may have caused customers.

Runners hit the pavement to support clean water education at Urban Runoff 5K.
PORTLAND, Maine — Runners and environmentalists are celebrating Earth Day today at the Urban Runoff 5K and Festival.
Runners will hit the pavement and raise money to support clean water education at schools in Portland and Saco.
Lessons are provided by the Cumberland County Soil & Water Conversation District’s Connect Program, which gives students hands on lessons about water pollution in the classroom and outdoors.
The race kicks off at 9 a.m. Saturday.
The court takes racers through the suburbs of Portland, along the Forest City Trail, which is part of the Portland Trails System.
Top fundraisers and top fundraising teams will be awarded prizes after the race, as well as top female and male finishers in age groups and overall.
After the race is Portland’s Green Neighbor Family Fest, where families and community members can enjoy hands on activities about water, live entertainment, face painting and more.
WMTW News 8 is a proud sponsor of this event.

Most Californians are – finally – out of the drought, but the record-setting rains have not washed away emergency conditions for all residents.
Jerry Brown’s April 7 executive order lifted the drought state of emergency for 54 of California’s 58 counties.
“This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner.” — Jerry Brown By keeping those areas under drought rules, authorities can bypass lengthy contract requirements and quickly provide assistance for areas facing drinking water shortages, said Max Gomberg, the climate and conservation manager for the State Water Resources Control Board, which enforces water regulations.
“We still got communities that are water short, but the (drought state of emergency) allows us to complete projects that are already under way,” Gomberg said.
Gomberg said Central Valley agricultural wells were dug so deep during the drought that shallower domestic wells in nearby rural communities went dry.
Though Kings, Tulare and Fresno counties also contain some of California’s largest agricultural areas, Gomberg said the executive order will have virtually no impact on the areas’ farmers.
Those served by the federal Central Valley Project received welcome news when The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation a full, 100 percent water allocation for 2017.
Gayle Holman, a spokeswoman for Westlands Water District, said the increase will slow growers from pumping the Central Valley’s groundwater supply.
She noted that “Making Conservation a California Way of Life,” another Brown-signed executive order that aims to build long-term drought resistance throughout California, should also protect rural areas from future dry conditions.
Part of the order directs the state Department of Water Resources must work with counties to develop better drought planning for small rural areas, a requirement previously held only for larger water suppliers that had over 3,000 connections.