National Geographic, Farhan Akhtar team up for water conservation initiative.
‘National Geographic Mission Blue’ is an initiative to address the cause of water scarcity.
This includes special documentaries on the water issue, as well as specially created short films by directors Imtiaz Ali, Hansal Mehta, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and Madhur Bhandarkar, who creatively bring out the key message through everyday stories of India.
Water Aid Foundation, a non-profit known for its exemplary contribution to the cause of water, has also partnered National Geographic Mission Blue, where they will together help provide clean drinking water to schools.
In India alone, 76 million people lack access to safe water—a problem that is only going to get worse if no immediate action is taken.
We are hopeful that this initiative will help enlighten people on what can be achieved by collective action.” She noted that is a part of National Geographic’s brand promise last year of going ‘Further’.
It has the power to enlighten, inspire and empower people who are unaware of what they can do towards the cause of water scarcity and drive real change.
I hope people will realise that the responsibility of conserving water and of their own future is essentially in their own hands.” He noted that when he was growing up brands like National Geographic were not present to help educate.
However, over the past 20 years, things have been changing.
I have a connection between the cities and villages as far as water is concerned.” He noted that through National Geographic he can reach out and tell people what his father is trying to say.

E coli still in Hutt drinking water leading authorities to continue chlorination.
Chlorine is to continue being added to Lower Hutt’s water supply as a precautionary safety measure after E coli contamination was detected.
The Hutt City Council said the chlorination would continue while investigations into the source of the recent positive E coli test results were under way, and emphasised that the water remains safe to drink.
A sample from a bore in the Waterloo wellfield returned a positive E coli test result on April 12 – the third positive result in five months from water sourced from the Waiwhetu aquifer.
* Chlorine added to water in Lower Hutt as precautionary measure * Wellington Water to stop chlorination of water in Lower Hutt * Prime minister talks down mandatory water chlorination * CuriousCity: How Wellington’s drinking water is kept free of contamination Recent water quality testing across the aquifer had shown an increasing amount of bacteria activity, which had resulted in the council’s decision to continue chlorinating the water.
We immediately chlorinated Lower Hutt’s water supply in response to the recent positive E coli test and we’ll continue to chlorinate while we investigate the source of these positive results".
Lower Hutt mayor Ray Wallace said safe drinking water was of the utmost importance.
"We know many residents really value access to unchlorinated aquifer water but public safety will always be our number one priority.
Wellington Water acting chief executive Mark Kinvig said the cause of the positive test results was not known yet, but it was possible it was related to the November 2016 Kaikoura quake.
– Stuff

Boil Water Advisory issued for Quaker Hills area of Lancaster County.
This comes after a week of water main breaks in the area.
Read more below: "On 04/21/2017, the City of Lancaster Water Department issued a boil water advisory for customers.
See attached map for details.
Due to a several water main breaks today, the City of Lancaster, Bureau of Water advises customers to boil their drinking water due to a drop/loss of water pressure within parts of the distribution system in this neighborhood.
DO NOT DRINK THE WATER WITHOUT BOILING IT FIRST.
What happened?
The City of Lancaster, Bureau of Water is repairing the main breaks to fix the problem.
Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses).
This notice is provided by the City of Lancaster, Public Water Supplier ID#: 7360058."

Mayor Hemalatha vows to develop Chittoor as a model one.
Ads by Kiosked Chittoor: City Mayor Hemalatha asked corporators and officials of the Chittoor Municipal Corporation (CMC) to work relentlessly for developing city as a model one.
After taking charge, the Mayor convened a meeting in which the corporators and civic officials took part at corporation office here on Friday.
Highlights: Hemalatha takes charge as Mayor.
Assures to resolve drinking water woes of city residents.
Later, speaking to the media, Hemalatha said that her first priority is to resolve the drinking water scarcity with the support of civic officials and corporators.
The Mayor has instructed the Engineering department of the CMC to take effective steps for mitigating the drinking water scarcity in the city with proper planning and sincere supervision.
“I would impress upon the Collector for releasing the drought relief funds at the earliest,” she added.
Municipal Corporation Commissioner G Balasubramanyam explained the difficulties in resolving the drinking water scarcity in the city due to shortage of funds.
Drinking water is being supplied to city through NTR Jalasayam in an effective manner, he added.

Access to clean drinking water for Kainantu District after 20 years.
Previously, access to water was available and set up during the colonial era, but over the long years the pipes had deteriorated and water was not able to reach all of Kainantu.
Today, the Kainantu Water Supply Project Official Commissioning was well welcomed by residents.
With K10 million funding from the European Union, the Kainantu Water Supply Project was long coming, it took seven years to finally bring clean water to Kainantu.
Chief Operational Officer for Water PNG called on the people of Kainantu to take care of the service provided.
He explained to the people of Kainantu that Water PNG was mandated by the government to provide the essential service.
Eastern Highlands Province contributed almost K4,895,488.17 to the Kainantu water supply project.
Rhoda Tosa is the ward one councillor in the Kainantu urban LLG, she explained that when there was no water easily accessible, women would dig water holes to fetch water.
While ward 4 councillor, Chriscilla Abiko, said the hospital would most improve from the water supply.
Abide said water borne diseases were one of the biggest killers in Kainantu.

Nearly 400 military bases must be tested for drinking water contamination — and it will take years.
The Air Force, for instance, has completed sampling at nearly all of its targeted bases; the Navy, barely 10 percent.
But with so many sites to evaluate, the cleanup "is not super-simple to do," said Mark Correll, a high-ranking Air Force official.
Research on other potential health effects is ongoing, and some experts contend even water below the EPA’s health advisory level is unsafe.
So far, water in only three wells there has been found to be contaminated above the level the EPA says is safe.
In Newburgh, N.Y., where drinking water was tainted by the foam used at an Air National Guard base, officials are pressing the military to pay for connecting city residents to a new clean water source.
Officials then started paying more attention to the chemicals as the EPA began focusing on them, said Correll, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for the environment, safety, and infrastructure.
“Once we’ve assured that … you’re talking eight years to get yourself to a remediation solution.” Navy officials established a policy for the testing and cleanup last June, a month after the EPA released new guidelines, and have completed sampling at 11 of 127 bases.
He said it was “hard to say” what bases would be tested next because officials did not want to alarm residents before notification or sampling began.
The Army will follow the same process as the Navy and Air Force, a spokesman said, but inspections at 61 bases have not yet begun.

West Milford finds fix for school’s radioactive water.
WEST MILFORD – A custom water filtration system is coming to Upper Greenwood Lake Elementary School, where elevated levels of radioactive particles have contaminated the water supply.
Quarterly test results reported to the state since last summer show uranium and radium levels in the school’s well water have been below the federal maximum permitted for drinking water.
The school, which is on the town’s northwest plateau on Henry Road, has been reliant on bottled water since early October 2016 and will be for the foreseeable future, officials said.
High levels of naturally occurring uranium in drinking water are more likely in the Highlands than other parts of the state due to the region’s geology, according to DEP records.
Radium and radon, other naturally occurring radionuclides formed from decaying uranium, can also be found in the area, records show.
The contractor, Equity Environmental Engineering, is also working on a project to abate radiation contamination in neighboring Vernon, said district Business Administrator Barbara Francisco.
“They’re very much aware of the problems because they are involved in a similar situation in Vernon,” she said.
New Jersey was the first state to start using the radium-224 testing method for radioactive particles in drinking water 20 years ago.
Radioactivity in drinking water is not a modern occurrence, but testing standards were not created by the EPA until 1977.

Before PDAM Batang provided piped water to the residents of Mount Tumpeng, Malekah, Sumiyati, and Sungkono used to plan their days around collecting water.
"After washing clothes, we also take a bath.
This is normal around here, "she said.
Sumiyati and her husband rode their motorcycle approximately 4 kilometers to the river to collect drinking and cooking water.
When the river water turns muddy during the drought, he too would have to look for water too.
"This program is very helpful for PDAM Batang to help people who need clean water.
It is not cheap to connect pipelines into challenging geographic areas like Mount Tumpeng,” explains Director of PDAM Batang, Yulianto.
Through WaterConnect program, PDAM provides affordable loans to get access to clean water through a pipeline network managed by PDAM Batang.
Residents can take loan facility up to IDR 600,000 for six months and 0% interest repayment term.
Sumiyati and Sungkono does not feel itchy anymore, because now they can have clean water flowing directly into their house.

Madurai to get special allocation for water supply.
Madurai district would get special allocation for augmenting drinking water supply under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Revenue Minister R. B. Udhayakumar said on Thursday.
The Minister pointed out that Madurai was one of the districts affected by acute drinking water scarcity and the district administration had taken steps to augment supply from borewells in farm lands with State Disaster Response Fund and funds provided by Madurai Corporation.
He said that the State government had sanctioned Rs.
100 crore from the State Disaster Response Fund for drinking water supply, in addition to Rs.
Already, Rs.
Recently, an additional Rs.
170 crore had been sanctioned for the Department of Municipal Administration to provide drinking water in urban areas.
28 crore.
Those who participated in the meeting included Mr. D. P. Yadav; K. Veera Raghava Rao, Collector; MLAs V. V. Rajan Chellappa, A. K. Bose, P. Neethipathi, and P. Periapullan; Sandeep Nanduri, Corporation Commissioner, and Rohini Ramdas, Additional Collector, according to an official press release.

UPDATE: Boil order issued in Central Shoshone County Water District as crews continue repairs on water main.
“Central Shoshone County Water District is under a drinking water advisory until further notice following depressurization of the water system caused by a water main break.
The advisory will remain in effect until further notice."
KHQ spoke to the Panhandle Health District and asked them when water service would be restored to the area.
Additional information on operating a food establishment during a boil water advisory can be found here.
UPDATE: Thursday 10:45 a.m. Officials say residents from Osburn to Kellogg woke up Thursday morning without water, but they are hoping to have service restored by mid-afternoon.
Since the water main break on Wednesday, crews have been working nonstop and are making significant progress.
Previous Coverage: A massive water main break in Pinehurst, Idaho is putting hundreds of people at risk and about to be out of water.
Firefighters tell us they are worried all the towns south of Kellogg, all the way to Osburn will be out of water by 7am Thursday.
This not only means homes will be out of water for drinking and showering, but fire hydrants will also be dry.