The Indian government has honored its pledge to ensure rural people across four Cambodian provinces get desperately needed access to clean water.
Rural Development Minister Ouk Rabun told an inauguration ceremony in Tbong Khmum that the $12m grant had been promised in 2011 at the request of the Cambodia government.
Mr. Rabun said as many as half of all people in rural areas still do not have access to clean water and providing it was vital to improving their health.
“Cambodia and India have a close relationship,” he said, adding that India provided grant aid and cooperated with Cambodia in many areas.
“We are both developing countries and many Indian people live in rural areas.
India will continue to provide assistance to Cambodia as you need it.” One man who attended yesterday’s ceremony was 62-year-old Chranh Rith, a villager from Tunlung commune, who celebrated the arrival of the hand pumps.
“Before I drank water from the well, river or creek,” he said.
“There was no hygiene.
The water was filthy and contained the faeces of cows and buffalos.
“Now I’m so happy us villagers can use these hand pumps.

A team of researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have created novel ultrafiltration membranes that considerably enhance the virus-removal process from treated municipal wastewater used for drinking in cities facing water scarcity.
Existing membrane filtration approaches require intensive energy to effectively remove pathogenic viruses without the need for chemicals like chlorine, which can pollute the water with disinfection byproducts.
The teams at UIUC and BGU joined forces on the new method for virus pathogen removal.
The research findings have been published in the current issue of Water Research.
“This is an urgent matter of public safety,” the researchers say.
“Insufficient removal of human Adenovirus in municipal wastewater, for example, has been detected as a contaminant in U.S. drinking water sources, including the Great Lakes and worldwide.” The norovirus, which can cause nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, is the most common reason for viral gastroenteritis in humans, and is assessed to be the second leading cause of gastroenteritis-associated mortality.
In the research, Prof. Moshe Herzberg of the Department of Desalination and Water Treatment in the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at BGU and his team grafted a unique hydrogel coating onto a commercial ultrafiltration membrane.
It comprises of both positive and negative charges and increases efficiency by weakening virus buildup on the modified filter surface.
Prof. Nguyen, Department of Chemical Engineering, UIUC Prof. Herzberg and his student, Maria Piatkovsky, worked on this groundbreaking research with Prof. Thanh H. Nguyen and her student, Ruiqing Lu, Department of Chemical Engineering, UIUC as well as Professor Dr. Mathias Ulbricht, chair of Technical Chemistry II, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
The project was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA grant RD83582201-0) and the German-Israeli Water Technology Cooperation Program, which is funded by the Ministry of Science & Technology of Israel and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF-MOST, BMBF grant # 02WA1261B, MOST grant # GR-2394).

Lancaster water department issues boil water advisory for Millersville neighborhood.
Residents of a Millersville neighborhood area are asked to boil their drinking water under an advisory issued by the City of Lancaster Water Department.
The notice is for customers who live on the following streets: Village Green Lane, Fresh Meadow Drive, Quaker Hills Road, Saint Regis Lane, Blue Ridge Drive, Walnut Lane, Glen Oaks Drive, Alan Drive, Oak Ridge Drive, Pilgrim Drive, Wabank Road and Cedarhurst Circle.
Customers are advised to boil their drinking water due to a drop and loss of water pressure in parts of the neighborhood.
The advisory was issued Wednesday and is in effect until further notice.
It should end by this weekend, and an update will be provided before 5 p.m. Friday.
It creates conditions that could allow contamination to enter the distribution system.
There is no direct evidence that the water is unsafe, but customers are asked to boil their water or use bottled water as a precaution.
Questions can be placed with the water quality laboratory at 717-291-4818 Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The water emergency number for after hours is 717-291-4816.

The yield from borewells has come down, water purifying facilities are in a shambles, Metrowater has stopped supply in sumps and the Amma canteen workers get water primarily from unsafe sources.
But Metrowater has reduced supply to many of the canteens to once in four or five days.
According to estimates, normal operations have been affected in more than 50% of the canteens in various parts of the city as Metrowater supply has been irregular.
Another former councillor, Kalarimuthu, said workers of the canteen walk 50 metres to get water for the canteen.
“Only one of the two canteens in the neighbourhood of Ripon Buildings has Metrowater water supply and a borewell,” he said.
Decline in supply Chennai Corporation officials said more than 100 Amma canteens rely on borewells for water supply.
The supply of water in many such canteens has come down for the first time, said an official.
“Some Amma Canteens are unable to source water even for cooking,” said an official.
Metrowater has stopped giving water also to private operators, reducing commercial supply to hotels.
“The number of visitors to our Amma Canteen has reduced by 20% because of water scarcity.

2 Billion People Drink Contaminated Water, Says WHO.
The most serious threats are in impoverished and developing areas.
Although there has been a push for safe drinking water by the UN General Assembly, which led to a 4.9 percent increase in budgets worldwide, most countries say it is not enough.
The report found that 80 percent of countries are not adequately meeting the UN standards.
In a statement WHO said when people can’t provide the most basic necessities, like repairing infrastructure, water safety and reliability is sacrificed first.
"This is a challenge we have the ability to solve," Guy Ryder, chair of UN-Water and director-general of the International Labour Organization, said.
"Increased investments in water and sanitation can yield substantial benefits for human health and development, generate employment and make sure that we leave no one behind."
This is a heavy burden on local communities, but as Ryder said, it is possible.
To really meet UN standards, the world budget for drinking water would have to triple, that’s $114 billion annually, to provide underserved areas.
Governments can also step up their game by increasing and sustaining WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) access for vulnerable groups, especially in rural areas.

KALAMAZOO, MI — A precautionary advisory issued Monday was lifted for municipal drinking water customers living near the West Main Hill Neighborhood. The city of Kalamazoo’s Department of Public Services worked to repair a water main break west of an intersection of Stadium Drive and West Michigan Avenue at West Lovell Street. The city announced Wednesday that bacteriological sampling within the affected area verified that the water is safe…

The student organization educates Auburn University students and community members about countries around the world that do not have access to clean water.
Finding solutions The organization partners with NeverThirst, a non-profit out of Birmingham that gives water filters to families around the world.
The filters cost $150 and last for 10 years.
“There are a lot of communities that have to travel really far to get to their water source and, when you have that problem, that’s hours in a day wasted that can be spent on education or developing a nation,” said James Smith, former president of Auburn for Water.
“So when you’re spending hours a day trying to collect clean water, that’s wasted time.” Smith said NeverThirst does both family by family targeting in some communities and an entire well in other communities, depending on the area.
Events during Water Week include a concert and Ultimate Frisbee tournament.
So she drank chemically contaminated water for 4 years.
She also has psoriasis and migranes and several other medical conditions that have all been directly linked to that consumption of contaminated water.” Growing up, Bergstresser saw her mom struggle with health issues related to the water contamination at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
“it’s really crazy to tell a 14-year-old that your mom has cancer, and then later find out that it was because someone was dumping chemicals into water,” Bergstresser said.
So just how the families struggle to begin with just to have food, but then to see families have to struggle with dirty water related illnesses only makes their job of surviving that much harder.” Nabors explained the importance of taking care of our water sources.

Sathanur dam water not distributed properly: Velu.
Velu, Tiruvannamalai MLA and DMK district secretary, on Tuesday said the administration had failed to properly distribute water available in the Sathanur Reservoir.
Earlier, he visited pick-up dam of Sathanur Reservoir from where water is tapped for irrigation and drinking water needs of Tiruvannamalai town and other villages.
Mr. Velu said water supply schemes helped supply water to 200 villages, Tiruvannamalai municipality, Chengam and Pudupalayam town panchayats.
First of the three Sathanur Combined Water Schemes was initiated in 1972 through which 25 lakh litres were supplied to Tiruvannamalai town.
The second scheme implemented in 1974 supplied another 80 lakh litres to Tiruvannamalai.
Using these schemes, the administration claimed that 120 litres of water per day per person was being supplied to Tiruvannamalai town.
Thandarampattu, Radhapuram, Sirupakkam, Mel Chettipattu, Keel Chettipattu and Nallavanpalayam were supposed to get water from Sathanur CWSS.
But it was not sao.
Thanippadi village located near Sathanur was not getting sufficient water and the available water too was not clean.

10 Million Bottles of Life-Saving Water Delivered to Communities in Need by Nestlé Waters North America and Americares.
Tweet The cost of natural disasters worldwide could reach $314 billion annually by 2030, up from around $250 billion now, according to a 2016 report by the World Bank, which cites rising climate change as a key threat to cities around the globe.
Natural disasters, such as floods, tornadoes, and wildfires can quickly cut off access to basic, everyday needs.
Damage to infrastructure, as well as flooding, can contaminate drinking water supplies, not only inhibiting people’s ability to hydrate, but can also lead to sanitation issues and the spread of waterborne diseases.
Nestlé Waters North America has proudly partnered with the global non-profit for more than a decade to deliver nearly 10 million bottles of water to communities in crisis.
Our work with Americares allows us to deliver clean water to communities most in need,” said Nelson Switzer, Chief Sustainability Officer at Nestlé Waters North America, based in Stamford, CT. “We are incredibly proud of the people who work at Americares and the disaster relief support they provide to those in need.” This partnership began in the wake of the devastation brought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, when Nestlé Waters donated 10 truckloads of water — as part of a larger 1.5 million-bottle donation to all responding disaster agencies — to help Americares bring vital relief to survivors in affected areas.
As Americares’ main partner for providing bottled water in the United States, Nestlé Waters has been able to make more than 300 shipments of bottled water to communities in need since 2004.
“Direct deliveries from Nestlé Waters’ warehouses save critical time during emergencies, ensuring families can quickly access one of the most urgently needed relief items,” said Randy Weiss, Corporate Relations Director for Americares, which is also based in Stamford.
About 100,000 families in Flint were affected by the crisis, including many low-income families whose access to a steady supply of bottled water could be financially out of reach.
Together, the organizations will continue to deliver much-needed bottled water to U.S. families and communities in need.

With his upcoming visit to East Chicago, Indiana, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has a critical opportunity to make good on his confirmation statement—that EPA should have “acted faster” in Flint—by stepping in to ensure that residents throughout East Chicago have reliable access to drinking water that is not contaminated by lead.
The petition highlights an EPA pilot study at East Chicago’s Superfund site that EPA has concluded indicates a system-wide problem with elevated lead in East Chicago’s drinking water.
It was only after EPA flagged major inadequacies in the lead corrosion control treatment used by East Chicago that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) asked the City to change its water treatment in early fall 2016.
His article on polyphosphates and lead, funded by the American Water Works Association (AWWA), states in the first sentence that “Hexametaphosphate tends to increase the release of both soluble and particulate forms of lead in drinking water.” A subsequent 2005 guide from the AWWA on lead and copper rule corrosion control treatment cites the 2002 Edwards article, putting forth that “[p]olyphosphates and sodium hexametaphosphate are sequestering agents and may be effective for the control of iron and manganese, but are not recommended for the control of lead and copper.” When confronted with IDEM’s approval of the city’s use of hexametaphosphate, an IDEM spokesperson “could not comment” on whether the agency was aware of the 2002 Edwards study when it approved the City’s permit 7 years later.
Clearly EPA oversight of East Chicago’s corrosion control treatment is needed moving forward.
While Superfund residents should receive priority in the water contamination response, residents throughout the city need relief from the systemic lead problem with their drinking water—and they need it now.
In January, IDEM made claims in an email to EPA that the study identified only “an isolated location in the distribution that had a low amount of [lead corrosion control treatment].” This despite evidence that flow conditions at the sample sites were sufficient to distribute corrosion control treatment, with low flow issues potentially impacting only a small percentage of samples.
Residents of the Superfund site are rightfully receiving state-sponsored water filters—installation of which has *finally* begun four months after the EPA study results were made public, and long after volunteer efforts were underway – and are slated for publicly-funded replacement of their lead service lines.
However, government agencies have committed little to no assistance to ensure that residents of the rest of the city currently have a clean source of drinking water.
If the City and State cannot or will not stake the steps necessary to ensure a safe drinking water supply, then EPA can and should step in so that all residents receive bottled water and effective filters now, and properly treated water and new service lines later down the road.