Langate: Hampora village of Langate constituency in north Kashmir’s frontier district Kupwara doesn’t have access to clean drinking water for last 25 years.
“This village doesn’t have access to the clean drinking water and however the authorities are still unmoved,” villagers said.
Last time Mehbooba Mufti as Chief Minister during Awami Darbar at Kupwara announced a water supply scheme but now after the imposition of Governor’s rule in the state the authorities of PHE department are refusing to take up the work on the water supply scheme citing lack of funds a reason to refuse the take up the work on this water supply scheme.
The villagers while narrating the tale of pain and agony to Kashmir News Service (KNS) “despite knowing the hardships of the population are facing in this village, the officials are turning a deaf ear to our cries.
We have to walk about one kilometer to collect water from a nallah (stream).” “PHE (department) has never bothered to let the dream of portable water coming true in this village and is now refusing to take up the work on water supply scheme announced by Mehbooba Mufti as Chief Minister during her visit to the area last year.
Our pleas fall to deaf ears.
Even before the announcement of the water supply scheme for the village our village, along with seven other villages in this area, was supposed to get piped water supply in 1990 under a scheme called Zag Sundree, but portable water did not reaching this village under that scheme also.” Few months back the residents of Hampora village blocked Kralgund-Langate road and after about two hours authorities persuaded to call of the protest by officials of the district administration with an assurance from Deputy Commissioner Kupwara, Khalid Jahangir who directed the concerned authorities to ensure water supply to the affected village but again the Deputy Commissioner too has failed to keep his promise.
When contacted Secretary Public Health Engineering (PHE) Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Farooq Ahmad Shah told KNS, “Chief Secretary has himself visited the district and directed the PHE Executive Engineers both Kupwara and Handwara to complete the languishing schemes by March end next year.
No laxity on part of officers will be tolerated.
They will be accountable and they will ensure safe and drinking water to the people of the Kupwara district.”

0 The city of Dayton says its drinking water is clean and safe, but a growing number of residents lack confidence in the purity of the city’s tap water.
Fears about water contamination spread when the city of Dayton shut down some production wells last year after potentially hazardous chemicals were detected in the groundwater.
“ … Drinking water quality in the Dayton region – and throughout Ohio – is excellent.” Worries about chemicals Three months ago, the city said for the first time that treated water leaving its Ottawa Water Treatment Plant in March had PFAS at a level of 7 to 13 parts per trillion (ppt).
The water remains in compliance with federal and state drinking water regulations, and the reported levels are well below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s current health advisory level of 70 ppt, a city of Dayton spokeswoman said.
“Public water systems are highly regulated,” said Pierce, with the Ohio EPA.
Dayton’s extensive monitoring well program goes beyond state requirements by monitoring for unregulated contaminants like PFAS, according to the Ohio EPA.
The survey began in mid-May, before the the city of Dayton and Montgomery County notified thousands of customers that PFAS were detected in the treated drinking water.
All older homes should be tested for lead, and local governments need to ensure water testing is available for low-income families, including rental properties, McGowin said.
The city of Dayton offers free testing and says last year it analyzed 173 water samples and detected lead in 21 of them.
The levels of lead were far below the Ohio EPA’s maximum contaminant levels, which are concentrations that put people at risk of adverse health effects.

The Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, Central Kitsap, North Kitsap and South Kitsap districts have all voluntarily sampled drinking water at their schools in the past three years, responding, in part, to rules scheduled to take effect in 2017 requiring districts to test for lead (implementation of the requirement was delayed due to a lack in funding).
At 20 of those schools, fewer than 10 percent of fixtures tested produced results above the action level.
When fixtures produced samples with lead levels above the district’s threshold, the hardware was replaced and retested.
Why sample?
While lead levels were low at most Kitsap schools, health officials and school administrators say the aim of water sampling is to reduce overall lead exposure for students and staff.
That said, children 6 and younger are at the greatest risk for lead poisoning, and school taps and water fountains aren’t a major source of lead exposure.
Even new fixtures may pour water samples with elevated lead, but continued flushing typically lowers lead levels.
Fixtures are returned to service after producing samples lower than the action level.
At several schools — including Ordway Elementary on Bainbridge in 2016, Crownhill Elementary in Bremerton and Woodlands Elementary in Central Kitsap earlier this year — faucets were turned off and students and staff were provided with bottled drinking water until lead levels could be reduced.
Vlach at Central Kitsap School District said fixtures that produced water with very high lead levels tended to be faucets or fountains that were rarely, if ever, used by students and staff.

(Photo: Business Wire) The seeping of chemical contaminants into drinking water has grown at an alarming rate.
Making recent headlines are perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyls, known as PFAS chemicals.
PFAS’s are often a result of run-off from military bases, civilian airports, industrial plants, and fire training sites.
Yet water filters available on the market are not always effective.
No single technology addresses all contaminants that may be present.
What is required, is a hybrid approach incorporating multiple filtration technologies to address the widest possible range of contaminants.
This provides the highest proof of performance and provides consumers an effective means of comparing one filter to another.
Many contaminants are odorless and colorless.
With PFAS contamination an EPA priority, a wide-range, high-quality certified filter is well worth your health and the health of your family.
Its technology has been widely utilized by hospitals, major universities, laboratories, restaurants, foreign embassies, and millions of consumers.

View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180910005163/en/ Zachary Rice, President of Carbon Block Technology (CB TECH) a leader in the water filter manufacturing industry worldwide.
(Photo: Business Wire) The seeping of chemical contaminants into drinking water has grown at an alarming rate.
PFAS’s are often a result of run-off from military bases, civilian airports, industrial plants, and fire training sites.
Yet water filters available on the market are not always effective.
No single technology addresses all contaminants that may be present.
What is required, is a hybrid approach incorporating multiple filtration technologies to address the widest possible range of contaminants.
This provides the highest proof of performance and provides consumers an effective means of comparing one filter to another.
Many contaminants are odorless and colorless.
With PFAS contamination an EPA priority, a wide-range, high-quality certified filter is well worth your health and the health of your family.
Its technology has been widely utilized by hospitals, major universities, laboratories, restaurants, foreign embassies, and millions of consumers.

Zachary Rice, President of Carbon Block Technology (CB TECH) a leader in the water filter manufacturing industry worldwide.
(Photo: Business Wire) The seeping of chemical contaminants into drinking water has grown at an alarming rate.
Making recent headlines are perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyls, known as PFAS chemicals.
PFAS’s are often a result of run-off from military bases, civilian airports, industrial plants, and fire training sites.
Yet water filters available on the market are not always effective.
No single technology addresses all contaminants that may be present.
What is required, is a hybrid approach incorporating multiple filtration technologies to address the widest possible range of contaminants.
A high-performance carbon block filter independently certified for the removal or reduction of the widest array of contaminants is most effective.
This provides the highest proof of performance and provides consumers an effective means of comparing one filter to another.
With PFAS contamination an EPA priority, a wide-range, high-quality certified filter is well worth your health and the health of your family.

And these cities are not alone.
As global leaders head to the UN General Assembly this month, they can take lessons from cities across the globe that are using smart water technologies to address water scarcity now, and for the future.
Leaders and their associated water, health, and natural resource management organizations need to take advantage of advances in information technology and water related finance to improve sustainable water supply.
Digital technology, the related analytics of “internet of things,” and application of artificial intelligence to both interpret and apply data are game changers for improving knowledge of water supply and water use, while also reducing both water loss and costs.
San Francisco, for example, has applied digital technology, analytics, and artificial intelligence to detect and pinpoint waterline leaks far faster than using traditional water meters.
These reads have improved knowledge of where and how water is wasted.
Of course, cities, water utilities, and the financial community must develop innovative ways to finance information systems, technology, and water infrastructure.
While technology and finance are vital tools to meet safe water drinking needs, the most critical tool that global leaders and organizations can utilize is leadership itself.
Unless water utilities have effective leadership both at the top and throughout an organization, utilities will not successfully apply the significant advances made in water technology and finance.
As these organizations have shown, it is indeed possible to exhibit such a leadership and find innovative, public-private solutions to the global water crisis.

POCATELLO — A grassroots environmental group has renewed a push for new city and Bannock County ordinances protecting groundwater quality because group members are concerned about the presence of certain contaminants in the local aquifer.
Second, levels of chlorinated solvents, once heavily used for dry-cleaning and industrial de-greasing, are on the rise in monitoring wells within the Bannock County Landfill.
The city’s engineering staff completed a conceptual plan in 2013 for connecting sewer lines to the Johnny Creek neighborhood — where aging septic systems have represented a significant source of nitrates reaching groundwater.
“During this year’s budget season, a number of City Council members were very interested in addressing this nitrate concern,” said Hannah Sanger, the city’s science and environment administrator.
“We already have a housing shortage here, and we just want to compound the problem?” Tovey asked.
Tovey believes nitrates in water can mostly be traced back to “legacy” septic systems installed in the 1950s and 1960s, and modern septic tanks pose little problem.
Sue Skinner, a retired local Environmental Protection Agency official who serves as policy adviser to the Portneuf Resource Council, said even most modern septic systems contribute to contamination of groundwater.
In the event that nitrate levels ever exceed allowable standards, Skinner said the technical advisory committee estimated at the time that it would cost $250,000 per year to treat each of the city’s 26 wells.
Through 2012, Thackray gave about 20 presentations to civic organizations, university classes and governmental leaders highlighting the committee’s concerns and suggestions, especially pertaining to hooking up neighborhoods with leaking septic systems to sewer service.
By the following year, several municipal wells in the Portneuf Valley had to be closed because of chlorinated solvent contamination.

You Wu You Wu, an MIT graduate, has developed a robot to find leaks in water pipes.
The robot finds leaks by detecting suction forces, unlike other methods that rely on listening for leaks.
He founded the company WatchTower Robotics with his college friend earlier this year.
When You Wu was growing up in China, officials would shut off water to his community for half a day each week in the name of conservation.
The experience contributed to Wu’s interest in water scarcity, which he chose to study more in-depth after moving to the United States 10 years ago.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, now 28, has developed a robot to find leaks in water pipes.
As the robot moves with the water through a pipe, its "hands" touch the pipe and feel the suction forces caused by leaks, Wu told Business Insider.
It took Wu five years to create a working prototype.
The current version, Lighthouse, was released in January, shortly after Wu was named to Forbes’ 2018 "30 Under 30" list for manufacturing and industry.
The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2017 "Infrastructure Report Card" estimates that there are 240,000 water-main breaks in the United States each year, equivalent to wasting more than 2 trillion gallons of treated drinking water annually.

"I know we all keep asking the same question, but I think what’s got everybody worried is we need to change the national standard for what is a safe level," U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, told an EPA official.
The agency is evaluating the need to set a maximum contaminant level for the well-known PFAS compounds PFOA and PFOS, said Peter Grevatt, director of the agency’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water.
The head of Michigan’s PFAS “response team,” Carol Isaacs, told lawmakers on the panel that more federal funding is needed for the Pentagon to fully remedy PFAS contamination at military sites.
"There are obviously concerns about setting an EPA drinking water standard.
Dingell asked Grevatt why the EPA didn’t schedule a stop in Michigan as part of its PFAS “community engagement” tour, which included visits to five states since June.
At the hearing, Republican Reps. Fred Upton of St. Joseph and Tim Walberg of Tipton backed Dingell’s invitation for EPA to hold a community forum in Michigan.
Isaacs later said, "Michigan has always wanted the EPA to come in, and we look forward to that."
"We’ve been disappointed in the pace of response" by the Department of Defense, Isaacs said.
The state intends to test all 461 schools on a private well system by year’s end, Isaacs said, and has already undertaken testing of all public water systems through a $1.7 million appropriation from the Legislature.
Isaacs was among those urging the federal government to move forward with additional research and setting an enforceable standard for PFAS in drinking water.