India face the worst water crisis in its history, and 21 Indian cities will run out of groundwater by 2020, a new report from the NITI Aayog–a government think tank– said, highlighting the need for “urgent and improved” management of water resources.
Currently, many Indian states, including Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, face water shortages, exacerbated by changing rainfall patterns, IndiaSpend reported on June 6, 2018.
The Economic Survey 2017-18 acknowledged India’s water crisis and explained the triggers, including rapid groundwater depletion, decline in average rainfall and increasing dry monsoon days, The Times Of India reported on June 21, 2018.
14 of 24 states score below 50% on water management, food security imperiled In 2015-16, 14 of the 24 states analysed scored below 50% on water management and have been classified as “low performers”.
“Water Index scores vary widely across states, but most states have achieved a score below 50% and could significantly improve their water resource management practices,” the report said.
“Given the combination of rapidly declining groundwater levels and limited policy action (as indicated by the low Index score), this is also likely to be a significant food security risk for the country going forward,” said the report.
Low-performing states show improvement Many water-scarce states have performed better in the Index, the report said.
Eight states gained 5 percentage points or more–despite the slow-moving nature of several indicators (such as irrigation potential utilised and area under rain-fed agriculture), said the report.
On groundwater augmentation, 10 of the 24 states scored below 50%, highlighting the worsening situation–54% of India’s groundwater wells are declining–said the report.
This underperformance–given that agriculture accounts for 80% of all water use–poses significant water and food security risks for the country.

* Only 20 per cent of the urban population has access to potable water.
GUWAHATI, June 24: The NITI Aayog has asked the Government of Assam to initiate measures for improving the quality of potable water in the rural areas.
Bracketting Assam with the ‘North-eastern and Himalayan States’ category, the Aayog in its CWMI performance report for the financial year 2016-17 pointed out the sectors where Assam needs to make significant improvements.
The report stated that in rural drinking water only 60 per cent of rural habitation have been fully covered, and there has been no improvement in water quality.
On the other hand with respect to the urban water sector, the report said that only 20 per cent of the urban population has access to potable water and added that no waste water is treated.
In North Eastern and Himalayan States, Tripura has been adjudged number one in 2016-17 followed by Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Assam.
NITI Aayog proposes to publish these ranks on an annual basis in future.
Of all States,ranging from 26 to 31, this low performance involves low score across almost all indicator themes.
The CWMI is an important tool to assess and improve the performance of States/Union Territories in efficient management of water resources.
The CWMI has been developed by NITI Aayog comprising nine broad sectors with 28 different indicators covering various aspects of ground water, restoration of water bodies, irrigation, farm practices, drinking water, policy and governance.

In our study we assessed the water and sanitation facilities at primary schools in a rural town in Malawi to see how disability friendly they were.
Malawi has several policies that ensure that people with disabilities have access to water and sanitation.
This was particularly problematic for children who had physical impairments and needed to place their hands on the ground in order to access the pit latrine.
In addition, we found that some of the pit latrines were up to 114 metres away from the classrooms.
The latrine doors were less than 1 metre wide so wheelchairs could not access them.
National guidelines In our interviews with the pupils they raised cost effective solutions that could make the existing school infrastructure friendlier.
It also shows that special education teachers need to be trained on ways to make infrastructure at schools more disability friendly.
Malawi could look to countries like South Africa where a national guideline was developed in 2008 to allow people with disabilities to access toilets easier.
The situation in Malawi is likely to be consistent across other neighbouring countries.
Disability support UNICEF Malawi Malawian health Water access

This would have made it the first city in the world to run out of water.
Schools were closed for five days and people had to wait for over four days to get a little water.
It states that India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat.
Situation in States The Water Index scores for FY16-17, which have been arrived from the data of several indicators — covering groundwater restoration, irrigation management, on-farm water use, rural and urban drinking water supply, water policy frameworks, etc — vary widely across States.
Several of the high and medium performers — Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana — are States that have suffered from severe droughts in recent years.
Food Security at Risk Most States have achieved less than 50% in the augmentation of groundwater resources, highlighting a growing national crisis — 54% of India’s groundwater wells are declining, and 21 major cities are expected to run out of groundwater as soon as 2020, affecting 100 million people.
States have also performed averagely on providing safe drinking water to rural areas.
With 800 million people, or 70% of the country’s population living in rural areas, this is one of our most critical service delivery challenges.
Moreover, India faces significant risks as the low performers on the Water Index are home to 50% of the country’s population and its agricultural baskets.
The poor performance of these States on the Index highlights a significant water management risk for the country, especially since these States account for 20-30% of India’s agricultural output.

It’s going to get worse, and it’s going to get worse in a big way.” — Steven Chapra, environmental engineering professor, Tufts University “When water bodies warm up earlier and stay warmer longer … you increase the number of incidents,” said Wayne Carmichael, a retired Wright State University professor specializing in the organisms.
Long linked to animal deaths, high doses of the toxins in humans can cause liver damage and attack the nervous system.
In the largest outbreaks, hundreds have been sickened by blooms in reservoirs and lakes, and officials in some areas now routinely close water bodies used for recreation and post warnings when blooms occur.
“It’s absolutely certain in my mind that warming temperatures are going to end up causing more of these algal blooms,” said Steven Chapra, an environmental engineering professor at Tufts University.
2016 Utah Bloom Sickened More Than 100 People In Utah, a 2016 algae bloom in a recreational-use lake sickened more than 100.
Officials only recently started carefully logging the blooms, but they seem to be becoming more intense, said Ben Holcomb, a biologist for Utah’s environmental agency.
“I don’t think any state is isolated.” In Lake Erie, a major bloom in 2014 caused authorities to warn against drinking tap water in Toledo, Ohio, for more than two days, cutting off the main water source for more than 400,000 people.
Officials in both states say they’ve largely been able to stop them from toxifying drinking water.
In Oregon, officials lifted Salem’s drinking water advisory after several days, but then had to re-issue the warning.
Officials also warned that dozens of other water supplies could be vulnerable, and indeed, when workers from the city of Cottage Grove inspected another reservoir, they found a bloom, according to a report by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Wildfires can contaminate nearby streams and watersheds through mobilization of sediments, nutrients and dissolved organic matter, straining the capabilities of downstream municipal treatment facilities, a new report co-authored by CU Boulder researchers shows.
The research, which was funded by The Water Research Foundation (WRF) and presented at CU Boulder earlier this month, outlines a multitude of challenges posed by wildfires, including short- and long-term effects on the availability and quality of drinking water sources used by major metropolitan areas such as Denver, Colorado.
The report also outlines potential remediation solutions to help utilities plan for worst-case scenarios.
“A great number of drinking water utilities draw water from forested watersheds,” said Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, an associate professor in CU Boulder’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and the lead author of the report.
The 2012 High Park Fire burned sections of the Cache la Poudre watershed, which serves northern Colorado communities including Fort Collins.
That same year, the Waldo Canyon Fire burned through Pike National Forest, temporarily jeopardizing water supplies for Colorado Springs.
While ecologists and land managers have studied fires extensively, the scope of post-wildfire effects on drinking water remains uncertain.
To simulate the effects of a medium-temperature wildfire, the researchers heated soil and organic deadfall in a furnace to 225 degrees Celsius (437 degrees Fahrenheit).
The materials were then leached into tap water and treated using conventional processes.
“Our work has shown that source waters impacted by wildfires can be difficult to treat, resulting in additional costs in the form of additional chemical coagulants and the potential need for capital improvements,” Rosario-Ortiz said.

HELENA – Flood waters have the potential to introduce bacteria into ground wells and contaminate drinking water.
According to Harry Howell, lab manager for Alpine Analytical in Helena, those with wells in flooded areas should consider getting their water tested.
His company, Alpine Analytical, is one of three labs in Helena that can test for coliform bacteria, like E. coli.
Story continues below According to Howell, the water samples must be gathered within at least 30 hours before being delivered to the lab, however, and must be collected in a sterile bottle.
Your chance of getting more is there.
But once your flood waters have receded, then test it,” Howell said.
Once received, the water samples must incubate in a lab for 18 hours.
If your well is flooded, it’s best not to drink water from it.
Information provided by Lewis and Clark Public Health says wells can be contaminated even if there is no visible damage or the well head is not visibly underwater.
Energy Laboratories and the State of Montana Public Health Laboratory also provide water testing services.

An announcement made by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) highlighted its support for an innovative technology that will improve access to quality drinking water in urban and remote areas of the Philippines through the use of hydropanels.
The ADB is collaborating with Zero Mass Water, Inc (ZMW) and the Philippine National Electrification Administration (NEA) on this new technology that produces drinking water from sunlight and air.
SOURCE Hydropanels is developed by the US-based ZMW.
The water flows into a reservoir where it is mineralised with calcium and magnesium for health and taste benefits.
Moreover, the panels are 98% recyclable and have a 15-year lifespan.
ADB has already installed a SOURCE Hyrdopanel array at its headquarters in Manila in 2017.
This is to reduce usage of bottled water at the same time serves as an opportunity to showcase the technology for possible implementation in different parts of the country.
ADB extended a grant worth $80,000 to NEA to purchase the solar hydropanels.
ZMW Founder and CEO Mr Cody Friesen said, “We are thrilled to partner with ADB and NEA to deploy SOURCE Hydropanels as an innovative solution to the many drinking water challenges in the Philippines.” He added, “The Philippines’ fragmented geography adds extra barriers for reliance on traditional water infrastructure, yet makes it ideal for our technology providing families, communities, and businesses with drinking water resilience in the form of a sustainable drinking water supply.” ZMW aims to make safe, high-quality drinking water available to people in developing countries through the use of SOURCE Hydropanels.
The company is partnering with its distributor, Green Heat, to deploy hydropanels across the Philippines.

Some residents of Grahamstown and other parts of the Makana Municipality have been without access to clean water for months.
This sparked outrage among residents and civil society organisations, which accuse the municipality of inefficiency and mismanagement.
The problem was first raised publicly by the social development and infrastructure development and technical services portfolio committees, which, on May 16 and 17, highlighted that high levels of E.coli – a bacterium indicating contamination by faeces or sewage that can cause a number of illnesses – were found in the water supply.
According to Flow‚ a Rhodes University student research initiative‚ there are two water treatment works in Makana – the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Plant‚ which supplies the poorer, eastern side of Grahamstown with water‚ and the Waainek Water Treatment Works‚ which provides water to the wealthier university-oriented side.
“Infrastructure and maintenance are a problem.” In 2015‚ the Makana Municipality hired Amatola Water to manage Makana’s unreliable water supply.
According to the Grahamstown Residents’ Association and officials‚ this left Makana without the skills or resources needed for water management operations.
So when chemicals needed for treatment were running out‚ which is estimated to have been about February this year‚ instead of alerting the minister for water affairs or the public as is standard procedure‚ officials revealed at the portfolio committee meetings that R41 000 worth of hydrochloride swimming pool tablets had been bought in an attempt to treat the water.
Months later‚ after independent tests were done in Grahamstown and the issues were raised at the portfolio committees meeting‚ the municipality was forced to address the issue of contamination.
Dali Mlenzana‚ the director of engineering and infrastructural services at the Makana Municipality‚ assured residents that the necessary chemicals had been delivered two weeks ago and were already in use.
However‚ he advised residents to continue boiling tap water for at least the next two weeks.

Question 1: Could textile mills also be a source of PFASs in drinking water?
[1] So, it would be worthwhile to investigate textile mills for use of PFASs in addition to looking at paper mills.
Based on wastewater flow, the two largest mills are both operated by Milliken.
We do not know whether any of the facilities use and discharge FDA-approved PFASs.
The answer is “no.” EPA has not added any PFAS to either the CWA’s Section 311 Hazardous Substance List or Section 307 Toxic Pollutant List, which would trigger required reporting or chemical testing.
Since PFASs are not on either of these lists, a facility discharging wastewater to surface water does not need to notify the permit writer of the presence of PFASs when applying for or renewing its Clean Water Act (CWA) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
Question 3: Are there other benefits to adding PFAS to the CWA Hazardous Substance list?
The answer is “yes.” If PFASs were added to either of the CWA lists, they would be automatically added to the CERLA/Superfund Section 102 Hazardous Substance list[3] and, therefore, covered by the more expansive cleanup and reporting requirements under that law.
In addition, EPA should list PFAS as a class and not just list PFOA and PFOS to ensure that states are notified of chemicals with similar structures and potentially similar hazards.
A wastewater discharge permit for a paper or textile mill is unlikely to have limits for PFASs, because the regulator would not be notified that the chemicals are present in the discharge.