This marks the second dramatic increase in drinking water fees in less than a year for the potentially water scarce country Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail approved measures to increase fees for drinking water by up to 46.5%.
This marks the second rise in drinking water fees for Egypt in less than a year, with a previous increase in drinking water and sewage prices by up to 50% in Aug. 2017.
The recently announced decision to raise fees also includes a 12% increase in sewage fees, as reported by Reuters.
The government argues that spending cuts will help revive the economy, where subsidies have accounted for approximately a quarter of state spending.
According to a recent report on water scarce countries by BBC, Cairo, Egypt, is at risk as the World Health Organization ranks Egypt high among lower middle-income countries with water pollution related deaths and the United Nations predicts critical drinking water shortages for the country by 2025.
The problems stem from agricultural and wastewater pollution of the Nile River, the source of 97% of the country’s water.
While the recent drinking water fee increases are a bid to reduce government spending, residents can hope the additional funding finds its way to improving water quality and addressing water scarcity needs.

Environment Minister Hannah Blythyn will name the 870 mile Wales Coast Path as the first location for the roll out of a Refill scheme for Wales as part of the Welsh Government’s ambition to become the world’s first refill nation.
Walkers will be able to access free drinking at key communities along the path, which runs from Queensferry in Deeside to Chepstow in Monmouthshire -under Government plans to improve access to drinking water in public places across Wales.
As the first delivery phase of a ‘Refill Nation’ the Minister will commit to delivering Refill into communities along the Wales Coast Path within the next year in a bid to reduce the use of single use plastics.
The Welsh Government will work with towns, villages and food and drink businesses to sign up to become refill points.
Those signed up to the free water scheme will be visible to walkers through window stickers and be listed in a bi-lingual refill app.
The app will provide the public with a list of locations where free drinking water is available making it easier for people to refill their water bottles without needing to purchase further single use beverages.
In a further bid to improve the management of plastic waste, the Minister also said that the £6.5 million Circular Economy Capital Investment Fund would be prioritised on the recycling of plastics.
Hannah Blythyn said: “I’m delighted to announce today that the Wales Coast Path will be the first location in our drive to make Wales the world’s first refill nation.
This is just the first step in our ambition to become the world’s first ‘Refill nation’.
“2018 is Wales’ Year of the Sea and with the Volvo Ocean Race here in Cardiff, it’s great to be able to make this announcement at the Environment Summit, which is an important step towards eliminating plastic from our seas.” [📷 panoramio.com]

Written by CDFA Secretary Karen Ross and California State Water Resources Control Board Chair Felicia Marcus via Sacramento Bee Sacramento, California – When we read about drinking water problems like those in Flint, Michigan, it’s easy to think that would never happen here.
And we’ve consolidated smaller systems in communities like East Porterville, where clean water now flows into hundreds of homes that were without it.
Bond funds and loans can’t be used to cover these costs, but without these resources, small systems don’t qualify for the funding that is available to cover the capital costs of these projects.
The governor’s proposed budget includes a new Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund created from fees on fertilizer, dairies and livestock, and a fee of less than a dollar a month assessed on water bills.
And most critical, it will help cover ongoing water treatment costs, providing the last piece of the puzzle for small systems that are currently unable to get grants and loans and hire qualified managers.
Let’s be clear: Existing funds would not provide the kind of multi-year funding guarantee needed to secure capital financing and maintain critical water infrastructure 24 hours a day.
The proposed dedicated funding source will not compete with other general fund needs and will provide the state with essential infrastructure investment and public health protection over time.
Using fees to pay for the state’s basic needs makes good sense.
The proposed drinking water fee of less than a dollar a month has the same clear connection to addressing a critical need – and costs even less.
That is why we are urging members of California Legislature to approve the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund this session.

Walkers will be able to access free drinking water along the Wales coast path to help tackle plastic pollution.
Environment Minister Hannah Blythyn will name the 870-mile path as the first location for the rollout of a refill scheme for Wales.
The Welsh Government will work with towns, villages and food and drink businesses to sign up to become refill points.
Those signed up to this drive to decrease use of single use plastics in Wales will be visible to walkers through window stickers and be listed in a bi-lingual refill app.
The app will provide the public with a list of locations where free drinking water is available, making it easier for people to refill their water bottles without needing to purchase single use bottles.
Ms Blythyn said: “I’m delighted to announce today that the Wales coast path will be the first location in our drive to make Wales the world’s first refill nation.
“Wales is the first country in the world to have a dedicated footpath that stretches the entire coastline, and we as a Government are very much looking forward to working with the communities along these 870 glorious miles to curb the use of single use plastic.
“This is just the first step in our ambition to become the world’s first ‘Refill nation’.
“More refill points along our coast will help reduce the number of plastic bottles ending up in the sea, which can have a devastating effect on our marine environment.” The Wales coast path is an 870-mile walking route that runs the entire coast of Wales and is a £14 million project that opened in 2012.
Wales is the first country in the world to have a dedicated path along the full length of its coast.

Regardless of the ownership of a water utility (public, private, or cooperative), a utility may return polluted water to a river or the sea — especially if downriver users are not able to make an impact on decision-making.
TBS has worked with rural villagers to revive the use of traditional water-harvesting solutions.
TBS advocated for these and other methods of water management as a way to bring about a culture of self-sufficiency to local farming communities.
Following the revival of the Arvari River in 1990, representatives from the area’s 72 villages formed the transparent, community-driven "river parliament" to maintain the health of the river.
This has led to extensive administrative challenges over clean water and public sanitation.
In response, the Lusaka Water and Sewage Company, the Lusaka City Council, and various nongovernmental organizations worked together to develop Resident Development Committees (RDCs).
Many neighborhoods now have access to a reliable and largely self-sustaining source of clean water.
Learn more from the review of Bangalore and Lusaka case studies, a paper on groundwater self-supply in Zambia, and this article on Zambia’s water service gap—Nikolas Kichler 3. depave: Communities Turning Pavement Into Green Public Space Paved surfaces contribute to stormwater pollution, by directing rainwater with toxic urban pollutants to local streams and rivers.
Since then, they formed depave, a nonprofit organization that promotes the removal of pavement from urban areas to address the harmful effects of stormwater runoff, as well as to create green public spaces.
depave has coordinated over 50 depaving projects in Portland.

Researchers say the discovery could help lead to more effective means for treatment of water contaminated by this highly-soluble chemical, known for its resistance to conventional water purification and treatment efforts.
"Many products we use every day use a mixture of more than 100 chemicals, and we don’t realize that some of them contain traces of 1,4-dioxane that are washed down our drains and released into the environment," said Dr. Mengyan Li, assistant professor of chemistry and environmental science at NJIT.
"A one-time exposure isn’t extremely toxic, but contamination in drinking water can have a chronic effect that raises cancer risk.
"What we are doing is studying microbes that actually consume this contaminant as their food," Li explained.
Li’s lab was able to identify and characterize the critical role of one enzyme, propane monooxygenase, which leads the way in decomposing 1,4-dioxane’s stable circular structure so it can be converted to fuel for the bacteria.
According to water quality testing data from local utilities throughout the U.S. between 2010 and 2015, 7 million people in 27 states are served by public water systems with a higher 1,4-dioxane concentration in their drinking water than 0.35 parts-per-billion (ppb)—a concentration level that can marginally increase cancer risk.
"But this isn’t just an issue in Long Island and New Jersey…it can be an issue globally because everyone uses products like shampoos and detergents almost every day."
Along with the rise of the chemical released into the environment, estimated cleanup costs in hot-spot locations like Long Island have also risen to such a degree due to a lack of cost-effective and environmentally safe approaches to treat the problem.
Other efforts that apply absorbents to trap water contaminants typically require additional treatment to prevent land disposal problems where the concentrated chemical is released back into the environment.
More information: Daiyong Deng et al. A Novel Propane Monooxygenase Initiating Degradation of 1,4-Dioxane by Mycobacterium dioxanotrophicus PH-06, Environmental Science & Technology Letters (2017).

There are just over 5,000 people in Rye, New Hampshire.
Messmer, who had worked as an environmental consultant for 30 years, called Tom Sherman, who was her representative in the state legislature, to discuss what she feared was an environmental crisis.
Though she was a Democrat running in a heavily Republican district, Messmer won the seat in large part by focusing on water pollution and cancer.
Now Messmer is hoping to bring her focus on the need for clean drinking water to Washington.
She’s not even the only midterm candidate who’s focusing on PFAS chemicals.
Matt Morgan, who is running for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District, recently sent out a campaign email focusing on the PFAS compounds, which have contaminated water near several military bases in his district.
“I fish with Democrats and Republicans alike who are gravely concerned about that.” Morgan may be right that some Republicans may be willing to cross party lines for environmental issues in the upcoming congressional races.
Since then, ongoing concerns about the PFAS chemicals have seeped into the race to represent the state’s 7th Congressional District, which includes Wilmington, where water has been polluted with GenX and other PFAS chemicals.
“There is a fundamental culture that lacks transparency when it comes to big corporate polluters,” said Horton, who sees North Carolina’s GenX crisis as having “everything to do with Fortune 500 companies like Dow, DuPont, and Chemours, which get 100 percent of what they want because they’re doing fundraisers to make sure they’re in the ears of our politicians every day.” (DowDuPont contributed $278,750 to candidates running for House seats in the midterm elections, as of May 21.
Water issues are infusing her race — as well as Morgan’s and Messmer’s — because their districts are among those hardest-hit by PFAS contamination.

PNN/Bethlehem/ The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) today issued a press release, which highlights the extent of the water problem in Gaza: only 11.4% of its population have access to safe, clean water.
This finding was published alongside other environmental statistics on Palestine to mark World Environment Day (WED), a UN initiative to raise global awareness and action for the environment.
Measured according to the definition of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the percentage of Palestinians who use safe drinking water stands at slightly over 60%.
This figure is raised significantly by the 95.1% of Palestinians in the West Bank who are able to drink potable water.
Israel’s destruction of water sanitation plants in Gaza is one of the reasons for the severe shortage of clean water.
It justifies these actions by claiming the plants were built illegally.
PCBS’ worrying report on water safety comes on the same day as Save the Children report on mental health in Gaza.
Its research warns that Gaza children are on the brink of a mental health crisis, with 95% of young people showing acute psychological distress.

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — Thousands of residents in southern Iowa are without clean drinking water, prompting many communities to issue a boil water order.
The Southern Iowa Rural Water Association said the Creston Water Treatment plant had a failure in its membrane filtration system, which increases the chance that the water may contain disease-causing organisms.
The problem affects Adair, Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Madison, Ringgold, Taylor and Union counties.
Officials say the water may contain bacteria, viruses and parasites, which is why customers should boil water or purchase bottled water.
The association said the parts it needs to fix the issue should be delivered and installed by the beginning of next week.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will then test the water to make sure it’s OK before lifting the boil order.
Anyone with questions can contact SIRWA at 641-782-5744.

CRESTON, Iowa-This weekend residents in seven southern Iowa counties have been altering their normal routines, due to a lack of drinkable water.
On Friday Southern Iowa Rural Water Association announced that it’s customers in Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Madison, Ringgold, Taylor, and Union Counties would need to boil water, before drinking.
“We’re just kind of waiting for official word,” said Diagonal Mayor Lowell Johnson.
At noon Sunday there was a long line of people waiting to pickup some bottled water at the Food Pantry.
Most of the Faraway donation of water in Creston was picked up on Saturday.
Organizer Mark O’Riley was worried the word wouldn’t get out about the water to be given to the public.
“Now we ‘ve got rid of it we need more,” said O’Riley.
Restaurants are also dealing with a lack of water.
Some employees were not needed this weekend, due to no salad bar.
The restaurant is buying bottled water and paper plates, and utensils.