Ten water tanks and clean water for drinking and other domestic use are being distributed to nine primary schools and one group home for children in the Western Cape Province.
Many areas of South Africa are facing a severe drought, the country’s worst natural disaster in 30 years.
The lack of water impacts the agricultural economy, potentially causing cutbacks and layoffs for seasonal workers.
Less water also means lower yields for vineyards, fruit orchards and vegetable crops.
The lack of clean water also compromises health and hygiene and increases the spread of diseases and possible outbreaks.
The rationing of water may occur as early as August.
Health Opportunity Partnership and Empowerment in Africa (HOPE Africa) serves as the social development department of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and oversees church and community development projects in South Africa and other countries in the region.
“Winter rains are about four months away and we hope they will help alleviate the current water crisis in South Africa,” said Nagulan Nesiah, Senior Program Officer for Disaster Response and Risk Reduction at Episcopal Relief & Development.
“We are grateful to HOPE Africa and the Anglican Church of Southern Africa for responding to critical needs during the drought.” Donations to the International Disaster Response Fund will help those affected by the water crisis in South Africa and other disasters worldwide.
The agency works with more than 3 million people in nearly 40 countries worldwide to overcome poverty, hunger and disease through multi-sector programs, using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework.

The Tahoe-Truckee area’s water agencies say they oppose a budget trailer bill that is part of Gov.
The bill, according to the Association of California Water Agencies, is essentially a modified form of State Bill 623, dubbed the "Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fee."
A Lake Tahoe regional coalition of local water agencies including Tahoe City Public Utility District, South Tahoe Public Utility District, North Tahoe Public Utility District, Truckee Donner Public Utility District, Northstar Community Services District, Squaw Valley Public Service District and Alpine Springs County Water District strongly oppose the legislative proposal, which would tax Californians’ drinking water.
"Our issue is more on the tax as a funding mechanism … that money is not going to stay in Tahoe and will go to these disadvantaged communities, which we recognize their need for safe drinking water.
However, taxing Californians’ water is not the solution."
Boyd said local water agencies already don’t meet California’s requirements to receive state funding, and the tax would mean more money leaving the area.
The effect of the bill, which was first introduced as SB 623 in 2017, would essentially tax Californians for something that is essential to life, according to the Tahoe City Public District, erode the affordability of water for local water users, turn hundreds of local water agencies into taxation entities that send money to Sacramento, impact families just above low-income thresholds, and would open the door to future taxes on water customers.
"We believe our customers should be aware of this legislative proposal and our efforts to actively oppose it, unless amended to remove the water tax as a funding mechanism," the district said in a statement.
Many of the local water agencies are aligned with the Association of California Water Agencies, which stands opposed to the bill.
The bill would establish a fund to be administered by the California Water Resources Control Board to assist those who do not have access to safe drinking water, according to the association.

The Truckee-Tahoe area’s water agencies say they oppose a budget trailer bill that is part of Gov.
A Lake Tahoe regional coalition of local water agencies including Tahoe City Public Utility District, South Tahoe Public Utility District, North Tahoe Public Utility District, Truckee Donner Public Utility District, Northstar Community Services District, Squaw Valley Public Service District and Alpine Springs County Water District strongly oppose the legislative proposal, which would tax Californians’ drinking water.
"Our issue is more on the tax as a funding mechanism … that money is not going to stay in Tahoe and will go to these disadvantaged communities, which we recognize their need for safe drinking water.
“Not only do we not qualify for state funding but we are also going to be taking money out of Tahoe.” — Kim Boyd, senior management analyst for the Tahoe Public Utility District "Your local, public water agencies are committed to providing safe and reliable water and support the intent of the bill.
However, taxing Californians’ water is not the solution."
Boyd said local water agencies already don’t meet California’s requirements to receive state funding, and the tax would mean more money leaving the area.
The effect of the bill, which was first introduced as SB 623 in 2017, would essentially tax Californians for something that is essential to life, according to the Tahoe City Public District, erode the affordability of water for local water users, turn hundreds of local water agencies into taxation entities that send money to Sacramento, impact families just above low-income thresholds, and would open the door to future taxes on water customers.
Many of the local water agencies are aligned with the Association of California Water Agencies, which stands opposed to the bill.
Justin Scacco is a reporter for the Truckee Sun.
Contact him at jscacco@truckeesun.com.

OXFORD, United Kingdom — The Rockefeller Foundation and UBS Optimus Foundation are backing a new financing tool to bring clean water to 1.4 million Ugandan school children, saying the model can potentially be replicated across other countries and sectors.
Official development assistance for the issue is now about $8 billion a year.
In this first pilot of the SSN model, the UBS Optimus Foundation will provide a $500,000 loan to Impact Water, a social enterprise, to expand its work installing low-cost UV-based water purification systems in schools across Uganda.
Impact Water will pay back the loan after five years and the rate of interest will go down if certain outcomes are achieved.
“The social business gets financing adequate to what they need and keeps them aligned to their social mission,” Bruysten said.
To support their initiatives, social businesses need continuous funding and I hope the Social Success Note becomes the leading instrument to fulfill this need.” The SSN is one of a string of results-based financing mechanisms that have emerged in recent years, including the development impact bond, a variation of the social impact bond pioneered in the United Kingdom in 2010.
She added that the SSN has a simpler structure than a DIB, to reduce transaction costs and time; and that complex impact metrics are avoided in favor of simple key performance indicators linked to the number of water systems installed.
However, some at the session said using installation-based key performance indicators as the outcome measure would not ensure sustainability in the long run — a problem that has dogged water projects in developing countries in the past.
In response, Bruysten said social businesses focused on the poor still face major challenges in accessing capital and paying interest and returns, meaning such subsidies are still needed.
“While the business model is really a relevant tool, we still think this subsidy … can be instrumental in making these types of social businesses sustainable in the long run,” she said.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Packaged drinking water should not be sold in the state without the relevant food safety licence or BIS certification, the Food Safety Commissonerate said on Thursday.
Violations will be dealt with sternly under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the commissionerate said.
The commissionerate has issued the warning following complaints of several brands selling packaged drinking water engaging in the in violation of the law and the provisions of the BIS.
Rule 2.1.2 of the Food Safety and Standards Act makes a food safety licence mandatory for the production of packaged drinking water.
The quality of the product is governed by rule 2.10.8 of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulation.
The Kerala High Court also had ordered stern action against companies engaged in the sale of water in violation of these rules and regulations.
The Food Safety Commissionerate has urged the public to pass on information regarding such violations to the assistant commissioners (Food Safety) in the districts, the food safety mobile vigilance squad or on toll-free number 1800 425 1125.Mobile vigilance squad numbers: Thiruvananthapuram – 8943346195; Ernakulam – 8943346196; Kozhikode – 8943346197

Since Mesa Water District was founded as our local water agency in 1960, Mesa Water customers have received safe and reliable drinking water.
As a result of Mesa Water’s strategic water resource planning, prudent financial policies and water system management and capital improvements, our community continues to benefit from having safe, resilient and sustainable water and water services.
This is not the case in other areas of the state where, unfortunately, some Californians in small, rural communities may not have the same reliable access to safe drinking water.
Additionally, a budget trailer bill proposed by the Brown administration is also seeking this same tax on drinking water.
While the concept of ensuring safe drinking water for all Californians is an admirable one, the Mesa Water board of directors has taken the position that the proposed legislation is not the appropriate funding method for addressing this issue.
Simply put, taxing Mesa Water customers for essential drinking water in order to fund other community water systems outside of our area is not sound policy from either fiscal or local control standpoints.
The board believes that there is a better approach.
A broad, statewide coalition of water providers, led by the Assn.
of California Water Agencies (ACWA), is advocating for the state to take a fiscal leadership role in addressing this situation.
Mesa Water’s ability to provide our customers with clean, reliable and safe drinking water depends on our local control and rate-making authority, which allows us to use the rates you pay to fund the local water infrastructure repairs and capital improvements to sustain our community’s high-quality water service.

FLINT, MI – Less than 24 hours after the closure of the city’s last four water distribution sites, more than 50 Flint-area residents filled two buses to protest at the state capitol in Lansing.
"It is unacceptable that people are still unaware that the water is not safe despite what the MDEQ says," said LaShaya Darisaw, Flint organizing director with Michigan United.
"If you saw some of the water PODS, people were afraid.
We’re in fear.
They went into instant survival mode, and that’s not OK. "We’re living in America and people were desperately trying to get bottles of water.
This is not a third world country.
It’s 2018, and nobody should be feeling like that, especially not caused by our own government."
State officials say water testing in the city has shown a decrease of lead for nearly two years.
Flint’s supply of bottled water has been an issue since Gov.
Rick Snyder recognized lead contamination in the city’s water system in January 2016.

To protect drinking water, North Carolina regulators are asking a state court to order Chemours to stop fluoroether pollution from its plant outside of Fayetteville.
If the court grants the request of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the facility, which makes Nafion ion-transporting polymers and other fluorochemical products, could face at least a partial shutdown.
According to the agency’s April 9 court filing, Chemours for an unknown period of time discharged industrial process wastewater into the open ditch, bypassing the facility’s wastewater treatment plant.
HFPO-DA is also found in groundwater beneath the plant and up to 11 km from the plant in the reverse direction of groundwater flow.
DEQ’s request to the court is a legal backstop to an April 6 warning letter the department sent to Chemours regarding the Fayetteville plant emitting to the atmosphere HFPO-DA and two related fluoroethers that hydrolyze into HFPO-DA.
One of those chemicals is GenX, a surfactant used as a polymerization aid to manufacture fluoropolymers.
In the letter, DEQ says it will modify the company’s air pollution permit to bar emission of the fluoroethers unless Chemours demonstrates that its emissions do not end up tainting groundwater.
DEQ also says the plant’s air emissions of HFPO-DA and related compounds are greater than Chemours previously reported.
Last June, the company told DEQ it released about 30 kg of HFPO-DA-related compounds in 2016.
Chemours began capturing its wastewater for disposal elsewhere last year.

Shallow wells dug for drinking water in the Amazon basin in order to avoid polluted rivers contain up to 70 times the recommended limit of arsenic, researchers warned Tuesday.
Samples taken from 250 sites along the Amazon—the first systematic analysis of the region’s well water—also revealed hazardous levels of manganese and aluminium, they reported at a conference in Vienna.
"In parts of the Amazon basin, groundwater contains these trace elements in concentrations that are potentially harmful to human health."
"Contamination should not be underestimated—all our data point in the same direction," she added.
Levels of manganese were up to 15 times higher than World Health Organization (WHO) limits, while aluminium exceeded WHO standards by up to three-fold.
Chronic exposure to arsenic is linked to cancers of the liver, kidney and bladder, as well as heart disease.
It is also thought to contribute to miscarriages, low birth weights and poor cognitive development in children.
"At this time, we cannot say how many people are affected," de Meyer said.
Because iron causes water to turn reddish-brown, people often let it stand so that particles—including some of the arsenic—can settle to the bottom.
De Meyer first uncovered dangerous levels of arsenic in groundwater drawn for drinking at a couple of sites in the Peruvian Amazon, leading her to suspect the problem was more widespread.

Sen David Japan has committed to help Cambodia’s urban populations gain access to a safe, affordable and sustainable water supply, with the government confirming that 85 percent of urban populations currently have access to clean water.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency yesterday signed an agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft on a project to strengthen the administrative capacity of urban water supply service in Cambodia.
According to a JICA press release, the project aims to strengthen governance of urban water supply services and will contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations.
“By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all in accordance with the national strategic development plan,” it said.
“By 2025, 100 percent of urban populations will have access to a safe, affordable and sustainable water supply.” Prak Prakat, director general of the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft’s potable water supply department, said yesterday that 85 percent of urban populations had access to clean water and by 2025, the government expected that more than 100 percent of urban populations would have access.
“This JICA project with the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft is for five years.
Most of the project focuses on human training in the water supply sector,” he said.
Yuichi Sugano, chief representative of JICA, said that in the urban water supply sector, JICA has long been one of Cambodia’s major development partners and has contributed both physical and soft infrastructure.
“Several water treatment facilities have been built in Phnom Penh and many provinces such as Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampong Cham, Kampot, Pursat and Sihanoukville,” he said.
“The signing of this cooperation agreement is the fourth project that JICA has worked on in the sector in Cambodia since 2003.” Mr Sugano said the project was expected to officially begin the middle of this year, adding that it reflected the commitment of the Cambodian and Japanese governments to strengthen cooperation in the development of the urban water supply sector in Cambodia.