ISLAMABAD: All over the world, March is being observed as Water Action Month.
For our future generations, it is important to create awareness about the importance of potable water in the country, as the United Nations observe March 22 of each year as World Water Day.
FAFEN member organisation Integrated Regional Support Program (IRSP), has been observing this day for a number of years.
“Today we have gathered with the determination that these efforts are promoted in Pakistan and masses are informed about the importance and significance of clean drinking water,” IRSP Executive Director Syed Shah Nasir Khisro said in a meeting held on Friday.
“The purpose of observing Water Action Month is that people are provided with a platform where they can collectively pinpoint challenges and plan to cope up with future challenges,” he said.”We want a sustainable and planned change in the society where everyone has the equal rights and has access to clean drinking water and improved health facilities.
Another purpose of observing Water Action Month is that the issue of water and sanitation is prioritised at international level.
Pakistan has ratified Millennium Development Goals and has been able to achieve nine out of 24 of these goals.
Pakistan has also ratified Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the pace of efforts has to be channelised so that Pakistan does not remain far behind other developing countries,” he added.
The executive director made an appeal to the relevant institutions to make water, sanitation and hygiene a part of their policies.
Published in Daily Times, March 3rd 2018.

Analysis Residents of areas in and around Denver are increasingly threatened by runoff from an active mine in the Colorado Rockies.
After exceeding the state health limit for molybdenum pollution of a creek for the past four years, the Climax Molybdenum mine is asking the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to raise that limit 43 times higher so it can pollute legally.
Denver Water, the area water utility, says the cost of upgrading a water treatment facility to filter out this pollution could cost $600 million, an expense which would be shouldered by its ratepayers, not by Freeport-McMoRan, the $46 billion company that owns the Climax mine.
In other words, if Freeport-McMoRan gets its wish, the CDPHE would relieve a multi-billion dollar corporation of having to pay to clean up its wastewater, pushing that cost instead onto the millions of unfortunate people living downstream of the Climax mining operation.
The Climax mine is located northeast of Leadville, Colorado.
The open pit mine is a major supplier of molybdenum, a mineral used in hardening steel and processing petroleum products, In humans, chronic molybdenum ingestion can cause diarrhea, stunted growth, infertility, low birth weight and kidney, liver, and lung damage.
Scientists at the CDPHE and the federal Environmental Protection Agency maintain that exposure to molybdenum, even at current levels, can harm humans and kill aquatic life.
A higher level of unregulated contamination, as Climax is requesting, would considerably escalate these dangers.
Collaboration between state regulators and polluting corporations in the United States is not unusual, and it endangers the health of millions of people across the country.
As we have seen in places like Flint, Michigan, and Standing Rock, protecting people’s right to clean water is simply not a high priority under capitalism, and marginalized communities bear a disproportionate burden of contaminated and undrinkable water.

Enviroment groups, which have been warning for years of the impact of coalmining on drinking water welcomed the move but called for a moratorium on any expansion of mining activity until the conclusion of the review.
The department announced that a new independent expert panel on mining in Sydney’s drinking water catchment would be established, and headed by the yet-to-be appointed NSW chief scientist and engineer.
In the interim, emeritus professor Jim Galvin will be the acting chairman.
“There are proposals for a significant expansion of coal mining under the catchment special areas,” said the Lock the Gate Alliance NSW coordinator, Georgina Woods.
“Consideration of these project must be halted while the panel considers the long-term damage these operations are inflicting on Sydney’s catchment and water security.
NSW to weaken water quality test for extensions to mines Read more “This is the time to choose.
Do we want to safeguard Sydney’s drinking water, or let it be jeopardised for more coal mining?” The Coolong Foundation, which has campaigned on the issue for years, while welcoming the move, said Ray was wrong in declaring that mining had taken place so far without any big impact on water supply.
“There clearly have been significant impacts, if major impacts include the drying out of upland swamps and streams due to widespread cracking of surface rocks,” the director of the Coolong Foundation for Wilderness, Keith Muir, said.
“So the department needs independent advice on what should define ‘major impacts’.
Too often inquiries become mired in expert reports, when the truth is out there in what should be our pristine drinking water catchments.”

Millions of Americans use unsafe drinking water each year, a new study has found.
Water quality was poorest in parts of rural Texas, Oklahoma and Idaho during the time period studied.
In Martin County, Kentucky, residents never know what they’re going to get when they turn on their faucets.
Sometimes, they get milky water, or water that looks more like beer, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
(MORE: Major Cuts Coming to NWS?)
"We felt that in the aftermath of the Flint lead crisis, there was an urgent need to assess the current state of drinking water in the U.S.," University of California-Irvine urban planner Maura Allaire, who led the study, told USA Today.
The study, which examined 17,900 U.S. water systems from 1982 to 2015, found most of the nation’s drinking water is clean, but many of the areas that had poor water quality readings were repeated violators of federal health standards.
"Many of these smaller utilities have just a handful of people who are charged with managing the entire system," Manuel P. Teodoro, a political scientist at Texas A&M University, told the New York Times.
(MORE: The Secret About All That Snow at the PyeongChang Olympics) In Martin County, tainted water has become such a consistent, rampant problem that water bills often include warnings about the long-term health dangers from disinfectant byproducts used to remove toxins from the drinking water, the L.A. Times reported.
Some good news is on the horizon for residents of Martin County: Kentucky Gov.

The Liberian government must prioritise clean water, decent sanitation and good hygiene for people across the country, if Goal 6 – the provision of clean water and decent sanitation for everyone everywhere – is to be reached by 2030, in Liberia.
Without water, decent sanitation and good hygiene, other Sustainable Development Goals, including those on gender equality, education, health, reducing inequalities and nutrition, cannot be achieved.
WaterAid warns without access to these basic amenities, men, women and children in Liberia will remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and disease, while being denied their basic human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Across the world 844 million people still do not have access to clean water and 1 in 3 people still live without adequate sanitation facilities.
According to the 2017 Joint Monitoring Report on the “Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitationand Hygiene”, sanitation coverage is 9 percent among the richest quintile but just 1 percent among the poorest quintile.
WaterAid says urgent action to finance water and sanitation, to integrate it with efforts on health, nutrition and other related development, and to make progress sustainable is essential to reach everyone, everywhere.
For every US$1 spent on water and sanitation, on average $4 is returned in economic benefits.
Chuchu K. Selma, Deputy Country Director WaterAid Liberia and Sierra Leone, said: “We are at a critical juncture in the fight to get clean water, decent sanitation and good hygiene to the people of Liberia and across the world.
“We know that if everyone, everywhere was able to access clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene, then we could help end the scourge of extreme poverty and create a more sustainable future.
But we have to act now to make this a reality.

NEW PALTZ – Experts in clean water and area public officials met at SUNY New Paltz during the day Tuesday to discuss clean water and how to rid lakes of the dreaded algae plumes that impact tourism, swimming and drinking water quality.
While the conference in New Paltz is centered on algae problems in Lake Carmel, Palmer Lake and Putnam Lake, all in Putnam County, and Monhagen Brook watershed including the five reservoirs serving Middletown, Governor Andrew Cuomo kicked off the day’s activities, saying water quality issues are a statewide problem.
He talked of chemical contamination in other parts of the state but omitted the massive Newburgh water contamination problem.
“We had in Hoosick Falls PFOA in the water source from a company that was there 2030 years ago,” the governor told invited elected officials in the morning.
“We have on Long Island the Grumman plume; Grumman was a big manufacturer, used all kinds of chemicals, was a great employer, made great aircraft, left an industrial strain that couldn’t see from the surface but it seeped into the groundwater and now the groundwater is migrating all across Long Island.” But, some 20 miles to the south of New Paltz, the City of Newburgh’s water supply, Washington Lake is contaminated with PFOS from the Stewart Air National Guard Base and Cuomo did not mention it.
But, when asked to comment on the City of Newburgh naming the state in a lawsuit over the tainted water, he made the glib comment that “they have to feed the lawyers.” He never acknowledged that Stewart Airport’s landlord is the State of New York.
We will continue to work hand-in-glove with the local community and will not rest until the DOD cleans up the mess they made.
We are evaluating the claims set forth in the notice letter.” Newburgh City Manager Michael Ciaravino later said the city’s “legal notices speak to important issues related to environmental and social justice for Newburgh.
This is about Newburgh standing up for itself to demand that it have the primary source of its drinking water free of man-made contaminants.” He said the federal government, State of New York “and a number of other potentially responsible parties will need to sort out their liabilities amongst each other.” Ciaravino said as “the owner of the contaminated land, which contaminated our water, the State of New York is well aware of its potential liability for the damage that has happened to Newburgh’s great fresh water resource at Washington Lake.” Copyright © 2018 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide News Network, Inc.
This story may not be reproduced in any form, by any media, without express written consent.

“The more people I talked to, the more people we found who had weird or unexplained medical (issues),” Denehy said, “especially kids.” By the time Tessa had been diagnosed with autism and epilepsy, Denehy found a group of mothers whose children had chromosome 18 disorders.
“Very shallow ones, like the one in Holliston, are of particular concern.” They often have high levels of contaminants to start with, she pointed out.
“We’re concerned particularly about drinking water,” Clark University researcher Timothy J. Downs said.
“What people are posting on Facebook is very real to us.” The Boston University and Clark University joint study also included photos by Holliston residents of brown water.
Though this month’s study focuses on Holliston, manganese is a problem across New England, especially in shallow aquifers that are overworked.
When, I don’t know.” Henn and Downs said they question the state and federal standards.
I would question that.” Many cities and towns in MetroWest – including Holliston and Bellingham – are already filtering out manganese.
“Nothing’s a problem until it’s a problem,” Denehy said.
“I just wonder if it will be the same thing with manganese.” She doesn’t know if manganese caused her daughter’s autism, epilepsy, and missing kidney.
She doesn’t even know if the health issues and birth defects she’s noticed locally throughout the years have anything to do with the drinking water.

Residents of St. Walburg are currently without running water after a waterline break depleted the town’s reservoir and a power surge blew its water pump.
Both incidents occurred Tuesday night and though the town isn’t sure when full service will be restored, administration said they may be able to run it for a few hours today, which prompted St. Walburg to issue a Precautionary Drinking Water Advisory.
Anyone who gets their water from the town have been asked to boil all water they plan on drinking for at least one minute and avoid drinking from publicly supplied water fountains.
Administration said the plan is to turn the water on so residents can stock up to use their toilets and wash dishes.
The town isn’t turning the water on for people to drink it, but understands it can’t stop anyone from consuming it either, which is why they issued the advisory.
The town suggested drinking bottled water in a release.
As of right now the advisory is planned to run until Mar.
8, but according to administration it may lifted earlier if they can get the problems repaired sooner.
On Twitter: @battlefordsnow

Utilities officials say Topeka drinking water is out of compliance with a federal standard for contaminants.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the drinking water is still considered safe despite having exceeded an Environmental Protection Agency standard for the presence of haloacetic acids in one location.
City utilities director Bob Sample says the EPA notified Topeka this month that recent testing showed the drinking water at one site exceeded standards for the preceding three-month period by containing an average of 60.6 micrograms per liter of haloacetic acids.
The EPA allows a maximum of 60 micrograms per liter.
The city is mailing out a letter this week to Topeka’s 57,000 homes and businesses saying they don’t need to take corrective action like switching to bottled water.
The city expects to resolve the issue within about six months.
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The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar At this point, unless you live under a rock, you’ve seen pictures of the swollen, chocolate milk-colored Ohio River.
"What people sometimes don’t understand is just how blessed we are in terms of natural water resources," said Mike Ekberg, manager for water resource monitoring and analysis at the Miami Conservancy District.
Our water situation is a positive one, actually, because of natural and man-made water systems in Southwest Ohio.
We have the Ohio River, which provides 88 percent of Cincinnati’s drinking water and much of the water for Northern Kentucky and other communities along the river.
The aquifer is the source of clean water for 2.7 million people in communities including Fairfield, Hamilton, Middletown, Dayton, Springfield and Oxford.
"As one of my old colleagues would say, ‘It’s a gift from the glacier,’ " said Nash, who oversees an aquifer monitoring station in Hamilton County.
At Greater Cincinnati Water Works, most of the water comes from the Ohio River.
Water Works tests the water 600 times per day to make sure of the quality.
Seven of those wells are closed because of the flooding, said Jeff Swertfeger, water quality and treatment superintendent for Greater Cincinnati Water Works.
Officials remind owners of private wells to make sure they are operating properly, that "water from the well is coming from the aquifer, through screens, not coming from above," said Ekberg.