PARIS, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — PDAM Tirtanadi, the Water Corporation of the Province of North Sumatra has awarded SUEZ the contract for the extension of the drinking water production plant in Medan, the third largest city in Indonesia.
The extension of this BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) contract for a period of 25 years and EUR191 million, includes the funding, the building, the operation and the transfer of two additional water production units for the Medan plant.
This project will improve access to drinking water for the fast-growing population of the city of Medan and will contribute to local authorities’ goal of supplying more than 84% of the population with drinking water by 2020, as compared with 73.2% today.
With this contract, SUEZ is strengthening its presence in the water management industry in Indonesia, where the Group has built over 150 water production and sanitation plants since 1953.
With 90,000 people on the five continents, SUEZ is a world leader in smart and sustainable resource management.
It also secures water resources, delivering wastewater treatment services to 58 million people and reusing 882 million m3 of wastewater.
SUEZ in Asia SUEZ has been present for over 60 years in South East Asia and 40 years in Greater China in water and waste management.
With over 9,000 employees and over 60 water and waste projects with local partners, SUEZ is helping authorities and industries develop innovative solutions to address climate change and sustainable resource management.
The Group built over 420 water and wastewater treatment plants in Asia, supplying drinking water to 20 million people.
It is also the leader of waste management in Hong Kong and delivers its expertise in the management of environmental services to 11 industrial parks in Mainland China.

AL AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan — Behind barbed-wire fences at this camp in northern Jordan, about 33,000 Syrians — half of them children — exist uneasily, housed in rows of rudimentary shelters that barely protect them from the winter cold.
As in Jordan, the world’s refugee crisis, which is intimately linked with water availability both in the homelands that people escape and in the camps where they find shelter, is large and growing.
Some 66 million people — a France-sized population — are displaced.
To help, non-governmental organizations supply water and relief groups visit to offer aid.
Azraq, 50 miles southeast, was built on unused desert land after Zaatari swelled beyond capacity just a year after opening, to more than 156,000 people.
Water and wastewater networks were constructed by the humanitarian group ACTED.
At the informal Rohingya camps in southeast Bangladesh, water pumps next to open sewers have stoked fear of disease outbreaks, and led to vaccination, clean water, and sanitation drives.
The World Health Organization reports that diptheria is “rapidly spreading among Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar,” a city in Bangladesh.
Six deaths were reported in December.
The Sahrawis have come a long way since eight years ago, when water was trucked in via UNHCR tankers and outhouses were crude holes beside mud-brick homes.

“Overall, this study informs a more directed approach to increasing compliance with drinking water quality regulations,” says author Maura Allaire, UC Irvine assistant professor of urban planning & public policy.
“Identifying hot spots and vulnerability factors associated with violations can allow public policies to target underperforming water systems.” While serious violations like those in the Flint, Michigan, crisis are rare, ensuring reliable access to safe drinking water poses challenges for communities across the country, according to a recent study led by the University of California, Irvine.
Researchers found that between 1982 and 2015, 9 million to 45 million people annually were affected by water quality issues — and that low-income, rural regions were most vulnerable.
Infractions were more numerous in “hot spots” in Texas, Oklahoma and Idaho, suggesting that these systems struggle with recurring problems.
Not all infractions pose immediate health concerns, but drinking water contaminants can cause short-term illnesses such as gastroenteritis, as well as chronic conditions including cancer and neurological disorders.
Identifying hot spots and vulnerability factors associated with violations indicates the types of communities that can benefit from greater regulatory oversight and assistance to help reduce quality issues, improve compliance and ensure safe drinking water across the nation.” Study results appear in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the week of Feb. 12.
Compliance is associated with purchased water sources and private ownership.
Purchased water is supplied by wholesale agencies, which have greater resources to meet federal standards, while private utilities have considerable assets at stake should they deliver poor-quality water and subsequently face lawsuits or takeover by a municipal government.
“Public policies that target underperforming utilities include prioritization of technical guidance and financial support,” Allaire said.
And, where feasible, purchased water contracts and consolidation of systems could provide a way to achieve economies of scale for improved treatment technologies.” Haowei Wu, Upmanu Lall, and Alan and Carol Silberstein of Columbia University contributed to the project, which received a NatureNet Science Fellowship, a National Science Foundation award (No.

Русская версия In 2011-2017, the number of people having drinking water in Tajikistan grew from 46.8% to 62.6%, according to Director General of the Housing and Communal Services of Tajikistan Alimurod Islomzoda.
In 2018, this index is supposed to grew by 10%.
“We are planning to finalize over 20 projects to develop water supply in Sughd and Khatlon provinces and some regions of republican subordination.
The projects are being funded by international organizations,” Islomzoda said.
He added that the total cost of the water supply projects implemented in Tajikistan amounts to $98 million.
“Shortly, the World Bank is planning to provide $37 million more for this purpose.
But the country needs a total of $2 billion so as to be able to solve this problem,” Islomzoda said.
Earlier EADaily quoted the WB as saying that in Sept 2017, only 58% of Tajiks had access to drinking water: in cities the rate was 80%, in villages 47%.
Only 60% of townsmen in Tajikistan have flush toilets connected to a sewer system.
In villages this rate is as low as 1.7%.

One of the big stories this week is about Cape Town’s water crisis and another 11 cities that are likely to run out of drinking water.
A BBC report a few days ago brought out the chilling fact that more than a billion people worldwide "lack access to water and another 2.7 billion find it scarce at least one month in a year".
For Kenya, this is a wake-up call.
Nairobi may not be ranked among the cities at risk of running out of water, but its residents are suffering from serious water stress, and the situation is getting worse.
Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company’s supply of 570,000 cubic metres a day falls far short of the demand of 720,000 cubic metres a day.
A more acute shortage will hit the city’s four million residents even harder.
Harvesting is a practical and cost-effective solution.
Another solution is to increase climate-resilient initiatives to conserve water sources.
Kenyans need to embrace smart conservation and climate change mitigation to reduce water stress, even in times of prolonged drought.
Doing this will reduce the increasing risk of conflicts over drinking water.

All nine community water systems on Lytton First Nation land in British Columbia have been under boil water advisories at one time or another.
With Lytton First Nation’s water treatment operators at the centre of an “innovation circle,” they and experts from government, universities, consulting firms, water companies and contractors identified and piloted several options for providing affordable, sustainable water treatment solutions.
It’s one of several innovative, much-needed approaches to meeting the federal government’s promise to end all long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations communities by 2021.
As commendable as the government’s commitment is, new research shows it’s falling short on progress.
A David Suzuki Foundation report, Reconciling Promises and Reality: Clean Drinking Water for First Nations, finds the government failing on eight of 14 indicators developed to assess its progress.
As of Jan. 23, there were 91 long-term drinking water advisories affecting First Nations communities on public systems.
Over the past two years, the government has lifted 32 advisories, but 22 new ones were added over the same time, illustrating the complexity of the problem.
Year 1 Progress Toward Resolving Drinking Water Advisories in Nine First Nations in Ontario, that still apply.
Legislation needs to come down the pipe It also recommends that government invest in and share successful models of First Nations-led approaches to resolving drinking water advisories, including developing and implementing source water protection plans.
Legislation and regulations should also be developed, with First Nations as equal partners, to hold the federal government accountable to First Nations for safe drinking water.

SLATE FALLS FIRST NATION, Ont.
— A longstanding drinking-water advisory for residents of northwestern Ontario’s Slate Falls First Nation is finally over.
Over the past 14 years, community members have been told to boil their water before consuming it.
On Monday, Chief Lorraine Crane and Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott announced the advisory had been lifted following the completion of a new water treatment plant.
The federally-funded plant cost $11.6 million.
In addition to providing safe water, the new system enhances fire protection capacity through the installation of additional fire hydrants and pumps.
Crane said Slate Falls First Nation residents are "excited to finally be able to drink water right from the tap" and are looking forward to not having to buy water or boil it.
Slate Falls is located about 120 kilometres north of Sioux Lookout.

Water is the most essential thing for the survival of human being.
11 cities of the world are likely under the danger, where there will be no drinking water.
According to 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four are in a situation of water stress.
Water is the most essential thing for the survival of human being.
11 cities of the world are likely under the danger, where there will be no drinking water.
Over one billion people lack access to water and another 2.7 billion find it scarce for at least one month of the year.
According to 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four are in a situation of water stress.
This practice is draining the underground aquifers, almost literally deflating them, about 40% of Jakarta now lies below sea level, according to World Bank estimates Moscow (Russia) One-quarter of the world’s fresh water reserves are in Russia, but the country is plagued by pollution problems caused by the industrial legacy of the Soviet era.
Water losses because of problems in the pipe network are also estimated at 40%.
At least 750 private and public buildings in Tokyo have rainwater collection and utilization systems.

Cairo is among 11 cities across the world that are most likely to run out of drinking water due to untreated agricultural and residential waste, according to a BBC report published on Sunday.
In March 2017, Egypt’s Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that the country had entered the water poverty phase, and that the annual amount of water supply per person had fallen to 700 cubic meters, compared to the global average of 1,000 cubic meters.
He added that the desalination of seawater is currently a very high priority for Egypt.
As the population continues to increase and drinking water resources remain traditionally fixed, it is expected that water availability per capita will steadily decrease.
“There is no longer any room but to go ahead, and very quickly, with desalinating sea water, and to make it a strategic choice for our national security at this stage,” Madbouly said in March, 2017.
Meanwhile, Egypt is in the process of constructing the largest seawater desalination plant in the world, located in the Suez Governorate’s coastal city of Ain Sokhna.
In January, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi vowed to protect Egypt’s share of the Nile water and capitalize on its usage.
“This is our country,” Sisi said, “and water for agriculture and drinking must be secured for citizens from Aswan to Alexandria, so that no problem will occur later, and we [don’t] say that we are not ready for it.” “Egypt is currently carrying out the [world’s] biggest water treatment and desalination project, in case of any circumstances concerning the sharing of water,” said Sisi, according to Al-Ahram, referring to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) crisis, which could potentially threaten Egypt’s share of Nile water.
The water treatment and desalination project will cost LE70 billion, announced Sisi.
A 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four are in a situation of “water stress,” the BBC report says.

Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru Bengaluru, Feb 12: Bengaluru has been featured among the 11 cities across the world by BBC, which is likely to run out of drinking water.
Experts who were studying the drinking water crisis in Cape Town said that the plight of the drought-hit South African city is just one extreme example of a problem that experts have long been warning about – water scarcity.
Bengaluru may soon face Cape Town’s situation which is struggling for drinking water.
The BBC report states, Bengaluru has been bamboozled by the growth of new property developments following its rise as a technological hub.
Bengaluru water bodies have been subjected to pollution.
According to a report in The Guardian, Bengaluru had 285 lakes in the 1970s, the number of which reduced to 194 lakes in 2017.
An in-depth inventory of the city’s lakes found that 85% had water that could only be used for irrigation and industrial cooling.
The BBC report which comments on the global scarcity of water highlights that over one billion people lack access to water and another 2.7 billion find it scarce for at least one month of the year.
A 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four are in a situation of "water stress" According to UN-endorsed projections, global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% in 2030, thanks to a combination of climate change, human action and population growth.
Apart from Bengaluru, cities such as Sao Paulo, Beijing, Cairo, Jakarta, Moscow, Istanbul, Mexico City, London, Tokyo and Miami are on the verge of water crisis.