Afghanistan- 6,000 Jawzjan families gain access to potable water.
(MENAFN – Pajhwok Afghan News) SHIBERGHAN (Pajhwok): Hundreds of families have gained access to potable water as a result of a scheme implemented by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development in northwestern Jawzjan province, officials said on Wednesday.
Mahyar Sidiqi said the project for supplying clean drinking water through tankers to residents of 10 remote villages had kicked off in Shiberghan and Qosh Tepa.
‘The people of these villages had been deprived of access to drinking water this season, and we would continue the need-based programme for about 40 days.
It may be extended,’ he added.
Sediqi said the families displaced as a result of conflict in Darzab, Qosh Tepa, Turkmen Qand and Nwabad would also benefit from the project.
Hamidullah, a resident of Taghan Arigh village, said: ‘The people of our area have been facing a shortage of drinking water since June 5.
Earlier, the people were using pond water with is injurious to .’
According to officials, at least 70 percent of people have no access to potable water as a result of lack of a resource shortage.
Despite its harmful effects, salty and pond water is widely used in Jawzjan.

The Monsoon Health Guide: Here’s How Drinking Water Can Rainproof Your Health.
The pitter-patter instantly lights up the mood and makes us crave those deep fried pakodas and a cup of steaming adrak chai.
While the best-loved rainy season is deeply enjoyed, it also brings along the possibility of falling prey to a host of airborne diseases, viral and bacterial infections, seasonal allergies and mosquito-borne ailments.
Something as simple as your everyday drinking water can bring world of a difference.
Something as basic as plain drinking water and the way it is consumed can bring a lot of difference in the way our body functions.
Digestive issues are therefore pretty common around this time of the year and that is why fried foods should be consumed in moderation," noted Dr. Ashutosh Gautam.
So how exactly water can help our health this monsoon?
Bring out that silverware Drinking water stored in copper vessels or silverware has long been associated with good health.
Consuming lukewarm water after meals promotes digestion.
Water should always be consumed in sips, guzzling down half a bottle in just one go and then going without water for hours is not going to benefit your health.

The Monsoon Health Guide: Here’s How Drinking Water Can Rainproof Your Health.
The pitter-patter instantly lights up the mood and makes us crave those deep fried pakodas and a cup of steaming adrak chai.
While the best-loved rainy season is deeply enjoyed, it also brings along the possibility of falling prey to a host of airborne diseases, viral and bacterial infections, seasonal allergies and mosquito-borne ailments.
Something as simple as your everyday drinking water can bring world of a difference.
Something as basic as plain drinking water and the way it is consumed can bring a lot of difference in the way our body functions.
Digestive issues are therefore pretty common around this time of the year and that is why fried foods should be consumed in moderation," noted Dr. Ashutosh Gautam.
So how exactly water can help our health this monsoon?
Bring out that silverware Drinking water stored in copper vessels or silverware has long been associated with good health.
Consuming lukewarm water after meals promotes digestion.
Water should always be consumed in sips, guzzling down half a bottle in just one go and then going without water for hours is not going to benefit your health.

One of the challenges is that bacteria from rivers can flow into groundwater sources, polluting what may have been potable drinking water.
Current methods of testing water safety can be expensive and time consuming.
Then they have to test the samples to determine which types of bacteria are present.
Working with fellow doctoral student Ran Ran and undergraduate student Derek Tran, Sun is developing a new method that’s faster, easier to use, and portable.
Traditionally, in order for scientists to measure what types of bacteria are present in water, they push the water sample through a column of soil or sand that’s native to the riverbed where the sample came from.
However, researchers find that some bacteria will squeeze through the soil column and make it to the other side.
Since it’s not adhering to the soil or sand, it may hitch a ride on the river current all the way into a town’s source of drinking water and make people sick.
While the traditional strategy for measuring bacteria works, Sun knew he could make it more efficient.
Instead of using a soil column to push water samples through, his method uses a microchannel.
To make this system portable, Sun knew he wanted the microscope to be able to connect with a cellphone.

Will a water security bill resolve lack of access in India?.
The “Water Security Bill” aims to give the legal right to clean water to every citizen of India.
The non-profit Jan Jal Jodo Abhiyan (JJJA) released the bill in a press conference of July 25.
Singh believes that if accepted by the government, the bill will help to ensure groundwater availability, effective protection against river pollution and guarantee clean drinking water for the population.
“Equally vital and significant as the right to food, the required impetus is missing to accept and promote the right to water as a fundamental right.
But why do we need a water security bill?
The bill attempts to address issues related to water crisis, exploitation and shortage.
The JJJA began in 2013 with the objective to ensure all round water security and community rights along with the protection of ponds, lakes, and rivers through community participation in a water literacy campaign.
In the last four years, the civil society organisation has tried to bring awareness among people for water-related issues through community involvement and participation.
Over 200 national workshops, seminars and public gatherings have been organised so far to address the issue.

Agriculture and environmental justice advocates are supporting legislation to create a fund for clean drinking water projects.
The bill, introduced by state senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel), is backed by the unlikely alliance of environmental justice groups and agriculture – two sides that have often sparred over environmental regulations.
Unlike other funding mechanisms such as bonds, the fund could be used to pay for the operation and maintenance of water treatment plants, and not just for their construction.
Advocates for the bill have called it the missing link needed to close the gap on the state’s drinking water crisis where over 1 million Californians don’t have access to safe drinking water, with small, rural communities in the San Joaquin Valley particularly hard-hit.
“It’s a drinking water crisis that is brought about in large part because there is a gap in the funding regime in terms of how we fund safe drinking water,” says Jonathan Nelson of Community Water Center, another group supporting the bill.
“We have funding to do things like build a treatment plant for those that need it, but there is no funding to be able to operate it and maintain it, which means those communities that typically need drinking water treatment the most, often are the hardest pressed to afford it or simply can’t afford it at all.” He noted there are also an estimated 2 million people in the state who either rely on private wells or very small water systems that are not regulated closely or at all.
“We need safe, clean water, but we also need assistance.” She says some community members, especially those with children, are struggling to pay new water rates.
Devil Is in the Details On the fourth floor of the Capitol building, dozens of SB 623 supporters who had previously gathered on the steps outside for a brief rally took turns filing into the packed hearing room to officially voice their support for SB 623 in front of the Assembly’s Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee.
But as Monning, the bill’s author, told the committee when it was time for its members to ask questions about the legislation, “The devil is in the details.” While the vision of the bill – to provide a fund for safe drinking water – is broadly supported, some key details of how that happens are not.
The group and its allies also contend that the fund should not be used for capital improvements like constructing treatment plants, which already have existing funding sources.

Agriculture and environmental justice advocates are supporting legislation to create a fund for clean drinking water projects.
The bill, introduced by state senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel), is backed by the unlikely alliance of environmental justice groups and agriculture – two sides that have often sparred over environmental regulations.
Unlike other funding mechanisms such as bonds, the fund could be used to pay for the operation and maintenance of water treatment plants, and not just for their construction.
Advocates for the bill have called it the missing link needed to close the gap on the state’s drinking water crisis where over 1 million Californians don’t have access to safe drinking water, with small, rural communities in the San Joaquin Valley particularly hard-hit.
“It’s a drinking water crisis that is brought about in large part because there is a gap in the funding regime in terms of how we fund safe drinking water,” says Jonathan Nelson of Community Water Center, another group supporting the bill.
“We have funding to do things like build a treatment plant for those that need it, but there is no funding to be able to operate it and maintain it, which means those communities that typically need drinking water treatment the most, often are the hardest pressed to afford it or simply can’t afford it at all.” He noted there are also an estimated 2 million people in the state who either rely on private wells or very small water systems that are not regulated closely or at all.
“We need safe, clean water, but we also need assistance.” She says some community members, especially those with children, are struggling to pay new water rates.
Devil Is in the Details On the fourth floor of the Capitol building, dozens of SB 623 supporters who had previously gathered on the steps outside for a brief rally took turns filing into the packed hearing room to officially voice their support for SB 623 in front of the Assembly’s Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee.
But as Monning, the bill’s author, told the committee when it was time for its members to ask questions about the legislation, “The devil is in the details.” While the vision of the bill – to provide a fund for safe drinking water – is broadly supported, some key details of how that happens are not.
The group and its allies also contend that the fund should not be used for capital improvements like constructing treatment plants, which already have existing funding sources.

Government of Canada to End Long-Term Drinking Water Advisory at White Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan.
WHITE BEAR FIRST NATION, SK, July 25, 2017 : Everyone in Canada should have access to safe, clean, and reliable drinking water.
Today, the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, announced new investments that will lead to the elimination of the long-term drinking water advisory in White Bear First Nation.
The approximately $9.2 million will help replace the community’s water treatment system, enabling more than 800 residents to access clean water for the first time in over five years.
The project, expected to be complete by December 2018, is part of Canada’s commitment of $1.8 billion to improve water infrastructure and strengthen Indigenous communities.
This is reconciliation in action."
Having access to clean, safe and dependable water is critical for the long-term prosperity of our community, as we continue to grow in terms of our population and economic base.
Chief Nathan Pasap White Bear First Nation Quick Facts •As part of its long-term strategy, the Government of Canada is working with First Nations on sustainable approaches to provide safe drinking water for communities, and to prevent new long-term advisories from happening.
•Budget 2016 provides $1.8 billion over five years to significantly improve on-reserve water and wastewater infrastructure, ensure proper facility operation, maintenance, and support the training of water system operators, in addition to $141.7 million over five years to improve drinking water monitoring and testing on reserve.
•Committing investments over five years allows for long-term planning to improve on-reserve water and wastewater systems.

88% Indians had no access to clean drinking water in 2015.
With 88% of its population able to access “basic drinking water services” in 2015, India ranked 165 among 233 countries/regions globally, according to the 2017 report of the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene produced by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
The global average was 89%.
Among its South Asian neighbours (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), India ranked better only than Afghanistan, where 63% of the population had access to basic drinking water services.
The report, published on July 12, 2017, evaluated 233 countries/regions globally based on the percentage of population that sourced its drinking water from ‘basic services’, ‘limited services’, ‘unimproved services’ of water or from ‘surface water’.
Basic services: Drinking water from an improved source, provided collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a round trip, including queuing; Limited services: Drinking water from an improved source for which collection time exceeds 30 minutes for a round trip, including queuing; Unimproved services: Drinking water from an unprotected dug well or unprotected spring; Surface water: Drinking water directly from a river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal or irrigation canal.
In 2015, 4% of India’s population sourced its drinking water from ‘limited services’, 7% from ‘unimproved services’ and 1% from surface water; the global average was 4%, 6% and 2%, respectively.
(Vivek is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)
Reprinted with permission from IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit organisation.
You can read the original article here

88% Indians had no access to clean drinking water in 2015.
With 88% of its population able to access “basic drinking water services” in 2015, India ranked 165 among 233 countries/regions globally, according to the 2017 report of the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene produced by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
The global average was 89%.
Among its South Asian neighbours (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), India ranked better only than Afghanistan, where 63% of the population had access to basic drinking water services.
The report, published on July 12, 2017, evaluated 233 countries/regions globally based on the percentage of population that sourced its drinking water from ‘basic services’, ‘limited services’, ‘unimproved services’ of water or from ‘surface water’.
Basic services: Drinking water from an improved source, provided collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a round trip, including queuing; Limited services: Drinking water from an improved source for which collection time exceeds 30 minutes for a round trip, including queuing; Unimproved services: Drinking water from an unprotected dug well or unprotected spring; Surface water: Drinking water directly from a river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal or irrigation canal.
In 2015, 4% of India’s population sourced its drinking water from ‘limited services’, 7% from ‘unimproved services’ and 1% from surface water; the global average was 4%, 6% and 2%, respectively.
(Vivek is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)
Reprinted with permission from IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit organisation.
You can read the original article here