Two billion people drinking contaminated water: WHO.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on 13 April 2017 published a report, Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2017, that states that nearly two billion people currently use contaminated water.
The revelation was by made in the new report published by WHO on behalf of UN-Water.
Key highlights of the report • The report states that countries will not meet global aspirations of universal access to safe drinking-water and sanitation unless steps are taken to use financial resources more efficiently.
• Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause more than 500000 diarrhoeal deaths each year.
• Contaminated water is also a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis and trachoma.
• As per the report, countries have increased their budgets for water, sanitation and hygiene at an annual average rate of 4.9 per cent over the last three years.
• However, 80 per cent of countries report that Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) financing is still insufficient to meet nationally-defined targets for WASH services.
• Planned investments have yet to take into account the much more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals targets, which aim for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services by 2030.
• Water and sanitation official development assistance disbursements increased from USD 6.3 to USD 7.4 billion from 2012 to 2015.

As our quiet time is quickly drawing to a close, this is an opportune time to take another look at your farming operation and determine if there are areas that could benefit from the establishment of one or more conservation practices. For instance, do you have a ditch or stream running through your farm that needs a filter strip? Is a particular field prone to wind erosion and stands to benefit from a windbreak? How about that one area that’s hard to farm because it’s always wet? Have you considered how FSA’s Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (Lake Erie CREP) might benefit your farming operation and help to protect the environment at the same time? Lake Erie CREP began with the main objective to improve water quality in all of our rivers, streams and tributaries within the Lake Erie watershed. These conservation practices will target environmentally sensitive areas to reduce sediments and nutrients, prevent water pollution and minimize the risk of flooding and improve the habitat for multiple wildlife species. The Lake Erie Conservation Enhancement Program (CREP) like all of our conservation programs is voluntary. It is entirely up to the landowner or the farm operator to enroll acres in a particular program. Through our federal partnerships it is quite possible that we can have a conservation plan in place before this spring’s planting. Play Video Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Remaining Time -0:00 This is a modal window. Foreground — White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan — Opaque Semi-Opaque Background — White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan — Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window — White Black…

Federal Court Rules That Oregon Water Pollution Cleanup Plans Must Protect ESA Listed Fish.
A federal court sided with an Oregon environmental organization this week in a ruling that said the Environmental Protection Agency must comply with the Endangered Species Act in approving water pollution clean-up plans.
The lawsuit, brought by the Portland, OR-based Northwest Environmental Advocates, challenged EPA’s approval of Oregon water pollution clean-up plans that are intended to address the state’s widespread temperature problems.
The clean-up plans in question, developed under the federal Clean Water Act, did more than establish temperature limits for various pollution sources as required, said the NWEA.
The plans “actually changed Oregon’s temperature goals from cold temperatures to hot—and sometimes even lethal—temperatures,” the group contended.
Oregon District Court Judge Marco A. Hernandez agreed with NWEA that EPA must comply with the Endangered Species Act in approving the pollution clean-up plans, called “Total Maximum Daily Loads” or “TMDLs.”The court held that “EPA’s approval of the TMDLs is what allowed for higher temperatures [that would harm the species].” “The Oregon temperature TMDLs were based on a rule that an earlier court decision threw out in 2012.Oregon had used the illegal rule every time it issued a temperature clean-up plan,” said NWEA in a press release following the ruling.
“The rule had allowed the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to change state water quality goals for temperature without any federal agency review or agreement, contrary to the requirements of the Clean Water Act.In some instances, Oregon raised allowable temperatures to levels that are lethal to salmon within seconds.” “In 2003, EPA said that temperatures of 90º F are instantaneously lethal to salmon at exposures under 10 seconds,” said NWEA Executive Director Nina Bell.“But that didn’t stop EPA from approving a DEQ clean-up plan for streams and rivers in the Umpqua Basin that changed Oregon’s water quality standards from 64º F to that same dangerously high temperature of 90º F.If EPA had consulted with the expert fish and wildlife agencies, as the court has just ruled the Endangered Species Act requires, those scientists would have told EPA that fish can’t live in lethally hot water.This is why today’s court decision is so important.” In today’s action, the court also adopted the recommendations of a federal magistrate judge, issued last October, that EPA’s approval of the Oregon temperature TMDLs should be invalidated.A TMDL contains limits for contributions of pollution via discharge permits and polluted runoff from land activities such as logging and farming.
The vast majority of waters that Oregon has identified as having unsafe levels of pollution, and which therefore require a TMDL, are impaired by high temperatures.
The court also gave EPA and Oregon DEQ two years in which to submit a new TMDL for mercury in the Willamette River basin.EPA had sought to voluntarily withdraw its approval of the Willamette Mercury TMDL.
NWEA is represented in this lawsuit by Bryan Telegin of Bricklin & Newman, LLP (Seattle) and Allison LaPlante of the Earthrise Law Center at Lewis and Clark Law School (Portland).

Astonishingly, instead of providing requests funds and utilisation of the costly machinery as per its mandates the high-up of the Punjab Environmental Department (PEA) has shifted the staff of the laboratory to different offices of the Punjab Environmental Department.
An employee of the lab, on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the laboratories were set up in six district of the province with a cost of Rs20 million.
He also pointed out that keeping in view the pollution situation in Faisalabad, the lab was set up but no efforts were made to make it operational.
“Lahore top officers of the PEA have always created impediments in the operation of lab and ultimately succeeded in rendering inoperative for indefinite period.” “Now all the samples for appropriate analyses of the gravity of pollution of air and water of the factories and other units are being sent to head office.
And that too at the discretion of the head office thus providing freehand to the pollution created units owners to play havoc to the public health with impunity,” he remarked.
The city has emerged as the one of leading victim of hepatics diseases due to poor water quality as every fourth citizen is suffering from this disease which also made it the city with highest death rate in the country.
Waterborne diseases in the city are over 25% to 35% of all hospital cases and 60% infant deaths.” “The worst conditions are prevailing in the rural area of the district where majority of population lives.
Consequently, polluted water is playing more havoc on the people living in villages who fell prey to a number diseases like tuberculosis, cancer, heart, Respiratory, high blood pressure, typhoid, stomach problems, kidney problem, food poisoning and skin problem and hepatitis,” he added.
Likewise, according to the survey conducted by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) about plight of Faisalabad environment, the environmental standards are only enforced by those who are involved in exports (as a mandatory requirement) while the rest of the industry does not have any binding.
There is a noticeable evidence that the wastewater is flowing out of industrial units without undergoing any treatment process and local doctors have complained about the adverse impact on human health.” Similarly, according to the Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) survey, almost 74,000 people in Faisalabad are affected with hepatitis B and approximately 524,000 contact hepatitis C annually.

Water pollution is a serious problem for all the people & living species on earth.
Water is get polluted when the different harmful heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium etc.
& chemicals from industrial or sewage wastes which are put directly in the rivers or oceans dissolves the gases like methane, carbon dioxide etc.
in water which would decrease the BOD i.e. biological oxygen demand of different micro-organisms & aquatic fauna leading to their death due to less availability of oxygen for them for survival.
The different examples of water pollution are; dumping of sewage & industrial wastes in the fresh water of rivers or lakes or in oceans, washing of clothes in rivers & canals, contamination or water bodies by addition of nuclear or radioactive wastes etc.
The different types of water pollution are: Ground water pollution Underground water pollution Surface water pollution Microbial water pollution Chemical water pollution Nutrient water pollution The different causes of water pollution are: Dumping of industrial & sewage wastes into water bodies without treatment.
The direct dumping of untreated sewage wastes from the cities into the rivers or oceans will lead towards the pollution of these natural resources of water & depletes the aquatic ecosystems of these places.
Dumping of animal wastes in the water resources is also a main cause of water pollution.
This problem is created by the different processes such as oil splitting from ships or pipelines, adding of sewage & industrial wastes directly to the water units, acid rain, addition of cattle dung or wastes to the water resources of earth, deforestation or burning of forests, acidification of oceans etc.
Acidification of oceans & rivers: The addition of pollutant like carbon dioxide into water more than permissible limits would responsible for the acidification of ocean water which will result in depletion of oceanic ecosystems due to less availability of oxygen for survival to inhabitants of that aquatic ecosystem.

Beijing city officials shirking smog blame, China’s environmental watchdog says.
“Some local cadres blame environmental problems on external causes,” the ministry’s Central Environmental Protection Inspectorate group said.
“They have insufficient understanding of the actual reasons involved, and where their own blame lies.” Since 2013, Beijing’s government has spent 68.3 billion yuan (US$9.92 billion or HK$77.1 billion) on environmental protection and cut coal consumption from 23 million tonnes to 9.5 million tonnes last year.
But the capital continues to choke on smog, due in large part to the tens of thousands of diesel vehicles on its roads.
Inadequate sewage treatment has also left local water sources with significant concentrations of pollutants, according to a report by Caixin.
China’s economic growth has taken a heavy toll on its environment, with factories and headlong urbanisation poisoning skies, rivers and soil.
While top leaders have pledged to take serious steps in the “war on pollution”, local governments have been criticised for lax enforcement of regulations.
Recent central government investigations found pervasive polluting by manufacturers in the urban cluster of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas.
Some 72 per cent of 847 enterprises inspected earlier this week had committed environmental violations, a government statement stated.
Some companies had engaged in illegal production, while others emitted excess amounts of pollutants or had pollution control facilities that were not in operation or incomplete.

Southern China’s million-tonne raw sewage problem.
At least a million tonnes of raw sewage pours into the waters of Guangdong’s Pearl River Delta in southern China every day, according to the nation’s top government environmental watchdog.
Greenpeace’s toxics campaigner Deng Tingting said pressure from Guangdong’s huge population was among the main drivers of contamination.
Some 35 of Guangzhou’s 51 waterways were deemed severely contaminated despite the city spending 30 billion yuan (US$4.36 billion or HK$33.86 billion) to try to tackle water pollution.
The report said lax municipal oversight was to blame.
The inspectors examined the results of tests on water quality at 124 monitoring stations along the province’s 69 major rivers, with the rate of compliance with minimum standards falling from 85.5 per cent in 2013 to 77.4 per cent last year, the report said.
Leachate from landfills in Shanghai was draining into rivers while sewage from Chongqing was being discharged directlyinto the Chongqing , the report said.
With almost one-fifth of the world’s population but only 7 per cent of the planet’s fresh water, the mainland has long been plagued by water pollution and scarcity.
“Air pollution is so obvious that everyone can see it,” he said.
“But the water problem has not had enough public attention.” Ma said reversing water contamination was difficult because it required huge investment and the returns were slow.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving to rewrite Obama-era rules limiting water pollution from coal-fired power plants.
FILE – In this April 13, 2017 file photo Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt, left, shakes hands with coal miners during a visit to Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company’s Harvey Mine in Sycamore, Pa.
The Trump administration wants to trash Obama-era rules to limit water pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Administrator Scott Pruitt sent a letter to a coalition of energy companies that lobbied against the 2015 water pollution rule.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, sent a letter announcing his decision to a coalition of energy companies that lobbied against the 2015 water pollution regulations.
The rule would have required utilities by next year to cut the amounts of toxic heavy metals in the wastewater piped from their plants into rivers and lakes often used as sources of drinking water.
Arsenic, lead and mercury and other potentially harmful contaminates leach from massive pits of waterlogged ash left behind after burning coal to generate electricity.
The Utility Water Act Group petitioned Pruitt last month to reverse course on the regulations, which they claim would result in plant closures and job losses.
Pruitt responded Wednesday, saying he would delay compliance with the rule while EPA reconsiders the restrictions.
Trump has pledged to reverse decades of decline in coal-mining jobs and has questioned the consensus of climate scientists that man-made carbon emissions are to blame for global warming.

[PDF] Viable Methods of Soil and Water Pollution Monitoring, Protection and Remediation (Nato Science Series: IV:).
Author: Irena Twardowska | Publisher: Springer | Category: Environmental Engineering | Language: English | Page: 607 | ISBN: 1402047266 | ISBN13: 9781402047268 | Description: The objective of this book is to summarize and critically assess the current status, development trends and needs of three basic defensive elements that safeguard the quality and environmental safety of soil and water/sediments: early warning monitoring, protection and remediation measures, with particular regard to the viability of methods and technologies, i.e. easiness-to-use, reliability, cost-effectiveness, high efficiency and non-destructive character of remediation that is of particular importance considering the scale of application.
Download this book Viable Methods of Soil and Water Pollution Monitoring, Protection and Remediation (Nato Science Series: IV:).pdf http://uploaded.net/file/itztv3x6 Please check the description for download links if any or do a search to find alternative books.
2011-10-08 2011-10-09 2011-10-09 2011-12-27Topological Aspects of the Dynamics of Fluids and Plasmas (NATO Science Series E: (closed)) – Edited By H.K.
Moffatt, G.M.
Zaslavsky, P. Comte, M. Tabor 2011-12-07Topological Aspects of the Dynamics of Fluids and Plasmas (NATO Science Series E: (closed)) – Edited By H.K.
Moffatt, G.M.
Zaslavsky, P. Comte, M. Tabor 2011-10-31

UNITED NATIONS – Against the backdrop of almost two billion people around the world relying on sources of drinking-water contaminated with faeces, the United Nations has called on countries to “radically” increase investments in water and sanitation infrastructure not only to protect their populations from deadly diseases but also to ensure that they are able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause more than 500,000 diarrhoeal deaths each year and is a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma,” Maria Neira, the Director of Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at the UN World Health Organization (WHO), said in a statement on Thursday.
The UN report, Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water 2017, notes that while countries have increased their budgets for water, sanitation and hygiene at an average annual rate of about 4.9 per cent over the last three years, 80 per cent of countries have reported that the increase is still insufficient to meet nationally-defined targets for those services.
Therefore, in order to meet the ambitious SDG targets, which aim for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services by 2030, countries need to use financial resources more efficiently as well as increase efforts to identify new sources of funding.
The Global Assessment also highlights that these efforts are particularly important for developing countries where current national coverage targets are based on achieving access to basic infrastructure and which may not necessarily provide continuously safe and reliable services.
According to estimates by the World Bank, investments in infrastructure need to triple to $114 billion per year – a figure which does not include operating and maintenance costs.While this funding gap is vast, there are recent examples of countries having demonstrated the ability to mobilize the needed resources to meet development targets.
of halving the proportion of people without an improved source of water, and 95 among them met the corresponding target for sanitation.
“Increased investments in water and sanitation can yield substantial benefits for human health and development, generate employment and make sure that we leave no one behind,” he said.
This news was published in The Nation newspaper.
Read complete newspaper of 14-Apr-2017 here.