The government of Chad has unveiled policy to strengthen the country’s drinking water supply. The country’s goal is to increase drinking water coverage to 100% by 2030.

Part of the policy involves to construction of 200 drinking water supply systems (DWSS). These are facilities dedicated to pumping, storing, transporting and distributing fresh water from groundwater. The government targets to complete the projects within two years. During the same period, at least 1,000 human-powered pumps will be installed throughout the country.

READ:Senegal secures US $41M loan for water and sanitation

Upon completion, the project will also help limit the proliferation of waterborne diseases in the central African country, which are responsible for the deaths of around 19,000 people each year according to a report published by the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) in 2016.

Many citizens in Chad have to obtain drinking water from an improved source like a well or piped water. Challenges Access to basic drinking water services is at 43% and to sanitation is at 10 per cent (Joint Monitoring Programme, 2017). Less than one in two children has access to safe drinking water, while only one in ten has access to improved sanitation and one in 17 children wash their hands with soap and water. The open defecation rate in Chad is 68 per cent, at the national level.

The Chadian government is presenting this project barely a month after signing a contract for the construction of 489 human-powered pumps in the provinces of Wadi-Fira, Logone Occidental and Tandjilé. Vergnet Hydro, a company based in Ingré, France, will supply the equipment, which will then be installed by the Chadian companies Batifor Mem, Sotcham and Hydrobat Mem. These installations should benefit more than 150,000 people.

Originally Appeared Here

A brand-new degree program is coming to Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) next fall, and it could bring Traverse City one step closer to becoming a global hub for freshwater expertise. The program, an associate of applied science (AAS) in water quality environmental technology, will exist within NMC’s Great Lakes Water Studies Institute. Per Water Studies Institute Director Hans VanSumeren, the degree “will focus on training a workforce supporting the direct monitoring and cleanup of waters within the Great Lakes watershed and focusing on the direct impact to the quality of our water resources.” The NMC Board of Trustees approved the program at its meeting last Monday and is targeting a fall 2023 start date for the degree offering.

Currently, the Great Lakes Water Studies Institute boasts both an AAS and a bachelor of science in marine technology, as well as an AAS in freshwater studies. According to VanSumeren, though, the idea of adding another degree category to the department – one focused on water quality monitoring and remediation – has actually been in the works for quite some time.

“This degree was actually something that I looked at when I first started at the College in 2008,” VanSumeren says. “The are all kinds of opportunities out there for environmental cleanup, for brownfield redevelopment, for cleaning up contaminated areas and developing them into something new. The Grand Traverse Commons is a perfect example of how powerful that work can be for a community.”

In researching the world of water quality testing and site remediation, VanSumeren made a surprising discovery: There were basically zero programs out there designed to equip students with the skills and technical expertise necessary to do that work. And yet, at the same time, he saw that there was incredible demand for professionals in the remediation industry – especially in Michigan, given the state’s goldmine of freshwater resources.

“It’s not a small industry,” VanSumeren says of contamination cleanup, citing an EPA estimate which puts the value of the industry at $200 billion over the next 30 years, stemming from the potential cleanup of approximately 294,000 waste sites across the country. “[Contamination] is something that exists in every state in the country and in every county in Michigan, largely because of the way our industrial legacies have sometimes left things in the ground – and particularly in water – that we have to remediate or get rid of. In Michigan, for instance, we often say the Great Lakes are Michigan’s front door to development. Those shoreline areas were historically where we saw most of the industry, due to the dynamics of waterborne transport and the needs for being close to water. And so that’s where we see a lot of these cleanups. Think of Marquette and what’s happened with the harbor there over the past 20 years, or the Detroit waterfront, or even in Traverse City with Hotel Indigo.”

While many Michigan sites have already been remediated and redeveloped – particularly along the coast – VanSumeren says there are still innumerable spots that have yet to get the treatment. “These types of projects are going to continue to ramp up,” he assures. “Sensors are getting better at understanding where there are potential hazards that need to be remediated, which means companies are going to be doing more work [in the remediation space]. One of the only hindrances to winning those bids is going to be having a competent workforce.”

The new water quality environmental technology degree at NMC is designed to meet that growing industry need. In a memo about the program included in the packet for last Monday’s NMC Board of Trustees meeting, VanSumeren wrote that the degree will be “the only program focusing on supporting this industry need in the state of Michigan.”

To create the new degree, VanSumeren “dusted off” what he had written about the concept back in 2008 and updated it to reflect the current status of the industry. The program will incorporate numerous courses that already exist at NMC, including credit requirements in biology, geology, chemistry, geographic information systems, surveying, and unmanned aerial systems. It will also create several brand-new courses, including classes focused on water quality, site assessment and remediation, groundwater monitoring and aquifer sampling, and Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) – the standard regulation of hazardous waste operations specified by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

VanSumeren also consulted with industry experts to get a better sense of what the new water quality environmental technology degree should incorporate, including Russell Schindler, CEO and founder of local environmental sample collection company SampleServe; and Andy Smits, Grand Traverse County’s drain commissioner. Both experts, VanSumeren says, have been “part of this industry for decades” and were able to share insight on everything from brownfield redevelopment to field operations. In the case of Schindler, VanSumeren says SampleServe will even be donating its software for students of the NMC program to use, “knowing that people with this software training can then advocate for its use in the industry.”

With the new degree now approved by the NMC board, VanSumeren says the next step is “to have a big marketing campaign” that will spotlight the program to employers and potential students throughout the state. While promoting the degree to an inaugural class of students is the immediate priority, though, VanSumeren and other players in the local “Blue Economy” are already thinking about how this new program could advance Traverse City’s status as a growing hub for all things water. The crown jewel of that vision is the Freshwater Research Innovation Center, which would transform Discover Pier into a multifaceted epicenter of research, technology, education, entrepreneurship, and business – a vision VanSumeren thinks is one step closer to reality thanks to NMC’s decision to bring this degree online.

“This program is just another component of our strength in the new Blue Economy,” VanSumeren concludes. “If the Freshwater Research Innovation Center comes to fruition, there are going to be companies that are going to be incubated within that space that will be dealing with new sensor technologies to serve these remediation industries. And the idea is that our workforce could then be co-trained at the time of these developments, and then they’re using the latest greatest and they’re bringing these new products directly into their training and then into their work. It’s an idea that not only allows our students to be highly trained, but it also provides avenues for those businesses to reach the companies that would then be using their products. And that could really mean a lot for Traverse City.”

Photo courtesy of SampleServe

Originally Appeared Here

Kurtis Anderson says the water at his home in Regina’s south end smells and tastes terrible. 

“It really just kind of smells like soil, like organic matter,” he said in an interview on Friday. 

The problem, which began a few weeks ago, is not just limited to drinking water. His family’s clothes have the same cloying smell after being run through the wash, their dishes appear to be coated in something and even the water in the shower reeks. 

“It seems to come and go a little bit, but there’s times where it’s really bad,” Anderson said. 

The problem isn’t coming from inside their home. It’s coming from the water source.

The Buffalo Pound water treatment facility feeds water to Regina, Moose Jaw and some smaller communities across southeast Saskatchewan. 

On Friday, the CEO of the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corporation, which operates the facility, confirmed that the odd smell and taste is the result of a change in filtration. 

“It’s not an unusual occurrence,” said Ryan Johnson. 

Filtration process

The facility draws water from Buffalo Pound Lake, which Johnson admits “is not a great source of water, but it’s the source of water we have.”

The lake is only three metres deep, a kilometre wide and 30 kilometres long. Its shallowness means that during the summer a large amount of cyanobacteria grows in the water, affecting its taste and smell. 

The facility uses granular activated carbon filtration to remove that bacteria, but only does so between May and November. 

The shallow water at Buffalo Pound Lake means the rapid growth of cyanobacteria in the summer. (Alexander Quon/CBC News)

Shutting down the carbon filter allows for the carbon to regenerate over the winter. It is then reactivated in May. 

It’s a process that has been carried out since the 1980s, Johnson said. But some people appear to notice when the water filtration changes. Johnson said the company receives a small number of reports every time that process happens, with the changes in smell or taste persisting for a few weeks. 

“It’s perfectly safe. It’s an aesthetic issue. It may not smell or taste as good as it typically does, but it’s still safe to drink,” Johnson said. 

‘We don’t feel it’s safe’

For Anderson, the explanation offers no comfort.

He and his wife have tasted the tap water from the homes on either side of them as well as their child’s daycare. He said their home is the only one that has water that smells or tastes off. 

“We’ve got a one-year-old, so we don’t feel it’s safe for him to to drink it until we know it’s completely safe to do so,” Anderson said. 

LISTEN| Buffalo Pound water treatment plant to get major upgrade 

The Morning Edition – Sask6:19Buffalo Pound water treatment plant to get major upgrade

More than a quarter of a million people get their drinking water from Buffalo Pound Lake and the water treatment plant. But it was built in the 1950s and hasn’t had a major upgrade for decades. We’ll hear about the latest plans to update it from Ryan Johnson, CEO and president of Buffalo Pound WTP.

Anderson dropped a water sample off at the Roy Romanow Labratory at the University of Regina just to be safe. He’s still waiting on the results.

For now, his family is purchasing five-gallon water drums. 

Anderson said it has been hard to stop the reflex of filling up a glass of water at the tap. 

“A lot of people have these concerns every day. So it’s just interesting to kind of put yourself in someone else’s shoes where they can’t just turn on the tap and have clean drinking water every day,” he said. 

He said he is frustrated by the lack of communication from the City of Regina. His family’s initial complaints didn’t get them answers and they were only recently contacted about the change in filtration. 

Anderson’s family is not the only one reporting the issue. Social media posts show the issue is being seen across the city. There’s no rhyme or reason to the location of the complaints.

Johnson admitted there have been more complaints than normal this year. They’ve been mostly limited to Regina, but he said he expects to receive some from Moose Jaw as well. 

The plant does have an option of last resort that can resolve the issue — the introduction of a material known as powdered activated carbon — but a certain threshold on the water’s taste and smell has to be met for them to use it. That has not happened yet, he said, but the company will continue to monitor the situation. 

There is good news on the horizon for those currently experiencing the undesirable water. 

Impending upgrades to the water treatment plant mean that the issue will soon be a thing of the past. 

“By the time we’re done in 2025, we will be able to treat it seasonal or year round,” said Johnson. 

Originally Appeared Here

CHICAGO — Yesterday, a water main break in the Village of Robbins disabled water supply in the Village and surrounding communities, impacting almost 100 homes on Thanksgiving Day. U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) issued the following statement in response:

“It is totally unacceptable that Southland suburban families have been repeatedly left without water, especially on this Thanksgiving Day. This is a serious issue that has long plagued these communities. That is why I have arranged to convene a roundtable meeting with senior State and Federal officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).”

Rep. Rush has long ago dedicated himself to addressing this chronic issue in his district. Last year, he sent a letter to EPA Administration Michael Regan, seeking help to improve access to safe and clean drinking water, and another letter to Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Connor, requesting that the Corps of Engineers help fund water projects in Robbins, Ill.  After five water mains broke in Dixmoor in September of this year, Rep. Rush invited EPA Regional Administrator Debra Shore, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director John Kim, and local mayors last October to for a roundtable meeting to discuss the best path forward, ensuring that residents have access to safe and clean drinking water. The meeting is set for December 14, 2022.

Rep. Rush also succeed in securing $15 million in Federal funding to update Dixmoor’s water supply infrastructure, as part of the House version of the Water Resources and Development Act of 2022, which passed the House in June.

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Originally Appeared Here

A farmer who deprived his cattle of water has avoided jail but has received a ten-year ban from farming, after a veterinary inspector found animals in various stages of decomposition on his farm in Dunmanway, Co Cork.

Defence barrister Alan O’Dwyer told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that his client Trevor Deane of Lettergorman, Dunmanway, Co Cork was “deeply ashamed” at the “deplorable” conditions on his farm.

Veterinary inspector Michael Kelleher told Judge Helen Boyle that he attended the farm in Dunmanway on 2 February 2021.

When he entered the first shed, he found nine dead animals in various stages of decomposition. One of the animals was “recently dead”. The others appeared to have been deceased for a number of months.

Mr Kelleher entered the second shed where he found seven dead animals. Again, some were recently dead whilst others had been dead for a number of months. No water was available to the animals in either shed.

When he went to a field beside the shed, he found two carcasses. He also discovered two calves in “filthy” conditions in a pen, and further out the yard he found further bovial skeletal remains.

Mr Kelleher said that he spoke to Deane about the neglect. He directed him to provide water to the animals.

“There was unnecessary suffering to the animals by the lack of water. Regarding the water he said the well was contaminated.”

Mr Kelleher said that he told Deane, 38, that the situation at the farm was unacceptable. The court heard that Deane also had a suckler herd in Coppeen in West Cork. There was no issue with animal welfare on the second farm.

Mr Kelleher stated that Deane had owned 90 animals at any given time. The veterinary inspector returned to the farm in Dunmanway on 4 February 2021 to find that there was still no water available to animals on the farm.

He also returned to the farm on 22 June 2021. There were no animal welfare concerns at this time.

However, when Mr Kelleher went back to the farm on 7 March this year, he found an emaciated cow who was unable to stand. The calves on the farm were also untagged.

He returned on 6 May this year to find that the untagged animals still hadn’t been registered. He discovered the carcasses of three calves on the farm, and there was no water available to the animals.

Deane has since destocked and hopes to let out his land. He is no longer involved in any husbandry. Mr Kelleher said that in his opinion Deane should not be allowed to keep livestock.

Mr O’Dwyer said that at the time of the offences Deane was experiencing a number of personal issues and complications.

“There was an element of putting his head in the sand. He had huge personal tragedies in the family. There is no excuse. He is ashamed and apologetic. He is hoping to let out the land and is not involved in any kind of husbandry,” he said.

Deane had pleaded guilty to two charges involving the neglect of cattle and failing to give them enough clean drinking water.

Deane admitted that he failed to provide a sufficient quantity of wholesome uncontaminated drinking water to bovine animals under his control.

He also pleaded guilty to neglecting or being reckless regarding the health of bovine animals on 4 February 2021.

The court heard that Deane had previously been convicted of assault. Judge Boyle said that Deane had fallen “woefully short” in the care of the animals.

“You failed to provide water which is fundamental to the survival of all animals. You caused needless suffering to animals you were responsible for,” Judge Boyle said.

She noted the guilty plea in the case and the fact that Deane had voluntarily destocked. Taking his family difficulties into consideration Judge Boyle imposed a two-year suspended sentence on Deane and banned him from keeping livestock for a period of ten years.

She also fined him €750.

Originally Appeared Here

Matt Rogers unloads cases of water in 2014 in East Porterville, California, where wells were running dry. Chieko Haro/The Porterville Recorder/AP

This story was originally published by the Food & Environment Reporting Network.

Deepak Palakshappa became a pediatrician to give poor kids access to good medical care. Still, back in his residency days, the now-associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem was shocked to discover that a patient caring for two young grandchildren was food insecure. “Our clinic had set up one of those food drive boxes, and near the end of a visit, she asked if she could have any of the cans because she didn’t have food for the holidays,” he recalls.

Thirteen years later, Palakshappa’s clinic team now asks two simple questions of every patient to ascertain whether they’ll run out of food in a given month. But there are some critical questions they don’t ask: Do you drink your tap water? Is it potable and ample? Can you cook food with it, and use it to mix infant formula and cereal? Such questions could uncover some of the millions of Americans who are water insecure—a circumstance directly connected to food insecurity.

There’s no healthcare screener for water insecurity. The issue is not even on most public health professionals’ radar, although recent water disasters in Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, are starting to change that. Clinicians who are aware of water insecurity “are thinking, ‘If I screen for this, what am I going to do about it?’” says Palakshappa, noting the dearth of resources available to mitigate it.

There’s no healthcare screener for water insecurity. The issue is not even on most public health professionals’ radar.

Researchers know water insecurity isn’t confined to one region or population. But “we don’t know how big of a problem it is,” says Sera Young, an associate professor of anthropology and health at Northwestern University.  “And it’s going to keep biting us in the ass, because we’re not measuring these things correctly.” Public health researchers talk about food and nutrition, while water researchers are siloed in infrastructure circles, and it’s rare for the two worlds to overlap. Says Young, “We need to build a bridge between those two disciplines.”

Most estimates put US water insecurity at 2.2 million residents. Asher Rosinger, director of the Water, Health, and Nutrition Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University, says this is probably a “huge” undercount, and the actual number might be closer to 60 million. There are no official estimates of combined food and water insecurity, which makes it tough to understand the scope of the problem, let alone to propose solutions.

“We’re measuring water by how many cubic meters there are and dividing it across the land,” says Northwestern’s Young. “Or we’re measuring infrastructure, which is like, ‘Where do you get your drinking water from? Is it from a tap? Is it from a well? Is it from a borehole?’ But you can imagine 99 scenarios where you have a tap but you can’t pay for water to flow through it, or you don’t trust the water that comes out of it, or the infrastructure upstream of the tap has gone to shit. There are lots of reasons why measuring physical availability or infrastructure only gives you a pinhole peek of what the real problem is.” 

The only way to truly understand water insecurity, Young says, is to consider people’s lived experiences as clinicians have learned to do with food access.

Accurate data are essential to closing the water gap because food insecurity increases the probability of water insecurity. In a study published last July in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Young, Rosinger and a third co-author tracked 13 years’ worth of tap water avoidance among more than 31,000 US residents. They found that people who didn’t drink their tap water had 21-percent greater odds of also being food insecure than those who did. “Efforts to mitigate food insecurity should simultaneously address water insecurity issues, including tap water availability and quality,” the researchers concluded.

As with hunger, there are myriad reasons a person might be water insecure—some financial, some structural, and others having to do with quality and access. Still others are short-term predicaments brought on by disaster or a failure of local government. 

Food insecurity increases the probability of water insecurity.

You might think access to ample potable water is a basic human right. Legally, in the US, it isn’t (although California has taken a stab at making it so). Still, many Americans spend more than 12 percent of their income for water and sewer service. Others have lead pipes that contaminate tap water (Newark); or bacteria seeping into wells (Iowa); or sewage backing up into pipes during storms (Milwaukee); or nitrates running off farm fields (Las Vegas). A storm may knock out the electricity that pumps water (Puerto Rico), or knock out the pump itself (Jackson). Residents of the Navajo Nation lack basic water infrastructure. Then there are regions where aquifers are running dry, such as in California’s Central Valley.

Water poverty has a lot to do with health beyond the primary need to drink a couple of liters a day. Perhaps most consequentially, research shows that children exposed to lead can suffer developmental delays and brain damage. Rosinger also found that people who avoid tap water are more likely to drink sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs, in public health parlance). This alternative ups their risk for obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases, with the implications most long-lasting for children.

SSBs are one of the few issues that public-health researchers track that combine both food and water insecurity. Christina Hecht, a senior policy adviser at the University of California’s Nutrition Policy Institute, helped found the National Drinking Water Alliance in 2015, with a mission to improve access to potable water and educate people on the importance of drinking water instead of sugary drinks. “We discussed whether we needed to prioritize making sure that tap water was safe, but in 2015, we really didn’t think that that was a big issue,” she says. “Then Flint happened.”

Flint is just one in a long line of high-poverty communities now recognized for catastrophically unsafe water infrastructure. The city has a 29 percent food insecurity rate among its majority-Black population. In rural McDowell County, West Virginia, which will receive federal assistance to pilot wastewater infrastructure improvements, almost 32 percent of its (majority white) residents live below the federal poverty line. Century-old pipes, in some cases made of wood, bring in water so foul that residents capture creek water and store it in tanks. The most requested item at a local food bank? Bottled water.

The consequences ripple out from here. Someone who is water insecure can’t prepare food. Says Rosinger, “If your tap is dry, your water has been shut off, or you’re just avoiding it because you think it’s dangerous, you’re more likely to go out to eat. And research shows you consume a greater number of calories and have a lack of dietary diversity. So, it’s nutrition insecurity, too.”

Spending money on bottled water, which Rosinger says is “orders of magnitude more expensive than tap water,” might eat up $100 of a monthly food budget. For context, maximum monthly SNAP benefits are $835 for a family of four. A water-insecure mother might pay for bottled water to mix infant formula or cereal; women inclined to breastfeed might skimp on their own hydration.

A colleague of Palakshappa’s, Dr. Kimberly Montez, recently met with a food-insecure mother from Latin America whose baby was failing to gain weight. She didn’t trust the tap water enough to drink it, so she was under-hydrated, which made breastfeeding difficult. Instead, she turned to formula, but that presented problems, too, because she thought she had to buy expensive bottled water to make it, says Montez. If researchers can understand why people avoid their taps, they might better address fears and educate about the need for water over soda.

Young says questions around water trust and SSBs are a great start. “But don’t forget about cooking food. People are afraid of boiling pasta so we should be asking, Are you drinking your water? Are you cooking with your water? Are you bathing with your water? And are you pissed about your water situation?” There’s some legislative interest in requiring the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which collects data on things like prevalence of diabetes and fruit and vegetable consumption, to add questions about water insecurity. “If we want humans to be healthy, we need to realize that’s a product of a lot of things and water is generally not on that list,” she says.

As to the question of how clinicians can assist people identified as water insecure, there are a few initiatives in the works. SNAP recipients can already use benefits to purchase bottled water, although it comes out of their broader food allotment. Nourish California, an anti-hunger nonprofit, ran a pilot this year to see what happens when water-insecure households get extra SNAP bucks to cover half their monthly water expenditures. The results are still being analyzed. “We know we got to fix the welds and we got to fix the pipes, but in the meantime, let’s not have people going hungry,” says Jared Call, a senior advocate at the organization.

The Environmental Protection Agency offers grants to help disadvantaged communities fund drinking water projects, test for lead and conduct remediation in schools. Some states, like New York, offer assistance paying overdue water bills. 

Meanwhile, Young and her colleagues devised the Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales, which prompts researchers to ask questions about water availability, access, and reliability for domestic use. It’s similar to the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, which asks about access to nutritious food. Young says WISE provides common language to the food and water insecurity camps, since they rely on common measures and indicators.

“Evidence is growing—and plus it just makes sense—that water security underpins food security, so when you ‘fix’ water, a major driver of food insecurity is handled,” Young says. “By giving people the language to talk across the aisle, the beautiful thing is, this can be a win-win.”

Originally Appeared Here

PATERSON — After more than a decade of not complying with federal environmental standards, local officials expect to start construction next year on the colossal $30 million replacement of the Levine Reservoir in Paterson.

Under the plan, two enclosed concrete storage tanks would be built in the reservoir’s footprint, each with a capacity for holding 2.5 million gallons of water. They would replace the open-air reservoir, one of a handful of its type still in operation, part of an antiquated system that officials say is among the most vulnerable drinking water sources in the country.

“It is critically important for public health and safety to replace the open reservoirs with enclosed water tanks,” said Passaic Valley Water Commission executive director Jim Mueller.

“PVWC is diligently working to achieve that goal,” Mueller added. “PVWC has already begun working on the advance components of the project such as construction of interconnections in the distribution system to allow the reservoir to be taken out.”

‘Not a matter of if, but when’:PVWC says its reservoirs still vulnerable to contamination

The Levine project represents the first of three water safety initiatives, officials said. After enclosed tanks are built at the Levine site, the commission plans to move on to replacing its open New Street and Great Notch reservoirs.

More than 270,000 people in Paterson and surrounding towns experienced the vulnerability of the open reservoirs last year when flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida contaminated the New Street Reservoir, resulting in a six-week water supply disruption.

PVWC officials said at that time that future drinking water problems were inevitable if the three reservoirs remained open-air facilities.

Since the temporary New Street Reservoir shutdown, the water commission has undergone a change in leadership and critics of the enclosed tank construction have dropped their opposition. One of the obstacles had been questions over whether the enclosed water tanks could be built in keeping with the historical preservation construction requirements for the Great Falls area.

Mayor Andre Sayegh last year had spoken disparagingly about opponents of the enclosed tank plan, only to learn afterwards that the city’s historic preservation office was among the roadblocks. As a result, the mayor said he would intervene on the project’s behalf.

“I have fought for this project for several years and continue to fight until this project materializes,” Sayegh said on Wednesday. “Our residents deserve drinking water that is safe and sanitary and I will not rest until those tanks are installed at the Levine Reservoir.”

The water commission said it has six permit applications pending for the Levine Reservoir tank project, five of which are with the state Department of Environmental Protection and one with the Passaic County Planning Department.

The PVWC said it also submitted its reservoir plans to the Paterson planning board in early June for a non-binding “courtesy review.” The city didn’t make any recommendations for changes, the commission said.

“We’re supporting this,” said Paterson Economic Development Director Michael Powell, who oversees the planning department. “We’re moving forward.”

Bob Guarasci, executive of the New Jersey Community Development Corporation nonprofit group, had been among the early opponents of the tank plan. Guarasci said concessions that the water commission made as part of an agreement with the DEP made the project “more palatable.”

In particular, Guarasci cited repairs the commission agreed to make on two buildings in the Mary Ellen Kramer Park area near the Great Falls and a $2 million investment towards restoration of the raceways, the man-made canals used many decades ago by industries in the area to get power from the waters of the Passaic River.

Mueller, the PVWC director, said the commission likely would begin seeking construction bids on the project by the spring.

“PVWC remains firmly committed to the plan to replace the open reservoirs with enclosed water tanks,” Mueller said. “Numerous studies have concluded this approach is the most cost-effective method to ensure clean, quality drinking water for our customers.”

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: [email protected]

Originally Appeared Here

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the Secretary Local Governments, Director Karachi Water and Sanitation Board (KWSB), and Advocate General Sindh on a petition against contamination of drinking water due to a broken supply line in Qayyumabad.

Appearing before a two-member SHC bench, headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, the petitioner’s counsel, Usman Farooq Advocate, submitted on Thursday that there have been big cracks in the drinking water supply lines since 2017. Polluted water from the Malir River seeps into the pipeline and contaminates the water supplied to Akhtar Colony, Qayyumabad, and Kashmir Colony.

Residents of these areas suffer from various diseases due to the consumption of contaminated water, the counsel submitted. He further said that the main 33-inch diameter pipeline that supplies water to these areas passes through the Malir River. It is broken at several places and the toxic waste released into the river by industrial units in Korangi seeps into the pipeline. Sewage also gets mixed from the sewerage lines.

Therefore, the water supplied to residents of Akhtar Colony, Qayyumabad, and Kashmir Colony is not fit for human consumption, submitted Advocate Farooq.

The lawyer said that the dilapidated pipeline has been repaired by the residents on a self-help basis several times, but now it is not repairable any further. A new pipeline is long overdue as the KWSB staff cannot restore the required water pressure in the present pipeline, fearing it might burst.

Advocate Farooq submitted that illegal pumping systems have been installed over the past two decades which have disrupted the entire KWSB system. Due to these systems, consumers are forced to pay hundreds of thousands of rupees in extortion every month to their operators instead of KSWB, causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer.

A large number of consumers make separate monthly payments to both KWSB and pump operators, the petitioner’s counsel said, adding that taking benefit of the worsening water crisis, mini hydrants have popped up to fleece the water-starved consumers.

He prayed the court order immediate replacement of the broken pipeline so that citizens can be provided with clean drinking water. If there is a need for a pumping system in the area, it should be operated by KWSB so that the money collected could go into the national treasury instead of extortionists.

After listening to the petitioner’s counsel, the court issued notices the Secretary Local Governments, Director Water and Sanitation Board, and Advocate General Sindh, directing them to submit their replies on December 15.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2022.

Originally Appeared Here

The Government has announced a new grant designed to secure safe drinking water for much of the Chatham Islands to support its resilience to extreme weather events.

Chatham Islands. (Source: Wikimedia commons)

The announcement, made by Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty, comes as the islands have been experiencing long dry periods, with many unable to connect to mains or council water supplies.

Roughly 20% of households on the islands most at risk from droughts will receive a 30,000-litre water tank and filtration system.

“Even though this is a relatively small-scale project, ensuring that a significant part of the community will have access to a clean and reliable water supply will make a big difference in the years to come,” McAnulty said.

“This is not just in money saved, but in better health outcomes and reduced environmental pressure on the Islands.”

McAnulty said that because of the islands’ remoteness, the community is particularly vulnerable to the effects of drought and other natural disasters.

The Government is providing $500,000 to purchase, transport and install the new infrastructure, but most of the work will be done by those on the island.

Originally Appeared Here

Friday, 25 November 2022, 10:27 am
Press Release: Northland Regional Council

The Northland Regional Council is changing the way it
delivers water quality results at popular summer beach and
freshwater swim spots.

Ricky Eyre, the council’s
Coastal and Water Quality Field Operations Manager says for
many years the council has collected weekly water quality
samples at popular swim sites throughout Northland over
summer. Results have been delivered to the public through
various means, including online through the council website
and in more recent years the LAWA website.

“As well as
being very labour intensive, due to the time limitations of
sample analysis, management options are always retrospective
and there is no consideration of changes in environmental
conditions like rainy weather which can impact water
quality.”

In a bid to improve the situation, the
council has been working over recent months to model
recreational bathing water quality using a wealth of water
quality data it has collected over the years.

The
result is a system that establishes a relationship between
historical results with environmental drivers (rainfall) to
provide ‘real-time and near-future swimability
predictions’.

Mr Eyre says the information on 50
coastal and 20 freshwater sites popular with swimmers and
other recreational water users over the warmer months will
be able to be presented year-round via the ‘Safeswim’
website www.safeswim.org.nz
from December. The shift to Safeswim comes after six popular
Northland sites were added to it in a low-key trial last
summer.

Results will also be posted on the ‘Can I
Swim Here?’ section on the national environmental
reporting website LAWA – www.lawa.org.nz

“Among
a host of potential benefits are improved knowledge of water
quality at swimming sites, improving public understanding of
potential health risks and providing real-time/forecasted
water quality year-round.” “Safeswim also provides
information on tides, physical hazards and lifeguard
patrols, where appropriate, providing a ‘one-stop shop’
for users to make informed decisions on where to swim before
heading off.”

Mr Eyre says despite the move to
Safeswim, the regional council will continue to take water
samples throughout the year to ‘ground truth’ the model
and new monitoring sites will be added to the Safeswim
platform over the next year.

Mr Eyre says the system
uses a series of pins/droplets to illustrate the
advisability of swimming and other contact with water. He
says while the regional council does not have the authority
to close beaches or freshwater sites to swimmers, the
information is provided for users to make informed
decisions.

Water quality predicted to meet national
guidelines is marked with a green water droplet indicating a
low risk of illness from swimming.

When water quality
is predicted to exceed national guidelines, Safeswim will
display a red water droplet indicating a high risk of
illness from swimming.

“Essentially it means that
levels of bacteria indicate that more than 1 in 50 people
are likely to become ill after putting their head
underwater.”

Mr Eyre says for most healthy people
water that meets national guidelines will pose a minimal
level of risk. “However, water below the guideline values
may pose a potential health risk to high-risk user groups
such as the very young, the elderly and those with impaired
immune systems.”

Finally a black pin on Safeswim
indicates that the swimspot has been affected by a confirmed
wastewater overflow and authorities ‘strongly advise’
against swimming as the risk is higher than
normal.

Answers to frequently asked questions on
Safeswim can be found at www.nrc.govt.nz/swimmingfaqs

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Originally Appeared Here