ANI |
Updated: May 31, 2022 10:28 IST

Islamabad [Pakistan], May 31 (ANI): Residents of Sindh and other parts of Pakistan are living under extremely hot weather conditions with mercury surpassing 50 degrees Celsius, and water woes are making the situation worse as clean drinking water and water for the crops are diminishing.
Khalid Bux, a farmer from Pakistan’s south Sindh province, is worried about the fate of his sugarcane and cotton crops as one-third of the plants are drying up due to the unavailability of water from canals, reported writer Misbah Saba Malik for Xinhua.
“Even last year I couldn’t get the expected yield due to water issues, but now it’s a real crisis. Canals are running dry and we do not have any resources to water our crops,” said Khalid Bux.
If the situation persists, local farmers will definitely be devoured by economic burden, he said.
In a conversation with Xinhua, Manzoor Wassan, advisor to the chief minister of Sindh on agriculture, said that the water scarcity is affecting almost all agriculture products in the province and the situation is feared to get worse in the coming days.
“Sindh is rich in production of cereals, mangoes, peppers, cotton, rice, wheat, and sugarcane among others, but due to water shortage the already standing products are in crisis whereas sowing of rice is facing delay,” he said.
The water shortage led by extreme weather conditions is also expected to result in a food shortage in Pakistan as the area of cultivation and annual yield is facing a decrease with every coming year, he added.

At a recent media briefing, Pakistan’s Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman warned of a 50 per cent decline in the production of mangoes in the country due to water shortage.
She said that her country ranks 5th in the world in producing mangoes, but this year severe water shortages and rising temperatures are expected to take a toll on the production of juicy fruit.
Water shortage is also leading to many health issues including water-borne disease, heatstroke, and kidney issues among the residents of the country.
According to a report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), an estimated 70 per cent of households in Pakistan drink bacterially contaminated water. The current heatwave has worsened the situation.
A worse outbreak of cholera in southwest Balochistan province left several kids killed and thousands of others infected, and stomach diseases in Punjab and Sindh occurred due to drinking contaminated water.
In the Cholistan desert of Punjab, over 50 cattle perish due to water shortage while wildlife is also affected. In a conversation with Xinhua, rescue workers from the non-government organization Al-Khidmat Foundation shared horrendous tales from the area where people suffered due to the wrath of climate, as per the media portal.
“The Cholistan is already a very poor area, but what happened to them this year can not be explained. Very lean and malnutrition kids had to walk miles in search of drinking water, but many wells were dried up. People had to see their cattle, which was the only source of income for them, die of thirst to save water for their kids,” Umar Ahmad, a rescue worker, told Xinhua.
According to weather experts, the heatwave is likely to continue in June. (ANI)

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The city of Gatineau has issued a preventive boil water advisory for parts of the Masson-Angers area.

The advisory is being issued due to a break of equipment that occurred during valve replacement work, the city says and is in effect until further notice

About 500 homes will be required to boil any tap water for at least a minute before consuming it.

The residences affected are located:

• On chemin Montréal Ouest (915 to 1069), between rue des Hauts-Bois and rue de St-Marin;
• On rue de la Forteresse (116 to 146), from chemin Montréal Ouest to Parc Beau-Vallon;
• The entire rue des Hauts-Bois;
• The entire Impasse de l’Aiglon.

The city will advise residents when the boil water order is lifted.

After the preventive boil water advisory is lifted:

• open all cold water taps and let the water run for one minute or until it is cold, and do the same for all water fountains; and
• toss out any ice made with tap water during the advisory.

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Elias, left, and Kodi Nelson make 1 Match Boxes with their dad. (Lauren Keller photo – 100 Mile Free Press)The Nelson family (l-r) Jess, Kodi, James and Elias, are making 1 Match Boxes to sell and raise money for water wells in Haiti. (Lauren Keller photo – 100 Mile Free Press)Kodi left, and Elias Nelson. (Lauren Keller photo – 100 Mile Free Press)(l-r): Elias and Kodi Nelson. (Lauren Keller photo – 100 Mile Free Press)

A church fundraiser to raise money for water wells in Haiti sparked the interest of a 100 Mile House family to start their own “Fire for Water” project.

James Nelson and his family are creating “1 Match Boxes” to contribute to the cause, initially started by their church, Cariboo Christian Life Fellowship, in 108 Mile Ranch.

His son Elias, 11, said the project “was originally to make money for us, but then we saw a bulletin that our church was raising money for wells in Haiti, so we thought all the proceeds should go there.”

Inside every box is everything needed to start a fire with a single match. The box includes paper, kindling, and a little bit of moss, but it also comes with a mini box of matches. A set of instructions, written by James’ wife, Jess, is also included. Nelson said the boxes are intended to be used for proper fires and regulated fire pits.

“The idea is that people buy the boxes, and proceeds would go to supporting wells in Haiti, drilling wells,” Nelson said. “The cost for one well is about US$4,000, and our church has a goal of $20,000 to drill four wells… Our goal is to raise $1,000. The main project is wells for Haiti, and then we kind of did our own little side project for the kids to raise money for that main project, which is in conjunction with an organization in Haiti that drills wells.”

He said the idea for the boxes was inspired by Kodi, 9.

“I found lots of this mossy green stuff. I was like, hey, this is a good fire starter, and so I kept putting it in bags and bags and I got 20 bags, and then my dad thought of the 1 Match Box,” Kodi said.

James said the project has been going pretty well, and they have received some positive messages. They have already raised $125, over 10 percent of their goal, and they only started a week ago. Elias said he got a boost after they received a donation of $100 for a box.

All proceeds from their sales go to wells for Haiti. People can take part in the project by purchasing a 1 Match Box by a donation of any amount.

This is not the Nelson family’s first fundraiser. In Grand Prairie, the family started a taco stand after they went to Mexico to build homes and had an idea to recreate the tacos down there.

“That kind of exploded in a really good way,” Nelson said. “One year our fundraiser wasn’t going so well, so we started a taco stand and garage sale in our front yard and did that for two weeks, and by the end of 10 years later, we had two storefronts and a food truck. COVID hit and things got really, really tough, and so we decided to move out here and slow down.”

Nelson said the Haiti fundraiser was a good idea because they don’t have clean drinking water from their tap on their property on Horse Lake Road.

“It struck a chord with us that we’re trying to drill a well and so we’re trying to help other people with the same idea, same problem. Fortunately for us, we can just drive to town and get clean water. Unfortunately for the Haitian people, their town is puddles of whatever water they can find around their village. It causes a lot of health problems and sickness, death.”

Kody added, “we know how much water is good for your body, and we want other people, other kids and parents to experience that too.”

Nelson plans to sell the boxes all summer or at least up until a fire ban. The family has a lot of product with which to make boxes as they have been clearing land. So far they have made 11 boxes and sold four, which James said is a slow start.

It takes the Nelson family about four hours to make 10 boxes, but Elias said, “we like that we’re helping other people and that we get to spend time with our dad making these boxes. It’s fun.”

“We’re hoping to reach the $1,000… and just see where it goes from there,” said Nelson. “The big dream would be it takes off, we have a plant somewhere, we’re making boxes for lots of different charities. That’s probably not going to happen, but you know that’s always a thought that you want to be able to, if it’s a good idea and it works, then we’ll keep doing it for as long as we can.”

To purchase a box, text James at 780-978-8093 or contact him through Facebook. They will also be selling the boxes at CCLF on Sundays in between services.

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100 Mile House

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A group of development partners has urged the government to increase budgetary allocation for water, sanitation and hygiene, also known as Wash, in a bid to achieve sustainable development goals (SDG). 

The country has made remarkable progress in the sector, yet 41% of people fail to have safe drinking water and 61% struggle to safely manage sanitation activities, they said.  

WaterAid Bangladesh, Power and Participation Research Centre, UNICEF Bangladesh, FANSA Bangladesh, FSM Network, Bangladesh Water Integrity Network, Sanitation and Water for All – End Water Poverty, MHM Platform, and Wash Alliance International made the call at a pre-budget press conference at the National Press Club on Monday.

A universal, affordable and sustainable access to WASH is a key public health issue and the focus of the first two targets of SDG.

For the sector, the budgetary allocation was Tk14,517 crore, a 5.4% of the total annual development programme or ADP, in FY2021-22, noted Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre, while presenting the keynote at the event. “However, it was 72% lower than that of FY2016-17.”

Mentioning that the hygiene agenda is crucial to address the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the post-Covid realities, he called for ensuring WASH access for vulnerable groups, especially in the emerging climate hotspots.

The development partners also suggested the government prioritise development projects related to SDG, increase allocations for hard-to-reach areas and redress intra-urban allocation inequities.

“Bangladesh showed its success in achieving millennium development goals earlier, which many neighbouring countries are yet to achieve. Meanwhile, SDG included several other issues, for achieving which we need special attention to the WASH sector,” Hossain Zillur Rahman said.

He urged the government to take a separate and customised policy for new urban areas – which are growing mostly in unplanned ways – so dwellers there have access to safe drinking water and a well-developed sanitation and hygiene system.

WaterAid Bangladesh Country Director Hasin Jahan said rural areas got only 20% of the allocation made for the WASH sector in the previous years. “But, we should increase the budget for the areas.”

Besides, the WASH sector establishments should also be climate-resilient, he added. 

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Hyderabad: The drinking water supply in several areas of Hyderabad will be disrupted due to repairs to freshwater supply lines. Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) announced that the water supply in various parts of the city would be disrupted for 24 hours starting from 6 AM on June 1, to 6 AM, Thursday, June 2, 2022. 

The HMWSSB said that there were water leaks to the 1,200 Mm Dia Psc Pure Water Gravity Main Pipe from Singapur to Khanapur connected with Singur Phase-3, which supplies freshwater to Hyderabad. The water board will undertake repair works at three places near Shankarpalli to fix them.

Also read| Telangana Labour Minister Malla Reddy’s Convoy Attacked During Reddy Community Meeting

Water Supply To Be Disrupted In These Areas

As per ABP Desam reports, water supply will be hit in areas including Manikonda, Kokapet, Gandipet, Narsingi, Manchirevula, Huda Colony, Puppalaguda, BHEL LIG, Taranagar, Gangaram, Chandanagar, Gopanpalli, Gulmohar Park, Papireddy Colony, Nallagandla, Netajinagar, Tellapur, Vattinagulapally, Nehru Nagar, Chintalabasti, Vijayanagar Colony, Mallepally.

Because the city’s water supply would be disrupted, HMWSSB authorities have recommended that residents use water sparingly to avoid inconvenience.

HMWSSB was established on 1 November 1989, in Hyderabad. It looks for the supply of water to the household and sewerage services of the city. The water board also plays a pivotal role in the supply of potable water, including planning, design, construction, maintenance, operation & management of the water supply system.

(With inputs from ABP Desam — It is a Telugu platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from two Telugu states, follow https://telugu.abplive.com/)

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Manjita Khadgi, a resident of Shantipath in Dharan-7, struggles every day to manage water for household purposes.

“At Shantipath, there are two pipelines–one that was built by the Nepal Drinking Water Corporation and another built by Dharan Drinking Water (Restoration, Upgradation and Development) Sub Project. The corporation pipeline always runs dry even though the corporation has now merged with the board,” said 31-year-old Khadgi. “We struggle daily to get water.”

Since 2003, Dharan residents have been facing acute water shortages every year during the dry season. In some areas, people wait for three days to get water in their taps.

The city of Dharan was the second urban area after Kathmandu Valley to get a planned drinking water supply distribution system. However, Dharan has always remained parched during the dry season.

Various political parties over the years have made promises of supplying water to the city residents. However, the promises have never been fulfilled. The recently elected mayor of the sub-metropolitan city, Harkaraj Sampang Rai, of Buddhachowk in Dharan-18 raised the drinking water crisis as his main election agenda. Voters this time have given their verdict and entrusted the 39-year-old social campaigner to resolve chronic drinking water problems.

Surrounded on three sides by the Mahabharat hills and on one side by the sparse shrub vegetation, Dharan is perfectly located for human habitation. Of the 20 kilometres from the Tinkune entry gate to Bhedetar, Dharan boasts five different types of climate and is an attraction for many local and foreign tourists. However, retired Associate Professor Dr Rajendra Sharma of AP Mahendra Multiple Campus, an expert on Dharan and its drinking water problems, says Dharan has always been plagued with acute water shortages.

“After the increase in the number of residents in Dharan, a converging point between Tarai and the hills, the then Rana prime minister Judda Shumsher, in 1938, had constructed a water tank in Fusre, where water from Sardu-Khardu stream was collected and then distributed to the city residents,” said Sharma.

Later in 1959, Dharan became a transit point for Nepali British soldiers after the establishment of the British Ghopa Camp. The soldiers, especially from the Kiranti community, would return home after completing their 15-20 year service and settle in the area. They opted to buy land and settle in Dharan as there were schools, transport services and hospitals run by the British government. This led to a rise in the city’s population.

But over the years, the authorities failed to take the population spurt into consideration and manage a proper water supply system leading to acute drinking water shortages in the sub-metropolis.

The water sector of the then Dharan City Panchayat was responsible for distributing water to the residents until 1977. In an effort to manage the distribution of drinking water, Nepal Drinking Water Corporation was handed over the responsibility the same year. The Dharan City Panchayat established a water division and distributed water to around 7,000 private taps at a cost of Rs11 per month.

In 1987, a ductile pipeline was installed in the city with a financial loan and aid from the World Bank to address the water problems that the growth in population brought about.

Sharma says that since the water from Sardu-Khardu stream did not meet the demand of the city, the city began digging four deep tube wells in the area with sparse shrub vegetation in the southern part of the city and began distributing water.

As of 2021, when the corporation handed over its responsibilities to the Drinking Water Management Board, 16,000 consumers in 19 wards of the sub-metropolis were connected to drinking water lines. However, the connectivity has done little to assuage the water problems faced by the city residents.

In view of the water crisis, the Nepal government and Asian Development Bank signed a $22 million agreement on May 8, 2012. The agreement was a part of the government’s Urban Development Programme. As part of the agreement, Dharan Drinking Water (Restoration, Ugradation and Development) Sub Project was carried out and a contract was issued to Tianjin Tundi JV. The Detailed Project Report was prepared by Wielding Design Authority. As per the contract, seven more deep tube wells were dug inside the sparse shrub forest area, taking the total number of deep tube wells to 11. The agreement expired last December.

When the board took over the ownership and responsibilities of the corporation, it had designed a plan to distribute the water pipeline to 28,841 houses and increase it to 30,000 households by 2030. However, until mid-2022, there were over 28,000 consumers. The contractor company has completed 95 percent of the work and handed over the project to the board. But the project was handed over without running tests pre-operation leading to a dismal result.

Board Director Raju Pokhrel said that the city’s water crisis persists as there is leakage in the source and distribution mechanisms.

“The city’s demand for water is around 25 million litres per day. In winter, only 18 million litres can be produced from the deep tube wells and the Sardu-Khardu stream. And with one of the 11 deep tube wells damaged, we are only producing 10 million litres of water, which has deepened the water crisis,” said Pokhrel.

Pokhrel said that the main reason behind the problem in smooth distribution of drinking water is the unmanaged and old infrastructure of the corporation and damages in pump and generator pipelines.

“There are several places that need interconnection between the pipelines. Almost half of the pipeline in the Fusre system is yet to be connected with the board’s pipeline,” said Pokhrel. “This has caused problems in the proper distribution of water.”

The project has constructed reservoir tanks in four places of Dharan. Of them, 600,000 lt tank has been constructed in Fusre, 900,000 lt tank has been constructed in Pindeshwor and another 600,000 lt tank built in Bishnuchowk. Meanwhile, water is distributed to other parts of the city through the 3 million litre capacity tank of the Sumnima system, informed Pokhrel.

“Although the underground water is being produced as per the estimate of the DPR, ineffective management has caused problems in water distribution,” said Pokhrel. 

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RAWALPINDI – Water shortage has perturbed the residents of Ghakar Street Mehmoodabad at Adiala Road and its adjoining areas as no substitute arrangements were made by the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) to meet shortage of water in the area. The locals namely Rizwan Chatta, Zahoor, Adalat, Rab Nawaz, Ghulam Abbas, Riaz, Fayyaz, Said Rasool, Ali Nawaz, Shakeel Ahmed, Sheikh Tasleem, Muhammad Javed, Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Akram, Wasiq Razzak, Sajjad Sadiq showed their grievances and asked the quarters concerned to meet their demand of water supply on priority. They said they would stage protest if they were not provided uninterrupted water. One of the complainants, Inam Ullah, told APP that there was no pipeline in the street while the adjoining streets were getting proper water that was totally unjustified. Another complainant said, “We have to fetch water from far flung areas to meet the daily needs. We can’t afford a water tanker that is costly and unaffordable and we have to pay Rs2,000 to buy water from private water tankers,” he added. The residents of the area demanded to ensure regular supply of water during hot summer season. The area tubewell operator said that the residents should approach and asked officials concerned to lay down the pipeline in the area, after that the issue would be resolved. An official of WASA said that agency was working out proper plan to cope with the issue. He said the WASA had already initiated to lay down water pipelines in different areas of Adiala Road including Kehkashan Colony, Munawar Colony, Dhama Syedan, Sanjoli Street, Bank Colony, Hill View Lane, Sadiq Town, Jarahi, and Janjua Town to provide pure drinking water round the clock at the cost of Rs400 million.

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Hyderabad: Due to the repair works of arresting heavy water leakage on phase-III and 120 mm dia pipeline at three locations near Shankerpally and replacing damaged pipes with new barrels of 1150 mm dia, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board (HMWS&SB) is going to shut down drinking water supply to certain areas from 6 am of June 1 2022 to 6 am on June 2.

According to the Water Board, there will be no water supply to several reservoirs including Gandipet, Narsingi, Manikonda, Kokapet, Puppalaguda, Chandanagar, HUDA Colony, BHEL, Tara Nagar, Gangaram, Lingampally, Papi Reddy Colony, Nalagandla, Gopanpally, Gulmohar Park, Netaji Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Tellapur, Chintalbasthi, Vijaynagar colony and Mallepally.

Water Board officials requested its consumers to use water conservatively to avoid inconvenience.

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Fahad Shabbir

(@FahadShabbir)

Published May 29, 2022 | 10:10 PM

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 29th May, 2022 ) :The Pakistan Peoples Party’s MPA Abdul Jabbar Khan has decried that the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has been failing to supply clean drinking water to the citizens.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, he pointed out that complaints of water shortage had been surfacing from many localities while in several other areas unclean water was being supplied by WASA.

He said the unclean water was causing various illnesses among the people.

He asked WASA to address the problem at the earliest.

The MPA expressed hope that after completion of the new filtration plant project in Hussainabad the water shortage complaints in Latifabad taluka would largely resolve.

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In many parts of the world now facing drought and water shortage, cities and countries are learning to adapt.

Back in 2018, taps in Cape Town, South Africa almost ran dry, making it the world’s first major city to face the risk of running out of water. That problem hasn’t gone away — this year, communities in Nelson Mandela Bay, about 750 kilometres (460 miles) to the east, could see their reservoirs used up by July.

Cape Town managed to avoid “Day Zero” by introducing strict water restrictions on businesses and residents. The city increased water tariffs and fines for overuse and worked with the agriculture sector to reduce water consumption and retain soil moisture. Toward the end, residents were limited to just 50 litres (around 13 gallons) a day. To put that in perspective, one load of laundry can use up around 70 litres depending on the machine.

Ingrid Coetzee, an expert on biodiversity, nature and health based in Cape Town, lived through that time. “I remember how hard it was having to live with those severe restrictions, in terms of cutting back on our daily water limits,” she told DW by phone.

She said an extensive public awareness campaign asked people to cut back or eliminate water-guzzling activities like washing clothes or cars, and advised them to take shorter showers — and reuse that shower water to flush the toilet. “Many homeowners, especially those who could afford it, would install rainwater harvesting tanks, but the reality is that the majority of people didn’t have those luxuries and they really struggled,” she said.

Looking to nature for solutions to water shortages

Since the drought, Coetzee said the city also found ways to increase water supply by working with public agencies, private companies and local communities to restore surface water catchment areas and aquifers. “A nature-based solution, in the form of removing invasive alien vegetation in the city’s catchment areas, and restoring these areas, proved to be the most cost-effective and efficient measure with the best yields,” said Coetzee, a director at ICLEI, a sustainability association of more than 2,500 local and regional governments.

Invasive species like pine and eucalyptus soak up much more water than the native fynbos shrub and restrict the city’s water supply. “Efforts so far have yielded 55 billion liters of additional water each year at one-tenth of the cost of the next cheapest option for that level of yield,” Coetzee told DW. This solution, along with the return of the rain and the conservation measures learned during the 2018 crisis, have helped refill the city’s dams and significantly ease water concerns — at least for the now.

Plugging leaks and raising awareness to stem water loss

Many other cities around the world have invested in efficiency measures to help conserve water. The Japanese capital of Tokyo, for example, has upgraded its infrastructure and relied on the prompt detection and repair of leaks to cut its water waste in half from 2002 to 2012, down to just three per cent. In places where the supply is already under threat due to climate change, such efforts are even more critical. Like many Californians, 3.3 million residents in San Diego County on the southern US border with Mexico, have faced several severe droughts over the last 20 years.

But thanks to water restrictions, public education and investments to increase reservoir capacity and line canals with concrete to prevent seepage, the county has reduced per capita water usage by nearly 50 per cent over the past three decades. Along with technological solutions like desalination plants, which remove salt from ocean water to make it drinkable, and future plans to purify used water, or gray water, the county has said it will be able to meet local demand until at least 2045.

Recycling water in Africa and Europe

Arid Namibia is a veteran when it comes to finding alternative water sources. The capital, Windhoek, installed the word’s first water recycling plant in 1968, turning sewage into safe drinking water in a 10-step process involving disinfection and several layers of filtration. The Gorengab Water Reclamation Plant was upgraded in 2002 and continues to deliver a reliable water supply. Water recycling and desalination are already common in dry climates like the Middle East, the Mediterranean and South Asia. But not so in Northern Europe, where countries haven’t really had to worry about their water supplies until now.

Belgium and the Netherlands are looking at projects in Antwerp and The Hague that would create drinkable water from unconventional sources — at least by local standards. A plant in the port of Antwerp, set to open in 2024, would treat saltwater and, eventually, wastewater, for use in nearby industrial sites. By reducing the port’s use of fresh drinking water by around 95 per cent, it hopes to ease the pressure on the region’s water supply after years of drought-like conditions.

In The Hague, water provider Dunea has launched a pilot project to treat brackish water pumped up from beneath coastal sand dunes. Reverse osmosis, which uses high pressure and very fine membranes to filter out salt and other minerals, could help Dunea produce up to six billion litres (1.5 billion gallons) of drinking water every year. It sounds like a lot — but in 2019, the Netherlands used up around 1.2 trillion litres. “We’re aiming to increase the number of water sources, but also to limit demand,” said Dunea project leader Gertjan Zwolsman at the launch in February. “For example, we support water-efficient new buildings and ask our customers to use water responsibly. But this approach takes time.”

Turning to the past for water solutions

Sometimes, though, the simplest solution is best. Last year, Istanbul took an idea from the era of Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire and made it compulsory for all new buildings on parcels of land over 1,000 square meters (10,760 square feet) to include underground cisterns to collect and use rainwater. Turkey’s federal government has mandated similar plans for the rest of the country.

To counter desertification in Senegal, some farmers have been planting circular gardens known as tolou keur, which support plants and trees resistant to hot, dry climates. The circular beds — medicinal plants in the middle, followed by rows of vegetables and an outer ring of fruit, nut and large baobab trees — allow the roots to grow inward, helping to trap the region’s rare downpours. And in countries like Chile and Morocco, locals have long spread nets to harvest water by capturing fog. By using modern technology and materials to improve the design, researchers have been able to collect five times as much water for otherwise parched regions.

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Originally Appeared Here