TBS Report

18 June, 2022, 07:50 pm

Last modified: 18 June, 2022, 07:55 pm

File photo of LGRD Minister Md Tajul Islam

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File photo of LGRD Minister Md Tajul Islam

Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Minister Md Tajul Islam has instructed to cut the roads if they create obstacles in draining the flood waters out in the country’s Sylhet region.

He also directed Sylhet City Corporation to supply electricity through generators as the power supply to Sylhet MAG Osmani Hospital was cut off due to flooding.

He made the remarks while briefing reporters on the dire flood situation in the Sylhet region at his official residence on Mintu Road in the capital this afternoon.

The Minister said that as per the directives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Department of Local Government Engineering and Sylhet City Corporation have already been instructed to immediately cut off the roads due to which the water could not flow down. 

Officials from the local government engineering department and the city corporation are monitoring the situation.

He also said that separate control rooms have already been opened in the local government department and the public health engineering department under this department.

Tajul Islam said our main goal now is to rescue people from flood-hit areas and bring them to safety in addition to providing them with dry food, pure water and water purification tablets. 

To this end, people from all walks of life, including public representatives, government officials, members of the Army, Navy and other forces, and voluntary organizations, are voluntarily participating and assisting the flood-affected people. In addition, work is being done in coordination with the Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Relief and Disaster, Ministry of Shipping and other concerned ministries.

Responding to a question from reporters, he said it was possible to take swift action as the government was prepared in advance. The government will provide necessary allocation for the damage caused to roads, bridges and other places by the floods.

Praising the media personnel for risking their lives in case of any natural calamity and emergency, the minister said that the information provided through the media would enable the government to know and take immediate action.
 

 

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As summer unfolds, Coronado and Imperial Beach are facing an uncomfortable question: What’s a beach city without its beach?

Both places have seen their sandy shores dotted in recent weeks with yellow “keep out” signs that warn visitors about unsafe ocean water contaminated by sewage from Tijuana.

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The persistent closures have government officials, residents, tourists and business owners bracing for a bummer summer in the South Bay.

“It could be devastating for our local economy and for the overall public perception of our beaches,” said Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey. “The beaches are a natural resource enjoyed by the entire region. Having them closed all the time would be a tremendous loss for everyone.”

Some are already feeling the loss. Remy Willens traveled with her family from Virginia two weeks ago for a vacation in Coronado. Until the tail end of it, the ocean was off-limits.

“I don’t think we would’ve paid all this money to stay here if we’d known the beach would be closed,” Willens said Thursday afternoon as she watched her 1-year-old daughter Quinn play on the sand. “I’m happy it reopened before we left, but we’ll definitely be reconsidering our vacation plans next year.”

Although dirty water closures have been a problem for decades, they usually happen in the less-crowded winter months after storm runoff overwhelms sewer and drainage systems south of the border.

They’re happening now because county health officials implemented a new, DNA-based water testing system May 5 that gives them a faster, more accurate picture of the bacteria that can make people sick.

In the works for about a decade, the new system was developed in part to address clamoring from swimmers, surfers and others for better monitoring. Some have long suspected that the ocean is more polluted than the old tests showed.

But few anticipated what’s happened since the rollout. Imperial Beach has been shut down every day. Silver Strand State Beach, just north, joined it on the daily closure list last week.

And Coronado, which 10 years ago was named the best beach in America in a widely-cited annual ranking?

From May 10 through June 15, it was closed half the time.

‘I just don’t trust it’

Few places in California are as associated with the beach in the public’s mind as Coronado is.

You cross saltwater to get there, coming from San Diego by bridge or by boat. Once there, you’re never far from a shoreline. Vistas of sand and surf dominate travel websites that routinely gush about the city’s beauty and relaxed pace.

Many of the feature articles also offer glimpses of the Hotel del Coronado, the red-roofed jewel that’s hosted presidents and princes and been the backdrop for dozens of Hollywood movies. It opened in 1888, when the worry visitors brought with them wasn’t water quality but the new-fangled lights that Thomas Edison helped install.

“The use of electricity for lighting is in no way harmful to health,” a card in every room advised.

The lure of old-world charm and scenic splendor persists, and on Thursday afternoon, along the wide stretch of beach that runs adjacent to the Hotel Del, it wasn’t hard to see why.

Dozens of families lined the warm sand with towels and umbrellas on a breezy, 68-degree day. They watched as kids built sand castles or tossed footballs or frolicked in the surf with boogie boards. Others took photos as the Navy jets flew overhead up and down the coastline.

The beach was open — for now.

But Tina Simon from San Francisco sat by the pool at the hotel, watching her twin daughters splash in that water. “I’m not letting them get in the ocean,” she said.

Her family visits every year, she said, and beach closures have not been an issue before. “The girls love the waves, so they were super upset when I told them they can’t go in,” she said. “I just don’t trust it.”

Jeff Bowman and his wife traveled from Arizona to visit family in Point Loma and were sitting on a bench in front of the hotel, looking out at the beach. He said they come to San Diego three or four times a year and enjoy bringing their grandson to Coronado.

“If (beach closures) got to be a big, big issue, we’d be going up to Orange County,” he said. “But we love it here, so we hope it remains the San Diego that we know and love.”

Tourists aren’t the only ones concerned.

Along the boardwalk by the hotel, Ian Olivers listened as his children, ages 7 and 9, argued about who’d picked up the bigger piece of trash. A different kind of pollution was on this longtime San Diegan’s mind.

“Sewage is one of the biggest ocean pollutants,” he said. “It’s not a new problem, and it’s so sad to see that we haven’t been able to fix it.”

Bill Pavlacka, aka The Sand Castle Man, sat and watched as tourists took photos of his creations in front of the Hotel Del.

He said he is on the beach most days and was alarmed by the closures. “I’m horrified that we can’t do anything to stop this,” said Pavlacka, who is sometimes paid for his custom sculptures. “It affects my business.” If it continues, he, too, might head up the coast.

Jino Frederick, manager of Little Sam’s Island & Beach Fun, is also worried about what persistent closures might do to the bottom line.

“We’re basically just a beach rental business, and we wouldn’t really be able to rent our beach equipment like surfboards, boogie boards and all that if the beach is closed,” he said. “It is a big part of our business.”

Raising questions

City officials in Coronado and Imperial Beach knew that new water tests were coming, but they said they’ve been blindsided by the results.

“There was no indication from the county that there was even a remote possibility that we would be closed for so much of the first part of summer,” said Bailey, the Coronado mayor.

He questioned what, exactly, the tests are detecting.

“No one wants to swim in dirty water,” he said Thursday afternoon. “But is the water truly unsafe, or is it as safe as it was in past summers?”

He and other city officials met with the county on Friday and got an answer. He said they were told that if the environmental health department was still using the old tests, the beaches wouldn’t have been closed.

“The water quality off Coronado is the same as what’s existed for decades,” he said.

City leaders asked the county to go back to the old tests through this summer, giving officials, residents and businesses more time to “get our hands around the practical impacts” of the switch to the more-sensitive monitoring.

Serge Dedina, Imperial Beach’s mayor, said he’s been baffled by what he called “a failure to communicate” by the county on the implementation of the tests. He said he hopes to use a meeting scheduled for Tuesday to make sure he understands the science behind what is happening now.

“The biggest issue is what the threshold is, especially at the lower end, where it’s kind of a gray area,” he said. “In certain conditions, is this really a threat to public health? We want to be sure the test is giving us the best possible indication of what’s a risk and what isn’t.”

County health officials said the standards they use underwent rigorous evaluation by state and federal agencies. They have no plans to change them.

During the almost 10 years it took to get the new monitoring approved, the county said, affected cities and agencies — including the Navy, which trains its SEALs along the Silver Strand — have been invited to meetings to discuss the tests and their anticipated outcomes.

Those meetings will continue, the county said.

In the meantime, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is pursuing a $630-million plan to curb the cross-border pollution by diverting wastewater away from an outdated treatment plant at Punta Bandera that is estimated to be dumping as much as 35 million gallons of raw sewage a day into the Pacific Ocean.

Completion of the project is years away, a frustration to many, including Pavlacka, the sand castle builder.

“I’m very disappointed that our elected leaders can’t do anything to stop this,” he said. “They keep telling us they’re doing something, but year after year, nothing’s getting done. We’re all responsible — the United States, Mexico. Everybody’s responsible and we need to solve the problem.”

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ODESSA, Texas — Residents of the West Texas city of Odessa who have been without safe tap water this week amid scorching temperatures may be able to drink safely straight from the faucet as early as Saturday afternoon, city officials said Friday.

Samples from the Odessa area water utility pipes were sent off for testing Friday afternoon, said Odessa Public Works Director Thomas Kerr. If the test results come back clean, the city’s weeklong boil-water notice could be lifted by 1:30 p.m. Saturday, he said.

Temperatures approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) in Odessa daily this week as Texas and much of the United States faced extremely hot and humid conditions. And while the city typically sees hot weather in June, the timing of the break made dealing with this week’s heat more difficult.

The city said taps in 165,000 homes and businesses lost pressure or went completely dry after a 24-inch (61-centimeter) main broke Monday afternoon. Odessa’s water treatment plant was back online by about 8 a.m. Wednesday, but workers have conducted a “recharging” process since then, slowly adding water volume to the system to ensure there are no more leaks.

In the meantime, customers have relied on bottled water to consume and cook with, and boiling to disinfect whatever water came from their faucets.

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Early in the morning of Aug. 17, 2021, El Dorado Irrigation District Director of Operations Dan Corcoran knew that his region’s watersheds were in trouble.The Caldor Fire was sweeping through Grizzly Flat and heading right for Jenkinson Lake, the area’s main water source. At the time, Corcoran’s focus was evacuating the area and checking on staff that lived in the area.Once the smoke cleared, the challenge of maintaining safe water quality for the region was just beginning.”This is the lifeblood of our community and this is what we’re going to work hard to maintain to ensure it remains safe for our drinking water,” Corcoran said.Corcoran has been with EID for 18 years. He said the aftermath of the Caldor Fire is easily the biggest incident he’s had to manage.”We’ve affected our entire service area,” he said. The high-intensity, fire-scorched soil, brush and trees, release carbon that the forested area had been naturally storing up for decades. That carbon could then easily enter the water supply with the next rainstorm. While carbon is a naturally-occurring element, it’s not safe to consume above a certain level. So to clean the water, EID had to alter its filtration and sterilization procedures. “We’re constantly looking at the amount of carbon that’s coming into our reservoirs and the amount that’s coming into our treatment plants,” Corcoran said.The record rain that fell at the end of October sent carbon levels to 100 times the normal value at one of EID’s treatment facilities. Officials were forced to shut the site down for 24 hours in order to ensure safe drinking water. Still, water in the region was reported to have a musty, earthy smell and taste in the days after the storm.October’s storm brought fire season to an end, but it wasn’t a clean sweep for the Caldor Fire’s burn scar region. Carbon is still being released as trees decay and the once-fertile soil has turned pale and dusty.”The topsoil is effectively sterilized. And there’s no life,” Corcoran said.And no way for that soil to easily retain moisture when rain does fall. Despite that, there are signs of new growth returning to the area. But that growth looks different.Where once there were plenty of pines, black oaks are the first to return. Those oaks tend to thrive more in dry regions with little shade. Those changes aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but yet another example of how large fires can alter ecosystems. Corcoran said that the next few winters will play a big role in determining how fast the watershed is able to return to a more stable existence and start trapping carbon again. But he anticipates that EID will need to manage the Caldor Fire’s impacts on drinking water for a long time.”Our water is and will continue to be safe. But the problems are going to be challenging for the next several years and potentially decades as we work to restore the function of this watershed,” he said.

Early in the morning of Aug. 17, 2021, El Dorado Irrigation District Director of Operations Dan Corcoran knew that his region’s watersheds were in trouble.

The Caldor Fire was sweeping through Grizzly Flat and heading right for Jenkinson Lake, the area’s main water source.

At the time, Corcoran’s focus was evacuating the area and checking on staff that lived in the area.

Once the smoke cleared, the challenge of maintaining safe water quality for the region was just beginning.

“This is the lifeblood of our community and this is what we’re going to work hard to maintain to ensure it remains safe for our drinking water,” Corcoran said.

Corcoran has been with EID for 18 years. He said the aftermath of the Caldor Fire is easily the biggest incident he’s had to manage.

“We’ve affected our entire service area,” he said.

The high-intensity, fire-scorched soil, brush and trees, release carbon that the forested area had been naturally storing up for decades.

That carbon could then easily enter the water supply with the next rainstorm.

While carbon is a naturally-occurring element, it’s not safe to consume above a certain level. So to clean the water, EID had to alter its filtration and sterilization procedures.

“We’re constantly looking at the amount of carbon that’s coming into our reservoirs and the amount that’s coming into our treatment plants,” Corcoran said.

The record rain that fell at the end of October sent carbon levels to 100 times the normal value at one of EID’s treatment facilities. Officials were forced to shut the site down for 24 hours in order to ensure safe drinking water.

Still, water in the region was reported to have a musty, earthy smell and taste in the days after the storm.

October’s storm brought fire season to an end, but it wasn’t a clean sweep for the Caldor Fire’s burn scar region. Carbon is still being released as trees decay and the once-fertile soil has turned pale and dusty.

“The topsoil is effectively sterilized. And there’s no life,” Corcoran said.

And no way for that soil to easily retain moisture when rain does fall.

Despite that, there are signs of new growth returning to the area. But that growth looks different.

Where once there were plenty of pines, black oaks are the first to return. Those oaks tend to thrive more in dry regions with little shade.

Those changes aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but yet another example of how large fires can alter ecosystems.

Corcoran said that the next few winters will play a big role in determining how fast the watershed is able to return to a more stable existence and start trapping carbon again.

But he anticipates that EID will need to manage the Caldor Fire’s impacts on drinking water for a long time.

“Our water is and will continue to be safe. But the problems are going to be challenging for the next several years and potentially decades as we work to restore the function of this watershed,” he said.

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Originally Appeared Here

Water is — said without pathos — our elixir of life. After the air we breathe, we depend on nothing more to survive. We are made up of about 70 percent water and can survive only a few days without its replenishment. So it’s fair to say that few other areas of critical infrastructure are as important to us as the supply of pure drinking water. But in the face of rising global tensions, there is growing concern that water supplies, which are as important as they are vulnerable, could become the target of cyberattacks.

Earlier this year, on January 11, 2022, the Joint Research Center of the European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (ERNCIP) published its Water Security Plan in the form of a handbook. This addresses the implementation of security measures to protect the physical and digital integrity of water supply systems. The plan is intended to enable drinking water supply operators to lay the groundwork for implementing specific measures to improve water system security against threats and attacks.

Security standards to provide guidance

To secure the water utility’s digital flank, it is first helpful to look to standards such as ISO, IEC, ISA or other best practices for cybersecurity. They provide security officers with structured guidance on what security measures, if any, have already been implemented and where they still need to catch up. But standards, certifications and regulations are subject to bureaucracy and must go through lengthy processes before they can respond to current changes in the threat environment.

In contrast, cybercriminals’ attack techniques are constantly evolving. Often, newly discovered security vulnerabilities are exploited for days or weeks before they see the light of day and come to the attention of security officials.

Defenders are thus always at a disadvantage because they can only react to the dynamic threat situation.

To avoid falling behind against hostile actors and to detect potential attack attempts at an early stage, it is therefore advisable to keep an eye on data traffic throughout the entire plant network and watch out for anomalies.

Seamless real-time analysis and identification of suspicious anomalies are the best protection against cyberattacks

Section 2.2.3 of the ERNCIP report addresses water utilities’ cyber detection systems and identifies the following three items as priority security strategy actions:

Normal State Modeling

Sensor data as well as traffic are analyzed using “unsupervised” algorithms. Both the circulating data packets and the IP addresses of all sending and receiving devices are considered. Ports and protocols used for communication are also included in the analysis. From the sum of all these data, a normal state is extrapolated, whereby later deviations can be identified as warning signals.

Real-time protection systems for sensor data

To be able to guarantee the integrity of sensor data, it must be possible to monitor it in real time. By detecting deviations at an early stage, not only can potential attacks be averted, but malfunctions can also be corrected more quickly during ongoing operations.

Establishment of a Security Information and Event Management

SIEM is a proven IT security tool that allows its users to anticipate potential incidents and thus be prepared for the worst case scenario.

High-performance correlation methods allow data from different levels to be drawn upon and combined to form a situation picture. This allows early warning signals to be generated, on the basis of which security managers can take informed countermeasures.

Quality of information is crucial

The “how?” is more important than the “how much?” for analyzing network traffic. An experienced attacker rarely generates a suspiciously high volume of traffic. He is interested in acting as inconspicuously as possible, nesting in the system and then striking at a critical moment.

The best way to identify an attacker is to look for anomalies. To do this, one must analyze the logs down to the payloads and scrutinize the nature of all circulating data. Likewise, the infrastructure that controls the industrial processes should be examined.

In order to obtain a reliable insight and a professional analysis of all processes, an extensive arsenal of sensors is just as important as 24/7 monitoring and evaluation of all collected data. From a long period of observation, the parameters for the proper functioning of a plant can be determined. Significant deviations from the norm can indicate a malfunction or even a cyber-attack.

The more accurate and up-to-date the overall picture, the better it is possible to respond to critical incidents

A full complement of sensors, as well as intelligent and seamless monitoring of all the data they transmit, is critical to the security of water supply operations. . Hardly any other supply system is as essential to society and as sensitive to disruptions as the water supply. There is a reason why the legal limits for water purity are among the strictest regulations for food in the world.

It’s time to focus on safeguarding against cyberattacks with the same sense of responsibility. Extensive sensor equipment and real-time data monitoring can not only protect against cyber attacks, but also help to detect and correct other malfunctions that could affect water integrity at an early stage.

Image credit: EpicStockMedia/depositphotos.com

Paul Evans is Technical Lead at Nozomi Networks

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Originally Appeared Here

Brooklyn is riddled with lead water piping that could take years to fix, putting residents—especially children—at risk of lead poisoning, environmental advocates say.

Right now, New York City is in the process of completing a pilot program to replace lead water service lines in 300 homes across the five boroughs, including some in Brooklyn.

However, replacing tens-of-thousands more lead pipes in the borough could take a decade or more, and action needs to be taken now, advocates say.

In 2020, New York City began replacing its lead service lines (LSLs) in 300 homes citywide, after being awarded a $5.3 million Lead Service Line Replacement Program grant, The New York State Department of Health told BK Reader.

Lead pipes are one of the sources of lead in drinking water. Photo: Pexels

The addresses selected for the pilot came from a pool of low-income homeowners who qualify for financial assistance for heat and water bills through the NYS Home Energy Assistance Program and NYC Home Water Assistance Programs, NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) spokesperson Edward Timbers told BK Reader.

Despite the initial 300 homes’ pipes being fixed in the city, water utilities estimate more than 37,000 water lines are potentially made of of lead in Brooklyn. Another 93,027 are made of “unknown material.”

In December last year, the Biden administration announced a plan to remove lead pipes nationwide, with a goal to do it within 10 years. However, he also said the pipes are “a clear and present danger to our children’s health.”

“LSLs have caused water crises and public health disasters across the US, most notably in Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey,” Environmental Advocates NY said in a November state testimony on the lead poisoning crisis.

“Without state action to remove and replace 100% of LSLs, a water crisis similar to the magnitude of Flint and Newark may occur in our state as well.”

Dangers of lead piping

Service lines are pipes that carry drinking water from the water mains under city streets to the internal plumbing in homes and other buildings. When they are made of lead—popular in housing constructed before 1945—the lead in the pipes can leach into the drinking water.

Even low levels of exposure to the harmful neurotoxin can cause permanent damage to the human body, including decreased cognitive function, developmental delays, and behavioral problems for kids, heart and kidney disease, fetal miscarriages, and premature birth.

In 2018, more than 500,000 children in the U.S. had elevated levels of lead in their blood — 4,717 of whom live in NYC. 

The potential numbers of lead pipes in NYC. Photo: NYC Data

New York is estimated to have one of the highest totals of LSLs in the nation (360,000), and Brooklyn is estimated to have some of the highest numbers of lead service lines in the city.

It is difficult to calculate a precise figure, because many utilities do not know how many LSLs are in their system or where they are located, Environmental Advocates NY said. However the high numbers are unsurprising given New York’s older housing stock.

Plus, because most urban cores have high numbers of LSLs, low-income communities and communities of color are more likely to have an LSL serving their homes.

Brooklyn homeowners and residents who are unsure whether their water service lines contain lead can look up their property on this map.

Slow rollout of solutions

The process of replacing water piping to so many homes will take time and hundreds of millions of dollars.

First, a homeowner must determine whether their piping is made of lead, and what specific parts are lead. Then, the lead pipes need to be replaced, either through making a trench to replace old pipes, or through drilling in new pipes.

The cost of replacement of a full LSL (from the public main to the residence) is between $5,000 and $10,000, the state estimates.

Open trench pipe replacement (l) and no-trench replacement (r). Photo: Health NY

If the replacement plan takes many years, thousands more children could be put at risk of lead poisoning in Brooklyn. That’s why some companies are coming up with short-term solutions to the problem.

Brita is a water filtration company that partners with municipalities to provide residents living with lead piping in the meantime with pitchers that remove 99% of lead from drinking water.

To replace all the lead pipes and service lines in our drinking water systems, it’s estimated to take at least 15 years, Brita Director of Innovation & New Business Ventures Elana Rosenthal said.

Municipalities should utilize federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to provide the filters to lead-affected residents while they wait for replacement pipes, Rosenthal said.

“The continued lead issues across the country have saddled municipalities to address the issue for their citizens and businesses.

Photo: Pexels

“Clean drinking water is a fundamental human right and we’re committed to helping our nation’s water utilities navigate solutions for delivering lead-reduced drinking water as they wait on the long-term infrastructure fixes many of our communities so desperately need.”

In December last year, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said it will send $2.9 billion in 2022 to states, territories and tribes to replace lead pipes.

Meanwhile, Timbers said the DEP was anticipating a much larger LSL replacement program with federal guidelines and funding coming soon, although he did not have details on how much funding the city might get.

“We’re hoping to have more on that at some point this year, we are awaiting guidance from our partners at the federal level.”

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Originally Appeared Here

WASHINGTON — Environmental and community organizations from across the nation today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the longstanding scope of the Clean Water Act and reject industry attempts to eliminate federal clean water protections that have kept families, communities, and rivers and lakes safe from pollution for decades. Natural Resources Defense Council joined the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents 113 environmental and community organizations, in filing the brief in support of the Environmental Protection Agency in the case, Sackett v. EPA.

“Our families and communities rely on the Clean Water Act to safeguard our waterways and wetlands that control flooding, filter out pollution, and provide safe drinking water,” said Kelly Moser, senior attorney and leader of the Clean Water Defense Initiative at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents 113 environmental and community groups in today’s filing. “A bipartisan Congress put these federal clean water protections in place, and decades of Supreme Court decisions confirm their broad scope. Polluters are now seeking to undo decades of progress—under administrations of both parties—to allow millions of miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands to be polluted and paved over.”

“Anyone who depends on clean water – meaning all of us – should be appalled at the polluters’ brazen attempt to rewrite history and eviscerate the Clean Water Act,” said Jon Devine, director of federal water policy at NRDC. “The Clean Water Act’s protections for small streams and wetlands benefit communities across the country by curbing flooding, preventing pollution of places our families go fishing and swimming, and supplying drinking water for millions of people.” 

The opponents of clean water in the case are asking the Supreme Court to gut the Clean Water Act by excluding critical streams and wetlands, allowing them to be filled in and subjected to industrial pollution. This outcome would decimate the quality of downstream rivers and lakes that Americans depend on for drinking water, fishing, swimming, and their livelihoods. Wetlands help protect our communities from increasingly intense storms and floods, act as natural pollution filters that improve our water quality, and protect wildlife including fish and shellfish for our fisheries.

Congress enacted the Clean Water Act fifty years ago with a single objective:  to restore and maintain the integrity of our nation’s waters. Congress rejected earlier failed approaches that largely left water pollution to a patchwork of ineffective state laws, and instead adopted a comprehensive approach with consistent minimum standards to protect waterways throughout the country.

As highlighted in the brief, over 45 million acres of wetlands would be excluded from the Clean Water Act’s protections if the Supreme Court adopted the challengers’ arguments.  Among the waters that would lose protection are hundreds of acres of wetlands on the doorstep of the Okefenokee Swamp. This invaluable national wildlife refuge and the downstream St. Marys Rivers depend on the wetlands to filter pollution and store floodwaters, but the Sackett petitioners would remove federal clean water protections from the wetlands, allowing them to be destroyed and turned into waste dumps for a proposed strip mine.

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About the Southern Environmental Law Center
The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 170, including 90 attorneys, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. southernenvironment.org

About NRDC
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.

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The World Bank promises to grant a loan to the Malagasy government for the financing of the Project for the Improvement of Access to Drinking Water (PAAEP) in Madagascar. An agreement relating to the granting of this financing was signed recently in Tananarive, in the presence of the Head of State Andry Rajoelina. The PAAEP, for which the World Bank is committing 220 million dollars, aims to strengthen the supply of drinking water in the Malagasy capital, but also in the cities of Antsiranana, Mahajanga, Fianarantsoa, Manakara and Antsirabe.

In the capital Tananarive, the project validated by the Council of Ministers in April 2022 aims to increase drinking water production capacity by 20%, or 40,800 m3 per day, through the construction of new treatment facilities. The PAAEP will also enable the strengthening of the water network of the public company Jiro Sy Rano Malagasy (JIRAMA).

A springboard for the reconstruction of drinking water infrastructures

“Madagascar is facing a water and sanitation crisis given its extreme vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and meteorological shocks, as evidenced by the recent cyclones,” recalls Marie-Chantal Uwanyiligira, the World Bank’s operations manager for Madagascar.

Read also- MADAGASCAR: the World Bank grants 40 M$ for the development of irrigation

The Malagasy government wants to rely on the PEAP to rebuild the infrastructure affected by the climatic disasters that have hit Madagascar in recent months. In February 2022, the island was hit by Cyclone Batisrai, which made landfall in Mananjary, with winds of 165 km/h and gusts to 235 km/h, displacing 61,000 people, affecting 112,000 people and killing at least 92.

The impact of the Tana water project

These repeated disasters are putting a strain on the drinking water supply systems in large cities like Tananarive, which are already struggling to meet the needs of their populations. Moreover, due to the lack of pipes, the JIRAMA supplies certain areas of Greater Tananarive with water from tankers. This shows the importance of the PAAEP, which should also enable the strengthening of JIRAMA’s operational capacities. According to the Malagasy government, the project should guarantee the supply of drinking water to 1.8 million people, including 1.2 million in Tananarive and 600,000 in other towns.

Jean Marie Takouleu

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Originally Appeared Here

Tap water is safe to drink, but its taste is too metallic in certain areas, making it unpalatable for many who prefer bottled water.

Now the Water Services Corporation wants to change this by improving the taste and getting tap water on every dining table.

To achieve this, the WSC will be reducing chloride levels, which gives water a metallic taste, by 20% during 2022.

And to do this, the state company will increase the production of water from reverse osmosis plants by 14%, while reducing groundwater extraction by the same rate.

64% of tap water in 2022 will be derived from sea water: tap water in households is composed of a blend of groundwater extracted from the water table and water derived from the sea.

The chloride level of blended water currently stands at an average of 500 parts per million (ppm). Although this has no ill-effects on human health, it impacts on the taste of water, resulting in greater consumption of bottled water.

Groundwater accounted for 41% of Malta’s drinking water in 2021, down from 56% in 2010. It is projected that in 2022 the share of ground water in the blend will be further decreased to 36% as 64% of tap water will be derived from RO.

“We believe that our tap water needs to be available on each and every dining table. This will significantly reduce plastic use and waste: ‘reduce’ is the most crucial tactic in sustainable growth,” the report states.

The increase in the share of RO water comes at a cost, since the plants consume hefty amounts of electricity. However, ground water extraction also requires the use of electricity-powered pumps but is generally less taxing. One potential risk not mentioned in the report is increased dependency on sea water which also increases vulnerability to risks like oil spills.

But the annual report outlines concrete plans to increase energy efficiency and thus reduce the WSC’s carbon footprint.

Apart from greater investment in solar energy, the report refers to a concentrated effort in energy management. It also refers to specific energy reductions through the replacement of pumps, upgrades in the electrical control panels and air blowers and modifications to energy hungry processes to minimise the carbon footprint associated with the production, distribution, waste collection and treatment of water.

The newly-constructed RO plant at Ħondoq in Gozo will be using pumping equipment that consumes 20% less energy than the current equipment used in other RO plants.

The report shows that despite the increased share of RO water expected in 2022, the corporation’s electricity bill will be reduced from €19.5 million to €19.2 million.

During 2021, reverse osmosis production was increased by 8,300 cubic metres a day by adding a new train with a capacity of 4,500 cubic meters daily at Pembroke, and another new train at Lapsi with a capacity of 3,800 cubic meters.

Production capacity will increase considerably once the Ħondoq plant in Gozo is fully commissioned and more upgrades in the Malta plants are finalised.

While extraction from groundwater sources will continue to decrease in the coming years, the number of boreholes will actually increase. This is because a number of boreholes that have not been in use for many years will be recommissioned to relieve the stress on other parts of the island.

In 2021, three groundwater sources were reactivated, while in 2022, twelve more boreholes are planned to be reactivated. Twenty-five boreholes will eventually be reactivated, thus increasing groundwater sources by 30% with lower total extraction.

The corporation also intends to increase potable water reserves across the country, thereby improving the security of supply. The Naval Reservoir at Luqa will be re-commissioned by mid-2022.

WSC losing less water

The report also indicates a sharp reduction in leaks and unbilled water. The amount of unbilled water referred as Non Revenue Water (NRW) has been on the decline over the last five years following a peak of over 43%. NRW has been successfully reduced from 39% in 2020 to 35.9% in 2021.

Leakages have been reduced to a record low level, resulting in a 1.4% reduction in the production of water over the preceding year.

Improvement in metering to ascertain that water consumption is more accurately billed, results in an overall improvement of 3.6% over the preceding year.

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Roland Lizarondo

A former fountain with plants in it is shown at the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College on June 9, 2022.

They’ve been part of the American Dream, Southern California style for decades. But verdant lawns are disappearing more and more thanks to shrinking water supplies.

The Golden State is now in its third year of drought. A study published by the journal Nature Climate Change in February found this is the worst drought in what is now the western United States in 1,200 years.

So, water conservation is vital, but that doesn’t necessarily mean getting rid of lawns.

“We can reduce irrigation use on almost any property by 50 to 70% with proper irrigation tools,” said Scott Lawn, the owner of Greenway Irrigation Lawn and Landscape. (And yes, that’s his real name.)

Roland Lizarondo

A house is shown in La Mesa where a lawn has been replaced by drought resistant landscaping on June 9, 2022.

Lawn said you could use a lot less water and keep grass green by using MPR stream rotors, a type of sprinkler made by MPR Supplies, and drip irrigation.

But more and more, he said, people are opting for either artificial turf and drought-resistant plants along with hardscape, which consists mainly of decorative rocks and pavers.

Modern turf is a long way from the AstroTurf of yesteryear.

“The fibers now, they’ve come up with all sorts of ways to swirl the fibers, to twist the fibers and to give it some rigidity and that cushioning that you’re noticing,” Lawn said. “And it looks natural.”

But for those looking to move away from the lawn look, there is an amazing array of colorful plants that use very little water.

An impressive array can be found in the nearly 5-acre Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College.

Roland Lizarondo

The entrance to the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College is shown on June 9, 2022.

“San Diegans have done a great part in continuing water use efficiency. But there’s always more we can do,” said Efren Lopez, a water resources specialist with the San Diego County Water Authority.

Lopez said there are incentives for people to get more water-wise.

“We have some of the highest rebates in California to take out your turf grass, to replace an irrigation controller, to replace your washing machine — really, we have some of the best rebates in the state,” he said.

When it comes to the drought, the Water Authority said San Diego County is in a better place than most of the state. Years of investment in localizing our water supply, with projects such as Carlsbad’s desalination plant, are paying off.

The region has also invested in expanding how much water can be stored locally. And pure water projects that convert wastewater into potable water are either being constructed or online. The first phase of San Diego’s massive project is expected to come online next year and will provide 15 million gallons of purified water daily, and the second phase is set to be complete in 2035. Once complete, the system is slated to provide 83 million gallons of water a day, about a third of the city’s future water supply.

Roland Lizarondo

Bougainvillea is shown at the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College on June 9, 2022.

San Diegans have done a remarkable job in conserving water. Over the past three decades, as the population has grown, Lopez said water use has decreased by about 40%. The Water Authority has said the region’s water’s secure for the next few decades.

The most extensive use of water here happens outdoors. So turning to plants like the ones in the Water Conservation Garden helps a lot.

Roland Lizarondo

The Mediterranean Garden at the headquarters of the Helix Water District in La Mesa is shown on June 9, 2022.

Not far from the Water Conservation Garden, another place has examples of drought-resistant plantings that are a little more manageable.

The Helix Water District serves 277,000 customers of La Mesa, El Cajon and Lemon Grove and portions of the surrounding unincorporated areas. In recent years the district updated the landscaping of its headquarters to emphasize conservation.

“In 2020, we decided it was time to really showcase what we’ve been encouraging our customers to do,” said Michelle Curtis, the district’s public affairs supervisor.

Roland Lizarondo

A portion of the Mediterranean Garden at the headquarters of the Helix Water District in La Mesa is shown on June 9, 2022.

The district pulled out the ivy and trees that used to surround its headquarters and installed three demonstration gardens — Mediterranean, desert and native California.

“They tend to have very soft colors, a lot of texture and also a lot of fragrance, so it’s a nice sensory experience,” Curtis said of the district’s Mediterranean garden. On the other side of the building is the desert garden.

“So on this side of our building, we have our desert landscape… more cactus and succulent-based than you saw on the Mediterranean side,” she said.

Roland Lizarondo

Native grasses are shown at the headquarters of the Helix Water District in La Mesa on June 9, 2022.

On the back side of the building is the California native garden.

“We have some Cleveland sage, we have some different types of flax lilies, but it’s really very textural,” Curtis said, “so if you’re out here, especially if the wind’s blowing, you’ll see all the grasses blowing in the wind, but this is also going to be our lowest water use garden.”

Roland Lizarondo

Small white flowers are shown in the California Native Garden at the headquarters of the Helix Water District in La Mesa on June 9, 2022.

It’s the lowest water use garden because these plants were around in California before green lawns and palm trees — plants that developed to survive in an arid climate, plants that carry a message about how we can all adapt when water becomes more precious by the day.

DROUGHTLAWN

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