Last Call At The Oasis

Although it covers 70 percent of the earth's surface, there is a very real possibility that in the near future, there won't be enough water to sustain life on the planet. This documentary illuminates the vital role water plays in our lives, exposes the defects in the current system and shows communities already struggling with its ill-effects and individuals championing revolutionary solutions. Firmly establishing the urgency of the global water crisis as the central issue facing our world this century, the film posits that we can manage this problem if we are willing to act now.

Inspired by the book "The Ripple Effect" by Alex Prud'homme, "Last Call at the Oasis," is from Participant Media, the company that brought you "Page One," "An Inconvenient Truth," "Food, Inc.," and "Waiting for Superman."

Evolve Regional Strategy on Drinking Water Supply, Sanitation

As unclean water and sanitation is the world´s second biggest killer of children, the World Bank official on Wednesday urged countries in South Asia to evolve out a common strategy to tackle this problem in the region.

"Policy priority, insufficient funding, rapid urbanization and lack of public awareness have mainly impeded attainment of long-term sustainability of water supply and sanitation in South Asia," said Tahseen Sayed, World Bank country manager for Nepal. 

"Weak institutional capacities are other problems for us in the region to attain our goal of reducing number of people who do not have access to drinking water and sanitation," she stated 

Sayed was speaking at the South Asian regional conference on drinking water and sanitation, which kicked off in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

The three-day conference is being attended by more than 100 experts and officials from the different countries of the region. Through the conference, they hope to identify a common strategy to mitigate challenges seen in access to drinking water and sanitation in rural areas and also identify the workable institutional models for the region. 

According to the World Bank, more than 500 million people do not have access to sanitation and 250 million people to drinking water in South Asia, which is home to 1.6 billion people. 

"Despite its economic success, South Asia, now, represents the largest concentration of the world´s poor, as well as those lacking access to safe water and sanitation," said its statement.

According to the Bank, the conference will discuss on identifying sustainable ways of water supply, increasing sanitation access and reducing challenges -- challenges of declining water quality and quantity. "It will also focus on developing partnership between public and private sector to advance rural water and sanitation," Sayed said.

Janak Raj Shah, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC) said that the inadequate coordination among major players in the field of water supply and sanitation, weak implementation of the program and lack of proper approach to handle the projects were major hurdles of water supply and sanitation in Nepal. “

"We are lagging behind to achieve our targets under millennium development goals on sanitation and water supply," Shah said. The government has targeted to increase access to water supply and sanitation to 53 percent of the total population by 2015.



myrepublica.com

China's Tap Water - Anything but safe!

Before you drink another glass of water in China - STOP!  Now ask yourself if you really know what you are about to put into your body.  Actually if you drink tap water in Beijing or Shanghai you will be consuming over 89 chemicals, elements, or compounds and only two of them are actually Hydrogen or Oxygen (H2O). Although the government may deny it, China holds the dishonor of having one of the top five worst pollution problems in the world, and with a growing population of 1.5 Billion people (both consumers and polluters), this fact is understandable.

According to lab reports from Tsinghua and BIT universities, they confirm that Beijing tap water contains dangerous and even carcinogenic levels of mercury, other heavy metals, and horrible levels of sulfides, sulfates, chlorides, chlorates, phosphates, and a myriad of other chemicals not found in most western water supply chains. Shanghai is even worse. And Chongqing is worse yet.  In fact, research by WHO and other NGOs indicates that Chinese residents who live within 5,000 meters of China's major rivers have cancer rates that are 300% higher than their peers who live further inland. And the situation is getting worse - not better!  According to a controversial report recently published by the McKinsey group, China's water pollution has increased 61% over the last five years, while almost all the other emerging market countries (except India) have managed to reduce their contamination levels.




On average, between 90% - 92% of all China's tap water is tainted and causing illness on a daily basis. The WHO estimates that 64% of all premature deaths in China are related to water-borne toxins consumed on a regular basis by a majority of the nation's population that cannot afford bottled water. Those visiting China regularly comment that China's water "smells strange" and "tastes bad".  Although visitors to China generally do not stay long to expose themself to great health risks, they almost all will meet "La Dudza" - the Chinese version of diahrea within their first days after arrival.  Those born and raised in China probably have already grown accustomed to the foul taste of the polluted and often over-chlorinated water, and probably think it is normal to smell and taste that way.

The Chinese government has an unusual way of dealing with water pollution. They will use more chemicals to neutralize the bad taste and yet other chemicals still to mask the variety of odors. Not a good nor safe policy for China's citizens. Actually, one worker at Beijing's water treatment center told me their priority is "clarity" not purity. So in fact, it appears that they just want the water to look clean, not necessarily be clean!  Since Chinese people don't get to vote their officials out of office in an election, I guess they will settle for clear water instead of clean water.  I guess one can easily be led to believe that if water looks clean it - it must be clean. Fortunately our friends at Tsinghua and BIT know better.

So why then does a government who spent $42 Billion USD to host the 2008 Olympics for two weeks, refuse to invest one-tenth that amount to ensure that 80% of their own citizens and babies have reliable sources of safe, clean, and afordable drinking water? If you ask the older Chinese folks they smile and say "bu shi dao" (I don't know) but the younger university students sum it up in one word - Corruption.  Indeed over 30% of some $2 Billion USD allocated in the last decade for water reclamation projects have vanished into thin air - and it seems nobody is even asking any questions about it.

So where can you go to drink fresh clean, unpolluted water in China? Only one place that I know of - Tibet.  So the next time you marvel at China's amazing growth and wealth, just remember the cost of it all is going to be the health and lives of their own people. Not a pleasant thought, but one that cannot be ignored. Now put down that glass and go buy yourself a bottle of real water from Tibet and be sure its not a counterfeit bottle!  But we'll leave that topic for yet another article.



By ChinaScamBuster@zimbio.com

African Trip About Water, Hope and a Prayer

                               Grant Perryman and his wife, Donita, share a laugh as they describe their experiences on missionary trips to Ghana in Africa.

Ric Small had seen the photographs. He heard the tales of woe. He and his wife even sponsored an orphan.

But when he took the roughly 7,600-mile trek to Uganda for the first time, he couldn't handle the truth.

The extreme poverty. The futile efforts to obtain even a cup of fresh water. Deadly diseases.

"I was not ready emotionally to see that," said Small. "I was just a blubbering mess for two weeks."

That was just last year. Small, under the umbrella of the nonprofit Hope4Kids, recently returned from his second trip to Uganda.

"At least I wasn't crying the whole time," said Small, a Benicia Police Department chaplian. "I felt I was more in tune with what's going on."

Good as gold

It was, said

Small, a lot about the water. A life-sustaining resource for Americans who waste a great deal of it, it's as good as gold in Uganda.

Which is why Small not only participated in a Walk4Water in Benicia that raised $40,000 to build wells in Uganda, he and his wife, Kema, sponsored one $10,000 well by themselves.


"In America, you let water run so it can get warm enough so you can take a shower or shave, or cold enough to drink," Small said. "In Uganda, they don't even understand when they start pumping water out of a well and it comes out clean. They're not sure they can trust it. And they have to be taught not to go back to the original source."


"They have to walk miles to pick up water that looks like coffee with cream in it,"

Small said. "And along the way, young girls would be raped and attacked and that some young children, if they don't come back with water or be on time to school, would be caned. It broke my heart."


Small said he never regretted paying for a well himself.


"To know you a made a difference to 500 or more people so they could have clean water is humbling," he said. "When they dedicated the well, I was just in tears. It was amazing."




Former gangbanger


Small could talk from experience, which he was more than happy to share with two local pastors preparing for their first journeys to Africa. Michael Mau of Benicia Fellowship and René Mitchell and Mike Brown of First Baptist Church are part of a team of 10 heading to Ghana from Oct. 29 to Nov. 16.


Mitchell, Chicago-born and raised as the son of Puerto Rican parents, runs the Hispanic church at First Baptist and is ready for his first trip to Ghana.


"People ask what I'm going to do in Africa. The same thing I do in Vallejo. I bring the gospel to the people," Mitchell said. "I do think it'll be good for some people (on the team) to get out of their comfort zone. You can't shower or eat like you normally eat. You're not able to drink the water and it's hot there and you'll want to drink a lot of water. It's going to be really, really awesome for some people. Hopefully, they can take what they see there and use it in our area."

Mitchell knows about overcoming adversity. A former gang-banger and drug dealer, he was even kicked out of Catholic seminary school despite straight "A's."


"I was a hothead with a chip on my shoulder, raised without a dad, I could go on and on," Mitchell said.


Mitchell was selling drugs via his job working with a well-known delivery service when he became enlightened. His supervisor introduced Mitchell to a colleague who said, "I heard about René Mitchell. We need more people like him."


"At that exact moment, I felt like an ant," Mitchell said. "Nobody should be like me."


He quit drugs. And got to prayer meetings. It was tough to handle.


"These little old ladies would pray for me and I would cry," Mitchell said. "I couldn't figure out what to do."




Church builder


Mitchell, 49, married at 22, worked for Honeywell for 13 years, and helped build two churches.

He said he became a pastor almost by accident.


"I never wanted to work in the ministry. I thought being a pastor was a joke," he said. "You can't make any money, and people hate you."


And here he is, 12 years in Vallejo, where he started feeding the hungry with pastors Brown and Al Marks in the middle of the night.


"I didn't like getting up at that time. I like staying up until that time," Mitchell smiled.


Mitchell met pastor Alfred Akumbie of Ghana 11 years ago during a Vallejo visit to Mitchell's home.


"He ran up my phone bill," Mitchell said. "We laugh about it now."


Akumbie often returned here, but Mitchell never returned the favor. Until now.


"I've had other things to do," Mitchell said. "And when I start stuff, I like to finish it."


Again, Mitchell said, it's the water. He's committed to raising enough money to build one well.


"Every 15 seconds, someone dies there for lack of food. People die from lack of fresh water," Mitchell said.


It's about survival, he noted.


"We're not going to build them Taj Mahals. We're not bringing them washing machines," Mitchell said. "We want them to be healthy and have water."


Mitchell is thrilled to bring others from here.


"I want them to understand how blessed they are to live in Vallejo," he said.


As a rock 'n roll musician in the 1960s and '70s, Mau, 62, would tour in a bus across the United States, Mexico and Europe. Never did he get close to Africa. Or a 20-hour Jeep jungle ride.


"It's going to be an interesting deal," Mau said.


Mau said yes, work needs to be in his own community. Then he cited Scripture, believing help should be expanded "further out and then to the ends of the Earth."




Daily threats


Mau chuckled that in Solano County, "we worry about garbage rates going up" while in other parts of the world there's the daily threat of malaria, typhoid and yellow fever.


The preparation has been challenging, he said.


"I've never had so many shots in my life," Mau said, adding that his wife will remain home in Benicia.


"At least there's someone who has brains in our family," Mau grinned.


Americans, he said, would not be prepared for what Africans deal with daily.


"They send their children off to get water somewhere and come back carrying huge pots of dirty water that's no good," Mau said. "The way these people live, we would not survive in an environment like that."


Mau said he's excited about the trip's final days in the village where his team is headed.


"They're going to get fresh, clean water and it will change their lives and lifestyles," he said.


It's impossible to truly comprehend the threat of malaria or vital efforts to get fresh water unless you're there, Small said.


"You can see it on a TV commercial and say, 'Oh, that's horrible. Those poor kids.' Then the game comes back on," Small said.


Advice to anyone contemplating a trip to help a Third World nation?


"Go," Small said. "If you're any kind of religious person or humanitarian, go. We need to pay more attention. You're not going to change the world. But if you can help one person a day, that's huge."




By Rich Freedman@timesheraldonline.com

New Tool Helps Great Lakes Cities, Businesses Predict Harmful Algae Blooms

Last year’s record-setting Lake Erie algae bloom hurt many tourism businesses like charter fishing and resorts that depend on clean water and beaches. The high concentrations of toxins from the blue-green algae also meant cities like Toledo had to spend more money to clean up drinking water. This summer, federal researchers unveiled a new tool for forecasting seasonal algae blooms. Independent producer Karen Schaefer reports that scientists are hoping it can help cities and businesses across the Great Lakes and the nation plan ahead.

SCHAEFER:  This year, the thick ooze of green slime that coated docks and bays in western Lake Erie in 2011 is gone. That’s largely thanks to the drought, which reduced rainfall and nutrient runoff from farms and cities. But National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher Rick Stumpf was taking no chances back in July, when he tested the water near Put-in-Bay in Lake Erie for chorophyll and phycocyanin, the pigment that’s produced by toxic blue-green algae.

STUMPF: This is a porometer…We get a bucket, pour it in here and we get a reading…So first I’ll test for chlorophyll. And it’s reading. Reading…

SCHAEFER: Stumpf is demonstrating how local data collectors at Ohio State University’s Stone Lab will be testing the water for signs of the algae bloom in coming years.

STUMPF: We came up with one microgram of chlorophyll, which is low – which is not surprising considering how clear the water is. Now I’ll read for phycocyanin. Reading.. Reading…

SCHAEFER: Harmful algae has been once again plaguing Lake Erie. But last year’s bloom was literally off the charts, as bad or worse than the 1970′s, when Lake Erie was unofficially declared “dead.” Mark Monaco, director for NOAA’s Center of Coastal Monitoring and Marine Assessment, says blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, emits harmful toxins that last year exceeded public health warnings.

MONACO: Some of the concentrations we’ve seen in the lake last year, you probably wouldn’t want your dog swimming in it, based on World Health Organization recommendations. In addition to the economic impact of people not going to the beach and people not wanting to put their lure into the green slime. This isn’t just a fun little science study, these have real economic impacts on how people use the lake.

SCHAEFER: Using ten-years of water quality data from Heidelberg University in Ohio, along with satellite photos showing previous blooms, NOAA scientists predicted that this year’s Lake Erie algae would be only a tenth the size of the 2011 record. And they were right. Rick Stumpf says this is NOAA’s first national attempt at a seasonal algae forecast. He believes local businesses will benefit from the advance notice.

STUMPF: It provides an opportunity for planning, for governments to plan to decide what resources to use, if it’s a utility, if it’s a person planning for vacation, if it’s charter boat captains, so they have some idea what to expect in a season. And we’ve heard from various managers how it’s an incredibly important thing, because given the budget challenges that state and local governments have now.

SCHAEFER: Recreational businesses like Cedar Point, a Lake Erie amusement park, say they’re thrilled to have a tool that that lets them alert consumers to beach closings and swimming prohibitions. But Jeff Reutter, head of Ohio’s Sea Grant program, believes it’s equally important that the new forecasting tool applies to other algae-infested areas, from Traverse City, Michigan and Green Bay, Wisconsin, to the Potomac River, Chesapeake Bay, and parts of Florida and Texas.

REUTTER: There are many other places, not just in Ohio or across the country, but around the world, where the same information ought to be applicable. In some places…it will be where people like the NOAA guys can take their model, make a few tweaks to it, and make it work in a totally different ecosystem.

SCHAEFER: NOAA scientists say what will make this Lake Erie model work in different places, including smaller inland lakes, is the systematic collection of water quality data over a period of years. They believe that local data will not only help in assessing harmful algae blooms, but will also assist in monitoring other ecological impacts, such as climate change. For Great Lakes Echo, I’m Karen Schaefer.

By Karen Schaefer@greatlakesecho.org

Monthly Blue Water Scarcity Indicator

The world population growing at rapid pace and related changes in lifestyle as well as consumption patterns, competition for water resources between sectors such as agriculture, industry and energy, sustaining ecosystem health, are merely a few among several pressing issues that are inseparably connected with water scarcity. The rising water demands require governance based on accurate and reliable indicators. The research group of Arjen Hoekstra of University of Twente, in collaboration with the Water Footprint Network and its partners WWF-World Wide Fund for Nature and The Nature Conservancy, developed an innovative water scarcity indicator, that combines three improvements compared to previous indicators: (i) use of water consumption of ground- and surface water flows (i.e. the blue water footprint) instead of water withdrawal, (ii) accounting for environmental flow requirements to sustain critical ecological functions and (iii) a monthly rather than an annual time-step. Blue water scarcity is defined as the ratio of blue water footprint to blue water availability, whereby the latter is determined by subtracting the presumed environmental flow requirement from the natural runoff.

Water scarcity has been analyzed for the time period 1996-2005 and categorized from low to severe for 405 river basins that account for 69% of global runoff, 75% of the world’s irrigated area, and 65% of world population. Improving upon previous assessments, the current monthly approach reflects the dynamic character of the hydrologic cycle and the variability of human water use over the course of a year. For the assessment of social, economic and environmental impacts of water scarcity both severity and duration of water scarcity are crucial (see the accompanying Figure from Hoekstra et al., 2012). One result of the study was that in 223 river basins (55% of the basins studied) the blue water footprint exceeds blue water availability during at least one month of the year, impacting 2.72 billion people, i.e. 69% of the population considered. For 201 of these basins, with in total 2.67 billion inhabitants, there was severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year, highlighting the fact that when water scarcity exists it is usually of a severe nature. This innovative water scarcity indicator may prove useful for governments, businesses, farmers, investors and others to evaluate water-related risks.

The data on blue water scarcity are available from the WaterStat database of the Water Footprint Network (http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/WaterStat).

Zimbabwe's Troubled Waters: Chemical Pollution in the Marange District

Thousands of Birchenough Bridge residents and patients at a local hospital, downstream of Zimbabwe’s notorious Marange diamond fields, are panicking after a recent report suggested they may be at risk of developing health complications such as cancer from metal-poisoned water.

A recent study, commissioned by the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association (ZELA) and conducted by the University of Zimbabwe (UZ),revealed that the Save river, from which water supplies are drawn, as well as the Singwizi and Odzi tributaries, are laden with dangerous chemicals.

The report lays the blame for the hazardous pollution on diamond-mining operations, and ZELA alongside local villagers have applied to the High Court to stop three diamond mining companies from discharging polluting materials into the rivers. At least one of the three firms has already rejected the scientific findings, however, and given the vested interests in these companies by influential individuals as well as the currently ineffective system of punishing polluting companies, there is concern over what can actually be done to tackle the issue.

Testing the water

Three diamond mining companies – Anjin, Diamond Mining Corporation, and Marange Resources – operate along the rivers and for over two years, the Odzi, Singwizi and Save have been visibly muddy, betraying their pollution.

According to the UZ report, a range of elements found in the water could prove a serious hazard to people’s health. The heavy concentrations of chromium and nickel – both constituents of a chemical compound used in diamond extraction – “are potentially carcinogenic agents” warns the study. Levels of iron – another element used in diamond extraction – exceed World Health Organisation standards and “suggest that the local population could be at risk of iron poisoning”. High levels of fluoride could lead to dental and skeletal flourosis, and high bacterial contamination poses “an immediate risk of outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid”, reads the report.

If true, the lives and livelihoods of thousands of households could be in danger as water from these rivers is used just for drinking but to irrigate crops, bathe, and care for livestock. Some of this water could also be being piped on to Mozambique, and river additionally passes through the 6,000 hectare Save Conservancy, a wildlife sanctuary often heralded as a model for conservation.

Responding to the report

A provincial official from Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), the government agency responsible for the country’s water supplies, spoke to Think Africa Press on condition of anonymity. He insisted that the water supplied to Birchenough Bridge was safe as it would have been filtered by sand as ZINWA’s pipes tapped the water from the river bed.

Pressed on whether they had run tests to determine the nature of the water pollutants and apply the requisite chemicals, he claimed they had. And he expressed ignorance of the UZ study. Enquiries to ZINWA for its official position went unanswered.

On the other hand, Manicaland’s Provincial Health Director, Tapiwa Murambi, expressed confidence in the university’s findings, on which the ministry said it planned to act.

Kingstone Chitotombe, provincial manager for the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), also agreed that, while his organisation had not independently verified the UZ report, the three diamond mining companies operating in Marange were polluting the rivers. Chitotombe told Think Africa Press that the EMA was contemplating starting legal proceedings against the polluting companies. He believed a court ruling would have far reaching consequences and that even a verbal warning following a conviction would elicit a favourable response.

Treading political waters

Chitotombe could, however, be being overly optimistic. On previous occasions of being found polluting, the mining companies have done little to change their practices, and powerful individuals with vested interests in the companies could make changing the status quo tough.

It is notable that earlier this year, journalists Andrew Mambondiyani, Sydney Saize, and two other colleagues were charged with “criminal nuisance” for investigating the pollution and interviewing locals.

In July, after publishing the UZ report, ZELA contacted mining company Anjin to request the pollution stop. The response three days later denied the allegations. “Honestly speaking,” the letter read, “it happened one or two times. Pumps broke down and little recycled water was not pumped away in time, resulting in the overflow of the water from the ponds, which the company has received criticism and was fined by EMA.”

The letter from Anjin was signed by Brigadier-General Charles Tarumbwa, a senior official with the mining company. And, according to London-based NGO Global Witness, he is not the only high-ranking official from the ruling ZANU-PF party in Zimbabwe’s military and security forces holding key positions in Marange diamond mining companies. Former Air Vice Marshall Robert Mhlanga chairs the board of Mbada Diamonds, for example, while members of Anjin’s board include the permanent secretary of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defence, two commissioners of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, and current and former officers of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, say Global Witness.

Changing the tide?

Another impediment to improving pollution is the currently ineffective system of punishing polluting firms. Mbada Diamonds is a joint venture between state-owned Marange Resources Ltd and Grandwell Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of the South African company Reclam. In its 2011 annual report, Reclam explained that it was more cost-effective to pollute and pay the necessary fines than to invest in pollution control.

It reads: “Fees are assessed for exceeding agreed limits on emissions and effluents. Currently these fees are generally small in relation to the cost of environmental protection equipment and it is generally less expensive to pay the fees than to install anti-pollution devices. Further, the applicable laws do not generally require clean-up of environmental pollutants, and when clean-up is required, the applicable laws provide no guidance as to the extent to which the clean-up must be carried out.”

The effect of river pollutants on the health of thousands of individuals, livelihoods of thousands of households, and the environment could be disastrous, and are indeed already being felt. Many now accept that the Marange diamond mining companies – Anjin, Diamond Mining Corporation, and Marange Resources – are responsible for much of the hazardous waste and that they are not fulfilling the obligations that come with operating upstream of water supplies many Zimbabweans thousands depend on. Outrage and action is growing, but holding polluters accountable could prove difficult.

BY BERNARD CHIKETO@thinkafricapress.com

Blue Planet Network

About Us

Our mission is to exponentially increase the impact of safe drinking water programs for people around the world.

What We Do

Blue Planet Network connects funders, NGOs, the public and communities in need to improve the planning, selection, management and monitoring of water and sanitation programs.  This leads to more lasting impact at lower costs.

Our Results

The growth of our network and the impact it has had on the global safe drinking water crisis speaks to the strength of our approach and collective results:

• One million people in 1,600 communities have access to safe drinking water and the chance for more productive lives.
• 94 expert organizations working on water and sanitation access in 27 countries use our services to improve their impacts.
• Nearly 900 member water and sanitation programs, representing $40 million, being tracked and improved on Blue Planet Network

Recognition

• 2012 World Summit Award
• 2011 World Bank Water Hackathon Prize
• 2010 Intel Environment Tech Award
• 2009 California Association of Non-Profits Innovation Award

“I’ve seen nothing else like this network. It offers serious potential for improving transparency, information available to users, and the ability to understand what really works in the real world. This is a break-through technology useful for solving one of our most fundamental human issues.”
– Dr. Peter Gleick, President, Pacific Institute; MacArthur Fellow; Author/Editor, “The World’s Water”

“Blue Planet Network has created a real breakthrough approach, providing the coordination, information & evaluation critical for the success of water improvement projects. This community also provides easy access to best practices, helping water groups grow stronger & more effective through collaboration & peer review.”
– U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer, 3rd District, Oregon; Co-Sponsor of the Paul Simon 2005 Water For The Poor Act and 2009 Water For The World Act

“My strong hope is that other organizations see the potential of this network so that we all can do a better job.”
– Joe Madiath, Founder, Gram Vikas, Blue Planet Network member

“Blue Planet Network has transformed the global water sector through its award-winning technology. SV2 selected Blue Planet Network as its international grantee and will continue to support its long-term efforts.”
– Dave Meader, Board Member, Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2)

Our Story

Since our founding in 2002, it has been Blue Planet Network's ambitious goal to ensure that 200 million people in need gain access to safe drinking water. But gaining access to water is just the first step. Keeping it is as important.

In its early years, Blue Planet Network worked to build awareness and funds for water projects through epic undertakings. Blue Planet Run 2007, the first global relay run for safe drinking water, and Blue Planet Run: The Race To Provide Safe Drinking Water To The World, a powerful book that tells the human story of water through photos and essays, connected people around the world to the water crisis and what they could do to solve it.

Along the way, however, we realized that all the water crisis awareness in the world wouldn’t help if people couldn’t easily find great implementing organizations and water project plans, and be able to easily track the impact of their support. Likewise, the experience of those capable implementers would be wasted if they didn’t have a way to continuously improve through learning best practices and sharing their work with the world.

We saw that we could add real value to the fight for clean water by creating a scalable platform to 1) connect water project funders and implementers to create new, effective partnerships; and 2) manage the planning, funding, implementation and tracking of tens of thousands of water and sanitation projects for greater impact. We always work to be catalysts for positive change across the entire water and sanitation sector.

We launched Peer Water Exchange, our original online technology platform, in 2006 with five member organizations. This has grown into a vibrant community delivering real improvements to water and sanitation programs and projects around the world.

We changed our name to Blue Planet Network in 2010 to emphasize our mission and to welcome funders, as well as implementers, as members to help us expand our reach and collective impact.

blueplanetnetwork.org

Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Women in Sindh

Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN for Women, said at the closing session of the 2012 World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, on Aug 31 last that globally it was estimated that women spent more than 200 million hours a day collecting water. She added that development could neither be sustainable nor inclusive if it did not free women and girls from carrying heavy water buckets every day.

Her statement is correct when seen in the context of rural Sindh, where it is common sight to see rural women fetching water from a one-way distance of as long as seven kilometre.

This is equivalent to walking from Clifton to Gulshan-i-Iqbal in Karachi.

The water they get and drink is dirty. There is no choice. Animals also drink from the same source. On drinking, women and their children face waterborne and diarrhoeal diseases.

These women spend six hours daily fetching water for their families.

Over 80 per cent of rural households do not have water supply on their premises. Malnutrition in common among rural women. There is a strong link between diarrhoea and malnutrition.

A Stanford University research paper (Pickering and Davis, 2012) shows that a 15 minutes’ decrease in one-way walk time to water source is associated with a 41 per cent average relative reduction in diarrhoea prevalence, improved anthropometric indicators of child nutritional status, and a 11 per cent relative reduction in under-five child mortality.

Another related study undertaken in four countries (Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, and Yemen), estimated that reducing the time it takes to fetch water by just one hour could increase girls’ enrollment in schools by over 30 per cent.

A WHO report says that almost one-tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources. Another estimate reports that four per cent of all deaths can be attributed to water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Interesting findings were reported in the WHO bulletin (Esrey et al, 1985). The authors studied impact of various interventions on average reductions in
diarrhoeal diseases. They found that water and sanitation achieved 30 per cent reduction in diarrhoeal diseases; sanitation achieved 36 per cent; water quality 15 per cent; water quantity 20 per cent and hygiene 33 per cent.

Based on this study, the authors concluded that sanitation and hygiene are major causes of diarrhoeal diseases. A recent survey conducted by the British Medical Journal identified sanitation as the greatest medical invention in the last 150 years.

Poor water, sanitation and hygiene have a strong connection with women’s health. When these sectors fail, women and girls are disproportionately affected. An issue, which is neglected in Sindh is the menstrual hygiene management (MHM). The issue has reached high on the international agenda during the last five years. The MHM requires access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene sectors, in order for the women and girls in rural Sindh to live healthy, productive and dignified lives.

Women in rural Sindh have the right to safe water and sanitation. The UN Assembly “declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.”

F. H. MUGHAL@dawn.com

Anti-Water Privatisation Group Warns of Protests in November

New Delhi: The fight against privatization of water is expected to pick up pace in the coming days. The water privatization-commercialization resistance committee has warned of a massive mass movement in the coming month against DJB's pilot public private partnership project of water distribution in three areas, starting with Malviya Nagar.

Retired Justice Rajinder Sachar said that a protest at Jantar Mantar was on the cards and the team had been rallying to get public support on the issue. "We have been asking the government to explain to us the terms of contract between it and the private party but have not received any response from them. We are also trying to seek an appointment with the chief minister but have not been able to meet her yet. We have studied the model that Delhi Jal Board has suggested and have several problems with it. Why can't they address these problems and why are they going about privatization in such a surreptitious manner. I will be writing to the CM and asking her to address our concerns," he said.

Anil Nauriya, president of the committee said that they wanted a public debate so that concerned residents would be able to make an informed decision regarding the 24x7 water supply model. "Based on the information we have, 24x7 water supply is only to be ensured till the entry point of each district metered areas. Beyond this there are no controls on which individual unit gets how much water. At present, water tariff increases by 10% each year but what is the rationale behind it. What happens when there are improvements in the system and the efficiency increases. Would this tariff increase still apply. There are several points on which there is no clarity. The government should be prepared for a massive movement within the next month," he said.

timesofindia.com

States to Discuss Setting Up a Forum to Settle Water Disputes

NEW DELHI, OCT 2: 

Amid growing disputes over water sharing, the Centre has proposed setting up a permanent forum to enable states evolve consensus on these sensitive issues.

Setting up of a ‘permanent forum of Water Resources and Irrigation Ministers of state governments’ is part of the agenda of a national level conference being held here tomorrow.

The 14th National Conference of Water Resources and Irrigation ministers of states and UTs is being held after a gap of seven years.

“ ...it is, therefore, proposed to set up a permanent forum of Water Resources and Irrigation Ministers (of States) to deliberate on the issues related to water resources...it may be desirable to have a permanent forum at the national level to deliberate upon issues relating to water and evolve consensus, co-operation and reconciliation amongst states,” according to the agenda circulated to state governments.

With water being a state subject and UPA government repeatedly coming under attack from the opposition as well as allies over the issue of infringement of federal structure, the Centre also wants to use the proposed forum to discuss issues like water laws.

“Even while it is recognised that states have the right to frame suitable policies, laws and regulations on water, there is a felt need to evolve a broad overarching national legal framework of general principles on water to lead the way for essential legislation on water governance in every state,” said the agenda paper.

The issue of overarching national legal framework had come under attack from state governments when the Draft National Water Policy (2012) was being discussed earlier this year.

thehindubusinessline.com

Can the World Save Lives and Combat Climate Change?

                             An innovative effort in western Kenya is attempting to provide clean water as well as reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Environmental, humanitarian and economic challenges do not exist in isolation, but that is how the world most often deals with them. To take just one example: one of the key challenges facing cities around the globe in the 21st century is flooding. Flooding is determined by environmental factors, from climate change to overcrowding of floodplains with habitation. Flooding is also often a humanitarian disaster when it strikes and can be an aftereffect of big development projects, like hydroelectric dams.

Or take the metals in a cell phone. As Judith Rodin, president of the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, noted at her organization's event about "resilient livelihoods" on September 25, tungsten is the "metal that puts the buzz in your cell phone." Mining that tungsten is an economic development opportunity but also too often creates a humanitarian crisis when such economically valuable minerals become a source of conflict—as has been the case in the eastern Congo. At the same time, the mining practices used to extract such metals can be more or less bad for the environment and human health.

The U.N. buzz phrase of the last decade—"sustainable development"—is slowly morphing into a new sustainable buzzword for the development and humanitarian communities: resilience. Resilience means, at its core, an ability to bounce back fromstress in a healthy way, Rodin said. But, as development expert Edward Carr of the University of South Carolina rightly notes, resilience of what, to what? Enabling the poor to be resilient in the face of challenges like climate change may require a fundamental rethinking of the methods used to address both poverty and global warming.

After all, poverty and climate change are inextricably linked: The developed world has progressed, thanks to fossil fuels, and burning them has resulted in the elevated levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trapping heat, raising global temperatures and spawning weird weather. To resolve the energy poverty of billions will likely require burning more fossil fuels, but preventing catastrophic climate change definitely requires reducing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gas. "You cannot tackle one without the other," Rodin noted.

Thus far, despite some recent success in reducing poverty thanks to rising living standards in China, the world has mostly failed to truly tackle either. Although drought in the Horn of Africa is predictable and cyclical even under the present climate, famine still stalks the region. "To have drought at the level of 2011 and no deaths in Ethiopia? That was progress," argued Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme at the Rockefeller event. Yet, thousands perished of starvation throughout the region and populations in Somalia, Kenya and elsewhere remain reliant on aid—a decades-long failure that also encompasses civil war and political instability. "How do you eventually graduate from aid?" asks Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO of Vestergaard Frandsen, a Denmark-based company that makes disease-control products.

Plus, "we are not winning the war on hunger. We are losing it," argued European Union Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva at the Rockefeller event. One of the big reasons that levels of hunger have started to grow again is the impact of climate change—variable weather means variable harvests whereas programs to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of cars have ended up taking away food to make biofuelslike ethanol. The lack of investment in agricultural innovation and the devastating impact of food aid on local farmers hasn't helped either. "Yes, we feed the hungry but we kill the farmers," Georgieva noted. Or, as food security specialist Amadou Diallo of the government of Niger said: "The basis of peace is food security." When people lack food, they turn to rebellion or terrorism.

Switching from food to cash grants except in those cases where food cannot be provided locally may be the key, argued Degan Ali of Adeso, an advocacy group for development in Africa, at the Rockefeller event. Such "flexible interventions" give the poor the ability to invest in their homes and villages rather than abandon everything and become permanent refugees.

In fact, one of the goals of humanitarian assistance now is preventative: keep people home rather than trekking to refugee camps, argued Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, at the event. Interventions that have been proved to work in that regard are as simple as selling off livestock or providing fodder for lactating goats. These ideas "solve the problem in a far more fundamental manner than rushing in with food aid," Shah argued—a fact that has been born out in academic research for the past several decades.

At the same time, the world will continue to urbanize, as one-time villagers abandon everything and move to the city for a better life. That may improve economic circumstances but it also tends to increase the impact of natural disasters. Floods are more devastating, thanks to migrant villagers building in neglected floodplains or other undesirable areas.

So finding new ways to fund environmental improvement and economic development at the same time will be crucial. And a new project in western Kenya may provide an all too unique example of how the two might be linked.

Life saver?
The LifeStraw is a plastic tube with a hollow-fiber membrane tucked inside. The membrane filters out bacteria, particles, viruses and other nasty stuff from freshwater, making it safe for drinking according to both U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization standards. That is no small thing in the all too many parts of the world where there is no guarantee that drinking waterwill not induce illness. All told, nearly one billion people worldwide lack access to such safe drinking water—a long-standing humanitarian crisis.

More than 870,000 households in western Kenya now have family-size capacity versions of these straws, part of a program to deliver, maintain and make sure such potentially life-saving technology is used. And this humanitarian program is funded byselling carbon dioxide emission reductions.

What's the connection between CO2 and humanitarian aid? One word: firewood. In the absence of the LifeStraw, these Kenyan families must boil their water to ensure its safety. To do so, they must gather extra firewood (more than that they would need just for cooking), which spurs both bigger the cutting down of trees as well as times when such critical safety practices have to be skipped due to a lack of resources. Skipping even one day of safe drinking water can mean a health disaster. "It's not a vaccine. You can't relax and stop using it," Vestergaard Frandsen says. As it stands, more than 1.5 million children die of diarrheal disease annually around the world, mostly due to bad drinking water.

In order to generate its 2.7 million metric tons worth of verified emission reductions to date, the LifeStraw effort sends field workers out every six months to ensure the technology is both working and being used—and have committed to keep doing so for a decade. Already, according to the company, they are "seeing a statistically significant reduction in the odds of a child under five presenting at a clinic with diarrhea," Vestergaard Frandsen says. Each LifeStraw can filter at least 18,000 liters—enough to supply a family of four for three years with their clean drinking water needs.

The carbon credits fetch between $11.50 and $14 per metric ton, generating at least $30 million for the project. But such a charismatic carbon project is all too rare these days, both because the carbon market is dominated by less robust emission reductions from heavy industry in China and India as well as development efforts that proceed with little thought of the environmental cost or co-benefits. At present, there is simply no way to scale up such innovative efforts because there is no larger market for such "premium" credits as well as no interest from aid agencies. "In development aid, we give upfront dollars and start hoping," Vestergaard Frandsen notes. In order to solve environmental and economic problems, that has to change.

By David Biello@scientificamerican.com