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September 28, 2006
Raising The Public's Awareness of the Global Water Crises
The Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences announced Thursday that it received a $636,900 grant from Kenneth E. Behring, founder of the Global Health and Education Foundation, to develop a web-based resource to inform decision makers around the world about the importance of safe drinking water, and what can be done to meet this need.
"Safe water is essential for health, yet remains one of the most critical problems facing the world today," said Behring. "One out of every five people lacks access to clean drinking water. We must create innovative, sustainable approaches that can make a significant impact on the world's water crisis."
The grant will enable the Koshland Science Museum, in cooperation with the National Academies' Water Science and Technology Board and the Office of International Programs, to create a virtual, multimedia exhibit to examine the need for safe drinking water around the world. The exhibit, to be titled "Safe Drinking Water is Essential, will be aimed at an international audience and will survey the range of solutions and technologies available to increase the quality and quantity of drinkable water worldwide. It is expected to be released in 2007 on the Internet, as well as on CD.
"We have the ability to eliminate water-related death and disability," Behring added. "The technology is available, and the scientific evidence is overwhelming. We have the leadership. The time to act is now," as reported by Medical News Today.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 05:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 20, 2006
Pawtucket Water Supply Board fined for lax reporting
The Pawtucket Water Supply Board (PWSB) has been fined $3,090 by the Rhode Island Department of Health stemming from incidents occuring late June and again over the Fourth of July weekend involving the lack of reporting of coliform bacteria that was found, which was not a health hazard.
Allen Champagne, water quality supervisor, said if a test comes up positive, followup samples must be gathered within 24 hours, "up and down stream," for further testing. Out of 240 to 260 samples taken per month, perhaps 5 percent come back positive for monitored substances but usually turn up harmless in later sampling, Champagne said.
An unnamed part-time union lab technician of Earth Tech, PSWB vendor, was blamed in the incidents and removed from that job, an action Earth Tech and PWSB officials said they expected will land in arbitration, as reported by The Pawtucket Times.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 09:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 13, 2006
OK to drink the water in Hunan Province China after yet another case of pollution
It seems I am constantly writing about environmental catastrophes affecting the drinking water in China.
This time, four days ago, two chemical factories in Yueyang county, discharged arsenide, which can damage the liver and kidney and cause lung and skin cancer, directly into Xinqiang river forcing water taps to be turned off to some 80,000 residents of Hunan province.
"We have informed the residents through television and radio that they would have clean and safe water," the Xinhua news agency quoted Yueyang's Communist Party secretary Tong Kangning as saying. It is now safe to drink the water, as reported by China Daily.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 09:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 05, 2006
The UN says the world needs to focus on potable water
In a new report, jointly issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN children's agency(UNICEF), the UN has pointed out that without investment and work on a grand scale between now and 2015, the world in in danger of missing targets for clean water and sanitation.
According to the report, more than 1.1 billion people in the world currently still lack access to drinking water from an improved source and 2.6 billion people do not have access to even basic sanitation.
The report added that in 2005, 1.6 million children under age 5 (an average of 4,500 every day) died from the consequences of unsafe water and inadequate hygiene.
In one of the Millennium Development Goals agreed six years ago with eight aims to be achieved by 2015, world leaders at the UN pledged to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, as reported by the Xinhua News Agency.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at 08:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack