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Approximately 51 billion gallons of water flow into the Chesapeake Bay each day from its freshwater tributaries.
Collectively, the Chesapeake’s three largest rivers – the Susquehanna, Potomac and James rivers – provide more than 80 percent of the fresh water to the Bay.
The Susquehanna River is the Bay’s largest river. It provides nearly 50 percent of the fresh water coming into the Bay – an average of 19 million gallons of water per minute.
Expert Says Cooperation Can Resolve Global Water Scarcities
"Uncertain access to fresh water is among the world’s greatest security threats. That’s according to the worldwide assessment delivered by U.S. intelligence agencies to Congress earlier in March. Water shortages, increasing pollution, flooding and climate change can all heighten instability within and between countries. But on this World Water Day (March 22), the United Nations says water scarcity offers opportunities for collaboration as well as conflict." VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
The United Nations says there is enough fresh water for everyone on earth. Yet nearly 1.6 billion people still face water shortages, due to inadequate infrastructure, uneven distribution and wasteful practices. There’s an organization in California, called Well Done, that is working to lessen this global water crisis, by implementing new approaches to an old problem.
Much of the work goes on in Well Done’s headquarters building south of San Francisco. Designers work to create compelling logos and user-friendly web layouts to spread the word on global water shortages. The goal: to help thousands of families gain access to clean water. Josh To is co-founder and head of development at Well Done, ”A lot of times people say you need education, you need sanitation infrastructure, roads schools, but without access to clean water like how can you do any of the other things?” To questioned.
Experts say having clean water can lead to greater economic and educational opportunities particularly for women who take on most of the burden of fetching water from distant sources. Well Done promotes well-building in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The non-profit organization serves as a conduit -- raising awareness and money, then channeling the proceeds to water development organizations that do the actual work.
”We're addressing sort of two facets of the water crisis Gross overuse here at home and then non-availability in the developing world,” Jim Yoon said. Yoon is head of projects.
To spotlight high water consumption in the United States, the group created a program called Water for Water, in which intense water consumers agree to reduce their water usage and send their water bill savings to Well Done's clean-water projects.
Using interactive technology, Well Done also plans to implement a new web platform called Future Building. It will allow donors to purchase and donate specific hardware
for well-building. To reduce overall costs, Well Done and its partner organizations require villagers who benefit to do most of the manual labor.
”We don’t want to be that Western organization that shows up, saves the day takes the credit and then heads back and shares a wonderful story," To said. "We’re just sharing what we have with them.”
To and Yoon first met in college. After graduating, they served in a church mission to Ghana, where they saw children swallowing malaria pills with filthy water.
”Here we were trying to in some way alleviate their suffering," Yoon explained. "Yet the very water they’re using to take down this medicine is probably making them sick in the first place.”
Inspired by their experience in Africa, the pair drew on support from friends and family to create Well Done in 2010. So far, Well Done has completed more than 75 clean water projects that have benefited more than 10,000 people. And To and Yoon have set their goals even higher, hoping to complete 300 water projects in the year ahead.
Entrepreneur Helps World's Poor While Turning a Profit Mechanical engineer Peter Frykman's low-cost irrigation system is designed to improve crop yields for small farmers
Jan Sluizer | Mountain View, California - VOA - July 25, 2011
Photo: VOA - J. Sluicer
Peter Frykman has a working model of his Driptech system in his California office.
Mechanical engineer Peter Frykman created a low-cost drip-irrigation system designed to improve crop yields for small farmers in India and China. One of his primary goals is to be socially-conscious entrepreneur who makes life better for the world’s poor while also turning a profit.
As a graduate student at Stanford University, Frykman took a course called ‘Enterpreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability.’ As part of that class, he went to Ethiopia to look for irrigation solutions for small farms. It didn’t take him long to come up with an answer.
PRINCESS ANNE, MD –(June 22, 2011) A Safe Drinking Water Clinic is offered on Saturday, July 9, at 10 a.m. in the Food Science and Technology Building on the UMES campus that will help private well owners protect their family’s health.
Thousands of Delmarva residents rely on a private water system for their home drinking water supply. Delmarva’s homeowners, therefore, have the sole responsibility of managing the quality of their private water well to ensure it meets drinking water safety standards. Proper water system maintenance and/or improvements are sometimes not made, however, due to a lack of knowledge and/or financial assistance.
Water Filter Project in Africa Gets Technology Boost
VOA - Cathy Majtenyi | Nairobi
Photo: VOA - C. Majtenyi
Testing the Vestergaard Frandsen's LifeStraw water filter in Kenya
Technology plays an increasingly prominent role in African development projects. One example is a Swiss company's water filter project in western Kenya that makes use of a sophisticated network of cell phones and satellites.
It's evening at command central in the western Kenyan town of Kakamega. Here, staff of the Swiss company Vestergaard Frandsen pores over results of the day's distribution.
Hours earlier, 3,800 workers visited homes across the area to demonstrate and hand out the company's LifeStraw water filter.
Films explore variety of conflicts over life-sustaining resource
VOA - Rosanne Skirble | Washington, D.C. March 22, 2011
"Dhaka’s Challenge" explores the limited access to safe water and adequate sanitation in one of the fastest growing cities in Asia.
Nearly one billion people around the globe lack access to clean, safe water. It's a common problem in many parts of the developing world, but its severity and human impact are not widely known, according to experts at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a Washington-based news organization.
As part of the United Nations’ annual World Water Day observance, the center is screening a slate of documentaries about international water issues at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C. The films portray a variety of conflicts over water and the efforts to protect this life-sustaining resource.
The challenge in presenting these films, says Peter Sawyer, projects coordinator at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, is to share with a wider audience the urgent issues surrounding water security.
"Our goal for this screening is to just get these issues out there," he says. "We don’t feel that they are in the public consciousness and we think that they should be and we think that they should be because they are really important."
Dhaka's challenge
In "Dhaka’s Challenge," filmmaker Stephen Sapienza explores one of the fastest growing cities in Asia. He says one-third of the 15 million people in the Bangladeshi capital live in slums, where access to safe water and adequate sanitation is limited.
"And you can see it everywhere when you are riding around in Dhaka. You see people cuing up to go to public toilets," says Sapienza. "You will see hanging toilets where people will actually defecate on the top of an open river or creek."
It’s a sanitation disaster at the heart of this year’s World Water Day theme - Water for Cities. Each year 400,000 newcomers join Dhaka’s urban poor, putting pressure on its already crowded slums. City water from Dhaka’s Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) comes at a price, available only to land owners. The film documents how a non-profit group helped change the law to give the same water privileges to the urban poor.
Diabalok Sing Ha is the group’s founder. "A win-win situation actually occurred because Dhaka WASA, they wanted their revenues and on the other hand, poor people, they wanted the service and they immediately see the economic advantage of getting access to Dhaka WASA water supply because that is cheap in comparison to the private market, so they immediately buy in."
Sapienza says more groups are seeking those rights, an effort that has already begun to scale up in Bangladesh and could become a model in other parts of the world.
"My story was just trying to point out that these problems are solvable on some level even if you have to start small and it’s possible in the long run to save many, many lives."
Flood damage
A second Pulitzer Center-sponsored film is focused on Pakistan. Floods in 2010 covered one-fifth of the country, claiming 1,600 lives and destroying towns and farmland.
"Water Scarcity on the Indus River," directed by Fred de Sam Lazaro, journeys to Pakistan’s northern border with Afghanistan, where aid worker Maqsood Alam helps restore flood-damaged farms and irrigation canals for the half-million local people who depend on them.
In a place better known for militant extremists, Alam says his major problem has been putting a lot of farmers back to work.
"Farm families that have (this) subsistence kind of agriculture, they have lost their source of income generation."
That recovery will take time, says Pakistan water activist, Simi Kamal. "Really to help these people get back on the land, help them stay away from diseases as much as they can, help them with their own food needs, help get the kids to school, you know, help them get over this winter."
The film also explores the irony that Pakistan is laced by rivers fed by the melting glaciers of the Himalayan Mountains, but suffers from chronic shortages because water distribution is managed so poorly, and complicated by disputes with neighboring India.
China lake
Water scarcity affects one-in-three people on every continent, according to the World Health Organization. A third Pulitzer Center-supported film documents how China’s second largest fresh water lake has shrunk by half since the 1940s. Dongting Hu Lake is used to quench the thirst of local communities while also meeting the competing demands of farms and factories. Increasing levels of silt from economic development are diminishing the lake even further.
"It’s true that fish are less and less," says Chinese ecologist Jiang Yong. "There are several reasons. First, the demand for fish has become greater. The population is growing and there are more and more people around the city. They love to make fish and make several dishes. People have a conception that eating fish is a must when you come to Dongting."
Yong adds that awareness of environmental protection is not enough. People need to find a way to live with the lake and not over-exploit it, if the lake is to survive.
US water fight
In the southeastern United States, people in three states have been squabbling for the past 20 years over access to the waters of the Chattahoochee River. The documentary "Chattahoochee: From Water War to Water Vision" takes viewers along that winding river - through Georgia, Alabama and Florida - to meet the people whose livelihoods depend on it. Producer Jonathan Wickham says the solution to competing urban, agricultural and business needs will require a new way of thinking about the shared resource.
"And if you live upstream, that means you can make reasonable use of the water supply as long as you don’t deprive your neighbors downstream," says Wickham.
The 52,000-square-kilometer watershed serves six million people - from Gulf of Mexico oystermen to the 3.5 million residents of metropolitan Atlanta. The city is currently facing a court order to share local water resources with neighboring counties which could cut the city’s supply in half.
Katherine Bliss, director of the water project for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says what this story and the others from around the world have in common is that solving these complicated water problems requires that people become educated and engaged.
"I think each of the films, by highlighting the human struggles, relates not only to the kind of negotiations they are talking about, but education and awareness, conservation and promoting a greater understanding of the fact that water is a shared resource."
SAF Settlement Residents Struggle as World Marks Water Day
VOA - Scott Bobb | Makausie Settlement (near Johannesburg) March 17, 2011
Photo: VOA Photo S. Bobb Emily Ntake pumps water in South Africa's Makause community.
The international community is marking World Water Day this year under the theme of water and urbanization - noting that for the first time in history, more than one-half of the world's population now lives in cities. In Africa, which has the highest urbanization rate in the world, 70 percent of city dwellers live in slums or shantytowns, often called informal settlements.
It is early morning in Makause, a sprawling settlement of shacks made mostly of tin and wood, sitting on an old mining ridge outside Johannesburg.
Makause's 12,000 residents do not have running water, so every day they must fill their buckets at communal taps. The city has installed two of these at the edge of the community.
The settlement emerged more than 20 years ago after the gold mine beneath it shut down. The owners now want to earn income from the land by using it for housing developments or light industry.
Four years ago, hundreds of people were forcibly evicted from a strip of land in the middle of the settlement. Their shacks destroyed, they were forced to move 40 kilometers outside the city. With no jobs or services there, many returned.
Emily Ntake has been living here with her small son for two years while she looks for a job. She says because the city water taps are so far away, she uses one of 17 illegal taps built by neighbors.
"We've got a problem of water here. It's got to come. So we need more taps so that we can have water," said Ntake.
Makause residents also have no public electricity. A few businesses operate using generators.
There is also no public sanitation. Residents dig pit latrines in their yards and enclose them for privacy. When the pit fills up, they cover it with dirt and dig another.
Following the end of apartheid 17 years ago, the black-led government embarked on an ambitious program to deliver basic services to its poor. It built more than one million low-income houses and brought public water, electricity and sanitation to millions of people.
But a large portion of the population of nearly 50 million still lives without public utilities.
After years of waiting, frustrated residents here organized the Makause Settlement Development Forum to press for housing and basic services.
Ndawoyakhe Mpambo is the forum's chairman and he says all we are getting from the government is just promises, since we started voting 17 years ago. Every time there is an election, he says, the politicians come here promising a lot but we don't see it.
There are frequent demonstrations, sometimes violent, across South Africa by residents of informal settlements demanding housing and public services.
Professor Marie Huchzermeyer of Johannesburg's Witwatersrand University says the riots are about more than the lack of services.
"These delays, combined with broken promises," said Huchzermeyer. "And then it's another year, and another year, and another year, and more excuses coming from the municipality. And that really causes huge dissatisfaction and a strong sense that they're not being heard."
Lawsuits in a few cases have led the courts to order local authorities to provide the services, which are guaranteed under South Africa's constitution. But implementation has been slow.
City planners say it is difficult to bring pipes into communities where crooked footpaths are the norm rather than grid-like streets.
Some countries, most notably Brazil, have adopted a policy of providing services to residents of informal settlements rather than waiting until they can build them proper houses.
The South African government recently promised to do the same for 400,000 people in informal settlements within three years. But Huchzermeyer says local governments are reluctant to bring city services to such communities.
"There is this mindset that if you improve informal settlements by giving them water and sanitation you are rewarding them and more people will then follow suit and do the same in order to access water and services and ultimately housing," added Huchzermeyer.
She says governments want to make their cities more attractive to investors and see the settlements as eyesores. As a result, many like her believe it will take considerable social pressure to improve the lives of people like the residents of Makause.
SAF Settlement Residents Struggle as World Marks Water Day
Article and video from VOA
Like clean water, wildlife, seafood? Then you'll love wetlands
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal
Diversity is the spice of life. And contrast, in all forms, makes life more interesting. Nowhere is this more apparent than where land and water meet. Whether it’s salt marshes, mountain bogs or wooded swamps, the blending of both terrestrial and aquatic environments creates a wetland, an ecosystem that often supports more life than either the land or water alone.Wetlands are semi-aquatic lands, flooded or saturated by water for varying periods of time during the growing season.
Because of the presence of water, wetlands are characterized by a predominance of hydrophytes (plants adapted to wet soils) and the presence of hydric soils (periodically saturated or flooded soils). Wetlands include bogs, swamps and marshes and shallow water areas of rivers, lakes and ponds. Two major groups of wetlands are found in the Bay watershed: estuarine and palustrine.
Estuarine wetlands are tidally flooded and range in salinity from fresh to salt water. Estuarine wetlands are the marshes found mainly along the shore of the Chesapeake Bay and tidal portions of rivers.
Palustrine wetlands are freshwater bogs, marshes and swamps bordering streams and rivers, filling isolated depressions and fringing lakes and ponds.
In the past, wetlands were regarded as wastelands, conjuring up images of dark, dangerous places filled with mosquitoes, biting insects and poisonous snakes. Because of these negative images, people filled or drained wetlands. In rural areas, wetlands were often put into crop production, and in urban areas, wetlands were converted into housing developments, shopping malls and industrial plants.
This misguided notion led to a rapid destruction of wetlands over the last 250 years. During colonial times, it has been estimated that more than 200 million acres of wetlands covered the country. Today, less than half of those wetlands remain and more continue to be lost.
The majority of wetland loss is due to draining and filling for agriculture, housing, highways and commercial buildings. Between the 1950s and 1970s, the United States lost nearly 460,000 acres per year, including more than 2,800 acres lost annually in the Chesapeake region.
Our understanding and appreciation of wetlands has since grown. Ecologically, wetlands are extremely valuable and productive areas. Many of the Bay’s living resources depend on wetlands to survive.
Water levels in wetlands vary from nearly dry to completely flooded over the course of a year. These shifts in water levels allow some types of wetlands to function as two different ecosystems, account- ing for the large numbers of animals that depend on them. For example, when a forested swamp floods, fish like bass and herring move in to feed and spawn. Fish and crayfish, in turn, provide food for mink, otters and raccoons. When the swamp becomes drier, the fish stay in the stream channels and mammals and birds move throughout the forest.
Wetlands are hot spots of biological diversity. About 43 percent of the nation’s endangered species depend on them for survival. One third of all North American bird species depend on wetlands for food, shelter or breeding habitat. Coastal wetlands provide critical habitat for shorebirds, migrating waterfowl and fish. Thousands of smaller animals, including aquatic insects, snails, mussels and tiny crustaceans thrive in wetland communities.
Wetlands are important for more than just wildlife. Do you like seafood? Roughly two-thirds of commercially valuable fish and most shellfish use tidal wetlands as spawning and nursery areas. Do you like crabs? Wetlands provide food and cover for blue crabs as well as helping to filter out sediment that would otherwise cover Bay grasses, critical to crabs as spawning and nursery areas.
Do you want to protect your home and property from flooding? Controlling flood and stormwater is an important function of wetlands. Fast-moving flood waters are slowed by the vegetation and temporarily stored in wetlands. The gradual release of this water reduces erosion and property damage. Coastal wetlands also absorb the impact of storm surges, stabilizing coastlines during major storm events.
What about clean water? Upland runoff water is cleansed as it passes through wetlands, which act as natural filters, trapping sediment and capturing nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Excess sediment can bury fish eggs and bottom-dwelling organisms and prevent light from reaching Bay grasses. Excessive nutrients trigger algae blooms that, as they decompose, rob water of life-sustaining oxygen.
Wetlands also play a crucial role in recharging groundwater supplies. Not only do they assure an abundant supply of fresh water for irrigation and drinking, they also help to create groundwater pressure, which keeps saltwater out of coastal aquifers. As municipal and agricultural demands for water increase, the importance of wetlands in maintaining water supplies grows.
Do you spend your free time outdoors? The wetlands of the Chesapeake region offer boating, fishing, waterfowl hunting, and wildlife watching. Outdoor recreation is big business. In 1996, Americans spent $101 billion on wildlife-related activities including hunting, fishing and wildlife watching. Many of these activities occur in wetlands.
Protecting our remaining wetlands is an essential step in holding the line for environmental quality. Further wetland destruction or degradation can ruin the fragile Chesapeake ecosystem and eliminate a way of life that you now enjoy.
So what can you do? If you have wetlands on your property, keep them. They improve water quality, reduce flood and storm damage, provide habitat for fish and wildlife and support recreational activities. Restore lost wetlands. Many state and federal natural resource agencies and private conservation groups have programs to help landowners re-establish wetlands.
Buy Federal Duck Stamps, which are available at post offices and National Wildlife Refuges. More than 5 million acres of wetlands and other migratory bird habitat has been purchased with funds from the sale of the stamps. Federal Duck Stamps can also be purchased directly from the Federal Duck Stamp office by calling toll-free 1-888-534-0400.
See a wetland. Visit National Wildlife Refuges or local wild lands to learn more about wetlands and the wildlife they support. Teach your children the importance of wetlands and other wild lands. Get involved with local issues that may affect wetlands in your community. Wetlands are often lost in small parcels, but the cumulative effect is devastating.
Kathryn Reshetiloff is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Bay Field Office in Annapolis.
Like clean water, wildlife, seafood? Then you'll love wetlands
Article from Bay Journal - March 1999
20 Years of Supporting Access to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation
February 28, 2011
By Dan Klinglesmith
DENVER – February 28, 2011 – Today, Water For People (www.waterforpeople.com) marks its 20th anniversary of working to create a world where all people have access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation, and where no one suffers or dies from a water- or sanitation-related disease. In 1991, the American Water Works Association (AWWA) founded Water For People with this vision in mind and now the organization works in 11 developing countries in Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America.
Water For People’s unique business-oriented approach and its commitment to providing full coverage for everyone within a region coupled with monitoring and evaluation continue to set it apart from other development organizations. Partnerships with local governments, civil society and institutions, plus the private sector, including emerging entrepreneurs are the hallmarks of Water For People’s work to provide the foundation for communities and municipalities to become self-reliant in providing their own water and sanitation services. Innovative technologies such as FLOW (Field Level Operations Watch) have instrumentally shifted methods of data collection and reporting on projects, which demonstrates accountability to donors and the people who are relying on newly developed services.
“We are very grateful for the outstanding support that the North American water and wastewater community has given us over the years,” said Ned Breslin, Water For People CEO. “Through the passion, dedication, and hard work of Water For People’s partners, supporters, and volunteers we have helped transform the lives of more than a million people. But this is only a glimpse of what we can achieve in the future. We celebrate this day, but we don’t lose sight of our larger goal to continue fostering locally-based partnerships and utilizing innovative solutions so that everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.”
“Water For People’s founders had a clear, simple and world-changing vision that all people should have access to safe water,” said David LaFrance, Executive Director for AWWA. “We’re pleased to congratulate Water For People’s committed staff and volunteers on turning so much of that vision into reality. AWWA is proud that 20 years ago we were there when Water For People started, and we continue our pride as a committed giving partner for the future.”
For more information about the American Water Works Association, contact Deirdre Mueller, Public Affairs Manager, at dmueller@awwa.org or visit the website at www.awwa.org.
About Water For People
Water For People is a leading international nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to creating reliable safe drinking water resources, improved sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs in the developing world; it currently operates in 11 countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, and South America. The organization’s unique business-oriented approach works to establish partnerships between local and national government institutions, nongovernment organizations, private enterprise, and entrepreneurs to enable local communities, districts, and municipalities to plan, build, finance, maintain, and operate their own safe water and sanitation services. Water For People puts long-lasting solutions and 100% coverage of a region with safe water access for everyone at the forefront of its strategy. It fosters innovation solutions to water and sanitation problems that are adaptable worldwide, and through monitoring and evaluation of its program impact for at least 10 years post-implementation, Water For People ensures that its work is sustainable by local partners. For more information, visit www.waterforpeople.org.
About AWWA
AWWA is the authoritative resource for knowledge, information, and advocacy to improve the quality and supply of drinking water in North America and beyond. AWWA is the largest organization of water professionals in the world. AWWA advances public health, safety and welfare by uniting the efforts of the full spectrum of the drinking water community. Through our collective strength we become better stewards of water for the greatest good of the people and the environment. For more information, visit www.awwa.org.
Water For People Press Release CONTACTDan Klinglesmith
720-488-4579
pr@waterforpeople.org
Board of Public Works Approves More Than $20 Million in Grants for Clean Water and the Chesapeake Bay Grants Will Reduce Nutrient and Sediment Pollution, Improve Infrastructure
BALTIMORE, MD (February 10, 2011) – The Maryland Board of Public Works approved more than $20 million in grants to reduce pollution and improve water quality by upgrading wastewater treatment plants, improving water and sewer infrastructure, and restoring wetlands. The Board is composed of Governor Martin O’Malley, Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, and Comptroller Peter Franchot.
“These projects significantly reduce nutrient pollution, improve our waterways and infrastructure, protect public health, and create jobs for our families,” said Governor O'Malley. “Together, we can ensure that our Bay remains vibrant and healthy for our children and theirs.”
The following projects were approved yesterday in the following locations:
Annapolis Water Reclamation Facility Enhanced Nutrient Removal upgrade – Anne Arundel County
A $13 million Bay Restoration Fund grant to Anne Arundel County, in addition to a previous $700,000 Bay Restoration Fund grant, will fund the planning, design, and construction of Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR) facilities at the existing 13 million gallons per day (mgd) Annapolis Water Reclamation Facility. After the upgrade the Annapolis Water Reclamation Facility will reduce its nitrogen discharge by 62.5 percent and phosphorus discharge by 80 percent, significantly reducing nutrients discharged to the Lower Western Shore and ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay.
Piscataway Wastewater Treatment Plant Enhanced Nutrient Removal upgrade – Prince George’s County
A $6,324,000 Bay Restoration Fund grant tothe Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission will fund the planning, design and construction of the Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR) upgrade at the existing 30 million gallons per day (mgd) Piscataway Wastewater Treatment Plant. After the upgrade, the facility will reduce its nitrogen discharge by 62 percent and phosphorus discharge by 91 percent, significantly reducing nutrients discharged to the Chesapeake Bay.
Tanyard Branch Watershed Improvements – Town of Easton, Talbot County
A $650,000 grant from the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Nonpoint Source Fund to the Town of Easton will fund the installation of a Best Management Practice facility consisting of a 1.8 acre pond/wetland, to serve a 75-acre drainage area, and additional ponds/wetlands at a natural low point near an existing stormdrain collection system. These improvements will treat previously untreated stormwater runoff, improving the water quality in Tanyard Branch in the Lower Choptank Watershed.
Western Branch Wetlands Restoration – Prince George’s County
A $175,544 grant from the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Nonpoint Source Fund to Prince George’s County will fund the restoration of in-stream, riparian and wetland habitat at three locations in Upper Marlboro within the Western Branch watershed. This project will restore or improve 16 acres of floodplain wetlands and restore approximately 6 acres of wooded riparian habitat within a 106.3 acre drainage area. The wetland habitat will be restored or improved through the excavation of basins in the floodplain, amendment of soils to impede drainage, and planting with a cover crop to control erosion followed by planting of native vegetation.
Havre de Grace Water Main Replacement Project – City of Havre de Grace, Harford County
Water Supply Financial Assistance Program grants to the City of Havre de Grace totaling $750,000 will be used for a water main replacement project.
Mountain Lake Park Sewer Rehabilitation – Town of Mountain Lake Park, Garrett County
Grants totaling $41,000 from the Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Project Supplemental Assistance Program to the Town of Mountain Lake Park will fund sewer rehabilitation.
In the movie Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts played a California woman on a mission against a local company accused of leaking the metal chromium-6 into ground water, allegedly causing cancer in 600 people. The movie was based on a real story. The more than $300 million settlement was one of the largest ever in the United States.
Fifteen years later, test results by an environmental group produced shocking results about tap water across the country.
In the study by the Environmental Working Group, 31 out of 35 cities showed various levels of Chromium-6, considered a carcinogen, in drinking water.
Olga Naidenko is the Senior Scientist at the Environmental Working Group
"Our study was a snapshot which demonstrated that Chromium pollution in drinking water is widespread across the US," said Olga Naidenko is the Senior Scientist at the Environmental Working Group. "Washington was 9 times higher than what California state scientists think is safe."
The Washington Aqueduct, owned and operated by the US government, provides potable water for a million people in the Washington DC region. Thomas Jacobus is General Manager. He says the Aqueduct did not test specifically for Chromium-6. But once the tests were done, he says, the levels were low.
"The cost to remove chromium, half of a part per billion, would be staggering and the question is, is that practical and is that necessary?" asked Jacobus.
The Aqueduct runs tests for bacteria and contaminants. It regularly checks for 22 metals, but not chromium. Jacobus says he is confident the water is safe.
Chromium-6 is a naturally occurring metal. Chromium pollution most commonly comes from mining and other industrial processes.
"It has been released into water because industries didn't care," said Naidenko. "They don't do it on purpose, but for example they store industrial waste water in unlined pools, basically just dump it outside, that is how it often ended up in water."
Naidenko says 15 years after the California case, the Environmental group found similar levels of chromium-6 in other parts of the country.
"The highest sample of our study was actually within the range that Ms. Brockovich detected in Hinkley, California in a highly polluted area," added Naidenko.
Washington Aqueduct says much can happen as water travels to the consumer. Jacobus says old pipes and fixtures can leach metals. He says water treatment facilities were never designed to remove chemicals that are now showing up.
"Right now, I think it means we need to keep looking and be aware that there may be some things that we don't know," added Jacobus.
Toxic chemicals are showing up in water around the world. Naidenko says in China, Greece and Scotland people have suffered from stomach cancers she says are linked to polluted water.
"We are not aware of studies that systematically analyze chromium in other countries, but reports from individual countries indicating chromium pollution is fairly common," noted Naidenko.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has now ordered utilities around the US to test for chromium-6 twice a year. EPA has also begun a review of the impact of chromium-6 to determine safe levels in drinking water.
Carcinogen Found in US Tap Water - article about tap water from VOA
Botswana Bushmen Win Right to Access Water on Ancestral Land
Joe DeCapua January 27, 2011 - VOA
In Botswana, Bushmen of the Central Kalahari are celebrating Thursday’s court decision granting them water rights on their ancestral lands.
In 2002, the Bushmen were evicted from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. While they won the right to return in 2006, the government said they could no longer use a vital water borehole.
Now the Court of Appeal has struck down a lower court ruling that denied them access to the borehole. At the same time, the court described government treatment of the Bushmen as “degrading.”
Fantastic… wonderful
“This is a wonderful ruling from the appeal court of five judges, which basically has found the Botswana government guilty of degrading treatment towards the Bushmen,” says Fiona Watson, field and research director for Survival International.
The ruling, she says, gives the Bushmen access to the borehole, which the government has sealed, and the right to drill new boreholes.
“So this is a fantastic ruling because it completely supports the Bushmen and we really hope that now this will draw a line under what has been several years of total misery and despair for the Bushmen, who have been denied access to water in one of the driest and harshest places in the world,” says Watson.
Central Kalahari Bushmen celebrate appeals court victory granting them water rights on ancestral lands
Watson says it’s unlikely the government has any further legal action it can take to again block access. “This is the highest court in the land, with five judges who come from Commonwealth countries and who were sitting at the Court of Appeal in Lobatse,” she says.
How many?
While Bushmen won the right to return to the game reserve, getting an exact count on how many actually have can be difficult.
Watson says, “Bushmen come and go, partly because it has been so difficult, if not impossible, to access water on their land. But at any one time we estimate there are probably about 300 to 400 Bushmen currently living in the Central Kalahari, but I think now with this wonderful ruling many Bushmen will return to exercise their constitutional right to live on their ancestral lands.”
Finding water
The borehole must be inspected to learn whether it can actually be reopened after being sealed by the government. “Nobody knows what the condition of the borehole is,” says Watson.
Also, drilling new boreholes would be expensive. “Finding water in the Kalahari is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack,” she says.
Survival International says the Botswana government continues to “prevent the Bushmen from hunting for food” in the reserve. The government recently awarded a contract to Gem Diamonds for a $3 billion mine near a Bushmen community.
The Botswanan government had said it relocated the Bushmen to give them better access to health, education and other services.
Botswana Bushmen Win Right to Access Water on Ancestral Land - article VOA
Did you know underground aquifers represent nearly 96 percent of the world's fresh water?
UNESCO Hosts Meeting to Manage World's Aquifers
Lisa Bryant | Paris 07 December 2010
Water experts are meeting in Paris this week to discuss ways countries can cooperate on managing one of our planet's most precious resources - underground aquifers.
Most of us know the importance of rivers and lakes in providing us with drinking water.
But the vast majority of fresh water does not come from these bodies. Underground aquifers represent nearly 96 percent of the world's fresh water. In countries like Saudi Arabia, Malta and Tunisia, aquifers are often the only source of fresh water.
Groundwater coordinator Alicia Aureli, of the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, says many of the 273 known aquifers in the world are shared by several countries. "For human being, these reserves are crucially important. We have definitely to pursue countries to go together, to sit together, to cooperate and jointly manage these resources in order to avoid future problems for new generations - contaminations and dispersions of these resources," she said.
It is much harder to gather information about aquifers than about rivers or lakes because they cannot be mapped using satellite imagery. But recently some countries have forged agreements to manage aquifers they share, including one reached in August by four Latin American states.
Climate change is another critical factor says Shammy Pui, secretary general of the International Association of Hydrogeologists. "Aquifers, and fresh water in any sense, plays a very important role in the global climate variability that is increasing in the planet. One of the things underground waters and aquifers can do is to provide the buffer to severe drought conditions that appear every so often," Pui said.
The UNESCO aquifer conference paves the way for a possible international convention on transboundary aquifers that the United Nations will discuss next year.
UNESCO Hosts Meeting to Manage World's Aquifers article came from voanews.com
