The News Review:
- African water supplies will drop in 2100
- Haryana’s focus on drinking water
- Carib Engineering Corporation to be phased out this month
- Study may ease water fears: Eagle village wells will have little…
- Drought taking potentially disastrous toll on Arizona
- Water scarcity upsets Dharapuram residents
African water supplies will drop in 2100
Independent Online – Mar 3, 2006
Maarten de Wit and Jacek Stankiewicz of the University of Cape Town stated: “Using predicted precipitation changes, we calculate that the decrease in perennial drainage with significantly affect present surface water access across 25 percent of Africa by the end of this century”. For some of the driest parts of the continent, such as most of southern Africa and southern Madagascar the impact would be most severe, the study found. Eastern and northern South Africa was expected to experience strong to moderate decreases in water supply, according to the study that noted western South Africa was currently experiencing its worst drought in 100 years. Any water loss in eastern South Africa would affect the upper reaches of the 11 000-kilometre Orange river, one of the five largest rivers in Africa, the scientists said. With at least five instances of this river running dry between 1862 and 1912 with a total halt to its flow over two months in 1903, even one of the continent’ biggest rivers cannot be truly called perennial, the study observed. De Wit and Stankiewicz also identified the east-west band that stretches from the west African state of Senegal to Sudan in the east and separates the “dry Sahara from wet Central Africa” as a major vulnerable area. The area crosses a number of important water bodies, such as the Sudd swamps in the Nile Basin, Lake Chad that has already shrunk to 10 percent of its size in 1963 and the Niger River.
Haryana’s focus on drinking water
Hindu – Mar 3, 2006
6 crores for augmenting drinking water supply in rural and urban areas respectively under various schemes. And to ensure supply of adequate quantity of safe drinking water in southern parts of Haryana, especially the Mewat area which is facing an acute shortage of water, the Government has chalked out an ambitious project based on Ranney wells which are being installed in the plains of the Yamuna. According to the release, the only source of water supply in this area is tube-wells whose yield is inadequate and the quality of water is not good. The first phase of this project has already been started. The satellite towns falling in the National Capital Region are developing as commercial hubs and cosmopolitan cities at a fast pace and the State Government is well-versed with the pressure which would be exerted over the available infrastructure of these towns thanks to the development. It has initiated several projects along with the National Capital Region Planning Board for augmenting drinking water supply in the rural areas falling under Faridabad, Gurgaon, Panipat, Rewari, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat districts at an estimated cost of Rs… 6 crores for augmenting drinking water supply in rural and urban areas respectively under various schemes. And to ensure supply of adequate quantity of safe drinking water in southern parts of Haryana, especially the Mewat area which is facing an acute shortage of water, the Government has chalked out an ambitious project based on Ranney wells which are being installed in the plains of the Yamuna. According to the release, the only source of water supply in this area is tube-wells whose yield is inadequate and the quality of water is not good. The first phase of this project has already been started. The satellite towns falling in the National Capital Region are developing as commercial hubs and cosmopolitan cities at a fast pace and the State Government is well-versed with the pressure which would be exerted over the available infrastructure of these towns thanks to the development. It has initiated several projects along with the National Capital Region Planning Board for augmenting drinking water supply in the rural areas falling under Faridabad, Gurgaon, Panipat, Rewari, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat districts at an estimated cost of Rs.
Carib Engineering Corporation to be phased out this month
Jamaica Observer – Mar 3, 2006
Minister of Water and Housing Donald Buchanan told the Observer that the state entity would be transformed into the Rural Water Supply Limited. The Rural Water Supply Limited, he said, would assume responsibility for the engineering aspect of the water section of the ministry, and would have a mandate of ensuring that water reaches all the communities of rural Jamaica by 2010. According to Buchanan, plans were well advanced for the name change. “Everything has been put in place and finalised. The registrar of companies has been advised, and they have authorised the changes from Carib Engineering Corporation Limited to Rural Water Supply Limited, so it is just some legal instruments which are now being drawn up and then by the end of March you will have the Rural Water Supply Limited,” he explained. Buchanan was quick to point out, however, that the transformation was not a mere change of name, but a change of emphasis… “Carib Engineering Corporation Limited was created to carry water from the Yallahs Valley into the Corporate Area. Rural Water Supply is being created to ensure that rural communities across Jamaica get water,” the water minister said. He spoke to the Observer after he commissioned into operation the new Roaring River water treatment plant last week in Westmoreland. In what he described as “the water explosion”, the minister lauded Prime Minister PJ Patterson, “as the prime minister who initiated the most water projects” to provide water for Jamaicans. Buchanan noted that under Patterson’s 14-year reign as prime minister, more than 700 new rural communities had benefited from the provision of piped water. Talk Back
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Study may ease water fears: Eagle village wells will have little…
Free with registration – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – AccessMyLibrary.com – Mar 3, 2006
Byline: Darryl Enriquez Mar. 3–Town of Eagle — State research of local groundwater flow shows that two controversial high-capacity wells that the Village of Eagle drilled here for fresh drinking water should have little effect on nearwatersheds or private wells, Town Chairman Todd Gillette said Thursday. The village drilled the wells a few years ago, west of its borders, to replace its existing water supply that.
Drought taking potentially disastrous toll on Arizona
USA Today – Mar 3, 2006
That evidence can be found most dramatically in the high country’s lack of snowpack. Snow measuring sites monitored by the U. Natural Resources Conservation Service showed that 29 of 34 sites had no snow — the barest the survey sites have been going back to the earliest records in the late 1930s. “Arizona is off the bottom of the charts,” said Tom Pagano, a hydrologist for the service in Portland, Ore. “This year is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
Water scarcity upsets Dharapuram residents
Hindu – Mar 3, 2006
But there are some hiccups in it. The Tamil Nadu Water And Drainage (TWAD) Board, under the third phase of the Cauvery combined water scheme, has been drawing water and storing it in its four tanks in the town. But there is no supply. “Water from these four tanks is not supplied to the residents. And, there is no link between the municipal tanks and the TWAD Board’s tanks,” says Ms. For, the tanks are at the supply end of the water distribution system, where the width of pipe is narrower compared to those near the water tanks… And, there is no link between the municipal tanks and the TWAD Board’s tanks,” says Ms. For, the tanks are at the supply end of the water distribution system, where the width of pipe is narrower compared to those near the water tanks. “Even if the pipes are linked to the TWAD Board’s tanks water cannot be supplied because the flow will be irregular, and a painful process. ” The Vice-Chairman of the Municipality, K. Srinivasan says though the tanks have been put up and there is water, it is of little use. The civic authorities blame the TWAD for the location of tanks.