The News Review:
- Inadequate water supply irks residents
- Agencies told to ensure supply of potable water
- City water prices given OK
- A cry for help
- Improving water supply and sanitation in small towns in Viet Nam’s…
Inadequate water supply irks residents
Hindu – Nov 29, 2006
Manickam accuses the civic body of ill maintaining the motors. He adds that the two overhead tanks of three-lakh litre capacity have been rendered useless because they have gone dry without water. The drinking water supply is not without problems, though. Pipes carrying water to the locality and the town often breaks, causing leaks at regular places and often. At Monday’s council meeting, the civic body tried to address the issue by sanctioning Rs. 50,000 to plug the leaks.
Agencies told to ensure supply of potable water
Hindu – Nov 29, 2006
The authority, which conducted an exclusive Lok Adalat for discussing the issue of contaminated water supply and pollution of water bodies, on Tuesday, cajoled the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) to take expeditious steps to ensure potable water supply to the residents of Bellandur and some surrounding villages. Ramachandra Reddy, a resident of Bellandur, had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition in 1998 in the Karnataka High Court seeking a direction to the authorities to halt the flow of sewage into the lake. During an earlier sitting, environmentalist A. Yellappa Reddy was asked by the Lok Adalat to inspect the Bellandur lake and file a report.
City water prices given OK
NEWS.com.au – Nov 29, 2006
Michael Keating, head of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), also believes state governments are doing an effective job in water management – far better than Canberra could do. In a lunchtime address in Sydney, Dr Keating said many commentators had said urban water prices were too low and should be doubled, or even tripled, but there was no evidence to back their claims. At present, at least in NSW, water prices covered the costs of future additions to the water supply and measures to encourage water saving. “Prices do reflect the cost of providing the services and match the long-run marginal costs of balancing demand and supply in the absence of major climate change,” Dr Keating told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) luncheon. “Where (in rural areas) water is scarce, water trading is occurring at prices that reflect that scarcity. ”An emerging “critical consensus” was wrong in thinking that investment in water supply had been neglected because state governments were stripping dividends from their water agencies. Sydney Water had been at the centre of such a claim, he said, but in fact had spent five times more per annum on water, sewerage and drainage works than the dividends it had paid out.
A cry for help
Edmonton Sun – Nov 29, 2006
It’s been more than a year since the Kashechewan reserve in Ontario made headlines because its water was so dangerous that the community was evacuated. In this series that wraps up today, the Sun went to several native reserves in northern Alberta to see what, if any, progress is being made. We visited Driftpile, where a new $7. 3 million water treatment plant has opened after a decade of skin rashes and stomach ailments. We went to the Woodland Cree First Nation, where band leaders are scrambling to keep up with industrial development on their traditional land. And we visited the Lubicon Cree, who are locked in a bitter, decades-old land claim and don’t even have running water or plumbing in their community. Today, we talk to officials with the federal Indian Affairs department, who say progress is being made…
At any given time Health Canada has dozens of boil-water warnings issued to native communities (this doesn’t include additional water warnings issued by local authorities). Last March, Prentice announced the first-ever national water standards for reserves and promised immediate help to the worst-off communities. In May Prentice assembled a panel of experts to gather information from First Nations and to help build a framework for new laws governing water supplies. The panel was supposed to report back in September, but has been delayed. Local Indian Affairs spokesman Kelly Payn says the report is expected to be made public in the next few weeks. At the time Prentice made his announcement, 76 reserves were under at least partial Health Canada boil-water advisories.
Improving water supply and sanitation in small towns in Viet Nam’s…
Free with registration – M2 Presswire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Nov 29, 2006
–> COPYRIGHT 2006 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE-29 November 2006-ADB: Improving water supply and sanitation in small towns in Viet Nam’s central region(C)1994-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:29112006 MANILA, PHILIPPINES – About 114,000 households in Viet Nam’s central region will benefit from improved water supply and sanitation and enhanced community health through a project supported by a $53. 2 million loan from ADB. Most of the recent infrastructure investments in Viet Nam.