The News Review:

- Government and Environment
- Council hopes residents will have water supply for Christmas
- 2,400 habitations get drinking water
- Backlash over letter on backflow device

Government and Environment
Jamaica Observer – Dec 24, 2006
Pollution and MiningA few years ago, there was in Jamaica, a Czech scientist, Dr Jasmino Karanjac, who retired as professor of hydrogeology at UWI, Mona. While he was here he carried out several studies with the co-operation of the Water Resources Authority and its head, Mr Basil Fernandez, who like him is an authority on bauxite refinery contamination. In a paper prepared for a Conference ‘Water Resources & Environmental Problems in Karst’ in September last year, Professor Karanjac said, inter alia, “About 60 per cent of Jamaica is underlain by the White Limestone Formation. Jamaica is also well known for its “Cockpit Country” – an easily recognised pattern of round-top hills and depressions with internal drainage. White Limestone is, in many places, karstified, its aquifers are covered with thin soil layers that do not offer much of protection against surface pollution. from agricultural practices, seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers. and by the processes of refining bauxite into alumina…
“In spite of sufficient ground water resources and relatively low level of its utilisation (less than 30 per cent), due to distribution of population, seawater intrusion. industrial, urban and agricultural pollution, and irregular rainfall Jamaica will have to introduce reverse osmosis on a reasonable scale. Rainwater harvesting will be another alternative, same as waste water treatment and reuse. I quote Dr Karanjac at length to contradict the impression given by some others that the destruction of the Cockpit Country would not be a disaster for Jamaica’s water supply. If, as Dr Karanjac says, we may have to go into reverse osmosis – the qualitative equivalent of distilling sea water, we are obviously in trouble. And this is before the Cockpit Country is despoiled. The Government has announced that it is setting up yet another ministerial subcommittee to study the problem.

Council hopes residents will have water supply for Christmas
Belfast Telegraph – Dec 24, 2006
It has asked people to use water sparingly over the next 12 hours until an electrical fault at the Cottrelstown pumping station is fixed. Three water tankers have been supplying water to the area this afternoon, but the Council is hoping to restore water to the bulk of its customers this evening. Fingal County Council aplogises to all its customers for the inconvenience. Post a comment Limit: 500 charactersView all comments that have been posted about this article…
It has asked people to use water sparingly over the next 12 hours until an electrical fault at the Cottrelstown pumping station is fixed. Three water tankers have been supplying water to the area this afternoon, but the Council is hoping to restore water to the bulk of its customers this evening. Fingal County Council aplogises to all its customers for the inconvenience. Post a comment Limit: 500 charactersView all comments that have been posted about this article.

2,400 habitations get drinking water
Hindu – Dec 24, 2006
23 lakh had been earmarked for providing the facility at 46 schools. The board would also implement a special project, `Ramanathapuram Combined Drinking Water Supply Scheme,’ on an outlay of Rs. A little over 120 village panchayats in Ponnamaravaty, Tirumayam and Viralimalai would get the supply once the scheme was completed, he said. The Executive Engineer, C.

Backlash over letter on backflow device
San Diego Union Tribune – Dec 24, 2006
The city estimates that up to 150 San Diego multifamily buildings may get the same letter over the next six months. It's the tail end of a Water Department effort that dates to a 1996 state order. The state told the city it wasn't doing enough to safeguard the drinking-water supply and gave it until June 2007 to address the problem. The size of larger buildings sometimes creates “back pressure,” which can cause used water to reverse into the drinking-water system, department spokesman Kurt Kidman said. Single-family homes apparently don't need the devices, because they have simple piping and water meters that don't allow backflow.