The News Review:

- Delta woes may whet water war.
- Rs.60 lakh allotted for water supply
- Mains water flows to isle school
- Ensuring safe water

Delta woes may whet water war.
Free with registration – Contra Costa Times – AccessMyLibrary.com – Feb 26, 2007
| Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA) (February, 2007). 26–An environmental crisis could disrupt water supplies throughout California for the first time since the early 1990s, threatening to end the long cease-fire in the stat…
A dry winter, devastated fish populations and recent scientific research together could force state water officials to cut Delta water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities. Already this year, water managers and environmental regulators are forecasting the possibility that much more water than is available will be needed to protect fish and prevent pushing Delta smelt closer to extinction. “We’ll consider just about everything in terms of how we get through this,” said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources. “Making water available in an uncompensated manner, these things are controversial.

Rs.60 lakh allotted for water supply
Hindu – Feb 26, 2007
60 lakh allotted for water supply Staff Reporter Rs. 10 lakh to be sanctioned as emergency relief fund KOCHI: An amount of Rs. 60 lakh has been allotted for supply of water to areas hit by shortage of drinking water. District Planning Officer Velayudhan Chettiar said the supply would begin within two or three days, as soon as the action plan was ready. The District Planning Officer told a meeting of the District Development Committee (DDC) on Saturday that Rs. 10 lakh would be sanctioned as emergency relief fund.

Mains water flows to isle school
BBC News – Feb 26, 2007
A 1m scheme, funded by the Scottish Executive, will see the installation of the mains supply via a pipeline on the seabed across Loch Linnhe. The project has split the community of fewer than 200 people, with some claiming it is a waste of money. There is currently no mains water supply on the islands. The community has tanks and takes its supply from burns, lochs or boreholesThe primary school qualified for an executive project to connect remote and rural schools to mains water supplies to protect children’s health. ‘Very basic’Jason Rose, of Scottish Water, said: “The current private water supply the children in Lismore get is unsatisfactory, so by piping over mains water from the mainland we are improving their health. “The current supply at the primary school in Lismore is very, very basic and has been known to dry up. “By piping water over from the mainland, we are not only protecting the children’s health, we are sending a very positive message about remote and rural communities…
There is currently no mains water supply on the islands. The community has tanks and takes its supply from burns, lochs or boreholesThe primary school qualified for an executive project to connect remote and rural schools to mains water supplies to protect children’s health. ‘Very basic’Jason Rose, of Scottish Water, said: “The current private water supply the children in Lismore get is unsatisfactory, so by piping over mains water from the mainland we are improving their health. “The current supply at the primary school in Lismore is very, very basic and has been known to dry up. “By piping water over from the mainland, we are not only protecting the children’s health, we are sending a very positive message about remote and rural communities. The project has divided the island community.

Ensuring safe water
Pakistan Dawn – Feb 26, 2007
Every third Pakistani drinks unsafe water, while 36 per cent of the population in Sindh and Punjab lives with arsenic levels in water that vastly exceed WHO limits. Now a Faisalabad-specific study on the impact of wastewater has thrown up more alarming facts. According to the Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), some 30 to 40 per cent of patients in the city suffer from waterborne diseases which is hardly surprising given that 39 per cent of public water samples were found to be microbiologically unfit for human consumption. Microbial contamination in groundwater was even higher, ranging from 57 to 60 per cent depending on the location. Heavy metals such as chromium, cadmium, iron, lead and nickel were found to have entered the food chain via vegetables irrigated with wastewater and industrial effluent, as well as through fish reared in ponds fed by poor quality groundwater. Excessive quantities of iron were discovered in drinking water while soil samples were contaminated with nickel and cadmium. Clearly, the lives of Faisalabads 2…
Scarcity of water and energy had been forecast in the planet as a whole since the mid 20th century. The concept of sustainable development gradually began to preoccupy planners and economists as the attention of leaders and administrations alike turned to mobilising natural resources to improve the life of their people. As the limits to the water supplies available for meeting competing demands were realised it began to be forecast that “future wars might well be fought over water resources”. Asia, the continent containing over 60 per cent of the world’s population, with 20 per cent each in China and the South Asian subcontinent, has potentially the most serious problem in this regard. It may be recalled that following independence in 1947, the issue of sharing the waters of the Indo-Gangetic water system arose and was resolved only through the good offices of the World Bank that promoted lengthy negotiations culminating in the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. This treaty was not viewed favourably by exponents of international law as it violated the principle of safeguarding the rights of lower riparians. India was able to press its case by taking the water resources of the Indus river system as a whole, and as there were canals from two eastern rivers, Ravi and Sutlej irrigating substantial areas in Pakistani Punjab, Pakistan had to construct major dams on the Indus (Tarbela) and Jhelum (Mangla) to transfer water to the Ravi and Sutlej.