The News Review:

- Water supply still scarce in Lenbanon south
- Budget thrust on transport, water supply projects
- … delta fish Pumps near Tracy that are sending water to…
- SCB to hike drinking water charges
- Master plan-Hyderabad-Cities-The Times of India

Water supply still scarce in Lenbanon south
Middle East Online – Mar 24, 2007
Natural water resources in Lebanon are good but there is a culture of abundance, Mohammed Bendrissi Alami, WESH Senior Programme Officer at UNICEF Beirut, told IRIN. People think they have enough so they dont care. The problem is the management, quality and supply of water, not the natural resources. There has been no emphasis on the sector and the needs of people are not being met, Alami said. War damage The already inadequate Lebanese water supply system left behind after the Israeli occupation ended in 2000 was further damaged by last summers 34-day war between Israel and the armed wing of Lebanese political party Hezbollah. The Israeli bombardment included the destruction of water tanks, springs and pipelines, leaving most of southern Lebanon totally cut off from mains water supply in the immediate aftermath of the war. Israel said it was targeting terrorist infrastructure.

Budget thrust on transport, water supply projects
Hindu – Mar 24, 2007
The JNNURM covers areas such as drinking water, sewerage, solid waste management, housing for the poor, roads and slum improvement. In respect of Chennai, eight schemes had been sanctioned. Metrowater would execute a scheme to improve the city’s water supply infrastructure at an estimated cost of Rs. The Chennai Corporation would take up a Rs. 255-crore scheme to upgrade the solid waste management system. A water supply and sewerage scheme estimated to cost Rs…
The Chennai Corporation would take up a Rs. 255-crore scheme to upgrade the solid waste management system. A water supply and sewerage scheme estimated to cost Rs. 42 crore to benefit residential areas and software parks on the Old Mamallapuram Road would be completed in a year. Traffic and road safety works would be taken up in the city under the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project-III at a cost of Rs. A detailed project report was now under preparation for developing the estuary of Adyar river.

… delta fish Pumps near Tracy that are sending water to…
San Francisco Chronicle – Mar 24, 2007
The judge’s draft decision, released Friday, is far-reaching in scope, but nobody expects immediate rationing in East Bay or Southern California cities that receive the water. Judge Frank Roesch gave the state 60 days to figure out a way to comply with the law. Ultimately, the state Department of Water Resources could be forced to radically change the way it allocates water via a complicated set of canals and reservoirs known as the State Water Project. Changes could mean more water for the beleaguered Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and less for municipalities and Central Valley farms. The decision further undercuts the faltering consensus approach that has guided state water politics during the past decade, and it harks back to the 1970s and 1980s, when acrimony and litigation prevailed. Consequences of changing State Water Project operations are huge: The system is a major source of water for cities like Los Angeles and irrigates 775,000 acres of cropland. State officials say it is also directly responsible for a $300 billion portion of the California economy…
Water contractors also are concerned. “We get 80 percent of our water from the state project, so we find this very worrisome,” said Jill Duerig, the general manager of the Zone 7 Water Agency, which serves the East Bay cities of Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore. “It highlights the uncertainty and risks we face in securing our drinking water supplies,” she said. But Jennings said Roesch’s decision “blew away the smoke screen” that obscured many delta problems and underscored the general failure of CalFed. “Under CalFed, water exports from the delta have increased, and we’ve seen the general collapse of the region’s ecosystem,” he said. “It became clear to anglers that if we were going to have any fish left in the delta, we were going to have to step away from the backroom deals and hold the agencies accountable to the law.

SCB to hike drinking water charges
Hindu – Mar 24, 2007
10 lakhs for paying power bills for its more than 300 submersible pumps and pumping stations, beside also supplying free water of 2. 5 lakh litres by tankers making 50 trips a day. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) currently supplies 27 lakh gallons a day as against the demand for 50-lakh gallons day. The supply will increase to 45 lakh gallons a day after Angadipet project is commissioned. Daily water supply The Rs. 1 crore, 11 km water pipeline, which will greatly improve water supply especially in Bowenpally, where even daily water supply will be possible, is the sugar coating the SCB wants to give to its move to hike the charges. All this, however, is not for this summer and cantonment residents will have to bear with the current shortage of water supply…
Unaccounted water There is no proper record of the number of water connections itself in the area and even officials admit that more than 40 per cent of the water delivered is not accounted for. Moreover, there is no differentiation of tariff between a bulk water user for commercial purposes and others for individual connections. This when the HMWSSB itself supplies water to the SCB on the bulk water charge! “We have no proper mechanism to either issue bills or collect the fees properly,” admits an official.

Master plan-Hyderabad-Cities-The Times of India
Times of India – Mar 24, 2007
The HyderabadMetropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has prepared a masterplan for improvement of water supply and sewerage at a cost of Rs 4,442 croreincluding under ground sewerage system for Old City. For this, the Centre willrelease its share of Rs 1,554 crore under Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) and the state government would spend Rs 666 crore. It is proposed totake a loan of Rs 2,220 crore from JBIC. “The project proposals have beenforwarded to the Centre for the JBIC loan a few days ago. We hope the project will becleared by the end of this year,” sources in the HMWS&SB told âTOI’…
In the city, theHMWS&SB intends to improve water supply in Old City areas with more capacityfor storage and effective metering, piloting 24X7 water supply zone by zone in aphased manner, water management of the Osman Sagar and the Himayatsagar andhigher size of distribution mains and refurbishment. In the sewerage system, theboard has decided to construct Sewerage Treatment Plants, lay mains, remodelsewers, recycle plant and sewerage rehabilitation in the Old Cityarea. The board has alreadystarted construction of sewerage treatment plans (STPs) and underground sewerlines in Old City through JNNURM funds. The Centre has released Rs 148 crore forimprovement of sewerage network in areas like Kishan Bagh, Gowlipura,Bahadurpura, Tadbun, Pardhiwada, Hussaini-Alum and Mir Chowk. Work is expectedto be completed by 2010.