The News Review:

- Normal water supply likely from today
- Whistling Dixie as water drops
- DJB proposes to use recycled water
- Poisoned water inquiry concludes

Normal water supply likely from today
Hindu – May 14, 2007
— Photo: Sreenivas Kommuri ONGOLE: After hectic efforts for two days, municipal officials plugged the leakage in the main pipeline of the first summer storage tank here on Sunday. Heaving a sigh of relief, they expressed the hope of restoring normal supply from Monday afternoon. Faulty design As officials stopped water supply to facilitate repairs, people had to face untold misery for one week at a stretch. People scurried to store water for one week at short notice. They used all modes of transport to fetch water from storage tank even as officials made arrangements for supply to tail-end areas. Officials noticed several technical lapses in the tank design. They would submit a report for their rectification to avoid such contingencies in future…
Shocking fact But they were dismayed as the leakage grew further. Though they drew 21 million litres from the tank, they received only 14 million litres to the filter bed leading to a colossal wastage of seven million litres of water a day. The officials could supply water only once in five days leading to widespread discontent among people. So they were forced to take up repairs immediately. They used heavy-duty motors to bail out water and take up repairs to the pipeline. Municipal engineers were shocked to find out that the diameter of the pipeline was tapered from 700 cm to 500 cm, causing enormous pressure on the valve leading to the leakage. Also, there was no bypass pipeline to attend to repairs on the affected one.

Whistling Dixie as water drops
NEWS.com.au – May 14, 2007
"If we don’t see sufficient recovery in the coming months, the Government will make a decision on introducing full stage 4 from August 1. " Water storages hit a historic low of less than 30 per cent on May 3. Melbourne’s decreasing water supplies come as the Government continues to face pressure over the lack of a major water infrastructure project in this year’s state Budget. The Government is assessing the viability of four options to secure more water for Melbourne — sending recycled water to the Latrobe Valley from the Eastern Treatment Plant, desalination, piping water over the Great Divide from the Goulburn-Murray irrigation system and harvesting storm water from the Yarra River. It will announce which plan will go ahead later in the year. There is now 524,136 megalitres of water left in Melbourne’s supply system, which holds 1,773,000 megalitres at full capacity. Melbourne Water spokesman Ben Pratt said the dropping water levels would have no impact on the system…
" Water storages hit a historic low of less than 30 per cent on May 3. Melbourne’s decreasing water supplies come as the Government continues to face pressure over the lack of a major water infrastructure project in this year’s state Budget. The Government is assessing the viability of four options to secure more water for Melbourne — sending recycled water to the Latrobe Valley from the Eastern Treatment Plant, desalination, piping water over the Great Divide from the Goulburn-Murray irrigation system and harvesting storm water from the Yarra River. It will announce which plan will go ahead later in the year. There is now 524,136 megalitres of water left in Melbourne’s supply system, which holds 1,773,000 megalitres at full capacity. Melbourne Water spokesman Ben Pratt said the dropping water levels would have no impact on the system. "Storages reaching 29.

DJB proposes to use recycled water
Hindu – May 14, 2007
To meet the increasing demand for water, the Board has proposed to enhance the water supply by recycling wastewater. The Board plans to recycle water that gets wasted during the treatment phase at its existing water treatment plants. “After commissioning of the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant we were able to get 50 MGD of water, though we were supposed to get 140 MGD. Even this 50 MGD has helped us shut down more than 300 tube-wells in South Delhi alone, which has brought down our dependence on groundwater,” said DJB Chief Executive Officer Arun Mathur. Depleting groundwater Referring to the fast depleting groundwater levels in the city, Mr…
To meet the increasing demand for water, the Board has proposed to enhance the water supply by recycling wastewater. The Board plans to recycle water that gets wasted during the treatment phase at its existing water treatment plants. “After commissioning of the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant we were able to get 50 MGD of water, though we were supposed to get 140 MGD. Even this 50 MGD has helped us shut down more than 300 tube-wells in South Delhi alone, which has brought down our dependence on groundwater,” said DJB Chief Executive Officer Arun Mathur. Depleting groundwater Referring to the fast depleting groundwater levels in the city, Mr. Mathur said: “The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has pointed out that seven of the nine districts in the city are over-exploited for groundwater. We have to therefore reduce our groundwater consumption.

Poisoned water inquiry concludes
BBC News – May 14, 2007
It will then be passed onto the Health and Environment ministers. Local representatives said they would be recommending future action to ensure people affected had been tested for ill-health and received on-going care. The aluminium sulphate entered the water supply after it was delivered into the wrong tank at the former South West Water Authority (SWWA) water treatment works at Lowermoor. A 2005 draft inquiry report said it was unlikely that the chemicals involved in the incident would have caused any persistent or delayed health effects but recommended further research. The final inquiry, carried out by a Committee of Toxicity (Lowermoor Subgroup), was asked to investigate whether the incident resulted in ill-health and to advise whether the monitoring of community health should be increased. People across a large area of north Cornwall were exposed to levels of aluminium 500 to 3,000 times the acceptable limit defined by the European Union.