The News Review:

- Water Supplies As Varied As Sources
- Most Iraqis still don’t have access to clean water
- HYDERABAD: Fund allocation for water schemes
- The debate over fluoride in our tap water

Water Supplies As Varied As Sources
Washington Post – Nov 11, 2007
The declaration, prompted by reduced levels at Lake Manassas, included various prohibitions, including one on watering. City customers can’t water shrubbery, trees, lawns, grass or vegetation unless they use containers that hold three gallons or less. Fairfax City owns and operates its water supply system, with two reservoirs and a treatment plant in Loudoun. The system is linked to neighboring water systems, so the city should have a sufficient daily supply to meet demand, officials said. City Manager Bob Sisson said the October rainfall helped Fairfax use its own resources instead of buying elsewhere. "But we’re going week to week," Sisson said. The city’s water restrictions will remain in effect until reservoirs are restored or rainfall patterns return to normal, he said.

Most Iraqis still don’t have access to clean water
uruknet.info – Nov 11, 2007
In the past three years, construction crews working there under heavy guard have constructed a treatment plant that will produce an additional 25 million gallons of drinking water daily, enough for nearly 200,000 people. Miles of new water lines are also being installed, allowing 2 million Sadr City residents to tap directly into the new plant and existing water supplies. In Nasiriyah, a $277 million water treatment facility is to be handed over to Iraqis in December. It is billed as the largest facility of its kind in Iraq and is designed to provide clean drinking water for an estimated half-million people in southern Iraq. As many as 1,500 water treatment and sewage projects have been completed, with 150 more in progress, according to the corps of engineers. The aim is to deliver an additional 290 million gallons of water daily to the Iraqi population, and nearly three-fourths of that goal has been achieved, according to the corps. “From my travels, I think it’s really getting better,” said U…
military installation east of Baghdad, where water-bearing platoons fan out for humanitarian missions in outlying villages. “We can live without electricity, but we cannot live without water,” said Fayhan, the woman from Sadiyah. Although water itself is not in short supply — the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which run the length of the country, have abundant flows — much of it is not drinkable because of pollution and high salinity. “A bad taste, a very bad taste,” said Hasan Dawood, a sheik from Zatia, describing the water that comes from the tainted town wells. “I can’t give a better description.

HYDERABAD: Fund allocation for water schemes
Pakistan Dawn – Nov 11, 2007
He said work had also been started on the Rani Bagh at a cost of Rs50 million. He said that the construction and renovation work has been extended and the total amount has been increased up to Rs150 million. Not only this, he said, billions of rupees were being spent on education, health, water supply and other schemes and modernisation of infrastructure. Nazim city taluka Javed Jabbar also spoke on the occasion.

The debate over fluoride in our tap water
phillyBurbs.com – Nov 11, 2007
ïWeïre hoping it will result in the commonwealth moving forward and mandating fluoride in public water systems. ïFluoride is a form of the element fluorine. It is found naturally in many water supplies around the globe, including the United States. A different form of fluoride also is added to about half the water supplies in the country in the name of dental health. Most health experts agree that constant, low levels of fluoride in the mouth help prevent tooth decay. ïIt just makes the enamel stronger and less prone to decay,ï said Robert Solomon, a dentist with Hatboro Dental Center. The question is how best to deliver the fluoride…
ïWhile that may be an admirable goal, some water suppliers say thatïs the job of public health, not a water utility. ïThe impact of fluoridation is worthy of public debate, and maybe there are some alternative measures to deliver it,ï said Tony Bellitto, director of the North Penn Water Association. ïBut the public water supply cannot solve all socioeconomic problems. ïïThere is a range of dietary supplements that might be good for some people, from Vitamin C to calcium, but the public water supply should not be the vehicle through which that is delivered,ï he said. ïA large number of our customers have no need for or desire for those supplements. ïEwall and others in the anti-fluoride movement say fluoridation is not the panacea itïs made out to be. Rates of tooth decay have fallen dramatically around the world in the past 50 years, even in countries where the public water is not fluoridated, he said, pointing to data from the World Health Organization.