India and China made progress in access to drinking water:UN

United Nations, Mar 16 (PTI) India and China, home to more than a third of the world's population, have made "considerable progress" in providing drinking water to their people, according to a new UNICEF-WHO report.

"Both countries have made considerable progress," said the report entitled 'Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water'.

The study found that in India, 88 per cent of the population of 1.2 billion use drinking water from improved sources of water as compared to 72 per cent in 1990 while in China, 89 per cent of the population of 1.3 billion use drinking water from improved sources, up from 67 per cent in 1990.

Improved water sources include public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells and springs, rainwater collection and household connections.

By the nature of their construction, they "adequately protect the source from outside contamination, in particular from faecal matter," according to WHO.

Groundwater in 33% of India undrinkable

TOI, 12 March, 2010, NEW DELHI: Ground water in more than a third of Indian districts is not fit for drinking. The government, in reply to a parliamentary question, admitted that iron levels in ground water are higher than those prescribed in 254 districts while fluoride levels have breached the safe level in 224 districts.

The alarming situation could bring trouble for the government, which has promised to provide drinking water to all habitations by 2012 under the millennium development goals. While ground water is not the only source of drinking water that government utilises, it is one of the key supplies and the dependence on ground water has been increasing over years.

The government, in its reply, said salinity had risen beyond tolerance levels in 162 districts while arsenic levels were found higher than permissible limits in 34 districts.

States like Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat seemed to be worst affected. Twenty-one of the 26 districts of Gujarat were found to have dangerous salinity levels and 18 had breached safe fluoride levels. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) found 21 of 31 districts in the southern state of Karnataka to be contaminated with iron and 20 districts with higher levels of fluoride. In the case of Rajasthan, ground water in 27 districts was found to be too saline, 30 districts had higher levels of fluoride and 28 suffered from iron contamination.

The national capital does not fare any better, with five of its nine districts showing fluoride contamination and two showing salinity. Pockets of all the nine districts had high iron content.

While urban centres in the country deploy water treatment systems before supplying water to homes, the costs of cleaning up as well as chances of contamination remain. Removal of heavy metals like arsenic, though, remains a problem the government is unable to tackle where the source of water is only from the ground aquifers.

Experts have warned that lopsided water management has led to depletion of ground water aquifers and this, in many cases, has caused increasing contamination as people dig deeper into the ground to extract water. Cases of habitations that were provided drinking water sources based on ground water slipping back have also been highlighted recently.

Drinking water scarcity in Nagaland

Kohima: With intensification of the prolonged dry spell, acute drinking water scarcity has gripped this capital town with water selling for Rs20 a bucket.

Reports of water shortage from other district towns of the hill state have been received with authorities regulating the supply so that at least all residential colonies could get water on a rotational basis. The distribution of water has started in some residential wards since yesterday giving some respite, but hotels and those who reside beside main thoroughfares of the town have been at the mercy of private water vendors. A pair of buckets of water supplied by the vendors costs at least Rs 20 with buyers having no choice about the source. The distribution by tankers in the wards would continue till April 30 subject to extension, PHE secretary Zhaleo Rio said.

A nominal fee of 20 paise a litre will be realised for the water distributed, he said in a notification. The department has said the water was for drinking and cooking and under no circumstance will a tanker of water be sold to any individual or party, such as hotels and restaurants.

The dwellers in surrounding villagers have also complained that most streams on hills are slowly drying up since the state experienced less rainfall during monsoon and there was hardly any rain since November. Since water scarcity during the winter (December-April) is a reality in Nagaland, the state government has encouraged people to take up rain water harvesting in their residences to cover the lean period as the state receives high rainfall during monsoon. Most buildings under various departments that came up in past few years have rain water harvesting facilities on roof tops.

Source: PTI, 12 March, 2010.

CAG criticises Assam govt failing to provide water

Guwahati, Mar 9 (PTI) Assam government has come in for flak from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for failing to provide drinking water to towns under urban water supply projects despite the perennial Brahmaputra river flowing through the state.

None of the 87 towns, declared urban localities as per the 2001 census, out of the total 125 towns in the state get adequate water supply, the CAG said adding that only eight towns have been partially covered under the water supply scheme. In the rest, the scheme is yet to be implemented.

As per norms, a state level committee (SLC) is to be formed for considering the detailed projects reports (DPR) but audit scrutiny revealed that the SLC was not formed and therefore all the projects were selected without its approval.

Millions of Tons of Water Ice Found at Moon’s North Pole

A moon probe has found millions of tons of water on the moon’s north pole, NASA reported Monday. The vast source of water could one day be used to generate oxygen or sustain a moon base.

A NASA radar aboard India’s Chandrayaan-I lunar orbiter found 40 craters, ranging in size from 1 to 9 miles across, with pockets of ice. Scientists estimate at least 600 million tons of ice could be entombed in these craters.

The radar, called the Mini-SAR, sends pulses of left-polarized radio waves out to measure the surface roughness of the moon. While smooth surfaces send back a reversed, right-polarized wave, rough areas return left-polarized waves.

Ice, which is transparent to radio waves, also sends back left-polarized waves. The Mini-SAR measures the ratio of left to right circular polarized power sent back, or the circular polarized ratio (CPR). However, a high CPR alone can’t distinguish between rough patches and regions with ice.

The north pole craters had a high CPR on the inside, with a low CPR on the edges. That suggests a material enclosed in the craters, rather than surface roughness, caused the high CPR signal. According to NASA, the ice would have to be relatively pure ice and at least several feet thick to give this signature.

In November, NASA crashed a probe into the Cabeus crater near the moon’s south pole and also found evidence of water.

Image: ISRO/NASA/JHUAPL/LP

Source: Wired Science, 1 March, 2010

High arsenic level in Pak Punjab

Rising level of arsenic in the drinking water is increasing becoming a serious threat for the residents of Pakistan's southern as cancer, still births, post-neonatal mortality are frequently being reported in the region.

A joint research carried out by Tokyo Institute of Technology and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) found that the water samples in the Southern Punjab were having arsenic level above 10 ppb of the WHO standards.

"The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set a standard of 10 ppb for safe drinking water in respect of arsenic whereas the level of fluorides should be less that 1.5 ppm," The Nation quoted Dr. Attiqur Rehman, postdoctoral research fellow at AIST, as saying.

Dr Attiq further said that it was a matter of great concern that even in cities like Lahore, where the WASA claimed the provision of high quality of water, the level of arsenic was almost five times higher than the WHO standards.

Source: March 1. 2010

Mumbaikars used up 35 lakh litres of water through tankers on Holi

MID DAY, Somita Pal, 2nd March, 2010

This could have been enough water for 27 families for a year

Despite BMC's instructions about wastage of water on Holi, the city used up 35 lakh litres of water during the celebrations, enough for around 27 families for a year. Clearly, residential buildings did not heed the warnings and carried on as usual.

While most tanker owners refused to give details on the number of tankers they supplied for rain dance, a water tanker owner said, "All owners are scared that the BMC will take action. We had got a notice from BMC asking us not to supply tankers to people for rain dance, whether it is potable or non-potable, but it is the only time we can earn. After dahi-handi, holi is the biggest festival where we do good business."

"The city used around 350 water tankers this holi. We had got 25 water tankers today apart from the daily supply, which is 30 water tankers in Andheri west. However, this year the supply has gone down because of the water crisis. People this year are using more gulal and eco-friendly colours. The average demand every year for holi is around 450 tankers," added the supplier.

Fall in demand

Agreeing to the fall in demand, Amol Mandhare, owner of Akshata water supply, Vile Parle, said, "There is so much awareness this year that people voluntarily cancelled orders. I had an order of 12 non-potable tankers from a renowned housing society in Juhu for rain dance. However they cancelled it on Saturday. Last year we had sold around 20 tankers." Rajesh Thakur, secretary, Water Tankers Association, said, "Till Saturday we had got 125 bookings alone from Mahim and Prabhadevi area. However many backed out after the warning. Each year, around 250 tankers are used for holi celebrations, but this year it was only 100 in the entire city."

Strict warning

Another owner added, "After the BMC warning, we have strictly said no to even non-potable water tankers for rain dances. Otherwise every year, we sell at least 80-100 water tankers. Holi is the major festival after dahi-handi were we get bookings in large numbers." Vinay Deshpande, chief hydraulic engineer, said, "We had warned people not to use potable water for rain dance. It is good if people have also avoided use of non-potable water for rain dance. Non- potable usage of a person is about 70 litres, and 20 litres for drinking and cooking, per day." Jain Jagruti association in Ghatkopar that organised rain dance at NASEOH (National Society for Equal Opportunities for the Handicapped) ground in Chembur used 5 water tankers, and around 300 people attended the Holi celebrations.

How we arrived at the figure

Water required by a family of 4/year: 90 (litres) x 4 x 365 = 1,31,400 Water used in the city on Holi: 350 x 10,000 (a tanker's capacity) = 35 lakh litres Families that could have used that water = 35,00,000 / 1,31,400 = 26.7

Per person water requirement for playing Holi : 150 litres

Total number of water tanker suppliers in the city : 1,350