Tuvalu: state of emergency declared due to water shortages

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu (pop. 10,544) has declared a state of emergency due to severe water shortages on 28 September 2011 after existing desalination plants broke, exacerbating an already dire situation. The Australian, New Zealand and U.S. Defence forces – together with the Red Cross – have set up emergency desalination plants on two of the country’s nine islands.

A Red Cross situation report said the former British colony relied mostly on rainwater, which had been scarce this year because of a La Nina weather pattern across the Pacific.

The government of Tuvalu said the water crisis was likely to last until at least January 2012, when there’s more chance of heavy rain.

For the latest updates on the Tuvalu water crisis visit ReliefWeb

Source: AFP / New Age, 03 Oct 2011 ; ABC / ReliefWeb, 17 Oct 2011 ; Drought – Information Bulletin n° 2, IFRC / ReliefWeb, 14 Oct 2011 ; ABC / ReliefWeb, 14 Oct 2011

Bhutan, Thimphu: interim water project tackles water shortages

An interim water supply project will hopefully provide relief to residents in south and north Thimphu city who have been going without water for almost four days a week. Authorities are blaming an unprecedented construction boom and the increasing population for the capital city’s persistent water shortage problem, despite an ongoing Asian Development Bank (ADB) water supply project [1].

Indra, a Jungshina resident said, for the last three days, they had been waiting for water to fill up their tanks, in absence of which residents normally fetched the precious resource from far away sources.

“Even when we have water flowing down our taps, they’re usually timed and rationed,” he said. An Olakha resident Nima Gyem said it was a growing inconvenience to have to store water in empty buckets and pots in preparation for days without water.

“To fetch water from a far away place travelling by taxi is both expensive and difficult, especially when you have school going children,” she said.

The Thimphu City corporation (TCC) interim water supply project, worth 8 million ngultram (US$ 180,000), plans to rehabilitate and restore existing water channels from Ngabironchu, and supply water to some 200 households in the north, and another 200 households in the city’s south, which are not covered by teh ADB project. The community will be asked to contribute labour, while the city corporation will contribute 20 per cent of the labour charge. The TCC expecst that the project will be completed by September 2011.

[1] ADB – Urban Infrastructure Development : Bhutan

Source: South Asian Media Net, 12 Apr 2011

China, Sichuan: project brings safe water and sanitation to the rural poor

Ziyang County in Sichuan province is not only one of the poorest in China, but it also suffers from a water shortage like other regions in the southwest. Over the last few years, most of the existing wells in the village are either contaminated or have dried up.

“In the past, villagers had to fetch water. During the drought season, they have to go fetch and walk back from a long distance, which is tough,” said village head Ji Hongli.

But since December 2009, Singapore non-governmental organisation, Mercy Relief has stepped in by boring new wells supplying potable water to five villages within the township.

The water is delivered to each of the 574 households through a new piping system.

Clean, drinking water has been made available for every household under the purview of Mercy Relief’s development project at Dong Feng. Photo: Mercy Relief

Villagers are not just grateful for having access to safe drinking water.

“Washing the clothes with the clean water is good as we won’t feel itchy after putting them back on. In the past, we sometimes get little spots on our bodies and we keep scratching them,” said one villager.

“In the past, the water had sediments so we had to let it sit for a while. The top portion was used for cooking and washing vegetables, while the cloudy layer was used for washing our feet and feeding the livestock,” said villager Chen Shifang.

Now with extra water for their livestock, villagers are able to have more of them, thereby increasing their earnings.

Incomes are expected to rise by about US$60 a year – not an insubstantial increase in an area where annual incomes are about US$300.

“We had to dig deep into the earth to get water, and to pump the water up, which means that they could get water easily, not only for their own drinking and cleaning, but also for their fields,” said Abdullah Tarmugi, Mercy Relief advisor.

The project was developed with assistance from the local poverty alleviation foundation at a cost of over US$200,000.

Sanitation

Prior to Mercy Relief’s project implementation in December 2009, the 1,025 villagers of Fei’e Village were living in an unfavourable sanitation environment where human and animal excrement were not managed properly – a hygiene issue exacerbated by the prevalence of open-pit toilets. Through the installation of biogas digestors serving all 224 households, an efficient waste management system was thus developed where the excrement is stored in the digestors underground and used to harvest biogas fuel, which is used as alternate fuel for cooking and lighting via the provision of biogas cookers and lamps. The residue excrement from the digestors is also used to fertilise the villagers’ crops – their main source of income.

This has generated savings for the villagers, from not having to use electricity from the grid for lighting, and encouraging them to abstain from the environmentally-unfriendly practices of buying coal and wood for cooking and chemical fertiliser for farming. More importantly, the project has revamped the sanitation environment to minimise the outbreak of epidemics.

Besides lighting and cooking, the residu excrement in the biogas digestor is used to fertilise the villagers’ crops. Photo: Mercy Relief

Source: Maria Siow, Channel News Asia, 01 Jul 2010 ; Mercy Relief, 17 Jun 2010

Pakistan, Karachi: 50% export industries in SITE shut due to water shortage

More than 300 industries located in the Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate (SITE) in District West are facing hardships because of a shortfall in water supply from the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB).

‘’Due to the water shortage, more than 50 per cent of export industries are closed and more are on the verge of closure. Despite repeated requests to the MD of KW&SB, no improvement is seen in water supply to the biggest industrial estate of the country,’’ Chairman SITE Association, Salim Parekh, said in a letter sent to the Sindh governor on Monday.

As per schedule, KW&SB is bound to supply water continuously without a break, for 12 hours daily, but what is happening is that the supply hours have dropped to three to four hours, and that also with interruption of one hour. As a result, pressure of water goes down to zero and takes one to two hours for building up the pressure,’’ he stated.

Allocated quota of water fixed by the government is eight million gallons a day (MGD) but the SITE area is receiving hardly 2.5-3 MGD and that is also at a low pressure. As a result of that, industries are getting meagre supply of water and are on the edge of closure.

‘’Even the SITE fire brigade station does not have enough water to extinguish the fires erupted from time to time in industries due to which the fire engulfs an entire industry and losses reach in millions besides fatal and non-fatal injuries to firemen and workers working in the factory,” he added.

Source: Express Tribune, 13 Jul 2010

India: drought forces talk of user fees, rainwater harvesting

A record heat wave and growing water crisis in India are forcing politicians to consider implementing user fees and other measures to conserve water.

[R]ecord high temperatures in several areas have been blamed for dozens of deaths across the country. Drying rivers are causing regional water shortages. And in Nagpur, an urban area of 2.4 million in central India, the heat wave has triggered a fuel crisis as rail wagons that normally transport petroleum have been pressed into service to carry water instead.

To cope, the Indian government is drafting a new water policy that could create user fees for water-intensive sectors, such as agriculture, to deal with the crisis. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the deputy chairman of the government panel drafting the new policy, said that nearly 80 percent of the country’s water goes to agriculture, but estimated that the figure could be reduced to 50 percent.

In Pune, the country’s eighth largest city, the Green Energy foundation, a locally-based environmental non-profit, is urging the government to encourage greater harvesting of rainwater, which the foundation estimates could provide 21 percent of the eastern city’s water needs. A foundation-prepared report for their proposal criticizes the municipality for poor water management and notes that the city faces a 30 percent cut in its water use.

Source: Steve Kellman, Circle of Blue, 10 Jun 2010

Pakistan, Karachi: ‘water mafia’ leaves Pakistanis parched and broke

Corrupt politicians allow businessmen to siphon off as much as 41% of the city’s water supply and turn around and sell it at exorbitant rates to residents, generating an estimated $43 million a year.

Name a cash cow in this sprawling city of ragged slums and glass-walled office buildings and it’s almost certain there’s an organized crime syndicate behind it.

The illegal operations, routinely referred to as mafias, are everywhere. There’s a land mafia that commandeers prime real estate, a sugar mafia that conspires to control sugar prices, and even a railway mafia that forges train tickets and pilfers locomotive parts.

For those on the city’s bottom rung, however, the underworld entity they revile the most is the water tanker mafia, a network of trucking firms that teams up with corrupt bureaucrats to turn water into liquid gold worth tens of millions of dollars each year.

The water tanker mafia’s prey can be found in slums like Karachi’s Gulshan-Sikanderabad neighborhood, where every morning people buy water from the tankers, lug the plastic jugs back to their homes on wooden carts, then come back three or four more times in the afternoon and evening to buy more.

A family that makes $100 a month can spend as much as a quarter of that on water, which, elsewhere in Pakistan, costs pennies and flows out of household taps.

Water scarcity isn’t the cause. Karachi has a steady water supply, and it has the network of pipes to pump ample water into every neighborhood, rich and poor.

But Karachi is also a city of opportunists forever on the prowl for under-the-table wealth. As municipal officials look the other way, businessmen illegally tap water mains, and use the makeshift hydrants to supply fleets of tankers that then sell water to businesses, factories and neighborhoods at inflated prices. As many as 272 million gallons a day are siphoned off by the trucks.

On a recent sunbaked afternoon, along a dirt lane filled with goats munching on piles of refuse, Momin Khan seethed as he filled another blue jug with water from a cistern replenished every other day by the water tankers.

“We’re poor laborers — we can’t spare this much for water,” said Khan, 27, a glass factory worker. “The water supply lines come right into this neighborhood, but there’s never any water. So I buy the same water that I should be getting through the pipes for free. I’ve got no choice.”

Karachi has nine hydrant locations where water supply companies can legally buy water and fill their tanker trucks. But scattered throughout the city are at least 160 illegal hydrants, said Ashraf Sagar, manager of the Orangi Pilot Project, a private organization that researches water issues in Karachi.

The siphoning takes place around the clock, Sagar said. It’s done in the dead of night, but also in broad daylight.

Along Manghopir Road, a bustling Karachi avenue lined with grease-covered car repair stalls and appliance storefronts, it’s easy to find a pair of tanker drivers standing on top of their trucks, filling up with a large blue hose from an illegal hydrant inside a red-brick building. Armed guards keep outsiders from meddling.

On average, a tanker fills up six times a day, Sagar said, siphoning as much as 41% of the city’s daily water supply, an amount that generates $43 million annually for tanker owners, according to Orangi.

“With this much money involved, it’s clear these are very wealthy people,” Sagar said. “They’re powerful mafias colluding with corrupt people in the government. So there’s really nothing ordinary Pakistanis can do to stop it.”

Shahnawaz Jadoon, a deputy administrative chief for the Gulshan-Sikanderabad neighborhood, said it was virtually impossible to clamp down on an enterprise that combines the clout of city government and the wealth of Karachi’s powerful business circles.

At times, illegal hydrants are shut down by city officials, only to reopen a week later. Activists said they didn’t know of anyone involved ever being arrested.

“The big reason why people don’t get the water they’re supposed to,” said Jadoon, “is that if they did, this whole system, the tanker mafia and this corrupt network, would shut down.”

See also: Pakistan: Karachi water shortage, IRIN, 16 Jan 2002

Source: Alex Rodriguez, LA Times, 16 Mar 2010

China denies responsibility for shrinking Mekong River

China denies it has “hijacked” water from the Mekong River, causing its lowest levels in 20 years for areas downstream in Southeast Asia.

Liu Ning, vice minister of water resources, suggested that China’s dams and irrigation projects upstream have actually helped stave off some of the effects of drought — though it was not clear whether he was referring just to parched areas of southwest China or the wider region.

The Mekong River, which originates in the Tibetan Plateau, is at its lowest level in nearly two decades, halting cargo traffic on the waterway that is the lifeblood for 65 million people in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, according to the Mekong River Commission.

Nongovernmental organizations have long blamed China for shrinking the Mekong and causing other ecological damage [See for example International Rivers page on the Mekong]. China has built several dams on the upper reaches of the river and has more planned.

“We cannot say that China hijacked water resources and contributed to the drought,” Liu told a news conference when asked about the effect of China’s water projects on the water supply in Southeast Asia.

“If there were no irrigation facilities and reservoirs built in drought areas, the drought would have come earlier, the situation would have been more severe, and there would have been more people suffering from a lack of drinking water,” Mr. Liu said.

He did not specify which areas he meant.

Mr. Liu emphasized the need to step up the construction of more water conservancy projects to insure adequate drinking water.

He said neighbouring countries are aware of China’s measures and China will discuss with groups like the Mekong River Commission, an intergovernmental organization that oversees the sustainable development of the river basin.

“The building and use of hydropower plants will only be done based on scientific evidence, and this process is very strict in China,” said Mr. Liu, who is also secretary-general of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Little rainfall since late last year in southwest China has left millions of residents facing water shortages in that region’s worst drought in a century. About 24 million people, twice more than in the same period during normal years, face drinking water shortages, Mr. Liu said.

“We should prepare to fight a long drought … to prepare for the worst-case scenario,” he said.

Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou regions have been the hardest hit by the drought despite teams of workers drilling for wells and transporting drinking water, Mr. Liu said.

Mr. Liu said the severity of this year’s drought was due to a decline in rainfall, low river flows, higher temperatures, and inadequate water storage facilities and is likely to continue until mid- to late May, when the rainy season begins.

Source: Chi-Chi Zhang, AP / Globe and Mail, 31 Mar 2010

India, Kerala: rivers drying up due to excessive sand mining says activist

Drinking water shortage in Kerala, especially in the high and midland areas, has become so acute that the inhabitants have to depend on water supply by private operators.

In the Erath Panchayat of Pathanamthitta district, many households are buying water for washing and other purposes at Rs 350 (US$ 7.80) / 1,000 litres while drinking water costs Rs600-800 (US$ 13-US $18) / 1,000 litres.

According to Mr Mohan Das, a social activist, neither the government nor the panchayats are supplying drinking water in areas facing severe shortage

The Seva Bharathi, he said, is supplying drinking water to households free of cost in the Ayroor Panchayat.

He said that lack of summer rains this year, coupled with indiscriminate sand mining had led to a fall in ground water levels.

“Ever-increasing human intervention in recent years has changed the physical structure of the rivers Pampa, Manimala and Achankovil in such a way that it might sound their death knell , if the authorities continued to remain indifferent,” environment activists told Business Line.

One of the major victims of these activities is the River Pampa.

Sand mining has removed the sand bed, exposing the clay soil along several stretches of the river bed.

The river bed has also become deeper by even six meters at some places.

Consequently, the water table in the wells in the catchment areas also has fallen sharply , Mr N. K. S. Nair, General Secretary of an NGO, said

Check dams across the rivers are pointed out as a reason for the degradation of the rivers. When the riverbed level falls, the hydraulic gradient increases, leading to higher velocity.

As a result, immediately after the monsoon, water that flows into the rivers is drained out quickly, said Mr Nair, a retired engineer.

“In the absence of sand, no natural retention of water takes place. Sediment deficient flow of ‘hungry water’ picks up more sediment from the stream below the mining site, furthering the degradation process,” he said.

The normal monsoon season in Kerala is from June 1 to November 30 and the State used to receive on an average 3,000 mm of rainfall.

Source: G. K. Nair, The Hindu, 29 Mar 2010

India, Andhra Pradesh: funds sought to tackle water crisis in district

The district administration [in Kakinada] has sent a proposal for sanctioning Rs. 4.81 crores (US$ 1.1 million) towards the summer action plan for drinking water supply. Two hundred and fifty habitations have been identified for supplying water through tankers.

Priority is attached to getting repairs done to tanks and other infrastructure to ensure that drinking water scarcity is mitigated. The Rural Water Supply Department has been asked to make necessary arrangements to face the problems bound to crop up in peak summer months.

The Animal Husbandry Department has also been instructed to meet the drinking water needs of cattle. The Disaster Management Plan is being updated and sent to the government to avail of its financial assistance at the earliest so that the summer does not take its toll.

In Kapada district, the State government has sanctioned Rs. 1.43 crore (US$ 318,000) for mitigating drinking water scarcity during the summer months in Kadapa district, under disaster management funds.

Source: The Hindu, 31 Mar 2010 ; The Hindu, 31 Mar 2010

India, Mumbai: man dies in water protest

One man died in a violent protest against water shortages held outside the headquarters of Mumbai’s municipal corporation BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) on 3 December 2009. Insufficient rains have forced the BMC to impose steep water cuts until at least July 2010.

About 1,500 activists from the NGO Swabhimaan, led by its president Nitesh Rane, son of Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, raised slogans for clean and adequate water supply and tried to enter the BMC building. They were met by 500 police.

Viral Dholakia

In the scuffle, 43-year-old Viral Dholakia, state co-ordinator of Swabhimaan, fell to the ground. He was taken to the state-run GT Hospital, where doctors said that he complained of chest pain and breathlessness.

Dholakia died half an hour later, ironically on his birthday. Hospital authorities claimed that he did not die of a lathi (police stick)-charge injury, as there were no visible marks on his body.

Five had sustained major injuries. “This is disgusting. We went to ask for water and got beaten up instead. My family of 10 barely gets water for an hour a day,” said Mohmmad Umar, 50, a businessman, who had injuries all over his body.

“Almost everyday, fights break out in our area over water. There is hardly any water supply and residents fight for every drop,” said Mohmmad Ambir, 35, a Mulund resident who also suffered severe injuries.

[...] Addressing the crowd, Nitesh Rane said, “If the water supply is not restored immediately, we will not allow the Commissioner, Mayor and corporators of the ruling Sena-BJP to walk on the roads.”

[...] The police detained Nitesh and his supporters at Azad Maidan Police Station and later released them on bail.

Protesters came from Vasai, Virara

Swabhimaan managed to get protesters from as far as Vasai and Virar, which do not even fall under BMC’s jurisdiction. The Traffic Department confirmed that the organisation had sought permission to get 75 buses from outside city limits to carry supporters to the protest venue.

Nitesh picked wrong day

Nitesh Rane would have done well to check the schedules of acting municipal commissioner R A Rajeev, Mayor Shraddha Jadhav and additional municipal commissioner Anil Diggikar, who is in-charge of water supply projects, as all these important functionaries were out of the city.

Finding no one else, Nitesh only met AMC A K Singh, in-charge of Education and Security along with eastern suburbs. Rajeev and Jadhav were in New Delhi to receive the prize BMC has won for being the best civic body across the country. Diggikar is on leave as his father has expired.

Is water mafia at work?

Though it cannot be established that any political party supports water mafias who break into the BMC water mains, sources from the civic body allege that the strong lobby has political patronage.

According to an official from BMC, ever since the drive to take action against illegal connections was launched, threat calls to department officials have increased. “Because of our drive, most of the water mafia panicked and we believe that they are trying to put pressure on us by using their political connections.

The lobby is so influential that it has made crores in this business. So, they are protesting in a different manner just to divert public attention,” he alleged.

‘We didn’t order lathi-charge’

“At first, the crowd was quite peaceful, but then they broke the BMC’s security bunkers at the main gate. From there, they headed towards Gate 3. Here, they tried to use brute force to get inside the headquarters. The police who were on duty were shoved around and they lathi-charged in retaliation. None of my officers specifically ordered a lathi charge,” said DCP Zone I Vishwas Nangre-Patil.

Nearly 30 people were injured in the protests outside the BMC HQ. The protests became violent when the mob tried to forcibly enter the BMC but was lathicharged by police. Photo: Bombay Mirror

Senior Inspector Bhaurao Bhawale of the Azad Maidan police station said, “People in the crowd were intent on getting inside the BMC building and damaging government property. We have taken action against those responsible in accordance with the law,” he said.

According to police, 21 persons were arrested and charged under Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), Section 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), Section 341 (wrongful restraint), Section 452 (punishment for assault or criminal force other than on grave provocation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Source: Mumbai Mirror, 04 Dec 2009