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Where Are the World’s Most Water-Stressed Cities?

           

Last year, California’s cities were required to cut their water usage by up to 35%. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

More than 2.5 billion people don’t have access to basic levels of fresh water for at least one month each year – a situation growing ever more critical as urban populations expand rapidly

theguardian.com - by Katherine Purvis - July 29, 2016

Water stress – where the human or ecological demand for water is not met – is caused by a variety of factors. . . .

. . . As the urban population grows, so too does the number of people living in settlements that are not connected to a formal piped water supply. . . .

. . . As freshwater supplies dry up, many cities are engaged in a race to the bottom as they turn to groundwater – with some underground aquifers now so overexploited that water is extracted much faster than it is recharged.

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Sierra Leone: 'Water Shortage May Lead to Cholera'

Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation 1, Madina Rahman, has said that the current water crisis in Freetown and its environs might cause a cholera outbreak and other water borne diseases.

"Because of the areas where people go to fetch water, I am worried that we may experience water borne diseases," she noted.

Madam Rahman was updating newsmen last Thursday at a presser held at the Ministry of Information and Communications, Youyi building in Freetown.

She said the country was challenged by acute water shortage and that she was worried there could be a serious disease outbreak because people collect drinking water from unprotected sources without boiling or filtering.

She said about 1.8 million people die from cholera and other water borne diseases annually around the world, adding that it was a concern for the government.

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Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) holds discussion on water crisis

The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) yesterday organized a round table engagement in their conference room on the acute shortage of water supply in Freetown and other parts of the country.

 

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India Bangalore lake of toxic snowy froth

The foam rises so high that it flows into the neighbourhoods around the lake.Image: The foam rises so high that it flows into the neighbourhoods around the lake. Photo: Debasish Ghosh

bbc.co.uk - September 28th, 2015

Is it snowing in India's tropical southern city of Bangalore?

The picture above would certainly make you think so.

Unfortunately, the reality is quite different: what looks like snow is actually harmful snow-white froth that floats up from the city's largest lake and spills over into neighbouring areas.

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Pitt, Drexel, and NIH team up to study persistence of Ebola virus in wastewater

EUREKEALERT                                                                                                               Aug. 25, 2015
PITTSBURGH--The historic outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa that began in March 2014 and has killed more than 11,000 people since, has raised new questions about the resilience of the virus and tested scientists' understanding of how to contain it. The latest discovery by a group of microbial risk-assessment and virology researchers suggests that the procedures for disposal of Ebola-contaminated liquid waste might underestimate the virus' ability to survive in wastewater.

Current epidemic response procedures from both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that after a period of days, Ebola-contaminated liquid can be disposed of directly into a sewage system without additional treatment.

However, new data recently published by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Drexel University, and the National Institutes of Health indicate that Ebola can survive in detectable concentrations in wastewater for at least a week or longer.

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/uop-pda082515.php

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Flooded Mines Cause Toxic Sludge in Vietnam

             

The Mong Duong coal mine in Vietnam's Quang Ninh province has flooded, spilling toxic sludge that contaminated land, rivers and coastline  Photo: Luu Quy Doan/Vnexpress

CLICK HERE - SITUATION REPORTS - United Nations - Vietnam

United Nations - irinnews.org - by Vu Duy - August 7, 2015

HANOI, 7 August 2015 (IRIN) - Toxic sludge that spilled out of open pit coal mines during 10 days of heavy rains may have seriously contaminated farmland, rivers and coastal areas in northern Vietnam.

Flooding has killed 30 people, wiped out roads and damaged thousands of homes, the United Nations said in a situation report on Wednesday. The UN also warned of potential risks to the environment, health and water sanitation after coal mines in Quang Ninh province flooded, spilling thick streams of dark sludge into the countryside.

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South Sudan: More Will Die from Cholera Unless We Secure Clean Water

           

South Sudanese patients wait for medical treatment in the outpatient department of a medical camp.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Oxfam’s water and sanitation coordinator writes about the challenges of bringing South Sudan’s cholera outbreak under control

theguardian.com - by Katrice King - August 6, 2015

“I have no money to continue buying water. I will have to beg from those at the borehole or from the water trucks. Or else, I go back to the village,” a mother of five told me recently. . . .

. . . This is the agonising reality of families I have met in parts of Juba; they are struggling to cope with a worsening water crisis fuelled by the deteriorating economic situation in South Sudan. As a result, the city is now left exposed to the spread of deadly diseases.

Cholera has already claimed 42 lives since May – including seven children – and has infected more than 1,400 people. . . .

. . . If the water shortages continue, hygiene conditions in the most affected areas will worsen and people will have no alternative but to use unprotected sources such as rivers and open wells, exposing more people to cholera.

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Turn on the taps to defeat the next Ebola

IRIN by Jennifer Lazuta                                 June 15, 2015

DAKAR, Senegal - It is a cruel irony that many of the top doctors and nurses in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will not be around to help rebuild their health systems in the wake of Ebola, having succumbed themselves to the virus.

Many families in Guinea still rely on streams and lakes for their water needs.Photo: Jennifer Lazuta/IRIN

 For those that are, the biggest challenges are likely to be electricity, sanitation, and, most of all, water.

“How is it possible to build, or rebuild, as you may call it, a health institution or hospital without [access to] water, which serves as a major catalyst to run the facility?” asked Moses Tamba, a spokesperson for Liberia’s Ministry of Public Works. “It is not possible. You need water....”

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Diarrhoea Patients on Rise in Quake Hit Khokana

ekantipur.com

LALITPUR, APR 28 - With the lack of safe drinking water after the April 25 earthquake , people in Khokana village, the southern outskirt of the Kathmandu Valley, has begun suffering from diarrhoea.

Although the villagers initially got treatment at local health posts, the number of the sufferers increased. So, they were referred to better hospital and the health camps run by the Nepal Army, said a local social worker, Nepal Dangol.

Similarly, Shivaram Baniya from Adarshashaul Higher Secondary School said more than 100 diarrhoea patients have been provided treatment at health camps run by a joint team of Nepal Army and the Bangladesh Army. RSS

http://www.ekantipur.com/2015/04/28/national/diarrhoea-patients-on-rise-in-quake-hit-khokana/404576.html

http://np.ekantipur.com/2015/04/28/top-story/diarrhoea-patients-on-rise-in-quake-hit-khokana/404576.html

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Re: Diarrhoea patients on rise in quake hit Khokana | Health | National

Jim,

I agree. The question is whether we can alter the trajectory of disease with better assessment, surveillance, and rapid response. What we engaged in Haiti worked, but it was never scaled appropriately.

We can do better in Nepal. The monsoon season is only a couple months away. Efforts we need to be scaled immediately.

Mike

Dr. Michael D. McDonald

Coordinator
Global Health Response and Resilience Alliance

Chairman
Global Resilience Systems, Inc.

President
Health Initiatives Foundation, Inc.

Michael.D.McDonald@mac.com
202-468-7899

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