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The number of cases of cholera rose to nine in Dominican Republic, according to the authorities after the detection of two more people in the northern province of Santiago.
They are an 11-month-old girl and a man of 25, both Haitians, said Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez to reporters. “Both the infant and the man are in “stable” condition and have been hospitalized, said the minister. Continue reading
H2O for Life together with Save the Children, will fund a WASH in Schools project for Nationale Louis Lamartiniere de Hatty primary school in the Maissade area of Haiti. This area is welcoming refugees after the recent earthquake, and now more than ever a sustainable source of water, sanitation and hygiene education is needed.
Students currently must carry water to school each day, and walk significant distances to collect water from polluted sources. Current latrines are in poor condition and do not meet the needs of the students attending school. Hygiene education, particularly hand-washing are essential to increase the overall health of the school.
H2O for Life’s mission is to promote US school partnerships with schools in developing countries that are in need of WASH in Schools and can make a difference for students attending Louis Lamartiniere de Hatty school.
H2O for Life will provide a transformational service learning opportunity for students to study the issues surrounding the water crisis, both in the US and around the world, while also providing an action opportunity for students to raise funds and bring water, sanitation and hygiene education to their partner school. Students will see that their actions can change lives around the world.
A WASH in School Project has been planned with the help of the local community, and is ready for implementation upon receipt of funds. H2O for Life Schools raise half the funds needed for the project, and the other half will be matched by our in-country implementing partner. All projects are sustainable and are designed to be appropriately managed by the school community upon completion.
Source:
http://www.waterday.org/?uid=pa325E08B3B7AE005938
Related news: Water-related lessons for Haiti: listening and livelihoods hold the key, Source Weekly, 04 February 2010.
Project Contacts
H2O for Life
Phone: 651-756-7757
www.h2oforlifeschools.org
info@h2oforlifeschools.org
Guatemala’s protected areas authority Conap will start planting tulle in Atitlán lake in Sololá province by March 2010. Tulle acts as a natural filter and will help clean up the highly contaminated lake. Conap also plans to install biofilters in certain areas of the lake, after conducting a feasibility study together with the Amatitlán lake sustainable use authority Amsa.
Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 29 Jan 2010
Peruvian authorities have no control over large areas of the country and have allowed illegal gold mining activities to destroy thousands of acres of rainforest in the Madre de Dios region, experts said at a conference in capital Lima. Tens of thousands of people involved in illegal gold mining have destroyed 150,000ha in Madre de Dios where 40,000kg of mercury is dumped into the environment annually.
Read the full article on BNamericas.com [subscription site], Nov 2009
Posted in Governance, Peru, Policy & legislation, Water quality
Tagged gold mining, mercury, surface water pollution
Guatemala’s environment ministry Marn is working on regulations to control the use of chemical soaps to avoid further contamination of the country’s water resources. The move is one of a series of measures aimed at reducing contamination in lake Atitlán, as well as the country’s 73 other bodies of water.
Read the full article on BNamericas.com [subscription site], 12 Nov 2009
Bolivia needs to invest US$1bn to build water treatment plants and in other projects to overcome water shortage problems during the next seven years, according to environment and water minister René Orellana. Insufficient rainfall, caused by climate change, is affecting farming activities in different regions.
Read the full article in BNamericas.com [subscription site], 11 Nov 2009
A summary of Uruguay’s and Argentina’s court sessions at the Hague’s international court of justice regarding a dispute over the environmental effects of Uruguay’s Botnia pulp mill has revealed Argentina’s mismanagement of data, Uruguayan paper El Observador reported.
A document, drawn up by Uruguay’s national environmental authority Dinama, states that Argentina used data provided by Uruguay’s state-owned water utility OSE in an effort to prove that the plant has indeed contaminated the waters of the Uruguay river, shared by the two countries.
According to Dinama, Argentina used OSE’s data to state that Botnia had damaged the quality of the river’s waters, surpassing the limits of dissolved oxygen established by the Uruguay river management committee (Caru).
The Argentine officials, however, used OSE’s oxidability data which cannot be used in the same way. High levels of dissolved oxygen indicate good water quality, while low levels of oxidability indicate the same thing.
Argentine officials submitted the data to prove that the river’s waters had been contaminated, stating that the levels of dissolved oxygen had dropped using OSE’s oxidability data. In other words, they technically proved that the river’s water quality is good.
The Hague is expected to deliver its verdict in 2010.
Botnia, located in Rio Negro department’s Fray Bentos town, has been the subject of a long-standing dispute between Uruguay and Argentine authorities. Argentina alleges the pulp industry processing system is contaminating, regardless of what environmental reports indicate.
Argentina also claims the installation of the plant is at odds with a bilateral agreement dating back to the 1970s regarding joint management and initiatives on the Uruguay river, and that the Botnia project was carried out without first consulting with Buenos Aires.
Numerous studies, many of which have been carried out by international organizations, show that the river’s waters have not been altered by activities at the pulp mill.
Related web site: International Court of Justice – Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay)
Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 30 Oct 2009
The World Bank is working with a number of Brazilian states to support sanitation projects that increase sewerage coverage and wastewater treatment, an official from Pernambuco state’s planning and development office said.
One of Pernambuco’s biggest problems is the lack of wastewater treatment, especially in inland towns such as Caruarú, Toritama and Santa Cruz. These towns form Brazil’s second denim producing pole so much of their wastewater is also industrial.
A law was passed years ago forbidding the direct dumping of industrial wastewater into surface water. However, about 80% of the textile colouring industry in the three Pernambuco towns alone is informal and, therefore, lacks industrial wastewater treatment equipment and the resources to implement it, the official said.
The World Bank is working on a project to collect household and industrial wastewater in this area and transport it to a wastewater treatment plant to be built in state capital Recife – some 350km towards the coast – before finally releasing the water into the sea, said the official.
However, local authorities are looking for financial support to improve on site domestic and industrial wastewater treatment to avoid further contamination of surface water in an area that is already somewhat arid, the official said.
Government officials and private sector representatives are beginning to meet with international experts and engineers to discuss possible solutions and design technically and financially feasible initiatives that contribute to local and regional sustainable development, the official added.
Web site: World Bank – Pernambuco Sustainable Water project
Source: Eva Medalla, BNamericas.com [subscription site], 14 Oct 2009
The non-governmental Central American Water Tribunal, based in San Jose, Costa Rica, issued a dramatic warning about future water shortages in the region. The amount of available water per capita has dropped by 60% since 1950, said officials, and is expected to be only 21% of the 1950 figure by 2050. People have caused the problem. In El Salvador, for example, most of the rivers now dry up in the summer because the excessive cutting of trees has altered the hydrological cycle, reported coordinator Mauricio Cermeno of the Salvadorean Ecological Union. In Guatemala, 90% of the surface waters are choked with rubbish or polluted by sewage, admitted the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, and 75% of El Peten – the second biggest wetland in Latin America – is in danger of turning into desert because of drought, deforestation, population growth, and land clearance for farming.
Summary by Louise Shaler
Read the original article: Jose Melendez, El Universal Online (in Spanish), 28 Sep 2009
Business News Americas – Water & Waste
