Mejoras en el acceso a Agua Potable en el Mundo
El informe,denominado Progreso sobre el agua potable y saneamiento 2012, publicado hoy 6 de marzo de 2012 por el Programa Conjunto para el Monitoreo del Abastecimiento de Agua y Saneamiento, de UNICEF y la OMS, dice que a finales de 2010 un 89% de la población mundial,( 6 100 millones de personas) utilizaban fuentes mejoradas de agua potable.
Esto representa un 1% más que la cifra que figuraba en la meta de los Objetivos del desarrollo del Milenio (ODM) un 88%. El informe plantea que, en 2015, el 92% de la población mundial tendrá acceso al agua potable. Leer más →
México: En Coahuila se intervirán 152 MDP en obras de agua potable
La Comisión Nacional del Agua (Conagua) invertirá en Coahuila recursos por más de 152 millones de pesos (mdp) en obras de agua potable, alcantarillado y saneamiento en zonas urbanas y rurales para el Ejercicio Fiscal 2012.
El director local de la Comisión Nacional del Agua (Conagua), José Guillermo Barrios Gutiérrez, aclaró que se destinaran 143 millones 166 mil 552 pesos a los programas Agua Potable, Alcantarillado y Saneamiento en Zonas Urbanas y para la Construcción y Rehabilitación de Sistemas de Agua Potable en Zonas Rurales en Prossapys (programa que provee de agua potable y servicios de saneamiento sustentables a comunidades rurales). Leer más →
México: por sequía 2.5 millones de personas sin agua
El Secretario de Desarrollo Social, Heriberto Félix Guerra, informó que 2.5 millones de personas que viven en 1,507 comunidades del país carecen de agua potable debido a la sequía, por lo que se han llevado plantas potabilizadoras, tanques de 10 mil litros y pipas, que representan hasta este momento, más de 9 millones de litros, para ayudarlos a superar este grave problema, efecto del cambio climático.
“Estuve la semana pasada en Durango, donde 149 comunidades no tienen agua para consumo humano. No hablamos de pérdida de ganado ni de cultivos, sino de agua para beber”. El cambio climático del que nos platicaban nuestros padres, del que nos hablaban en la escuela que algún día llegaría, ya está aquí y es necesario trabajar para revertirlo”, dijo. Leer más →
Dominican Republic: Tourism sector takes strict measures against cholera, top hotelier says
Hotels and Tourism Association (Asonahores) spokesman Arturo Villanueva said in Santo Domingo last Sunday 29 May that his sector has adopted all the necessary control measures of international standards to prevent cholera in the country’s tourism regions and that they are on high alert.
Villanueva said the tourism sector is calm because it’s a wide ranging and efficient operation, including a prevention program in the handling of foods to newspaper Hoy in an interview. Leer más →
Chile: Government hails reconstruction progress 6 Months after Quake
The Chilean government said Friday the 27 of August that significant reconstruction progress has been made in the six months since a devastating earthquake that left nearly 500 dead and caused some $30 billion in damage.
President Sebastian Piñera’s administration, which took office two weeks after the Feb. 27 quake struck just off the coast of central Chile, praised advances in education, health, public infrastructure, housing, employment and industry. Leer más →
Who cares? WASA’s empty promises.
Almost one year after completion, in the middle of a severe drought a $25 million Water Treatment Plant installed at Cumuto remains empty.
The two massive tanks were installed to treat and distribute four million gallons of water per day—to users in Cumuto and environs—with supplies from wells. However, a Sunday Guardian investigation reveals that to date, sinking of the wells, which was supposed to supply the tanks with water, has come to a halt. The project, which began in June of 2006 and was expected to take 15 months to be done, is yet to be completed. The treatment plant was built by Uem Gem Ltd, while another company was responsible for sinking the wells.
Asked if the plant was operative, one worker who requested anonymity replied: “There is no water so obviously the plant cannot operate. If there is no water the plant cannot work.” The handful of residents in the community believe their complaints for water have fallen on deaf ears.
Source: The Guardian, Trinidad & Tobago, 12 July 2010
Peru loses 42 percent of potable water due to misuse, leaks
Peru is currently wasting about 42 percent of its potable water as a result of consumer misuse and leaks, communications supervisor David Falcón of the country’s national sanitation authority Sunass told RPP radio station.
“To compare, while Peru loses 42 percent of its potable water, in first world countries like Japan the percentage lost is only 3.5 percent, in Germany it is 5 percent, as well as in other Latin American countries like Mexico only 17 percent is lost,” Falcón said.
The main difference in other countries is better material, technology and infrastructure that is used in their drainage systems, which will hopefully soon be implemented in Peru, Falcón said.
Water supplies in Peru are a major issue, particularly in the country’s arid costal region. In Lima, the world’s second largest desert city after Cairo, Egypt, water resources are scarce and fragile as the city’s growing population is increasing demands on its aquifer and run off from rivers.
Source: Peruviantimes, July 1, 2010
An American woman’s fight to give Haitians clean water
A case of bottled water (400ml) costs around $36 and may last a family about two weeks before the empty bottles end up in a landfill where they would take hundreds of years to decompose. But, a donation of US$30 or TT$180 can literally save lives by guaranteeing that a destitute family living in Haiti has access to clean and safe water; not for two weeks or one month, but for as much as five years.
Recently, FilterPure partnered with another NGO – Global Effect, and established a factory in Jacmel, Haiti where Haitians themselves will be employed to build, manufacture and distribute the life-saving water filters. With a last place ranking on the water poverty index scale, Haiti has the worst access to clean water in the world according to World Water Council. As a result, Haiti has the highest infant mortality rate in the Americas. The Pan American Health Organisation has reported that more than half of all deaths in Haiti were as a result of contaminated water.
’Knowing mothers have to watch their babies die from something preventable as diarrhea is very hard to watch,’ executive director, of FilterPure, Lisa Ballantine told the Express in a phone interview.
The use of the filter is simple, water is poured and filtered through the ceramic pot where it is collected and stored in a five gallon bucket with a tap at the bottom from which a family can drink safe water. In the first week following the devastating January 12th earthquake in Haiti, FilterPure distributed more than 700 filters.
The ceramic water filters not only provide Haitians with clean, safe water, but the filters are produced locally thereby providing much needed employment for Haitians.
’Access to clean water is going to be the most critical issue facing Haiti which we in the developing world have to respond to. It can be resolved,’ said Ballantine.
To find out more about or to donate, visit: FilterPure
Source: Trinidad and Tobago express, 19 Jun 2010
By Kimberly Castillo
Noticias sobre WASH para América Latina 