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supply. The notice said the situation is“ not an emergency.”
However, the notice added that people with specific health concerns should consult their physicians. The notice from the city“ says that for some, drinking water containing uranium in excess over many years can increase risk of cancer and kidney toxicity,” the Independent Record reported.
The notice said that water sample results during the final quarter of 2016 exceeded the uranium maximum contaminant level( MCL). The MCL for uranium is 30 µ g / L, according to the U. S. EPA.
It is unclear where Whitehall will find funding to remedy the issue.
The town“ will likely need to drill a new well or install treatment in the existing wells, Kristi Ponozzo, director of public policy at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said. Mayor Dale Davis said that he doesn’ t know where the town will get the money to treat the problem,” the Independent Record reported.
According to the World Health Organization,“ Uranium is present in the environment as a result of leaching from natural deposits, release in mill tailings, and emissions from the nuclear industry, the combustion of coal and other fuels and the use of phosphate fertilizers that contain uranium. Its presence in drinking-water is most commonly from natural sources.”
Vanuatu makes progress towards joining the Ramsar Convention
A field trip to wetlands on Efate Island with Donna Kalfatak, the Principal Biodiversity and Conservation Officer at the Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation and Roger Jaensch
The Ramsar Regional Officer for Oceania, Solongo Khurelbaatar, visited Vanuatu from 23 to 27 of January to discuss the country’ s accession to the Ramsar Convention and the way forward as well as to provide technical support in filling out the Ramsar Information Sheet for Lake Letas. The Lake Letas, a crater lake in the centre of the volcanic island of Gaua in northern Vanuatu, is poised to become the country’ s first Wetland of International Importance(‘ Ramsar Site’) when Vanuatu joins the Convention. With financial support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, a local non-governmental organization named“ Ecolifelihood Development Association” is implementing a small grant project to support the listing of the Lake Letas as a Ramsar Site and raise awareness of threats to the lake’ s ecology. The local communities have set up a Community Conservation Area including Lake Letas and its entire catchment, and will register it as an officially protected area. The communities are willing to take the conservation of Lake Letas to the next level and designate it as a Ramsar Site hoping that such step will help them promote eco-tourism at the lake to benefit their livelihoods as well promote research activities to better understand the ecology of the lake and associated ecosystems.
Mr Jesse Benjamin, the Director General of the Ministry of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology, Geo- Hazards and Environment has been briefed on the Ramsar Convention, benefits and costs of joining the Convention and the history of Convention’ s engagement with Vanuatu. As a result, it was possible to map out all the formal steps required to move forward the accession. The Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation of Vanuatu, the focal point for the accession process, will follow up on these steps and trusts that the accession will be completed in the second half of 2017.
Veolia to build drinking water network in Sri Lanka
Veolia has won a E156 million($ 164 million) contract to design and build a water treatment and conveyance network supplying potable water to 350,000 people in the Greater Matale region of Sri Lanka.
Veolia business development director Mark Elliot
The Sri Lankan National Water Supply and Drainage Board appointed Veolia subsidiary OTV to project manage the construction of five new water treatment plants, 12 service reservoirs, five pumping stations, and 433 kilometres of transmission and distribution pipeline. Veolia subsidiary SADE will act as subcontractor to design and build the pipeline.
Greater Matale region is in Sri Lanka’ s Central Province, about 150 kilometres outside of the capital city Colombo, and is predominantly agricultural.
The project comprises a plant in Matale with capacity of 30,000 m3 / d, one in Ambanganga at 18,000 m3 / d; and Rattotta, Udatenna, and Ukuwela all at 9,000 m3 / d.“ All these plants will take a surface water feed and will utilise clarification, including coagulation, flocculation, and settling, as well as filtration, technologies,” said Veolia
10 Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • March- April 2017