Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene November 2018 Vol.13 No.5 | Page 11

NEWS in brief
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.)
The GWSP primarily focuses on advancing knowledge
and building capacity. It supports client governments to
achieve the water-related SDGs through the generation of
innovative global knowledge and the provision of country-
level support, while leveraging World Bank Group financial
instruments and promoting global dialogue and advocacy
with key partners and clients to increase reach and impact.
This Partnership will provide new opportunities to test and
scale-up innovations, build country capacity where needed
and influence client demand and World Bank operations.
Water nationalization plans for England risk
significant funding shortage
Nationalizing the
water industry in
England would
undo years of
improvements and
risks losing essential
funding for the
future, according
to Water UK Chief
Executive Michael
Roberts. He was speaking during a debate with Labour’s
Shadow Water Minister Luke Pollard, whose party recently
set out more details about their plans to nationalize the
industry if they win power.
Speaking during the event, which was co-hosted by Water
UK and the New Statesman magazine on Tuesday 9th
October, and titled ‘Public vs Private: Is the water industry
working for consumers and the environment?’, Mr Roberts
said:
“Nothing we have heard so far on the proposals for
nationalization In England give any clue about how the
environment would be protected, how water quality would
be maintained and improved, how leakage would be cut or
how the big challenges of climate change and population
growth on the future supply of water would be dealt with.
Instead of building on nearly 30 years of improvements,
made possible by bringing in billions of pounds of
private investment to undo the problems created by
nationalization, there’s a real danger that we go backwards
to a world where decisions are driven by political short-
termism rather than the needs of customers and the
environment.
“Putting water back in the same constrained public
sector funding pot as health, education, housing, defense,
transport, policing and the rest would relegate water
companies to taking part in an annual competition for
the Chancellor’s support, hoping they would somehow
be higher up the list of priorities for taxpayers’ cash
than other issues which might be more attractive to
Global Highlights
Ministers. It’s what happened before when companies in
England were publicly-owned and it’s an issue today in
Northern Ireland where, due to current public expenditure
constraints, there’s a big gap between the money Northern
Ireland Water needs for vital new water mains and
upgraded wastewater treatment plants, and the money
they get from government. The bottom line is that water
companies, private or public sector, need the confidence
that they will be adequately funded. There is a fundamental
risk that nationalizing the water industry in England
would potentially cause far greater problems than any it is
supposed to solve.”
Uranium ‘widespread’ in India’s groundwater
(NEW DELHI)
Excessive withdrawal
of groundwater
across India is not
only lowering the
water table, it is also
contaminating water
with uranium.
According to a study published in Environmental Science
& Technology Letters, uranium contamination is “an
emerging and widespread phenomenon”. It analyzed
aquifers in 16 of India’s 29 states, focusing on western
Rajasthan and Gujarat where uranium concentrations are
higher than the WHO’s safe limit of 30 micrograms per
litre.
Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water
quality at Duke University in North Carolina, United
States, who is the lead author of the study, tells SciDev.
Net that “the decline in groundwater levels accelerates
uranium mobilization to groundwater”. Uranium build-
up may also be linked to nitrate pollutants released from
chemical fertilizers, which make uranium more soluble (as
it is insoluble in its natural form).
India is the world’s largest user of groundwater pumped
up through borewells. The World Bank reports that more
than 60 per cent of irrigated agriculture and 85 per cent of
drinking water depend on the resource.
Vengosh suggests that India’s water agencies make
groundwater management a priority to protect people
from the harmful effects of exposure to uranium, which
include a higher risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Sunderrajan Krishnan, executive director of the Inren
Foundation, a non-profit water research body based in
Gujarat state, says a key finding in the study was the link
between water table fluctuations and the presence of
uranium. He points out that this is especially noticeable
when the water level depletes to the point where uranium-
bearing rocks in the aquifers are exposed to oxidation.
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November 2018
11