After a cascade of failures left residents of Flint, Michigan, without a reliable and affordable supply of safe drinking water, citizens spent years demanding action from their city and state officials. Complaints from the city's predominantly African American residents were ignored until independent researchers confirmed dangerously elevated blood lead levels among Flint children and in the city's tap water. Despite a 2017 federal court ruling in favor of Flint residents who had demanded mitigation, such efforts have been incomplete at best. Assessing the challenges that community groups faced in their attempts to advocate for improved living conditions, Tainted Tap offers a rich analysis of conditions and constraints that created the Flint water crisis. Katrinell Davis contextualizes the crisis in Flint's long and troubled history of delivering essential services, the consequences of regional water-management politics, and other forms of systemic neglect that impacted the working-class community's health and well-being. Using ethnographic and empirical evidence from a range of sources, Davis also sheds light on the forms of community action that have brought needed changes to this underserved community.

This publication evaluates water security in Mongolia and provides analyses based from other documents and studies for a multidimensional overview of the country's water resources system and management. It recommends a path forward based on integrated water resources management as well as national and local institutional development, through a targeted investment program. The assessment is adapted from the analytical framework introduced in the Asian Water Development Outlook, a series of reports produced by the Asian Development Bank and the Asia-Pacific Water Forum.

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have increasingly emerged as a valuable mechanism for drawing in investment and expertise from the private sector to meet public infrastructure needs. PPPs involving transboundary international waters require particular attention given their huge potential for social and environmental impact. Transboundary Waters, Infrastructure Development and Public Private Partnership examines what PPPs are and how they function in the context of transboundary waters. It explains how environmental and social "safeguards" operate in relation to PPPs and transboundary waters in light of the Nam Theun 2 and the Xayaburi Hydroelectric Power projects in Laos PDR. Finally, it draws important lessons from their contractual arrangements, costs, financing and risk mitigation that are relevant to PPPs in other transboundary waters matters.

Management of Change in Water Companies tells real stories of real water companies that went through processes of change and achieved their best results ever in just a few years. It reflects the personal experience of the author from leading processes of change in five different water supply/sewage companies, between 10 and 120 years old and serving from 200,000 to 4,000,000 people. This practical and effective book shows: how to change, modernize and make profitable old-fashioned organizations, how to reduce water loss and promote efficiency in water companies, how to use the savings to rehabilitate and expand infrastructure without increasing tariffs, how to deal with overstaffing, how to plan, finance, build and maintain infrastructure, how to introduce innovation, how to motivate people, how to deal with clients, regulators, unions, shareholders, politicians and the press how to achieve sustainability. The case studies provide for instance, how to halve water losses in less than a year mostly with management measurements and very little investment, how to bring water losses from over 50% to below 20% in six years, how to use the savings from water loss reduction to build a new wastewater system without increasing tariffs, how to connect 100,000 existing buildings to a new sewage system in 4 years and how to get millions of people walking along the banks of rehabilitated urban creeks, rivers and beaches. The book presents case studies, management theory, comparative analysis of situations reported in the literature and the personal experience of an author who has lead a number of successful processes of change in different water companies. Management of Change in Water Companies is essential reading for water utility managers, national and local governments responsible for water policy as well as those concerned with the management of change and risk management. It is also useful to readers interested in the areas of pollution control, energy savings and water losses, and stream / beach / river restoration. Author: Joaquim Pocas Martins is Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal, and provides excellent courses on the management of change in water companies world-wide.

Water scarcity is increasingly becoming a threat to water security in different countries or areas of East Asia, driven by water over-withdrawal and pollution, and aggravated by climate change and variability. The `Green Water Defense in East Asia' study, as part of the driver for green growth in the water sector of East Asia region, seeks to find a sustainable solution to this challenge. The concept of Green Water Defense (GWD) is developed building on such principles as `live and build with nature', `green adaptation', `produce more with less' and `low impact development', etc. It is defined by the authors as `Green Water Defense (GWD) is an adaptive management philosophy and approach which seeks to spatially integrate natural forces and artificial interventions, and to balance incentive-based and supply-driven measures, with minimum footprints and externalities in providing water services and managing related climate risk.' This report provides a brief account of the water resources and climate trend in the region, puts forward a conceptual framework of GWD based on a model of three spatial layers, namely, ecological base layer, an occupation (or land and water use) layer and an infrastructure (network) layer in the middle. The GWD serves as the media to integrate the interactions among three layers such that the water resources development and management are sustained. Based on the GWD concept framework, a menu list of GWD measures are formulated, and a set of emerging best practices for adaptive water scarcity management are identified through case studies (Australia, Israel, Spain and China). In an effort to apply the GWD concept and approach in East Asia, the report depicts a roadmap, with a general process, focus for different spatial scales and a practical example to illustrate where to start and how to apply these best practice approach and GWD measures in addressing water scarcity management issue in a client country.

The welfare implications of safe water and sanitation cannot be overstated. The economic gains from provision of improved services to millions of unserved Africans in enormous. The international adoption of Millennium Development Goals brought the inadequacies of service provision sharply into focus. With only 58% and 31% enjoying access to water and sanitation services respectively, Sub-Saharan Africa is the only continent that is off-track in achieving the MDGs in 2015. The problem is compounded by the fact that a rigorous and credible baseline did not exist on coverage to improved water and sanitation and resources required to meet the MDGs. This book aims to contribute to this gap by collecting a wealth of primary and secondary information to present the most up-to-date and comprehensive quantitative snapshot of water and sanitation sectors. The book evaluates the challenges to the water and sanitation sectors within the urban and rural areas and deepen our understanding of drivers of coverage expansion in the context of financing, institutional reforms, and efficiency improvements. Finally, the book establishes the investment needs for water and sanitation with a target of meeting the MDGs and compares with the existing financing envelopes, disaggregated by proportions that can be recouped by efficiency gains and net financing gaps. The directions for the future draw on lessons learned from best practices and present the menu of choices available to African countries. There is no recipe book that neatly lays out the possible steps the country should adopt to enhance coverage and quality of service. The challenges differ to a significant extent among African countries and solutions must be tailored to individual national or regional conditions.

On January 3, 1961, nuclear reactor SL-1 exploded in rural Idaho, spreading radioactive contamination over thousands of acres and killing three men. The army blamed "human error" and a sordid love triangle. Though overshadowed by Three Mile Island, SL-1 remains the only fatal nuclear reactor incident in American history.
Todd Tucker, who first heard the rumors about the Idaho Falls explosion as a trainee in the navy's nuclear program, suspected there was more to the accident than rumors suggested. Poring over hundreds of pages of primary sources and interviewing survivors revealed that the army and its contractors had deliberately obscured the true cause of the accident, which resulted from poor engineering as much as uncontrolled passions. The National Reactor Testing Station, where the meltdown occurred, had been a proving ground where engineers, generals, and admirals attempted to realize the Atomic Age dream of unlimited power--amid the frantic race for nuclear power between the army, the navy, and the air force. The fruit of those ambitious plans included that of the nation's unofficial nuclear patriarch, Admiral Rickover, whose "true submarine," the USS "Nautilus," would forever change naval warfare. But with the meltdown in Idaho came the end of the army's program and the beginning of the navy's long-standing monopoly on military nuclear power. "Atomic America" provides a fast-paced narrative history, advocating caution and accountability in harnessing nuclear energy.

The premise of this book is that careful reconsideration of strategies to achieve water management ambitions, together with more in-depth knowledge on the theories and practices of boundary spanning, could bring solutions for contemporary water problems within reach. The book integrates boundary work approaches, new forms of governance and water resource management to explore frameworks for spanning sector, scale and time boundaries. Structured case studies reflect the experiences and lessons of cooperation and exchange with professional water managers and their projects. Recommendations for boundary spanning in practice are presented, and important contemporary water management themes including flooding and flood policy, water depletion and water restoration are discussed in depth. Incorporating conceptual, theoretical and practical foci to address complexity and conflict in adaptive water management, this book will strongly appeal to academics, researchers and practitioners in the areas of water management, planning and sustainability.

"'Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Water Utilities: A Review of Experiences in Developing Countries' analyzes the market growth of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the developing world since 1990, and the performance of more than 65 large water PPP projects-representing more than 100 million people-for access, service quality, operational efficiency, and tariff levels. Although a relatively small portion of the water utilities in the developing world are operated under PPPs (about 7 percent in 2007), the urban population served by private water operators has grown every year since 1990. Despite many difficulties encountered by PPP projects and a few contract terminations, a large majority of contracts awarded since 1990 are still in place. The track record for improving service and efficiency reaffirms the value of PPPs to help turn around poorly performing water utilities, even though the level of private financing did not match initial expectations. Over time, a more realistic market has developed, the number of private investors from developing countries has grown, and contract designs have become more pragmatic concerning risk allocations between partners. The water sector has many features that set it apart from other infrastructure sectors. This book suggests the need for careful consideration of those specificities to successfully involve private operators. Although concessions with private financing have worked in a few places, contractual arrangements that combine private operation with public financing appear to be the most sustainable option in many countries. Policy makers, stakeholders, and donors need to remain heavily engaged in the water sector, especially in the poorest countries and during a global financial crisis. This book contributes to a better understanding of the various options to tackle the many challenges of providing water and sanitation services to urban populations in the developing world."

More than 1 billion people around the world live without access to safe, potable water, in part because of poor governance and corruption. Illegal connections and substantial losses caused by deferred maintenance have eroded the revenues of water utilities, leading to a downward spiral in performance. Embezzlement of funds, bribes for access to illegal water connections, manipulation of meter counters, and collusion in public contracts add to the litany of corrupt practices. 'Improving Transparency, Integrity, and Accountability in Water Supply and Sanitation' is a useful tool for diagnosing, analyzing, and remedying systemic corruption in the water supply and sanitation sectors. It will serve as a practical guide for governments; utility regulators, managers, and staff; civil society organizations; contractors; and citizens in their quest for a model of service provision that responds to the pressing needs of people in the developing world. The book aims to increase the involvement of civil society by engaging all stakeholders in setting priorities and monitoring performance; help water and sanitation delivery contribute to poverty reduction by increasing the service quality and coverage provided by service delivery organizations to poorer communities on an equitable basis; provide a tool that promotes the financial sustainability of service delivery organizations, thus building stakeholders' confidence in those institutions' ability to expand and improve service; and raise ethical standards among all stakeholders, especially service delivery organizations, thereby instilling a sense of public service in these organizations.

Most large urban centres lie in coastal regions, which are home to about 25% of the world's population. The current coastal urban population of 200 million is projected to almost double in the next 20 to 30 years. This expanding human presence has dramatically changed the coastal natural environment. To meet the growing demand for more housing and other land uses, land has been reclaimed from the sea in coastal areas in many countries, including China, Britain, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States. Coastal areas are often the ultimate discharge zones of regional ground water flow systems. The direct impact of land reclamation on coastal engineering, environment and marine ecology is well recognised and widely studied. However, it has not been well recognised that reclamation may change the regional groundwater regime, including groundwater level, interface between seawater and fresh groundwater, and submarine groundwater discharge to the coast. This book first reviews the state of the art of the recent studies on the impact of coastal land reclamation on ground water level and the seawater interface. Steady-state analytical solutions based on Dupuit and Ghyben-Herzberg assumptions have been derived to describe the modification of water level and movement of the interface between fresh groundwater and saltwater in coastal hillside or island situations. These solutions show that land reclamation increases water level in the original aquifer and pushes the saltwater interface to move towards the sea. In the island situation, the water divide moves towards the reclaimed side, and ground water discharge to the sea on both sides of the island increases. After reclamation, the water resource is increased because both recharge and the size of aquifer are increased. This book then derives new analytical solutions to estimate groundwater travel time before and after reclamation. Hypothetical examples are used to examine the changes of groundwater travel time in response to land reclamation. After reclamation, groundwater flow in the original aquifer tends to be slower and the travel time of the groundwater from any position in the original aquifer to the sea becomes longer for the situation of coastal hillside. For the situation of an island, the water will flow faster on the unreclaimed side, but more slowly on the reclaimed side. The impact of reclamation on groundwater travel time on the reclaimed side is much more significant than that on the unreclaimed side. The degree of the modifications of the groundwater travel time mainly depends on the scale of land reclamation and the hydraulic conductivity of the fill materials.

Definitions for every aspect of safe drinking water

Developed under the aegis of the American Water Works Association -- and incorporating the wisdom of over 23 experts in their respective fields -- The Drinking Water Dictionary gives you a single-volume reference that’s encyclopedia in its scope. At your fingertips you’ll find definitions of abbreviations and acronyms…hydraulic formulas…mathematical models…Units of Measure (US customary and SI)… and Conversion Factor tables. This is the first place to look – and the only source you’ll need – for definitions of more than 15,000 terms in all areas relating to drinking water:

*supply

* microbiology

* treatment

*distribution

*regulation

*management

* chemistry

*health effects

* and 34 other topics

"Water, which most of us take for granted, sustains life but can also make us sick or even kill us. This straightforward and serious book gives to this neglected resource its appropriate priority. The Water We Drink speaks authoritatively to what will be the twenty-first century's top resource." --William Reilly, former administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Did you know that . . . about one-quarter of the bottled water sold in the United States originates from ordinary municipal water sources or wells? . . . clean, non disease-producing drinking water is a relatively new phenomenon? It has been around for only one hundred years. . . . in the past fifty years, average sperm counts have been dropping, and that part of the reason for this can be traced back to contaminants in drinking water? We all drink water and water-based fluids, yet most of us take water for granted. We assume that when we turn on the tap to fill our glass, bathtub, or washing machine, clean water will flow. But is it really safe? And if not, what can we do about it? The Water We Drink provides readers with practical information on the health issues relating to water quality and suggests ways we can improved the quality and safety of our drinking water. The Water We Drink begins with a review of the history of water, disease, and sanitation. The authors then examine health issues relating to drinking water, including infectious diseases, cancer risks, and the effects of mineral and heavy metal content. They look at the benefits and risks of bottled waters and of water purification systems currently available to consumers. A helpful glossary of terms, as well as a bibliography of additional agencies, books, and Web sites to consult for more information on drinking water and health, is also provided. Dr. Joshua I. Barzilay is in the division of endocrinology of the Southeast Permanente Medical Group and a faculty member at the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Winkler G. Weinberg is chief of infectious diseases for the Southeast Permanente Medical Group and the author of No Germs Allowed : How To Avoid Infectious Diseases at Home and on the Road (Rutgers University Press). Dr. J. William Eley is an associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.

Physical limits to fresh water expansion--an emerging reality in many parts of the world--make absolute water scarcity inevitable. The inability of the already developed water supply to meet an ever-growing demand for fresh water also makes the emergence of relative water scarcity unavoidable. Water scarcity--both in its absolute and relative forms--gets accentuated further by an increasing premium attached to water quality and ecological sustainability. The water sector has undergone remarkable changes in recent years. While past achievements were associated mainly with investment in new physical structures, recent developments in the water sector are associated to a greater extent with improved management and institutional changes. Although both the nature and direction of these institutional changes vary by country-specific economic, political, cultural and resource realities, there are clearly identifiable trends and patterns. This report suggests a new methodology to shed light on the process of institution-performance interaction. It demonstrates the use of the methodology by applying it to an extensive cross-country data set, and by deriving policy guidance based on the results. The authors aim to stimulate thought and debate about methodologies and strategies to be used in order to evaluate institutional change and institution-performance interactions in the water sector.

An in-depth analysis of the impact of public utility privatization on ordinary consumers. This text traces the history of energy and water privatization and documents the community and consumer sectors' various attempts to influence the structure of privatization and regulation. It provides data on the energy and water utilities over the first period of privatization and shows that the benefits and costs of privatization have not been shared equally. Low income consumers have been particularly adversly affected and the regressive outcomes of privatization have undercut the gains that domestic comsumers have made in some areas of service provision. Concluding with an overview of the British experiment of energy and water privatization, the author argues that the privatization settlements reached by successive Conservative governments with the privatized utility companies are seriously flawed, and that the British model of privatization is inappropriate to the domain of essential public utility service.

Many countries around the world are struggling with the challenges of water scarcity, including water for crops. Micro irrigation methods are an effective means to make the most efficient use of available water. This volume, Micro Irrigation Scheduling and Practices, continues the efforts of the book series Innovations and Challenges in Micro Irrigation to provide informative and comprehensive knowledge on micro irrigation methods and practices. This new book presents some of the latest information and research on micro irrigation and covers the area of performance, practices, and design, focusing particularly on the performance of vegetable, fruit and row crops in conjunction with different scheduling and practices. Irrigation scheduling is an important water management strategy, and this book addresses scheduling methods and issues. Design aspects of micro irrigation systems have also been discussed in the book. The authors present their research and studies on scheduling practices and design micro irrigation systems with a variety of fruits and vegetables, including peppers, chili, watermelon, oranges, banana, litchi, rice, sugarcane, sorghum, and marigolds. Micro Irrigation Scheduling and Practices will serve as a valuable reference for researchers, water resources professionals, agricultural extension agencies, farmers, and faculty and students.

Advanced Technologies for Solid, Liquid, and Gas Waste Treatment presents the potential of using advanced and emerging technologies to effectively treat waste. This book uniquely addresses treatment techniques for waste in all three phases, solid, liquid, and gas, with the goals of mitigating negative impacts of waste and producing valued-added products, such as biogas and fertilizer, as well as the use of artificial intelligent in the field. * Covers a wide range of advanced and emerging treatment technologies such as photocatalysis processing, adsorptive membranes, pyrolysis, advanced oxidation process, electrocoagulation, composting technologies, etc. * Addresses issues associated with wastes in different phases. * Discusses the pros and cons of treatment technologies for handling different wastes produced by different industrial processes, such as agricultural biomass, industrial/domestic solid wastes, wastewater, and hazardous gas. * Includes application of artificial intelligence in treatment of electronic waste. This book will appeal to chemical, civil and environmental engineers working on waste treatment, waste valorization, and pollution control.

Water is an essential natural resource for life. Nowadays, water contamination is a common issue due to a variety of sources but mainly of anthropogenic origin, such as urban and industrial wastes. Methods for evaluating water availability and reliability in supplying needs for agricultural, municipal, and industrial water use, environmental flows, electric energy generation, and reservoir storage are described in this book. This book also discusses chemical threats in drinking water; removal of radioactivity from drinking water; and irrigation agriculture.

This Second Edition of Plankton is a fully updated introduction to the biology, ecology and identification of plankton and their use in monitoring water quality. It includes expanded, illustrated descriptions of all major groups of freshwater, coastal and marine phytoplankton and zooplankton and a new chapter on teaching science using plankton. Best practice methods for plankton sampling and monitoring programs are presented using case studies, along with explanations of how to analyse and interpret sampling data. Healthy waterways and oceans are essential for our increasingly urbanised world. Yet monitoring water quality in aquatic environments is a challenge, as it varies from hour to hour due to stormwater and currents. Being at the base of the aquatic food web and present in huge numbers, plankton are strongly influenced by changes in environment and provide an indication of water quality integrated over days and weeks. Plankton are the aquatic version of a canary in a coal mine. They are also vital for our existence, providing not only food for fish, seabirds, seals and sharks, but producing oxygen, cycling nutrients, processing pollutants, and removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. This new edition: contains a new chapter on Plankton in the Classroom has greatly expanded coverage of coastal and marine phytoplankton explains the role of plankton in aquatic ecosystems and its usefulness as a water quality indicator updates and details best practice in methodology for plankton sampling and monitoring programs brings together widely-scattered information on freshwater and coastal phytoplankton and zooplankton and provides a list of up-to-date references. Plankton is an invaluable reference for teachers and students, environmental managers, ecologists, estuary and catchment management committees, and coastal engineers.

Canada has long been seen as a land of natural bounty - a country of lush forests, abundant agriculture, and pristine lakes. Even as the sustainability of many of our resources has been questioned, Canadians have remained stubbornly convinced of the unassailability of our water. Mounting evidence suggests, however, that Canadian water is, in fact, under threat. Eau Canada assembles the country's top water experts to discuss our most pressing water issues. Perspectives from a broad range of thinkers - geographers, environmental lawyers, former government officials, aquatic and political scientists, and economists - reflect the diversity of concerns in water management. Arguing that weak governance is at the heart of Canada's water problems, this timely book identifies our key failings, explores debates over jurisdiction, transboundary waters, exports, and privatization, and maps out solutions for a more sustainable future. Water is arguably the most important resource of our time. How we govern it today has critical consequences for our future. Eau Canada provides a powerful discussion of the most controversial and pressing water issues facing Canadians today.

This book addresses water privatization from a historical-sociological perspective and rejects claims of "neutrality" from actors across the political spectrum who are responsible for neoliberal water policies, interrogating the ethics of political pragmatism.

Kinematic wave modeling methods are gaining wide acceptance as a fast and accurate way of handling a wide range of water modeling problems. This is the first book to provide a thorough reference to the application of KW methods to such problems as the spatial representation of watersheds, overland flow routing, and channel flow routing.

Water resources and services are integrated measures of social systems that range beyond the technical world and the IWRM requires a balance between competing views of social and political issues. This volume focuses on increased awareness of the human dimension, women's role, environmental protection, sustainability and food security aspects in achieving sustainable water management. Understanding the strategies used by small farmers, as well as how small farming systems work or why they fail, could shed light on the constraints they face and the measures to be taken to overcome them. It also draws key insights on movements promoting the involvement of grassroots communities in the sustainable management of their resources.