It’s time to turn off the snooze button on the alarm clock and wake up!

Incremental achievements in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are possible before they “expire” in 2015 if linkages among strategies to achieve various goals are made. MDG 5 demands an improvement in maternal health. MDG 4 calls for an improvement in child health. MDG 7c demands for improved water and sanitation. The links between WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) and maternal and child health are evident. Accelerated efforts to improve WASH will not only move us toward achieving MDG 7c, but they will also contribute to the achievement of health MDGs 4 and 5.

According to the 2012 Joint Monitoring Programme Report, more than 780 million people, or 11% of the global population, remain without access to an improved source of drinking water. About 2.5 billion people in 2010 lacked improved sanitation. An estimated 1.1 billion people, or 15% of the global population, still practice open defecation. The adoption of better sanitation and hygienic practices require easy access to water sources. In fact, five out of six users of improved sanitation also use improved water sources.

Read more: http://blogs.adb.org/blog/wake-advocate-taps-and-toilets-maternal-and-ch...

“We used to do a lot of things without thinking about the effects on the environment,” says Naume Toskovski, an apple farmer in the Prespa Lakes region of Macedonia. “We didn’t know that dumping apples would pollute the water. Perhaps it’s a different story with pesticides and fertilizers— the temptation for farmers is always to over-use these chemicals and we know they are harmful for nature— but we didn’t know just how harmful they were. Until recently we didn’t know of any better alternatives.”

Read and watch the video: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/environmentandenergy/su...

Urban slums in developing countries that are not recognized by the government often lack legal access to municipal water supplies. This results in the creation of insecure "informal"water distribution systems (i.e ., community-run or private systems outside of the government's purview) that may increase water-borne disease risk.

We evaluate an informal water distribution system in a slum in Mumbai, India using commonly accepted health and social equity indicators. We also identify predictors of bacterial contamination of drinking water using logistic regression analysis.

Read more: http://7thspace.com/headlines/433041/the_social_ecology_of_water_in_a_mu...

Manila's Pasig River continues to play an important social, cultural, historical and political role. Its restoration, which began with the Pasig River Rehabilitation Program in 1989, aims to reverse the effects of years of negligence, uncontrolled development, and unabated pollution. Various initiatives and projects were undertaken in collaboration with international donors, national government agencies, local governments, civil society groups, and the private sector. In 1999, a presidential mandate established the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) with the clear goal of restoring the Pasig River from a biologically dead river to Class "C" level—that which can sustain life—by 2014.

Read more: http://www.adb.org/news/events/pasig-river-forum

Divergent views emerged on how the city is going to solve an impending water crisis at the Bangalore World Water Summit’s concluding day on Friday. “Bangalore is on its way to a very large water crisis if action is not taken immediately. On the health front, too, it is heading toward an epidemic outbreak due to poor sanitation,” said Prof Seetharam Kallidaikurichi, director; Institute of Water Policy.

Read more: http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_bangalore-heading-for-a-water-c...

Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr Henry Madzorera has said that the typhoid outbreak is due to people eating human waste.

"The mode of transmission for typhoid is the faecal-oral route, that is, through ingestion of bacteria in food or water contaminated with faeces of infected persons.

Read more: http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/news_display/1600616466.html

A chemical spill that has contaminated a river in southern China, threatening the water supply of millions of people, is sparking calls by environmental activists for more corporate and government accountability over industrial waste.

Businesses in China should be required to disclose the amount of chemical waste they produce and where it is discharged, representatives of Greenpeace and the Beijing-based Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs said Tuesday.

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http://online.wsj.com

The Ganga finds its name in the list of the five most polluted rivers of the world. The most disastrous effects of this are felt by freshwater species including the Gangetic dolphin. Now, there is hope that the river will be revived, thanks to the efforts of a UK charity that will clean the river and teach villagers along its coast to save freshwater wildlife and keep sewage away from the water.

The air stinks, the water stinks, and even the fish and crabs caught in Bodo creek smell of pure "sweet bonny" light crude oil. The oil has found its way deep into the village wells, it lies thick in the mudflats and there are brown and yellow slicks all along the lengthy network of creeks, swamps, mangrove forests and rivers that surround Bodo in the Niger delta.

Read more
http://www.guardian.co.uk

In an exclusive interview with the Asian Journal during her current visit to California to get the Fil-Am community’s support for AFI’s projects, Gina explained, “Ming Ramos called me and asked if I would be willing to take over the rehabilitation of the Pasig River project. I said yes, on the condition that we partner with the DENR. Immediately, she said yes.” The Pasig River, which traverses major cities in Metro Manila, is considered as the “lifeline of our nation.” For years, various unsuccessful attempts have been carried out to rehabilitate or revive this “dead river.”

Read more
http://www.asianjournal.com/