Search

Communities throughout the United States have come to rely upon agriculture as a pillar of their political integrity, economic security, and health and wellbeing. Climatic conditions in the western portion of the United States necessitate most lands be irrigated to be arable. As a result, a major portion of the economy of the United States, and by extension the world economy, is driven by the continued viability of western United States water law and policy. Furthermore, due to the strong interrelationship between anthropogenic consumptive uses, streamflows, and wetland/riparian area ecology, irrigation demand has a strong effect on stream morphology, quality, and biology for aquatic species. Western water management is a complex mosaic that is controlled by western state, federal, and tribal governments. Each of these systems of law have vulnerabilities to climate change, which is well understood to cause increasing water supply scarcity. This articledemonstrates the risks climate change poses to our management of irrigation water demand, as well as the interrelationship between water supply and demand. Due to the shared nature of the resource, this article addresses both tribal reserved rights and state-based rights using data from Indian reservations that either contain and/or are closely adjacent to non-tribal agricultural communities. Those data are used in a systems–dynamics model to integrate crop–water requirement estimation techniques with climate change estimates and a Monte Carlo analysis to assess how irrigation demand could change because of changing temperature, precipitation, incoming radiation, and wind speed caused by climate change. Results indicate that climate change will cause increases in irrigation requirements at most locations. Further, climate change is expected to significantly increase seasonal variability in many locations. The model provides a useful tool based upon publicly available data that will allow individual water users to make conservation decisions necessary to preserve their water rights as the climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply operation of a reservoir group is a critical strategy for mitigating conflicts between water resource supply and demand in a basin. However, the uncertainty of runoff forecast presents significant challenges to this operation. To explore the risk laws of the complex water supply process, this study focuses on analyzing the three primary source streams and the main stream of the Tarim River, the largest inland river in China. Initially, a runoff forecast model is developed utilizing Long Short-Term Memory Artificial Neural Networks (LSTM-ANN) to generate runoff datasets. Subsequently, a theoretically optimal operation process for the reservoir group is derived through a long-series deterministic multi-objective operation, which establishes boundary constraints for water supply risk operation. Finally, the runoff forecast results are integrated into an uncertainty water supply risk operation model to assess the associated water supply risk. The results indicate that: 1) Due to varying guarantee rates and water supply priorities among different sectors, the risk of ecological water supply is the highest, followed by agriculture and then domestic-production. 2) Within an effective forecast range of 0% to 20%, the most significant increase occurs when the error ranges between 5 to 10%. 3) As the reservoir regulation capacity in mountainous areas increases, the average water supply risk value for agriculture decreases from 0.086 to 0.040, representing a 53.1% risk reduction. The research results are of great significance to the reservoir group risk operation and the water supply safety in the basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a research methodology developed for use in studying the role that water users and the stakeholders must play in the reform of water law at three institutional levels: that governing the individual, the national, and the international. The centre-piece of the article presents a pilot study in which the proposed research methodology was used in the Murray-Darling Basin system of Australia, and reflects upon how it must be refined for further broad-scale use in integrated river systems wherever they are found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Rural Water & Hydropower is the property of China Rural Water & Hydropower Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article addresses the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on the case, Mississippi v. Tennessee, which marked a potential turning point for the doctrine of equitable apportionment. Topics discussed include history of equitable apportionment, use of equitable apportionment in resolving interstate water disputes, and highlights of the case.

The article offers news briefs related to environmental health in the U.S. as of October 2022. Topics mentioned include the enactment of state legislation on food safety, drinking water, and climate change, the introduction of the Food Safety Administration Act of 2022, and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

An editorial is presented which addresses the performance of policies aimed at environmental and water quality and the value of irrigation water and rural development. Topics discussed include the variations in the extent of implementation of China's clean water policies at the provincial levels; the influence of internal monitoring on compliance with effluent limits in the U.S.; and the content analysis of the strictest water resources management policy in China.

The article discusses the role of the Parliamentary Water Caucuses on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) development on global development goal, and mentions role of stakeholder in acceleration of progress on climate resilience, water security and hygiene. Topics discussed include call for government schools for providing emergency sanitary towel in schools, overseeing the sustainable access to water security in communities, and effort on realising human rights to sanitation and water.

India’s water federalism is at a crossroads. It is a unique twotier system that has the constitutional and enabling provisions for water management and inter-state water dispute resolution as its base. These support the tribunal system that adjudicates inter-state river water disputes and administers water justice. More than six decades have elapsed since its establishment. At the same time, during this period, the per capita water availability has fallen drastically. India is now one of the world’s most water-stressed countries. Water disputes between States are becoming more animated and highly volatile. This article examines water federalism in India in terms of two questions: 1) Should water be transferred from the State List to the Concurrent List? 2) Should India persist with the tribunal system or replace it with the judicial process at the Supreme Court level? The first assumes importance as India persists with the river linking project. The second is relevant because the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act is almost 65 years old. In 2016, India’s Supreme Court re-wrote the law, and, more recently, the Union Government sought to revamp the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act through amendments. All these impel the need to re-look the idea of water federalism as it operates in India in its entirety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that Louisiana has been recognized as a water-rich state. Topics include considered as a function of apparent overabundance of water, most of the state's historical approach to water management has treated the resource as more of a nuisance than a gift and examines a wary approach serves a purpose.

Purpose: A water fluoridation program launched in the United States in 1945 has become a worldwide application for caries prevention. Although such a program is important in Japan, water fluoridation in large communities has not been established. This study aimed to develop safe small-scale water fluoride equipment that can be easily used to carry out water fluoridation programs in areas with children in long-term care facilities, and in developing countries without water supply facilities. Methods: Batch-type NaF addition adjustment equipment was manufactured as small-scale water fluoride equipment. The fluoride concentration of the adjusted water with this equipment was measured using an ion meter and a fluoride composite electrode. All 51 water quality standards set by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare of Japan were tested. Results: The fluoride ion concentration of the adjusted water was 0.7 mg/L and it was constant and stable. The adjusted water conformed to the water quality standard values of the Japanese Water Supply Law. Conclusion: Water produced with small-scale water fluoridation equipment had a fluoride concentration of 0.7 mg/L, which is the recommended concentration for caries prevention. The fluoride concentration was stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water supply in megacities can be affected by the living habits and population mobility, so the fluctuation degree of daily water supply data is acute, which presents a great challenge to the water demand prediction. This is because that non-stationarity of daily data can have a large influence on the generalization ability of models. In this study, the Hodrick-Prescott (HP) and wavelet transform (WT) methods were used to carry out decomposition of daily data to solve the non-stationarity problem. The bidirectional long short term memory (BLSTM), seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) and Gaussian radial basis function neural network (GRBFNN) were developed to carry out prediction of different subseries. The ensemble learning was introduced to improve the generalization ability of models, and prediction interval was generated based on student's t-test to cope with the variation of water supply laws. This study method was applied to the daily water demand prediction in Shenzhen and cross-validation was performed. The results show that WT is superior to HP decomposition method, but maximum decomposition level of WT should not be set too high, otherwise the trend characteristics of subseries will be weakened. Although the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak caused a variation in water supply laws, this variation is still within the prediction interval. The WT and coupling models accurately predict water demand and provide the optimal mean square error (0.17%), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (97.21%), mean relative error (0.1), mean absolute error (3.32%), and correlation coefficient (0.99). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the implications of the 1945 Kansas Water Appropriation Act and the Kansas Supreme Court's 1962 Williams v. City of Wichita decision on water law rights. It mentions the article proposes potential solutions that balance the concerns from the Williams dissent and maintain traditional property law principles. It also mentions possible solutions to the outstanding questions raised by Justice Schroeder.

The article presents information on water and sanitation reform legislation in Brazil. Topics discussed include the access to piped water services in the country, the role of water policy in the pollution of urban rivers, the evolution of the Brazilian Water and Sanitation Sector, and the passage of the Law 14.026/2020 by the Brazilian Congress.

Since the late 1990s, the changing of groundwater level in the aquifer beneath Bangkok has been realized because the enforcement of groundwater laws and improvement of water supply have been adopted. Then, the groundwater with piezometric drawdown has risen to almost hydrostatic equilibrium. In the principle of soil mechanics, when the porewater pressure in soil mass increases, the effective stress decreases. This can affect underground structures. Under the soft ground condition such as Bangkok, Thailand, pile foundations are commonly constructed to support structures. With decreased effective stresses, the loss of ultimate load-carrying capacity of existing piles can occur, and the structures can be damaged. This research investigates the effects of the groundwater rising on the pile foundation in the Bangkok subsoil. An advanced numerical model with the fully coupled flow deformation analysis, both groundwater flow and soil deformation behaviors with time-dependent conditions are modeled, is conducted by using PLAXIS 2D. The results found that the calculation type of fully coupled flow deformation can express the pile-soil movement behavior. The pile-soil heave and the pile load capacity be significantly reduced during the groundwater rising event. Despite the reduction of pile load capacity with groundwater changed not enough to failure (Factor of safety <1.0), the pile stability should be concerned, and the optimum groundwater level must be controlled [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pennsylvania farmer Robert Brace was sued by the federal government in 1987 for repairs he made to an existing drainage system on his farm. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held in 1994 that Brace's repair activities did not constitute "normal farming activity" and were therefore subject to Clean Water Act regulation. After thirty years of contending with the government, Brace has now filed an $8 million administrative action against the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service requesting financial compensation for improper regulatory enforcement that has resulted in millions of dollars of lost profits. Mr. Brace should prevail in this lawsuit because he was wrongfully accused of violating federal regulations from which he was in compliance or exempt. Furthermore, to ensure that other farmers are not subjected to such a fate, structural changes must be made to the United States' environmental and agricultural regulatory systems. These changes include redefining "normal farming activities" under the Clean Water Act to reflect a more realistic understanding of agriculture, reinforcing the original definition of Prior Converted Cropland to definitively exclude croplands converted prior to 1985 from Clean Water Act jurisdiction, and definitively recognizing the Commenced Conversion exemptions from Clean Water Act regulation given to farmers like Robert Brace. The Robert Brace case is a poignant reminder that failing to restrain regulatory overreach seriously threatens America's farmers. Agricultural and environmental interests must be balanced by policymakers and citizens alike, but regulatory frameworks divorced from the realities of farming are unhelpful on many levels. The story of Robert Brace shows that the shifting sands of the administrative state can pose a grave threat to individual freedoms if allowed to roam unchecked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utah deserts supply the state with exquisite beauty and are a definitive part of Utah's identity. However, a consequence of this arid beauty is aridity itself. Because Utah is one of the driest states in the nation, water is an important resource. Accordingly, Utah legislators have enacted statutes that ensure that those who own water will use it beneficially and that ownership of water can be transferred easily from one owner to another. Water ownership is categorized as either ownership of a water right or a share of water stock. This Note focuses on the need for a resolution in Utah law regarding the transfer of shares of water-stock. Under Utah statutes, shares of water stock transfer as securities according to the principles of Utah's Uniform Commercial Code. However, Utah courts have ignored these statutes and have applied judicially made rules in an ad hoc manner to determine whether the shares of stock in question should transfer as securities or as real property. This Note advocates that Utah courts should acquiesce to the Utah Legislature and hold that shares of water stock are transferred per the Utah Uniform Commercial Code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the starvation crisis in Yemen due to the internal armed conflict which started in 2014. Topics discussed include the provisions of the international humanitarian law Protocol II on the use of starvation as a warfare method, the Protocol II violation committed by Saudi Arabia for attacking the water resources in Yemen, and the need for the creation of a convention based on the principles on environmental protection in relation to armed conflict by the United Nations.

Objective: Drinking water instead of beverages with added sugar can help prevent obesity and cavities and promote overall health. Children spend much of their day in school, where they have variable access to drinking water. In 2010, federal and state law required California public schools to provide free potable water to students in areas where meals are served and/or eaten. The current study aims to identify factors associated with an excellent drinking water culture in schools.Design: A qualitative assessment of barriers and facilitators to providing excellent water quality and access in a purposive sample of California schools. In-depth interviews with key informants were conducted using a snowball sampling approach, after which data were analysed using both inductive and deductive methods.Setting: California public elementary, middle/junior and high schools.Participants: Knowledgeable individuals involved in initiatives related to school drinking water accessibility, quality or education at each selected school.Results: Thirty-four interviewees participated across fifteen schools. Six themes emerged as prominent facilitators to a school's success in providing excellent water access to students: active and engaged champions, school culture and policy, coordination between groups, community influences, available resources and environmentalism.Conclusions: While policy is an important step for achieving minimum standards, resources and interest in promoting excellence in drinking water access and quality can vary among schools. Ensuring that schools have dedicated staff committed to advancing student health and promoting the benefits of water programs that are more salient to schools could help reduce disparities in drinking water excellence across schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsA major factor explaining government actors' failure to mitigate or avert the Flint, Michigan, water crisis is the sheer complexity of the laws regulating how governmental agencies maintain and monitor safe drinking water. Coordination across agencies is essential in dealing with multiple legal arrangements.Public health legal authority and intervention mechanisms are not self‐executing. Legal preparedness is essential to efficiently navigating complex legal frameworks to address public health threats.The Flint water crisis demonstrates the importance of democracy for protecting the public's health. Laws responding to municipal fiscal distress must be consistent with expected norms of democracy and require consideration of public health in decision making. Context: The Flint, Michigan, water crisis resulted from a state‐appointed emergency financial manager's cost‐driven decision to switch Flint's water source to the Flint River. Ostensibly designed to address Flint's long‐standing financial crisis, the switch instead created a public health emergency. A major factor explaining why the crisis unfolded as it did is the complex array of laws regulating how governmental agencies maintain and monitor safe drinking water. Methods: We analyzed these legal arrangements to identify what legal authority state, local, and federal public health and environmental agencies could have used to avert or mitigate the crisis and recommend changes to relevant laws and their implementation. First, we mapped the legal authority and roles of federal, state, and local agencies responsible for safe drinking water and the public's health—that is, the existing legal environment. Then we examined how Michigan's emergency manager law altered the existing legal arrangements, leading to decisions that ignored the community's long‐term health. Juxtaposed on those factors, we considered how federalism and the relationship between state and local governments influenced public officials during the crisis. Findings: The complex legal arrangements governing public health and safe drinking water, combined with a lack of legal preparedness (the capacity to use law effectively) among governmental officials, impeded timely and effective actions to mitigate or avert the crisis. The emergency manager's virtually unfettered legal authority in Flint exacerbated the existing complexity and deprived residents of a democratically accountable local government. Conclusions: Our analysis reveals flaws in both the legal structure and how the laws were implemented that simultaneously failed to stop and substantially exacerbated the crisis. Policymakers need to examine the legal framework in their jurisdictions and take appropriate steps to avoid similar disasters. Addressing the implementation failures, including legal preparedness, should likewise be a priority for preventing future similar crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army has finalized a rule that established an applicability date of February 2020 for the 2015 Rule defining waters of the United States. It mentions Agencies to focus on the rulemaking actions underway, rather than litigation. It also mentions rulemaking process, the public has a chance to weigh and hopefully find a rule that will benefit the entire nation.

On Sept 6, Narendra Modi's National Democratic Alliance Government completed the first 100 days of its second term in office. On May 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a sweeping mandate for a second 5-year term, under the campaign slogan Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat - determined India, empowered India. On Aug 15, 2019, India's Independence Day, Modi announced his government's aim to provide safe tap water to every household in the country by 2024. [Extracted from the article]

The Flint water crisis demonstrates the importance of adequate legal preparedness in dealing with complicated legal arrangements and multiple statutory responsibilities. It also demonstrates the need for alternative accountability measures when public officials fail to protect the public's health and explores mechanisms for restoring community trust in governmental public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper describes and comments on contemporary legislation concerning prevention of epidemics caused by contaminated drinking water from public water supplies in the Czech Republic.Methods: Suggestions are made for removing existing legislative shortcomings, clarifying diction of existing laws and expanding sanctions and penalties for health injury caused by providers and operators of public drinking water.Results: The author reflects on improving legislation concerning the compensation of victims of contaminated water with reference to the aftermath of a local epidemic in the Dejvice District of Prague.Conclusion: The issues raised should be addressed since better legislation can significantly contribute to the limitation of water-borne epidemics and their consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the reading of the Water Services Entities Bill on December 8, 2022 that creates entitites for maintaining stormwater, drinking and wastewater which had been managed by councils.

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Constitution confines the power of regional states over water to administration of watercourse that flows within their respective territories. Various proclamations introduce an integrated approach to water resources management through the application of proper and integrated master planning. To this end, a new institutional framework is established through the creation of Basins. Development Authority at national level. The previously established Basin High Councils and Authorities were implementing integrated water management within their respective basins and the powers and obligations of the basin based high councils and authorities are transferred to the newly established National Basin High Council and Basins Development Authority. Some adjustments are necessary due to federalism and issues related to the constitutional framework of water resources that have been overlooked. When the Water Resources Management Proclamation and other water laws are read together with the various provisions of the FRDE Constitution, they lack clarity save the power of the federal government to enact framework legislation over water resources within states. territories. Works undertaken by the federal profit-oriented public enterprises transforming water into an economic good on the lands that are administered by the regional states is an area of on-going controversy. I argue that regional states should claim their constitutional right to levy and collect land use fee from profit making federal public enterprises that are engaged in transforming water into economic good within the framework of integrated water resources management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Water quality testing is critical for guiding water safety management and ensuring public health. In many settings, however, water suppliers and surveillance agencies do not meet regulatory requirements for testing frequencies. This study examines the conditions that promote successful water quality monitoring in Africa, with the goal of providing evidence for strengthening regulated water quality testing programs.Methods and Findings: We compared monitoring programs among 26 regulated water suppliers and surveillance agencies across six African countries. These institutions submitted monthly water quality testing results over 18 months. We also collected qualitative data on the conditions that influenced testing performance via approximately 821 h of semi-structured interviews and observations. Based on our qualitative data, we developed the Water Capacity Rating Diagnostic (WaterCaRD) to establish a scoring framework for evaluating the effects of the following conditions on testing performance: accountability, staffing, program structure, finances, and equipment & services. We summarized the qualitative data into case studies for each of the 26 institutions and then used the case studies to score the institutions against the conditions captured in WaterCaRD. Subsequently, we applied fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to compare these scores against performance outcomes for water quality testing. We defined the performance outcomes as the proportion of testing Targets Achieved (outcome 1) and Testing Consistency (outcome 2) based on the monthly number of microbial water quality tests conducted by each institution. Our analysis identified motivation & leadership, knowledge, staff retention, and transport as institutional conditions that were necessary for achieving monitoring targets. In addition, equipment, procurement, infrastructure, and enforcement contributed to the pathways that resulted in strong monitoring performance.Conclusions: Our identification of institutional commitment, comprising motivation & leadership, knowledge, and staff retention, as a key driver of monitoring performance was not surprising: in weak regulatory environments, individuals and their motivations take-on greater importance in determining institutional and programmatic outcomes. Nevertheless, efforts to build data collection capacity in low-resource settings largely focus on supply-side interventions: the provision of infrastructure, equipment, and training sessions. Our results indicate that these interventions will continue to have limited long-term impacts and sustainability without complementary strategies for motivating or incentivizing water supply and surveillance agency managers to achieve testing goals. More broadly, our research demonstrates both an experimental approach for diagnosing the systems that underlie service provision and an analytical strategy for identifying appropriate interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection of drinking water sources continues to gain momentum in First Nation communities on the Canadian Prairie. Through the identification of potential threats to drinking water sources communities are taking action to mitigate those threats. This article explores the extent to which climate change has been taken into consideration in recent source water protection planning community exercises. In addition, this article describes how source water protection planning has potential to enhance community adaptation strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change on source water and drinking water systems. Results are based on six case studies from Alberta and Saskatchewan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of EU Agrarian Law is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study introduces an end-use-based system dynamics model to support municipal water planning and management over the medium-to long-term. The Calgary Water Management Model (CWMM) simulates water demand and use to 2040 at a weekly time step for ten municipal end-uses, as well as the effects of population growth, climate change, and various water management policies, and includes policy implementation costs for assessment of conservation versus economic trade-offs. The model was validated against historical water demand data for Calgary, Alberta. A series of scenario simulations showed (1) potentially large changes to both seasonal and non-seasonal water demands with climate change and population growth, (2) a need to enhance historical water management policies with new policies such as xeriscaping and greywater reuse to achieve water management goals, and (3) the value of an end-use based model in simulating management policy effects on municipal water demand and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agriculture sector in Malaysia contributes significantly to the country's economic growth and to national development. The series of Malaysia Development Plans (Plans) or 'Rancangan Malaysia', has set out strategies to ensure that productivity and growth of the agricultural industry become a mainstay of the five-year development programmes. The link between sustainable agriculture and sustainable water resources is acknowledged in the plans, and in several policy documents. In Kedah, Malaysia's rice bowl, the Kedah Water Resources Enactment 2008 provides nine key regulatory aspects that can help realise the goals of sustainable agriculture. This paper briefly discusses the enactment, particularly the role it can play in ensuring sustainable development of the agriculture sector through efficient water-resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts an ex-post regulatory impact assessment (RIA) to analyze the effects of Law no.194/2009 on public-private partnerships (PPP) in the water sector in Portugal. Although the water services have been improving concerning coverage and safety since 1990, any change in regulation can have both 'positive and negative' consequences either for customers, providers or local governments. This context can provide the opportunity to observe a national experiment of regulatory reform and assess its outcomes based on the following multiple targets: (i) customer protection; (ii) governance; (iii) financial, infrastructure and operational sustainability; and (iv) environmental improvement. To evaluate the impact of this legal reform, three steps were considered: (i) the status quo, scenarios and perspective; (ii) assessment; and (iii) consultation. Additionally, two aid methods were used: (i) expert opinions (Delphi) and (ii) multicriteria decision modelling method (TOPSIS) based on similarity distance to ideal solution. In fact, Law no.194/2009 reduced the gap in terms of performance between the concessions, but amplified the contrasts when all perspectives are compared. Regarding policy objectives, the major gap to overcome in a possible review of this legal framework is linked to the 'economic-financial, operational and infrastructural sustainability objective'. Failures in any of these aspects can result in an ongoing PPP not meeting customer, municipality and concessionaire's expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews sources of misalignment between the institutional arrangements, incentives and resources mobilized in water policies. It is argued that the resulting policy gaps develop mainly at the implementation phase and are deeply connected to flaws in the ‘meso-institutions’ linking both the macro-level, at which general rules are established through laws and customs, and the micro-level, at which actors operate within the domain thus delineated. It is suggested that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Principles on Water Governance (2015) are primarily and rightly targeting these flaws. The discussion is substantiated with numerous examples, mainly from developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past six decades, the West has had to adapt to three challenging changed conditions, all of which have impacted the allocation and use of water and thus western water law. First, the West has transitioned from a commodity production colony to the most urbanized region in the country. Second, the environmental movement created the demand for legally protected instream uses. Third, fiscal and environmental pressures ended the Big Dam Era, and thus, the federal government no longer back-stops state water rights with new, subsidized carry-over storage reservoirs. Today, the West must adapt to a fourth changed condition, global climate change or global climate disruption. Previous adaptation strategies are an imperfect guide to coping with climate disruption, which projects a wetter, warmer West with less dependable available water supplies to supply a growing population, high-value agricultural areas, and the conservation of aquatic ecosystems. Adaptation planning is well underway in the West, but comparatively little attention has been given to how the projected changed climate will impact western water law. This Article surveys four possible impacts as the competition among cities, farms, and fish increases. We can leave prior appropriation alone because it is a complete risk-allocation system which will force the necessary allocation changes. In the alternative, we can negotiate around old prior by voluntary reallocations to provide more water for cities and instream uses. Aggressive public trust litigation can also reallocate water, primarily for aquatic ecosystems. Finally, we can abolish prior appropriation and replace it with tradable volumetric entitlements. The Article concludes that prior appropriation will remain the allocation framework for the foreseeable future. But, it will be increasingly supplemented by market pressures combined with innovative out-ofthe- box solutions which will push agriculture to consider alternative cropping patterns, less intensive uses, and new sharing patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the regulation of lead in drinking water, highlighting its epidemiological, engineering and ethical aspects with a focus on the Flint water crisis. We first discuss water quality policy and its implementation with a focus on lead contamination of water, primarily from pipe systems between a water treatment facility and a tap. We then discuss physician's roles and ethical responsibilities regarding safe drinking water using a human rights framework. We argue that physicians can play an important role in safeguarding drinking water in their communities by being vigilant, honoring the community's trust in them, and warning, educating and empowering patients and broader communities so as to protect tap water safety and public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1974, President Gerald Ford signed into law the Safe Drinking Water Act, the first piece of legislation of its kind to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for overseeing the nation's drinking water supply. The law has proven instrumental in setting standards for ensuring that the US population can access drinking water that is safe. However, the law delegates much of its monitoring requirements to states, creating, at times, a confusing and complicated system of standards that must be adhered to and enforced. Although it has proven valuable in the safety standards it specifies, the law's administration and enforcement poses tremendous challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New England communities are facing substantial and increasing wastewater and stormwater infrastructure challenges because of age, population growth, funding constraints and severe weather. Integrated planning for and implementation of Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination programs and Sewer System Evaluation Surveys can improve efficiency, maximize compliance and refine capital improvement programs to get the greatest benefit from limited funding. Integrated implementation of clean water programs may also be a more attractive way to discuss sewer and stormwater programs with the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) regulates >170,000 public water systems to protect health, but not >13 million private wells. State and local government requirements for private well water testing are rare and inconsistent; the responsibility to ensure water safety remains with individual households. Over the last two decades, geogenic arsenic has emerged as a significant public health concern due to high prevalence in many rural American communities. OBJECTIVES: We build the case for universal screening of private well water quality around arsenic, the most toxic and widespread of common private water contaminants. We argue that achieving universal screening will require policy intervention, and that testing should be made easy, accessible, and in many cases free to all private well households in the United States, considering the invisible, tasteless, odorless, and thus silent nature of arsenic. DISCUSSION: Our research has identified behavioral, situational and financial barriers to households managing their own well water safety, resulting in far from universal screening despite traditional public health outreach efforts. We observe significant socioeconomic disparities in arsenic testing and treatment when private water is unregulated. Testing requirements can be a partial answer to these challenges. CONCLUSIONS: Universal screening, achieved through local testing requirements complemented by greater community engagement targeting biologically and socioeconomically vulnerable groups, would reduce population arsenic exposure greater than any promotional efforts to date. Universal screening of private well water will identify the dangers hidden in America's drinking water supply and redirect attention to ensure safe water among affected households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greater participation of women in water management and decision-making is expected to improve outcomes for both women and the wider community. Global evidence indicates that women's participation in Water User Committees (WUCs) has been limited; yet their involvement in management has correlated with more effective water systems. This analysis of water inventory data from Vanuatu considers how women's participation in WUCs affects water management and system functionality. Women represent only 16 per cent of committee membership; however, their involvement in key WUC roles was associated with more effective water management, including regular meetings and revenue collection, and improved functioning of water systems. This evidence of women's involvement is proving useful in advocacy efforts to improve the gender balance in WUCs, and targets for female membership are being considered for inclusion in water supply legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]