It will cost tens of billions of dollars to find and remove all the lead service lines that deliver water to US homes and schools. A public health expert explains why he sees it as money well spent.
Water: an increasingly expensive necessity.
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Should the U.S. help low-income households afford water service, as it does with heating and groceries? Chile does. An economist explains how it works there and how it could work here.
The Centers for Disease Control has announced a new, stricter standard for lead poisoning in children, which will more than double the number of kids considered to have high blood lead levels.
Fluoride is a mineral that can occur naturally in water.
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High levels of lead were unexpectedly found in 14 UK schools’ drinking water: so how much do we really know about what’s in our pipes?
In an photo from 2016, Potlotek First Nation resident Patricia Paul holds a sample of water she says came from her taps at home. In December 2019 the community got a new water treatment system.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Steve Wadden
It seems all party leaders can agree, water advisories in First Nation communities need to end. If there is agreement, then isn’t it time to stop making it a campaign promise and make change?
An orchard near Kettleman City in California’s San Joaquin Valley on April 2, 2021.
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Debra Perrone, University of California, Santa Barbara e Scott Jasechko, University of California, Santa Barbara
The US has one of the highest groundwater use rates in the world. When wells run dry, households may opt to conserve water, find new sources or sell and move.
A lead pipe (left) seen through a hole in the kitchen ceiling in the home of Desmond Odom, in Newark, New Jersey.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
President Biden has proposed spending $45 billion to replace every lead water pipe and service line in the nation. A public health expert explains why he sees this as a worthwhile investment.
A boy sits on a bridge over a man-made channel in the First Nation of Shoal Lake 40, straddling the Manitoba/Ontario border, in June 2015. Until recently, a boil-water advisory had been in place in the community for more than 20 years despite its relative close proximity to Winnipeg.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
The federal government’s announcement that boil-water advisories on First Nations won’t end until 2023 at the earliest isn’t surprising. The true crisis is much greater than widely known.
New research finds that tap water avoidance is on the rise in the US, especially among minorities. An expert on water and health calls for better public education about water quality and testing.
Women and girls are forced to spend hours each day hauling water for their households. Beyond harming both physical and mental health, this takes time away from economic activities and caregiving.
Men wade through an abandoned highway tunnel to repair a self-created water system in the Esperanza neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela, in June 2020.
(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A new study shows how toxic chemicals like benzene are leaching into water systems after nearby fires. The pipes don’t have to burn – they just have to heat up.
The Neskantaga First Nation has had a boil-water advisory in place for 26 years.
(Dayna Nadine Scott)
To continue to sustain or grow populations — and economies — more is going to have to be done with the same amount of water, or even less.
Rising sea levels are threatening homes on Diamniadio Island, Saloum Delta in Senegal. A child stands outside a home’s former kitchen, surrounded by mangrove branches, in 2015.
(AP Photo/Jane Hahn)
Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University