Latest news with #drinkingwater
CBC
a day ago
- General
- CBC
N.W.T. gov't says it didn't use 'best practices' for lead testing at schools
Less than a week after parents were notified lead samples were found in two Yellowknife schools' drinking water, the N.W.T. government is saying it did not use best practices in the initial testing. In an emailed press release that was sent out late Saturday afternoon, the government said the initial water testing in schools "was not conducted using national best practices for water sampling." The government also noted it also undertook the original sampling process without in-house expertise specific to water testing. It said it didn't engage any third-party experts and didn't consult its own internal water quality experts in advance. CBC requested an interview with the department. The N.W.T. Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) previously told CBC it initially decided to test for lead after "increased public attention to the issue," and particularly because of media coverage of testing in the Yukon being delayed. News of lead in the school drinking water broke last week after Yellowknife Education District No. 1 sent notices to parents and staff, stating lead levels in École William McDonald's drinking water were detected at 0.00903 milligrams per litre, while Range Lake School's levels were 0.025 milligrams per litre. Canada's drinking water guidelines state the maximum acceptable level is 0.005 milligrams per litre. Days after the notices were sent out, ECE said in an email that it received its initial test results for water at École William McDonald Middle School and Range Lake North School on Jan. 22. In Saturday's update, the government said "although the original intent was to complete testing quickly with available resources, the lack of expert involvement compromised the reliability of both the process and the results." The territorial government is now re-testing all school water sources where elevated lead levels were previously reported and said "results will be shared as soon as they are received – first with the schools and families, and then with the public." Review of the situation going forward A review of "how this situation unfolded" is currently underway, the government said in its emailed press release. "The GNWT acknowledges the concern this situation has caused. While the original intent of this project was to help confirm the safety of school drinking water, the issues identified in the testing process are now enabling clearer steps to ensure water quality and, if necessary, corrective action," the government wrote. In a statement issued last Wednesday, ECE Minister Caitlin Cleavland said she is "deeply concerned" about the lead levels in the school water but did not commit to making the review itself public.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
England's yellow and parched land: How soaring immigration and a 30-year failure to build reservoirs could trigger drinking water crisis
Just over 200 years ago, William Blake wrote of England's 'great and pleasant land' in the poem that would later be set to music as the hymn Jerusalem. Fast forward to the 21st century and the green and pleasant land, and its people, are in danger of becoming parched. This week ministers admitted that the country could run out of drinking water within 10 years as they unveiled plans to fast-track the building of two new reservoirs. Astonishingly, they will be the first new man-made bodies of water created for human consumption in more than three decades. There are fears that, without action, demand for drinking water could outstrip supply by the mid-2030s due to rapid population growth, crumbling assets, Nimby opposition and a warming climate. And that population growth is set to be fuelled by immigration. The UK population is projected to reach 72.5 million by mid-2032, up 4.9 million from 67.6 million in mid-2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The jump of 4.9 million is projected to be driven almost entirely by net migration, with natural change – the difference between births and deaths – projected to be around zero due to the aging population. Beyond 2032, the population is projected to continue to grow and pass 75 million in 2041. Writing for Mail Online today, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: 'Water doesn't lie. It's a basic test of whether a country can support the people in it, and Britain is failing that test because Labour refuses to confront reality. 'The only serious solution is to tackle immigration head-on. 'We cannot keep adding the pressure and pretending the system will hold. We cannot build our way out of a problem we refuse to name. Until we slash migration numbers, the shortages will only get worse.' Last week, official figures showed net migration to the UK had halved to 431,000 last year compared with 860,000 across January to December 2023. This was after reaching a record high of 906,000 in the 12 months to June 2023. But although net migration is predicted to continue to fall in the years to come, the home-grown population is predicted to also shrink, as deaths outweigh births. It means that while the rate of population growth may slow, it is expected to inexorably climb. While politicians have long claimed immigration will have an impact on services such as housing, schools and the NHS, where everyone will get their drinking water has remained largely out of the spotlight until now. In England this year, the North West and North East both saw their driest start to a calendar year since 1929, while the country as a whole endured its driest February to April period since 1956. On Thursday The Environment Agency (EA) said Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, and Cumbria and Lancashire, moved from 'prolonged dry weather' to 'drought' status. Water companies in England have committed to bringing new reservoirs online, in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Kent, East Sussex and the West Midlands, with the potential to supply 670 million litres of extra water per day. But they are not expected to be ready until 2050. The Fen Reservoir project between Chatteris and March in Cambridgeshire is set to supply 87 million litres a day to 250,000 homes, and to be completed in 2036. The Lincolnshire reservoir south of Sleaford would provide up to 166 million litres a day for up to 500,000 homes, operational by 2040. It is the latter two that ministers have now designated as 'nationally significant', taking planning responsibility out of the hands of local politicians in order to streamline and fast-track them. Speaking to Times Radio Environment Minister Emma Hardy said: 'We've been in an infrastructure crisis because we haven't built the reservoirs that we need. 'In fact we built no reservoirs for the past 30 years. If we don't take action we are going to be running out of the drinking water that we need by the mid-2030s. 'This is why the Government's taking unprecedented action to make these reservoir projects... into projects that are nationally significant projects. 'This means the planning process is taken away from the local authority. The power is put into the hands of the Secretary of State... to make sure that we deliver them. 'It means that we can unlock tens of thousands of new homes and we can make sure that everybody has the drinking water that they desperately need.' A lack of water supplies is also holding back the construction of thousands of homes in parts of the country such as Cambridge, officials have warned. Labour has a target of building 1.5 million new homes by 2029. But demands from migrant-fueled population growth is not the only problem. Last year a report by the Environment Agency found that almost a fifth (19 per cent) of water supplies are lost by water companies before reaching customers' taps. This figure was down 10 percentage points since 2018 but the agency said By 2050, in order to support a growing population, the economy, food production and protect the environment, an extra five billion litres of water will be needed every day. Andy Brown, its water regulation manager, said: 'Drought is a naturally occurring phenomenon. As we see more impacts from climate change heavier rainfall and drier summers will become more frequent. This poses an enormous challenge over the next few decades. Prof Hayley Fowler, professor of climate change impacts at the University of Newcastle, said the dry and drought conditions the UK was experiencing were consistent with what was expected from climate models, especially in the summer months. 'With global warming we expect more prolonged and intense droughts and heatwaves punctuated by more intense rainfall, possibly causing flash floods. 'In recent years, we have experienced more of these atmospheric blocks, causing record heat and persistent drought,' she said. 'We are a northern European nation not short of rain ... this should be a wake-up call for the government, says Chris Philp This week, ministers admitted that parts of Britain could run out of drinking water within a decade. Let that sink in. We are a northern European nation not short of rain. We are certainly not an arid and sandy desert land. Yet apparently we can't guarantee water will come out of the tap. This should be a wake-up call for the government. And we know what drives demand for water: people do. So it is very relevant that for decades the British people have demanded, and politicians have promised, dramatically lower immigration. But for decades, successive governments, including the last one, have failed to deliver that. That failure has undermined faith and trust in democracy itself. It is now time to actually deliver what the public want. Under new leadership, the Conservative Party has recently brought forward a number of serious, credible and detailed plans to tackle immigration - all of which Labour voted against in Parliament in the past few weeks. While homes go unbuilt, schools burst at the seams, and A&Es overflow, Labour's answer is to import more people and deny there's even a problem. The Home Secretary admitted Labour's plans will only bring down net migration by microscopic 50,000 a year - nowhere near enough of a reduction. It is no surprise the Labour Government is failing to take action – Starmer once absurdly claimed immigration puts no strain on public services. Tell that to the families in waiting for a doctor's appointment, to the councillors facing impossible housing targets, or to the water companies now forced to warn that we may not have enough to go round. The government's target of building 300,000 homes per year would only cover net migration at 170,000 per year. Instead, Labour's housebuilding target could result in five out of seven new homes going to migrants. What about the British people who want to get on the housing ladder? Naturally, more people means more demand for water. Every person who arrives needs showers, sinks, sanitation. The more pressure we put on the network, the faster it fails, and the harder it becomes to plan or build for the future. And Labour's solution has not been to tackle the influx but rather to crush any local objections and build two giant reservoirs for 10 and 15 years' time. When the Conservatives recently brought forward a plan to slash immigration Labour torpedoed it using their huge Parliamentary majority. We put forward measures to implement automatic deportations of foreign criminals and illegal migrants; to end the human rights madness that stops us controlling our borders; and to create a binding annual cap on migration which is much, much lower than the numbers we have seen in recent years. Water doesn't lie. It's a basic test of whether a country can support the people in it, and Britain is failing that test because Labour refuses to confront reality. The only serious solution is to tackle immigration head-on. We cannot keep adding the pressure and pretending the system will hold. We cannot build our way out of a problem we refuse to name. Until we slash migration numbers, the shortages will only get worse.
CBC
2 days ago
- Health
- CBC
N.W.T. gov't says it followed protocol by doing 2nd round of lead tests instead of notifying schools earlier
Social Sharing The N.W.T government says it followed standard practice when it conducted follow-up testing for lead in the drinking water at two Yellowknife schools instead of blocking the taps off and notifying the public earlier. "Health experts raised some questions about the sample gathering methods and whether that could have affected the results," Christina Carrigan, senior communications adviser with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, wrote in an email Friday afternoon. In that email, the department said after the initial sample set was done, any result that exceeded the maximum acceptable concentration of lead under Canadian drinking water guidelines triggered a second sample to confirm the finding. The department also said the office of the chief public health officer recommended the water not be consumed as a precautionary measure. "[Education, Culture and Employment] is now conducting a formal, school-wide series of tests in these two schools to validate the preliminary findings and ensure the safety of the drinking water." Lead levels in École William McDonald's drinking water were detected at 0.00903 milligrams per litre, while Range Lake North School's levels were 0.025 milligrams per litre. Canada's drinking water guidelines state the maximum acceptable level is 0.005 milligrams per litre. Lead was first detected on Jan. 22, and the results were confirmed on April 4. Parents and staff were informed this past Tuesday. 'No safe level' of lead Dr. Anne Hicks, an associate professor of pediatric respiratory medicine at the University of Alberta, said lead in water and food is absorbed in the body the same way calcium and iron are. "So into your red cells, into your bones," she said. Hicks said it's hard to say how much lead is safe to consume, because everyone absorbs and expels it differently. "There's no safe level of lead intake, basically," she said. "The more you take into your body over time, the more likely it is that you'll have an elevated lead level." She said symptoms of high lead in the body will often emerge later, but most lead exposure is mild in Canada. One sign could be low blood iron, anemia or low red cell counts. "It can take a long time for these subtle symptoms to show up." Hicks said the levels found at both schools "are concerning" but that public health officials would best be able to identify the level of risk. "I think the most important thing would be to make sure that everybody is safe," she said. The N.W.T.'s health department told CBC it would not be doing interviews, and the chief public health officer was also not made available for an interview. Education, Culture and Employment has also declined interviews, opting to send email responses instead, and Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland has not been made available for interviews. Parents concerned Sabrina Meilleur, who has children and stepchildren at Range Lake North School, said she thought the school's infrastructure was new and she was surprised to find out there could be elevated levels of lead in the water. "I was shocked, actually," she said. She said she has peace of mind that an investigation is taking place, now that they're testing for it, but she would have liked to have known earlier. "I'm really disappointed it took so long." Yvette Cooper, another parent, said she worries about the long-term effects of lead on children. "It's wildly inappropriate," she said. "Children have been exposed to this for months. "This is a really slow response and this is a huge concern," she added. "My confidence is shaken."
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Black particles in water? Hong Kong says supply at public housing estate is safe
The freshwater supply at a Hong Kong public housing estate in the New Territories is safe, authorities have said, after residents voiced worries over black particles found in their drinking water. The Water Supplies Department on Saturday sought to reassure tenants of Queen's Hill Estate in Fanling following complaints about a delayed official response to reports of impurities in the water supply. Residents on Friday began posting photos to social media of filters fixed to home taps that had collected a large amount of black specks, with one of the tenants describing the particles as sticky. The department told one of the residents on Saturday morning that it had been aware of the case since 10am on Friday, according to a social media post. Residents have taken to social media to post images of the black particles. Photo: Facebook/Desmond Wang The author of the post asked why there had been no public acknowledgement and suggested residents were left to drink contaminated water.
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Fluoride returning to this city's drinking water
Fluoride has been added back into the drinking water in Calgary leads MedicalWatch for May 30, 2025.
