The following is a transcript of the Nov. 17, 2011, edition of the WaterWorld Weekly Newscast.
Hi, I'm Tom Freyberg, from WWi magazine, bringing you this week's water and wastewater news headlines. Coming up...
• Desalination to help alleviate Jersey's water shortage
• Shark found in Australian desalination plant intake
• Expanded water and sanitation project in Africa
• Mexico water project held up by loss of constructor
• Water trails climate change as priority for 500 global firm
[story 1]
Channel island Jersey, situated off of Northern France, will be running its desalination plant for the first time in five years as a result of current water shortages.
October is usually the wettest month for the island but this year only 29% of usual rainfall was received.
As a result, the desalination plant will produce 6000 cubic meters of fresh water -- around 30% of average daily demand at this time year. The facility has the capacity to produce up to 12,000 cubic meters per day at full capacity.
The decision to include desalinated water into the company's system was made after a warning was sent out in September about the dry weather.
[story 2]
Western Australia's Water Corporation confirmed this week that a carpet shark was found in the seawater intake station at its Southern Desalination plant.
Found alive during maintenance work, the shark is likely to have entered the pipeline during the plant's construction while a grated screen was not in place.
In a statement the firm assured residents that water quality has not been compromised, the shark had not entered the main area of the plant and screen will prevent it happening again.
Water Corporation will be releasing the shark once captured.
[story 3]
UN-HABITAT will be expanding its Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative to fifteen more cities in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
Support of a $4.2 million US dollar grant from the African Development Bank will expand the project into the second phase and extend water and sanitation coverage to nearly one million people.
Funds will be used to provide hygiene training in schools and other public institutions and expand capacity of facilities upgraded in the first phase.
Lake Victoria provides livelihoods for around 30 million people in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but unplanned growth is threatening the environment.
[story 4]
A lack of additional funding has meant that Consolidated Water Company will pull out of the Rosarito desalination project in Baja California, Mexico, shortly.
The 379,000 cubic meters per day facility and 40-kilometer pipeline were set for construction at the end of 2011, between Consolidated Water and joint venture CNS Agua.
However, the firm said that the joint venture was unable to secure additional funding. Options include giving a third party an option to buy its stake, seek another buyer, or to stop operations related to the project.
[story 5]
Despite well publicized water scarcity threats, water is still behind climate change in the board room for 500 of the world's top companies.
This is according to the Carbon Disclosure Project's Water Disclosure report based on a questionnaire sent to companies on the Global 500 index.
While water was not considered as much as a priority than climate change, over half of the companies asked said they are exposed to water-related risks such as flooding and scarcity.
Furthermore, more than one third of respondents said they have already experienced water-related impacts, such as disrupted operations from severe weather events, including flooding and water shortages.
For Water & Wastewater International magazine, I'm Tom Freyberg. Thanks for watching.
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