NI Water has installed a new wastewater treatment unit at a housing development near Rathfriland in a bid to improve the quality of treated effluent.

The work forms part of NI Water's multi-million pound Rural Wastewater Investment project, which aims to ensure the treated effluent meets the latest EU Directives.

The new infrastructure at the Knock Terrace housing estate includes an enclosed hi-tech tank with advanced treatment processes.

New standards for drinking water will come into force in China on July 1, with the number of quality indicators rising to 106 from 35. While that's almost on a par with the standards used in the European Union, some experts have raised concerns about the feasibility of the new system.

"There are about 3,000 water companies in China. Judging by their production technologies and their quality-testing facilities, most still have a long way to go before they can meet the new standards," said Li Fuxing, director of the Beijing Institute of Public Health and Drinking Water.

The Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), is executing a 300 MW Kishanganga power project in Bandipora district of occupied Kashmir, despite a warning by the Centre for Inter-disciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment (CISMHE), New Delhi, of terrible anti-environmental dangers of the project. A report, prepared by CISMHE on Kishanganga, clearly pointed to the issues like environmental degradation and the impact on water quality of Bandipora.

The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the chief secretary, provincial irrigation and health secretaries and chief of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board in a petition against the supply of contaminated and unhygienic water in the city.

China's capital will spend 118 million yuan ($18.66 million) by the end of the year to improve the quality of drinking water drawn from wells, the city's water resource management authorities said Wednesday.

The quality of drinking water for about 300,000 people will be greatly improved following technical modifications to 54 wells, the Beijing Water Authority said.

Improvements will first be made to wells that are known to have safety risks, as well as those that serve areas that do not have access to tap water.

Robot "fish" developed by European scientists to improve pollution monitoring moved from the lab to the sea in a test at the northern Spanish port of Gijon on Tuesday.

The developers hope the new technology, which reduces the time it takes to detect a pollutant from weeks to seconds, will sell to port authorities, water companies, aquariums and anyone with an interest in monitoring water quality.

It could also have spin-offs for cleaning up oil spills, underwater security, diver monitoring or search and rescue at sea, they said.

NEW DELHI, 21 MAY: Expressing concern over the scarcity of safe drinking water at stations and trains, the parliamentary standing committee on railways has asked the railways to take effective steps to ensure safe potable water to passengers. The panel headed by Mr T R Baalu (DMK) in its report tabled in Parliament said scarcity of packaged water in long distance trains and unsealed water bottles at railway stations are matters of concern. The committee said it is distressed to note that though the new catering policy was issued in July 2010, it is being implemented at a very slow pace.

Express news service : New Delhi, Tue May 22 2012, 01:08 hrs

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways has said there is a scarcity of safe drinking water in long-distance trains across the country.

Dhaka Wasa is considering a plan to recharge the underground aquifers with rain water in eight areas across the capital this year to top up the rapidly depleting groundwater table.

As the city's water table is falling by 2.5 to 3.5 metres per year due to excessive extraction of groundwater by deep tube wells, the government agency is also mulling over making water recharging facilities mandatory in the proposed national building code, said Wasa sources.