Positive - focus on urgent short and medium term problems, which can be solved.

Negative - give huge long term problems low priority (leave it to future generations), neglects the fact that costs tend to increase substantially while problems grow with time.

In relation to the Third World more money should be spend before human catastrophs break out, best invested in helping the people to solve their own problems (also regarding drinking water).

Kind regards,
T. Sobisch

The underdeveloped world is in serious need of safe drinking water. Simple low cost chlorinators are being installed that greatly improve the health and welfare of the consumers. But the effort takes time. It is happening town by town but as is always the case, more money and technical resources are needed to effect change.

Do good work.
B. Kramer

Interesting story about preventing sewer spills.

http://www.readingeagle.com/blog/editorials/archives/2006/08/aging_sewer_pip.html

August 21, 2006 - From Reading Eagle Newspaper Blog

Aging sewer pipes must be replaced

The Issue: Oil giant BP begins repairs on corroded parts of the Alaska Pipeline.

Our Opinion: There is justifiable concern about the corroded oil pipes, but little attention is being paid to the decaying sewage pipes across the country.

Corroded oil pipes, such as the one owned by BP in Alaska, understandably get a lot of attention for a number of reasons, such as the danger they pose to the environment and the higher oil prices they cause when they have to be shut down for any length of time.

But as worrisome as corroded oil pipes are, there is another kind of decaying pipe that poses an even greater danger but seldom makes international headlines.
They are the pipes that carry sewage.

This lack of attention to a growing problem that is literally right under our feet has Thomas Rooney, the head of Insituform Technologies, Chesterfield, Mo., concerned and rightly so.

Insituform Technologies repairs all types of pipes all over the world, and from his experience, Rooney said that as bad as oil pipes can be, they are in far better shape that the average sewer pipe found in an average commu-nity, such as Reading.

For years, Reading residents have been told that the city?s sewer pipes are decaying. But there has been no comprehensive effort to tackle the problem other than dealing with breaks as they occur.

The repair of the city's outdated treatment plant, which has been fined several time for discharging raw sewage into the Schuylkill River, is a high priority, but the estimated cost of $150 million is financially daunting.

Although the world's attention may be captured more easily by scenes of oil spills that saturate pristine flora and fauna, Rooney said ruptured sewer pipes cause more damage and illness and are more costly to repair.

One sewer spill that did get international attention occurred earlier this year in Hawaii.

After more than 40 days of rain, Honolulu's aging sewer system no longer could handle the load. The system sprang a leak, and 48 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into a large drainage canal and eventually found its way onto Waikiki Beach.

Officials predicted that repairing the system would cost $48 million - $1 for each gallon of sewage spilled.

Of course, the spill got the attention it did because of Hawaii?s status as a tourist Mecca. Rooney pointed out that for the most part sewage spills get far less scrutiny than oil spills.

Perhaps its because unlike oil, sewage is filthy and disgusting. Not something people want to read about while their are eating breakfast.

Whatever the reason, Rooney said more attention needs to be paid to decaying sewage systems.

While the damage done by oil spills shouldn?t be minimized, Rooney had a point when he said sewage spills pose a far greater danger to people, wildlife and the environment.

For one thing, there are a million miles of sewer lines in this country made up mainly of pipes that are 60 years old or older. Most were meant to last only 50 years.

The result is not surprising. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency reported 73,000 sewage spills, said Rooney.

In the past several months, more than a dozen places, including Honolulu, have had the worst spills they have had in decades, if not their history, he said.

The cleanups, repairs and health-care costs have amounted to billions of dollars.

Rooney noted that a few months from now, BP will have replaced the corroded pipes, the oil will be flowing again and the problem, for the most part, will have been forgotten.

But across the country, sewer pipes will continue to be on the verge of collapse with little being done to head off the catastrophe that could ensue.

Nancy Fay
LaTiDa1@aol.com