VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A landscaper drinks water in temperatures that have reached well above triple digits in Palm Springs, California, US, July 20, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/David Swanson) - 

LOS ANGELES: California regulators on Tuesday (Dec 19) cleared the way for widespread use of advanced filtration and treatment facilities designed to convert sewage waste into pure drinking water that can be pumped directly into systems feeding millions of household taps.

Proven technologies capable of recycling wastewater for human consumption, a concept once derided by critics as "toilet to tap", have gained greater credence in recent years as water-conscious California faces worsening drought cycles from climate change.

More than a decade in the making, the regulations adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board represent a landmark in the quest to reclaim some of the hundreds of millions of gallons of waste discharge that flows out to sea unused each year, supporters say.

"Today heralds a new era of water reuse," Patricia Sinicropi, executive director of the recycling trade group WateReuse California, said in a statement.

A number of communities have for years been blending highly purified wastewater into aquifers and reservoirs before people can drink it, a practice known in the parlance of engineers and resource managers as "indirect potable reuse".

In the sprawling Orange County suburbs south of Los Angeles, home to Disneyland and upscale beach towns, much of the drinking supply for 2.5 million people comes from highly distilled waste that is used to recharge the groundwater basin and eventually is drawn back to the surface.

The 69-page document approved on Tuesday provides a legal and regulatory framework for "direct potable reuse", allowing the end-product of advanced purification to be fed straight into drinking water systems, without first making a stop in some kind of environmental buffer.

The foundation of the technology, used for more than a decade in Orange County, puts pre-treated waste discharge through intense microfiltration, reverse osmosis and disinfection by ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide.

The new regulations mandate an additional ozone disinfectant process and biological carbon filtration. Greater pathogen removal and stricter monitoring is also required.

Darrin Polhemus, deputy director of the state board's drinking water division, said it would likely take at least five years before the first direct potable reuse plant is operating.

Los Angeles and San Diego also have plans to develop direct potable recycling, as does the Santa Clara Valley Water District in the San Francisco Bay area.

Texas is the only US state to have previously approved direct potable recycling, with two small-scale systems that went online in 2014 to serve towns stricken by a drought-caused water emergency. Colorado also has developed relatively limited guidelines for such projects.

The technology for purifying wastewater is similar to that used in desalination, the seemingly more palatable process of converting salt water to fresh//CNA-VOI

Members of the Paris police bomb squad intervene on the Champs Elysees avenue near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as the bomb-disposal team gear up for heightened security operations for Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, France, December 4, 2023. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo - 

PARIS: Paris 2024 organisers admitted that there were contingency plans for the Olympics opening ceremony on Thursday (Dec 21) after French President Emmanuel Macron revealed the event could be moved from the River Seine in case of a major security alert.

"Given we're professionals, there obviously is a Plan B, Plan C et cetera," Macron said on Wednesday when asked if heightened security across Europe over tensions in the Middle East could thwart plans to hold the ceremony as planned.

France raised its security threshold in October when a man with a knife killed a teacher in a school in northern France.

Earlier this month, however, the sports minister and Paris 2024 organisers ruled out a change of plans after a man armed with a knife and hammer killed a German tourist and left two people wounded near the Eiffel Tower.

"There is no single fallback plan, but rather a variety of adaptation measures - what we call in our jargon contingency plans - which are not intended to be public in any other way," Paris 2024 said in a statement to Reuters.

"We have contingency plans for all identified risk scenarios: heatwaves, cyber attacks, and the ceremony is no exception."

France expects up to 600,000 visitors when 160 boats are due to set off on Jul 26 from the Pont d'Austerlitz in central Paris for a 6km journey to the Pont d'Iena.

"The President referred to these adjustment variables by taking an extreme scenario: a series of attacks, for example, but above all he reaffirmed his confidence in the collective ability of those involved to organise the ceremony as announced, emphasising that the event would take place with the highest standards of security and support," the statement said//CNA-VOI

Police stand outside the television building as protesters and Law and Justice politicians gather inside the headquarters after the management of Polish public television, radio and news agency PAP have been dismissed by new culture minister in Warsaw, Poland, on Dec 20, 2023. (Photo: Dawid Zuchowicz/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS) - 

WARSAW: The new Polish government led by Donald Tusk is implementing reforms of state media that amount to "anarchy", the president said on Thursday, amid rising tensions between the head of state and a new pro-European Union administration.

The swearing-in of a government led former European Council President Tusk this month marked the beginning of a period of cohabitation with President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the previous nationalist administration. It has seen a turbulent first few days.

On Wednesday, the new government took a public news channel off the air and dismissed executives from state media in a move its said was designed to restore impartiality.

State media, and in particular news channel TVP Info, were accused of having become outlets for propaganda under the rule of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Duda told private broadcaster Radio Zet that the sudden way the changes had been implemented broke the constitution as they skipped the appropriate parliamentary procedures.

"These are completely illegal actions," he said. "This is anarchy."

Meanwhile Former Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy from PiS were sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison for abuse of power in previous posts. In 2015, weeks after PiS came to power, Duda issued them with a pardon.

"I told them that if they were put in prison, they would be the first political prisoners in Poland since 1989," Duda said, referring to the year when communist rule ended.

Responding to an appeal on Wednesday from Duda to respect the law when implementing media reforms, Tusk said the actions were aimed at "restoring legal order and common decency in public life".

The new government considers Duda himself to have been involved in multiple violations of the constitution during PiS's eight years in power//CNA-VOI

FILE PHOTO: A metal figure of a football player with a ball is seen in front of the words "European Super League" and the UEFA logo in this illustration taken April 20, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo - 

BRUSSELS: Soccer bodies UEFA and FIFA contravened EU law when they prevented the formation of the European Super League (ESL), the European Court of Justice said on Thursday (Dec 21).

The EU's top court ruled that FIFA and UEFA abused their dominant position by forbidding clubs outright to compete in a ESL, but added that the competition may still not be approved.

Sports development company A22, formed to assist in the creation of the ESL, had claimed UEFA and global soccer governing body FIFA held a monopoly position which was in breach of the EU's Competition and Free Movement Law.

"We have won the right to compete. The UEFA-monopoly is over. Football is free," said A22 CEO Bernd Reichart.

"Clubs are now free from the threat of sanction and free to determine their own futures," Reichard added in a statement//CNA-VOI