This week, Chicago-area residents were asked to use less water to prevent overflowing of storm water management systems in the region. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) issued an “Overflow Action Day” alert on June 24 that coincided with the forecast for several rounds of strong-to-severe storms anticipated to produce heavy rain throughout Chicagoland, NBC 5 Chicago reported. These warnings followed devasting flooding and severe weather throughout the Midwest this June.

In most of the Chicago area, rainwater flows through the same pipes as water that goes down the drain in homes. When too much water enters sewers too quickly, the sewers can back up into streets and basements, MWRD cautioned. Additionally, extra water in sewers can cause them to overflow into the river in some cases.

In turn, MWRD asked residents to conserve water by:

• Delaying or reducing shower times.
• Flushing less frequently.
• Putting off running the dishwasher.
• Waiting to wash clothes in the laundry.
• Replacing old and leaky faucets, toilets, and showerheads with new products approved by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’ (EPA) WaterSense.

This month, the EPA reported WaterSense-labeled products helped to save 1.2 trillion gallons of water last year, as CMM previously reported.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) held its first Women’s Bureau summit on June 18 to discuss collective efforts to prevent and address gender-based violence and harassment in the workforce. More than 350 leaders from the International Labor Organization and other international, federal, state, and local government officials attended Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Focus: A Summit to Create an Equitable World of Work. The summit marked the first anniversary of the Biden-Harris administration’s release of the National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.

“The resurgence of the #MeToo movement in 2017 raised to our collective consciousness about just how pervasive gender-based violence and harassment is in our communities, including in our places of work,” said Wendy Chun-Hoon, Women’s Bureau director. “Today’s summit will focus on the importance of identifying, responding to, and preventing gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work in order to create safe and healthy workplaces for all workers. … But today’s summit is just the beginning. We need widespread change in order to prevent and address gender-based violence and harassment in our places of work.”

Panelists discussed how the National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and principles from ILO Convention 190 can provide a framework for preventing and addressing gender-based violence and harassment in the U.S.; how gender-based violence and harassment is a safety and health issue; and how worker-led movements are key to helping to eliminate gender-based violence and harassment.

A video of the summit can be viewed below.