Blue News from around the world. The most important news on water and sanitation from a human rights perspective.
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Austria: Follow this route to the next well. The Province of Tyrol presents a digital drinking water map.
Austria: Follow this route to the next well. The Province of Tyrol presents a digital drinking water map.Drinking water points are marked with blue dots on the Tyrolean government’s website. If you are looking for a drinking water well in the near future, you can use the province of Tyrol’s digital map, which already shows 256 public water points across the Tyrolean districts.
See Tirol (German) / Tags: Austria
Who has the right to water? On water injustice
Who has the right to water? On water injusticeIs it possible to buy a river? And a spring? And the right to rain? In some countries – yes. The modern world shows that what seems common and natural becomes a commodity, an object of struggle and exclusion. Let’s look at how the privatization of water affects the lives of millions of people, who benefits from these arrangements, and who pays the highest price.
Read A&B / Tags: Right2Water – Privatisation
Investing in infrastructure for a united and water-secure South Africa. By Deputy Minister Sello Seitlholo, Department of Water and Sanitation.
Water is not only a basic human right, but also the foundation of development, dignity, and stability. As we confront the dual pressures of climate change and increasing water demand, the call to invest boldly and urgently in our water infrastructure is more critical than ever. This moment demands leadership, collaboration, and above all, unity. At the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) Climate Resilient Investment Conference in Maseru, Lesotho, last week, I reaffirmed South Africa’s deep and unwavering commitment to regional water cooperation. As the host nation and an active member of ORASECOM, South Africa has long championed the sustainable and equitable management of transboundary water resources. These rivers not only feed our economies and cities, but they also bind us as a region.
Read The Star / Tags: SouthAfrica
Water as “strategic asset”?
Water as “strategic asset”?We say: Water is not just a cost or a strategic asset. Above all, it is a human right!!
On page 6 down the paper states: “The Value of Water is at the heart of Water Europe’s vision for a Water-Smart Society. This core value reflects the centrality of water as a human right and its fundamental role in our society. A multifaceted role that includes enabling all economic activities, underpinning societal functions related to citizen health and well-being, while also representing a source of economic value generated from the extraction and valorisation of raw materials and energy contained in water systems, thereby offering a unique sustainable source to serve a circular economy.”
2026 UN Water Conference – Summary Report Global Online Stakeholder Consultation Inputs to the Interactive Dialogues Themes
2026 UN Water Conference – Summary Report Global Online Stakeholder Consultation Inputs to the Interactive Dialogues ThemesThe high-level 2026 United Nations Water Conference to Accelerate the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all will be held in the United Arab Emirates from 2–4 December 2026, co-hosted by Senegal and the United Arab Emirates.
The 2026 UN Water Conference will be comprised of plenary sessions and six interactive dialogues (A/RES/78/327). The Conference secretariat, UN-DESA, will prepare a background note on potential themes of the interactive dialogues, based on the inputs of Member States, the UN system, and a wide range of other stakeholders.
The Conference will result in a summary of the proceedings of the Conference, to be prepared by the Presidents of the Conference, as its outcome document. For more background information on the Conference, please see: https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2026.
Read UN SDGS / Tags: UN
Weaponizing water: how India’s unilateral posturing on the Indus threatens its own strategic interests. By Tanveer Ahmed
Weaponizing water: how India’s unilateral posturing on the Indus threatens its own strategic interests. By Tanveer Ahmed Recent declarations from senior Indian officials, including the Minister for Jal Shakti, that “not even a drop” of water will be allowed to flow westward signify a significant departure from established norms of cooperative water diplomacy concerning the Indus Rivers. Framed in nationalist terms, these unilateral initiatives, driven by domestic political considerations, appear to weaponize transboundary water resources against Pakistan. This posture, however, constitutes a strategic miscalculation. It effectively legitimizes similar unilateral actions by upstream riparian states, notably China, thereby undermining the very international norms India ostensibly champions.
Read Minute Mirror / Tags: India – Pakistan – WaterConflicts
From the archive (Apr 5, 2024), for actual reasons
UK: Predators or parasites? Certainly not investors.
From the archive (Apr 5, 2024), for actual reasonsThames Water is in trouble – not the illegal sewage dumping trouble that it still runs rings around the regulators to profit from, this time it’s far more serious for the debt-laden company apparently unable to remain solvent having gambled that it would be able to force massive customer bill increases out of the economic regulator Ofwat. It wants over 40% more, out of the billpayers and if Ofwat won’t deliver this with a cap on fines and other guarantees to keep pollution profitable (some may call that blackmail) we hear that the shareholders won’t put in more money – but wait!
There has never been a year since privatisation when shareholders contributed more cash than they took out.
US: Southern California water agencies settle long-running legal battle
US: Southern California water agencies settle long-running legal battleA bitter 15-year legal battle over water costs came to an end Monday, with leaders of the San Diego County Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California signing an agreement establishing the price that will be paid for delivering supplies.
Managers and board members of the two agencies said that the dispute persisted for years because of inflexible positions, but that negotiations over the last year made possible a comprehensive agreement. They said ending the legal fight will enable greater collaboration among the agencies to improve their finances and move water where it’s needed.
Read Los Angeles Times / Tags: US
New Ghana Water Limited Board inaugurated to champion water sector reform
New Ghana Water Limited Board inaugurated to champion water sector reformThe Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has sworn in a new board of directors with a strong directive to spearhead a transformation in public utility governance.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, the Minister for Works and Housing, Hon. Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, described the occasion as a turning point for Ghana’s public service delivery system and a critical moment in the country’s quest for sustainable water management.
Read Ghana News Agency / Tags: Ghana
England’s water crisis needs more than just new reservoirs – here’s what will help. By Professor of Hydrology, University of Reading
England’s water crisis needs more than just new reservoirs – here’s what will help. By England is facing a water crisis. The UK government has just announced plans to fast-track two massive reservoir projects in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, warning that without them, we could run out of drinking water by the mid-2030s. But as a hydrologist who studies Britain’s often erratic weather patterns, I believe these reservoirs alone won’t solve our water problems.
Read The Conversation / Tags: UK
Algae can clean sewage without electricity or chemicals – we put it to the test in South Africa
Algae can clean sewage without electricity or chemicals – we put it to the test in South AfricaAcross Africa, many rural communities face a growing sanitation crisis. Wastewater treatment systems, where they exist, are often old, overloaded, or broken. In some towns, untreated sewage flows directly into rivers, contaminating water sources and harming both ecosystems and public health.
For decades, the global response to wastewater has been to clean the water in large wastewater facilities designed to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants from domestic wastewater (toilets) or industrial effluent. Wastewater plants produce treated water that is safe to discharge into rivers.
But they’re expensive and energy intensive. They’re also difficult to maintain in rural areas where local government doesn’t get much revenue.
Read The Conversation / Tags: Sanitation – SouthAfrica
Thames Water preferred bidder KKR pulls out of rescue deal
Thames Water preferred bidder KKR pulls out of rescue dealUS private equity group KKR has pulled out of a deal to inject fresh equity into Thames Water, leaving the troubled supplier’s future in doubt and increasing the prospects of a temporary nationalisation. The UK’s biggest water supplier had picked KKR as its preferred partner, but the company has “indicated that it will not be in a position to proceed,” Thames Water said.
The New York-based private equity group was expected to acquire a stake worth £4bn in the embattled water company, which is struggling under debts of nearly £20bn.
Read The Guardian / Tags: UK
Australia: Flooding causes erosion and strips away topsoil in western Queensland
While parts of western Queensland have turned green following record flooding, other areas could take decades to recover after the top layer of soil, which is vital for pasture growth, was washed away.
The sheer velocity and volume of the floodwater washed away up to 40 centimetres of topsoil, along with fencing, roads and livestock.
“We’ve got big areas here that have just lost all the topsoil,” Quilpie property owner Jon Mooring said.
“There’s great piles of silt that are half a metre deep.”
Read ABC News / Tags: Australia
DR Congo, Ituri: 26 villages in Irumu without drinking water
DR Congo, Ituri: 26 villages in Irumu without drinking waterTwenty-six villages in the Mayaribo area, situated in the Mobala chiefdom in the southern part of the Irumu territory (Ituri), have been without drinking water for over three years.
In an interview with 7SUR7.CD on Friday 30 May 2025, Munjabo Dieudonné, the group’s leader, said that several water sources had been destroyed during inter-community ethnic conflicts, forcing women and children to travel long distances to collect water.
Read 7sur7 (French) / Tags: DRCongo
UK: Interim Water Review falls short of real reform
UK: Interim Water Review falls short of real reformRiver Action and Surfers Against Sewage have responded to the publication of the Independent Water Commission’s interim report, welcoming signs that long-standing failures are finally being recognised and the regulators need a major overhaul – but warning that the report stops well short of real reform.
Despite a 15,000-strong March for Clean Water in London last year and surging public anger, campaigners say the interim review still falls short of the Government’s manifesto commitments and speaks more about attracting investors than cleaning up pollution and serving the public.
Read RiverAction UK / Tags: UK
