The most important news on water and sanitation from around the world, defending water as a common, public good and a human right.
A river runs through us
A river runs through usRobert Macfarlane asks: Is a river alive?
When I mention to Robert Macfarlane that I live next to a buried river – Garrison Creek, which runs unseen, but is frequently smelled, through Toronto’s west end – his eyes visibly brighten. He leans closer to his computer screen. “Are they going to daylight it?”
He’s referring to the practice – executed with socially transformative results in cities such as Seoul, Seattle, Singapore and Munich – of exhuming such “ghost rivers” from their concrete tombs. I tell him that the idea has been proposed by local and environmental groups, but has yet to gain real traction.
Read The Globe and Mail / Tags: WaterRights – NatureRights
African Cholera Outbreaks Driven by Years of Under-Investment in Water and Sanitation
African Cholera Outbreaks Driven by Years of Under-Investment in Water and SanitationCholera in Africa is being driven by years of under-investment in water and sanitation, according to the Africa Centres of Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
Four countries – Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan and South Sudan – account for over 85% of the continent’s cholera cases and all have above-average death rates, according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, Africa CDC incident lead on mpox.
Access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is poor in all four countries. Only 35% of Sudanese have access to safe water, and although the DRC leads the group, only around two-thirds of its citizens have clean water, according to the Africa CDC.
Only 16% of those living in South Sudan have access to basic sanitation and almost three-quarters of the rural population practises open defecation.Only 10% of schools in South Sudan have handwashing facilities for children.
Read Health Policy Watch / Tags: Cholera – Angola – DRCongo – Sudan – SouthSudan
No focus on PFAS prevention in EU Water Resilience Strategy
No focus on PFAS prevention in EU Water Resilience StrategyThe plan lacks mandatory targets and dedicated funding to address pollution.
The European Commission’s strategy to tackle pollution from forever chemicals in water resources reaffirms the polluter pays principle but does not propose any enforcement mechanism.
Experts say the strategy focuses on the remediation and clean-up of waterways, rather than on preventing the use of harmful chemicals at source.
The EU executive has also announced an Ocean Pact to support the rollout of offshore wind and ocean energy technologies.
Read Sustainable Views / Tags: Europe – PFAS
As US aid dries up, Zimbabweans find new solutions to store water
As US aid dries up, Zimbabweans find new solutions to store water
How Europe is planning to cope with drought
As crucial waterways run low and Europe’s farmers worry about their crops, the European Union is trying to come up with a strategy to keep the water flowing.
Water scarcity is a fact of life in Malta. The island in the middle of the Mediterranean, between Italy and North Africa, has no lakes or rivers and doesn’t get much rainfall. And with a hot, dry climate, a population of 563,000 — and more than six times that in yearly tourist visits — every drop counts.
“We have lived forever without enough water,” said Thomas Bajada, a marine biologist and recently elected member of the European Parliament. But, he told DW, that scarcity has forced his country to innovate.
Today, around two-thirds of its drinking water comes from the sea, desalinated water that’s blended with a minimal supply of groundwater. Investment in other technical solutions — smart water meters, leakage management, wastewater reuse — also helps keep the taps from running dry. For now, at least.
Read DW Deutsche Welle / Tags: Europe – WaterCrisis
The Biggest Chemical Cover-Up In History Was Kept Hidden For Years
We’d bet good money some of these chemicals are in your body this second.
Up to 99 percent of people have “forever chemicals” in their bodies, where they linger indefinitely and potentially cause a host of health conditions. Disturbingly, the manufacturers of these chemicals were aware of the risks and deliberately concealed them, following a playbook strikingly similar to that of Big Tobacco.
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a synthetic group of compounds added to everyday products to boost their waterproof, non-stick, and stain-resistant properties. They are commonly found in items such as non-stick cookware, fast food packaging, certain fabrics, firefighting foam, and even components of jet engines.
Read IFL Science / Tags: PFAS
UK: Bidders demand Thames Water granted immunity over environmental crimes
Exclusive: ‘Ransom note’ requests would leave Environment Agency unable to prosecute company or management.
Lenders vying to take over Thames Water have demanded that the struggling company and its management be granted immunity from prosecution for serious environmental crimes as a condition of acquiring it, the Guardian can reveal.
Creditors want the environment secretary, Steve Reed, to grant the water company extraordinary clemency from a series of strict rules covering everything from sewage spills to failure to upgrade its water treatment works.
The demands, if successful, would render the Environment Agency (EA) largely powerless to take enforcement action against Britain’s biggest water company for some of the most serious criminal breaches of its licences and permits.
Read The Guardian / Tags: UK
Azerbaijan sounds alarm over Caspian Sea crisis, calls for urgent regional action
Azerbaijan has issued a serious warning on the deteriorating state of the Caspian Sea and the Kura River, urging neighboring countries to unite in a coordinated and immediate effort to prevent a regional ecological disaster. Speaking at the Astana International Forum (AIF2025), Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s presidential envoy for climate issues, emphasized that the Caspian must not become another environmental tragedy like Iran’s Lake Urmia or the Aral Sea in Central Asia.
Read Azernews / Tags: CentralAsia
Trump Officials Open Millions of Acres of Alaska Wildlands to Oil and Gas Drilling
United States Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced on Monday that the federal government had proposed the reversal of a Biden-era order banning oil and gas drilling on the 23-million acre National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope. The remote area is home to a diverse array of wildlife, including threatened polar bears, caribou and migratory birds.
A press release from the Interior Department said that, following a “thorough legal and policy review,” officials from the department and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) concluded that a 2024 BLM rule restricting oil and gas development in the reserve exceeded agency authority.
Read EcoWatch / Tags: US
