BLUE DIGEST 01-07-2025

Every day the most important news on water and sanitation from around the world, compiled by the Blue Community Network, defending water as a common, public good and a human right.

Today: Africa, Aotearoa-NewZealand, CentralAsia, Cholera, Cuba, Desalination, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, NatureRights, Nepal, Philippines, Plastics, Right2Water, SouthAfrica, UK, US, WaterCrisis

The recent diarrhoea and cholera outbreaks in coastal districts that took at least 24 lives expose gaping holes in public health infrastructure, water supply and sanitation across rural and urban regions of the state, reports Hemant Kumar Rout.
The morning air hung heavy with grief and an unknown fear. On the fringes of Suanri village, about 25 km from Cuttack, 17-year-old Lopamudra Bal struggled to keep the earthen stove burning as she stirred rice for her mother’s ninth-day ritual, an essential part of Hindu rituals. She now has an additional responsibility of watching over her polio-afflicted brother, Rohit.

Read The New Indian Express / Tags: India – Cholera

US: EPA employees put names to ‘declaration of dissent’ over agency moves under Trump

A group of Environmental Protection Agency employees has published a declaration of dissent to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin over the agency’s leadership and policies.
A group of Environmental Protection Agency employees on Monday published a declaration of dissent from the agency’s policies under the Trump administration, saying they “undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.”

Read abc News / Tags: US

Cuba: Almost 400,000 people without water in Santiago de Cuba. Regime calls for “efficient resource management”

Santiago de Cuba is facing a severe drinking water crisis affecting nearly 400,000 people. Despite emergency measures and new equipment, desperation grows due to a lack of effective solutions.
Santiago de Cuba is facing one of the worst water crises in recent years, with nearly 400,000 people affected by the lack of drinking water due to the ongoing drought that is impacting the eastern region of the country.

Read cibercuba / Tags: Cuba – WaterCrisis

UK’s Thames Water seeks creditor approval for latest loan draw down

Britain’s Thames Water, battling to avoid nationalisation, asked a group of senior creditors on Monday to allow it to draw down a further 157 million pounds ($215 million) from the 1.5 billion loan facility that is keeping it afloat.
Meanwhile, the same group of senior creditors are in talks with regulators about their 5 billion pound rescue plan for Thames Water, the only option left on the table for the company to avoid the government’s special administration regime (SAR), a form of temporary nationalisation.

Read Reuters / Tags: UK

Nepal: Ancient Himalayan village relocates as climate shifts reshape daily life

The Himalayan village of Samjung did not die in a day. Perched in a wind-carved valley in Nepal’s Upper Mustang, more than 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) above sea level, the Buddhist village lived by slow, deliberate rhythms — herding yaks and sheep and harvesting barley under sheer ochre cliffs honeycombed with “sky caves” — 2,000-year-old chambers used for ancestral burials, meditation and shelter.
Then the water dried up. Snow-capped mountains turned brown and barren as, year after year, snowfall declined. Springs and canals vanished and when it did rain, the water came all at once, flooding fields and melting away the mud homes. Families left one by one, leaving the skeletal remains of a community transformed by climate change: crumbling mud homes, cracked terraces and unkempt shrines.

Read AP – Associated Press / Tags: Nepal – WaterCrisis

Philippines: Groups to New LGU Leaders: Hit the Ground Running to Uphold the Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

As the country’s new batch of elected public servants commence their service today, civil society organizations challenged them to take the lead in upholding the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. (…)
“Caritas Philippines urges newly elected LGU officials to prioritize ecological justice through strict implementation of zero-waste programs, protection of watersheds and coastal areas, and rejection of incineration and fossil fuel projects,” said Jing Rey Henderson, National Head of Integral Ecology, Caritas Philippines. “Ensuring access to clean water, sanitation, and climate resilience must go hand in hand with promoting renewable energy and sustainable livelihoods.”

Read Journal online / Tags: Philippines –

South Africa: 40% of water sampled from schools is ‘unsafe to drink’

A new report by advocacy group WaterCAN has revealed that nearly 40% of water samples tested at South African schools are unsafe to drink.
The month-long project saw pupils from 95 schools test tap, tank and river water, with most samples showing contamination and low pH levels.
The report further reveals that pupils in rural schools are forced to bring water from home for use, with some schools relying on streams or rainwater for daily use.
Dr Ferrial Adam is the executive manager of WaterCAN. “It is very concerning that young people have to depend on this kind of water in their everyday use. A lot of the schools from the 7 provinces we worked in, we trained people to test their water, the teachers and students and they would then test the water that they would be using for drinking. In many of the schools, they don’t have running water or tap water- so they tested their Jojo tanks- and we found that 73% of the Jojo tanks tested positive for bacteria, and it wasn’t low levels, it was quite high.”

Read SABC News / Tags: SouthAfrica – Right2Water

Aotearoa/New Zealand: We Have a Human Right to Water, and to Democracy

National is rolling out comprehensive water corporatisation, across New Zealand.
For those who don’t live in Auckland, Wellington, or other centres with commercialised water services already, this is coming to you fast.
“Water Done Well” is the policy of this government to require all communities to decide on forming commercial water delivery entities, to run water like a business and remove it from direct democratic oversight.
It is strongly encouraging local authorities to merge across large regions and deliver water in commercial conglomerations. This is not the strong version of regionalisation that Labour and the Greens proposed. But it is still a large set of mergers that will in turn encourage local governments itself to merge.

Read The Standard / Tags: Aotearoa-NewZealand

France: The Confédération Paysanne has issued warnings regarding agricultural practices and the quality of drinking water in the Centre-Val de Loire region.

The organisation met with government officials and the Centre-Val de Loire regional prefecture to discuss these issues and promote the idea of small-scale farming.
The objective of the Confédération Paysanne in the Centre-Val de Loire region was to denounce intensive agricultural practices and defend drinking water quality. In the middle of the week, a delegation was received at the Coligny administrative centre in Orléans, attended by the DREAL (Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing), the DRAAF (Regional Directorate for Food, Agriculture and Forestry) and the prefectural secretary general.

Read francebleu (French) / Tags: France

Running Dry: Kazakhstan’s Water Crisis, Explained With Data

Kazakhstan has lost 21% of its per capita water availability since 1999. But what are the main forces behind the country’s rapidly worsening water crisis?
Only 42% of Kazakhstan’s water is available for consumption due to outdated infrastructure and poor management. Over 45% of available water is transboundary, meaning it comes from sources such as the Irtysh and Ili rivers from China and the Syr Darya from neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, making Kazakhstan vulnerable to politics and foreign water mismanagement.

Read Earth.org / Tags: Kazakhstan – WaterCrisis – CentralAsia

Algeria: Chronic drinking water shortage. When will the crisis in El Tarf end?

As the saying goes, ‘you can’t hide the sun with a sieve’, and this applies perfectly to an obvious, tangible reality that is experienced with frustration, disappointment and deep bitterness when water runs out in many remote areas, localities and municipalities of the El Tarf wilaya, especially during this heatwave. In a way, it is a revelation in the face of so many empty promises that have had no real impact on the ground. Yet the region has significant surface water resources, thanks to various dams, not to mention abundant rainfall, and rich underground water reserves, such as the Bougez aquifer, which is the lifeblood of a mineral water production unit.

Read L’Est Républicain (French) / Tags: Algeria

Italy: What about the new Sicilian desalination plants? Expensive, late and almost useless!

They arrived with great fanfare, enclosed in 18 containers and accompanied by triumphant statements from President Schifani, who described them as “a concrete response to the water emergency”. The three plants, destined for Gela, Porto Empedocle and Trapani, were presented as a major breakthrough in the fight against drought in Sicily. However, the numbers tell a different story.
Each of the three mobile plants operates using reverse osmosis and can produce up to 96 litres of drinking water per second. In total, they will cover the needs of around 130,000 people. However, Sicily’s population is almost five million, not counting tourists. Palermo alone consumes over 2,500 litres per second. Mathematics is not a matter of opinion.

Read tp24 (Italian) / Tags: Italy – Desalination

Egypt Strengthens Cooperation with Africa to Tackle Water Challenges

Egypt is continuing to strengthen its cooperation with African nations to confront the pressing challenges of water and food security.
“Water issues are a shared challenge that grows more severe due to climate change and resource scarcity, especially given Egypt’s near-total dependence on Nile water,” Egyptian Minister of Irrigation Hani Sewilam said, according to an official statement by the Egyptian Cabinet on Friday.

Read Asharq Al-Awsat / Tags: Egypt – Africa

What is a ‘Sachet Economy’ and Why Is It Problematic for Plastic Waste Reduction?

Across many low-income countries, single-use sachets have become a staple of everyday life. But what is a sachet, exactly?
This small, flexible plastic pouch was designed to package products like shampoo, instant coffee, laundry detergent, and potato chips in affordable quantities — just enough for a day’s consumption. For companies, sachets are a go-to packaging solution for reaching consumers who can’t afford to buy in bulk. (…)
The environmental toll continues after disposal — sachets clog drains and waterways, contribute to flooding, and break down into microplastics that contaminate food, water, and even human organs.

Read BreakFreeFromPlastic / Tags: Plastics

Are Recycled Plastic Water Bottles Safe? Study Warns They Could Be Leaching Toxic Chemicals Into Your Drink

Recycled plastic pellets from India, Nigeria, and Taiwan leaked 84 different chemicals into water, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and plastic additives — with concentrations increasing the longer plastic sat in water.
Fish embryos exposed to these chemical cocktails showed significant changes in genes controlling fat storage and hormone regulation, suggesting potential metabolic and endocrine disruption.
Current recycling processes don’t remove chemical contaminants from previous uses, meaning recycled plastics can carry a “chemical history” that may pose health risks in everyday products like water bottles and food containers.

Read StudyFinds / Tags: Plastics

The Rights of Rivers

Healthy rivers and riparian ecosystems are teaming with life, but should rivers themselves be considered alive? The question is central to the growing rights-of-nature movement that claims that ecosystems and entities, like rivers, have legal rights. After Ecuador enshrined the rights of nature in its constitution, lawyers employed the new personhood status to stop mining companies from clearing a section of the Los Cedros River and its surrounding biodiverse cloud forest. Granting rivers moral standing comes as over-damming, pollution, and climate change have put them in crisis globally. Writer Robert Macfarlane explores how seeing rivers as living beings rather than just resources – a change he calls “a great act of moral imagination” – could help save our watersheds and rivers, upon which all life depends.

Listen Big Picture Science / Tags: NatureRights