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, Canada, France, Germany, Peru, Right2Water, Switzerland, UK, WaterCrisis
Canadian export agency hit by £350mn loss on loans to Thames Water
Agency said the losses, more than half of what it lent, were ‘part of the reality of doing business’.
Canada’s state-backed export agency has lost about £350mn on loans to Thames Water, the crisis-stricken UK utility that is teetering on the verge of renationalisation. Export Development Canada, which was established to help Canadian companies do business overseas, disclosed the losses, equivalent to more than half the money it lent to Thames Water, in its annual report and filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week. The revelations follow a Financial Times report last year that the body had sold loans it had made to Thames Water at deep discounts as the crisis at the utility deepened.
Read Financial Times / Tags: UK – Canada
UK: Private Water Companies Above the Law?
Thames Water lenders demand government block campaigners from legal action. Creditors owed £13bn say ministers should prioritise ‘environmental betterment over punitive enforcement’.
Lenders trying to take control of Thames Water are attempting to thwart environmental campaigners by asking the government to block them from pursuing high court claims.
Creditors owed £13bn by Britain’s biggest water company want ministers to order the Environment Agency (EA) to prioritise “environmental betterment over punitive enforcement” – which they believe would “significantly mitigate” the risk of campaigners bringing judicial reviews or private prosecutions.
Read: The Guardian / Tags: UK
In the shadow of melting glaciers: life in the heartland of the Incas’ former empire – a photo essay by Giordano Simoncini
Ancient rituals and a profound respect for ‘Mother Earth’ bolster fragile Andean communities as the climate crisis and unchecked mining take their toll.
In Cusco, the Quechua people are at the forefront of the climate struggle. Amid Peru’s sacred mountains and ancestral plateaux, they confront daily challenges, such as parched pastures, melting glaciers, disruptions to agricultural cycles and persistent mining that damages the land.
In this context, survival itself becomes an act of resistance.
See The Guardian / Tags: Peru
Africa rises to combat drought and desertification
The African Union estimates that 485 million people on the continent are directly affected by land degradation. Furthermore, droughts account for over 44 percent of all global drought-related disasters.
In regions like the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, drought cycles are wilting crops, wiping out agricultural yields and reducing livestock populations.
“Drought is pertinent to the whole continent,” explains Dr. Tahira Shariff Mohamed from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and The Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action. “But in particular, the drylands are the most affected areas because ecologically these drylands areas we see minimal rain compared to highland areas and because of this dryland, the ecology makes the rain bearable so you find that you receive ample rain and then it is reduced to very minimal rain so this variable rainfall pattern makes it prone to drought condition.”
Read CGTN Africa / Tags: Africa – WaterCrisis
France: ‘A timebomb’. Could a mine full of waste poison the drinking water of millions?
Scientists fear thousands of tonnes of chemicals dumped in mining tunnels in Alsace may seep into an aquifer, with devastating consequences for people and wildlife.
Stocamine, which lies in the old industrial town of Wittelsheim, Alsace, once held an old potash mine. Now, the mine shafts are closed, storing poisonous waste from elsewhere. Above the mine shafts is one of Europe’s largest aquifers.
Some fear this toxic waste won’t stay sealed in the mine. In time, scientists say it could seep into the Alsace aquifer, which feeds into the Upper Rhine aquifer running between France, Switzerland and Germany, potentially contaminating the drinking water of millions of people. Contained in the mine are substances that have been linked to mass die-offs in wildlife, which could have severe and longlasting effects on ecosystems.
Read The Guardian / Tags: France – Germany – Switzerland
Greenpeace Petition: Clean drinking water now!Clean drinking water is a fundamental human right. Even if you’re not in Canterbury, please sign our petition in support of clean drinking water for everyone – no matter where you live.
No matter where you live or who you vote for, you deserve access to clean, safe drinking water. But across the country, many rural communities are no longer able to safely drink the water coming out of their kitchen tap, and that’s particularly obvious in Canterbury, the hotspot of Aotearoa’s freshwater crisis.
Read Greenpeace Aotearoa-NewZealand / Tags: Aotearoa-NewZealand
Two billion people don’t have safe drinking water: what does this really mean for them?
For billions, it can mean hours spent collecting water. For almost a million, it means dying from disease.
In the time it would take me to write the next sentence, I could get up, walk to the kitchen, and pour myself a glass of clean water. I’ve never had to worry about whether that water would make me sick.
Almost six billion other people in the world share this reality. They have safe drinking water in their homes, ready whenever needed.
That still leaves two billion people without. That’s the most important number in this article: two billion people who don’t have safe water to drink.
Read Our World in Data / Tags: Right2Water
