Water & Sanitation

A Post-COVID-19 Recovery will not be Possible if Water, Sanitation & Hygiene are not High on the Agenda

By Helen Hamilton
This World Health Day, G20 finance ministers will meet in Rome, Italy, to discuss how they will build back from the pandemic. The global economy is and concerted effort, coordination and imagination is needed to enable not only a worldwide recovery but also to ensure that the world’s poorest people are not left behind.

Mexico Looks to the Heavens for a Solution to Its Water Crisis

By Emilio Godoy
In neighbourhoods like Tehuixtitla in southern Mexico City, rain brings joy, because it provides water for showering, washing dishes and clothes, and cooking, by means of rainwater harvesting systems (RHS).

Humanitarian & Food Aid Can Never be Enough to Manage Cascading Disasters

By Samira Sadeque
The intersection of crisis, climate change and COVID-19 has resulted in a “rapid rise in hunger”, according to United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Amir Abdullah.

Hope & Numbers: What will it take to Tip the Scales on Climate Action?

By Naomi Goodman
We should be well on the way to solving the climate crisis by now. According to the Paris Agreement, last year should have been the year that all countries presented their commitments to cut carbon emissions for limiting global climate heating to within 1.5oC of pre-industrial levels.

Water Governance and Data Collection is Key to Reach Development Goals

By Samira Sadeque
Prioritising water governance and ensuring data collection and investment in groundwater use around the world are some of the key issues that need to be addressed with regards to achieving development goals.

World Water Day: Cry for Water in the South

By Pinaki Roy and Dipankar Roy
Roksana Khatun moves aside dirt and floating leaves from a pond, slowly lowers her earthen pitcher into it and fills it with around 20 litres of water.

Why Water & Sanitation Systems are Vital for the Economy

By Catarina de Albuquerque
This World Water Day, we celebrate the value of water, which at first might be a given: after all, water is the basis of all life. Without water we have no health, wealth, equality, or education.

The Value of Water Goes Far Beyond its Stock Price

By Lyla Mehta and Alan Nicol*
In the midst of a global pandemic, when the presence of water in our lives has never seemed more important, its future availability has also never been more uncertain.

Access to Safe Water Never Loses Value

By Gillian Winkler
The global community is celebrating World Water Day 2021. In the COVID-19 pandemic era, the importance and value of water for all people has never been clearer. Access to safe water is essential for public health and thriving communities.

A Moral Failure: Billions of People with No Access to Clean Drinking Water

By Volkan Bozkir *
Water is integral to sustainable development, but we are well behind on the goals and targets that we have set ourselves.

Clean Water Vital for Protecting Those on the Frontline of Climate Change in Post-Pandemic World

By Jonathan Farr
For many, the last year will be remembered as the time our day-to-day lives screeched to a halt. As Covid-19 spread mercilessly across the world, wreaking havoc on health and livelihoods, world leaders, health experts and scientists grappled with how to protect populations and stem the tide of the virus.

Hundreds of Wells Alleviate Water Shortages in Venezuelan Capital

By Humberto Márquez
Thousands of families in the Venezuelan capital have dipped into their savings or gone into debt, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in this country since the 19th century, so that their building has access to a well that will supply the water that has stopped running from the faucet.

Cuba Prioritises Sustainable Water Management in the Face of Climate Challenges

By Luis Brizuela
With the construction of aqueducts, water purification and desalination plants, and investments to upgrade hydraulic infrastructure, Cuba is seeking to manage the impacts of droughts and floods that are intensifying with climate change.

Making Seawater Potable in Mexico Has High Costs and Environmental Impacts

By Emilio Godoy
Mexico is seeking to mitigate water shortages in part of its extensive territory by resorting to seawater, through the expansion of desalination plants. But this solution has exorbitant costs and significant environmental impacts.

Cuban Farm Explores Sustainability by Hand

By Patricia Grogg
Most beginnings are rocky and sometimes the obstacles seem insurmountable, before they are finally overcome. This was certainly the case for the Finca Marta, a farm in Cuba that had to begin by digging a well in search of water and with the hard-scrabble work of clearing an arid, stony and overgrown plot of land.

Dengue—an Epidemic Within a Pandemic in Peru

By Carmen Arroyo
While the world is grappling with the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peru is still dealing with an epidemic that it has not been able to control—the mosquito-borne viral disease known as dengue.

San Salvador Becomes a Sponge to Reduce Damage from Landslides

By Edgardo Ayala
Throughout its history, San Salvador has faced the danger of landslides - mud and rocks that slide down the slopes of the volcano at whose feet the city was founded in 1525.

Mining giant Rio Tinto Face Environmental, Human Rights Complaint in Papua New Guinea

By Catherine Wilson
Local communities in the vicinity of the abandoned Panguna copper mine, have taken decisive action to hold the global mining multinational, Rio Tinto, accountable for alleged environmental and human rights violations during the mine’s operations between 1972 and 1989.

Belo Monte Dam: Electricity or Life in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest

By Mario Osava
"We are no longer familiar with the Xingú River," whose waters govern "our way of life, our income, our food and our navigation," lamented Bel Juruna, a young indigenous leader from Brazil´s Amazon rainforest.

San Salvador Steps Up Battle against Landslides and Floods

By Edgardo Ayala
The San Salvador volcano is a gift of nature for the inhabitants of the capital who live at its foot, a gigantic green lung that gives them oxygen and fresh air. But it is also a curse.

Safe Drinking Water Should Mean Safe Collection Too: How to Reduce the Risks

Globally, millions of people don’t have access to water in their home. They collect water from shared water supply points or surface water sources and physically carry water containers back home for household use.
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