Water & Sanitation

Thinking Like a Tree – A Tribute to Life Sustainers

By Jan Lundius
When I was a child, a friend asked me: “How would you describe a tree to someone who has never seen one?” I looked at the trees surrounding us and realised it was impossible, considering their versatility, beauty and utter strangeness. Since that time, I have often wondered about trees, as well as I have been worried by the indiscriminate destruction of trees and forests.

Celebrating 30 Years of Shared Water

By Andrew Hudson and Katharina Davis
We tend to associate rivers and lakes with the countries in which they are located. Yet a little-known fact is that more than half of the world’s freshwater bodies are shared.

‘And of Water We Made Every Living Thing’

By Baher Kamal
This is how the Muslims’ Holy Book - the Quran refers to the most precious element of life.

Rural Systems Mitigate Impact of Overuse of Water in Chile

By Orlando Milesi
Local leaders of the Rural Sanitation Services (RSS) warn that the digging of illegal wells by large agro-export companies in Chile is aggravating the effects of drought and threatening drinking water supplies and social peace.

Salvadoran Farmers Learn Agricultural Practices to Adapt to Climate Change

By Edgardo Ayala
With the satisfaction of knowing he was doing something good for himself and the planet, Salvadoran farmer Luis Edgardo Pérez set out to plant a fruit tree on the steepest part of his plot, applying climate change adaptation techniques to retain water.

Zimbabwe Turns to Boreholes Amid Groundwater Level Concerns

By Ignatius Banda
Faced with cyclical droughts and low water levels in supply dams, Zimbabwe is turning to boreholes for relief, raising concerns about already precarious groundwater levels across the country.

Bangladesh Flood Victims Cry for Relief

By Rafiqul Islam
After losing everything in the recent devastating flood that swept the northeastern districts in Bangladesh, pregnant mother Joynaba Akter, her three children and her husband took refuge in a shelter centre at Gowainghat in Sylhet.

Cities in Brazil Reap Floods after Hiding Their Rivers Underground

By Mario Osava
Acaba Mundo has fallen into oblivion, despite its apocalyptic name – which roughly translates as World’s End - and historical importance as an urban waterway. It is a typical victim of Brazil’s metropolises, which were turned into cemeteries of streams, with their flooded neighborhoods and filthy rivers.

What If a Patient Unplugged the Oxygen Tube That Keeps Them Alive?

By Baher Kamal
Imagine a patient connected to a vital oxygen device to keep him or her breathing, thus alive. Then, imagine what would happen if this patient unplugged it. This is exactly what humans have been doing with the source of at least 50% of the whole Planet’s oxygen: the oceans.

Poor Families Clash over Water with Real Estate Consortium in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
Alex Leiva woke up at 4:00 a.m. to perform a key task for his family’s survival in the Salvadoran village where he lives: filling several barrels with the water that falls from the tap only at that early hour every other day.

Rivers Have no Borders: The Motto of Their Defenders in Peru

By Mariela Jara
"Water is part of our culture, it is intrinsic to the Amazon," said José Manuyama, a member of a river defense committee in his native Requena, a town located in the department of Loreto, the largest in Peru, covering 28 percent of the national territory.

Not Enough Clean Water in Europe? Who Cares…

By Baher Kamal
So busy as they are with strengthening military alliances and devoting billions of taxpayers' money to double their war budgets and subsidise fossil fuels, European Governments seem not to care about the reiterated alerts that their continent faces a serious risk: the reduced availability -and more polluted– drinking water.

Cuban Farmers Fight Land Degradation with Sustainable Management

By Luis Brizuela
Thorny bushes and barren soil made it look like a bad bet, but Cuban farmer José Antonio Sosa ignored other people’s objections about the land and gave life to what is now the thriving La Villa farm on the outskirts of Havana.

Caring for Water Where Mining Leads to Wealth and Tragedies in Brazil

By Mario Osava
The southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais owes its name to the main economic activity throughout its history: mining – of gold since the 17th century and later iron ore, which took on an industrial scale with massive exports in the 20th century.

Floods Drive Urban Solutions in Brazilian Metropolis

By Mario Osava
"We do everything through parties, we don't want power, we don't want to take over the role of the State, but we don't just protest and complain," said Itamar de Paula Santos, a member of the United Community Council for Ribeiro de Abreu (Comupra), in this southeastern Brazilian city.

The Sun Illuminates the Nights of Rural Families in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
After working on the family farm, Carlos Salama comes home and plugs his cell phone into a socket via a solar-powered electrical system, a rarity in this rural village in southern El Salvador.

Poor Water Distribution Infrastructure Gives Jamaica a ‘Water Scarce’ Label

By Zadie Neufville
It will take billions of dollars and many years to fix a growing problem that has placed Jamaica into the unlikely bracket of being among the world's most water-scarce countries due to the unavailability of potable water.

Drugged Water: A New Global Pandemic Hiding in Plain Sight?

By Baher Kamal
People around the world are unknowingly being exposed to water laced with antibiotics, which could spark the rise of drug-resistant pathogens and potentially fuel another global pandemic, warns a new report.

Worrying Insights from UN’s First-Ever Assessment of Water Security in Africa

When it comes to water security – a reliable, good supply of safe water – just 29 African countries have made some progress over the past three to five years. Twenty-five have made none.

Indian Agriculture Towards 2030

By Shyam Khadka
India began its journey as an independent nation in 1947 with fresh memory of the Bengal Famine of 1943 which claimed 1.5 to 3 million lives. Against this backdrop, the First Five Year Plan (1951-56) prioritized agriculture which, however, shifted to heavily industrialization in the second Plan.

Desalination Plants, Solution and Environmental Challenge for Chile

By Orlando Milesi
The Pacific Ocean could quench the thirst caused by 10 years of drought in Chile, but the operation of desalination plants of various sizes has a long way to go to become sustainable and to serve society as a whole rather than just corporations.
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