And Now This Filthy Flood

Wearing tattered shoes and hopping between dirty puddles, 14-year-old Sabeh manages to find his way to the market at the Al Shati refugee camp, one of Gaza’s most heavily populated and poor areas.

WASH Still a Work in Progress in Zimbabwe

Ish Mafundikwa reports from Harare that five years after the deadly cholera outbreak that hit Zimbabwe, the country is still struggling to upgrade its water and sanitation infrastructure.

An Argentine Town that ‘Celebrates’ Garbage

Towns traditionally celebrate their most characteristic aspect. So the town of Bouwer in central Argentina decided to “celebrate” garbage.

Zero Garbage Plan Tied to Fate of Ousted Bogotá Mayor

The ousted left-wing mayor of the Colombian capital, Gustavo Petro, is a casualty of the battle over the introduction of a Zero Garbage programme, which had included thousands of informal recyclers in the waste disposal business.

Mundurukú Indians in Brazil Protest Tapajós Dams

It took them three days to make the 2,000-km journey by bus from their Amazon jungle villages.

In Home Gardens, Income and Food for Urban Poor

Flowers burst out of old tires and rows of pepper plants fill recycled plastic tubs as herbs pop out of old pipes. As utilitarian as it is cheery, this rooftop array is one of several urban agriculture projects that are significantly improving livelihoods for the urban poor in this sprawling city.

Deforestation Spawns Creeping Desert in Central Argentina

This small town in the semi-arid central Argentine province of Córdoba now has a 24-hour hotline for people to report their neighbours for sprinkling their lawns or using water to clean off the sidewalks.

U.N.’s Post-2015 Agenda Needs a Triple Play

As the international community fleshes out a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be unveiled next year, civil society activists and U.N. officials agree their success will hinge on policies that address the nexus of poverty, hunger and environmental degradation.

WTO Urged Not to Treat Water Like Widgets

As government representatives gather Tuesday in Indonesia for what could be final negotiations towards a global trade agreement under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), environmentalists and social justice campaigners are urging them to specify that water resources cannot be treated as commodities.

The Carbon Warrior

Watching the colossal destruction of Typhoon Haiyan over the past month, Columbia University Professor Graciela Chichilnisky knows one thing for sure: climate change will likely result in more of these massive storms, threatening the very existence of humanity.

Storms, Flooding Can Unleash a Toxic Soup

It’s a dirty, smelly business, but wastewater is gaining prominence across the Caribbean as countries from Jamaica in the west to Guyana in the south increasingly recognise its effects on the environment and the importance of improving its management.

Arab World Sinks Deeper into Water Crisis, Warns UNDP

The Arab world is widely perceived as blessed with an embarrassment of riches: an abundance of oil (Saudi Arabia), one of the world’s highest per capita incomes (Qatar), and home to the world's tallest luxury building (United Arab Emirates).

Keeping the Philippines from Becoming Another Haiti

Nearly two weeks after Typhoon Haiyan devastated parts of the central Philippines, experts and activists here are warning that post-disaster reconstruction needs to be more transparent than past such efforts, while also focusing on a long-term assistance strategy that goes beyond immediate emergency relief.

New Hope for Haiti’s Decimated Forests

Small farmers could play an important part in making Haiti – where just two percent of trees are still standing – green again.

“World Toilet Day” No Joke for Billions Without Sanitation

The United Nations has a longstanding tradition of commemorating political milestones - like the abolition of the slave trade - or sustaining day-long vigils on controversial issues such as a ban on nuclear tests.

U.N. Climate Meet: “It’s About Survival”

For the small island developing states of the Caribbean, there is nothing more important than the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place here at the national stadium of Poland from Nov. 11-22.

Relief Slowly Makes Its Way to Typhoon-Battered Philippines

Relief operations in typhoon-devastated parts of the Philippines picked up pace Wednesday, but still only minimal amounts of water, food and medical supplies were making it to increasingly desperate survivors in the hardest-hit places.

OP-ED: A Global Green New Deal for Sustainable Development

Eight decades ago, during the Great Depression, newly elected U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced the New Deal consisting of a number of mutually supporting initiatives of which the most prominent were:

World Headed for a High-Speed Carbon Crash

If global carbon emissions continue to rise at their current rate, humanity will eventually be left with no other option than a costly, world war-like mobilisation, scientists warned this week.

The Sickest Places in the World

Parts of Indonesia, Argentina and Nigeria are among the top 10 most polluted places on the planet, according to a new report by U.S. and European environmental groups.

Jordan’s Farmers Struggle to Weather Climate Change

Abu Waleed isn't quite sure where to begin his litany of grievances. Bugs that chomp their way through the mint he grows, or the dry well that forces him to pump water from a half kilometre away? Or perhaps the 160 dinars he spent on spinach seeds only to see scant growth after planting.