ZIMBABWE: A Water and Sewerage Crisis That Goes "Straight to the Grave"

A young Zimbabwean couple glances furtively around before settling on a bench in a bare patch of ground that used to be a recreational park in Glen View, a sprawling, high-density suburb of the capital, Harare. It’s a Monday morning, and the two of them are struggling to come to terms with a strange sickness that has gripped their family. Every move they make in the direction of the Glen View One Satellite Clinic shows they are in great pain.

ENVIRONMENT-AFGHANISTAN: Goodbye Stinky, Dry Latrines

The pervasive smell of human ordure is warning enough that this is a city that badly needs a sanitation system.

DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Lack of Running Water Puts Girls&#39 Education at Risk

Rita Kalikokha of Dowa, a rural district in central Malawi, thinks about abandoning school every time she menstruates.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: “We Drink Condoms and Panties”

Police arrested ten people who were part of a large group of protesters blocking the N4 highway linking South Africa and Botswana earlier this month. Residents of the tiny village of Ntsweletsoku were so angry about the persistent water shortages in their area that they resorted to violent demonstrations to attract the attention of the authorities.

ENVIRONMENT-SRI LANKA: In Denial Mode on Sanitation Issues

Compared to the rest of South Asia, Sri Lanka has impressive sanitation statistics with 90 percent of the population having access to latrines. But what happens to human waste thereafter is another story.

DEVELOPMENT-PAKISTAN: For Village Women an Indoor Latrine Is Heaven

For as long as Hatal Bibi, 50, can remember, women in her village, Ahmed Khaskheli, 250 km east of this port city, in Sindh province’s Sanghar district, spent hours fetching water from a canal four km away and used an enclosed communal patch to relieve themselves.

Q&A: “It’s a Brave Politician Who Will Talk About Toilets”

When it comes to discussing the critical health problem of inadequate sanitation, few politicians want to take the lead, despite the mountains of scientific evidence that poor hygiene and lack of proper toilet facilities are the cause of many deadly but preventable diseases.

DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Women Hold Key to Accepting Indoor Toilets

Like other women in this largely tribal, central Indian state, Draupati Bhosale was averse to the idea of having toilets built within homes, but went along because the government was building them at heavily subsidised costs. ‘’I thought it would give me extra storage space,’’ she said.

CULTURE-JAPAN: Flushing Away Toilet Taboos

The evolution of the toilet in Japan, from the humble squat latrines of a few decades ago to today’s hi-tech, cockpit-like contraptions, parallels the dramatic rise of this country from post-war ruination to global technological leadership.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Plans to Dam the Cunene River Are Shelved Again

Political interests and specialist lobby groups appear once again to have stalled plans to dam the Cunene River where it forms the border between Angola and Namibia. After years of negotiations, several expensive feasibility studies and considerable political rhetoric, the proposed Epupa Dam on the Cunene River is not even close to the beginning of a construction phase.

ENVIRONMENT-ZAMBIA: Efforts to Halt the Strangulation of Kafue

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an international conservation organisation, has launched an initiative to protect Zambia's Kafue River from pollution: the 'Save the Kafue River Campaign'. At present, the river provides potable water to over 40 percent of people in the Southern African country.

ASIA: War Footing Needed to Fix Water, Sanitation Issues

Government officials, sanitation experts, funding agencies and civil society representatives are unanimous that Asia’s water delivery and sanitation problems should be tackled with the same urgency as disaster relief.

POLITICS: Murky Future for Rights Treaty on Water

A proposed international treaty to guarantee water as a basic human right has received mixed reviews from experts, environmentalists and political activists.

MOZAMBIQUE: Water Supplies Still a Pipe Dream at Certain Health Facilities

A swelling crowd of people has gathered at the rural health centre at Monte Xiluvo in Nhamatanda district, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala. Most are mothers with young children who try to protect themselves from the gusty winds as they wait for their consultation with Caetano Mendosa, the nurse responsible for the centre.

DEVELOPMENT: Farewell to "Flush and Forget"

In urban settings, the one-time use of water to disperse human and industrial wastes is becoming an outmoded practice, made obsolete by new technologies and water shortages.

SOUTH AFRICA: Copper Thieves, an Abattoir and Coal Mining Threaten Lake District

Raw sewage flowing into Lake Chrissie is threatening to turn South Africa’s largest natural freshwater body into a massive cesspool. Environmentalists claim that for seven years, local authorities ignored their pleas to upgrade water treatment facilities; officials only took action, they say, when local revenue was affected by the closure of tourism routes such as biking trails, as a result of pollution.

HEALTH: Sanitation the World&#39s Silent Humanitarian Crisis

The topic of toilets often makes people uncomfortable, says the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, and the subject of human wastes is rarely aired in public.

MIDEAST: When the Occupation Gets Really Filthy

In the orange glow of another sunset, Awad Abu Swai, 36, stands underneath a towering fig tree, a sample of its fruit in his hand. He peels back the bright green skin to expose crimson jelly and seeds inside

DEVELOPMENT: Singapore and Iraq – Contrasts in Water Management

As the world faces new threats of water scarcity, triggered by phenomena like global warming and bioenergy demands, Singapore and Iraq have been singled out as two political extremes in water management.

NICARAGUA: A Green Crusade for Water

The Nicaraguan government launched a national campaign to reforest 60,000 hectares per year as part of an effort to recover 18 rivers lost as a result of uncontrolled logging.

IRAQ: Between the Two Rivers, Lack of Water Kills

The collapse of Iraq's infrastructure has created a worsening water crisis that is killing untold numbers of Iraqis.