POVERTY-SWAZILAND: Planning Oversight Halts Food Security Programme

A Food-for-Work programme, which cleverly aims to combat both environmental degradation and food shortages, has come to a halt due to lack of long-term planning.

LESOTHO-WATER: One Dollar Per Square Metre, Now Move

The construction of a two billion dollar dam in Metolong, some 35 kilometres outside of Lesotho’s capital Maseru, is being welcomed by people in and around the city who will gain access to clean and safe drinking water when construction is completed in 2013.

COLOMBIA: Gold vs Preservation in the Central Mountains

In a protected area of the Cordillera Central, Colombia's central mountain range, gold mining plans are clashing with the desire of farmers, activists and environmental officials to preserve forests and water resources.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Floods – Breaking the Cycle

The fourth largest river in Africa, the mighty Zambezi, is a lifeblood to 32 million people, from land-locked Zambia to Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. But its blessing is also its curse.

WATER-MAURITANIA: Govt Needs to Invest

Ndey Sall, a resident of Sixième, one of the poorest suburbs in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, spends the equivalent of a dollar a day on water. That's almost half of her income - not much left to pay for food, rent, or medicine if a family member falls sick.

SWAZILAND: Add Water and Stir

What is the first step towards transforming life in a hardscrabble rural community? Address issues of water.

ENVIRONMENT: Scientists Study the Riches of the Mexican Pacific

Mexico’s Pacific coast, one of the world's richest seaboards in terms of biodiversity, has been the focus of very few scientific studies. A new observatory aims to fill that void.

CLIMATE CHANGE: India’s Monsoon Predictions More Uncertain

Predicting the monsoons - a risky proposition despite the deployment of satellites and supercomputers - appears to have become iffier thanks to climate change.

ASIA: Dams Across the Mekong Could Trigger a ‘Water War’

For now, the lower stretches of the Mekong River remain a symbol of peace and tranquillity in a region that was once bloodied by war. But for how long?

ARGENTINA: Huge Loan to Flow into ‘Open Sewer’ River

Local residents and environmentalists are eyeing with cautious optimism a major loan from the World Bank to the Argentine government to clean up the Matanza-Riachuelo river that runs through Buenos Aires - the country's most polluted waterway.

EGYPT: Unquiet Flows the Nile

Differences over sharing of Nile waters may have deepened following the failure among the nine countries along the Nile to come to an agreement.

MIDEAST: Attack on Water Brings Sanitation Crisis

'Biddun mey, fish heyya', they say in Arabic for a universal truth: 'Without water, there is no life'.

DEVELOPMENT: China Reins in Dam Builders

Beijing has reined in China’s unbridled dam-building spree, issuing warnings to power-hungry developers that stimulating the economy in a time of crisis should not be used as an excuse to forego environmental reviews of big hydroelectric projects.

MADAGASCAR: Hunger Stalks Drought-Stricken South

The southern part of the island of Madagascar is suffering severe drought and famine. Lack of rainfall during the summer season has destroyed the country’s main harvest in March and April. Half a million Malagasy have little or no access to clean water and food.

VIETNAM: Saltwater Intrusion Adds to Water Woes

When they got out of bed one morning in April this year, the residents of Vi Thanh City here in southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta were surprised to find that their water had become salty.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Groundwater Still Underutilised

Despite the significant role groundwater could play in alleviating poverty, improving food security and contributing to overall development in Southern Africa, a lack of skills, finances and awareness of the resource means only a small percentage of the region's supplies are tapped into.

Q&A: Why Sanitation Is the Forgotten Sister

As part of the International Year of Sanitation in 2008, Zimbabwe developed a national strategy for sanitation, launched in February 2008. Just five months later, a cholera outbreak that was to claim over 4,000 lives began.

MIDEAST: Some Unclean Drops to Drink

Faqua village has found itself unfortunately named. Faqua in Arabic means spring water bubbles; the village was named after the abundant natural underground springs that were once found all around it.

ENVIRONMENT: Oceans Fast Becoming a Garbage Dump

The growing problem of marine litter is harming oceans and beaches worldwide and authorities must act now to reverse and prevent further environmental degradation, said a report released Monday, World Oceans Day.

YEMEN: Qat Cultivation Draining Water Reserves

The tall green shrubs on Yehia Abdullah's farm in the Haraz mountains produce the bitter-tasting leaves that feed the nation's number one addiction. More than seven million Yemenis chew qat, the mildly narcotic leaf of the Catha edulis tree. Expanding cultivation of qat to meet growing national demand is rapidly depleting Yemen's limited groundwater resources, experts warn.

ENVIRONMENT: Damaged Ecosystems Not Lost Forever

Most polluted or damaged ecosystems worldwide could recover within a single lifetime if societies commit to their cleanup or restoration, according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.