Water & Sanitation

The Lead-Free Water Pledge: Steps Towards a Future of Lead-Free Drinking Water

At the UN Water Conference in March 2023, the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina (UNC) along with several key partners, including UNICEF, Water Aid, the World Health Organization, and the governments of Ghana, Uganda, and South Africa, among others, organized a session centered around the elimination of lead in drinking water across the globe.

Rainwater Harvesting Brings Hope for Central America’s Dry Corridor – Video

Chronic water shortages make life increasingly difficult for the more than 10.5 million people who live in the Central American Dry Corridor, an arid strip that covers 35 percent of that region.

Rural Women’s Constant Struggle for Water in Central America

“This is a very difficult place to live, because of the lack of water,” said Salvadoran farmer Marlene Carballo, as she cooked corn tortillas for lunch for her family, on a scorching day.

Chile’s Water Vulnerability Requires Watershed and Water Management

Good management of the 101 hydrographic basins which run from the Andes mountain range to the Pacific Ocean is key to solving the severe water crisis that threatens the people of Chile and their main productive activities.

Water is Life: How the UN in Samoa is Responding to the Triple Planetary Crisis

Water is life. No other definition captures quite so aptly what this essential element means for our lives, livelihoods and the natural environment.

The ‘Vampiric’ Draining and Poisoning of Lifeblood: Water

Shockingly, the human suicidal war on Nature not only continues unabated but is also set to become even more virulent. Just to start with, please be reminded that groundwater accounts for 99% of all liquid freshwater on Earth, according to the 2022 UN World Water Development Report.

Bottled Water Masks World’s Failure to Supply Safe Water for All, Can Slow Sustainable Development: UN

The rapidly-growing bottled water industry can undermine progress towards a key sustainable development goal: safe water for all, says a new United Nations report.

Managing Water Sustainably Is Key To the Future of Food and Agriculture

In contrast to its strategic role as an essential resource to help achieve community development and poverty alleviation globally, groundwater has remained a poorly understood and managed resource.

Terrorism & its Impacts on Water Access in the Sahel

Burkina Faso’s interim President Captain Ibrahim Traoré spoke late last year of the conflicts that are now blighting his country and much of his region. He described the situation in Burkina Faso as predictable given the endemic weaknesses in governance that he believes have led to the economic abandonment of many young people, particularly outside of urban areas.

Interwoven Global Crises Can Best be Solved Together

When global crises are interlinked, they overlap and compound each other. In such cases, the most effective solutions are those that work at the nexus of all these challenges.

Long, Costly Drought Drives Climate Crisis Home in Argentina

Martín Rapetti, a fourth generation farmer in the province of Corrientes in northeastern Argentina, has already lost more than 30 cows due to lack of food and water, as a result of the long drought that is plaguing a large part of the country. “There is no grass; the animals have to sink their teeth into the dry earth,” he says with resignation.

Malawi Suffers Worst Cholera Outbreak in Decades

On March 3, 2022, Malawi declared a cholera outbreak after a district hospital in the southern region reported a case. This was the first case in the 2021 to 2022 cholera season.

This Planet Is Drying Up. And these Are the Consequences

Drought is one of the ‘most destructive’ natural disasters in terms of the loss of life, arising from impacts, such as wide-scale crop failure, wildfires and water stress.

COP27: Climate Change’s Dire Consequences in the World’s Most Water-Scarce Region

The Middle East and North Africa are the world’s most water-scarce regions – with 11 of the 17 water-stressed countries on the globe. According to UNICEF, nine out of 10 children live in areas with high or very high-water stress, resulting in significant consequences for their health, cognitive development, and future livelihoods.

In Praise of Toilets

For those who have it, a toilet is that ‘thing’ in the bathroom, next to the bidet, the hand-washing sink with hot and cold water faucets, and the bathtub.

Former War Zones in El Salvador Obtain Water with the Help of the Sun – VIDEO

Several community-run water projects powered by solar energy have improved the quality of life of thousands of rural families in areas that were the scene of heavy fighting during El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s.

Solar Power Brings Water to Families in Former War Zones in El Salvador

The need for potable water led several rural settlements in El Salvador, at the end of the 12-year civil war in 1992, to rebuild what was destroyed and to innovate with technologies that at the time seemed unattainable, but which now benefit hundreds of families.

Accelerating Post-Pandemic SDG 6 Achievements on Water & Sanitation

Global progress has been staggeringly inadequate against Sustainable Development Goal 6, “clean water and sanitation for all.” According to the latest SDGs progress assessment, 2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, 3.6 billion lack sanitation services, and 3 billion lack basic hygiene services.

Thinking Like a Tree – A Tribute to Life Sustainers

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

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’

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

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