Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Climate emergency is fuelling drought, food poverty and disaster in the global south but humanitarian crises under-reported
The African continent is a “blind spot” for coverage of the humanitarian crises that are being fuelled by the climate emergency, according to a new analysis [pdf].
Madagascar’s chronic food crisis, where 2.6 million people were affected by drought in 2019, came top of the list of 10 of the most under-reported crises last year, Care International’s annual survey found.
Minister disappointed that New South Wales did not submit Murray-Darling basin resource plans
The federal government is withholding millions of dollars from the New South Wales government for failing to complete water resource plans for the Murray-Darling basin.
In a letter to the state’s water minister, Melinda Pavey, the federal water resources minister, David Littleproud, raised concerns the 20 plans had not been submitted.
Highest levels of PFAS in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, report by environmental watchdog finds
The contamination of US drinking water with manmade “forever chemicals” is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, said a report on Wednesday by an environmental watchdog group.
The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems.
Tension over water scarcity is increasing across the globe. A new system flags up where this threatens to erupt into violence
Researchers from six organisations have developed an early warning system to help predict potential water conflicts as violence associated with water surges globally.
The Dutch government-funded Water, Peace and Security (WPS) global early warning tool, which was presented to the UN security council before it was launched formally last month, combines environmental variables such as rainfall and crop failures with political, economic and social factors to predict the risk of violent water-related conflicts up to a year in advance.
Antofagasta, situated on the edge of the Atacama Desert, relies on a vast desalination plant which provides the city with drinking water – but the waste brine is killing wildlife, say fishermen
As Eduardo Muñoz drifts his ageing skiff into Antofagasta’s harbour, flecks of paint peeling from its prow, he looks disconsolate.
“I used to get twice as many clams from every dive,” he mutters bitterly, hauling two large sacks of shellfish on to the dock and ruffling the salt from his hair.
Water shortages and extreme weather contribute to tension in Middle East and India
Violence associated with water has surged in the past decade driven by attacks on civilian water systems in Syria’s civil war and increasing disputes over supplies in India, according to a comprehensive database of conflicts linked to the vital resource.
Recorded incidents of water-related violence have more than doubled in the past 10 years compared with previous decades, the statistics maintained by the California-based Pacific Institute thinktank show.
Drought is not the only threat to the river system: the plan to save it is in doubt as states spar over the best way forward
The millennium drought led to the realisation Australia’s major river system would die unless there was united action to save it; the latest drought is threatening to undo the Murray-Darling Basin plan.
The basin states – Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia – as well as the federal government, are due to meet on Tuesday in Brisbane amid threats from the NSW Nationals that it will walk away from the plan unless major changes are made.
The president announced he had issued an order to review water-saving regulations for bathroom facilities
Americans are in the midst of a toilet-flushing epidemic, according to the president.
Speaking to the press on Friday, with the hammer of impeachment poised to fall and countless domestic and international crises to consider, Donald Trump took on a pressing enemy: poor water pressure caused by conservation laws.
Scott Morrison announces cut in number of government departments as part of public service overhaul. All the day’s political news, live
Labor is moving a motion saying the government’s attempts to push the union-busting bill through without debate was “anti-democratic”.
Better still is this bit of the motion:
This is a prime ministerial tantrum, with the prime minister of Australia behaving like a juvenile schoolyard bully just because he didn’t get his way last week.
We’re now moving through the votes for the government’sunion-busting bill.
A side note - this is the 100th division to take place in the House for this sitting fortnight.
Nile basin countries fear for their future water supplies as the Grand Renaissance hydroelectric project reaches completion
A new round of high-level talks has started in Cairo between three Nile basin countries aimed at resolving disputes over Ethiopia’s controversial Grand Renaissance dam, which is set to become Africa’s biggest hydroelectric power plant.
Analysts fear that Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia could be drawn into conflict if the dispute is not resolved before the $5bn dam begins operating next year.
Spray-on surface could prevent bacteria building up and reduce household water use
The toilet brush need never leave its holder again. Scientists have created a super-slippery coating that helps usher excrement on its way without leaving traces behind.
The spray-on coating, which is slipperier than Teflon, reduces adhesion of even tenacious faeces by up to 90%, tests suggest, so far less water is needed to flush them away and leave the toilet clean.
Dramatic shift from wet to dry climate could have caused crop failure in Neo-Assyrian empire
The Neo-Assyrian empire was a mighty superpower that dominated the near east for 300 years before its dramatic collapse. Now researchers say they have a novel theory for what was behind its rise and fall: climate change.
The empire emerged in about 912BC and grew to stretch from the Mediterranean down to Egypt and out to the Persian Gulf.
Parks agency plans to move hundreds of animals in ‘biggest translocation of wildlife in Zimbabwe’s history’
Hundreds of elephants and tens of lions in Zimbabwe will be moved by the country’s wildlife agency as part of a major operation to save the animals from a devastating drought.
More than 200 elephants have died over the last two months due to a lack of water at the country’s main conservation zones in Mana Pools and Hwange National Park.
Levels exceed federal guidelines for hundreds of thousands
18% of test results exceed far laxer US standard
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have been unwittingly exposed to high levels of lead in their drinking water, according to an investigation that tested drinking water in hundreds of homes and reviewed thousands more previously undisclosed results.
Residents in some homes in Montreal and Regina, in the western prairies, are among those drinking and cooking with tap water with lead levels that exceed Canada’s federal guidelines. The investigation found some schools and daycare centers had lead levels so high that researchers noted it could harm children’s health.
Creek beds are bone dry and once-gushing springs are reduced to trickles as fights play out around the nation over control of nation’s freshwater supply
The network of clear streams comprising California’s Strawberry Creek run down the side of a steep, rocky mountain in a national forest two hours east of Los Angeles. Last year Nestlé siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label.
Though it’s on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing, and it profited handsomely: Nestlé Waters’ 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8bn.
In Question Time, the prime minister says opposition are addicted to panic and crisis. All the day’s events, live
This is not a sight you will see too often – a LNP senator sitting with the crossbench, against the government.
Susan McDonald chaired the committee that recommended the additional maintenance requirements be removed from charity flight operators – which is what Rex Patrick is calling for.
And from this, I think you can infer from this answer on the voice to parliament, Ken Wyatt has set out that the government will be pushing to legislate, before heading to the referendum
Patricia Karvelas: You do know you’ll break a lot of hearts by not putting the voice to the people?
We also have to be pragmatic and that’s a reality.
Some people have told me it will break their hearts. We have to think about whether we want to be recognised in the Constitution.
Recognition was in section 127 in the Constitution but in the sense of not allowing us to be counted. 127 was struck out.
The 1967 referendum created a number of myths around what it really meant to people. The reality was, was the striking out of that and then the amendment, the 51-26.
I’m going to wait to see what comes out.
I’ve been meeting with people and there is a degree of willingness to have recognition. I think that once we work through whatever the voice is, and that may give us another option.
With the country’s major cities set to run out of groundwater in 2020, volunteers are helping to conserve precious supplies
Drenched in perspiration on a muggy Sunday afternoon in New Delhi, Ashia Saifi climbs up and down the stairs of apartment buildings, ringing on doorbells and asking if residents have any leaking taps they want fixed.
Sometimes, the door is slammed shut in her face. People are scared of intruders and strangers, even though Saifi sports a little white cap that’s the emblem of the Aam Aadmi party (Common Man), or AAP, which rules the Indian capital.
Bill would have helped regulators counter federal directives
Gavin Newsom vows to continue fight on environmental issues
California governor Gavin Newsom angered some allies on Friday by vetoing a bill aimed at blunting Trump administration rollbacks of clean air and endangered species regulations in the state.
Study finds 800,000 extra fibres are shed than on standard washing machine setting
Delicate wash cycles should be avoided whenever possible, according to scientists who found they can release hundreds of thousands more plastic microfibres into the environment than standard wash cycles.
Researchers at Newcastle University ran tests with full-scale machines to show that a delicate wash, which uses up to twice as much water as a standard cycle, releases on average 800,000 more microfibres than less water-hungry cycles.