 | | Fenosoa, like many who live in the Amoron’Akona neighborhood, works by supplying dozens of households and businesses with well water. Location: Amoron ‘Akona, Antananarivo, Madagascar Photo : ©Tsilavo Rapiera – www.tsilavorapiera.com / www.arikamedia.com |
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Pandemic Brings WASH To Rare Inflection Point
After interviewing more than 40 thought leaders and frontline professionals on five continents, Circle of Blue found that the WASH world is at a rare inflection point. Pursuing WASH outcomes in the 20th century essentially meant that outside funders spent a fortune on water supply and sanitation equipment in developing regions. But the water stopped when loan agreements and grant funding ended. Though progress was made, a lot of pumps, pipes and toilets failed.
Frustrated by the intractable impediments—many of which were of their own making—funders and practitioners have spent much of the last decade tossing aside those clumsy approaches and have replaced them with disciplined business strategies and systems management that stress earned revenue streams, data collection and analysis, and measurable performance. The new tools helped the WASH world gain much keener understanding of the various components of their ecosystem (finance, governance, installation, management, operations, oversight) and how each influenced the others. In essence, the WASH community embraced a fresh set of approaches that simplified the complexity of what they were after. |
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 | | Photo: Courtesy of Nadia Huggins (@nadiahuggins) |
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Heavy with ash, palm trees on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent are sagging into themselves. The trees’ vibrant green hues have turned sallow and dehydrated, their branches succumbing to the weight of the snow-like soot and dropping to the now grey ground.
Looking up today, as all of St. Vincent did two Thursdays ago, eyes trained on the island’s erupting volcano, La Soufrière, there is little else to see but blanket-thick grey and the irregular flight patterns of displaced birds. On the ground, in the towns and harbors, relief efforts are the main priority for the Caribbean country’s government and affected residents. The rushing rivers, major freshwater suppliers for St. Vincent, have been made non-potable by ashfall. Now and for the foreseeable future, clean drinking water will come by way of one’s own saved rain barrels, sparse springs, generous neighbors, and rationed supplies from reservoirs the government is rushing to clean. |
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Moscow is under increased pressure as thousands in Crimea have been rationing water for months due to a Ukrainian water blockade.
In the Russian-annexed territory of Crimea, most citizens are only allowed water for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening, reported Emerging Europe. The water crisis has left Russia’s government searching for a solution and added financial strain to its occupation of the area, which already cost the country 1.5 trillion rubles ($23 billion) from 2014 to 2019. Water scarcity in Crimea — a peninsula bridged between Russia and Ukraine — has been ongoing since Russia’s annexation of the area just over seven years ago. In response to the occupation, the Ukrainian government blocked the flow of freshwater from the Dnieper River to the North Crimean Canal, eliminating 85 percent of Crimea’s water supply. Ukrainian officials declared that the blockade will not be lifted until Russian’s occupation ends, leaving the water crisis at a standstill for years. |
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For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud. Featured coverage from this week’s episode of What’s Up With Water looks at: - In the Caribbean, residents of St. Vincent are struggling to find clean water after volcanic eruptions on the island earlier this month.
- In India, a wetland outside New Delhi that is important bird habitat has dried up for the first time.
- In the United States, one of the country’s largest poultry companies settled a lawsuit over claims of groundwater and air pollution.
This week Circle of Blue looks at a report on California’s drinking water systems showing that hundreds are below health standards, and hundreds more are at risk. |
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 | | The Great Lakes Ready or Not project is produced by the Great Lakes News Collaborative, a partnership between Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at DPTV and Michigan Radio that explores an essential question: Are Great Lakes residents and leaders ready for the stirred and shaken conditions that climatologists say we can expect? A new piece will be published every Tuesday over the next four months. |
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 | | Detroit Skyline. Photo © Lester Graham / Michigan Radio |
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Water Access: As Moratoria on Shutoffs End, Old Problems Return to the Forefront
Across the Great Lakes region, moratoria on water shutoffs that were instituted during the pandemic have expired, a number of them at the end of March, even as states including Michigan and Minnesota are seeing surges in coronavirus cases. New York is the only Great Lakes state with a statewide shutoff moratorium still in place, according to tracking by the national organization Food and Water Watch. On March 31, the day New York’s moratorium would have expired, the state legislature passed a bill extending it throughout the pandemic or until Dec. 31.
While moratoria have provided important relief during the pandemic, in most cases people will still owe outstanding water bills once a moratorium on shutoffs is lifted. That will be “crushing” for many, in Grant’s words, especially as countless Great Lakes residents will be affected economically by the pandemic for years to come. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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 | | Women and girls walk to gather water in Rajasthan, India. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue |
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National governments are not on track to meet ambitious, globally recognized goals to provide universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2030. Nor are they sufficiently shepherding their rivers, lakes, and aquifers through an era of climate change, water stress, and population growth.
Those were the conclusions of a United Nations water agency report last month that assessed progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6, a global benchmark that aims to transform the way that water is managed and delivered. The goal encompasses eight targets for drinking water supply, sanitation, watershed management, pollution prevention, and water use. |
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