China
Struggling with Water Shortage
That Threatens Booming Economy
Photo courtesy University of Alabama
From Our Worldwide Correspondent
Venkata Vemuri
Beijing - You may have heard that a water shortage is threatening China’s economy and that in the next 20 years the problem could become severe.
As China struggles to head off the problem, an expert in water in China at the University of Alabama, Dr. Chunmiao Zheng, said the water shortage and problems with pollution have “already become a…
England:
Rising Sea Levels Raise Concerns
About Thames River Defenses
LONDON SCHOOL CHILDREN gather around their teacher,
Catherine Marshall, to learn about Thames River Defenses. Photo by Violet Law
By Violet Law
LONDON - They are the modern-day knights in shining armor, guarding London from their outposts in the River Thames. Each rises 66 feet – nearly seven stories above the water – and sports a stainless steel skin over its 4,000-ton hulk. They stand shoulder to shoulder across the width of the river, ready for action whenever roiling tides threaten to ...
Philippines
Early Typhoons and Heavy Rains
Forcing Change in Planting Season
FARMERS transplanting rice. Photo: part of the image collection of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
From Our Worldwide Correspondent
Venkata Vemuri
Manila - Typhoons are not new to the Philippines. As many as 20 of them strike every year. But the storms, known as hurricanes in the United States and cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, are beginning to arrive earlier than usual - in April and May, rather than June. And that two…
Vietnam:
Dutch Project Bringing Clean Water
To Vietnam, 8 Other Countries
Water Plant Worker, Nguyen Cong Gan
Photo by Ann-Christin Sjölander
Swedish correspondent
Ann-Christin Sjölander reports:
DA NANG, Vietnam - Outside the old water treatment plant women in conical straw hats carry heavy sacks of cement. They wear masks to protect themselves from the dust. Big, noisy power shovels are gnawing trenches into the earth. The huge, gray cement culverts that will go into the trenches are scattered around the heavy machinery.
Tennessee:
Three Rivers Polluted
In Huge Coal Ash Spill;
But How Great the Danger?
SWAMPED IN SOGGY COAL ASH, a house near Kingston, Tenn.
Photo Courtesy Obrag.Org
By Kelly Hearn
KINGSTON, Tenn. - A tidal wave of water and ash. That’s what people here and officials of the federal Environmental Protection Agency said it looked like when more than a billion gallons of soggy coal ash smashed down a retaining wall at a sprawling storage pond near here and gushed into the Emory, Clinch and Tennessee Rivers.
China:
Shenzhen River
Shows Wear and Tear
Of Industrial Boom
FISHING FOR GARBAGE in downtown Shenzhen.
By Violet Law
SHENZHEN, China – In 30 years this former farming village of a few thousand peasants has mushroomed into a sprawling metropolis of 11 million people. Where thatched-roof mud huts once dominated the landscape, glazed-glass condo towers now gleam in the sunlight and smokestacks in factory compounds belch charcoal black fumes.
Ethiopia
Signs of Climate Change
At A Desert Water Hole
By Ernest Waititu
DUBLUCK, Ethiopia—It’s mid-afternoon in this cattle-herding settlement in southern Ethiopia. Thousands of cattle shuffle in the dust, bored and irritated with their minders who are making them wait for the water they have walked dozens of miles to drink.
Central America:
Panama Canal Authorities Say Expansion
Benefits Economy without Environmental Harm
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By Andrew Donovan
PANAMA CITY, Panama – Nearly 100 years after its completion in 1914, the Panama Canal is now more than a year into an expansion project that is expected to have major implications for Panama’s future.
East Africa:
Small Farmers Find
Hippos Rowdy Neighbors
By Michael Ouma
NAIROBI, Kenya – Daybreak and dusk are scary times for the families farming small patches of land near the water treatment plant just outside this East African capital.
The problem is hippos – huge, leathery beasts that come snorting out of the darkness like army tanks, trampling people, smashing cars and uprooting crops.
The Power of Water:
Miami Herald Photographs Capture Flood
Devastation in Haiti
Middle East Water:
Making Every Drop Count;
Even Drinking From The Sea
From Our Worldwide Correspondent
Venkata Vemuri
MANAMA, Bahrain – Concerned about increasing shortages of water in the Middle East, independent scientists have begun working to develop ways of stretching the available fresh water and of converting more sea water for drinking and irrigation.
The region has struggled for centuries with low-rainfall and drought, but the scientists say the water situation is becoming more critical as population continues rising and ever more people are forsaking the countryside for the cities.
Obama’s Pledge:
“Let Clean Waters Flow.”
Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor; On the Surface, She’s a Beauty
Photo by Paul Santos
By Violet Law
HONG KONG - Of the nearly 7 million people in Hong Kong, Sing Lai has one of the best views of the city’s dazzling Victoria Harbor.
As a skipper on the Star Ferry line for more than 30 years, he has shuttled thousands of commuters across the jade green harbor, rimmed with gleaming skyscrapers and steep verdant hills. He has come to know the waters like an old friend and he says he has seen remarkable change for the better. He spots less driftwood and garbage, he said, and more fish.
“The currents still sweep the trash in,” Mr. Lai said, “but a lot less than before.”
But there is more in the waters of Victoria Harbor than meets the eye.
Spreading the Word On Clean Water In Rural India
By Dee DePass
NEW DELHI – In the small town of Arugolanu, 900 miles southeast of here, a young barefoot woman has become an evangelist for clean water.
To Manu Anand, an engineer who has been involved in water purification for much of his life, the woman symbolizes his work in trying to improve sanitation and health in rural India, the world’s second most populous country after China with 1.2 billion people.
Uganda: Precious Water
KALUNGI, Uganda – A young girl in this small village in East Africa washes with a few drops of water. There is no running water in the village. It is a 45-minute walk to the nearest water, a stagnant pond. Of the world’s 6.6 billion people, 1.2 billion live their lives, like the woman here, with limited access to water. Sanitation is poor. Illness is widespread and often fatal, especially among the youngest children.
Villagers: Air War Against Cocaine ‘Ruins Our Water;’ Officials Say No
Amazon Region by Kelly Hearn
By Kelly Hearn
PUERTO NUEVO, Ecuador - Climbing to the metal lip of the 60-foot water tower here, Orlando Gomez huffed, out of breath and drenched in an Amazonian sweat. Mr. Gomez is in charge of drinking water for this little town deep in the rain forest, a two hour’s drive by beat-up road from an oil town called Lago Agrio.
From the tower, Mr. Gomez could see the dirt roads and little tin-roofed wooden houses of this gritty river settlement. He turned slightly toward a distant green wall of mahogany and cedar trees and the muddy San Miguel River, which marks the border between Ecuador and Colombia.
The Business of Water In An East African Shanty Town
By Sarah Stuteville
NAIROBI, Kenya--As day breaks over the rusty tin roofs and makeshift homes of the sprawling Kibera slum in Nairobi, the water sellers are already at their water tanks, waiting for their first customers.
Selling water in one of the world’s largest slums is a good business. On most days the vendors charge 5 cents for five gallons, 100 times the cost of piped water provided by the city. But the city does not send water to the residents of Kibera--at any price.
You can lend your voice to discussions taking place online about global water issues. 1H2o is partnering with helium.com in another effort to bring awareness of the global water crisis through the creation of media on the subject. Click on one of the titles below to participate and compete in the 1H2o Citizen Journalism Awards Contest.
What lessons can we learn from the river?
1 of 5By Jamyang Zeaba
'A river sings a holy song conveying the mysterious truth that we're a river, and if we're ignorant of this natural law, we're lost.' Thomas Moore.
'For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one', there are many similarities between rivers and our lives, and the river in fact depicts our life with utmost precision and discernment. In life, at times we wander aimlessly without a reason or a cause, and sometimes we rush forward with such ferocity like the rapids devouring everything
Read all answers.
Question: How do individual conservation efforts affect worldwide availability of drinking water?
By Danielle "Dames" Keen
Standing at the bench, beaker in hand, I paused and scrutinized the tiny droplets of water still ferociously clinging to the inside of the slowly drying glass. Waiting to do a simple experiment and impatient, I turned to my professor with a scrunched up nose and asked: "Does it matter? Does it really matter if there's still water in the beaker?" He turned to me with the eternal patience only a great teacher can maintain, "Imagine instead the beaker half full. Now, you tell me - does it matter?"
Read more at Helium.com...
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