Graph of the Day: Prevailing Patterns of Threat to Human Water Security and Biodiversity in 2010

Adjusted human water security threat is contrasted against incident biodiversity threat. Much of the developed world faces the challenge of reducing biodiversity threat and protecting biodiversity, while maintaining established water services. The developing world shows tandem threats to human water security and biodiversity, posing an arguably more significant challenge. Large, contiguous areas of low threat […]

South Africa water pollution crisis imminent, says group

SapaSeptember 29, 2010 By 2015, 80 percent of South Africa’s fresh water resources will be so badly polluted that no process of purification available in the country will be able to make it fit for consumption. If we do not find a completely new source of water altogether in about two years, most of Gauteng […]

Cause of dead zone in Gulf: Tile drainage directly related to nitrate loss

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2010) — Tile drainage in the Mississippi Basin is one of the great advances of the 19th and 20th centuries, allowing highly productive agriculture in what was once land too wet to farm. In fact, installation of new tile systems continues every year, because it leads to increased crop yields. But a […]

Chesapeake Bay progress uneven, study shows

Data suggest sewage upgrades working, farm runoff controls aren’t By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun September 15, 2010 A new study shows some Chesapeake Bay rivers have gotten cleaner over the past three decades, while others are getting worse. The analysis, released Wednesday by the U.S. Geological Survey, suggests costly upgrades of sewage plants […]

Access to clean water down due to urbanisation

  Stockholm (AFP) Sept 7, 2010 – Global efforts to improve access to drinking water have been hampered by rapid urbanisation, with the proportion of people in urban areas with access actually declining, according to UN figures presented at a conference in Stockholm this week. “In cities, there are today more people suffering from a […]

World Water Week to focus on pollution and worsening quality

Stockholm (AFP) Sept 5, 2010 – Increasing water pollution and dwindling water quality around the globe will be the main focus as around 2,500 experts begin gathering in Stockholm Sunday for the 20th edition of the World Water Week. “Driven by demographic change and economic growth, water is increasingly withdrawn, used, reused, treated, and disposed […]

Cape Cod waterways face pollution crisis — ‘It looks beautiful, but it’s all dead underneath’

By KATIE ZEZIMAPublished: August 17, 2010 ORLEANS, Mass. — Rising nitrogen levels are suffocating the vegetation and marine life in saltwater ponds and estuaries on Cape Cod, creating an environmental and infrastructure problem that, if left unchecked, will threaten the shellfishing industry, the tourist economy and the beaches that lure so many summer visitors. More […]

Misery for ‘doomed orphans’ of Pakistan floods

By Sajjad Tarakzai (AFP)16 August 2010 NOWSHEHRA, Pakistan — Six million children are suffering from Pakistan’s devastating floods: lost, orphaned or stricken with diarrhoea, they are the most vulnerable victims of the nation’s worst-ever natural disaster. At relief camps in government schools and colleges, and in tent villages on the edge of towns and by […]

Jordan River too polluted for baptisms

Jerusalem (AFP) July 21, 2010 – An environmental group on Wednesday called for a halt to baptisms in the Jordan River where tradition holds that Jesus was baptised, saying the waters there were dangerously polluted. “Friends of the Earth Middle East call on regional authorities to halt baptism in the lower Jordan River until water […]

Giant green algae bloom heads towards China

Beijing (AFP) June 22, 2010 – A massive floating expanse of green algae is heading towards China’s east coast, potentially threatening wildlife and the region’s tourist industry, state media reported on Tuesday. The algae bloom covered 200 square kilometres (80 square miles) and was about 13 kilometres (eight miles) offshore and floating towards the coastal […]

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