Sanitation Problems Thwart Mexico's Flu Battle

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday night encouraged citizens to stay in their homes. Mexico City remains the epicenter of the swine flu outbreak. The lack of water has made sanitation a challenge in many working-class neighborhoods.

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Half of Children at Risk for Lack of Clean Water

More than half of all children in Argentina are at risk of illness because of lack of access to clean, running water, while a large proportion are also threatened by polluting industries and the use of pesticides in agriculture, according to a study by the ombudsman’s office.

"Los efectos de la contaminación ambiental en la niñez. Una cuestión de derechos" (The Effects of Environmental Pollution on Children: A Question of Rights) is the title of a report released this month by the national ombudsman’s office, carried out with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO).

The authors say the report will be updated as the risks posed by new productive activities are evaluated.

According to PAHO statistics cited by the report, around four million children die every year worldwide of health problems caused by environmental risk factors.

More than one-third of the causes of child mortality are related to modifiable environmental factors, says the study. These include lack of access to safe water, inadequate waste disposal, pollution, accidents and occupational illnesses or injuries in the countryside, industry or informal sector activities.

The study shows a series of maps indicating the geographical distribution of the main environmental risks faced by children in Argentina, which are accentuated in the case of poor families with an unemployed head of household lacking health insurance.

"The idea was a prevention tool that can be used by municipal governments, the provinces and the national state, not to denounce the damages but to identify the populations of children who are at risk or vulnerable to pollution," Horacio Esber, director of social rights in the ombudsman’s office, told IPS.


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Martyrs of the Iraqi marshes

One of the few successes of the Iraqi governments since the fall of Saddam Hussein has been reversing one of his great crimes: the draining of the marshes of southern Iraq and the destruction of the unique water-born civilisation which had survived there for thousands of years.

Now this achievement is in doubt. A prolonged and devastating drought, combined with the building of dams on the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Syria, Turkey and Iran, is reducing the water flow once again and the marshes risk disappearing, possibly forever.

Once double the size of the Everglades in Florida and home to 300,000 people, the marshes nearly vanished in the 1990s when they were drained by Saddam Hussein to stop them being used as hideouts by anti-government guerrillas. But as soon as the Iraqi dictator was toppled in 2003, the marsh people tore down the earth ramparts his engineers had built and water once again flowed into the lakes and reed beds.

The marshes revived surprisingly quickly as their people returned from the slums of Basra to rebuild their old villages, fish in the shallow lakes and tend their water buffalo.

The rebirth of the marshes, fed by the Tigris and Euphrates and close to the legendary site of the Garden of Eden, seemed to be one of the few undoubted successes of post-Saddam Hussein governments. By the end of 2006, more than half the marshlands had been restored. The success did not last.

Over the last two years the marsh people have once again seen the water which they need to survive become shallower and more brackish.

"A few years ago, the marshlands were green and full of reeds and papyrus but now they are almost dry," Abdul-Khadum Malik, the mayor of Chibaiesh town in the marshes near the city of Nassariyah, told the UN.

"If the situation continues like this, all life in the marshlands will quickly die out." He said that dozens of families were already leaving because they could not find fresh water to drink or fresh reeds for their cattle and buffalos to eat. The same pattern is being repeated across the marshes as thousands of people once again take flight.

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Bolivia: water people of Andes face extinction

Its members belong to what is thought to be the oldest surviving culture in the Andes, a tribe that has survived for 4,000 years on the barren plains of the Bolivian interior. But the Uru Chipaya, who outlasted the Inca empire and survived the Spanish conquest, are warning that they now face extinction through climate change.

The tribal chief, 62-year-old Felix Quispe, 62, says the river that has sustained them for millennia is drying up. His people cannot cope with the dramatic reduction in the Lauca, which has dwindled in recent decades amid erratic rainfall that has turned crops to dust and livestock to skin and bones.

"Over here used to be all water," he said, gesturing across an arid plain. "There were ducks, crabs, reeds growing in the water. I remember that. What are we going to do? We are water people."

The Uru Chipaya, who according to mythological origin are "water beings" rather than human beings, could soon be forced to abandon their settlements and go to the cities of Bolivia and Chile, said Quispe. "There is no pasture for animals, no rainfall. Nothing. Drought."

The tribe is renowned for surviving on the fringe of a salt desert, a harsh and eerie landscape which even the Incas avoided, by flushing the soil with river water. As the Lauca has dried, many members of the Uru Chipaya have migrated, leaving fewer than 2,000 in the village of Santa Ana and the surrounding settlements.

"We have nothing to eat. That's why our children are all leaving," said Vicenta Condori, 52, dressed in traditional skirt and shawl. She has two children in Chile.

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Wetland or wasteland?

IN a convincing, grandmotherly voice, an elderly woman tells her uncaring grandson that he must stop throwing rubbish into the river. This is pollution, and it is bad for the river, she scolds him. But he does not listen – she is old and does not know what she is talking about! Furthermore, they use a well to draw drinking water, so why worry?

As time elapses, a drought comes. The wells have dried up, and people are going to the river to find drinking water. Ah, but the river is polluted! The water is not potable either in the river or when it flows into the lake. A crisis is born. The grandson, the grandmother and the community take a pledge to manage their river and their lake better in the future.

A Bollywood movie? A parable? No, a puppet show. The puppets are crafted from recycled paper by schoolchildren, and the highly topical show is scripted and performed by them for local communities and visiting audiences, for wetland festivals, and perhaps, eventually, for policymakers. They have a message and a cause, and they have joined school-based Wetlands Study Centres, organised by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), to spread the word of conservation in every way they can: puppet shows, posters, dance, poetry, singing, costumed festival performances, a special magazine, a video documentary. Perhaps a movie is not far behind. The light of excitement and commitment in their young eyes may be the brightest part of the future of the Vembanad lake in Kerala.

The view of the Vembanad lake from a five-bedroom houseboat with a swimming pool has to be beautiful. People pay serious money to come to Kerala and board these rococo boats, to drift along quietly and be “ecotourists”, to be fed, housed, and conducted aquatically in peace, then to go home and tell their friends about their exotic Indian experience. Coconut palms form a living fringe on the lake in every direction. Iridescent paddyfields have colourfully dressed women planting rice. Traditional fishing vessels ply the lake waters while their sun-baked crew skilfully and photogenically toss their circular nets into the water.

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Study: Shortages likely on Colorado River by 2050

If the West continues to heat up and dry out, odds increase that the mighty Colorado River won't be able to deliver all the water that's been promised to millions who rely on it for their homes, farms and businesses, according to a new study.

Less runoff the snow and rain that fortify the 1,400-mile river caused by human-induced climate change could mean that by 2050 the Colorado won't be able to provide all of its allocated water 60 percent to 90 percent of the time, according to two climate researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego.

The more parched the landscape, the more difficult the choices will be for those with dibs on the Colorado's water and those in charge of divvying it up, said Tim Barnett, lead author of the study.

''The dry year scenarios in the future are going to be absolutely brutal,'' he said.

Barnett and fellow Scripps scientist David Pierce made waves last year with a study saying there's a 50 percent chance that Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the Hoover Dam, could run dry by 2021.

They teamed up on the latest study to predict when the river under different climate scenarios predicting 10 percent to 30 percent reductions in runoff will be unable to fully meet all of the demands put on it.

The results were published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

''Without numbers like this, it's pretty hard for resource managers to know what to do,'' Barnett said.

The Colorado is a lifeline of the southwest, flowing through seven states and into Mexico and quenching the thirsts of some 27 million people who use it to irrigate crops, water lawns, produce drinking water and operate businesses.

Drought has already stressed the river. The problem is being compounded by growing populations demanding more water and the expected effects of climate change, said Brad Udall, director of the University of Colorado's Western Water Assessment.

''We're on a collision course between supply and demand,'' Udall said.

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Tons of released drugs taint US water

U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water - contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.

Federal and industry officials say they don't know the extent to which pharmaceuticals are released by U.S. manufacturers because no one tracks them - as drugs. But a close analysis of 20 years of federal records found that, in fact, the government unintentionally keeps data on a few, allowing a glimpse of the pharmaceuticals coming from factories in Ohio and other states.

As part of its ongoing PharmaWater investigation about trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, AP identified 22 compounds that show up on two lists: the EPA monitors them as industrial chemicals that are released into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water under federal pollution laws, while the Food and Drug Administration classifies them as active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The data don't show precisely how much of the 271 million pounds comes from drugmakers versus other manufacturers; also, the figure is a massive undercount because of the limited federal government tracking.

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Water Fight

The Songhua river in northeastern China doesn't have the history of the Mekong, the spirituality of the Ganges or the sheer power of the Yangtze. But in November 2005, this 1,200-mile (2,000 km) waterway made headlines when a chemical plant in the Chinese city of Jilin spilled massive amounts of the toxic chemical benzene, creating a 50-mile (80 km) noxious slick. The chemicals oozed toward the sea, and Chinese cities that drank from the Songhua were forced to cut off supplies, leaving millions to fend for themselves. As the slick passed over the border to the Russian city of Khabarovsk, a problem that began in a single Chinese chemical plant suddenly became an international incident between two powerful nations with a history of bad blood.

The Songhua incident is a reminder that in Asia, a region of the world where water is often scarce and often polluted, managing that indispensable resource is vital. Asia is already the world's driest inhabited continent per capita, and as its population, urbanization and dirty industrialization grow — and global warming dries out the region — clean water will only become more precious. As a just-released report by the Asia Society argues, water will become the key to regional security in the 21st century — and Asia isn't ready. "This is a fundamental resource that we need to survive," says Suzanne DiMaggio, director of the Asia Society's Social Issues Program and the report's director. "The emerging picture on water is very worrisome."

That doesn't mean we should expect Asian nations to immediately start shooting wars over access to the Mekong or the Yalu — though all bets are off if climate change leads to the loss of the Himalayan glaciers whose seasonal melt provides water for billions in Asia. In fact, the history of cross-border water disputes has been surprisingly conciliatory so far. India and Pakistan have fought three wars and currently point nuclear weapons at each other, yet the Indus Waters Treaty — which divvies up the two countries' trans-boundary waterways, overseen by a joint commission — has survived for decades. And even though nations can be quite possessive over water (India and Bangladesh have skirmished repeatedly over the shared Mahananda River), they trade it all the time in other forms like rice and grain that require millions of gallons to grow.

more from Time

Dry Taps in Mexico City: A Water Crisis Gets Worse

The reek of unwashed toilets spilled into the street in the neighborhood of unpainted cinder block houses. Out on the main road, hundreds of residents banged plastic buckets and blocked the path of irate drivers while children scoured the surrounding area for government trucks. Finally, the impatient crowd launched into a high-pitched chant, repeating one word at fever pitch: "Water, Water, Water!"

About five million people, or a quarter of the population of Mexico City's urban sprawl, woke up Thursday with dry taps. The drought was caused by the biggest stoppage in the city's main reservoir system in recent years to ration its depleting supplies. Government officials hope this and four other stoppages will keep water flowing until the summer rainy season fills the basins back up. But they warn that the Mexican capital needs to seriously overhaul its water system to stop an unfathomable disaster in the future. (See pictures of the world water crisis.)

It is perhaps unsurprising that the biggest metropolis in the Western hemisphere is confronting problems with its water supply — and becoming an alarming cautionary tale for other megacities. Scientists have been talking for years about how humans are pumping up too much water while ripping apart too many forests, and warning that the vital liquid could become the next commodity nations are fighting over with tanks and bombers. But it is hard for most people to appreciate quite how valuable a simple thing like water is — until the taps turn off. (See pictures of the contentious politics of water in Central Asia.)

Housewife Graciela Martinez, 44, complains that the smell of her bathroom — used by her family of eight — had forced them all outside. "We have got no toilets, I can't wash my children, I can't cook, I can't clean the mess off the floor," Martinez says, trying to find shade from the sweltering sun. "And the worst thing is, we have got almost nothing to drink."

more from Time

Retreat of Andean Glaciers Foretells Global Water Woes

Earlier this year, the World Bank released yet another in a seemingly endless stream of reports by global institutions and universities chronicling the melting of the world’s cryosphere, or ice zone. This latest report concerned the glaciers in the Andes and revealed the following: Bolivia’s famed Chacaltaya glacier has lost 80 percent of its surface area since 1982, and Peruvian glaciers have lost more than one-fifth of their mass in the past 35 years, reducing by 12 percent the water flow to the country’s coastal region, home to 60 percent of Peru’s population.

And if warming trends continue, the study concluded, many of the Andes’ tropical glaciers will disappear within 20 years, not only threatening the water supplies of 77 million people in the region, but also reducing hydropower production, which accounts for roughly half of the electricity generated in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.

Chances are that many of Bolivia’s Aymara Indians heard little or nothing
about the report. But then the Aymara — who make up at least 25 percent of Bolivia’s population — don’t need the World Bank to tell them what they can see with their own eyes: that the great Andean ice caps are swiftly vanishing. Those who live near Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz need only glance up at Illimani, the 21,135-foot mountain that looms over the city, and watch as its ice fields fade away. Their loss adds to a growing unease among the Aymara — and many Bolivians — who realize that the loss of the country’s glaciers could have profound consequences.

The Aymara worship the ice-draped mountains as Achachilas, or life-giving deities, whose meltwater is vital to a region that suffers a five-month dry season and relies on agriculture to survive. Now, as greenhouse gas emissions heat the earth, the Aymara are bracing for a future in which glaciers no longer can be counted on to supply life-sustaining water.

more from Yale Environmental News

Delta rivers top U.S. most-troubled list

The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers will be named today as the nation's most endangered waterways by the environmental group American Rivers.

It will be a news flash mainly for the other 49 states.

Many Californians are already well aware of the myriad problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its two main rivers. They've lived for several years with water shortages caused by the Delta's environmental problems, and with the threat of its declining fish populations, aging levees and problem plumbing.

Yet making the No. 1 slot on the group's 2009 list of the 10 most endangered rivers is a dubious distinction that both environmentalists and water users say will bring renewed urgency to finally solve these problems.

"It can't hurt," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. "We keep telling the world this system is in crisis. It's in crisis for the fish and the water supply. So the more attention we can get ... the better off we're going to be."

American Rivers, based in Washington, D.C., has produced its annual list since 1986. The mostly subjective process focuses on rivers facing imminent threats or big decisions in the year ahead.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta certainly satisfies both categories. A massive habitat conservation effort, called the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, is expected by the end of this year and aims to both restore imperiled fish populations and improve water delivery.

more from the Sacramento (CA) Bee

Out West, a new kind of water war

In rural Chaffee County, Colo., one of the world's largest beverage companies has discovered water it deems fit for a bottle: clean and crisp, with the mountain spring flavor people are willing to pay for.

Nestle Waters North America wants to tap an aquifer feeding a pair of springs near Salida, southwest of Colorado Springs, and draw 65 million gallons of water per year to bottle and sell under its Arrowhead brand.

But many mountain residents say Nestle should go bottle someone else's water.

"I'm afraid they will pump and pump until they suck it dry," said Michele Riggio, a Salida physical therapist who has led the opposition.

The conflict is the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle against the bottled water industry, which has enjoyed strong growth over the last decade thanks to the beverage's popularity among consumers who eschew tap water and soft drinks.

As companies like Nestle, which operates 50 spring sites around the country, seek to acquire new water sources, communities have increasingly resisted, said Noah Hall, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and an expert in water law.

"By the nature of its business -- taking water out of the ground and putting it in a bottle and selling it -- Nestle is a lightning rod for opposition wherever they go," Hall said, citing conflicts in Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, Washington and California.

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Concerns raised about coastal levels of flame-retardant chemicals

Flame-retardant chemicals that have been linked to reproductive and neurological problems in animals have seeped into coastal environments even in remote regions and have been found in high concentrations off populated areas such as Chicago and Southern California, a federal study revealed Tuesday.

"This is a wake-up call for Americans concerned about the health of our coastal waters and their personal health," said John H. Dunnigan, assistant administrator of the National Ocean Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which released the report.

The study, part of the Mussel Watch Program, was the most comprehensive look at the nationwide presence of chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers, used in a variety of commercial goods since the 1970s as a fire retardant.

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High levels of the chemicals were found in sediment and shellfish samples in areas including the Pacific Northwest's Puget Sound; the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., coast; New York's Hudson-Raritan Estuary; Lake Michigan off Milwaukee, Chicago and Gary, Ind.; and off remote shores in Alaska. The highest concentrations were near industrial centers.

The new report builds on a 1996 study that reported levels of the chemicals in limited areas.

The chemicals are credited with saving hundreds of lives each year from the spread of fire, federal scientists said Tuesday in announcing the study's results. But studies on animals have shown that flame retardants can cause thyroid hormone disruption and interfere with developing reproductive and nervous systems.

The chemicals enter the environment through runoff, improper disposal of household and electronic waste, and through sewage sludge. The chemicals also appear to be airborne.

"Action is needed to reduce the threats posed to aquatic resources and human health," Dunnigan said.