| | | Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue
To add fresh voices to its cumulative, trusted coverage of water issues around the world and United States, Circle of Blue set out to discover a passionate, up-and-coming journalist to report on water inequality in a changing climate.
Circle of Blue is pleased to announce Pablo Unzueta as the recipient of its inaugural Water & Climate Fellowship program. The fellowship elevates diverse and up-and-coming journalistic talent to report on environmental justice, social inequality, and water inequality in the United States.
“Pablo represents the hungry, passionate, and focused journalism we need to bring depth and perspective to these issues that touch all communities," said J. Carl Ganter, managing director of Circle of Blue.
Unzueta will join Circle of Blue from California to combine his talents of videography, photography, and writing to document how environmental pollution in the 51-mile-long L.A. River has contributed to the erasure of the megacity’s rich cultural history. “I want to tell these stories with a camera, as I have done so over the years while covering environmental injustices,” Unzueta told Circle of Blue. |
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| | | Recent flooding in South Africa has killed hundreds and displaced thousands.
The rains that began on April 8 marked one of the worst natural disasters in South Africa’s history. Destruction was concentrated in city slums like those in Durban, where thousands of families live precariously in flood zones.
In a city unaffordable for up to one-quarter of its residents, vulnerability to natural hazards is no coincidence: these threats are precisely what make the space affordable for people who live there. Globally, a growing share of the population lives in floodplains.
In South Africa, the roots of the housing crisis extend back decades, when post-apartheid land reforms failed to spur economic development in rural South Africa, concentrating economic opportunity in cities. The state’s promises of public housing have lapsed into an ever-widening housing backlog. |
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As the nation prepares to pour billions of federal dollars into rescuing water systems, the Great Lakes News Collaborative investigates the true cost of water in Michigan with a special series of reports and events during May. Reporters from Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now, and Michigan Radio have combined their resources for the most extensive coverage on the cost of water in Michigan to date.
The “Water’s True Cost” project kicks off on Monday, May 2, with an overarching report from Circle of Blue that explores shifting tides in Michigan’s willingness to invest in water infrastructure.
Other stories throughout the month will explore the consequences of neglect, the many ways communities are addressing them, and the effects of new water system investment in Michigan and beyond.
The collaborative will also host live interactive events and discussions for the public throughout May about the cost of drinking water and water infrastructure, and hear from the reporters about their findings.
Find out more about the Great Lakes News Collaborative below, and watch out for a special Great Lakes edition of WaterNews next Tuesday, May 2.
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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 Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud. Featured coverage from this week's episode of What's Up With Water looks at: In the United States, a county in California is finalizing plans to require well owners, for the first time, to pay for the groundwater they extract. The extraction fees would apply to well owners in three groundwater basins in Sonoma County. In Nebraska, Gov. Pete Ricketts will proceed with a controversial plan to build a canal in Colorado in order to divert water from a river that flows through both states. A federally approved compact between Nebraska and Colorado allows for Nebraska to divert water out of the South Platte River. This week Circle of Blue reports on the connections between drought, conflict, and global food prices. |
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| | | Skid Row in Los Angeles. Photo © Geoff Livingston / Flickr
UN Expert Connects U.S. Water and Sanitation Struggles to Poverty
In 2017, as Congress debated a tax cut that would transfer an enormous amount of wealth from America’s poor and middle classes to its rich, a United Nations expert was visiting people already pushed over the edge by poverty.
The findings of Philip Alston, a New York University law professor and the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, reflected how the widening gap between rich and poor in the United States worsens the country’s challenges for drinking water access, sanitation, and health.
In 2017 alone, those challenges were embodied in a hepatitis A outbreak among California’s homeless population and the broadening discussion over the cost of tap water for the poor. Even international organizations that primarily work in developing countries became intrigued by circumstances in the United States.
Over two weeks, Alston traveled to high-poverty areas of the United States including West Virginia, Puerto Rico, Alabama, and Los Angeles.
In L.A., he met homeless people living in Skid Row, a 50-block area near downtown where health advocates have raised concerns about toilet access. An audit earlier this year found an inadequate number of public toilets and fewer functioning ones. More than one-third were not open when they were supposed to be.
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