| | | Photo © Asad Zaidi/UNICEF Weeks after record-setting monsoon rains turned vast tracts of Pakistan into an inland lake, health officials are concerned that a second wave of disaster is brewing.
All that standing water combined with at least 7.6 million displaced people who may lack food and clean drinking water is a recipe, they say, for outbreaks of diseases caused by dirty water and mosquitoes.
“Even after three weeks, large parts of the flood-affected areas are still submerged under water,” said Gerida Birukila, a UNICEF official in Pakistan. Thousands of families in the 81 calamity-hit districts are still cut off and desperately need support. “Families have no food, safe water or medicines,” she added.
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| | | Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue In the United States, a ruling by a federal judge in Wisconsin has long-term implications for fossil fuel infrastructure in the Great Lakes region. U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled that the Line 5 oil pipeline has been trespassing on certain tribal lands, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. Easements for those lands, located on the Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin, expired in 2013. In Africa’s Sahel region, several countries are reeling from a devastating flood season. Save the Children estimates that 150,000 people in Nigeria and Niger have been affected by high waters in recent weeks. Many regions in these countries lack the financial or technical resources to prepare for torrential floods that are caused by land degradation, a changing climate, and poor urban planning. Floods are one water-related risk. Droughts are another. An international research partnership has formed to identify water-risk hot spots that could spark conflict. Lack of rain is triggering food insecurity in the Horn of Africa, with parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia at risk of famine. People in Afghanistan face similar circumstances. Meanwhile, droughts and the threat of failed water supplies could prompt civil unrest in Iraq and South Africa. |
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| | | Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue Months after Pakistan baked under a record-setting heat wave, relentless monsoon rains are the latest threat to a climate-vulnerable country that is reeling from disaster after disaster. Abounding rainfall in recent weeks is only one part of the peril. With damages exceeding tens of billions of dollars, flooding has affected one in seven Pakistanis. Some 630,000 people have been displaced, and 1,300 have died — hundreds of them children. The scale of loss would have been devastating anywhere. But recovery will be all the more difficult for the world’s fifth-most populous country because of a second group of factors. A year of financial and political crises have left Pakistan’s economy on a knife-edge. |
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| | | Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue A federal judge rules that Enbridge must pay damages for trespassing on tribal lands in northern Wisconsin and reroute the Line 5 oil pipeline, but the pipeline can continue operating. A Michigan judge dismisses recreational anglers’ objections to Indigenous fish management practices. Rural Pennsylvania voters eye pro-fracking candidates in the upcoming midterms. Chicago enters the race to build the Great Lakes’ first offshore wind project. The EPA eyes a polluted site in Ann Arbor for a Superfund designation. Local resistance impedes clean energy development in Ohio. “Economic development and innovative energy technology is always welcome in the State of Ohio, but not at the expense of rural communities who do not want them.’” — Matt Huffman, Ohio State Senate majority leader |
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We're Hiring!
Circle of Blue is hiring a part-time Communications Associate to manage and expand the reach of our growing news organization. The Communications Associate is responsible for managing social media and content creation across several platforms. The ideal candidate will have experience in social media and/or written communications, and an interest in freshwater science and social issues.
This is a part-time, remote, contract position.
To apply, please send a resume and 3 work samples to lauraherd@circleofblue.org. Applications will be reviewed as received and the position will remain open until it is filled. |
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| From the Circle of Blue Archives: |
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| | | 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
Pandemic Brings WASH To Rare Inflection Point The WASH world is at a rare inflection point. Government agencies, academic departments, foundations, investors, consultancies and non-profit organizations have spent 50 years and more than US $400 billion to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for billions of people in the developing world. Social enterprises like FundiFix and Sanergy are setting new standards of operation and durability for water and sanitation in Africa. Eighty-eight percent of the world’s people had access to safe water, according to a 2017 global assessment of water, sanitation, and hygiene published by JMP, the research and statistics group formed by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. |
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