Right Under Our Nose Record snowfall in HP revives 2,000 glaciers - The Economic Times. Nile River row: Could it turn violent? | Africa News blog. The giggles started when the seventh journalist in a row said that his question was for Egypt’s water and irrigation minister, Mohamed Nasreddin Allam. The non-Egyptian media gave him a bit of a hammering at last week’s talks in Addis Ababa for the nine countries that the Nile passes through. Allam bared his teeth when a Kenyan journalist accused him of hiding behind “colonial-era treaties” giving his country the brunt of the river’s vital waters whether that hurt the poorer upstream countries or not. “You obviously don’t know enough about this subject to be asking questions about it,” he snapped before later apologising to her with a kiss on the cheek. Five of the nine Nile countries — Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya — last month signed a deal to share the water that is a crucial resource for all of them.
But Egypt and Sudan, who are entitled to most of the water and can veto upstream dams under a 1929 British-brokered agreement, refused. And they have a point. So what next? Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Mexico's sinking city. Mention a sinking city and it is a fair bet that Venice is the place which comes to mind, yet parts of the centre of Mexico City are sinking at an even faster rate than that of the fabled Italian lagoon city. Not so long ago, you used to be able to stand on the green wooded slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano and look down on Mexico City. Now, the view is blocked by a dense brown cloud of pollution. Peel back this vile smog, and you uncover one of the biggest megalopolises in the world. In just half a century, its population has increased seven-fold. Now, more than 20 million people live and work in this hectic, expanding mass of concrete.
The Mexican capital is host to an array of unenviable problems. The gap between rich and poor is among the biggest in the world. More than four million cars clog the badly-planned and poorly-built streets. Its toxic air causes breathing and skin disorders. But, worse than any of this, it is sinking. In this instance... it is downwards. Illustrious past Leaks. Public Citizen Climate and Energy. Democratic vs. corporate control of water: a fight for survival Perhaps the greatest theft of common resources facing humanity and the planet today is the corporate take over of the world’s water. Global capitalists argue that our water scarcity problems will be solved by turning water into an economic good – a commodity to be controlled by global corporations and sold to the highest bidder in international markets.
Yet who really believes that corporations, whose very purpose is to increase profits for their shareholders, will improve water conservation, help get clean water to those in need, and provide a water secure future for all of us? Every crisis provides an opportunity. The world is running out of freshwater Despite the seeming abundance of water on this planet, less than one half of one percent of the earth’s water is able to support human life. Profiting from planetary misery Transnational corporations see this water scarcity crisis as a huge profit-making opportunity. Africa: trapped in water privatization. A friend of mine recently complained that she now had to pay for water as it was no longer included in her rent. She now has to be more conscious about the amount of water she uses for showering and washing dishes. Water is one of those natural resources which those living in the Global North take for granted: turn the tap on and the water flows. No need to think about where it comes from or whether it’s connected to rain patterns.
It’s like buying roast chicken in a supermarket – people don’t always make the connection between a live chicken and the packaged end product, as in something that died in the process. This distance between the raw resource and the end product is huge. By distancing ourselves from the origins of a product we are less likely to be concerned with any abuse and exploitation that takes place before the final product reaches us. The water situation in Africa is even more sinister. ‘Nestlé is the global leader in the exploitation of water across the globe. Is That a Banana in Your Water? This story is part of a National Geographic News series on global water issues. Banana peels are no longer just for composting or comedy shows: New science shows they can pull heavy metal contamination from river water.
Metals such as lead and copper are introduced to waterways from a variety of sources, including agricultural runoff and industrial wastes. Once there, heavy metals can contaminate soils and pose health risks to humans and other species. Lead is known to affect the brain and nervous system. Traditionally, water quality engineers have used silica, cellulose, and aluminum oxide to extract heavy metals from water, but these remediation strategies come with high price tags and potentially toxic side effects of their own. They work as extractors due to the presence of acids such as those found in the carboxylic and phenolic groups, which attract metal ions. (Read more: “Predicting the World’s Next Water Pollution Disaster.” ) Don’t Try This at Home. Watch Out: The World Bank Is Quietly Funding a Massive Corporate Water Grab | Water.
November 2, 2010 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Billions have been spent allowing corporations to profit from public water sources even though water privatization has been an epic failure in Latin America, Southeast Asia, North America, Africa and everywhere else it's been tried. But don't tell that to controversial loan-sharks at the World Bank. Last month, its private-sector funding arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) quietly dropped a cool 100 million euros ($139 million US) on Veolia Voda, the Eastern European subsidiary of Veolia, the world's largest private water corporation.
"Veolia has made it clear that their business model is based on maximizing profits, not long-term investment," Joby Gelbspan, senior program coordinator for private-sector watchdog Corporate Accountability International, told AlterNet. The Philippines is an excellent example of water privatization's broken model.