Rising sea levels are threatening homes on Diamniadio Island, Saloum Delta in Senegal. A child stands outside a home’s former kitchen, surrounded by mangrove branches, in 2015.
(AP Photo/Jane Hahn)
Two environmental engineers say governments need to do more to protect people from possible water contamination after wildfires.
The 2018 Camp Fire north of Sacramento burned everything in its path: cars, power lines, and buildings – and contaminated local drinking water.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Buildings aren’t the only things at risk in wildfires. Recent disasters in California have left local water system contaminated with toxic chemicals afterward, slowing return and recovery.
A woman uses her feet to pull herself along in a wheelchair among cherry blossoms at a homeless camp at Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver in April 2020 that was recently evaculated due to COVID-19. The coronavirus has exposed and fed upon other societal issues in true ‘syndemic’ fashion.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
When two or more epidemics co-exist and compound one another to worsen health, they are said to be syndemic. COVID-19 is feeding on other crises and diseases.
Harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie, Sept. 4, 2009.
NOAA/Flickr
Warmer waters, heavier storms and nutrient pollution are a triple threat to Great Lakes cities’ drinking water. The solution: Cutting nutrient releases and installing systems to filter runoff.
Collecting water from a street pump in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 13, 2020.
Mehedi Hasan/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Water is essential for health, economic well-being and social equity, but too many people around the world still don’t have access to clean drinking water and sanitation.
Five capital city water storages fell over summer, and some appear to be facing dramatic long-term declines. Late drenching rains fell on southeastern Australia, but some unlucky centres missed out.
The Rim Fire burned 256,000 acres of the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park in 2013.
(USDA Forest Service, Chris Stewart)
Damage to water supply infrastructure and catchments during and after bushfires inhibits the treatment processes that normally make our water safe to drink.
A harmful algal bloom in the western basin of Lake Erie in August 2017.
(NOAA/Aerial Associates Photography, Inc. by Zachary Haslick/flickr)
The prices households pay for drinking water and wastewater services have been rising faster than the rate of inflation.
Health Canada has some of the strongest limits on lead in the world, but they can’t be effective without testing and a plan to replace pipes.
(Shutterstock)
An investigation showed that five Canadian cities had lead levels in their water on par with those in Flint, Mich. during its peak period of water contamination.
Once water is used in washing, cleaning or even sewerage it can be safely and reliably treated. The treated water is then safe to drink – identical to the original water.
Lagos was affected positively and negatively by Nigeria’s emergence as a crude oil producer in the 1970s.
Shutterstock
Qi Bing, University of California, Irvine e Maura C. Allaire, University of California, Irvine
Newark is the latest US city to struggle with high lead levels in drinking water. Ending this public health crisis will require more money and enforcement, plus stricter water testing standards.
Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University