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30 May 2024
Dumping of Sewage continues in UK in spite of commitments
The situation in the United Kingdom regarding the dumping of untreated sewage into the environment – first reported by The Water Diplomat in November 2022 - is not improving. Controversy over wastewater discharges over the past years had led to the adoption of a new environmental law in 2021 and a plan to reduce stormwater overflows...
29 May 2024
Torrential rains cause damage and loss of life in East Africa, especially in Kenya
During this year’s long rainy season, which usually lasts from March to May, Kenya has been severely affected by torrential rains which took place during the month of April. According to a situation assessment by the United Nations Agency for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), as of the end of April, the combination of heavy rain and flash floods had left 103 people dead, 29 injured, 21 people missing, 150,365 people (30,073 families) displaced and nearly 191,000 affected across the country...
28 May 2024
Growing group of refugees in Mauritania receive WASH services
According to a UNICEF flash update published in mid-May, there are currently some 180,000 refugees present in the Hodh Ech Chargui region of eastern Mauritania, and this number is expected to reach 240,000 by the end of the year. Amid upheaval in the Sahel region, Mauritania has remained stable and continues to host a growing refugee population which has grown from 74,000 in 2016 to the present 180,000...
27 May 2024
Bangalore, India's high-tech capital, is experiencing serious water shortages
In the 20th Century, Bangalore was known as the "Garden City"» of India, or the city of 1000 lakes. The city had a long history of construction of artificial tanks for irrigation, fishing, and as a source of drinking water. These lakes served to replenish the groundwater on which the city largely relies...
27 May 2024
Dutch emergency team assists with Kazakhstan floods
After two weeks of heavy flooding which took place at the beginning of April this year, Kazakhstan requested assistance from the Dutch government. The Dutch Disaster Risk Reduction and Surge Support (DRRS) team called up water experts from various disciplines to help alleviate the emergency situation in the Central Asian country...
24 May 2024
South Caucasus Chapter of Women in Water Diplomacy:
In 2017, the Women in Water Diplomacy Network was launched to improve gender equality in high-level decision-making in transboundary basins and regions, focusing the initiative on women's leadership in regional dialogues around shared waters. This international initiative has already borne fruit, with the first network launched in the Nile Basin that same year, followed by a regional network in Central Asia/Afghanistan established in 2021, another in North America in 2023, and in the Orange-Senqu basin aiming to launch later this year...
22 May 2024
Zimbabwe on the road to acceding to global water conventions
Zimbabwe shares a total of five river basins with her riparian neighbours, namely the Buzi, Limpopo, Pungwe, Save and Zambezi Rivers and one international lake, i.e. Kariba dam. To foster closer cooperation for the sustainable, joint and co-ordinated management, protection and utilisation of shared water resources, Zimbabwe is party to a total of eleven (11) bilateral and multilateral water agreements...
21 May 2024
Overexploitation of groundwater causes widespread urban subsidence in China
There is a phenomenon that the Chinese government is facing which is now well known to researchers and which has been studied for several decades: the subsidence of their country's urban centers. Indeed, studies elsewhere of the Houston, Jakarta, Mexico City and New Delhi conurbations have already demonstrated that these areas are settling in on themselves, each with its own dynamics depending on urban development and soil type...
20 May 2024
Historic floods in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul
The state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil experienced very challenging times in the early days of May 2024, subjected to rainfall of unprecedented duration and intensity. In the space of a week, more than 300 mm of water fell in the region, and in some places the rainfall recorded was 150 mm in less than 24 hours...
17 May 2024
Funding a Water Secure Future
A new World Bank report released on the 6th of May presents a global overview of spending in the water sector, noting that there is a significant gap between spending needs and actual spending. According to the World Bank, this study represents the first attempt to create a 360° overview of spending in the entire water sector the sector, with the objective of understanding existing funding gaps in comparison to the goals that have been set, and to provide guidance on the ways in which these gaps can be closed...
16 May 2024
Lessons in future river basin management from the last three decades:
In an article published in the journal Water International, practitioners from the International Network of Basin Organisations and the International Office for Water have reviewed experiences with the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management over the past 30 years, drawing some conclusions for the future of river basin management...
3 May 2024
Water Resilience for Economic Resilience: Water as an Economic Connector
On the 8th of April, the Water Resilience for Economic Resilience Initiative, led by the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, released a report on managing water for economic resilience. The report builds on 15 case studies to draw conclusions about how action on water can enable economic resilience...