Water

More than 100,000 people marched through Cuenca, a city in southern Ecuador, on Sept. 16, demanding that federal authorities revoke an environmental license for a gold mining project that may impact an important freshwater source.

The Loma Larga mining project, run by Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals, borders the 3,200-hectare (7,900-acre) Quimsacocha National Recreation Area, located within the UNESCO Macizo del Cajas Biosphere Reserve. Quimsacocha is a central source of clean freshwater in the Andean páramo tundra located approximately 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) southeast of Cuenca.

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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/27698427

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/28324402

Earth’s water cycle is becoming harder to predict as the climate changes, UN scientists have warned.

Last year was the sixth in a row to show an erratic cycle and the third where all glacier regions reported ice loss, according to the World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) state of global water resources report for 2024, released on Thursday.

They found that around 60% of rivers globally showed either too much or too little water compared to the average flow per year.

While the world has natural cycles of climate variability from year to year, long-term trends outlined in the report indicate the water cycle, at a global scale, is accelerating.

Stefan Uhlenbrook, WMO director of hydrology in the water and cryosphere division, said scientists feel it is “increasingly difficult to predict”.

“It’s more erratic – so either too much or too low on average flow per year,” he said.

As global warming drives higher global temperatures, the atmosphere can hold more water, leading either to longer dry periods or more intense rainfall.

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French investigative reporter and data journalist Raphaëlle Aubert shares the methods and the data behind her team's major investigation into Europe’s polluted groundwater crisis.

Co-founded by two journalists, InfoNile has grown into a sprawling ecosystem of cross-border investigations, multimedia storytelling, and data-driven reporting across the Nile Basin's 11 countries.

The study

New findings from studying over two decades of satellite observations reveal that the Earth’s continents have experienced unprecedented freshwater loss since 2002, driven by climate change, unsustainable groundwater use and extreme droughts.

The study, led by Arizona State University and published today in Science Advances, highlights the emergence of four continental-scale “mega-drying” regions, all located in the Northern Hemisphere, and warns of severe consequences for water security, agriculture, sea-level rise and global stability.

Secrecy around the project, including public officials bound by non-disclosure agreements, has left residents with more questions than answers.

A proposed 60-house poultry operation near the Satilla River has locals alarmed about pollution, health risks and the future of their water.

Widespread lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation puts the health and other rights of millions of Guatemalans, especially Indigenous people and women, at risk.

Guatemala has more fresh water per capita than the global average but has for years failed to adequately protect and distribute these resources. Without legislation clearly establishing water rights and obligations, a clear regulatory and financing system to guarantee these rights, and accompanying enforcement mechanisms, water availability and quality around the country will continue to be compromised.

The report

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24136895

Drought has hollowed out Chihuahua’s Conchos Valley and bred civil unrest as South Texas demands the water it’s owed.

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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24060331

Environmentalists are suing to stop the flow of 1,4-dioxane into the drinking water supply, which one local water utility found at concentrations 17 times higher than the EPA’s health advisory goal.

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]> The new standards will reduce amounts of 12 toxic or cancer-linked pollutants in Alabama waterways, according to clean water advocacy groups that petitioned for the changes.

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MIT engineers developed an atmospheric water harvester that captures water vapor and produces safe drinking water across a range of relative humidities, including dry desert air.

The system runs entirely on its own, without a power source, unlike other designs that require batteries, solar panels, or electricity from the grid.

“This is just a proof-of-concept design, and there are a lot of things we can optimize,”

In the spring of 1987, Cathy Holdorf and her husband, John, drove to the end of a gravel road in Soap Creek, Oregon, a rural community 10 miles north of Corvallis. Here, where the smooth spread of the Willamette Valley begins to buckle against the Coast Range, they’d come to look at a property for sale: 30 acres of oak savanna draped over a south-facing hillside. They parked at the foot of the hill and set out walking. The lower land was intriguing — iron-doored bunkers from a World War II-era training camp cut into the earth and a creek ran nearby — but it wasn’t until they climbed the slope that they knew they’d found what they were looking for.

On a knoll partway up a ridge called Poison Oak Hill, they stood to take in the view: Slender meadows wove through a tumble of foothills. Beyond, wooded ridges stacked deep blue into the distance. Even before starting back down, they’d begun to dream of a home here: a woodshop, a house, a garden.

The property was owned by Robert and Daniel Bunn. Known around town as the Bunn Brothers, these siblings also owned the local landfill, which was dug into the south face of Coffin Butte just across the valley from Poison Oak Hill. Despite its proximity — less than a mile north — the dump didn’t immediately concern the Holdorfs. From where they stood that day, it was out of sight. It was relatively small, locally owned, and, they’d been told, soon to close. Besides, over 100 undeveloped acres, also owned by the Bunns, spanned between the dump and the property for sale. This land, the Bunns assured the Holdorfs, would always serve as a buffer: No trash would ever be placed there.

“We were just so convinced that it was a small dump, that it was being run well and would sunset soon.” Cathy told me recently. “Maybe it was naive, but we didn’t even consider that all of that could change.”

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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/22918495

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/23497765

The UK is not officially in drought yet, however the Environment Agency is currently warning there is a “medium” risk of drought this summer without a period of sustained rainfall.

“The last two years were some of the wettest on record for England but drier conditions at the start of this year mean a drought is a possibility and we need to be prepared,” Richard Thompson, the Environment Agency’s deputy director of water, said.

Questions are now being asked whether Britain’s water supply can cope. In 2022, the last official period of drought, hosepipe bans were issued across the country and one village in Oxfordshire completely ran out of water.

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There is no transparency on water consumption by datacentres under construction in these cities. Companies do not publish this information voluntarily, and the government refuses to release technical documentation for licensing, citing industrial secrecy.

The large amounts of water used by datacentres keep computers and machines cool, preventing them from overheating.

We are geotechnical engineers who have studied tailings dam collapses. Here, we outline six questions people living near mines should ask mine management to ensure they understand the key hazards and risks in their communities.

A serendipitous observation in a Chemical Engineering lab at Penn Engineering has led to a surprising discovery: a new class of nanostructured materials that can pull water from the air, collect it in pores and release it onto surfaces without the need for any external energy.

“We weren’t even trying to collect water,” says Lee. “We were working on another project testing the combination of hydrophilic nanopores and hydrophobic polymers when Bharath Venkatesh, a former Ph.D. student in our lab, noticed water droplets appearing on a material we were testing. It didn’t make sense. That’s when we started asking questions.”