Fredrick Mugira, Bertha Fellow When the sun had nearly set, John Depari and two other fishers slowed down their motorized boat and said to one another, “It is here,” before casting nets somewhere in the quiet waters of Lake Edward in western Uganda. It was not only the nets they cast: there were stones, empty […]
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PHOTO STORY: WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE INITIATIVES INCREASE ACCESS TO CLEAN, SAFE WATER IN EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA
By Amber Christino Between the devastating drought ongoing in countries like Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti, and recurrent floods in South Sudan and Burundi, it is clear that water has the power to displace millions of people, significantly impacting migration throughout the region. Lack of access to water and drought can increase forced migration. In […]
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Ethiopia’s Drought Forces Afar Residents to Use Dirty Water
By Halima Athumani A dirty stream stems from Ethiopia’s Awash River, a lifeline for locals and their main water source for bathing, washing, cooking, and drinking. Ethiopia is reeling from the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 40 years, and the northern Afar region is no exception. Clean water is a luxury […]
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Drinkable Water: How clean is clean
By Stacey Fulufhelo Williams Amongst the key environmental challenges faced in South Africa is access to clean drinking water. The drinkability of water varies, depending on the quality checks conducted at each treatment plant. This means, when your water looks strange, the treatment process may have changed at the treatment plant. The basic right to […]
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Climate change equals inequality in Africa
By Albert Nkwasa & Seppe Lampe Climate change is a global crisis, we are all in this together. But we are not in this together equally. Climate change is mainly caused bygreenhouse gas emission of developed nations. However, developing countries, young people and women are much more affected by climate change. Because of climate change, […]
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From machetes to dialogue: Somali communities optimistic about a future free of water conflicts
Abdikhayr Mohamed Hussein, Bertha Fellow 2022 Somalia experienced disastrous droughts between 2000 and 2011, but the current dry spell is the worst in the last decade. This is attributed to the failure of the previous three consecutive rainy seasons dating back to October 2020. The worsening drought has led to water scarcity, food insecurity, and […]
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Trading livestock for water: A nightmare for pastoralists in Somalia as drought hits hard
Abdikhayr Mohamed Hussein, Bertha Fellow 2022 Somalia is facing the worst drought in decades following the failure of three consecutive rainy seasons since October 2020. The worsening drought has exacerbated water shortage, particularly for the rural communities that make up 60% of the country’s 15.8 million people. The persistent reduction of fresh water and repeated […]
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From source to water bodies and dining table: Tracking the journey of plastics in Uganda
Fredrick Mugira, Bertha Fellow 25th April 2022 Last February, Ramathan Kimbugwe, the CEO of Prowess Communications Company, was jogging early morning when he noticed something strange about a river in his community. Thousands of used plastic bottles were heaping in Rwizi, a lifeline river for over five million people in southwestern Uganda, at a point […]
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500 million people in Africa remain ‘water insecure’: UN report
BY SHARON UDASIN Some 500 million people across 19 African nations remain water insecure, according to the first-ever United Nations assessment of water security across the continent. The assessment, released on Monday, indicated that apart from Egypt, all countries in Africa had water security scores below 70 — on a security scale of 0 to 100 — while […]
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Africa to Drastically Accelerate Progress on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene – Report
By Water Journalists Africa Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets on water, sanitation, and hygiene in Africa will require a dramatic acceleration in the current rates of progress, according to a UNICEF/WHO special report focused on Africa, launched today at the World Water Forum in Dakar, Senegal. This special report calls for urgent action […]
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Seven ways to make groundwater visible
By Dr. Jenny Grönwall, PhD Groundwater is often referred to as an ‘invisible resource.’ Hiding under our feet, it is impossible to tell its presence which affects the way it is used, and this shared resource is shared between communities and across borders. Through this article, Dr. Jenny Grönwall calls upon all communicators to collaborate with […]
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More trees can boost groundwater recharge
By Waterfront Do more trees always mean less water? This used to be the predominant scientific view, but new research paints a more nuanced picture. It appears that intermediate tree cover can boost groundwater recharge in African tropical drylands, which is great news for people living there. Everybody loves trees for the fruit, fuel, construction […]
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World Water Day 2022: Tapping into groundwater’s potential
By Tom Murphy – The Water Project Water is everywhere, but you often can’t see it. We are reminded of that fact in marking World Water Day 2022. This year’s theme is about the importance of groundwater. Its tagline is: “Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere.” Groundwater is a significant source of […]
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Gender Blind Spots in the Water Sector
An opinion piece By Lina Taing and Grace Oluwasanya In the water sector, blind spots pose a particular barrier to progress. Blind spots due to limited data, discriminatory structural and systemic violations such as stereotypes and norms need to be urgently addressed. Even within the SDGs, there are blind spots: none of the 11 indicators for SDG 6 (clean water and […]
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International Women’s Day 2022: Breaking the bias of the water crisis
By Tom Murphy – The water Project The global water crisis disproportionately affects women and girls. According to joint publications by the United Nations and World Health Organization, women and girls are responsible for collecting water in 80 percent of households without water on-premises. Lack of access to clean water literally puts the lives of women at […]