GET WET!

By Lara Salahi

New research led by the U.S. Geological Survey now estimates that between 71 and 95 million Americans, over 20% of the U.S. population, potentially rely on groundwater with detectable levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for their drinking water supplies — many more people than previously estimated. Adequate coverage of groundwater contamination is crucial as it’s both a regional environmental issue and a largely invisible public health crisis that could have profound long-term impacts. 

The study, published in Science, uses an advanced predictive model that accounts for various PFAS sources — such as industrial sites, wastewater facilities, and fire training areas — to estimate the likelihood of PFAS contamination across the contiguous United States. PFAS — also called “forever chemicals” — are known for their durability and resistance to degradation and have become widespread in the environment, infiltrating soils, waters and even human bodies. 

The model suggests a stark reality: many Americans may unknowingly drink PFAS-contaminated water due to the lack of comprehensive testing, especially in domestic wells. 

The findings suggest that PFAS contamination isn’t limited to industrial areas or densely populated regions. Instead, the contamination likely spans vast areas, affecting both public and private drinking water wells, including those in rural and underserved areas, where water sources are less regulated and monitored. This means that for millions of people, accessing safe water may depend on factors as arbitrary as geography, regulatory reach, and economic resources, highlighting inequities that journalists have a unique opportunity to explore.

Why this story matters now

The PFAS contamination crisis is emblematic of the broader struggle to balance economic activity with public health. The ongoing debate about regulating forever chemicals is part of a larger narrative about the responsibility corporations and governments have to protect natural resources and public welfare. This is an opportunity to shed light on the complexities of environmental policy, public health, and individual rights.

As the EPA moves toward possible regulation of PFAS in drinking water, public awareness and understanding of the issue will be critical. Journalists have a crucial role in keeping the public informed, advocating for transparency, and ensuring that the communities most affected by PFAS contamination are not left out of the conversation.

More about PFAS: Health and environmental risks

PFAS are known to pose significant health risks. Exposure has been linked to numerous adverse health effects, including cancer, immune system suppression, thyroid disease, and developmental issues in children. What makes forever chemicals especially concerning is their persistence; they do not break down naturally and can accumulate in the environment and human bodies over time. Because of their non-degradable nature, PFAS can be found almost everywhere, from human blood samples to remote bodies of water.

Journalists covering this topic should be aware that, despite the severity of these health risks, regulation and public knowledge about PFAS remain limited. There is no federal standard for PFAS levels in drinking water, though the Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new guidelines. This regulatory gap leaves millions exposed to potentially harmful levels of PFAS without clear protections or guidance. 

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration issued the first enforceable U.S. drinking water standards targeting PFAS, which is expected to impact around 100 million people. This initiative is part of a larger $1 billion effort funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support clean water projects nationwide, especially for communities with elevated PFAS levels.

Public awareness and informed advocacy could be key to prompting stricter regulations and safety measures.

Contaminated water in news deserts

Groundwater contamination by PFAS isn’t limited to urban or heavily industrialized areas. This issue affects rural and underserved communities disproportionately, as many such areas rely on unregulated domestic wells for drinking water. Often, these communities have limited access to news, making it less likely that residents are aware of potential contamination risks. This highlights the broader problem of “news deserts” — regions with little to no local journalism coverage — where environmental hazards like PFAS contamination may go unreported and unaddressed.

In areas where news resources are already thin, local journalists can bring PFAS contamination issues to light, connecting residents with health resources, and pushing for state and local action.  By providing consistent and clear coverage, journalists can help mitigate the lack of accessible information in these regions. 

Resources for journalists

To assist with reporting on PFAS contamination, the USGS has developed a publicly available, interactive map that shows probability estimates of PFAS contamination in groundwater at drinking water supply depths. This tool can help journalists localize the issue, identify communities at risk, and convey the scale of the problem to readers. Further, engaging with experts at organizations like the Environmental Working Group, which regularly publishes research and policy recommendations on forever chemicals, can provide additional insights and data for in-depth reporting.

And some states have enacted stricter PFAS regulations, which can provide case studies and comparison points for stories. Following up on state and local initiatives can give audiences a sense of what effective PFAS management might look like and the steps their communities could take. 

As PFAS contamination in drinking water becomes more widely recognized, readers will want to know what actions they can take to protect themselves and their families. Practical, consumer-focused aspects of the PFAS issue include information on home water filtration options, guidance on understanding PFAS levels, and links to useful resources for further information.

Understanding water filtration options for PFAS

Not all water filters are capable of removing forever chemicals, so it’s essential to know which technologies are effective. Studies show that filtration systems using activated carbon, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange are the most effective at reducing PFAS levels in drinking water​

• Activated carbon filters: These filters work by adsorbing contaminants like PFAS. They are relatively affordable and widely available, but their effectiveness can vary. Large, whole-house carbon filters tend to be more effective than smaller pitcher or faucet options.
• Reverse osmosis (RO) systems: RO systems are some of the most effective filters for PFAS removal. These systems force water through a semi-permeable membrane, leaving contaminants like PFAS behind. They are typically more expensive and may require professional installation.
• Ion exchange filters: Ion exchange systems use resin to capture and remove PFAS molecules. They’re usually more complex than typical household filters but can be very effective in reducing PFAS levels.

Consumer resources for testing and additional information

Stories can direct readers to resources that offer testing options and further details on PFAS:

• Home testing kits: For households that rely on well water or wish to be proactive, home water testing kits for PFAS are available. Though these tests can be expensive, they may provide peace of mind and data to support decisions on water treatment.
• EPA’s resources and guidelines: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a collection of resources and guidelines for PFAS in drinking water. These documents provide current regulatory recommendations and offer valuable insights into what’s being done at the federal level to address PFAS

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2024/11/pfas-may-contaminate-drinking-water-of-one-in-five-americans-study-suggests/

• Over 410 million people could be at risk from rising sea levels by 2100 as a result of the climate crisis. Observed sea level rise data shows that global sea levels have already risen by more than 10cm over the last decade.
• The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is holding a High-Level Meeting on sea-level rise on 25 September to address its existential threats.
• Climate change, nature and the energy transition will be under the spotlight at the World Economic Forum’s annual Sustainable Development Impact Meetings, which coincide with UNGA’s General Debate.

“Since the start of the 20th century, global-mean sea level has risen faster than over any prior century in at least the last 3,000 years, and the rate of increase is accelerating,” warns ‘Surging Seas in Warming World’ – a new United Nations (UN) report on the current and future impacts of sea level rise.

Homes, livelihoods and, ultimately, lives are under threat from rising sea levels.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is Sea Level Rise?

Sea level rise refers to the increase in the average height of the ocean’s surface, measured from the center of the Earth. This phenomenon is primarily driven by two main factors: the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and the thermal expansion of seawater as it warms. As global temperatures rise due to climate change, ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting at an accelerated rate, contributing significantly to sea level rise. Additionally, as seawater warms, it expands, further increasing the sea level. This rise in sea level is a critical indicator of climate change, with far-reaching impacts on coastal communities, ecosystems, and economies worldwide.

Why is the spotlight on sea level rise now? 

For the first time, the UN General Assembly’s High-Level Week 2024 will feature a dedicated meeting on Sea-Level Rise on September 25, encompassing four multi-stakeholder thematic panel discussions. Collectively, they will address the legal, financial, socio-economic and scientific aspects of sea-level rise, covering its impacts on livelihoods, adaptation strategies and decision-making processes. The meeting will also address how global climate change contributes to local sea level rise, affecting different regions in unique ways.

Climate change, nature and the energy transition will also be under the spotlight at the World Economic Forum’s annual Sustainable Development Impact Meetings (SDIM24) in New York 23 to 27, which coincide with UNGA’s General Debate.

Uniting leaders from politics, business and civil society, SDIM aims to drive innovation on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on climate action, digital literacy, and economic inclusion. Only 17% of the SDGs are on track, underscoring the urgent need for accelerated progress.

Have you read?

• SDIM24: What are the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings and what to expect
• UNGA 2024: What is the UN General Assembly and what happens at the meeting?

How is sea level measured?

Now satellites carry out this task by bouncing radar signals off the sea surface to measure changes in sea level. The Forum’s work on Amplifying the Global Value of Earth Observation highlights monitoring changing sea levels as a key application of the technology to support vulnerability analysis.

Because local weather conditions and other factors can affect sea level, measurements are taken globally and then averaged out.

Sea levels have risen by over 10cm between 1993 and 2024.Image: NASA

In 2021, scientists discovered a sea-level “fingerprint” from the Greenland ice sheet, confirming fears about the extent to which ice is melting. 

These fingerprints are “detectable patterns of sea level variability around the world resulting from changes in water storage on Earth’s continents and in the mass of ice sheets”, according to NASA.

The Greenland ice sheet is now losing around 30 million tonnes of ice an hour, reports The Guardian, and a recent study predicts its total collapse could happen by 2025.

How much are sea levels rising?

With the ice sheet at “a tipping point of irreversible melting”, scientists currently expect an unavoidable sea level rise of 1-2 metres.

Global sea levels have already risen by over 10cm between 1993 and 2024, according to NASA, which says sea levels have been rising at unprecedented rates over the past 2,500 years.

While global sea levels have risen by over 10cm between 1993 and 2024, relative sea level rise can vary significantly depending on local factors such as land subsidence and ocean currents.

The global sea level has risen by about 21cm since records began in 1880. While measuring in centimetres or even millimetres might seem small, these rises can have big consequences. This is particularly true where storm surges sweep further inland than they would have previously.

What causes sea level rise?

Two main factors cause sea level rise. These are melting ice from glaciers, and seawater expanding because of rises in global temperatures, explains the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Greenland and Antarctica are losing around 270 billion and 150 billion tonnes of ice a year,

There are also likely negative feedback loops that could speed up glacier ice melt. For example, the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is disintegrating more quickly than anticipated. It’s nicknamed the ‘doomsday glacier’ because sea levels could rise more than three metres without it and its supporting ice shelves.

Heat stored in the ocean is responsible for between a third and half of global sea level rise, NASA says. The past decade has been the ocean’s warmest since at least 1800, and ocean temperatures reached a new high in 2023.

As sea levels rise, the frequency of high tide flooding, also known as nuisance flooding, is expected to increase, impacting coastal infrastructure and ecosystems.

Since 1971, oceans have absorbed over 90% of excess heat in the Earth system caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions, the UN’s Surging Seasreport reveals.

The Relationship Between Sea Level Rise and Climate Change

Climate change is the primary driver of global sea level rise. 

As the Earth’s temperature increases, the polar ice caps and glaciers melt, releasing vast amounts of water into the oceans. This melting ice contributes directly to the rising sea levels. 

Furthermore, the warming of the ocean causes the water to expand, a process known as thermal expansion, which also contributes to sea level rise. 

The relationship between sea level rise and climate change is complex and multifaceted. Understanding this connection is crucial for predicting future sea level rise scenarios and developing strategies to mitigate its impacts. 

As global warming continues, the rate of sea level rise is expected to accelerate, posing significant challenges for coastal regions around the world.

Effects of Global Sea Level Rise

The effects of global sea level rise are profound and multifaceted, impacting both human and natural systems. Rising seas threaten infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and buildings, leading to increased costs for maintenance and repair. 

Coastal flooding becomes more frequent and severe, exacerbating erosion and causing saltwater intrusion into freshwater sources, which can compromise drinking water supplies and agricultural productivity. 

Additionally, sea level rise poses a significant threat to coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, and salt marshes, which provide critical habitat for numerous species. 

The displacement of people living in low-lying areas due to rising seas can lead to social and economic challenges, including loss of property, livelihoods, and increased pressure on social services. 

Addressing these impacts requires comprehensive adaptation strategies to protect vulnerable communities and ecosystems.

Economic and Social Impacts

The economic and social impacts of sea level rise are significant and far-reaching. Rising seas can lead to increased costs for coastal protection measures, such as building sea walls and surge barriers, and repairing damage to infrastructure. 

The loss of property and livelihoods due to coastal flooding and erosion can have devastating effects on communities, particularly in vulnerable regions. Additionally, sea level rise can exacerbate social and economic challenges by displacing people, disrupting economic activities, and straining social services. 

For example, communities that rely on tourism, fishing, and agriculture may face significant economic losses as rising seas threaten their way of life. 

Understanding these economic and social impacts is critical for developing effective adaptation strategies and mitigating the effects of sea level rise on vulnerable populations.

Past Sea Level Rise and Historical Context

Throughout Earth’s history, sea levels have fluctuated significantly, with major changes occurring during the last ice age and the subsequent warming period. However, the current rate of sea level rise is unprecedented. 

Since 1900, the global average sea level has risen by approximately 15-20 cm, a rate much faster than historical averages. This rapid increase is largely attributed to human-induced climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions. 

Understanding past sea level rise and its historical context is essential for predicting future changes and developing effective adaptation strategies. 

By studying historical data, scientists can better understand the natural variability of sea levels and the extent to which current trends are influenced by human activities.

Which countries will be most affected by rising sea levels?

Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands were singled out by the UN in 2023 as being at high risk from rising sea levels, with nearly 900 million people living in low-lying coastal areas in acute danger.

In its Surging Seas report, the organization highlights the dangers facing the communities of the Pacific Small Island Developing States: “The Pacific SIDS, especially those in the western tropical Pacific (e.g., Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands), are particularly vulnerable to SLR [sea level rise] because of: (i) high exposure to tropical cyclones and other tropical storms; (ii) high shoreline-to-land area ratios; (iii) high sensitivity to changes in sea level, waves, and currents; and (iv) its many low-lying coral atolls or volcanically-composed islands.”

According to Reuters, sea levels around Tonga are rising at almost twice the global average rate. 

In Europe, sea level rise is expected to go above 10cm “prior to 2050”, says the European Environment Agency.

While recent research in the US has found that almost 1,100 critical buildings in coastal communities could be at risk of monthly flooding by 2050. Some communities could become unliveable within two to three decades, the report says.

How are areas at risk of rising sea levels adapting?

In its Global Risks Report 2024, the World Economic Forum added the category ‘Critical change to Earth systems’ as one of the top two threats to the world in the coming decade – and sea level rise from collapsing ice sheets is identified as a key contributing factor.

Adaptation is vital, it says, but “efforts are falling short”, with a finance gap currently estimated at $194 billion to $366 billion a year. 

Countries and cities around the world are nevertheless putting strategies into action. In New Zealand, climate adaptation policies are being designed to ensure public housing is not built near areas prone to climate hazards.

Sea walls, surge barriers and other coastal defences are being built and strengthened in several countries including Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. 

South Korea and the islands of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean are experimenting with floating homes, while China, India and other nations are finding ways to absorb and store storm water for reuse.

More drastic action is taking place in Fiji, where government officials are making plans to relocate whole villages because of rising sea levels – 42 villages have been recommended for relocation in the next five to 10 years, while six have already been moved to safer ground, The Guardian reports.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/09/rising-sea-levels-global-threat/

BY MITOTA P. OMOLERE

Water is life. Yet, as the world population mushrooms and climate change intensifies droughts, over 2 billion people still lack access to clean, safe drinking water. By 2030, water scarcity could displace over 700 million people. From deadly diseases to famines, economic collapse to terrorism, the global water crisis threatens to sever the strands holding communities together. This ubiquitous yet unequally distributed resource underscores the precarious interdependence binding all nations and ecosystems and shows the urgent need for bold collective action to promote global water security and avert the humanitarian, health, economic, and political catastrophes that unchecked water stress promises. 

—

The global water crisis refers to the scarcity of usable and accessible water resources across the world. Currently, nearly 703 million people lack access to water – approximately 1 in 10 people on the planet – and over 2 billion do not have safe drinking water services. The United Nations predicts that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity. With the existing climate change scenario, almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030. In addition, water scarcity in some arid and semi-arid places will displace between 24 million and 700 million people. By 2030, water scarcity could displace over 700 million people.

In Africa alone, as many as 25 African countries are expected to suffer from a greater combination of increased water scarcity and water stress by 2025. Sub-Saharan regions are experiencing the worst of the crisis, with only 22-34% of populations in at least eight sub-Saharan countries having access to safe water.

Water security, or reliable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems, and production has become an urgent issue worldwide.

This crisis has far-reaching implications for global health, food security, education, economics, and politics. As water resources dwindle, conflicts and humanitarian issues over access to clean water will likely increase. Climate change also exacerbates water scarcity in many parts of the world. Addressing this complex and multifaceted crisis requires understanding its causes, impacts, and potential solutions across countries and communities.

The Global Water Crisis

The global water crisis stems from a confluence of factors, including growing populations, increased water consumption, poor resource management, climate change, pollution, and lack of access due to poverty and inequality.

The world population has tripled over the last 70 years, leading to greater demand for finite freshwater resources. Agricultural, industrial, and domestic water usage have depleted groundwater in many regions faster than it can be replenished. Agriculture alone accounts for nearly 70% of global water withdrawals, often utilizing outdated irrigation systems and water-intensive crops.Climate change has significantly reduced renewable water resources in many parts of the world. Glaciers are melting, rainfall patterns have shifted, droughts and floods have intensified, and temperatures are on the rise, further exacerbating the crisis.In many less developed nations, lack of infrastructure, corruption, and inequality leave large populations without reliable access to clean water. Women and children often bear the burden of travelling distances to fetch water for households. Contamination from human waste, industrial activities, and agricultural runoff also threaten water quality and safety.

Water scarcity poses risks to health, sanitation, food production, energy generation, economic growth, and political stability worldwide. Conflicts over shared water resources are likely to intensify without concerted global action.

Case Study: Water Crisis in Gaza

The water crisis in Gaza represents one of the most severe cases of water scarcity worldwide. The small Palestinian territory relies almost entirely on the underlying coastal aquifer as its source of freshwater. However, years of excessive pumping far exceed natural recharge rates. According to the UN, 97% groundwater does not meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards for human consumption due to high salinity and nitrate levels.

The pollution of Gaza’s sole freshwater source stems from multiple factors. Rapid population growth contaminated agricultural runoff, inadequate wastewater treatment, and saltwater intrusion due to over-extraction have rendered the aquifer unusable.

 In June 2007, following the military takeover of Gaza by Hamas, the Israeli authorities significantly intensified existing movement restrictions, virtually isolating the Gaza Strip from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), and the world. The blockade imposed by Israeli Authority also severely restricts infrastructure development and humanitarian aid.

The water crisis has devastated Gazan agriculture, caused widespread health issues, and crippled economic growth. Many citizens of Gaza have to buy trucked water of dubious quality, as the public network is unsafe and scarce. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reports that this water can cost up to 20 times more than the public tariff, with some households spending a third of their income or more on water. Long-term solutions require increased water supplies, wastewater reuse, desalination, and better resource management under conflict.

Case Study: Water Shortage in Africa

Africa faces some of the most pressing challenges with water security worldwide. While the continent has substantial resources, poor infrastructure, mismanagement, corruption, lack of cooperation over transboundary waters, droughts, and population pressures all contribute to African water stress.

According to a 2022 report by the WHO and UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), 344 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lacked access to safely managed drinking water, and 762 million lacked access to basic sanitation in 2020. WaterAid, a non-governmental organization, explains that water resources are often far from communities due to the expansive nature of the continent, though other factors such as climate change, population growth, poor governance, and lack of infrastructure also play a role. Surface waters such as lakes and rivers evaporate rapidly in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa, which cover about 45% of the continent’s land area. Many communities rely on limited groundwater and community water points to meet their water needs, but groundwater is not always a reliable or sustainable source, as it can be depleted, contaminated, or inaccessible due to technical or financial constraints. A 2021 study by UNICEF estimated that women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa collectively spend about 37 billion hours a year collecting water, which is equivalent to more than 1 billion hours a day.The 2023 UN World Water Development Report emphasizes the importance of partnerships and cooperation for water, food, energy, health and climate security in Africa, a region with diverse water challenges and opportunities, low water withdrawals per capita, high vulnerability to climate change, and large investment gap for water supply and sanitation.

Water security in Africa is low and uneven, with various countries facing water scarcity, poor sanitation, and water-related disasters. Transboundary conflicts over shared rivers, such as the Nile, pose additional challenges for water management. 

However, some efforts have been made to improve water security through various interventions, such as community-based initiatives, irrigation development, watershed rehabilitation, water reuse, desalination, and policy reforms. These interventions aim to enhance water availability, quality, efficiency, governance, and resilience in the face of climate change. Water security is essential for achieving sustainable development in Africa, as it affects numerous sectors, such as agriculture, health, energy, and the environment.

Other Countries with Water Shortages

Water scarcity issues plague many other parts of the world beyond Gaza and Africa. Several examples stand out:

• Egypt depends largely on the Nile River, but the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam threatens water supplies. Water quality is also declining, and demand is rising with rapid population growth.
• Iraq faces severe water stress impacting agriculture and public health. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers have dwindled because of upstream damming and climate change. Water distribution is inefficient and wasteful.
• Parts of the United States, like California, have faced prolonged droughts. Groundwater pumping has caused land subsidence, and supplies habitually fall short of demand in cities like Phoenix.

India grapples with extensive groundwater depletion, shrinking reservoirs and glaciers, pollution from agriculture and industry, and tensions with Pakistan and China over shared rivers. Monsoons are increasingly erratic with climate change.

Other water-stressed nations include Australia, Spain, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. 

While the specifics differ, recurrent themes include unsustainable usage, climate change, pollution, lack of infrastructure, mismanagement, poverty, transboundary conflicts, and population growth pressures. But resources often exist; the challenge lies in equitable distribution, cooperation, efficiency, and sustainable practices. Multiple approaches must accommodate local conditions and transboundary disputes.

You might also like: Water Crisis in South Africa: Causes, Effects, And Solutions

Global Water Security Is at Risk

Water scarcity poses a grave threat to global security on multiple fronts. 

First, it can incite conflicts within and between nations over access rights. History contains many examples of water wars, and transboundary disputes increase the risk today in arid regions like the Middle East and North Africa.

Second, water shortages undermine food security. With agriculture consuming the greatest share of water resources, lack of irrigation threatens crops and livestock essential for sustenance and livelihoods. Food price spikes often trigger instability and migrations.

Third, water scarcity fuels public health crises, leading to social disruptions. Contaminated water spreads diseases like cholera and typhoid. Poor sanitation and hygiene due to water limitations also increase illness. The Covid-19 pandemic underscored the essential nature of water access for viral containment.

Finally, water shortages hamper economic growth and worsen poverty. Hydroelectricity, manufacturing, mining, and other water-intensive industries suffer. The World Bank estimates that by 2050, water scarcity could cost some regions 6% of gross domestic product (GDP), entrenching inequality. Climate migration strains nations. Overall, water crises destabilize societies on many levels if left unaddressed.

Solutions and Recommendations

Tackling the global water crisis requires both local and international initiatives across infrastructure, technology, governance, cooperation, education, and funding.

First, upgrading distribution systems, sewage treatment, dams, desalination, watershed restoration, and irrigation methods could improve supply reliability and quality while reducing waste. Community-based projects often succeed by empowering local stakeholders.

Second, emerging technologies like low-cost water quality sensors, affordable desalination, precision agriculture, and recyclable treatment materials could help poorer nations bridge infrastructure gaps. However, funding research and making innovations affordable remains a key obstacle.

Third, better governance through reduced corruption, privatization, metering, pricing incentives, and integrated policy frameworks could improve efficiency. But human rights must be protected by maintaining affordable minimum access.

Fourth, transboundary water-sharing treaties like those for the Nile and Mekong Rivers demonstrate that diplomacy can resolve potential conflicts. But political will is needed, along with climate change adaptation strategies.

Fifth, education and awareness can empower conservation at the individual level. Behaviour change takes time but can significantly reduce household and agricultural usage.

Finally, increased financial aid, public-private partnerships, better lending terms, and innovation prizes may help nations fund projects. Cost-benefit analyses consistently find high returns on water security investments.

In summary, sustainable solutions require combining new technologies, governance reforms, education, cooperation, and creative financing locally and globally. 

Conclusion

The global water crisis threatens the well-being of billions of people and the stability of nations worldwide. Key drivers include unsustainable usage, climate change, pollution, lack of infrastructure, poverty, weak governance, and transboundary disputes. The multiple impacts span public health, food and energy security, economic growth, and geopolitical conflicts.

While daunting, this crisis also presents opportunities for innovation, cooperation, education, and holistic solutions. With wise policies and investments, water security can be achieved in most regions to support development and peace. But action must be accelerated on both global and community levels before the stresses become overwhelming. Ultimately, our shared human dependence on clean water demands that all stakeholders work in unison to create a water-secure future.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://earth.org/global-water-crisis-why-the-world-urgently-needs-water-wise-solutions/

By Jack Morgan

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water has awarded a $75m contract to ICF to provide environmental, economic, regulatory and evaluation services to the agency’s critical water programmes.

The partnership aims to help reduce pollutants in US waters, improve the quality of drinking water, and decrease exposure to toxic substances and emerging contaminants.

Consultancy ICF has supported EPA’s water regulations since 2018 and helped to develop the first-ever nationwide, legally enforceable drinking water standards to protect communities from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often referred to as forever chemicals. The EPA issued the final rule for these standards in April.

Under the contract, ICF will evaluate the environmental and health impacts of the EPA’s regulations and associated costs and benefits.

Jennifer Welham, senior vice president of health, people and human services at the consultancy, says: “The EPA is facing an increasingly complex set of challenges related to water regulation and quality, from addressing emerging contaminants like PFAS to improving water infrastructure and mitigating the effects of climate change.” 

Welham adds: “Beyond PFAS, the EPA is grappling with a growing list of emerging contaminants in ambient water and in drinking water. Identifying and regulating these contaminants presents several challenges, such as the broad range of them and treatment cost.”

To identify and regulate these contaminants, Welham says: “ICF will continue to apply a range of research and analysis methods – ranging from literature review and data analyses to complex system modelling – to assess the environmental effects of pollutants and estimate the benefits and costs of regulatory or policy measures to address water pollution.”

ICF’s modelling simulates the environmental effects of pollutants and evaluates different regulatory scenarios. This includes estimating the costs and effectiveness of measures that facilities implement in response to the regulations, as well as economic impacts and direct and indirect benefits.

Welham says: “The cost-benefit and other analyses supported by ICF allow EPA policy makers and stakeholders to evaluate the possible regulatory options and ensure that the regulation achieves its objectives.”

The contract is a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) valued at up to $75m and will last for five years, consisting of a one-year base period and four optional one-year extensions. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://environment-analyst.com/global/110668/us-epa-icf-partnership-targets-emerging-water-contaminants

By World Meteorological Organization

The year 2023 marked the driest year for global rivers in over three decades, according to a new report coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which signaled critical changes in water availability in an era of growing demand. 

The last five consecutive years have recorded widespread below-normal conditions for river flows, with reservoir inflows following a similar pattern. This reduces the amount of water available for communities, agriculture and ecosystems, further stressing global water supplies, according to the State of Global Water Resources report.

Glaciers suffered the largest mass loss ever registered in the last five decades. 2023 is the second consecutive year in which all regions in the world with glaciers reported iceloss.

With 2023 being the hottest year on record, elevated temperatures and widespread dry conditions contributed to prolonged droughts. But there were also a significant number of floods around the world. The extreme hydrological events were influenced by naturally occurring climate conditions – the transition from La Niña to El Niño in mid-2023 – as well as human induced climate change.

“Water is the canary in the coalmine of climate change. We receive distress signals in the form of increasingly extreme rainfall, floods and droughts which wreak a heavy toll on lives, ecosystems and economies. Melting ice and glaciers threaten long-term water security for many millions of people. And yet we are not taking the necessary urgent action,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

“As a result of rising temperatures, the hydrological cycle has accelerated. It has also become more erratic and unpredictable, and we are facing growing problems of either too much or too little water. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture which is conducive to heavy rainfall. More rapid evaporation and drying of soils worsen drought conditions,” she said.

“And yet, far too little is known about the true state of the world’s freshwater resources. We cannot manage what we do not measure. This report seeks to contribute to improved monitoring, data-sharing, cross-border collaboration and assessments,” said Celeste Saulo. “This is urgently needed.”

The State of Global Water Resources report series offers a comprehensive and consistent overview of water resources worldwide. It is based on input from dozens of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and other organizations and experts. It seeks to inform decision makers in water-sensitive sectors and disaster risk reduction professionals. It complements WMO’s flagship State of the Global Climate series.

The State of the Global Water Resources report is now in its third year and is the most comprehensive to date, with new information on lake and reservoir volumes, soil moisture data, and more details on glaciers and snow water equivalent.

The report seeks to create an extensive global dataset of hydrological variables, which includes observed and modelled data from a wide array of sources. It aligns with the focus of the global Early Warnings for All initiative on improving data quality and access for water-related hazard monitoring and forecasting,and providing early warning systems for all by 2027.

Currently, 3.6 billion people face inadequate access to water at least a month per year and this is expected to increase to more than 5 billion by 2050, according to UN Water, and the world is far of track Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation.

Highlights

Hydrological extremes

The year 2023 was the hottest year on record. The transition from La Niña to El Niño conditions in mid-2023, as well as the positive phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) influenced extreme weather.

Africa was the most impacted in terms of human casualties. In Libya, two dams collapsed due to a major flood in September 2023, claiming more than 11,000 lives and affecting 22% of the population. Floods also affected the Greater Horn of Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Mozambique and Malawi.

Southern USA, Central America, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Brazil were affected by widespread drought conditions, which led to 3% gross domestic product loss in Argentina and lowest water levels ever observed in Amazon and in Lake Titicaca.

River discharge

The year 2023 was marked by mostly drier-than-normal to normal river discharge conditions compared to the historical period. Similar to 2022 and 2021, over 50% of global catchment areas showed abnormal conditions, with most of them being in deficit. Fewer basins showed above normal conditions.

Large territories of Northern, Central and South America suffered severe drought and reduced river discharge conditions in 2023. The Mississippi and Amazon basins saw record low water levels. In Asia and Oceania, the large Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekongriver basins experienced lower-than-normal conditions almost over the entire basin territories.

The East coast of Africa had above and much above-normal discharge and flooding. North Island of New Zealand and the Philippines exhibited much above normal annual discharge conditions. In Northern Europe, the entire territory of the UK and Ireland saw above-normal discharge, also Finland and South Sweden.

2023: Half of the globe had dry river flow conditions

Reservoirs and lakes

The inflows into reservoirs showed a similar pattern to the global river discharge trends: India, North, South and Central America, parts of Australia experiencing below-normal inflow conditions. The basin-wide reservoir storage varied significantly, reflecting the influence of water management, with much above-normal levels in basins like the Amazon and Parana, where river discharge was much-below-normal in 2023.

Lake Coari in the Amazon faced below-normal levels, leading to extreme water temperature. Lake Turkana, shared between Kenya and Ethiopia, had above-normal water volumes, following much above-normal river discharge conditions.

Groundwater Levels

In South Africa, most wells showed above-normal groundwater levels, following above-average precipitation, as did India, Ireland, Australia, and Israel. Notable depletion in groundwater availability was observed in parts of North America and Europe due to prolonged drought. In Chile and Jordan groundwater levels were below normal, with the long-term declines due to over-abstraction rather than climatic factors.

Soil moisture and evapotranspiration

Levels of soil moisture were predominantly below or much below normal across large territories globally, with North America, South America, North Africa, and the Middle East particularly dry during June-August.  Central and South America, especially Brazil and Argentina, faced much below-normal actual evapotranspiration in September-October-November. For Mexico, this lasted almost the entire year because of drought conditions.

In contrast, certain regions, including Alaska, northeast Canada, India, parts of Russia, parts of Australia and New Zealand experienced much above-normal soil moisture levels. 

Snow water equivalent

Most catchments in the Northern Hemisphere had below to much-below normal snow water equivalent  in March. Seasonal peak snow mass for 2023 was much above normal in parts of North America and much-below normal in Eurasian continent.

Glaciers

Glaciers lost more than 600 Gigatonnes of water, the worst in 50 years of observations, according to preliminary data for September 2022 – August 2023. This severe loss is mainly due to extreme melting in western North America and the European Alps, where Switzerland’s glaciers have lost about 10% of their remaining volume over the past two years. Snow cover in the northern hemisphere has been decreasing in late spring and summer: in May 2023, the snow cover extent was the eighth lowest on record (1967–2023). For North America the May snow cover was the lowest in the same period

Summer ice mass loss over the past years indicated that glaciers in Europe, Scandinavia, Caucasus, Western Canada North, South Asia West, and New Zealand have passed peak water (maximum melt rate of a retreating glacier; leading to reduced water storage and availability afterwards), while Southern Andes (dominated by the Patagonian region), Russian Arctic, and Svalbard seem to still present increasing melt rates.

Retreating Glaciers: Glaciers suffer largest mass loss in 50 years

Notes to Editors

The State of Global Water Resources report contains input from a wide network of hydrological experts, including National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, Global Data Centres, global hydrological modelling community members and supporting organizations such as NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).

The number of river discharge measurement stations increased from 273 in 14 countries to 713 in 33 countries, and the groundwater data collection expanded to 35459 wells in 40 countries, compared to 8,246 wells in 10 countries in the previous year (Figure 1). However, despite improvements in observational data sharing, still Africa, South America, and Asia remain underrepresented in hydrological data collection, highlighting the need for improved monitoring and data sharing, particularly in the Global South.

The report seeks to enhance the accessibility and availability of observational data (both through better monitoring and improved data sharing), further integrate relevant variables into the report, and encourage country participation to better understand and report water cycle dynamics.

Future reports are anticipated to include even more observational data, supported by initiatives like the WMO’s Global Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS), the WMO Hydrological Observing System (WHOS), and collaboration with global data centers.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-report-highlights-growing-shortfalls-and-stress-global-water-resources

By World Meteorological Organization

All people on Earth depend on the cryosphere. Snow, glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, and permafrost are significant reservoirs and sources of freshwater, sustaining ecosystems and supporting livelihoods. Approximately 70% of the Earth’s freshwater is stored in glaciers and ice sheets. However, greenhouse gas emissions are driving rapid changes in the cryosphere, leading to global consequences including rising sea levels, loss of water resources, accelerated warming, extreme weather events, and significant impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems, and human livelihoods. Coastal regions, low-lying islands, polar and high mountain areas are especially vulnerable.

A new WMO Bulletin article describes the cryosphere as the “Canary in the coal mine” of the climate system because coal mines once used canaries as early indicators of potential danger: their sensitivity to poisonous gases caused their early demise during gas leaks, sounding a danger alarm for miners. Today, “canary in the coal mine” is commonly used to express alert for environmental dangers. 

The article explains why the cryosphere has become one of WMO’s top priorities.

Reflecting the urgency of the challenge, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo took part in high-level events at COP29 to highlight the importance of the cryosphere.

International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 

An event hosted by Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon increased awareness of the importance of the upcoming International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation in 2025. In collaboration with UNESCO, WMO is facilitating its implementation.

WMO provides annual updates on the State of the Global Climate, which assess melting of glaciers through monitoring. Glaciers mass balance is an important climate change indicator. And it is an alarming one.

The recently released “State of Global Water Resources 2023” report highlights alarming findings. Glaciers worldwide respond differently to climate change, but collectively, they lost over 600 gigatons of water in 2023. 600 gigatons of water is about 13% of the world’s annual water consumption, Celeste Saulo told the event. 

“This was the largest mass loss in 50 years of measurements. This underscores a pressing concern: the long-term reduction in water stored as ice will critically affect future water resources for people and ecosystems,” she said. 

The ministerial-level event was attended by Shehbaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan – one of the countries on the frontline of short term hazards like glacial lake outflows, avalanches and floods and long-term water insecurity. 

A Message from the Frozen World 

A Message from the Frozen World – the Global Impact of a Changing Cryosphere.”was issued by key stakeholders and rightsholders from polar, mountainous and vulnerable low-lying regions at a high-level event hosted by Norway as Chair of the Arctic Council.

Participants at the high-level event included Chile, Bhutan, Germany, Pakistan, Nepal, the Inuit Circumpolar Council, WMO, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, the Ambition on melting ice (AMI) / International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, the Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. The event was opened by the Prime Minister of Norway, H.E. Mr. Jonas Gahr Støre.

“Norway, as chair of the Arctic Council, recognizes the cryosphere’s critical role and is committed to amplifying the urgent message from the polar and high mountain regions,” said Morten Høglund, Chair of the Arctic Council. “We must leverage scientific research and Indigenous Knowledge to tackle these issues. The Arctic Council is vital for this collaboration, yet this is a global concern. To slow irreversible climate change, we must keep global temperatures below 1.5°C.”

The side event hosted by Norway highlighted the serious impacts of climate change in the Arctic, Antarctica, and mountain cryosphere, and related these to vulnerable low-lying and downstream populations. It emphasized the impact on Indigenous Peoples and the need to equitably and ethically utilize the Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples in response to these changes. 

The event concluded with the representatives of governments of Germany and Pakistan signing the Ambition on Melting Ice: On Sea-level Rise and Mountain Water Resources (AMI) Declaration, that was initiated at COP27 and is co-chaired by Chile and Iceland.

Regional cryosphere changes – global impacts

The Arctic is one of the regions most impacted by climate change. In the last 45 years, it has warmed at three times the global average, severely impacting its environment, biodiversity, and communities. But changes in the region extend far beyond the Arctic; its effects are felt worldwide.

A significant part of the population in the Arctic and high mountain regions are Indigenous Peoples. This includes over 180,000 Inuit that have lived and thrived in Inuit Nunaat, the circumpolar Inuit homeland, for millennia and have unique Knowledge about the ice and the ecosystems it sustains. Inuit livelihoods, culture, and ways of life are particularly impacted by the changing cryosphere and a multitude of other external compounding threats that were not caused by Inuit, yet they are experiencing its consequences. 
“Inuit are a people of the cryosphere. We are deeply and intrinsically connected with sea ice and the nature of a frozen landscape for traveling, hunting, safely living on our lands and harvesting our marine resources. In recent years, Inuit have increasingly been impacted by the lack of ice, which affects our health, wellbeing and livelihoods, thereby impacting our collective and individual rights,” says Sara Olsvig, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). 

“For centuries, the lives of communities in the Hindu Kush Himalayas have been intrinsically linked to the mountain cryosphere. Now, however the snowpack and frozen water stores that have sustained these communities’ livelihoods, settlements, cultures are disappearing at an unprecedented pace, already rendering life in too many mountain settlements unviable,” Pema Gyamtsho, Director General, ICIMOD states.  “Climate-driven hazards are outpacing efforts at resilience building. We must do more to champion and amplify the ground-realities of these traditional custodians of mountain ecosystems, to revive their culture of care for cryosphere and the ecological and human systems it supports, and to equip them with the tools and finance to adapt.”

The Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets have certain thresholds where irreversible collapse becomes inevitable and, in the case of West Antarctica especially, may be quite close without far stronger emissions reductions, leading to potentially rapid sea-level rise that could result in 3 meters already early in the next century. 

“A temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius versus current policies, that will take us well above 2 degrees, makes all the difference in the world,” stated Dr. Robert DeConto, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) author. With very high emissions, the latest IPCC Report AR6 concluded that 15 meters sea-level rise by 2300 cannot be ruled out. “Leaders must understand that we are in the cryosphere risk zone,” he concluded.

“WMO published its State of the Climate Update at COP29. It confirms that 2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record, and this has profound implications for the cryosphere. Arctic sea ice extent in 2024 was once again below average and Antarctic sea ice extent was the second lowest on record. Glacier loss is worsening. In 2023, glaciers lost a record 1.2-meter water equivalent of ice – about five times the amount of water in the Dead Sea. It was the largest loss since measurements began in 1953 and was due to extreme melting in North America and Europe. We are sending out an SOS on the cryosphere,” stated Celeste Saulo.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://wmo.int/media/news/frozen-world-canary-coalmine

By Amudalat Ajasa

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — After assuring residents here for months that their tap water is safe to drink despite earlier tests showing high lead levels, city officials announced Thursday that some of their earlier assessments were done improperly.

The news in Syracuse — the latest U.S. city grappling with a crisis over contaminated drinking water — comes after officials first disclosed in August that samples collected in the spring found that dozens of homes had dangerous levels of lead exposure. The city said 10 percent of the homes it surveyed had levels more than four times the Environmental Protection Agency threshold that triggers government enforcement, or more than twice what officials found during the Flint, Michigan, water crisis a decade ago.

City officials, who disclosed the testing problems after The Washington Post made several inquiries, argue the high lead levels identified in August may have stemmed from a problem in testing and said they had placed two water department employees on administrative leave. After retesting 24 of the homes that had elevated lead concentrations earlier this year, two came back above the EPA’s threshold, Syracuse’s chief policy officer, Greg Loh, said in a statement Thursday.

For months, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh has said the high lead levels were “anomalies.”

“We had one sample [set] where we exceeded the [EPA] limit,” Walsh said this week. “But based on historical data and our most recent data, we are below EPA limits and the water is safe.”

Still, environmental advocates, who have fanned across the city in an effort to notify residents about possible lead contamination, countered that the readings could still indicate a potential problem in Syracuse’s water supply that needs to be addressed. And as residents have learned more about the lead pipes in their homes, there’s mounting confusion about how the city conducted its testing and what officials are doing to address the potential issues.

Valerie Baron, a senior attorney at the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said the improper sampling methods from employees “doesn’t prove that the water is safe from lead.”

City officials told The Post earlier this week that residents voluntarily took water samples from their homes for the city to test — a practice known as self-administered testing. But several interviews with residents revealed that many had not received or participated in the tests. Then, inquiries and reporting from The Post prompted the city to conduct further reviews of the assessments, said Sol Muñoz, a spokesperson for the city’s infrastructure department.

One resident told The Post that she saw someone take samples from outdoor water sources, which doesn’t meet EPA requirements. The requirements call for tests to be conducted from a kitchen or bathroom sink.

When initially asked whether the city collected water from outside faucets, Muñoz said the city itself did not do testing but had heard about instances of landlords sampling outdoor spigots.

On Thursday, Loh said officials are investigating reports that water was sampled from outdoor spigots and said “required sampling protocols were not followed.”

In more recent rounds of testing, the city sampled water from 115 properties — 45 of which number were part of the initial round of testing in the spring — reporting Thursday that the results came in under the EPA’s threshold.

Still, Baron said that there is no reason to think that water from outdoor spigots will contain less lead than a kitchen or bathroom sink.

The lack of clarity around testing practices has raised concerns about risks from the roughly 14,000 lead pipes that carry water to homes across this city of 150,000 people.

The city typically tests the water for lead every three years. The EPA recently lowered the threshold for government intervention from 15 parts per billion to 10 under the new Lead and Copper Rule Improvements.

Lead levels varied throughout homes in the area during the spring, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the NRDC. The highest levels detected were 2,520 ppb — over 250 times the new action level. Other homes had 346 ppb, 225 ppb and 198 ppb, according to documents reviewed by The Post.

In recent interviews with nine Syracuse residents — after knocking on 21 of the 27 homes that tested with high lead levels — none knew how the city had collected samples of their water. At least one resident said she observed someone taking a sample from an outdoor spigot. One university student said he called the water utility after receiving the results and was told the sample could have been taken from an outside hose. Five other residents said they were unsure how the city had tested their water.

There is no safe level of exposure to lead, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And harms from drinking contaminated water could be irreversible. Low-level exposure can cause permanent cognitive damage, especially in children, and it is known to cause development delays, difficulty learning and behavioral problems.

Mona Hanna, a pediatrician and associate dean of public health at Michigan State University who helped expose the widespread contamination of Flint’s drinking water a decade ago, said the situation in Syracuse gave her déjà vu.

“Every level of lead poses a potential danger,” Hanna said. “These levels are astronomical in Syracuse.”

Yet officials have called the higher lead levels outliers and said that previous years’ testing results have not exceeded the EPA’s threshold in over a decade.

In mid-October, national environmental groups, concerned medical providers and residents sent a letter to state and city officials, as well as the EPA, calling on them to declare a state of emergency and to better inform all Syracuse residents about potential risks.

In response, the city released a statement saying the “data does not support the conclusion of an emergency situation or comparisons to other U.S. cities.”

“The last thing we want to do is cause unnecessary anxiety or concern from residents who don’t have reason to be concerned,” Walsh said this week.

But the city stressed it is taking the situation seriously.

Baron said the city “has a lead-contaminated drinking water crisis that requires urgent action.”

“Yet city officials are downplaying the problem and have failed to ensure that residents are protected now from high levels of toxic lead in their tap water,” Baron added.

On Sunday, the NRDC and Syracuse University PhD student Kiara Van Brackle canvassed the area, handing out water filters to homes that had reported high lead levels and sharing information about water safety. As the group knocked on doors, it became clear how much confusion exists, as well as inconsistencies between their experiences and what officials had described.



Many residents said they were stunned to initially learn their homes had high lead levels. Some knew very little about the dangers of lead water contamination. Many didn’t know that the lead contamination was a wider problem across the city.

Liam Rodewald and Justin Schmidt had always wondered about the water quality in Syracuse given the relative age of homes here, but it was a letter from the city in July that confirmed the college students’ suspicions. The letter said that their home water had tested at 77.3 ppb — nearly eight times the EPA limit.

The students were confused. To their knowledge, the city never tested their water or dropped off a kit so they could test the water themselves. Their landlord confirmed he did not conduct the test and had no knowledge that tests were sent. The students have lived in the same home for two years.

“I’m wary to drink the water,” said Rodewald, who attends SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry with Schmidt. “How are they able to confidently say that the water is safe when they don’t know what’s coming out of the faucet?”

Rodewald and Schmidt thought their high lead levels could have been an isolated incident. Then last week, they heard people at school talking about it. They realized water contamination was a larger issue.

“If that’s the only way I found out about the information, how are other people finding out?” Rodewald said.

Lead pipes were initially installed in cities decades ago because they were cheaper and more malleable, but the heavy metal can corrode, causing lead to leach into drinking water. Congress banned their installation in 1986. In early October, the EPA finalized the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, a policy update that requires water utilities to replace all lead pipes within a decade — a move aimed at eliminating a toxic threat that continues to affect tens of thousands of American children each year.

Environmental advocates and health experts in the area argue the situation in Syracuse parallels the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. In 2014, Flint officials switched the city’s water source to save money but did not ensure there were corrosion-control chemicals in the new water supply. After a year of resident complaints, officials confirmed that the water coming through the taps was contaminated. Nearly 100,000 Flint residents, in the majority-Black city, were exposed to lead through their home water sources, according to the CDC.

A group of Virginia Tech researchers sampled water in Flint homes in 2015 and found that 10 percent of the homes tested at 31 ppb. In Syracuse, 10 percent of homes sampled in the spring showed a level of 70 ppb or higher.

The state of New York has doled out nearly $22.8 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law to the city to replace lead pipes — with $12.8 million released following the announcement of the high lead levels in August. Between the early 2000s and 2018, the city completed about 2,500 partial pipe replacements — a process that includes replacing pipes on the public side of streets. The city announced in September that they plan to do more than 3,000 lead service line replacements in the next year. Officials say they are on track to remove all lead service lines before the EPA’s deadline.

The White House estimates that more than 9 million homes across the country are still supplied by lead pipelines, which are the leading source of lead contamination through drinking water.

When they moved in two years ago, college students Rodewald and Schmidt didn’t know the water that served their home came from lead service lines. Earlier this week, Rodewald used a key to gently scratch the metal pipe that feeds water throughout the house for the first time. Shiny, silver streaks appeared. It was a lead pipe.

They had both hoped to stay in Syracuse after they graduate in the spring. Now they are considering leaving.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/11/01/syracuse-lead-tap-water-contamination/

By Matthew Carroll

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Wastewater contains nutrients that can overfeed algae, leading to harmful algal blooms and pollution issues in the ocean and other waterways. A new study by researchers at Penn State tracked how these nutrients migrate from disposal sites in the Florida Keys, and the results have already informed wastewater practices in the region.

The scientists reported their findings, which summarize two years of wastewater and groundwater monitoring data, in the journal ACS ES&T Water. The data were made public as they were collected.

Many treatment facilities in the Florida Keys perform initial biological and chemical treatment of wastewater and then inject it into shallow wells, less than 100 feet underground. In theory, remaining nutrients like inorganic phosphate would adsorb or stick to the surface of the porous limestone bedrock as the wastewater plume travels in the subsurface before reaching coastal waters, the scientists said.

But Penn State researchers and other groups of scientists have detected potential wastewater contamination in groundwater and nearshore waters, suggesting current wastewater treatment and disposal techniques may be insufficient. Citing previous studies by other researchers and preliminary data from this study led by Penn State researchers, an environmental group sued the city of Marathon, Florida, in 2022, over alleged pollution from shallow wells. The city agreed to settle the lawsuit by transitioning away from the use of such wells.

In 2021, Penn State scientists installed monitoring wells around the injection site of a city of Marathon wastewater treatment facility, and gathered two years of data on nutrients, dissolved ions and human-produced compounds, such as the artificial sweetener sucralose and pharmaceuticals, in groundwater and nearshore waters.

They found the shallow injection process removed more than 90% of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), a type of inorganic phosphate. But SRP and sucralose were both detected in nearshore waters, indicating incomplete removal from wastewater, according to the researchers.

“Our findings suggest the use of shallow injection as a disposal mechanism for treated wastewater should be reevaluated at facilities with large discharge capacities,” said Miquela Ingalls, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State and corresponding author on the study. “Further analytical and quantitative approaches like the ones we used here may help determine whether wastewater injection can be considered the direct equivalent of a point-source contaminant discharge.”

The Clean Water Act makes it illegal to directly discharge contaminants into fresh water — like sewage spilling from a pipe into a river. But whether something is considered the equivalent of direct discharge is complicated and involves factors like how far the water must travel and the path it takes, the researchers said. 

In the Florida Keys, the water travels through bedrock comprising a porous carbonate material made of ancient coral reefs that can bind phosphate to its surface through a process called adsorption.

“The idea is that any remaining phosphate that wasn’t remediated in the initial treatment steps, once they pump it into the ground, will be adsorbed onto the bedrock’s surface and taken out of the solution,” Ingalls said. “We studied how effective this remediation mechanism was by investigating the efficiency and permanence of phosphate adsorption.”

The scientists said about 75% of the SRP was removed from the plume in the first 10 days of transit by adsorption. A slower removal mechanism in which SRP is incorporated into calcium phosphate minerals, like those that make up our bones and teeth, brought the total phosphate removal efficiency above 90%.

The researchers also injected fluorescent green dye to trace the movement of wastewater from the injection well through the array of sampling well sites.

Groundwater in the Florida Keys has a high salinity due to its proximity to the ocean and is therefore very dense, the scientists said. When less dense wastewater is injected underground, it quickly buoys back up to the surface.

This is an issue because contaminants or nutrients that were not removed in the initial treatment or adsorbed onto the bedrock may travel directly to nearshore waters along the coastline, the scientists said.  

“It’s sort of a confluence of issues because of the geography of the Keys,” Ingalls said. “You have this salty groundwater that causes the less dense wastewater to buoy to the surface. And the Keys themselves are such narrow land bodies that once it returns to the surface, there is very little transport distance before it’s back in the ocean.”

Ingalls said the team is continuing to analyze data collected from the shallow injection wells and is currently focusing on levels of nitrogen — another wastewater pollutant.

“With phosphate, it’s about the chemical binding to the carbonate bedrock,” she said. “With nitrogen, it’s entirely about the microbial communities that live in the subsurface and consume nitrate and other nitrogen species. The reason to study both is because both can have similar negative impacts on clean water. Both can cause eutrophication, which increases algae growth and low-oxygen conditions that are harmful to fragile shallow marine ecosystems.”

Lee Kump, the John Leone Dean in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and a professor of geosciences, and Kate Meyers and Megan Martin, who earned their master’s degrees from Penn State in 2023 and 2022, respectively, also contributed to this work.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided funding for this work.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.psu.edu/news/earth-and-mineral-sciences/story/scientists-examine-how-wastewater-practices-florida-keys-impact

By Laura Paddinson

CNN — 

Humanity has thrown the global water cycle off balance “for the first time in human history,” fueling a growing water disaster that will wreak havoc on economies, food production and lives, according to a landmark new report.

Decades of destructive land use and water mismanagement have collided with the human-caused climate crisis to put “unprecedented stress” on the global water cycle, said the report published Wednesday by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, a group of international leaders and experts.

The water cycle refers to the complex system by which water moves around the Earth. Water evaporates from the ground — including from lakes, rivers and plants — and rises into the atmosphere, forming large rivers of water vapor able to travel long distances, before cooling, condensing and eventually falling back to the ground as rain or snow.

Disruptions to the water cycle are already causing suffering. Nearly 3 billion people face water scarcity. Crops are shriveling and cities are sinking as the groundwater beneath them dries out.

The consequences will be even more catastrophic without urgent action. The water crisis threatens more than 50% of global food production and risks shaving an average of 8% off countries’ GDPs by 2050, with much higher losses of up to 15% projected in low-income countries, the report found.

“For the first time in human history, we are pushing the global water cycle out of balance,” said Johan Rockström, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water and a report author. “Precipitation, the source of all freshwater, can no longer be relied upon.”

The report differentiates between “blue water,” the liquid water in lakes, rivers and aquifers, and “green water,” the moisture stored in soils and plants.

While the supply of green water has long been overlooked, it is just as important to the water cycle, the report says, as it returns to the atmosphere when plants release water vapor, generating about half of all rainfall over land.

Disruptions to the water cycle are “deeply intertwined” with climate change, the report found.

A stable supply of green water is vital for supporting vegetation that can store planet-heating carbon. But the damage humans inflict, including destroying wetlands and tearing down forests, is depleting these carbon sinks and accelerating global warming. In turn, climate change-fueled heat is drying out landscapes, reducing moisture and increasing fire risk.

The crisis is made more urgent by the huge need for water. The report calculates that, on average, people need a minimum of about 4,000 liters (just over 1,000 gallons) a day to lead a “dignified life,” far above the 50 to 100 liters the United Nations says is needed for basic needs, and more than most regions will be able to provide from local sources.

Richard Allan, a climate science professor at Reading University, England, said the report “paints a grim picture of human-caused disruption to the global water cycle, the most precious natural resource that ultimately sustains our livelihoods.”

Human activities “are altering the fabric of our land and the air above which is warming the climate, intensifying both wet and dry extremes, and sending wind and rainfall patterns out of kilter,” added Allan, who was not involved in the report.

The crisis can only be addressed through better management of natural resources and massive cuts in planet-heating pollution, he told CNN.

The report’s authors say world governments must recognize the water cycle as a “common good” and address it collectively. Countries are dependent on each other, not only through lakes and rivers that span borders, but also because of water in the atmosphere, which can travel huge distances — meaning decisions made in one country can disrupt rainfall in another.

The report calls for a “fundamental regearing of where water sits in economies,” including better pricing to discourage wastefulness and the tendency to plant water-thirsty cropsand facilities, such as data centers, in water-stressed regions.

“The global water crisis is a tragedy but is also an opportunity to transform the economics of water,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization and a co-chair of the commission that published the report. Valuing water properly is essential, she added, “so as to recognize its scarcity and the many benefits it delivers.”

CLICK HERE FOR NO INFORMATION: https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/climate/global-water-cycle-off-balance-food-production/index.html

By Daniel Dickinson

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been visiting the Pacific Ocean nations, Tonga and Samoa, where sea level rise has been one of the key issues he has been discussing with the communities he has met.

On 25 September, global leaders and experts will gather at the UN to discuss how best to address the threat.

High water mark

It is estimated that the oceans have risen by approximately 20-23 centimetres (8-9 inches) since 1880.

In 2023, the average sea level globally reached a record high the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed, according to satellite records kept since 1993.

Worryingly, the rate of increase over the last 10 years is more than twice the rate of sea level rise in the first decade of the satellite record, from 1993 to 2002.

What causes sea levels to rise?

Rising sea levels are the result of ocean warming and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, phenomena which are the direct consequences of climate change.

Even if global warming is limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, which is the goal that countries around the world set as part of the Paris Agreement of 2015, the planet will see a sizeable increase in sea water levels.

It is worth noting that ocean circulation patterns, such as the Gulf Stream, can lead to regional differences in sea level rise.

What are the consequences?

Rising sea levels have wide-reaching implications not just on the physical environment, but also the economic, social and cultural fabric of vulnerable nations across the world.

Saltwater flooding can damage coastal habitats, including coral reefs and fish stocks, agricultural lands as well as infrastructure, including housing, and can impact the ability of coastal communities to sustain their livelihoods.

Flooding can contaminate fresh water supplies, promote waterborne diseases threatening people’s health and lead to stress and mental health problems.

At the same time, tourism revenues, a key economic driver especially in many small island developing States (SIDS), can suffer as beaches, resorts and other tourist attractions like coral reefs are damaged.

The combination of so many factors can force people to leave their homes, relocate to higher ground where available or ultimately migrate, which in turn disrupts economies, livelihoods and communities.

It is perhaps not surprising the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has described the phenomenon as a “threat multiplier”.

What is the link between rising sea levels and climate change?

Quite simply, sea level rise is a symptom of climate change.

As global temperatures increase due to climate change, the oceans absorb much of this excess heat. Warmer water grows in volume, a process known as thermal expansion, which is a significant contributor to sea level rise.

Rising sea levels also create a catastrophic circular feedback loop.

For example, mangrove forests, which protect coastal habitats and store damaging carbon gases that contribute to climate change, can quickly become overwhelmed losing their protective qualities. Fewer mangroves means more harmful gases in the environment, which drives climate change, and with increased temperatures, sea levels will rise even further.

Which countries are most affected?

It’s estimated that around 900 million people, that is one out of every 10 people on earth, live in close proximity to the sea.

People living in the coastal zones of densely populated countries like Bangladesh, China, India, the Netherlands and Pakistan will be at risk and potentially suffer catastrophic flooding. Also at risk are major cities on every continent, including Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Lagos, London, Mumbai, New York and Shanghai.

Small islands with low-lying land areas are arguably facing the most critical threats. Sea level rise and other climate impacts are already forcing people in such Pacific Ocean nations as Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon islands to relocate.

What can be done to counter sea level rise?

The single most consequential action that can be taken is to slow down global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the primary driver of climate change.

Meanwhile, mitigating and adapting to higher sea levels has taken on new importance.

A wide range of solutions, which obviously come at a cost, are available including: building infrastructure, such as sea walls and storm surge barriers, to protect against flooding and erosion; improving drainage systems and constructing flood resistant buildings; restoring natural barriers like mangroves; and protecting wetlands and coral reefs to absorb wave energy and reduce the impact of storm surges.

Many countries are also stepping up their disaster risk reduction plans as well as through UN-supported early warning systems to deal with sea level-related incidents.

In some cases, communities may also be relocated from vulnerable coastal areas as part of adaptation measures, an approach known as managed retreat.

UNFCCC/Kiara Worth

Civil society organizations attending UN climate negotiations in Dubai in 2023 demand reparations for the loss and damage caused by climate change.

How the UN helps

Countering sea level rise requires a comprehensive and internationally coordinated approach, which the United Nations is uniquely equipped to lead.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) facilitated the Paris Agreement to limit global warming which is essential for reducing the extent of future sea level rise.

The UN also provides support to SIDS and is working with the global community to provide financial support especially through the Loss and Damage Fund to the most vulnerable countries and to help them adapt to climate change impacts.

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