U.S. Infrastructure

South America Nearly 400 millimeters (16 inches) of rain pummeled Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, causing widespread floods, power outages and 31 deaths as of Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The extreme weather has prompted calls for investment in public water infrastructure projects. Tensions are rising in the Brazilian Amazon between government forces and the Munduruku [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
Music lovers congregate at Hart Plaza Fountain in downtown Detroit during the Movement Electronic MusMusic lovers congregate at Hart Plaza Fountain in downtown Detroit during the Movement Electronic Music Festival in May 2012.ic Festival in May 2012.

There are many questions and few conclusions right now about Detroit’s water system.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

From the Ground The average decline in water levels across the entire Ogallala Aquifer, which spans eight plains states and is a key source of irrigation water, measured 4.3 meters (14.2 feet), from 1950 to 2011, according to new figures from the U.S. Geological Survey. Changes in the water table ranged from an increase of [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
Monta graphic banner (full)

“We cannot say that rain is not interesting just because we can dig wells,” says Vessela Monta, a civil engineer by trade who began working with the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance (IRHA) in 2002. Some resources — like the availability of harvestable rainwater — get forgotten when discussing sustainability, but not to Monta. She points [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
Damascus Syria food insecurity production scarcity fruit market stand war refugee

Irrigation canals have been severely damaged, large poultry farms have been destroyed, and now close to 10 percent of Syrians who remained inside the country’s borders are in need of food assistance — these are just a few of the side effects of the ongoing conflict in the war-torn country that will likely have ramifications on food security for years to come.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Investors funneled more money into the remains woefully underfunded. Detroit, for example, will be $US 84 billion short of the funding it needs to properly upgrade its sewer system over the next eight years, PBS NewsHour reported. Banning the Bottle Concord, NH, became the first U.S. town to highest water content of any ever analyzed. [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Scientists are beginning to study the ecological function of cities, tracking and measuring the flow of atmospheric gases, water, carbon, and pollutants through the urban ecosystem, Nature reported. The research could be essential for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and creating sustainable cities. Water Levels Global sea level rise is outpacing United Nations projections by 60 [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), “by around 2020, the United States is projected to become the largest global oil producer,” according to their World Energy Outlook 2012 report. According to Scientific American, “easier access to more oil and gas could cause a surge in global greenhouse gas emission levels, which could trump recent [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

An outbreak of Hepatitis E in South Sudan refugee camps has killed 26 people and infected more than 1,000, according to the United Nations News Centre. The virus is spread through contaminated food and water, and the problem could worsen with the rainy season and an influx of more refugees. China’s agriculture minister warned today [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

The exurbs of Minnesota’s Twin Cities are the latest examples of the boom and bust cycle.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Sea level rise and increasing floods are forcing families living on India’s Sundarbans islands to look to the mainland for a future, according to AlertNet. United States Consecutive years of drought have convinced some farmers in Kansas to give up on corn, Bloomberg News reported. The state planted the fewest acres of corn in three [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Hurricane Isaac Hurricane Isaac, which hit land Tuesday evening near New Orleans, has brought barge traffic on the Mississippi River to a crawl, Bloomberg News reported. The backup is expected to further slow exports of grain from the United States. For almost 24 hours on Tuesday, strong winds and storm surge from the hurricane reversed [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

With a few weeks still left in the annual melt season, Arctic sea ice cover has already diminished to the lowest area on record, covering 4.10 million square kilometers (1.58 million square miles), AlertNet reported. Hurricane Isaac, which made landfall near New Orleans yesterday night, could dredge up as much as 1 million barrels of [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
New EPA Guidance for Combined Sewers Draws Mixed Reviews

Seattle will be the first city to test the new integrated framework.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Rains and Floods Continue in Asia Days of heavy rain caused a 36-meter (118-foot) Rain from Typhoon Haikui, meanwhile, has destroyed more than 7,500 homes and 388,000 hectares (958,000 acres) of cropland across four provinces in eastern China, Xinhua reported, citing government sources. Flooding in North Korea isman-made disaster due to poor urban planning and [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

More than 3 million Syrians will require food aid over the next year due to conflict that has caused $US 1.8 billion in losses to the country’s agriculture sector, Bloomberg News reported. The conflict, coupled with a drought, could see grain import requirements reach 5 million metric tons. A drought and heat wave could up [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Beijing Flooding Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong resigned Wednesday, in what some media say is likely a routine political reshuffling, but which comes amid public questioning of Beijing authorities’ handling of last weekend’s flood disaster. Others have suggested that Guo may be trying to escape further blame for the damage caused by the deluge, according to [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Electricity-producing coal, nuclear, and natural gas plants account for the fastest-growing use of fresh water in the United States, according to a report from Oregon-based River Network, Bloomberg News reported. The study found that electricity produced by hydropower dams has the largest water footprint. The amount of Arctic sea ice is at a record low [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

India’s capital city of New Delhi is facing an increasingly severe water crisis as the nearby state of Haryana refuses to release more water, the Times of India reported. Haryana claims New Delhi is taking more than its share, with much of the water being lost to leaks during transport. Sectarian violence between Muslims and [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
syria

In states surrounding Syria — especially resource-poor Jordan — the influx of more than 120,000 Syrian refugees is putting a squeeze on the water supply.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...