The Stream, April 8: Street Battles and Bacterial Nightmares

Cote d’Ivoire
IRIN News reports that the fighting in Abidjan, the capital of Cote d’Ivoire, has cut people off from their water supply, forcing residents to collect water from a polluted lagoon in the city.

Superbug!
British scientists found bacteria with a gene highly resistant to antibiotics in samples of drinking water and seepage ponds in New Delhi, Reuters reports. The gene first appeared three years ago, but if so-called “superbugs” were to become widespread, they would threaten modern medicine with untreatable diseases.

According to the BBC, the bacteria was identified three years ago in people living in the United Kingdom. The Delhi water board said not to panic, the Times of India reports.

Dams
The Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, reports that China will invest up to $15 billion in Pakistan’s power sector. China’s largest hydropower developer has already signed a deal for a 720-megawatt hydroelectric plant.

In Ethiopia, the government is moving ahead with plans to build a huge dam on the Nile, in defiance of Egypt’s wishes. The nearly $5 billion project would be financed from state revenues and bond sales, Reuters reports.

Test, Baby, Test
Pennsylvania regulators are requiring water agencies to test for radioactive elements to monitor the effects of natural gas drilling, the New York Times reports. Concerns center on wastewater treatment plants that are not equipped to remove drilling contaminents in the sludge the plants produce.

The Stream is a daily digest spotting global water trends. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

Brett Walton

Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton