Global Rundown
- Extensive Russian drone and missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine, this weekend targeted energy and water infrastructure, leaving much of the city with limited resources.
- More than one-third of Argentina’s population is exposed to elevated levels of arsenic, a known carcinogen, as a result of surface and groundwater contamination.
- Heavy rainstorms last week in Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka spurred flooding and landslides that killed at least 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.
- A new investigation has revealed thousands of illegal dumps across the United Kingdom, where a majority of waterways are polluted.
The Lead
Communities across Argentina continue to endure one of the world’s most widespread cases of arsenic contamination in drinking water, according to longstanding monitoring by the World Health Organization and local research institutions.
Roughly 17 million people — more than one-third of the country’s population — are exposed through water sources to high concentrations of the chemical, which comes from the natural erosion of rocks and minerals and from human activities including mining and pesticide application.
Long-term arsenic exposure causes endemic regional chronic hydroarsenicism, or HACRE, marked by severe symptoms: aching bones, staining and cracking teeth, hardening skin, and the appearance of splotches. For about 30 percent of Argentines with HACRE, the condition develops into liver, kidney, skin, or lung cancer.
The government has been aware of this issue since at least 2001, when it estimated that 1 million people were exposed to high levels of arsenic and at least 100,000 people showed symptoms of contamination, The Guardian reports. In 2006, Argentina’s health ministry established a plan to deliver safer water to communities, though residents say the effort has fallen short.
“We really see how people live, and I can assure you that the government isn’t purifying water to remove arsenic in that region,” García Pintos, a former resident of Santiago del Estero, a city in northern Argentina, told La Nación. “There are no water networks or any treatment to make it fit for human consumption.”
New research published last week by the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires found that 70 percent of the terrain in Buenos Aires province — home to 17.6 million people — is contaminated with arsenic. The issue is especially acute in small, rural areas, where no water filtration systems exist and persistent drought has forced residents to rely on contaminated aquifers or local rivers.
According to a statement from researchers at Universidad Nacional de Rosario, “this problem is almost a pandemic in Argentina.”
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Spain’s Hog Haven Pollutes Catalonian Waters — Nitrates from livestock and crop production contaminate waters almost everywhere globally.
- In Burned Forests, the West’s Snowpack Is Melting Earlier — As blazes expand to higher elevations, the impacts cascade downstream.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
8,000
Illegal dumps scattered across the United Kingdom, according to an investigation from The Guardian, Watershed Investigations, and Air & Space Evidence. Together, these locations contain an estimated 13 million metric tons of garbage, amounting to more than $2 billion in unpaid landfill taxes.
The researchers say their estimate is conservative, and the actual number of illegal sites could be as many as 13,000.
Significant watershed degradation across the U.K., a result of direct sewage dumping and other pollution, has been widely documented. Recent citizen science testing has found that 75 percent of British rivers are in poor ecological health, while a more comprehensive report from the nonprofit State of Our Rivers found that no stretch in England or Northern Ireland is “in good overall health.”
1,000
People killed in devastating floods and mudslides last week in Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka amid heavy regional rainstorms, the Associated Press reports. As of Monday morning, more than 800 people remained missing.
In Indonesia, nearly 300,000 people were displaced by floods, while 3.9 million people in Thailand were affected, many of whom lost access to electricity and water supplies. More than 200,000 Sri Lankans have been relocated to temporary shelters.
In an address to reporters, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said: “We need to confront climate change effectively. Local governments must take a significant role in safeguarding the environment and preparing for the extreme weather conditions that will arise from future climate change.”
On the Radar
Over the weekend, Russian forces aimed dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones at Kyiv in what officials are calling one of the war’s largest overnight air strikes, CNN reports. At least three people died, though “the main targets of the attack were energy infrastructure and civilian facilities, with extensive damage and fires in residential buildings,” Ukrainian President Zelensky said during an address on Saturday.
The Kyiv Post reports that a significant population — roughly 600,000 people — lost electricity amid the shelling, and the water pressure on the city’s right bank was severely reduced.
“We take the attacks very seriously because a few weeks ago a Shahed-type drone flew into our yard,” Olena Halushka, who was sheltering in an underground parking lot, told the Kyiv Independent. “You can bring your bike here and drink water. It’s like being in an apartment where you can’t eat,” Halushka’s son, 5, said.
According to a report published earlier this month by the Pacific Institute, water-related violence reached new heights in 2024, with 420 instances — a record.
Roughly 61 percent of these incidents involved direct attacks on water infrastructure, and no conflict had more than the war between Russia and Ukraine, “with widespread attacks in both regions on civilian water systems, dams, treatment plants, and energy supplies critical for water infrastructure,” the report reads.
Wetland Watch
Aguaje Harvests: Communities in the Peru’s Pastaza River Fan Wetland Complex — the third-deepest tropical peatland system in the world — are combining Western science and Indigenous knowledge to conserve the Ramsar-protected carbon sink, which is threatened by “deforestation, illegal mining, oil and gas drilling activities,” and the harvesting of aguaje, an important food, Mongabay reports.
