Global Rundown
- Just two years after the City SARL gold mine began operating in the Republic of Congo, a major river in a biosphere is running dry and contaminated with mercury.
- Over the past year, Switzerland’s Gries Glacier has lost more than a foot of ice each month on average as its rapid retreat continues.
- The 2024 State of Global Water Resources report highlights extreme hydrologic cycles and vulnerable river basins across the world.
- In eastern Washington, farmers await federal aid to fix an irrigation canal — their lone water source — that was severely damaged in wildfires last year.
The Lead
The arrival of a Chinese-owned gold mine in the Republic of Congo’s Dimonika Biosphere Reserve has spoiled water sources, forced residents from their jobs and homes, and destroyed large swaths of forest, Mongabay reports.
Shortly after City SARL came to the area in 2023, the company cleared five hectares of land and offered local gold-panners money to leave the site. Their operations had a fast impact on the nearby community’s 3,000 people, whose only major source of fresh water is the Yanika River. In short order, the waterway began running dry and turning yellow.
“We used to have water sources, very good water sources. Today it’s all yellow, you’re even afraid to wash your hands in it,” Merveille Mbouinga, a gold panner, told Mongabay.
Samples collected last year showed mercury levels in the Yanika were 140 times greater than the amount deemed safe.
City SARL denies responsibility for this impact, saying that these conditions were present before they moved in. Artisanal gold miners, a local manager for the company said, had already done this environmental damage.
Local miners scoffed at this claim. “What we do in a year, the Chinese machines do in a week,” Prudal Makayis, a gold panner, said.
In November 2024, as tensions continued to rise, the country’s environmental minister ordered a ban on the mine. It remains closed, though both biodiversity and water quality in the area continue to be negatively affected.
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This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
19.7
Vertical feet of ice that have melted off Switzerland’s Gries Glacier over just the past year, as dry seasons and abnormally warm summers accelerate the loss of ice in the region, Reuters reports. Researchers estimate it will take between 40 and 50 years for the highest extent of the glacier to disappear, though its rapid retreat means many lower-elevation locations will completely vanish within the next five years. Between 2016 and 2022, roughly 100 glaciers melted completely in Switzerland. According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2024 marked the third year in a row that all 19 glaciated regions on Earth experienced ice loss.
2,000
Approximate number of leaks that have sprung in a 12-mile irrigation canal in Yakima, Washington, following last year’s Retreat Fire, which burned some 46,000 acres of forest in the state’s southeast. The canal is the only water source for the area’s farmers, who collectively generate $700 million in crop sales annually, the Washington Post reports. District employees work tirelessly to patch the holes that rip in the canal as they wait for aid, “but the Trump administration has yet to commit to help fund the project despite appropriations from the state and bipartisan urging from its congressional delegation.”
A replacement canal is estimated to cost $240 million, a price tag that the Tieton Irrigation District — whose yearly operating budget is $6 million — cannot afford without federal aid. Meanwhile, as their water supply hangs in fragile balance, growers are also contending with a third consecutive year of drought.
On the Radar
This year’s State of Global Water Resources report, published last week by the World Meteorological Organization, highlights an “increasingly erratic water cycle” that continues to impact river discharge, lake health, drought, and flooding across the world.
Notably, compared to the 1991-2020 average, two-thirds of studied river basins endured abnormal conditions. Those in South America and southern Africa — including the Amazon, São Francisco, Paraná, and Zambezi — ran noticeably drier, while those in western Africa, central Europe, and parts of Asia — including the Volta, Danube, Ganges, and Indus — experienced flooding. Similarly, soil moisture observations show below-normal levels across South America and most African basins.
Rising temperatures continue to have a profound impact on the health of large water bodies. Of 75 major lakes identified in the report, summer water levels consistently dipped below respective averages while surface temperatures rose to levels considered “anomalies,” well above norms.
Meanwhile, below earth’s surface, the over-extraction of water resources remains a major concern in many regions. An analysis of more than 37,000 wells across 47 countries reveals that 38 percent of wells had normal groundwater levels; 25 percent of wells had below-average water levels, and 37 percent had above-average water levels.
Wetland Watch
Project Zodiac: The state of Indiana has given Google permission to fill more than two acres of protected wetlands in the city of Fort Wayne as the company prepares to construct five more buildings for its $2 billion data center campus dubbed Project Zodiac, Data Center Dynamics reports. Since Indiana was settled more than 200 years ago, the state has lost 85 percent of its historic wetlands.
