Global Rundown
- Severe water shortages for Palestinians in the West Bank are being exacerbated by settler attacks on pipelines, wells, and other water infrastructure.
- Deforestation in the Amazon is responsible for three-fourths of the rainforest’s declining dry-season precipitation, which has fallen an average of 0.83 inches annually since 1985.
- A Chinese-owned mine operating in Zambia reportedly covered up the extent of a massive toxic spill in the country’s longest river earlier this year.
- A major environmental organization in Iraq has accused Turkey of violating a water-sharing pact and withholding cross-border river flows.
- Recently passed ordinances aiming to protect Maui’s wetlands from development have been weakly enforced as clearing continues.
The Lead
In northern Zambia in February, a tailings dam at the Sino-Metals Leach Zambia copper mine suddenly collapsed, spilling 50 million liters of waste containing cyanide and arsenic into the Kafue River.
The spill shut down the water supply of Kitwe, Zambia’s second-largest city, home to 700,000 people, as chemicals spread quickly throughout the watershed. Fish die-offs were reported as far as 60 miles downstream on the 980-mile-long river, whose flows supply water for drinking and irrigation to more than half of the country’s 21 million people.
The mine’s parent company, China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group, apologized for the spill. But a new report this week indicates it also orchestrated a significant coverup. A two-month investigation from the environmental cleanup company Drizit found that 1.5 million tons of toxic waste were released in the spill, roughly 30 times more than the mine had previously admitted, the Associated Press reports. Drizit’s report is not yet public.
More than 3,500 samples taken from along the river indicate “dangerous levels of cyanide, arsenic, copper, zinc, lead, chromium, cadmium and other pollutants” still pervade the watershed, with 900,000 cubic meters of toxic substances still present. Last month, the U.S. embassy in Zambia ordered all officials to evacuate areas near the mine for fear of contracting acute heavy metal poisoning.
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Data Center Energy Demand Is Putting Pressure on U.S. Water Supplies — More coal, more nuclear to power information sector would reverse a trend of reduced energy-related water use.
- Political Left, Right, and Everyone Between, United Over Water — In a raucous era, citizens in Indiana find a safe place for consensus on water supply.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
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Incidents recorded by the United Nations of Israeli civilians vandalising water infrastructure including pipelines, wells, and irrigation networks serving Palestinian homes and farms in the West Bank during the first half of 2025, Reuters reports. Israeli settlers carried out multiple attacks this June and July in Ramallah, Palestine’s administrative capital, when they targeted a freshwater spring and the Ein Samiya distribution station, severing water access for hours in most instances. The spring serves Kfar Malik village, which has been increasingly encroached upon by Israeli settlements considered illegal by the United Nations. Water access in the West Bank remains under control of the Israeli government, which according to authoritative accounts has continued to perpetuate a water crisis for Palestine while ensuring nearly 100 percent of settler farms have access to the resource.
40
Percent of the Amazon’s annual rainfall that is driven by transpiration — the process by which plants draw liquid water through their roots, and release water vapor from their leaves — Mongabay reports. But dry-season precipitation has declined in the world’s largest rainforest, falling 21mm (0.83 inches) annually between 1985 and 2020, according to a new study published this week in Nature Communications. The authors attribute roughly 75 percent of this decline to deforestation. Maximum daily temperature rose by 2 degrees Celsius, with about one-sixth of the rise attributable to tree loss.
These changes resonate not only in the forest, but for adjacent growers. Studies have linked Amazonian deforestation with drought in Brazil’s agricultural regions and a weakened continental monsoon, which contributed to record dry spells in the rainforest over the past two years. An estimated 13.2 percent of the Amazon’s original size has been lost to deforestation and other human-driven causes.
On the Radar
The Green Iraq Observatory, a major environmental group in Iraq, accused Turkey this week of violating a 10-year water pact, signed last year, by deliberately restricting the cross-border flow of water into the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Global Water Intelligence reports. Turkey controls 90 percent of Iraq’s water sources, and in May promised to release 420 cubic meters of water per second for its southeastern neighbor, which is currently experiencing an 80-year drought. But the observatory says that just 120 cubic meters of water per second have been released, resulting in Iraq’s national reservoirs falling to 10 million cubic meters of water — compared to 18 million cubic meters at this time last year.
Wetland Watch
Maui County: In 2022, lawmakers in Maui County, Hawai’i adopted an ordinance to conserve and protect wetland habitats by requiring environmental assessments and permits from developers seeking to build on the island. But just last year, seven acres of the Waipu‘ilani Mauka wetlands were cleared for construction — the latest evidence of the ordinance’s weak implementation and absent enforcement, Civil Beat Honolulu reports. Just 83 acres of wetlands remain in South Maui, where recent flooding has been attributed to the loss of these ecosystems, which are a natural defense to storms and extreme precipitation.
