May 10
TweetBEIJING: Half of China’s tap water does not meet national drinking water standards, but the problem is not so severe as to cause an immediate threat to human health, an official survey said. A survey of the country’s water quality conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in 2009 showed that 50 per …
May 08
TweetNine people were arrested during a service delivery protest over municipal water in Lilydale in the Bushbuckridge municipality on Monday, Mpumalanga police said. “At 6am residents… went on the rampage. They burnt municipal offices and a Caterpillar grader,” said Lt-Col Leonard Hlathi. The residents were demonstrating their dissatisfaction over municipal water in the area which …
Jan 12
TweetSouth Africa’s major water and mining problems, including the threat to human health and agricultural production posed by acid mine drainage (AMD) in Gauteng, will remain as serious as ever, according to experts. “The enormity of the AMD problem has paralysed the government,” said activist Mariette Liefferink. “Not a cent of the R225 million allocated …
Jul 12
Tweet Some things get better with age. Not power plants. The nation’s older power plants that still rely on antiquated and damaging once-through cooling systems have a huge thirst for water. These plants are capable of withdrawing approximately 100 trillion gallons each year directly from rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans; profiting from a free public …
Jul 08
TweetI don’t like to exaggerate the impacts of the many environmental issues we face. But it’s impossible to overstate how dangerous fracking is. Fracking stands for “hydraulic fracturing,” a highly polluting process for tapping underground pools of natural gas. It involves drilling a hole a mile deep, thousands of feet long, then pumping down millions …
Jul 07
TweetIn a major setback for the oil and gas industry, the French Senate last week voted 176 to 151 to ban hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking), the controversial gas industry drilling method facing scrutiny the world over due to water contamination and other concerns. Once the legislation receives presidential approval, France will be the first country …
