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Access to water

News, comment and features on access to water in the developing world

November 2024

  • Four children walk along a dried up river in the Amazon

    Severe drought puts nearly half a million children at risk in Amazon – report

    Warming climate has caused rivers used for transport to dry up, leaving children with little food, water or school access, says Unicef

October 2024

  • A child drinks from a plastic container.

    Global water crisis leaves half of world food production at risk in next 25 years

  • Halima Begum

    Opinion
    The best fashion statement you can make this season? Buy pre-loved

    Halima Begum

September 2024

  • Lago Colhue Huapi 1 Lake Colhue Huapi 9 Nov 2023,

    Southern frontlines: Latin America and the Caribbean
    ‘We used to sail and fish and play’: how did an Argentinian lake the size of New York City disappear?

    Drought and mismanagement have turned Lake Colhué Huapí into a virtual dustbowl. Now the race is on to save its sister lake from the same fate
  • Two Indigenous Andean women walk along a path on a raised ground beside a rubbish-strewn lake

    ‘We empower ourselves’: the women cleaning up Bolivia’s Lake Uru Uru

    Once clean enough to drink, the Andean lake was poisoned by mining pollution and urban waste. But now Indigenous women are using giant reeds to revive the vital ecosystem
  • An African woman carrying a hoe over her shoulder in a dry savannah landscape walks past four solar panels on poles

    Opinion
    The solar pump revolution could bring water to millions of Africans but it must be sustainable and fair

    Alan MacDonald
    Solar power could enable 400 million Africans without water to tap into groundwater aquifers. However, we must ensure smaller projects do not lose out in the rush for new technology

August 2024

  • people wait in a line with empty canisters

    Global surge of water-related violence led by Israeli attacks on Palestinian supplies – report

  • Boys, one pushing a wheelbarrow, carry big plastic containers to collect water, Vanuatu.

    The rising ocean
    ‘The wells are salty’: how the invading ocean is contaminating Vanuatu’s water

  • Portrait of a man wearing green doctors scrubs

    ‘I lost my son to sepsis’: the fightback against the spread of superbugs

  • Large industrial buildings and car parks on a green plain

    Southern frontlines: Latin America and the Caribbean
    Anger mounts over environmental cost of Google datacentre in Uruguay

July 2024

  • Future of Three tractors with Egyptian flags ploughing lush green fields. project, Egypt's 'Future Project for Agricultural Production' comprises more than a million feddans, which represents around 50 percent of the New Delta project.

    Greening the desert: is Sisi’s grand plan using up all of Egypt’s water?

  • Roman Krznaric

    How will we solve the world’s water wars? An ancient Spanish court offers one answer

    Roman Krznaric

June 2024

  • A slim, middle-aged Latina woman with pulled-back brown hair and a color long-sleeved top in purple, blue, pink, and red, stands at a lectern that has her name on it, smiling.

    Mexico’s new president ran on climate goals. Will she follow through?

    Claudia Sheinbaum, a former climate scientist and Mexico City mayor, has often led with politics over the environment

May 2024

  • Sayed Ahmed with his arm around his wife Amena Khatun by the Rupsha River in Khulna, Bangladesh

    A common condition
    ‘It’s in our rivers and in our cups. There’s no escape’: the deadly spread of salt water in Bangladesh

    Kidney disease is on the rise in coastal communities, where some have no choice but to drink and cook with contaminated water
  • Gilbert Kabore a worker and caddie of the Golf Club Ouagadougou

    The alternatives
    ‘Our green is brown’: the eco-friendly Sahel golf club avoiding the water hazard

    Course in Burkina Faso uses just 200 to 300 litres a day, while US peers suck up millions
  • A pregnant woman stands in front of two graves: one is painted black and white with a hand-lettered inscription, a wreath and a rickety wooden awning; next to it is a small square brown concrete block, To the right can be seen a small black and white painted concrete grave topped with a cross.

    Southern frontlines: Latin America and the Caribbean
    Colombia’s Wayúu people live on land rich in resources. So why are their children dying of hunger?

    State failures in La Guajira have compounded water shortages that bring malnutrition and death

April 2024

  • Parched, cracked earth with dried-out irrigation tubes under sunny, blue sky.

    US lawmakers Elizabeth Warren and Ro Khanna seek to ban trade in water rights

    Bill would stop private investors, including hedge funds, farmers and municipalities, from profiting off water scarcity
  • Stock photo of blurry figures seen beyond cell.

    Nearly half of US prisons draw water likely contaminated with toxic PFAS – report

    Around 1m people, including 13,000 youths, especially vulnerable because they can do little to protect themselves, co-author says
  • A woman in a pink and orange sari uses a bucket to collect water from a pond

    A common condition
    ‘Headaches, organ damage and even death’: how salty water is putting Bangladesh’s pregnant women at risk

    As rising sea levels and extreme weather contaminate drinking water sources, doctors are seeing alarming numbers of women with serious health problems including pre-eclampsia

March 2024

  • A tank drives along a dirt road past yellow flowers

    The age of extinction
    ‘Ecocide in Gaza’: does scale of environmental destruction amount to a war crime?

    Exclusive: Satellite analysis revealed to the Guardian shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory’s trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts says Israel’s onslaught on Gaza’s ecosystems has made the area unlivable
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