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Cooperating over shared water in West Africa

Michelle Langrand

October 06, 2020 |

Geneva Solutions |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Senegal

There are over 250 rivers and lakes that are shared between countries, accounting for more than half of world's freshwater. This means that countries have to cooperate to share resources. In 1972, Mali, Senegal, and Mauritania did just that. They formed the Senegal River Basin Development Authority, or the OMVS (for its French initials). In 2005, Guinea joined. The organization is an example of how countries can join forces to share water resources cooperatively.

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Stockholm's Ingenious Plan to Recycle Old Christmas Trees

Feargus O'Sullivan

December 20, 2016 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Sweden, Stockholm

In Stockholm, old Christmas trees are being converted into biochar. When integrated into the city's highly-efficient power grid, the project has been wildly successful--not only in improving soil, but also in retaining groundwater, greening the city, and lowering carbon emissions. For this reason, officials as far away as California have been eying the plan with interest.

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Want to Solve Wildfires and Drought? Leave it to BEAVERS!

Joe Hanson Mimi Schiffman

November 18, 2021 |

PBS |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Oregon

Beavers can be a tool in the fight against climate change. The dams that beavers build have multiple benefits for the environment. Studies show that beaver complexes are greener. They store so much water in the soil and plants that they act like an underground irrigation system. Studies also show that fires in an area with streams without beavers burn three times more intensely that those with beavers. Beaver habits are so successful, that scientist are replicating their damns to mitigate the effects of climate change.

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The mice that roared: how eight tiny countries took on foreign fishing fleets

Christopher Pala

June 15, 2021 |

The Guardian |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Marshall Islands

Regional cooperation has yielded both big profits and environmental protection to eight small Pacific island nations. Some of the world’s richest countries were overfishing their waters and making billions of dollars doing it - until the tiny islands decided to sell fishing rights as a collective while putting sustainable limits on the commercial activity.

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Pour Flush Toilets Eradicate Typhoid in Katunguru Village

Fatuma Nalwanga

September 19, 2021 |

The Community Agenda |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Uganda, Katunguru

Katunguru village reduced Cholera and Typhoid outbreaks by building and transitioning to pour flush toilets rather than pit latrines. Pour flush toilets require just a five-foot pit, so waste water doesn’t mix with drinking water and are inexpensive to maintain. A user pours in water to flush the toilet through an S-shaped pipe. In addition to stopping disease outbreaks, residues from filled pits are used as manure and ash from kitchens are sprinkled inside after each use to prevent odors and dry up waste residues. Pour flush toilets are not constructed with wood, so they also minimize local deforestation.

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Smart irrigation saves water, improves farming practices in Rwanda's remote drought-stricken region

John Mugisha

February 08, 2022 |

Rwanda News Agency |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Rwanda, Nyagatare

New dams in Rwanda have helped residents to update their irrigation systems, which has allowed them to increase their food production and generate more income. Sometimes, there have been disputes between farmers over the management of the water resource. But, according to one farmer, “the profit from the sale of my produce, the extra income enabled me to purchase two cows, pay school fees and medical insurance for my children.”

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Our Rivers' Keepers: How the Ohio River's trash collectors transformed the waterway

Céilí Doyle

April 22, 2022 |

The GroundTruth Project |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cincinnati, Ohio

A nonprofit with a barge and a 10-person crew picks up trash and plastics across seven rivers in the U.S. Midwest. In one year, Living Lands and Waters collected over half a million pounds of trash. Over the years, they’ve attracted hundreds of thousands of volunteers to help their operation. “No matter who you are, where you’re from, how old, young or what political party you belong to – it doesn’t matter, because no one likes seeing garbage in the river,” said the cofounder.

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Facing Disastrous Floods, They Turned to Mangrove Trees for Protection

Suhasini Raj

April 10, 2022 |

The New York Times |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India, Lakshmipur

Women in villages throughout India and Bangladesh are “silent climate warriors” who plant mangrove trees as a way to mitigate the effects of rising waters. While it’s not always easy to convince their family members that they should do this, they have been able to grow an additional 2,000 acres of mangroves that can reduce the speed of waves and capture carbon dioxide. They also earn income, about $430 a year, for growing and planting saplings.

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To find out where the covid pandemic is headed, look here: The sewer

Lena H. Sun Dan Keating

April 14, 2022 |

The Washington Post |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses a nationwide wastewater monitoring system to detect rising and falling levels of COVID-19 in the population. Infected people shed virus when they use the toilet, even if they don’t have symptoms, alerting officials 4-6 days before people start testing positive. The anonymous and inexpensive monitoring system has been relied on by local and state health officials to run targeted awareness campaigns and shift policies, like mask guidance, to effectively contain outbreaks.

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Researchers use waste glass to clean up polluted sea

Yui Sawada

March 09, 2022 |

J-Stories |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Japan, Nagasaki

The beach in Omura Bay in Japan isn’t a normal beach covered in sand: It’s covered in glass. This glass beach, developed by the Nagasaki Prefectural Environmental Health Research Center, is meant to recycle waste from the ocean and promote the growth of shellfish to maintain the water’s health. After five years, the center has seen about 525 clams per square meter, an increase over previous years.

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