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  • Pee fanatics want to feed the world with your liquid gold Audio icon

    October 07, 2020 |

    Wired |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: France, Bordeaux

    A French startup is turning urine into an environmentally-friendly fertilizer that could replace chemical products. Early tests suggest that the urine mixture created by Toopi Organics can compete with synthetic fertilizers, which end up in waterways and can alter lake and river ecosystems. While the organic fertilizer requires a significant amount of urine to make, it could be a viable alternative to grow crops.

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  • Cooperating over shared water in West Africa

    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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  • Detroiters are Fighting for the Right to Water

    September 18, 2020 |

    Belt Magazine |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Throughout the United States, people living below the federal poverty level often struggle to pay for utilities, but in Philadelphia, the Tiered Assistance Program (TAP) aims to alleviate that burden by basing water utility rates on income. In the four years since the program launched, more than 15,000 residents have participated and 96% of those participants have avoided water shutoffs.

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  • Cities are using poop to look for early Covid-19 outbreaks

    September 03, 2020 |

    Quartz |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, Arizona

    Wastewater-based epidemiology is helping scientists and public health experts track the prevalence of coronavirus in communities. Although this practice can be complicated by the size of cities and lacks a standardized testing protocol, it has already helped identify outbreaks at two universities.

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  • How Philadelphia Has Tried to Address Water Debt

    September 01, 2020 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    An income-based payment structure has alleviated water debt in Philadelphia. Decreasing federal aid to municipal water utilities in conjunction with rising costs associated with climate change has increased the cost of water, making it unaffordable for many. Philadelphia created an income-based program, which caps water bills at three percent of income. The Tiered Assistance Program, or TAP, also provides debt elimination for those who make their minimum payments. Advocates have successfully pushed for similar reforms in Baltimore.

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  • With the Hippo Roller, a revolution in fetching water rolls on

    August 21, 2020 |

    Heidi.news |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: South Africa

    After realizing the difficulty that people in South Africa were facing when carrying water back to their communities, two South African engineers devised a machine "that brings all the water back in one trip by rolling it." Users report that while it does not perform well on steep terrain, it can carry much larger amounts of water "effortlessly and in a single trip." So far, 60,000 of these large plastic drums have been sold, but the cost of the machine is often a barrier for those who live below the poverty line.

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  • On the Delaware, A Promising New Era in Cleanup of an Urban River

    August 20, 2020 |

    Yale Environment 360 |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Camden, New Jersey

    Once known for being dirty, the Delaware River is being cleaned up by nonprofits and government entities to the point where they’re encouraging people to swim in it again. The Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority diverted the flow of sewage at 52 municipal plants to a new treatment plant, which has kept 15 million gallons of sewage out of the river each day. While overflows have not been completely eliminated, a national advocacy group even named the Delaware its River of the Year because of its improvements in water quality.

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  • Waiting for water: On the Navajo Nation, long lines, scarce resources, a cry for solutions

    July 22, 2020 |

    AZ Central (The Arizona Republic) |

    Multi-Media |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Monument Valley, Utah

    As the coronavirus spreads throughout the Navajo Nation, many people don’t have access to water to even wash their hands. For generations, the Navajo people have suffered with this lack of water infrastructure, but some solutions have been implemented. For example, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health has built about 100 hand-washing stations and delivered them to homes in need. Many people are hopeful they will receive more funding to build a more robust water system, but the scale of the problem and the cost of building it are big challenges to overcome.

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  • Tackling a notorious waste problem in Africa's largest informal community

    July 16, 2020 |

    Ensia |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Kenya, Nairobi

    Kibra Green, a grassroots organization in Kenya, mobilizes the young people in the community to clean up their neighborhood. At times, the group has as many as 500 participants for a community-wide clean up. Yet, a lack of steady funding and socioeconomic barriers for volunteers to regularly contribute to the group has made it difficult to scale the organization.

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  • Poop may tell us when the coronavirus lockdown will end

    April 29, 2020 |

    Los Angeles Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: France, Paris

    Researchers and public health experts across the world are turning to "wastewater-based-epidemiology" as a practice that could help trace and track the spread of COVID-19. This methodology has already proved successful in helping mitigate diseases such as polio in Israel and track the usage of illicit drugs in Australia. Most recently, in both France and the Netherlands, early sewage samples have revealed useful data about the coronavirus outbreak.

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