Maximpact Blog

‘Silent Voices’ of Water Heard in Stockholm

Dr Jackie King

Humanity can tackle today’s major challenges only if access to water is more fairly distributed. When World Water Week, the leading event on global water issues, opened on Monday, speakers called for an immediate and drastic shift in how water is shared and managed.

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Hotter, Drier UK Launches ‘Love Water’ Campaign

The United Kingdom is famous for its rain, which has inspired poets as well as weather forecasters, but now the British public is being asked to help the country protect its water resources for future generations. The campaign was launched July 31 by more than 40 environmental groups, charities, water companies and regulators with the slogan “Love Water.”

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Europe Boots Mining Into the 21st Century

The European Union is already one of the world’s major consumers of minerals and metallic raw materials, and demand is expected to grow quickly. The EU wants to mine those minerals and raw materials on its own territory, but at the same time would like to avoid invasive, destructive mining practices that have given the industry a bad reputation throughout the world.

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UN Appeal Asks $920 Million for Rohingya Refugees

Within a bamboo hut in the world’s largest refugee settlement, Rohingya refugee Syed Hossain, 27, lifts his shirt to display the blisters on his side. An outbreak of chickenpox has infected some 5,000 Rohingya in the vast Kutupalong settlement.

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Water For All by 2030

As spring approaches across the Northern Hemisphere, people are planning for planting and for the impact of hotter weather on water supplies. This is the time for World Water Day, designated by the United Nations as a day to focus on freshwater – the most essential element of life.

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Asia-Pacific Business Aligns With Natural World

Advancing green business across Asia and the Pacific is “…a win–win for all stakeholders, but requires mobilizing vast resources of private capital and innovative management approaches,” the Asian Development Bank (ADB) concludes in a new working paper on “The Business of Greening: Policy Measures for Green Business Development in Asia.”

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Wringing More Value From Pakistan’s Water

No country’s economy is more water-intensive than Pakistan’s, and this degree of water use, combined with a warming climate, is leading to drought, water scarcity and arsenic-contaminated groundwater in the South Asian nation.

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World’s Large Rivers Drying Up

It’s a paradox: our water supplies are shrinking at the same time as climate change is generating more intense rain. The large rivers of the world are drying up, and the culprit is the drying of soils, say scientists in a new study.

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New Electrochemical Method Eliminates Mercury From Water

Water contaminated with mercury and other toxic heavy metals is a major cause of environmental damage and health problems worldwide. Now, researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology have devised a new way to clean contaminated water – through an electrochemical process.

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Making Fresh Water Out of Thin Air

An atmospheric water generator that condenses moisture in the air, making fresh drinking water, has won the Water Abundance XPrize worth US$1.5 million. The prize went to David Hertz and Laura Doss-Hertz co-founders of the Skysource/Skywater Alliance.

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Water Shortages Linked to Violence, Poverty

More nature-based solutions are urgently needed to avoid a violent global water crisis, warn the hosts of World Water Week 2018, which opened Sunday in Stockholm, attracting government leaders, water experts, development professionals and business representatives from throughout the world.

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Innovators Find Water Scarcity Solutions

“We have a water crisis, which is based on increasing population, urbanization and climate disruption. And there’s unsustainable use of our water,” said Argonne National Laboratory researcher Seth Darling. “Part of addressing this is through policy solutions, but we also need new, more energy-efficient and cost-effective technologies.”

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Vote for 2018 Young Champions of the Earth

Mohamed Abdirahman, 29, of Hargeisa, Somaliland established his own tree-planting program in 2015, the same year he graduated from the University of Hargeisa with a degree in Environmental Science. He is now one of 35 finalists worldwide in the contest for the 2018 Young Champions of the Earth prize.

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