South Korea has expressed concern about a new draft plan from Japan to release contaminated Fukushima water from its disabled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea.

The country’s Office for Government Policy Coordination said March 26 that Japan should ensure that its plan does not affect the health and safety of South Koreans or the maritime ecosystem, while the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said that it “cannot support the Japanese government discharging contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the sea without discussions with neighbouring countries”.

Further OOSKAnews coverage of Fukushima and Water

Dutch government researchers have found traces of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in samples from sewage treatment plants at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Trace elements have also been detected in wastewater samples near the village of Kaatsheuvel, where the country’s first COVID-19 patient lives, and in Tilburg.

The International Water Resources Association (IWRA) held a webinar 23 March to mark World Water Day 2020 focusing on “Water and Climate Change”.

The full video can be found HERE.

In a World Water Day address, United Nation Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described water as "the primary medium through which we perceive the effect of climate disruption, from extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, to glacial melting, saltwater intrusion and sea level rise". The United Nations’ World Water Day 2020 focused on “Water and Climate Change”.

A March 21-22 referendum in Mexicali, Mexico has determined that a partly-built $1.5 Billion USD brewery will not proceed as planned. Communities and farmers have engaged in resistance the controversial US brewers Constellation Brands plant in the north of the country since 2016 on the basis that the demands of the brewery will further strain already scarce regional water resources. In 2018, activists called for beer boycotts, blocked delivery of equipment to the construction site and clashed with security forces. Corona Extra, a Contellation brand, is the most successful Mexican exported beer.

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The World Youth Parliament for Water has launched a new web platform (www.youthforwater.org), showcasing members of Youth Parliaments for Water around the world, their actions and success stories.

Corruption plays an important part in who gets water and how much and how it is delivered in South Africa according to a new report from Water Integrity Network and Corruption Watch.

“Where funds are scarce, any corruption that diverts money from public purposes to private pockets directly reduces the provision and quality of service,” according to the report, "Money Down The Drain: Corruption In South Africa’s Water Sector".

Following Ethiopia’s effective withdrawal from US-brokered negotiations around the contentious Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, the governments of both Egypt and Ethiopia are engaging in international lobbying and sharp words around their respective positions in the longstanding dispute.

Egypt unilaterally signed a draft agreement in Washington at the end of February which Ethiopia’s foreign ministry has described as “unacceptable and highly partisan” and indicated that it will bring in a new proposal on filling of the GERD's reservoir.

Construction of the $4 Billion USD GERD commenced in 2011; upon completion it will produce over 6,000 megawatts of electricity and become Africa's largest hydropower project. Downstream, Egypt is concerned that the dam will affect its annual share of Nile water, causing shortages.

The Egypt-Ethiopia standoff is around timing of filling the reservoir. Egypt has insisted that Ethiopia should fill the dam reservoir over a period of seven years and release 40 billion cubic meters of water every year. However, Ethiopia wants to fill the dam in 3 years and earlier this year rejected Egypt’s proposal, claiming that it does not “respect current and future rights and development plans of Ethiopia over the Nile and complicates the filling of the dam”.

Further OOSKAnews Coverage of GERD (54 Articles)