The Stream, September 6: Sixth Famine Zone in Somalia

The United Nations has declared a sixth famine zone in Somalia, the Guardian reported. About 4 million Somalis – more than half of the population – are now in crisis in the drought-stricken country, and 750,000 people are at risk of death in the next four months if there is no adequate response, according to the U.N.

Water started flowing again in several areas of Tripoli on Monday, offering relief to a water crisis that had gripped the Libyan capital for more than a week, Associated Press reported.

China’s plans to source more and more heavy metals from the Tibetan Plateau to feed the country’s rapid growth run contrary to market economy logic, according to this Chinadialogue article.

Environmentalists and ordinary people in Iran are up in arms over the shrinking of Lake Orumieh, one of the world’s largest salt lakes and a UNESCO biosphere reserve, the Guardian reported. Thousands of Iranians have protested on the streets in the past few weeks against the government’s failure to protect the lake, which has already lost half of its surface in recent years.

A British pesticide maker has won a grant to develop a pellet that will control an infestation of zebra mussels clogging water treatment plants in the U.K., according to Bloomberg. Thames Water, the U.K.’s largest water and wastewater services company, removes about 1,000 tons of zebra mussels a year from its treatment plants, enough to cover 10 football pitches.

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