The Stream, August 9: British Prime Minister Promises Safe Fracking

Despite growing protests to protect the environment and drinking water quality, British Prime Minister David Cameron is pushing for more fracking, promising compensation to communities and lower gas prices, The Guardian reported. “If you look at what’s happening in America with the advent of shale gas and fracking, their energy costs in business and their gas prices are half the level of ours,” said Cameron.

Water Supply
The Hungarian government ordered Mayor Pal Furjes Wednesday to restore full water supplies to the slums of Ozd, where local Roma had their pumps closed through a heat wave for alleged abuse of the free supply, Reuters reported. “They want to stop the Roma from stealing water, but nobody is stealing anything. They are public pumps,” said Kriszta Bodis, an activist who has worked with the Ozd Roma for decades.

The planned release of water from a North California reservoir to protect salmon downstream has unhappy farmers suing the federal government for their water rights, Bloomberg News reported. Having received only 20 percent of water deliveries this year, they fear another season of relying on insufficient groundwater resources and fallow fields.

Pollution
The Shanghai government finds more than 50 percent of the city’s lakes and rivers as “severely polluted” and only 3.4 percent as top grade, Bloomberg News reported. Growing social unrest over toxic lakes and polluted rivers is putting pressure on the government, which plans to invest $US 327 billion to treat polluted waters.