The Stream, June 24, 2021: Excess Animal Waste Pollutes Water In Northern Ireland

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN

• Experts have advised politicians in Northern Ireland to export more than a third of animal waste amid water and soil quality concerns.
• The body of an Indigenous land and water activist was found in Mexico almost a month after he disappeared.
• Some well water customers in Jackson, Mississippi, are still under a boil-water notice while repairs are made to the city’s beleaguered water system.
• An atmospheric river will bring heavy rainstorms across Australia this week.

Almost six dozen villages in northwestern India have been isolated due to heavy rain and flooding.

“My house has been submerged under nine feet of water. All our belongings have been destroyed.” – Sadiq Khan, a resident of Amroha, a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Due to heavy rain and rising rivers, around 70 villages in northwestern India have been cut off from their district headquarters. The Hindustan Times reports that while districts have yet to assess the total damage caused by the flooding, it’s clear that large swathes of farmland have been flooded and land near river banks is rapidly eroding.

IN RECENT WATER NEWS

In Case You Missed It:

Hotspots H2O: Longstanding Drought in Iran Begets Farmer Protests, Power Outages, and Widespread Water Rationing – A decades-long drought in one of the warming world’s most arid regions, heightened by what many consider to be governmental mismanagement, has set the state for a severe, dangerously dry 2021.

What’s Up With Water – June 21, 2021 – This week’s episode covers steps taken by leaders of Arab countries on a controversial dam project in the Nile basin, a new study that is sounding the alarm on groundwater depletion in Iran, and drinking water supplies for more than 500,000 Iowa residents are at risk from drought and toxic algal blooms.

Body of Indigenous Land and Water Activist Recovered In Mexico

The body of Indigenous activist Tomás Rojo Valencia was recovered last week in the Mexican border state of Sonora. The Associated Press reports the Indigenous rights leader disappeared on May 27 following protests over gas ducts, water pipelines and railway lines that run across Indigenous territory without much benefit to the Yaqui people. Rojo Valencia was a vocal advocate for the land and water rights of the Yaquis. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has called the Yaquis Mexico’s most persecuted Indigenous group and has prioritized justice for the community.

• Why it matters: Indigenous activists are murdered at alarming rates around the world. In 2019, 212 environmental activists were killed, according to data from the advocacy organization Global Witness. Circle of Blue reported earlier this year that Indigenous groups suffer more than others. The Global Witness data found that 40 percent of all victims in 2019 were Indigenous, and more than a third of attacks from 2015 to 2019 targeted Indigenous peoples.

TODAY’S TOP WATER STORIES, TOLD IN NUMBERS

2,000

Around 2,000 well water customers in Jackson, Mississippi are still under a boil-water notice amid ongoing repairs to city water systems, WAPT reports. Work to install a new pump for the TV Road well system will begin next week, restoring water to all well customers in the area, according to Jackson Public Works Director Charles Williams.

35 PERCENT

Advisory bodies have told politicians in Northern Ireland that up to 35 percent of the country’s animal waste may need to be exported to improve water and soil quality, the Guardian reports. Over the past decade, pig and poultry farming in Northern Ireland has created a multimillion-pound industry that has consistently contaminated bodies of water and triggered legal action from environmental groups. A climate bill moved to its second reading last month, setting a 2045 net-zero carbon target for Northern Ireland. The bill has been criticized by farming groups, who claim the target, if enforced, could wipe out half of the country’s livestock farmers.

ON THE RADAR

Severe storms are forecasted across Australia this week. ABC News reports that storms from an atmospheric river are set to develop Thursday through southwest Queensland, central New South Wales and parts of Victoria. Atmospheric rivers are like rivers in the sky that transport mass amounts of water, bringing heavy rain and wind gusts. The storms will deliver much needed precipitation to desert areas of South Australia. But they will miss regions in Gippsland that have been severely flooded over the past two weeks.

Jane Johnston

Jane is a Communications Associate for Circle of Blue. She writes The Stream and has covered domestic and international water issues for Circle of Blue. She is a recent graduate of Grand Valley State University, where she studied Multimedia Journalism and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. During her time at Grand Valley, she was the host of the Community Service Learning Center podcast Be the Change. Currently based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jane enjoys listening to music, reading and spending time outdoors.