The Stream, August 14, 2024: In Serbia, Lithium Mine Approval Puts Water in Focus and Sparks Widespread Protests

Itaipu Dam, Brazil and Paraguay. Photo courtesy Deni Williams via Flickr Creative Commons

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN

Tropical Storm Maria makes landfall in northern Japan, dropping an entire month of rain — twice over — within days.
Thousands of people in Belgrade, Serbia march in protest of a lithium mine they say will pollute precious waterways and endanger public health.
As Tropical Storm Debby triggers flooding nearby, a new community energy resilience project launches in New Orleans.
The Mackenzie River, which flows through Canada’s Northwest Territories, has reached all-time water level lows.

A proposed commercial waterway through the Pantanal wetlands, which span parts of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay, threatens the floodplain’s health and biodiversity, scientists warn.

“[The Pantanal wetland] is a real paradise on Earth. Nowhere else will you see so many hyacinth macaws, jaguars, swamp deer, anacondas, caymans, more than 300 fish species, 500 bird species, 2,500 species of water plants … All of that is at risk.” — Karl M. Wantzen, an ecologist at the University of Tours and UNESCO Chair for river culture.

In 2022 and 2023, through the issuance of permits, the Brazilian government proposed turning the upper 435 miles of the Paraguay River into the Paraguay-Paraná hidrovia — a project which would include the construction of several ports along the waterway, require extensive dredging, and permanently alter the wetland’s flooding cycle and water flow. The project’s proponents argue it will accelerate the export of farmed crops, iron, cement, and manganese, compared to their current truck-based movement, the Guardian reports.

The Pantanal is already vulnerable to wildfire, which has been growing larger throughout the region over the past decade and this year burned the most area on record. Since 1985, the Pantanal has lost roughly 80 percent of its surface water, making the biome less resistant to the spread of fire, sparking a positive feedback loop that threatens to disappear it completely.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Stream Editor

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U.S. Movement to Limit CAFO Pollution Emboldened by Michigan Court Ruling — State Supreme Court strengthens authority to prevent mammoth tide of manure from contaminating water.

The Lead

An estimated 25,000 people took to the streets of downtown Belgrade, Serbia this weekend — for the second time at such scale in three years — to protest a proposed lithium mining in the country’s Jadar Valley.

Near the western city of Loznica, on the shores of the Drina River, massive amounts of lithium — a crucial element for the manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles — were discovered in 2002. Rio Tinto, the mining company who owns the $2.4 billion project, estimates the deposits are enough to cover 90 percent of Europe’s automakers’ needs.

But like other parts of the world with known lithium quantities, including Chile, Portugal, and Nevada, its extraction threatens local waterways and public health. Activists demonstrated in the streets, chanting “Rio Tinto get out of Serbia” and “We do not give Serbia away.” Two main railway stations were also shut down, BBC reports.

In 2022, similar demonstrations prompted the Serbian government to revoke the license they had given Rio Tinto. But last month the project suddenly restarted, as the present administration said their earlier reversal was “not in line with the constitution and the law.”

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

13.7

Inches of rain — nearly double the entire monthly average — which fell on Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan during a 24-hour period this weekend as Tropical Storm Maria made landfall, the Japan News reports. The Omoto and Nagasawa rivers swelled, flooding homes and prompting high-level evacuation orders for more than 12,000 residents living near their banks and the Taki dam. Coastal areas in the prefecture received the worst of the torrential downpours. NHK, a public broadcaster in Japan, reports that by Monday evening parts of the city Kuji had surpassed 18 inches of rain over the past 48 hours, and that another four to six inches could fall within the next day on the cities Hokkaido and Tohoku.

$1 billion

Proposed cost (in Canadian dollars) of the Mackenzie Valley Highway project in Canada’s Northwest Territories, where communities are being increasingly denied boat deliveries as the Mackenzie River dries to unnavigable depths, Yale Environment 360 reports. Low water levels during the summers are becoming more commonplace due to the effects of climate change; extreme rainfall and melting events are sparking flooding and runoff in the far north. As a result, the channels which once seasonally connected communities at northern latitudes with the fuels, foods, and building materials they needed are now unreliable — roads, despite the destruction to forests and other landscapes their construction incurs, are now being called for out of necessity. But federal grants are required to fund such expensive projects, and many worry that the precedent of construction will entice further development, such as oil and gas drilling.

On the Radar

As Tropical Storm Debby continues to drop torrential rains and flood streets in the American Southeast, communities are seeking new ways to keep the electricity running amidst such storms. In New Orleans, the Community Lighthouse Project has quickly become the largest grid resilience project in Louisiana state history, receiving $259 million last autumn in federal grants, BBC reports. The initiative is installing solar-powered microgrids atop 86 congregations and community centers across the city. During “normal times” they help to keep energy costs down, while during storms they serve as an emergency source to keep phones, refrigerators, freezers, and other emergency utilities charged. “This starts from grassroots to try to get a response that becomes systemic, one that checks in on people in their neighborhoods – we’re in the early stages of developing this across our state,” Broderick Bagert, a founding member of Together Louisiana’s Community Lighthouse Project, told the BBC.

More Water News

Floodplain Revival: The cities of Leipzig and Schkeuditz, Germany have found success in revitalizing the local floodplain through the simple planting of native trees along its riparian shores — prompting policymakers across the European Union to welcome nature-based approaches, DW reports

Sicilian Oranges: The “survival of Sicilian citrus farming” is in jeopardy, Italian growers say, as drought has devastated the island’s crop — along with olive oil, wines, and other fruits in the Mediterranean, Reuters reports. Farmers are appealing to national authorities to upgrade infrastructure such as dams and reservoirs. The island’s production accounts for 65 percent of the entire country’s orange export.

Christian Thorsberg

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.