The Stream, February 27, 2025: Drought Contributes to Worsening Hunger in Somalia; Fluoride Bans Gain Momentum in U.S.

The decision by emergency managers in Flint not to protect lead pipes from corrosion when the city switched water sources in April 2014 resulted in a public health crisis. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN

• Food insecurity in Somalia is projected to increase in the coming months, with perhaps a quarter of the country experiencing “crisis” levels or worse.
• The state of Michigan announces a $53 million settlement with Veolia North America over its alleged role in the Flint water crisis.
• Utah could become the first U.S. state to ban fluoride in public drinking water.
• In India, villagers protest against a $5 billion project to connect two river basins via canals and reservoirs.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Stream Editor

Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region

Flint Water Settlement: Veolia North America, a subsidiary of the world’s largest private water operator, agreed to pay $53 million to settle a lawsuit over its alleged role in the Flint water crisis more than a decade ago, Engineering News Record reports. The engineering firm was hired as a consultant when Flint switched its water source in 2014 to the Flint River, a move that resulted in pipe corrosion and high levels of lead in tap water. Money from the settlement, in which Veolia does not admit guilt, will be paid out to some 26,000 Flint residents. As part of the settlement Michigan Attorney Dana Nessel said she will drop a separate lawsuit against the company.

Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.

• B.C. ranchers say fracking-induced earthquakes hurt cattle — The Narwhal
• After losing in court, Michigan township tries again to block ‘green’ cemetery — Bridge Michigan
• Latest Minnesota PFAS bill allegedly shifts power, sparks controversy — Great Lakes Now
• Layoffs at Chicago EPA office have implications for Michigan — Michigan Public

The Lead

For decades, India’s leaders have talked about a grandiose scheme to re-plumb the nation’s rivers and move water from areas of supposed surplus to areas of deficit. The first such link, a $5 billion project to connect the Ken and Betwa rivers, is now under construction in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

Thousands of villagers who will be displaced by the reservoir and canal are protesting against the mega-project, the BBC reports.

More than 7,000 families, mostly belonging to the Gond and Kol tribes, are in the path of construction. The government has offered cash payments and/or land, but they say the compensation is inadequate for having their agrarian lives uprooted.

Other concerns hang over the project. The reservoir will flood 18 percent of the Panna Tiger Reserve, a nature park that helped local tiger populations recover.

“It’s unprecedented,” environmentalist Amit Bhatnagar told the BBC. “We have never seen a core area of a national park being used for such a large-scale infrastructure project before.”

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This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

4.4 Million

People in Somalia – a quarter of the country’s population – who could experience “crisis” levels of food insecurity or worse in the months of April to June. That represents an increase of a million people currently in those circumstances. The assessment comes from the IPC, an organization that tracks hunger globally. The rise in food insecurity is due to inadequate rains at the end of last year that hurt harvests and led to livestock losses. Floods in key farming regions did not help. The result is high food prices, which contributes to hunger in one of the world’s poorest countries. The IPC rates food insecurity on a five-point scale. Level 3 is called “crisis,” which means malnutrition or families must meet food needs by selling assets.

On the Radar

States and municipalities in the United States are beginning to move away from fluoride in drinking water. The shift follows a federal court ruling last year ordering the EPA to regulate the anti-cavity supplement in drinking water and the appointment of a water fluoridation skeptic as caretaker of the federal health agencies. Utah is poised to be the first state to prohibit fluoride in public drinking water, the Associated Press reports. A bill to do so awaits the signature of Gov. Spencer Cox. Meanwhile, lawmakers in several other states – New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Tennessee – are also seeking bans, Bloomberg Law reports. Nationally, 72 percent of people served by a public water system have fluoridated water.

Brett Walton

Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton