Entries by Sarah Haughn

More Than Bugs & Bunnies: Evaporating Okeechobee a Matter of Life and Death

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Tempers flare across Florida as dry conditions persist — perfect weather for the state’s most pernicious parasite: worry. With less than 12 feet of water in Lake Okeechobee, farmers and fishermen fear allocations may be insufficient to sustain the region’s agriculture and its estuaries. But who is responsible for finding a solution? Neither the South […]

Advancing Algal Bloom Chokes Lower Murray Darling River

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A vast swath of blue-green algae is making its way through Australia, creeping down Victoria’s Lower Murray Darling River at a pace that alarms authorities. At the end of March, the algae had already covered more than 300 kilometers from Hume Dam to the Torrumbarry Weir. Officials fear it could reach the border of South […]

Digital Drought: Australia’s Future on Fire in Acclaimed Media Project

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Australia’s drought remains severe, but the award-winning interactive drama project, Scorched, offers a searing reality check for Australians nationwide. The year is 2012 and Sydney, facing raging bushfires, is finally out of water. As politicians, journalists, and ordinary citizens race to save their country, the project urges real Australians to join the not-so-fantastical fiction. Using […]

Race to Create Space: Plastic Bottle Offers Lightweight Response to Consumer Concerns

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Plastic remains the material of choice for bottled water, but corporations using it face increasing criticism from consumers concerned about environmental impacts. In the rush to keep their market on the bottle, so to speak, Pepsi plans to reduce the amount of plastic used by 20 percent, reports the Wall Street Journal. Pepsi also plans […]

Water Designer Turns Box Thinking Inside Out

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While the recent UNESCO Water Report encourages stakeholders to climb out of their respective ideological boxes, a packaging innovator from Michigan reassures consumers boxes aren’t so bad after all. As it turns out, drinking water packaged in boxes might be the happily sustainable medium for those unlikely to sacrifice the portable, disposable commodity. Benjamin Edgar, […]

California Drought: Snowpack Inspires Consumers, Worries Water Experts

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One week after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state-wide drought emergency for California, rangers reported Sierra snowpack levels at 80 percent of normal. While the measurements of this major source of water might seem cause for relief, experts hesitate.

Canons and Cannons: World Water Forum Disperses Policies, People in Turkey

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Unfurl a banner against privatized water and get a return flight home, compliments of the Turkish government. As water experts, activists, researchers and businesspeople convene for the third day of the 5th World Water Forum, protests and deportations dominate media coverage of the event. Simmering steadily for the past several years, the conversation around whether […]

Peace Pipes & Smoking Guns: Southern Ethiopia’s Struggle for Water

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Water may be declared a human right, but such declarations do little for those living in the southern lowlands of Ethiopia where the resource remains preciously limited. Violent episodes break out when rain fails to fall. Instead of precipitation, villagers find their families and livestock fleeing from a storm of bullets. Recently 70,000 people were […]

A Capitol Offensive: Renowned Strategists Challenge U.S. to Lead Global Water Campaign

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As the money tree of the world wilts, thirsty from neglect, people around the globe desperately sound the alarm. The most recent iteration of this message comes from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) — the respected bi-partisan strategy and public policy think tank in Washington D.C. As part of the CSIS Global […]

Sanitation Crisis Brewing in U.S. Tent Cities

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As hundreds of thousands lose their jobs and homes monthly, a new population of internally displaced persons (IDPs) haunts the American landscape. From Sacramento to Seattle, water and sanitation conditions within the resulting camps and shantytowns fall far below par. Between the river and the railway tracks of Sacramento Depression-era history repeats itself, reports the […]