This is why domestic sanitation is so important...

The New York Times reported today that clogged sewers and floods of wastewater have caused an epidemic of cholera that is "now gripping more than half the country". 

Read the full article here. 

Flooding in Colombia

On the coast of Colombia, the poorest of people are living in flooded house and traveling around their riverbed communities on makeshift boats.  In the community where I work a crocodile has crossed the river to feast on the urban stray dogs.  This type of flooding is affecting the entire country and causing the number of internally displaced people to rise even further.  Currently, Colombia has one of the largest internally displaced populations in the world after Darfur.  This map best illustrates the extent of this ongoing natural disaster. 

Levi's Denim Blues

Rueters reports that the finishing process for a pair of jeans runs somewhere near 42 liters of water. However, Levi's is releasing a new line they are calling "WaterLess" and are using 28% to 96% less water in the line's production. Is this a marketing technique based on a need to reduce water use because of factory location (China and India) or simply a desire to cash in on the green fashion movement?

See Reuter's article here. 

Cali, Colombia Might Need Daniel Beard

The dam building era in the United States started in 1935 with the completion of the Hover Dam.  After this, the Bureau of Reclamation built more dams on more bodies of water than any other organization in the world.  More importantly, this government agency influenced water politics world wide and contributed greatly to the global culture of damming (and damning) the world's rivers.   Interestingly enough Daniel Beard, a former commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, has become an avid protester of dams, declaring the era of dam building in the U.S "over".  Pearce elaborates:

"He cut a startling figure. Daniel Beard, the recently retired commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S government agency that has built more large dams on more rivers than any other body in the world, had taken off his suit and donned a T-shirt and was striding through the streets of Nagaragawa in southern Japan at the head of a thousand protesters.  He was yelling, 'No more dams'" ( Ch. 15, para. 1). 

Pearce writes about Mr. Beard's participation in this demonstration to illustrate how dated the ideas of dams are in the current economic and environmental atmosphere.  Pearce quotes Beard as saying at this event, "This is one of the most awful dam projects I have ever seen- and I've seen some....It will supply water that nobody needs, will probably destroy a salmon fishery on a beautiful river, and may actually increase the risk of flooding." 

Mr. Beard has been converted from dam builder to dam protester for good reason.  Dams, at this point in time, are considered rather environmentally and economical unsound.  Besides belching uncanny amounts of methane and reeking havoc on ecosystems, they generally are not good economic investments. 

However, none of this increasingly common knowledge is influencing Emcali, a company based in Cali, Colombia, who is considering building a dam on the Cali river.  Although I do not know the details of the project, I believe it is highly unlikely that this will be a sound economic or environmentally friendly decision. 

You can find a brief article on the matter here. 

Colombia's Worth will be tied to its Ecosystems

Colombia's worth will be tied to its ecosystems, according to the World Bank and CNN.

"If we are going to address the alarming loss of habitat and the degradation of ecosystems in the world, we have to properly value natural capital," said Warren Evans, the World Bank's Director of Environment.

Colombia and India will be the first two countries that will undergo an analysis by the World Bank to assign an economic worth to these countries most valuable ecosystems, including the Amazon River Basin.  This decision by the World Bank could have a very significant positive impact on the prevention of water and environmental degradation but also further commodifies water and natural resources. See the full article here. 

See