By Protus Onyango

Women from the Kadokoi community water project show how they use drip irrigation to grow vegetables with water from their borehole. / Protus Onyango/IPS

NAIROBI, Jan 3 (IPS) – The acute lack of water in Kenya means families have to trek long distances every day to fetch water. In both rural and [...]

By Reem Abbas

Thirty villages of the Manasir people were flooded during construction of the Merowe Dam. / David Haberlah/CC BY 2.0

KHARTOUM, Jan 2 (IPS) – The multi-billion dollar Merowe Dam on the Nile River more than doubled Sudan's electricity supply, but its environmental impacts still remain unknown to the public and to the communities [...]

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

Higher-lying neighbourhoods in Yaoundé like this one have seen their pipes dry up, as water pressure has dropped due to the growth in demand. / Sustainable Sanitation/CC BY 2.0

YAOUNDÉ, Dec 29 (IPS) – Mama Rosalie of Damas quarter in the capital of Cameroon trudges down a narrow, winding footpath, headed for [...]

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Dec 27 (IPS) – Mauritius plans to privatise its water sector, as rains become rare, and century-old pipes continue to leak almost 50 percent of the water available, added to waste by the population, mismanagement and over-consumption.

There are not enough dams to collect water in Mauritius, and most of the rainwater [...]

By Mantoe Phakathi

A multi-million dollar iron-ore reprocessing plant in northern Swaziland is threatening water security. / Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MBABANE, Dec 26 (IPS) – A multi-million dollar iron-ore reprocessing plant in the northern part of Swaziland, owned by Indian mining company Salgaocar, is threatening the water security of local communities and even the country’s capital city, [...]

By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM, Aug 23 (IPS) – The rapid growth of urban population – described as one of the world’s major demographic trends – has triggered an explosion of "mega cities" in Asia, Latin America and Africa, causing a breakdown in basic services, including water supplies and sanitation facilities.

And by 2050, about 70 percent of [...]

By Thalif Deen

Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). / Courtesy of SIWI

STOCKHOLM, Aug 22 (IPS) – The international community is running the risk of losing the battle for water and sanitation in many cities around the world.

"But it is a battle we cannot afford to lose," warns Anders Berntell, [...]

U.N. Bureau Chief Thalif Deen interviews ANDERS BERNTELL, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute

Anders Berntell / Courtesy of SIWI

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 17 (IPS) – The world's water map is being significantly redrawn due primarily to the mass migration of people into urban centres, threatening one of life's vital resources.

By 2050, the world's [...]

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 3 (IPS) – As the 193-member General Assembly commemorates the first anniversary of its landmark resolution pronouncing water and sanitation to be a basic human right, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon triggered a political controversy last week when he implicitly declared that even human rights have a market price.

"Let us be clear," [...]

By Lily Hough

A woman holds a malnourished baby at the Badbado camp for Internally Displaced Persons. / UN Photo/Stuart Price

WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (IPS) – While an estimated 12.4 million people linger on the brink of starvation in the Great Horn of Africa, U.S. officials and world relief agencies said Monday that even in a [...]

By Anselme Nkinsi

Just 22 percent of Congolese have access to safe drinking water. / Julien Harneis/Wikicommons

KINSHASA, Jun 28 (IPS) – In recent months, no one in the Congolese capital has been spared the effects of water shortages. Where spending entire days criss-crossing Kinshasa in search of water with battered containers in hand was previously [...]

By Simba Russeau
CAIRO, Jun 13 (IPS) – The escalation of violence around the north-south border in the run-up to Sudan’s big divide has sparked fears of a new civil war, but experts contend that the issue is more about land and water rather than oil.

"Population claim to the land is more important to the main [...]

By Amanda Fortier*

Students learning how to use the canacla: 30 seconds of hand washing while singing and dancing. / Benoit Vanhercke

DAKAR, Jun 7 (IPS) – Think hand washing can’t be fun? Think again. In Senegal, a unique water system offers people an easy, cheap and environmentally friendly way to wash their hands frequently, reducing [...]

By Simba Russeau
CAIRO, May 27 (IPS) – Libya’s enormous aquatic reserves could potentially become a new weapon of choice if government forces opt to starve coastal cities that heavily rely on free flowing freshwater.

With only five percent of the country getting at least 100 millimetres of rainfall per year, Libya is one of the driest [...]

Safe water and sanitation are cost-effective public health measures, but have not been prioritised in most poor countries.