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by Isgender GANBAROV with Emil GULIYEV in Baku Agence France-Presse BANKA, Azerbaijan (AFP) — The village of Banka in Azerbaijan should have plentiful supplies of water as it lies beside one of the country’s mightiest rivers, the Kura. But the river has shallowed dramatically this summer and has become contaminated with salty seawater, in what experts warn is an unfolding ecological disaster. “Our animals are dying. We don’t get water in time,” said farmer Maryam Hasanova, […]
by Asaad Niyazi with Ali Allaq in Kut Agence France-Presse AL-BADAA, Iraq (AFP) — The broad leaves and delicate purple flowers floating on the Euphrates look breathtaking — but they are suffocating the waterways of Iraq, celebrated as the “land of the two rivers”. The water hyacinth, nicknamed the “Nile flower” in Iraq, is an invasive plant native to South America’s Amazon basin that has ravaged ecosystems across the world, from Sri Lanka to Nigeria. The […]
Eagle News — During the coronavirus pandemic, millions of people around the world are without jobs and without substantial finances to provide for their needs and basic necessities. Panamanian President, Laurentino Cortizo, has announced that for a million La Autoridad Nacional de los Servicios Públicos (ASEP) customers, there will be a 30% to 50% discount from their electricity bill starting from April. This discount will continue to be in effect till June. The President also reassured Panamanians that […]
by Kelly MACNAMARA with AFP bureaux PARIS, France (AFP) — As nations around the world fight the coronavirus pandemic with mass lockdowns and travel bans, UN experts warn that some three billion people lack even the most basic weapons to protect themselves: soap and running water. The outbreak has infected some 200,000 people and killed 9,000, scorching through populations across the globe after emerging in China late last year. While Europe has become the center […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse Paris, France (AFP) — Overlapping environmental crises could tip the planet into “global systemic collapse,” more than 200 top scientists warned Wednesday. Climate change, extreme weather events from hurricanes to heatwaves, the decline of life-sustaining ecosystems, food security and dwindling stores of fresh water — each poses a monumental challenge to humanity in the 21st century. Out of 30 global-scale risks, these five topped the list both in terms of likelihood […]
by Diana SIMEONOVA / Vessela SERGUEVA Agence France-Presse PERNIK, Bulgaria (AFP) – Forced to “live without water, in the 21st century, in a European Union country”: Bulgarian Yana Stoyanova is not bemoaning climate change, but the incompetence of the authorities which has left some 100,000 people with an acute water shortage. Accountant Stoyanova does not live in an isolated backwater, but around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the capital Sofia. She is at the sharp […]
(Eagle News)-Several Maynilad customers in Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Manila will experience water service interruption. Maynilad said the following will have low pressure to none from 4 p.m. on Monday to 5 a.m. of Tuesday: Caloocan City: Barangays 12, 14, 20, 28, 31 and 35 Malabon City: Barangays Longos and 31, Caloocan City Navotas City: Barangays Bangkulasi, North Bay Boulevard, San Rafael, Caloocan City Barangays 124-127, 129-146, and 177 of Tondo, Manila Maynilad said the […]
(Eagle News) — Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday, Jan. 8, gave the assurance the concession deals crafted by the Department of Justice won’t “kill” water concessionaires Manila Water and Maynilad should they decide to accept them. In an interview over ANC, Guevarra said what they did with the new deals was to remove the provisions that were “highly disadvantageous” and to replace them with “more equitable” ones. “It’s something that will give life, life […]
(Eagle News)-President Rodrigo Duterte will make an announcement on the “onerous” water concession deals on Jan. 6, the Palace said. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the revelation as he noted that the President “still want(s) to hear why they allowed this kind of treason against the interest of the Filipino people.” “Sabi niya (Duterte), hindi siya papayag na walang mangyayari sa kasong ito,” he said. The President had slammed the concession agreements with Manila Water […]
Says gov’t should continue searching for, developing water sources (Eagle News)–Senator Grace Poe has reiterated what she said was the need for the creation of a single agency that will address all the country’s water concerns, and called on government to continue to look for other sources of water. Poe reiterated the call amid President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to take over water services, following the Department of Justice’s discovery of allegedly onerous provisions in the […]
(Eagle News) — Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar on Friday, Dec. 13, formally inhibited from any review and renegotiation of the government’s water concession contracts with Manila Water and Maynilad. Aglipay-Villar, the wife of Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar, announced her inhibition through a memorandum for Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who had asked her to inhibit. “To eliminate any cloud of doubt on the impartiality of the Department’s review and renegotiation of the water […]
(Eagle News)–The Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System has revoked the extension of the water concessionaire contracts with “onerous” provisions until 2037. The announcement of the cancellation of the extension of the contracts with Manila Water and Maynilad was made by Deputy Administrator for Engineering Leonor Cleofas during the joint House of Representatives hearing of the good government and public accountability and public accounts committees. Without the extension until 2037, the contracts will lapse in 2022. President […]
