Tag: water

Weaponising Water: Israel Assumes Control Over The Al-Mantara Dam In Syria

Israeli military forces have established fortified positions and developed advanced military infrastructure in various locations within the Quneitra countryside of Syria. Since December 24, these forces have achieved considerable control over the Al-Mantara Dam, a crucial water resource in the region, which could have significant repercussions for both Syria and its neighbouring country, Jordan.

The Al-Mantara Dam is not only a key water supply for Quneitra, but also for its adjacent rural areas, and the Daraa Governorate. Reports from the local population indicate that movement in and out of the occupied territories is severely restricted, with Israeli forces enforcing regulated schedules for civilian access.

This manoeuvre by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bears a striking resemblance to a well-documented strategy previously employed by the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, where IS utilized water resources to advance its military and political objectives by seizing control of major dams and reservoirs along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers as part of their territorial expansion.

Tobias von Lossow, a doctoral researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, SWP Middle East and Africa Division,  authored a compelling study entitled “Water as Weapon: IS on the Euphrates and Tigris”. In this work, he explores the strategic significance of dams and reservoirs to the Islamic State (IS).

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Newly identified chemical in drinking water is likely in many homes and could be toxic, study finds

About a third of U.S. residents have been receiving tap water containing a previously unidentified chemical byproduct, a new study has found. Some scientists are now concerned — and actively investigating — whether that chemical could be toxic.

The newly identified substance, named “chloronitramide anion,” is produced when water is treated with chloramine, a chemical formed by mixing chlorine and ammonia. Chloramine is often used to kill viruses and bacteria in municipal water treatment systems.

Researchers said the existence of the byproduct was discovered about 40 years ago, but it was only identified now because analysis techniques have improved, which finally enabled scientists to determine the chemical’s structure.

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New Cochrane Review Finds Water Fluoridation Has Minimal Effect on Dental Health

Adding fluoride to drinking water provides very limited dental benefits, especially compared with 50 years ago, according to an updated Cochrane Review published today.

The review follows less than two weeks after a California federal judge ruled water fluoridation poses an “unreasonable risk” of reduced IQ in children and must be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

It also comes as some U.S. cities and towns have moved to pause or stop fluoridating their water in response to the verdict, signaling that fluoridating water, a long-term and largely unquestioned practice in the U.S., is facing heightened scrutiny.

To determine if water fluoridation leads to reduced rates of tooth decay, researchers from the University of Manchester and other U.K. universities reviewed 157 studies comparing communities that fluoridated their water to those that don’t.

They concluded that contemporary evidence shows community water fluoridation may lead to a very small reduction in cavities in children’s baby teeth over time. Fluoride in water reduced tooth decay only by about one-quarter of one tooth, they found, and even that conclusion was made with “low certainty.”

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CHINA DETECTS WATER IN SAMPLES IT COLLECTED FROM THE MOON

Scientists have discovered traces of water while analyzing lunar soil samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 rover.

While NASA already announced the discovery of water on the Moon’s sunlit areas back in 2020, the new research suggests that water can take on even more forms than previously thought on the lunar surface.

As detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the samples “revealed the presence of trace water,” tantalizing evidence that “water molecules can persist in sunlit areas of the moon in the form of hydrated salts.”

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Israel Uses Water as a Weapon of Its Genocide in Gaza

Through persistent, systematic, and widespread targeting of the Gaza Strip’s water sources and desalination plants, Israel is using water as a weapon against Palestinian civilians. In addition to imposing famine, Israel is deliberately reducing the amount of water available to residents of the Strip—especially potable water sources—intentionally targeting the over 2.3 million people who live there as part of its genocide, ongoing since last October. 

On Monday, July 1, the Euro-Med Monitor field team observed significant damage to a desalination plant in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, south of Gaza City, as a result of direct Israeli targeting. This also resulted in the killing of a young man who was filling a gallon with water, plus the wounding of other individuals. The station, which provided services to at least 50,000 people in several nearby residential neighbourhoods, sustained significant damage after being bombed by the Israeli army with a GBU missile that broke through multiple stories and detonated on the ground floor.

As summer temperatures rise, the people of the Gaza Strip are facing significant challenges in accessingwater. Estimates show that since October of last year, the per capita share of water in the Gaza Strip has decreased by 97% due to the extensive destruction of water infrastructure by Israel. Therefore, as a result of the genocide, the per capita share of water in the Strip has decreased to between 3 and 15 litres per day, while in 2022 it was approximately 84.6 litres per day.

In view of the ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people that deprive them of necessities for survival—such as the destruction of over 700 wells and water desalination plants since the start of the genocide—all areas of the Gaza Strip are experiencing a shortage of water, and the sewage system is collapsing. Meanwhile, certain areas of the Strip are suffering from a shortage of fuel, which Israel forbids from entering the Strip, despite the large number of casualties—including children—caused by infectious diseases and epidemics that spread through the accumulation ofcontaminated water due to inoperative sewage stations.

Continued destruction and devastation by the Israeli army is rendering the Gaza Strip unlivable, particularly after the army’s destruction of 9 out of 10 water tanks and half of the water networks, or 350 km out of 700 km.

Additionally, as a result of the crimes and arbitrary policies of Israel, all six wastewater treatment plants have been disrupted, approximately 65 sewage pumps stopped, and 70 km of sewage networks destroyed. This has resulted in the unchecked disposal of wastewater, estimated to be around 130 thousand cubic metres per day, onto Gaza Strip roads and shelters for displaced people.

According to United Nations estimates, about 96 percent of the Strip’s population (2.15 million people) faces high levels of acute food insecurity. While the whole territory is classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), over 495,000 people (22 per cent of the population) are still facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 5). In this Phase, households experience an extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities.

Euro-Med Monitor warned last January that distress is engulfing Gaza City and the Strip’s northern regions in alarming ways—a result of Israel’s cutting off of the water supply in the Strip, systematic and intentional Israeli bombing of water sources and wells, and a lack of fuel required to run water conversion and distribution facilities.

The lack of drinking water in the Gaza Strip has become a matter of life and death, with residents currently being forced to drink unclean well water amid continued Israeli military attacks and lack of food, water, and fuel supplies.

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War On Nation’s Food Supply?: Idaho Restricts Water To 500,000 Acres Of Farmland 

In late May, Idaho Department of Water Resources Director Mathew Weaver issued a curtailment order requiring 6,400 junior groundwater rights holders who pump off the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer to shut off their spigots.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little issued a statement following the order on May 30, “Water curtailment is never desired, but the director must follow Idaho law and the Constitution in issuing this order.” 

Brian Murdock, an East Idaho farmer, said the water curtailment affects 500,000 acres, which equates to roughly 781 square miles of farmland. 

“Well, as you said, the state of Idaho and the Idaho Department of Water Resources has issued this curtailment of 500,000 acres. And to help put that in perspective, that’s basically 781 square miles of farm ground that is being taken out of production,” Murdock told the hosts of Fox News. 

The grain and potato farmer continued, “And, of course, the worst problem is this is happening during a very plentiful water year. We have the reservoirs [that] are completely full, and when I mean full, they’re dang near breaking. The rivers are running as high as they possibly can. Just trying to keep those dams from breaking.” 

In eastern Idaho, groundwater users with junior water rights breached the 2016 agreement in 2021 and 2022. Currently, Gov. Little, the lieutenant governor, the Director of Water Resources, and representatives from groundwater and surface water user groups are discussing a new deal. The plan is to strike a new agreement before the curtailment dries up the farmland. 

Murdock told co-hosts Dagen McDowell and Sean Duffy that his family’s century-old farm faces a $3 million loss due to the state-issued order. 

“This is the largest curtailment in the history of the United States as far as farm ground,” Murdock said in a video posted on X. 

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California’s Perpetual Drought Is Manmade And Intentional

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) last week released its next five-year plan for the State Water Project—Update 2023. After years of meetings, California’s premier water agency has decided to focus on “three intersecting themes: addressing climate urgency, strengthening watershed resilience, and achieving equity in water management.”

Water supplies for California’s 40 million people and the planet’s most productive agriculture have third- to fifth-level priority.

There is nothing new here, except to publicly admit to betraying the public trust. Really?

Over several decades, the public has been deceived into voting for water bonds that have little new water in them—phony promises to build new water storage and aqueducts. About 12 percent of bond funds are spent on new water storage. The rest of the bond funds have been squandered on scores of local and special-interest environmental projects, e.g., tearing down four Klamath-area dams—killing fish to save them—and opposing substantial new water projects, e.g., raising Shasta Dam and building Auburn Dam.

Further, by California law, water must be equitably distributed, pumped “equally”—half to human beings (if you count agriculture) and half to fish (the water-short Pacific Ocean, 187 quadrillion gallons). During the big rains of 2024, about 90 percent of the water was flushed to the Pacific through the gills of perhaps a half dozen delta smelt.

Farmers call it a manmade drought.

The politicos halted humans “taking” water, “diverting” it, from fish. Under the U.S. Constitution, the taking of private property requires just compensation—not mass confiscation. Water rights are a complex species of property.

“Our findings show that atmospheric river activity exceeds what has occurred since instrumental record keeping began,” said Clarke Knight, a U.S. Geological Survey research geographer.

Still, DWR scheduled 2024 meetings of the Drought Resilience Interagency & Partners (DRIP) Collaborative for April, July, and October.

The DRIP fantasy continues despite a deluge of 2024 water from two winters of giant “rivers in the sky” dumping excesses of water and creating massive floods and landslides.

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Where Water Stress Will Be Highest by 2050

Water is not only the basis of life for animals and plants, but is also likely to become a contested resource in parts of the world in the coming decades. According to UN figures, global water stress, i.e. the proportion of water withdrawn for use in industry, agriculture or private households in relation to available water, was manageable at 18.2% in 2020. In 2022, however, 2.4 billion people were living in areas that are exposed to extreme water stress in some cases.

It is not possible to determine exactly how high this will be by 2050 due to numerous factors such as the global population or economic and political developments in emerging and transition countries. This is why scientists are currently working with scenarios instead of more precise estimates. However, it is certain that the demand for water will increase steadily and that many countries are already consuming more than they have available.

As Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the infographic below, based on projections by the World Resources Institute (WRI) , 51 of the 164 countries and territories analyzed are expected to suffer from high to extremely high water stress by 2050, which corresponds to 31 percent of the population.

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Boiling Hard Tap Water Removes Up To 90% Of Microplastics: Study

Boiling tap water is good for more than just killing certain harmful pathogens. It can also destroy contaminants such as microplastics and chemicals, making drinking water safer to drink.

A new research letter published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters indicates that boiling tap water for just five minutes could reduce the amount of microplastics by up to 90 percent. Researchers from Guangzhou Medical University and the Center for Environmental Microplastics Studies in China recommend boiling water in nonplastic electric kettles on gas stoves to remove impurities such as polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene.

According to the researchers, boiling water has been used since ancient times as a purification method in some Asian countries. “This simple boiling-water strategy can ‘decontaminate’ [nano- and microplastics] from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human intake of [nano- and microplastics] through water consumption,” they wrote.

Harder Water Captures More Microplastics

Water of a certain alkalinity and hardness typically produces incrustants—insoluble mineral remnants like calcium carbonate—upon boiling. For the study, the researchers hypothesized that calcium carbonate encounters nanoplastics as it crystallizes in hot water. The calcium carbonate then encapsulates the nanoplastics as it becomes the flaky crust you sometimes see at the bottom of your tea kettle.

The study showed that boiling hard tap water containing 300 milligrams per liter (mg/L-1) of calcium carbonate reduced nano- and microplastics by nearly 90 percent, while water containing 80 mg/L-1 reduced particles by 84 percent. In soft water samples containing less than 60 mg/L-1 of calcium carbonate, boiling still reduced plastics by over 25 percent.

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California’s Fecal Fiasco Deepens With ‘Toilet-To-Tap’ Sewage Approval

California – known for its poo-lined streets, is one step closer to Soylent Green, after state officials approved new “toilet-to-tap” regulations which would allow water agencies to take wastewater from homes, recycle it, and then deliver it back to households in an effort to maximize the state’s water supply.

“It will truly be the highest quality water delivered in the state when it’s done,” according to Darrin Polhemus, director of the Division of Drinking Water and the State Water Resources Control Board, the NY Post reports.

Officials swear it’s safe (until it’s not, we assume), due to three rigorous stages of treatment. The poo water is treated for pathogens and viruses that is allegedly so effective that minerals have to be added back into the water to give it taste.

“If one fails, there’s still two remaining in its place as backups to make sure nothing goes untreated,” said Polhemus.

California is notoroiusly drought-prone and depends on water from other states via the Colorado River.

However, 2023 brought an exceptional amount of rain, and by October, the state was over 99% drought-free, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Although the water will be more expensive than imported water, the supply is more renewable and reliable, according to CalMatters.

California is the second state to allow the process, following Colorado. -NY Post

The Golden State has been using recycled water in farming and watering lawns for several decades, however this would be the first time it’s been used for potable water.

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