Center for Collaborative Investigative JournalismIn 2010, the United Nations declared access to clean water to be a universal right that is essential to the enjoyment of all other rights. But a decade later, close to 1 billion people do not have that access. We have launched an ongoing investigation into the causes and consequences of that global failure.
Widespread water and sanitation failures prompt citizen groups to approach the courts
How Emalahleni’s contaminated water harms its most vulnerable residents
South Africa’s waste water crisis is making life unbearable for its residents
The price of a South African town’s dirty water
Rivers and water bodies across South Africa have become too polluted for use, and the government is doing an increasingly poor job of addressing the situation.
Like clockwork, diarrhea among children spikes sharply during Cape Town’s long summer. The city tends to blame the heat and people’s poor hygiene practices, but its own sewage infrastructure may be the real culprit.
How climate change and human activity are driving violence between farming and pastoralist communities.
Small farmers struggle as ag titans wheel water for profit
How a country with plentiful water resources is failing to provide safe water to its people
Disease stalks villages, as Lesotho sells water to South Africa
Struggle for water a daily reality for impoverished Nigerian island residents
Women carry the burden of collecting water for households
Vineyards well watered, while people struggle for water
Without global action, Las Vegas will experience 71 days above 100 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050. The impacts of such climate change are twofold, as less water comes down the Colorado River, and residents use more water in the heat.
Cape Town’s failure to maintain a key wastewater treatment plant cost the city a billion litres of drinking water
Years after the threat of Day Zero, it turns out that while households were blamed for over-excessive water use, big industrial users were given little more than a slap on the wrist for their significant water consumption
As a poor country, Tajikistan has often turned to outside investment to help fix its water infrastructure. Yet, half the population does not have access to safe, clean water.
Meanwhile, villagers struggle for water
The Falémé River is in a state of disaster and the impact on residents of the area and the river’s surroundings are clear for all to see.