Project: H2OFAIL

H2OFAIL

Taking matters into their own hands

Koster municipal water treatment works
The municipal water treatment works in Koster, which has since been fixed by the concerned citizens group after they were granted access by the courts.

Widespread water and sanitation failures prompt citizen groups to approach the courts​

H2OFAIL

‘The water is not good at all’

Lettie Mdluli and her grandchild
In the township of Klarinet in Emalahleni, Lettie Mdluli and her grandchild, Palesa Nkabinde, along with six other relatives, survive on grants from the state yet must still pay for the municipal water that she says gives them diarrhea.

How Emalahleni’s contaminated water harms its most vulnerable residents​

H2OFAIL

Communities turned into sewage swamps​

A stream of raw sewage flows from a leak just outside the Standerton wastewater treatment works
A stream of raw sewage flows from a leak just outside the Standerton wastewater treatment works perimeter fence, directly into the Vaal River visible in the background. The Vaal is the source of drinking water for South Africa’s most populous province, Gauteng, which is the country’s economic hub.

South Africa’s waste water crisis is making life unbearable for its residents​

H2OFAIL

Living in a ‘critical state’

Residents of a new informal settlement outside Winburg gather to fill containers with water from a pipe supplied by the municipality
Residents of a new informal settlement outside Winburg gather to fill containers with water from a pipe supplied by the municipality. Sana Ntho, 54, said the water either has to be boiled or disinfected before drinking. With no electricity available, and firewood a scarce commodity, she adds a spoon of bleach to every 20-liter bucket of water.

The price of a South African town’s dirty water

H2OFAIL

A tsunami of human waste

A body of water filled with sewage and garbage debris
A critically failing sewage works in Springbok in the Northern Cape is one of 334 in the country which obtained a Green Drop score of 30% or less. The cause of the failure was not investigated but is typical of broader municipal service failures. Photo by Steve Kretzmann

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.

H2OFAIL

Child diarrhea cases surge as sewage runs on Cape Town streets

Sewage spills across a busy intersection
Sewage spills such as this one across a busy intersection in Site C, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, have become semi-permanent features in some parts of the city.

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.

H2OFAIL

An encroaching desert intensifies Nigeria’s farmer-herder crisis

Muhammad Zakkari stands on a lone uprooted tree
Muhammad Zakkari, 37, stands on a lone uprooted Aduwa (desert date) tree next to where a house once stood before the sands of the Sahara overtook his former home village of Zakkari. The village is among many in the northeastern region of Yobe state in Nigeria that is on the frontlines of the desert’s encroachment. Photo by Murtala Abdullahi

How climate change and human activity are driving violence between farming and pastoralist communities.

H2OFAIL

Where is the water going?

Kings River in California’s San Joaquin Valley
As a result of the 2021 drought, there is very little water in the Kings River in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The water that is available is used on crops.

Small farmers struggle as ag titans wheel water for profit

H2OFAIL

The Gambia’s Water Paradox

Ya Nima Jaiteh, 14, washes her face at a tap in her family's compound.
Bakau - Ya Nima Jaiteh, 14, washes her face at a tap in her family's compound. Despite having access to plenty of natural fresh water, an investigation has revealed extensive contamination through the nation’s formal and informal water supply systems.

How a country with plentiful water resources is failing to provide safe water to its people

Corcoran Is Sinking, and We Might Know Why.

The Cross Creek Levee in Corcoran, CA
The Cross Creek Levee in Corcoran, CA was rebuilt in 2017 after having sunk seven feet since 1983. The levee is now at least twice the size of the previous one and protects the town from flood water coming from the south and west.

We are excited to announce the publication of our latest partner project with SJV Water and The New York Times on the sinking of a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley.