Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Water Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on November 1, 2018, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on water resilience. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Q&A
Independent journalists and volunteer activists have launched an online hunt to track down and expose former militiamen accused of committing crimes during Syria’s war as they head to Europe to seek asylum.
The recent purchase of five Delta islands by Metropolitan Water District raises a lot of questions. Delta expert Jeff Mount helps shed some light on the risks involved and what Met might stand to gain from its $175 million investment.
About half of the global Arctic population lives in isolated communities that must generate their own electricity, often from diesel fuel. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Gwen Holdmann, director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power.
Three years after the French intervention in northern Mali, thousands of refugees in neighboring Burkina Faso are still afraid to go home. Mali’s conflict may be over, but its border areas remain deeply unstable, with jihadist militant groups still believed to be operating.
Sebastien Tilmans, director of operations at the William and Cloy Codiga Resource Recovery Center at Stanford University, says wastewater should be viewed as a raw material and important resource, instead of a hazardous waste. And he tells us how it can be used to create water, energy and materials.
In Part 2 of Syria Deeply’s conversation with Bassma Kodmani, a key member of the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, she addresses outstanding issues in Geneva, including detainees, transitional justice, the inclusion of the Kurds and the role of women within the opposition.
As the cease-fire falters and government and opposition representatives prepare to meet in Geneva, Syria Deeply spoke with Bassma Kodmani, a key member of the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, to learn more about increasing violence on the ground and its effect on the dynamics in Geneva.
Some California reservoirs are releasing vast amounts of water even though the drought continues. This wouldn’t be necessary if water managers used new weather and streamflow forecasting tools, says Rob Hartman, hydrologist-in-charge of the California/Nevada River Forecast Center.
Our traditional, centralized water systems aren’t going to go away any time soon, but as we modernize and upgrade our infrastructure we’ll need to also add smaller, distributed systems. Newsha Ajami, from Stanford’s Water in the West program, talks about how to drive and fund this innovation.
Low coal prices have forced the Store Norske Spitsbergen Coal Company to shutter its largest mine on Svalbard. For Longyearbyen, the collapse of coal presents daunting challenges. But Arild Olsen, the town’s mayor and a former miner, sees opportunities ahead.
Who is behind the smuggling of refugees from Turkey to the Greek islands? How are these potentially deadly trips planned and organized? In the second installment of an ongoing investigation into dangerous routes to safety, Syria Deeply speaks with a people smuggler in Izmir.
The water business somehow missed out on the vast availability of operational data that has transformed many other industries. Tom Ferguson of San Francisco startup accelerator ImagineH2O hopes to fix that by nurturing startups working to bring data management to the water sector.
A study published in the British Medical Journal has found that refugees in Sweden have a substantially higher risk of schizophrenia and nonaffective psychotic disorders than other migrants. We spoke with the study’s lead author, Anna-Clara Hollander of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission provides water to 2.6 million customers. We talked to the director of water resources, Paula Kehoe, about how the agency is enabling onsite water reuse systems, drilling new groundwater wells and achieving some of the state’s lowest per capita water use.
A surge of unusual weather and animal sightings prompted the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to set up a system to get local observations online and out to experts for feedback. Now the Local Environmental Observer Network is under development for expansion across the Arctic.
With opposition groups threatening to boycott the rescheduled Geneva talks, and human rights groups hoping the cessation of hostilities will put pressure on the Syrian government to release prisoners early, the notorious detention centers remain inaccessible for inspection.
Four days into the temporary truce, the guns have largely fallen silent. But government and Russian airstrikes against what they claim to be “terrorists” have continued. Syria Deeply spoke with Rami Khouri of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs on its chances of success.
Cloud seeding is an important tool that’s been used in California to boost the mountain snowpack. It’s often done by aircraft flying in dangerous storm conditions. Now drones are poised to take over some of that work, possibly alleviating some of the risk and saving money.
Farmers have been resilient in the face of drought conditions for the last four years. But each year of drought becomes more difficult. We talk to Richard Howitt, professor emeritus of agricultural and resource economics at U.C. Davis about what farmers are doing to weather the drought.
As pro-government forces surround the city of Aleppo, medical workers are stocking up on supplies in anticipation of an impending siege. Syria Deeply spoke to one of them, Dr. Rami Kalazi, about the health situation in opposition-held areas and the challenges of being a doctor in a besieged area.
As Kurdish militias in northern Syria steadily take on greater importance, largely due to U.S. and Russian support, Turkey has quickly changed its priorities within the crisis. Syria Deeply spoke with Gokhan Bacik about the YPG’s expansion amid the chaos in Aleppo and the growing tensions in Turkey.
Everyone agrees that indigenous people should be more involved in Arctic research. However, there are still few indigenous researchers. Erin Freeland Ballantyne, a founder and the dean of the Dechinta Bush University in Yellowknife, N.T., is trying to change that.
Pro-government forces are pushing to seal off the last northern rebel stronghold from its only supply routes, a siege on Aleppo city looks imminent, and the temporary cease-fire set to begin at the end of the week looks increasingly unlikely to happen. But has the war reached a turning point?
How much do you know about what happens to the water you use after it goes down the drain? We spoke to Nick Hansen, a wastewater treatment plant operator, about the other side of our water use and how wastewater plants are helping with drought solutions, such as producing recycled water.
For years prior to last month’s suspension of formal peace talks in Geneva, Track 2 discussions have taken place behind closed doors between parties to the Syrian crisis, experts and others. Randa Slim, a veteran of these dialogues, discusses their role in Syria as the formal peace process collapses (part 2).
Discriminatory residency policies and a severe shortfall in humanitarian aid have left Syrian women in Lebanon at risk of frequent abuse and exploitation, according to Amnesty International. But despite the difficult circumstances, they’ve have shown a resilient determination to take care of their families.
For years prior to last month’s suspension of formal peace talks in Geneva, Track 2 discussions have taken place behind closed doors between parties to the Syrian crisis, experts and others. Randa Slim, a veteran of these dialogues, discusses their role in Syria as the formal peace process collapses.
Many water agencies are hiking water rates in response to declining revenue after customers began conserving water. Tom Ash talked to Water Deeply about how agencies can change their rate structures to increase conservation, cover their costs and make sure that their rates are equitable.
As the climate warms, Arctic shipping routes are expected to remain open for longer, which could save companies time and money. Scott Stephenson, a geographer at the University of Connecticut, charts the future of these shipping lanes.
Norway is keen to develop its mineral resources and add more renewables to its energy mix, but some of these projects are on traditional Saami lands. Arctic Deeply spoke with Aili Keskitalo, the president of the Saami Parliament of Norway, to learn how the Saami are involved in these decisions.
Greenland, a former Danish colony that moved closer to independence after a new law on self-government came into effect in 2009, has ambitions to open up its territory to mining, oil and gas development and tourism. Its aim is to boost its economy, reduce unemployment – and reduce its reliance on Denmark.
John Pujol and his team at SimpleWater, a Berkeley-based engineering firm, have developed a new way to put contaminated wells back into service by making friends with the age-old process of rusting metal. It could be cheaper and easier for many communities dealing with arsenic problems.
The White House established the Arctic Executive Steering Committee last year to help guide federal policy and coordinate activities among governments, researchers and nonprofits. Arctic Deeply talks to its executive director Mark Brzezinski about U.S. priorities and policies in the Arctic.
As the crisis in Syria rolls steadily towards its sixth year, misconceptions and misunderstandings abound on everything from the importance of local cease-fires to the U.N.’s definition of success in its humanitarian efforts. Members of an online community asked a U.N. political adviser their own queries.
National, economic and environmental security in the Arctic depends on good weather and ice forecasts, safe navigation and solid communication networks, all of which can be improved by investing in science, says Jonathan White, VP Ocean Science and Strategy at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership.
Hundreds of thousands of people are living under siege in Syria, where starvation is being used as a weapon of war. Syria Deeply spoke with James Sadri, director of The Syria Campaign, to learn more about the prevalence of siege tactics in Syria, the perpetrators, and the charges of U.N. failure to help end the sieges.
The Inuit Circumpolar Council represents the interests of Inuit people from Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia. Jimmy Stotts, the president of ICC-Alaska, talks with Arctic Deeply about Inuit priorities and how indigenous knowledge can be included in the work of the Arctic Council.
Based on bloodlines dating back centuries, tribal networks in Syria have long been influential on the ground, but their role in the civil war is often overlooked. Syria Deeply spoke with an expert on the issue to learn more about how tribal dynamics have factored into Syria’s civil war.
Bashar al-Assad’s increasing dependence on Iranian military support on the battlefield, according to Iran expert Nader Hashemi, has not only led to a war of influence between Moscow and Tehran in Damascus, but has deepened the growing sectarian divide in Syria and throughout the region.
Martin Sommerkorn, who heads up the conservation arm of the World Wildlife Fund’s Arctic Program, says that while we may not know exactly how Arctic marine ecosystems will be altered with climate change, building linked networks of Marine Protected Areas can help them adapt to future climate change.
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