Fresh water conservation

Aerial view of river

250 miles of New Mexico’s rivers get toughest safeguards against pollution

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In a unanimous decision, New Mexico’s Water Quality Control Commission has voted to protect 250 miles of stream and river segments with the state’s highest water quality safeguards. This historic decision recognizes stretches of the Rio Grande, Rio Chama, Cimarron, Pecos, and Jemez rivers as Outstanding National Resource Waters, ensuring that these lifelines remain uncontaminated by pollution. The 10-0 vote shields these critical ecosystems from degradation caused by pollutants, heavy metals, temperature changes, and other environmental threats.

A Aerial Photo Of Fredericksburg Va on a clear fall day

Rappahannock Tribe first in U.S. to enshrine rights of nature into constitution

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The Rappahannock Tribe in Virginia has become the first tribal nation in the U.S. to adopt a tribal constitution that grants legal rights to a river, specifically protecting the Rappahannock River’s rights to exist, flourish, and maintain clean water. The provisions allows legal cases on behalf of the river itself, with a tribal court system planned for 2025 to enforce these rights. The Rappahannock’s actions are part of a rights-of-nature movement that includes Ecuador’s constitutional recognition of these rights in 2008 and New Zealand granting legal personhood to the Whanganui River in 2017.

Nervous Swans in the Rice Fields

California tears down levee in ‘largest tidal habitat restoration in state history’

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A backhoe loader has dug into a levee in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, breaking down a portion of the earthen embankment and allowing tidal waters to flow across 3,400 acres of land for the first time in 100 years, officials said. The plot of land, located in Solano County and just upriver from Rio Vista, is being called Lookout Slough, and it will provide new habitat for fish and wildlife and increase flood protection for the greater Sacramento area by boosting water storage capacity in the Yolo Bypass.

Nepal river valley with mountains in background

The Supreme Court of Nepal extends no-construction zones along major rivers in Kathmandu Valley

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The ruling introduces an additional 66-foot buffer zone, which would impact thousands of households, raising concerns about property rights and potential displacement. While environmental campaigners have welcomed the court’s decision as a crucial step toward saving the rivers of the valley, where encroachment and dumping of untreated solid and liquid waste is rampant, the federal government, under pressure from the local people, has filed for a review of the decision.

Aerial view of river and mangroves

Brazil rooting out last of gold miners on Yanomami lands

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In a rush for gold, illicit miners had contaminated rivers with mercury and other toxic chemicals and with human waste, resulting in a wave of disease among the Yanomami that led to food shortages and malnutrition. In February of 2023, Brazil launched a campaign to “completely eradicate illegal mining” from the territory, which spans an area roughly the size of Portugal. More than a year later, officials say they have destroyed 42 airstrips, 18 aircraft, and 45 barges used by miners, and have seized 24,000 gallons of diesel fuel. They are now close to expelling the last of the miners, Reuters reports.

The beach with vegetation in foreground

In a first, the Brazilian city of Linhares grants legal rights to waves

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The city of Linhares, Brazil, has granted legal rights to the waves at the mouth of the Doce River, the first instance in which a government has conferred rights upon part of the ocean. The city is aiming to better protect its coastal waters in the wake of the 2015 collapse of the Fundão dam. The dam held back more than 10 billion gallons of waste at an iron mine upstream, and when it failed, a wave of sludge poured into the Doce River.

Salmon run

Salmon will soon swim freely in the Klamath River for first time in a century once dams are removed

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The largest dam removal project in U.S. history is nearing completion. Crews will use excavators this week to breach rock dams that have been diverting water upstream of two dams that were already almost completely removed, Iron Gate and Copco No. 1. The work will allow the river to flow freely in its historic channel, giving salmon a passageway to key swaths of habitat just in time for the fall Chinook, or king salmon, spawning season.

Ecuador river is granted the right to not be polluted in historic court case

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An Ecuadorian court has ruled that pollution has violated the rights of the Machángara River, which runs through the capital of Quito. In some parts of Latin America and North America, inhabitants have constitutional rights to a clean environment, but Ecuador is one of the few countries that recognize the right of natural features not to be degraded or polluted.

Plastic pollution in the water

Plastic-choked rivers in Ecuador are being cleared with conveyor belts

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Created by the tech start-up Ichthion, the Azure system’s simple design has the capacity to stop and collect around 80 tonnes of plastic per day. The Azure system is a boom device that stretches across the river to stop objects floating on the surface. It extends two feet down into the water, allowing fish and other organisms to move freely below and is placed at an angle allowing the natural water flow to direct all debris into one corner of the riverbank.

Young trees

The TREES program has planted tens of millions of trees across Africa since 2015

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Since it was founded in 2015, the Trees for the Future (TREES) mass reforestation campaign has convinced and enabled thousands of farmers to plant tens of millions of trees every year. The program spans nine African countries ranging from Senegal and Mali to Tanzania and Kenya. In less than 10 years, it has reportedly restored a combined area of more than 41,000 hectares, which is about seven times the size of Manhattan.

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