State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

South America4

  • Water is coming to Inga and Pedra Fina, Brazil

    Water Safety and Sustainability: Resilient System Design under Climate Stress The Columbia Water Center program in Ceará, Brazil, working in partnership with the Universidade Federal do Ceará, and with local and regional governments, develops appropriate drinking water infrastructure in rural communities. (Learn more in this blog piece) The following photos are from a progress report…

  • Your friendly neighborhood Sinkhole: a sign of things to come?

    Your old infrastructure is going to eat you alive. Well, maybe not you, exactly, but it is eating some people alive. I’m talking about the astounding sinkhole that formed in Guatemala City over the weekend.

  • The Water Conflict in Ecuador

    Over the last year, the government has been working on passing a new water bill, the Hydraulic Resources Law, which would, as I understand it, allow the concessions to stand, codify privatization of water rights and centralize decision-making at the state level, possibly further excluding traditional local water-management structures from the process. In the last…

  • Sustainable water systems in rural Brazil

    One of Columbia Water Center’s major programs, funded by the PepsiCo Foundation, is to develop water infrastructure in rural Brazil, in areas that have had no public water service.  CWC’s local Director, Francisco de Assis de Souza Filho, was recently in New York, and on April 23 gave a talk about ‘Designing Sustainable Water Systems:…

  • The Guarani Aquifer: a little known water resource in South America gets a voice

    By Annabel Symington The Guarani Aquifer in South America is a huge underground reservoir that lies under Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, covering an area of land the size of Texas and California combined.

  • Dam Break in Northeast Brazil: Can We Blame Global Warming?

    Nordeste, the driest region in Brazil, has been castigated by heavy rainfall in the last two months. Yesterday a dam broke in the state of Piaui killing at least four people. The video below shows a partial bridge that collapsed after the dam break. The media shows every day more and more news about natural…

  • Water for Profit?

    I’ve long been fascinated by the concept of privatization of water.  I can think of few topics related to natural resources that are so controversial.  I tend to reject the claim, espoused by many including former Water Center speaker Maude Barlow, that water is a basic human right and therefore should never be private.  While water…

  • Water is coming to Inga and Pedra Fina, Brazil

    Water Safety and Sustainability: Resilient System Design under Climate Stress The Columbia Water Center program in Ceará, Brazil, working in partnership with the Universidade Federal do Ceará, and with local and regional governments, develops appropriate drinking water infrastructure in rural communities. (Learn more in this blog piece) The following photos are from a progress report…

  • Your friendly neighborhood Sinkhole: a sign of things to come?

    Your old infrastructure is going to eat you alive. Well, maybe not you, exactly, but it is eating some people alive. I’m talking about the astounding sinkhole that formed in Guatemala City over the weekend.

  • The Water Conflict in Ecuador

    Over the last year, the government has been working on passing a new water bill, the Hydraulic Resources Law, which would, as I understand it, allow the concessions to stand, codify privatization of water rights and centralize decision-making at the state level, possibly further excluding traditional local water-management structures from the process. In the last…

  • Sustainable water systems in rural Brazil

    One of Columbia Water Center’s major programs, funded by the PepsiCo Foundation, is to develop water infrastructure in rural Brazil, in areas that have had no public water service.  CWC’s local Director, Francisco de Assis de Souza Filho, was recently in New York, and on April 23 gave a talk about ‘Designing Sustainable Water Systems:…

  • The Guarani Aquifer: a little known water resource in South America gets a voice

    By Annabel Symington The Guarani Aquifer in South America is a huge underground reservoir that lies under Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, covering an area of land the size of Texas and California combined.

  • Dam Break in Northeast Brazil: Can We Blame Global Warming?

    Nordeste, the driest region in Brazil, has been castigated by heavy rainfall in the last two months. Yesterday a dam broke in the state of Piaui killing at least four people. The video below shows a partial bridge that collapsed after the dam break. The media shows every day more and more news about natural…

  • Water for Profit?

    I’ve long been fascinated by the concept of privatization of water.  I can think of few topics related to natural resources that are so controversial.  I tend to reject the claim, espoused by many including former Water Center speaker Maude Barlow, that water is a basic human right and therefore should never be private.  While water…