News headlines in February 2019, page 9

HAMILTON, Canada, Feb 01 (IPS) - Researchers Yina Shan, Praem Mehta, Duminda Perera and Yurissa Varela developed this report at the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University

Cost-effective technologies are available to remove arsenic in groundwater. Why then do tens of millions still fall ill to this chronic problem?

High natural levels of arsenic are characteristic of the groundwater supply in many countries, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Mongolia, and the United States.

BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Feb 01 (IPS) - "Don't assume if you attempt the journey your fortune will change for the better," a woman says over the public address system in the crowded Uselu market in Benin City, the capital of Nigeria's Edo State. "Many embarked on the journey and never made it. Many people are dying in the Sahara Desert." 

GEORGETOWN, Feb 01 (IPS) - The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD's) Drought Initiative is in full swing with dozens of countries signing up to plan their drought programme.

YECAPIXTLA, Mexico, Feb 01 (IPS) - Social organisations in the central Mexican municipality of Yecapixtla managed to halt the construction of a large thermoelectric plant in the town and are now designing a project to convert the installation into a solar panel factory, which would bring the area socioeconomic and environmental dividends.