Cape Town’s sewage treatment isn’t coping: scientists are worried about what the city is telling the public: Urban water bodies – rivers, lakes and oceans – are in trouble globally. Large sewage volumes damage the open environment, and new chemicals and pharmaceutical compounds don’t break down on their own. When they are released into the …
Cholera in South Africa: a symptom of two decades of continued sewage pollution and neglect: Preventing cholera is more than just making sure your hygiene practices are in order. Michele Spatari / AFP via Getty Images South Africans have expressed outrage at the deaths of at least 15 residents of Hammanskraal, in the city of …
To clean up England’s rivers we need to know how much sewage is dumped – but water firms won’t tell us: A sewer overflow maintained by United Utilities that flows into the River Tame in Greater Manchester. Jamie Woodward, Author provided UK environment secretary Thérèse Coffey has demanded that water companies share plans for how …
Durban coastline: sewage polluted beaches pose threat to holiday makers and the environment: Thousands of New Year party revellers and holidaymakers on North Pier Beach in 2016. Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images Large numbers of businesses in eThekwini on South Africa’s eastern seaboard – which includes the port city of Durban – rely heavily on …
Sewage pollution: why the UK water industry is broken: David Pimborough/Shutterstock As a child swimming off the coast of south Devon in the 1960s, I believed the warm water passing through my legs was the Gulf Stream current. Now, as an adult, I realise it was actually raw sewage being discharged into the ocean. In …
Sewage alerts: the long history of using maps to hold water companies to account: Surfers Against Sewage Southern Water was handed a record fine of £90 million in July 2021 after pleading guilty to illegally discharging sewage along the rivers and coastline of Kent, Hampshire and Sussex. More than a year later, the headlines have …
Polio was recently detected in sewage in the UK – here’s what else scientists look for in our wastewater: DedMityay/Shutterstock We recently learned that poliovirus had been detected in sewage in north and east London between February and May 2022. Poliomyelitis (polio) is an infectious disease that can cause paralysis and death, mainly in children. …
Poliovirus in London sewage – what you need to know: Child receiving the polio vaccine. Asianet-Pakistan/Shutterstock Just as we thought that monkeypox would be the new virus scare for 2022, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) declared a national incident of repeated poliovirus detection in sewage in north and east London. Repeated positive readings for …
Testing sewage has helped track COVID – soon it could reveal much more about the UK’s health: It may not feel like it when you’re swabbing your throat, but improving how we test for diseases is one of the big positives of COVID. Applying methods developed for COVID to other diseases could revolutionise how we …
Hundreds of millions of microplastic particles could be flowing into UK rivers, hidden in raw sewage: Graiff/Shutterstock Microplastics are everywhere. Snow close to the peak of Mount Everest was found to contain on average 30 microplastic particles per litre. And 11,000m below sea level, in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, an average of 2,200 microplastic …
Sewage pollution: our research reveals the scale of England’s growing problem: Vastram/Shutterstock The UK has around 1,500 individual river systems, totalling over 200,000km in length. It’s common for sewers here to accept both untreated human waste and rain water in a combined system. Water and sewerage companies are permitted to release this wastewater into inland …
Why are water companies dumping raw sewage in Britain’s rivers and coastal seas?: There were more than 400,000 discharges of raw sewage in 2020, together lasting more than three million hours, from water companies into rivers in England and Wales. One company, Southern Water, was recently fined a record £90 million for dumping up to …
How sewage plants and data centres could help heat one in five UK homes: Gas boilers heat around 85% of homes in the UK, but their installation in new homes is to be banned from 2025. While heating produces over a third of the country’s CO? emissions, there are only two low-carbon heating alternatives that …
South Africa in the news: Testing and sequencing of sewage ramped up to help tackle COVID-19 outbreaks: The innovative programme to test wastewater for traces of coronavirus (COVID-19) has ramped up sequencing capacity to support variant detection.: “South Africa” – BingNews ‘Stars have aligned!’ £8bn Brexit trade bonanza looms as UK set sights on South …
South Africa in the news: Saskatoon sewage analysis shows 300 per cent increase in COVID-19: Saskatoon could be seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases not witnessed since November, according to the latest analysis of the city’s wastewater. From April 16 to 20, researchers detected a …: “South Africa” – BingNews There’s a Spotify miniplayer in …
South Africa in the news: Africa’s biggest air polluter is now battling sewage flows into a major water source: A new report has brought to the fore the need for greater accountability in South Africas environment and waste management.: “South Africa” – BingNews Trump and Melania got vaccinated in January; US officials ‘deeply concerned’ as …
To fight the fatbergs we have to rethink how we treat sewage waste: A 250m-long, 130 tonne, “fatberg” was recently discovered clogging up the sewers below Whitechapel in east London. Fatbergs are made up of solidified fat and oils combined with wet wipes, nappies and sanitary products that are disposed of in sinks and toilets. …