Why is this majority Black city grappling with 100-year-old sewers?

 

In the shadow of New York City, one of the world’s richest cities, the people of Mount Vernon, New York face an unpleasant problem inside their homes: sewage. The city’s under-resourced sanitation crew struggles to keep up with complications stemming from its crumbling, 100-year old sewer system — a system strained even further by the extreme rain brought on by climate change. Meanwhile, residents must shoulder the financial, emotional and health burdens when sewage backs up into their basements and homes

What we can learn about coronavirus from analyzing sewage water | COVID-19 Special

Water is life. But there's evidence coronavirus could survive in it for days. What role does water play in the fight against the pandemic? It's not just drinking water we're talking about. Monitoring waste water is also important. Sewage water testing is can be key to staving off the virus and detecting a second wave. If the scientists' calculations are accurate, they can develop models to compare the measurements in different regions, even if the water is diluted by rain. In the end, 900 wastewater treatment plants in Germany can be analyzed, painting a picture of the coronavirus’s expansion.

Thailand and the fallout from mass tourism | DW Documentary

Ten years ago there were 20 million fewer tourists. Today’s mass tourism has both social and ecological consequences. Most of the Thailand’s popular tourist resorts discharge untreated sewage into the sea, and plastic waste ends up in the water. This is killing off the fragile coral reefs along the coast. The countless hotels and restaurants mainly serve fresh fish, so fishing boats are using giant trawl nets, which are also destroying the coral. The internationally renowned marine ecologist Thon Thamrongnawasawa from the University of Bangkok says 77 percent of Thailand's coral reefs have been severely damaged.