Water skirt

А worker repairs a fountain in a park in Sofia, Bulgaria. Photo: AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff.

Out of The Easy

In Mumbai slums, 78% of community toilets lack water supply, 58% have no electricity and many don’t have proper doors. Photo: Alamy Stock Photo.

The majority of slum residents are forced to depend on the thriving informal market for water, operated by a network of local strongmen. Photo: Rajanish Kakade/AP.

The Back Over the Golden Sands

Ships are suspected of dumping waste upstream on China’s 扬子江 (Yangtze River) before it floats into a key city reservoir Medical waste, broken bottles and household trash are some of the items found in more than 100 tonnes of garbage salvaged near a drinking water reservoir in 上海 (Shànghǎi). [Read more].

• Benjamin Haas, 上海 (Shànghǎi) water supply hit by 100-tonne wave of garbage, The Guardian, December 23, 2016

A tourist surrounded by rubbish on a beach in China. The country has struggled to contain environmental pollution during its long economic boom. Photo: Feature China/Barcroft Media.

Hidden Power

With training, anyone can build composting toilets, monitor compost piles, and manage their own sanitation needs. Photo: GiveLove.

Reconversion

Originally intended for western festivals, LooWatt toilets are now being used to ease Madagascar’s chronic sanitation crisis. Photo: LooWatt.

A customer of the first LooWatt model in Antananarivo, Madagascar. The toilet is named “Tsiky”, which is Malagasy for “smile”. Photo: Art’dyh/LooWatt.

Nelumbo

A lotus blooms in Bueng Boraphet, a freshwater swamp and lake in Nakhon Sawan, central Thailand. Photo: Li Mangmang/Corbis.

H₂O

The brown splotchy areas in this shot of Mars’ Hale Crater are salt deposits formed by flowing liquid water, NASA scientists recently announced. That Day-Go blue stuff is pyroxene, a common mineral on Mars. Photo: Mars Reconnaissance orbiter/University of Arizona/JPL/NASA.

• NASA Discovers Evidence for Liquid Water on Mars, WIRED, September 28, 2015
• NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars, nasa.gov, September 28, 2015