In Print

Safeguarding the World’s Water FY 2010

In late August, USAID will launch Safeguarding the World’s Water, the 2011 report on its FY 2010 Water Sector activities around the globe. The report offers detailed information about the agency’s investments and partnerships. In 2010, USAID invested $643.7 million in water-related activities, with most going to Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. Most investments were in the WASH sector, altogether reaching $522 million. More than 2.8 million people were provided with improved drinking water supply and 2.9 million people with improved access to sanitation facilities. Nearly 12 billion liters of drinking water were purified using point-of-use treatment products, of which more than 10 billion liters went to residents of African countries.

On Video

Hope in a Changing Climate

In this short film, Professor John D. Liu, founder and director of the Environmental Education Media Project, explores the remarkable restoration of the Loess Plateau in China. Fewer than 20 years ago, the lush greenery that had once sustained the community’s livelihoods – and formed a central part of the area ecosystem – was gone as a result of resource exploitation and natural causes such as depletion from animal overgrazing, etc. A reconstruction project for the Loess Plateau brought in local farmers as decision makers, builders of the landscape re-design, and benefactors of its results, and today the region has returned to its natural state of foliage.

Online

Climate Prep Blog

WWF’s Climate Prep blog covers climate change adaptation and provides a wealth of information on global efforts to prepare and take action to reduce vulnerability to those changes, both by minimizing risks and enabling systems to become more resilient. It aims to “define climate change adaptation through illustrations of on the ground adaptation projects and scientific adaptation studies, explorations of adaptation concepts, and tracking firsthand the progress of adaptation in the international policy arena.” The blog cover themes such as disaster risk reduction, capacity building, community responses, and ecosystems and species.