Marine protected areas are supposed to be safe havens for coral reefs, seagrass, fish nurseries and coastal wildlife. But a new global study suggests that many of them are protected in name only.

Research from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Queensland, published in Ocean & Coastal Management, found that nearly three out of four marine protected areas (MPAs) worldwide are exposed to sewage pollution. In the tropical ocean regions most vital for coral reefs and marine biodiversity, the situation is even worse: between 87 percent and 92 percent of protected areas are contaminated, often at pollution levels ten times higher than nearby unprotected waters.

The study evaluated more than 16,000 marine protected areas globally, and the findings land at an uncomfortable moment. Governments around the world have committed to protecting 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, under the international “30 by 30” biodiversity target.

But protecting lines on a map means little if polluted wastewater keeps pouring in from land.

Wastewater: used water from homes, businesses and sewage systems, carries nutrients, pathogens and chemicals into rivers and oceans. Those pollutants can fuel harmful algal blooms, weaken coral reefs, damage seagrass meadows and threaten marine wildlife. Scientists have already linked wastewater pollution to coral reef decline around the world and even Alzheimer’s-like brain disease in dolphins.

And this is not just a marine issue. Polluted water is also a human health crisis, contributing to diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever and causing an estimated 1.4 million deaths each year, alongside billions in economic losses.

“What we found was striking,” said lead author David E. Carrasco Rivera, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Queensland. “In region after region, the areas set aside for conservation were actually receiving more pollution than the areas with no protection at all.”

The researchers closely analyzed 1,855 coastal MPAs in six tropical regions, including East Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Coral Triangle, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, Australasia and Melanesia, and the Middle East and North Africa.

“Even a perfectly managed marine protected area will fail if wastewater keeps flowing in from upstream,” said Dr. Amelia Wenger, WCS Global Water Pollution Lead.

The message is simple: ocean conservation cannot stop at the shoreline. If governments want marine protected areas to actually protect marine life, they need to invest in sewage treatment, land-based pollution control, and smarter coastal planning, before “protected” becomes another empty word.

The question begs to be answered: can private people protect land better than poorly-run government bodies? And ask yourself when you are staying at a tropical resort or visit a nature paradise? Where is all my plastic and poop going?

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Polluted water is a persistent problem for the country’s archaeological treasures.  But it’s a more serious challenge for millions of Egyptians, alive and long dead.

Youssef Khalifa, the head of the Antiquities Sector, told CairoScene magazine that it’s likely the mummies were unearthed by villagers engaged in illegal excavations, then discarded in the cesspool (image above) to cover their tracks. Egypt imposes tight restrictions on excavations; in October 2014 authorities arrested seven people after an illegal dig in Giza uncovered the remains of an ancient temple. Neither risk of arrest nor filthy muck deterred these thieves.

Thick layers of linen swaddled the mummies, whose conditions were radically deteriorated by the surrounding waste.  Only a few human remains could be identified, according to the ministry’s report.

Two sarcophagi colorfully painted with the images of women’s faces date back to around 332 BC to 395 AD, but the Ministry of Antiquities says little is left of the bodies. “Although the coffins were decorated with colorful designs, they were missing any ancient Egyptian inscriptions or hieroglyphics,” the ministry said in a statement. A third, empty sarcophagus was also found.

Restoration has been only mildly successful, according to Egypt’s Daily News.  Eventually the mummies and sarcophagi will be displayed at Minya’s Hermopolis Museum.

Mummies are commonly found across Egypt.  We recently reported on archaeologists from Utah’s Brigham Young University now digging in a cemetery estimated to hold over a million ancient Egyptians. It’s disturbing that villagers would drop these latest finds into a cesspool, despite understanding their historical significance. But urban Egypt’s plastic pollution and open sewage pools are perhaps more unsettling.

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Besides the really terrible ew factor, the consequences for the environment are as equally yuck: the Egyptian army is looking to stall and stop Gazan smugglers from digging tunnels from the Gaza Strip to Egypt’s Sinai have found a new and dirty way to flush out smugglers: they are pouring raw sewage into the underground tunnels. Leaders in Gaza are trying to figure out how this tactic bodes for future relations with the Islamic leaders in Egypt.

For the Palestinian smugglers, the tunnels are the only free-market lifeline to the outside world. Through the tunnels, important commodities otherwise unavailable in Gaza are smuggled through –- including live animals, some fit for the badly managed Gaza zoo, like lions. The smugglers have also known to smuggle in car parts later assembled into complete cars on the other side of the tunnel. But generally food, cement and other building materials are smuggled through since borders between Egypt and Gaza, and Israel and Gaza have been restricted and tightly monitored.

Wastewater has already caused death to tunnellers in Gaza.

But to make peace accords stick between Israel and Egypt, Egypt’s new government has no choice but to enforce the borders between Gaza and Egypt-controlled Sinai. The tunnels are not only used for goods into Gaza, they are used to transport weapons.

According to the NY Times “concern in Cairo about the tunnels spiked last August, when 16 Egyptian soldiers died in a militant attack on a military outpost in Sinai. The Egyptian government believes the attackers came through the tunnels.”

In the past Egypt flooded the tunnels with gas, something which was easily pumped out with clean air. The raw sewage appears to be a more effective, if not offensive, way of stopping the smugglers.

“Palestinians say that so far the flooding has hurt individual livelihoods but not the total volume of goods moving below ground. On Wednesday, about two cargo trucks per minute were pulling out of the main smuggling zone inside Gaza, laden with cement, gravel, canned food, citrus and vegetables. Hamas customs officers kept a record of each truck and load,” reports the New York Times.

Meanwhile the workers in the hundreds of tunnels that exist linking the borders are working hard to pull out the sewage. We can’t imagine what this does to the moral and health of the people in Gaza, but we do hope that peaceful and quiet times are ahead so that sewage can be channels to its rightful place.

Above image via the NYTimes

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A relief to the environment as Israel allots money to upgrade poorly services sewers in Arab towns.

Last Wednesday, Israeli Energy and Water Resources Minister Uzi Landau announced the government is allocating NIS 355 million to improve the sewerage systems in Arab neighborhoods across Israel. In recent years, the neglected and dilapidated sewer infrastructures in several Arab towns have collapsed, polluting nearby streams and nature reserves, including Nahal Kziv and Nahal Beit Hakerem in the Galilee.

The environmental group Zalul appeared last Wednesday before the Knesset Interior (the Israeli parliament) and Environment Committee to propose the creation of a fund to support the repair of sewage problems in poor cities not serviced by major water or sewage corporations, mainly Arab villages. Zalul warned that the NIS 335 million (about $85 million) would be spent in vain without plans and funds to maintain these systems.

The group estimates that because small cities can’t afford to keep up expensive sewage systems, around 20 percent of their wastewater ends up in local streams – a reason why the Jordan River is nearly dead. Solid waste management is also a severe problem in these areas, as these municipalities generally lack the funds for regular trash collection.

Over half of Arab-Israeli families live in poverty according to a 2011 report by Adalah, a legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel. The study also revealed that a disproportionate amount of Arab-Israelis live in over-crowded areas. Compounding the strains caused by crumbling infrastructure.

Israel’s minority communities have been able to retain a high level of independence and self-reliance if they choose. For example, the city of Jisr al Zarka, a 500-year-old village inhabited by Arab-Israelis that traditionally live as fishermen. But, as with Jisr al Zarka, this seclusion often comes at the cost of insufficient infrastructure and scant access to national resources. In order to address this problem without diluting cultural identity, perhaps Israel should turn to the growing number of high-tech Arab-Israeli innovators.

The UN recently commended an Israeli wastewater treatment facility known as Shafdan, for utilizing local resources and leadership. Shafdan is primarily managed by the community rather than national corporations. However, Israel’s national water company still offers Shafdan support to strategize and resolve problems that arise. Arab communities need similar innovations, planned and operated by the community with support from national sources.

::Haaretz

Image of Acre via Shutterstock

Read more about the environment and infrastructure in Arab-Israeli communities:

Arab School Scoops a Coveted Israeli Green Globe Award

Acre Father Aims to Make His Capital Green

Israeli Arabs and Jews Throw Out The Garbage Together

The post Arab Towns Get Sewerage Upgrade in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

We’ve reported earlier than Applied Clean Tech is creating fuel with every flush. Now the same company has developed a system that makes paper from sewage, Ynet News reports. Dr. Refeal Aharon from Applied Clean Tech said that 99.9 percent of what comes through the municipal wastewater treatment system is black and grey water, while the rest is a mixture of solid substances such as food waste, toilet paper, and clothing fibers. Once cleaned, these solids can be used to make cellulose, which in turn can be transformed into a whole new variety of recycled paper.

Dr. Aharon says that the process of separating solid substances from water and then treating it so that the water can be recycled is very costly. These expenses are then passed on to Israeli citizens in the form of increasingly high tariffs.

By removing the majority of solids before the water gets to the wastewater treatment plant, Dr. Aharon is able to reduce the amount of electricity and chemicals that is required to make purify and recycle the water.

Here’s how it works:

• First it is necessary to separate solids from water
• Then all the water has to be drained
• The solids then have to be dried and purified so that there is no bacteria
• The remaining cellulose is then sold to paper manufacturers

One waste treatment facility in southern Israel has installed Dr. Aharon’s system and paper from sewage is already rolling off the shelves. And remarkably, any size and thickness can be produced.

Not only does this reduce strain on municipal sewage plants, which could eventually translate to lower water tariffs for Israelis, but it costs less to make paper this way than it does to recycle paper.

It is unclear if any stores are stocking poo paper, but the next time you pick up a pad of paper, check the label. It might have come from a loo near you!

:: Ynet

Above image: Nature calls at the outhouse, Shutterstock
Lower image of recycled paper via Applied Clean Tech website

More on Poo, Paper, and other Interesting Cleantech:
5 Brilliant Projects That Turn Poop into Power
Harvesting Energy From Sewage Plants
Eco-Friendly Flyer Zone Makes Paper Printing More Friendly

The post Paper Made From Sewage Rolls off Israeli Shelves appeared first on Green Prophet.

A group of Moroccan Non-Government Organizations have launched the Stop TGV campaign in protest of Morocco’s $2.4 billion high speed rail project. The TGV line is expected to link up Casablanca with Tangiers by the end of 2015, reducing travel time from 5h45 to 2h10. Proponents of the project say that it will boost the economy, improve tourism traffic, and have a trickle down effect through improved infrastructure and job creation, but critics claim that high speed rail is a luxury that Morocco can ill-afford.

Economic crime?

The 219 mile TGV rail link construction project was awarded to the French company Alstom in 2007. One blogger, Larbi, said the project is an economic crime designed to assuage French President Sarkozy’s hurt feelings over losing an arms contract to the United States, according to Global Voices Online.

In September, 2011 “At a ceremony chaired by King Mohammed VI of Morocco and President Sarkozy, the Moroccan Minister of Transport Karim Ghellab explained that the TGV is expected to generate new jobs and offer training opportunities in rail professions for Moroccan jobseekers,” writes GVO. But activists are not convinced.

The above graphic published in French by Stop TGV demonstrates how the $2.4 Billion planned expenditure could be better spent in a country that ranks second lowest in the region in terms of human development.

How to spend $2.4 billion

Here is a bulleted list of the projects in English, although we should point out that google translate is not always 100% accurate:

• 3,000 to 5,000 schools or high schools in urban areas
• 25,000 schools in rural areas
• 100 engineering colleges and 300 fully equipped technical training institutes
• 25 major university hospitals fully equipped with a total capacity of 22,000 beds
• 6,000 hectares of serviced industrial areas (36,000 industrial units)
• 16,000 community centers, libraries or community centers
• 10,000 media libraries
• 16,000 kilometers of rural roads

Last year we traveled through Morocco and found the country to be very accessible compared to other countries in the region. We were able to visit far flung parts of the country via bus or rail, even if these trips sometimes took a long time.

But we also noticed that sewage facilities in populated tourist areas, not to mention rural areas, were in need of serious attention, and the communication infrastructure was very poor – even in Casablanca, which is the business capital of the country.

Education, education, education

And although the Berbers are able to speak many different languages as a result of their contact with tourists, most receive a religious Islamic education that inadequately prepares them for the challenges of the modern world.

Ismail Tahiri, Editor of the Tangiers newspaper Fadaa al-Boughaz, told Construction Shows that the TGV Morocco might reduce travel times for businessman, but that money would be better spent improving education, health, and infrastructural facilities.

He notes that “30% of the country’s residents are illiterate, 2 million students quit school each year, and the country ranks 106th out of 128 on UNESCO’s list of educational development.”

Do you think that Morocco should spend this money on high speed rail, or should the government build more schools?

:: Stop TGV

More on Tourism and Development in Morocco:

Rocking the “Eco” Kasbah du Toubkal in Morocco

Morocco’s Berbers Had Water Management Sorted

Moroccan Love Potion Spiced With Pot – Make it!

The post Stop TGV Campaign Challenges Morocco’s Controversial High Speed Rail Project appeared first on Green Prophet.

According to PCHR, poor sewage infrastructure in Gaza poses a threat to “the safety and security of Palestinians – especially children”

On the afternoon of 11^th of February, Ahmed al-Zein, 10, from Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip went out with his friends to hunt birds. They made their way to a sewage water basin near the Bedouin Village where the birds gather. Approximately an hour later, Ahmed’s family learnt that he had fallen into the sewage basin. His family rushed to the basin along with crews of civil defense workers, who managed to find his body three hours later.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is now demanding an investigation into the drowning and for those responsible for providing protective measures around the basin to be identified and held responsible. 

“PCHR has warned of the risks threatening the lives of residents in the Bedouin Village due to the presence of the mentioned sewage water basins and the leakage of waste water to the groundwater aquifer,” they explained in a press release. They were particularly critical of the fact that this kind of incident had occurred before and yet little action had been taken to avoid recurrence.

Back in December 2011, two siblings died in a sewage basin near Khan Younis refugee camp. In March 2007, north of Beit Lahia was flooded and five Palestinians from a Bedouin Village died and another 20 sustained injuries when the sewage basin overflowed.

The children of Gaza may soon be able to enjoy green and sustainable schools yet beyond the school gate they face significant risks due to poor sewage infrastructure. Insufficiently protected sewage basins are a real threat that need immediate action. Indeed, it has now emerged that a large-scale infrastructure project has begun in Gaza.

Home demolitions have taken place in Gaza City (with some serious criticisms about the expulsion of residents without explanation) to clear the way for a sewage and water network. According to Ram Almeghari, a journalist living in the the Gaza Strip: “Over the past five years, the Gaza authorities have been unable to commence reconstruction projects across the coastal enclave due to continued lack of raw materials, caused by the Israeli blockade of Gaza. This is the first time since the blockade that Palestinians in Gaza are able to execute major infrastructure projects.”

A municipal engineer also acknowledged the serious need for repairs in the region – let’s hope that securing sewage water basins is a priority.

: Image via Olly L/flickr.

For more on Gaza see:

Gaza’s Green Schools Fuse Islamic Architecture and Sustainable Design

Gaza’s Smuggling Tunnels Into an Underground Metro?

Gaza’s Stunning Water Murals (PHOTOS)

The post Boy Drowns In Sewage Water Basin in Gaza appeared first on Green Prophet.

Many modern armies are now practicing clean technology by using equipment run on solar energy. This also holds true for the Israeli Defense Forces known as the IDF which aims to be greener. One of the prime issues in large military bases, often remote and off the grid, is finding greener solutions to getting rid of sewage. The solution to this problem is now on the way to being solved at Israel’s large Nevatim air force base in the country’s Negev desert region.

The solution at Nevatim, according to Haaretz, is in purifying the sewage water and then sending it to be used to irrigate a large park that will be built near the southern city of Beer Sheva.

The sewage treatment facility at Nevatim is also being used to purify wastewater from the nearby Bedouin town of Arara, a community from where a school principal created another kind of ‘water issue’ in the Knesset when he took his students on a field trip to a human rights rally in Tel Aviv.

The sewage water purification plant built at Nevatim uses special oxygenation pools to aerate the water to purify it. The water will then be sent to a holding reservoir before being sent for use in irrigation. The purifying and recycling of sewage wastes is a big improvement over former practices of simply channeling the sewage into a nearby wadi (valley) and thereby causing area ground and ground water pollution.

Another southern air force base, Ramon, is also involved in sewage water purification by using what is known as a constructed wetland system in which plants act as bio-filters.

Although the costs of this project in Nevatim are rather high, they have been assisted by a large donation of NIS 7.5 million ( $2 million USD) from the US branch of the Jewish National Fund.

Oded Galili, head of infrastructure and environment of the Israel Defense Ministry, commented that “the cost of the piping alone for this project within the large Nevatim base costs around NIS 10 million.”

Whatever the costs involved, the eventual environmental benefits are very worthwhile.

Photo:  Wikipedia 

Read more on IDF and other military environmental improvement ideas and practices:
 Israeli IDF Officers to be Trained at Green Training Base
Going Green is a Tactical Offensive in War
How Israel’s Military Secrets Translate to Clean Technology

::Haaretz

The post Army Sewage Irrigates Nature Park in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

Every day we flush energy down the toilet. Here are 5 projects that prevent such shameless waste by turning poop into power.

The COP 17 debacle is droning on and it is starting to look like the whole planet is going down the toilet because of America’s shortsighted inaction, but don’t worry, there’s still at least one reason to have hope: poop. Every day human beings flush waste down the toilet that could be used to produce valuable cooking fuel and electricity. In today’s energy-scarce but technologically advanced context, that is an absolute outrage. So we have decided to celebrate 5 brilliant organizations that are thinking outside the commode and putting poop to power.

Sanergy to Power the World with Poop

Some people may balk at the idea of cooking with fuel harvested from the byproducts of our bowels, but in some countries it is becoming common practice. A group comprised of MIT alumni, Sanergy is cleaning up Kenyan slums while producing clean, renewable energy at the same time. The UK-based charitable organization Katerva recently awarded Sanergy their annual grand prize, which will provide them with crowd-sourced funding and support so that their energy-producing sanitation centers can be deployed worldwide.

A Green Toilet for India’s Slum Dwellers

After a trip to India, Israel’s Noa Lerner, a Berlin-based industrial engineer, discovered how badly that country is in need of urban sanitation solutions. So she developed this striking toilet through her company Morph Design. The top looks like any other toilet, except that it covers a removable bowl that is in turn topped with an odor-repellent and anti-bacterial plastic layer.

Ashpoopie: Secret Formula Turns Poop into Ash and Fertilizer

This next project was actually designed to turn dog poop into ash. A super secret magic formula allows pet owners to get rid of their dog’s waste without having to use harmful plastic bags. But Ashpoopie  has the added benefit of behind able to turn human waste into fertilizer and generate electricity! Paulee’s spokespeople Mr. Moshe Hibel and Dr Yaeli Pintchuck also claim that the same patent is being used to develop SCHT – Self Contained Human Toilets.

 I Pee, You Poo, We All Need Peepoo

Peepoo is a special biodegradable toilet bag invented by a Swedish entrepreneur. It costs very little to make and is designed to turn human date into fertilizer, but not until it kills the bacteria found in human feces that is responsible for disease. These bags are especially useful in emergency situations since they can be deployed cheaply, and en masse.

Harvesting Energy From Sewage Plants

Two serial water technology entrepreneurs from Israel, Eytan Levy and Ronen Shechter, who also founded Israel’s AqWise, have developed an electrogenic bioreactor that generates electricity while treating wastewater. Funded by Emfcy, their project also mitigates the energy costs of breaking down sewage!

Pretty soon, technology will advance to the stage where we can all install systems at home that will allow us to harvest energy from our own waste – making us less dependent on the grid.

The post 5 Brilliant Projects That Turn Poop Into Power appeared first on Green Prophet.