Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The earth under Dennis Lebow's gumboots is saturated. He's in the Salinas Valley in California, about an hour south of San Jose. The valley is often referred to as the "salad bowl of the world" as it's one of the most productive agricultural areas in the U.S. Most of Canada's lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes are grown in its fertile soil, according to California's Department of Food and Agriculture.
About 50,000 large dams across the world will lose 24-28 per cent water storage capacity by 2050 due to sediment trapped in them, a report by the United Nations Institute for Water, Environment and Health showed. These water reservoirs have already lost about 13-19 per cent capacity to sedimentation, the researchers mentioned. The loss will challenge many aspects of national economies, including irrigation, power generation and water supply, said Duminda Perera, who co-authored the study with UNU-INWEH Director Vladimir Smakhtin and Spencer Williams of McGill University in Montreal.
