United States: Don’t drink Ohio’s water
“The aquapocalypse in Toledo, Ohio is now entering its third day after citizens in the greater Toledo area woke up to a stark reality on Saturday morning when city officials had issued an unprecedented, region wide water advisory warning people not to drink or boil local tap water due to toxic contamination,” said an August 4 Counterpunch article.
“It is further recommended that young children and the elderly not bathe in the water ... A state of emergency has been declared by the state of Ohio ...
“The massive and recurring Toxic Algae Blooms on Lake Erie are a manmade disaster. A combination of factory/industrial farming, sewage, storm water runoff and industrial pollution are to blame.
“The massive coal burners, nuke plants and tar sands refineries along the lake use millions of gallons of lake water and create large heat zones from thermal pollution where water temperatures are much warmer.”
Chiapas indigenous oppose highway
“Residents of five communities, in the [Mexican] municipalities of San Cristóbal, San Juan Chamula and Huixtán warned they will not allow the highway to link Palenque with San Cristóbal to pass through their lands because ‘it will not benefit them at all’”, the July 14 La Jornada said.
“With an investment of about ten million pesos, the federal government is planning to build a free highway to link San Cristóbal with Palenque, the two tourist areas in Chiapas which are most visited by Mexicans and foreigners.”
In a statement, the protesters said: “The government has planned that the highway will pass through part of our land, which will affect our food supply, crops, the springs which are the source of the holy water for our life and the piped water supply.”
They emphasised: “We can live without a highway; without water we will die; with a highway the big capitalists will get richer and we will become poorer; we can live without a highway, but without our lands we will die.”
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