P3 CPPIB AND BCIM OWN IT
Viterra latest to build Canada canola plant as demand surges

By Rod Nickel 

4/27/2021


WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -Private agribusiness Viterra Inc said on Monday that it will build the world's biggest canola-crushing plant at Regina, Saskatchewan, and open it in late 2024, as interest in turning oilseeds into renewable fuel stokes already strong demand.

Rivals Cargill Inc and Richardson International also announced plans recently to build plants in the same Canadian province, with canola futures hitting record highs. U.S. soybean-crushing capacity is also increasing.

Rotterdam-based Viterra said its new plant will crush up to 2.5 million tonnes of canola per year, eclipsing Richardson's plan.

Viterra, owned by commodity trader Glencore PLC, and Canadian pension managers CPP Investments and British Columbia Investment Management Corp, did not disclose the plant's cost.

Canada is the biggest global producer and exporter of canola, a variant of rapeseed, that crushers process into oil and meal. Canola oil is used in salad dressings and other foods, and refiners plan to also produce renewable diesel, a clean-burning fuel, from it.

"We continue to feel there will be added demand on top of food, with increased fuel demand," said Kyle Jeworski, chief executive officer of Viterra's North America operations, in an interview. "Our intent is to service both markets."

Viterra has no plans to produce renewable diesel from its own canola oil, he said.

Canola meal is part of feed rations for hogs and fish.

Plans for more crush plants in Saskatchewan underline questions about supply. Canola plantings have levelled off in recent years.

Jeworski expects plantings to increase, adding that developers are producing better seeds to increase yields.

"Our western Canadian farmers are somewhat underappreciated in terms of the sophistication in technology and improvements in agronomic practices that they continually undertake - that bodes very well for projects such as this," he said.

Viterra operates smaller canola crush plants in Quebec, Manitoba and Washington state.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg. Editing by Mark Potter and Marguerita Choy)

Policies designed to protect public health from fracking may be ineffective in practice

PSE HEALTHY ENERGY

Research News

 

Frequent use of exemptions may undermine public health protections of oil and gas setback policies, according to a new study led by researchers at the research institute PSE Healthy Energy, Harvard University, and Nicholas Institute for Environmental Solutions at Duke University. The study, published April 28, 2021 in Energy Policy, is the first to assess the effectiveness of distance-based setback regulations for unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) or "fracking."

"Setback regulations are commonly employed to protect public health, so we wanted to test if they're effective in practice," said lead author Drew Michanowicz, DrPH, MPH, CPH Senior Scientist at PSE Healthy Energy and visiting scientist with the Center for Climate, Health, and Global Environment at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE). "From our assessment of PA's 2012 setback policy, existing well pad exemptions and waivers seem to occur frequently enough that we didn't see much change in how wells were sited in relation to nearby buildings."

Previous studies have associated adverse health impacts with residents' proximity to UNGD wells, including birth defects, premature births, asthma, migraines, and fatigue. As a result, policymakers across the United States use setback requirements to establish development-free zones around well sites. To assess the effectiveness of setbacks in protecting public health, the study focused on Pennsylvania's Act 13--a 2012 statewide law restricting new unconventional wells within 500 ft. of non-industrial buildings. Through a detailed spatial analysis, researchers observed trends in wellhead locations and proximity to likely occupied buildings both before and after Act 13.

Despite the regulation's intent, the study found no significant change in how wells were sited after Act 13 took effect in 2012. These findings suggest that exemptions, variances, and consent waivers provide opportunities to avoid or weaken well siting requirements. This results in wells placed within PA's setback distance (500 .)-a distance that has been previously found to be insufficient to protect against routine exposures to toxic substances such as benzene, hydrogen sulfide, and PM2.5 from UNGD. "The effectiveness of setback policies depends not just on the distance, but also on the ease and frequency with which exemptions are granted," Michanowicz said. "To protect public health and safety, regulators should complement setbacks with other emission controls and other operational and safety performance standards."

"With the myriad of health effects occurring in communities near hydraulic fracturing-increased hospitalizations to respiratory irritation to birth defects-it's important to ensure that these setback regulations are actually effective at protecting public health," said Jonathan Buonocore, Sc.D., research scientist at Harvard Chan C-CHANGE.

Of the 31 oil and gas production states across the country, an estimated 21 have some form of minimum surface setback in place. For states considering strengthened setbacks, these findings demonstrate the impact that setback exemptions and waivers can have in practice. For states with existing setback regulations, regulators could report well siting exemption rates and rationales and if warranted, consider changes to narrow exemptions that may be used too frequently.

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Other researchers on this study include Katherine E. Konschnik, J.D., Nicholas Institute for Environmental Solutions, Duke University, Shaun A. Goho, J.D., Harvard Law School Environmental Law & Policy Clinic and Aaron S. Bernstein, M.D., M.P.H., C-CHANGE, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Using microbes to remove microplastics from the environment

Microbiologists have found a way to use bacteria to trap microplastics, removing them from the environment and making them easier to recycle.

MICROBIOLOGY SOCIETY

Research News

 

Today at the Microbiology Society's Annual Conference, Yang Liu, researcher at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, will discuss a new technique to trap and recover microplastics.

The method uses bacterial biofilms, a sticky substance created by micro-organisms, to trap microplastic particles. The biofilm is then processed and dispersed, releasing the microplastic particles for processing and recycling.

Liu and colleagues used the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa to capture microplastics in a bioreactor. This species of bacteria is found in all environments and has previously been shown to colonise microplastics in the environment.

P. aeruginosa biofilms cause the microplastics to aggregate together, eventually causing them to sink. In bioreactors, this makes the microplastics more convenient to collect, according to Liu. Once the microplastics were captured by the biofilms and had sunk to the bottom of the reactor, the researchers used a biofilm-dispersal gene, which caused the biofilm to release the microplastics. Liu explained that this "allows convenient release of microplastics from the biofilm matrix, which is otherwise difficult and expensive to degrade, so that the microplastics can be later recovered for recycling."

Microplastics are hugely problematic and pose a major risk to food chains and human health, according to Liu: "They are not easily bio-degradable, where they retain in the ecosystems for prolonged durations. This results in the uptake of microplastics by organisms, leading to transfer and retention of microplastics down the food chain. Due to their huge surface area and adsorption capacity, microplastics can adsorb toxic pollutants, such as pesticides, heavy metals, and drug residues at high concentrations. This leads to biological and chemical toxicity to organisms in the ecosystems and humans after prolonged unintended consumption of such microplastics. Moreover, microplastics are also difficult to remove in wastewater plants, resulting in their undesired release into the environment."

The next steps of the research are moving the proof-of-concept from the lab, to an environmental setting "we next plan to isolate and identify natural pro-biofilm forming bacterial isolates either from the sewage or from aquatic environments, where they display heightened abilities to colonise and form biofilms on microplastics."

Liu and colleagues hope the technique will eventually be used in wastewater treatment plants to help stop microplastics escaping into the oceans. They also have to find natural compounds to stimulate biofilm dispersal of the pro-biofilm forming bacterial isolates, saying "this provides a basis for future applications in wastewater treatment plants, where microplastics can be removed in a safe and environmentally friendly manner".

Microplastics are a huge problem, and more techniques are needed to safely remove them from our environment, Liu states the importance of this, saying "it is imperative to develop effective solutions that trap, collect, and even recycle these microplastics to stop the 'plastification' of our natural environments".

Biofilms occur when communities of bacteria group together and create a shield, or biofilm, from sticky exopolymeric substances. Biofilms can be problematic as they protect the bacteria from against outside influences such as environmental changes and antibiotics.

Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5mm in diameter. They can enter the environment through a number of sources including the breakdown of larger plastic pieces, washing of synthetic clothing, breakdown of car tires and plastic waste directly from industry. The current methods for microplastic disposal, such as incineration or storage in landfill, are limited and have their own disadvantages.

Researchers find how tiny plastics slip through the environment

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

Washington State University researchers have shown the fundamental mechanisms that allow tiny pieces of plastic bags and foam packaging at the nanoscale to move through the environment.

The researchers found that a silica surface such as sand has little effect on slowing down the movement of the plastics, but that natural organic matter resulting from decomposition of plant and animal remains can either temporarily or permanently trap the nanoscale plastic particles, depending on the type of plastics.

The work, published in the journal Water Research, could help researchers develop better ways to filter out and clean up pervasive plastics from the environment. The researchers include Indranil Chowdhury, assistant professor in WSU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, along with Mehnaz Shams and Iftaykhairul Alam, recent graduates of the civil engineering program.

"We're looking at developing a filter that can be more efficient at removing these plastics," Chowdhury said. "People have seen these plastics escaping into our drinking water, and our current drinking water system is not adequate enough to remove these micro and nanoscale plastics. This work is the first fundamental way to look at those mechanisms."

Around since the 1950s, plastics have properties that make them useful for modern society. They are water resistant, cheap, easy to manufacture and useful for a huge variety of purposes. However, plastics accumulation is becoming a growing concern around the world with giant patches of plastic garbage floating in the oceans and plastic waste showing up in the most remote areas of the world.

"Plastics are a great invention and so easy to use, but they are so persistent in the environment," Chowdhury said.

After they're used, plastics degrade through chemical, mechanical and biological processes to micro- and then nano-sized particles less than 100 nanometers in size. Despite their removal in some wastewater treatment plants, large amounts of micro and nanoscale plastics still end up in the environment. More than 90% of tap water in the U.S. contains nanoscale plastics, Chowdhury said, and a 2019 study found that people eat about five grams of plastic a week or the amount of plastic in a credit card. The health effects of such environmental pollution is not well understood.

"We don't know the health effects, and the toxicity is still unknown, but we continue to drink these plastics every day," said Chowdhury.

As part of the new study, the researchers studied the interactions with the environment of the tiniest particles of the two most common types of plastics, polyethylene and polystyrene, to learn what might impede their movement. Polyethylene is used in plastic bags, milk cartons and food packaging, while polystyrene is a foamed plastic that is used in foam drinking cups and packaging materials.

In their work, the researchers found that the polyethylene particles from plastic bags move easily through the environment - whether through a silica surface like sand or natural organic matter. Sand and the plastic particles repel each other similarly to like-poles of a magnet, so that the plastic won't stick to the sand particles. The plastic particles do glom onto natural organic material that is ubiquitous in natural aquatic environment but only temporarily. They can be easily washed off with a change in chemistry in the water.

"That's bad news for polyethylene in the environment," said Chowdhury. "It doesn't stick to the silica surface that much and if it sticks to the natural organic matter surface, it can be re-mobilized. Based on these findings, it indicates that nanoscale polyethylene plastics may escape from our drinking water treatment processes, particularly filtration."

In the case of polystyrene particles, the researchers found better news. While a silica surface was not able to stop its movement, organic matter did. Once the polystyrene particles stuck to the organic matter, they stayed in place.

The researchers hope that the research will eventually help them develop filtration systems for water treatment facilities to remove nanoscale particles of plastics.

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The work was funded by the State of Washington Water Research Cente

DISARM, DEFUND, DISBAND POLICE

Trustees vote to end program assigning uniformed police officers to Vancouver schools 

VANCOUVER — Uniformed police officers will no longer be assigned to Vancouver public schools after trustees voted to end its school liaison officer program.

Provided by The Canadian Press

The program had been under review for almost a year due to concerns that uniformed officers make some students anxious or upset, including many identifying as Black, Indigenous or people of colour.

Trustees voted eight to one Monday in favour of a motion to halt the program at the end of June.

The decision is supported by several groups, including the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council and associations representing elementary and secondary school teachers in the city.

The school board said it will now work with Vancouver police and RCMP to create what the motion defines as a "new relationship" developing "trauma-informed approaches to working with children and youth."

The Vancouver Police Department is disappointed about the "political decision" made by trustees, Deputy Chief Const. Fiona Wilson said in a statement Tuesday.

Video: The VSB’s school liaison program is coming to an end (Global News)

The department had in recent months "strongly declared its desire to make changes to the (student liaison officer) program, in collaboration with all stakeholders, to address the concerns that have been raised," she said.

The end of the program "leaves a big gap in relationship building" and decreases safety for youth and staff in schools, Wilson said.

Media relations officer Sgt. Steve Addison said in a separate statement that police were open to an "evolving" relationship that could include roles for plainclothes officers in city schools.

The lone dissenting vote came from trustee Jennifer Reddy, who said in an email she didn't support the motion because it wasn't clear enough that police will be removed from schools, rather it outlined what the next steps are for working with them.

"Instead of focusing on students and listening to parent and teacher groups who all supported a clear end to the program," she said, the decision prioritized the relationship between the school board and police.

Reddy said the review process for the program and the resulting motion, with its conditions and amendments, demonstrates how often Indigenous and Black voices are ignored and sidelined in decision-making.

The New Westminster school board is also set to vote Tuesday on a recommendation that it discontinue the child and youth liaison officer program and "redesign" the relationship with the local police department.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April

Edmonton Public pushes for non-confidence vote on Alberta draft curriculum at provincial school boards meeting

Lauren Boothby

EDMONTON JOURNAL

4/27/2021

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Edmonton Public School board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks.

The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) will be asking for a non-confidence vote on the draft K-6 curriculum at a spring meeting of the Alberta School Board Association (ASBA) in June.

Trustees passed a motion 6-2 Tuesday afternoon that, if the resolution is approved and passes at the ASBA meeting, would see the association lobby the government to halt the curriculum pilots and demand a rewrite. It says the draft is rife with errors and plagiarism, is not age-appropriate, and it does not reflect the province’s diversity.

EPSB chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks said the proposed emergent resolution is based on feedback from local parents and families, as well as the curriculum experts and others who criticized the draft publicly.

“The committee felt that, based on feedback, that more than a pause is required,” she said.

“If we believe that this curriculum is not good for kids in Edmonton Public, I believe we need to be strong in what we are asking for.”

The proposed motion also notes the Metis Nation of Alberta and Chiefs of Treaty 6’s call to reject the curriculum as it “perpetuates rather than addresses systemic racism.”

Estabrooks, along with trustees Michael Janz, Shelagh Dunn, Michelle Draper, Bridget Stirling, and Nathan Ip voted in favour of the motion. Trustees Ken Gibson and Sherry Adams opposed.

Prior to the vote, Gibson and Adams said while they heard from parents, teachers and others about flaws – both acknowledged signifiant concerns with portions of it – they didn’t want to make the recommendation before hearing from EPSB’s own curriculum experts.

Both also questioned the board’s right to tell other boards what to do.

Stirling noted all motions reviewed at ASBA are raised by boards individually and their recommendations are not binding, and that the curriculum as it exists needs to be revised not thrown out completely.

Around 40 Alberta school boards have publicly declined to try out the draft curriculum – Wetaskiwin Public Schools, Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools , and Palliser School Division joined the growing list on Tuesday.

The board’s own curriculum experts will also be reviewing the draft curriculum, Superintendent Darrel Robertson said.

Also during the meeting, trustees also asked staff to look into how the division can offer free menstrual products to students’ school washrooms, including the possibility of having costs covered by a third party.

7-12 could stay home longer

The division is still facing some supply teacher shortages – between 20 to 25 every day across the division – despite Grades 7 to 12 classes going online last Thursday for a two-week “circuit-breaker” amid rising cases, Robertson said Tuesday.

He said the division doesn’t want to move classes online for younger students as that is “incredibly disruptive” to families.

“Right now we’re looking at our (Grades) 7 to 12 experience and whether or not there’s a need to extend that time that our students are online,” he said.

After the meeting Tuesday, Estabrooks told reporters the division had not formally requested the province allow them to keep those students online longer, but she said that move was “absolutely the right decision” to relieve pressure on the K-6 system amid a surge in cases.

But she thinks the last thing parents want is a “COVID coaster” where students go back to class only to be sent home again a short while later.

lboothby@postmedia.com

KULTURE KAMPF

Black Conservative addresses an Alberta Christian University and a free speech fight breaks out, 

Sey, an anti-abortion activist with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform who also runs the blog SlowtoWrite and has contributed to many conservative websites, spoke to students over Zoom on Feb. 4.

Tyler Dawson NATIONAL POST 4/27/2021

EDMONTON — An Alberta Christian university student council has disavowed its own apology, issued after a Black History Month speaker denied the existence of systemic racism in a speech on Biblical definitions of racism.

© Provided by National Post Samuel Sey at his Brampton, Ont., home on Monday. In a speech, he denied systemic racism based on Biblical definitions.

Last Monday, Ambrose University in Calgary said the speech, given in February by Samuel Sey, a conservative activist, blogger and Christian who is Black, “caused severe harm” to some students.


“As a Christian, what I was saying should not be controversial to them at all, but because they disagree with what the Bible says on racism, it becomes offensive to them,” Sey told the National Post on Monday. “They are essentially, by attacking me, attacking the Bible; I didn’t go there to share my opinion, I was going there to explain what the Bible says about racism.”

The apology, which was retracted Thursday, said the student council had “invited speakers to come and speak to our student body who have caused harm and offence with the words that they have spoken.”

An updated post detailed Ambrose’s commitment to free expression and intellectual diversity.

“Each person has their own experiences and we believe that by having healthy discussions and learning different world views that we have the opportunity to expand our horizons,” the statement says.

The apology was “never intended to be public and sought only to provide support for those students who had been emotionally affected,” the statement says.

Sey, an anti-abortion activist with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform who also runs the blog SlowtoWrite and has contributed to many conservative websites, spoke to students over Zoom on Feb. 4.

The event was in honour of Black History Month, according to an Ambrose Student Council Facebook post.

It was intended “as part of our commitment to fostering conversations about racism and how we can support members of our community who have experienced racism,” the student council said in an email to the National Post.

Sey provided his notes for the speech to the Post. It opens with a question and a proposition: “If I asked you, what’s the best anti-racist book today, what would you say?”

“If we say anything other than the Bible we’re completely and destructively wrong.”

Sey argues that racism is determined by intention, not outcome, if you go by the Biblical definition. He cites two books of the Bible: 2 Timothy and James, arguing the “Christian definition of racism is that it’s partiality, or bias against someone because of their skin colour.”

It means “our opinions, feelings and experiences do not determine what’s racist,” he concludes. “Racial disparities between white people and black people do not prove racism…. A lack of diversity or representation doesn’t determine what’s racist.”

Sey also suggests there needs to be “a policy or law within a system — especially our political system — that shows partiality for white people or partiality against black people.” Absent that, there cannot be systemic racism, he says.

“I know no one here today can identify a single racist law,” he says.

According to the student council statement, his views — and the event itself — “caused some members of the community to feel as though Ambrose did not support their lived experience of systemic racism.”

“I guess they didn’t expect what would come out of my mouth,” Sey told the Post.

© Peter J. Thompson/National Post “My skin colour does not define truth. As Christians, the Bible is supposed to define what’s true,” says cultural blogger Samuel Sey.

He said he did ask the students to feel free to offer criticism.

“I don’t want anyone to be afraid to challenge me because of my skin colour,” he said. “My skin colour does not define truth. As Christians, the Bible is supposed to define what’s true.”

The Ambrose student council said that Sey was vetted, but that they feel the process fell short for this event.

“As a result, we have amended our vetting process so that we may better inform students about topics that are being discussed especially when they may conflict with lived experiences and convictions,” it said. “This process is not intended to reduce the variety of voices on our campus but to more clearly inform.”

Sey said that statements intended to respect and support people of colour and their lived experiences ring hollow.

“Clearly they only mean the lived experiences of black people that’s approved by Robin DiAngelo (the author of White Fragility) and themselves,” Sey said. “When they say they are allies of people of colour, they really only mean some people.”

Leading scientists urge UK to share Covid vaccines with poorer nations

YOU EXPECT THIS FROM A GOVT THAT CUT INTERNATIONAL AID

Sarah Boseley THE GUARDIAN 4/28/2021

Leading scientists are urging the UK to share the Covid vaccines it has bought with India and other nations, to tackle the soaring death toll and reduce the spread of the virus and new variants around the world.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, said rich countries including the UK that have bought up most of the vaccine supply “urgently need to start sharing these doses with the rest of the world, alongside national rollouts in their own countries, and through the Covax programme. And they must set out a timetable for how these donations will be increased as they vaccinate more of their populations domestically.”

© Photograph: Farooq Khan/EPA A Kashmiri man receives the Covid vaccine in Srinagar. Only one in 500 people in low-income countries have been vaccinated.

Writing in the Guardian, Farrar called on the UK to lead the world, through its presidency of the G7. “We have already vaccinated over half of our population – including those who are most at risk from Covid-19. In fact, the UK has given almost as many doses to its own citizens than Covax has been able to ship to 120 countries in dire need of jabs,” he said.

Covax, the UN-based initiative to get vaccines to the most vulnerable 20% of the population of every country, has managed to deliver only a fifth of the doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine expected by May, because of global shortages and problems with supply.

One in four people in high-income countries are now protected but only one in 500 in low-income countries, where unvaccinated health workers are still putting their lives on the line. The US has announced it will give India 60m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet licensed for use in the US.

Farrar said sharing vaccines was in every country’s self-interest. “The shores Covid now rages upon may seem distant to some, but the reality is that so long as the virus continues to spread in other countries, it continues to be a threat to everyone. If we allow Covid-19 to keep spreading, it will go on evolving, increasing the risk of new variants that could cross borders and evade vaccines and treatments.”

Farrar’s views are shared by other leading scientists in the UK, as well as the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has talked of the “moral outrage” of vaccines for rich countries but not the poor and called for countries to share.

Prof Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said the UK needed to get to the point where all adults are vaccinated, but added: “Globally, leaders need to be saying how can we make sure that the world’s population is not dying in front of us, which we are seeing at the moment.

“If we continue to focus on vaccinating younger and younger age groups in the high income countries, when there are many thousands of people dying who are not getting the vaccine. I don’t think that’s a situation that’s acceptable. So, if the question to me is, should we be rethinking where we are. I think the answer is yes, we should be, because the only way that we can stop those people dying next month is by vaccinating them this month.”

The grim scenes playing out in India are increasing the pressure on rich countries to act. Polly Roy, professor of virology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said: “The Covid-19 situation in India is currently uncontrollable. India needs to vaccinate as many people as possible to stop the transmission of this virus.

“We must share our vaccines with them to control further infection and death. Vaccination is key to controlling every aspect of Covid going forward, for India and for all of us.”

Prof Beate Kampmann, the director of LSHTM’s vaccine centre, said the UK had ordered five times the amount of vaccines it needed for its population. Rather than give vaccines to the under-30s whose risk is low in pursuit of some concept of herd immunity, politicians should give them to the most vulnerable people in India and other countries to save lives.

“As far as the UK is concerned, I think the kind of approach of going for what we think is an elusive concept of herd immunity rather than sharing vaccines across the globe to prevent deaths is a huge mistake,” she said.

Some argue that vaccines will not help those who are suffering now in India’s hospitals for want of treatment. “But that doesn’t mean there are not other places, including in India, where vaccines can have a rapid life-saving impact,” she said.

Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, said he liked the idea of a “tithe” for countries such as the UK, put forward by Prof Gavin Yamey of the Duke Global Health Institute in the US. For every nine vaccines given in the UK, one would be donated to Covax.

“The UK is in the enviable position of having vaccinated virtually all of our elderly and vulnerable populations and other priority groups such as healthcare workers. It would be very reasonable to suggest that some of the vaccine rollout now be distributed internationally to countries of high need,” said Head.

WATER IS LIFE 

Tribes without clean water demand an end to decades of US government neglect

A NORTH AMERICAN WHITE STATE CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Nina Lakhani THE GUARDIAN 4/28/2021


The US government’s haphazard approach to providing Indigenous American tribes with clean drinking water and sanitation must be radically transformed to tackle decades of underfunding and neglect, according to a new report.

An estimated one in 10 Indigenous Americans lack access to safe tap water or basic sanitation – without which a host of health conditions including Covid-19, diabetes, and gastrointestinal disease are more likely.

Among the most affected by water issues are 30 tribes within the Colorado River Basin (CRB), located across California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado, according to researchers from the University of Utah and Colorado in the Water and Tribes Initiative.

Reduced rainfall and droughts linked to the climate crisis are further straining supply issues such as inadequate and ageing infrastructure, legacy contaminants, insufficient technical capacity within tribes, and limited revenue streams.

Unlike towns and cities, tribes cannot raise money through property taxes as reservation lands are held in trust by the federal government. But while the root causes vary from tribe to tribe, the overriding issue is the absence of an adequately funded comprehensive government policy to make good on treaty obligations. In exchange for the cession of millions of acres of lands to white settlers, tribes were promised a permanent homeland, a livable reservation, and a home conducive to health and prosperity

.

© Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images Navajo people line up in their vehicles to collect water and supplies from a distribution point, as the Covid-19 virus spreads through the Navajo Nation, in Monument Valley at the Utah and Arizona border last year.

“These promises are broken when we do not have clean water to drink, to cook with, and to wash as required to avoid the spread of this deadly disease,” said leaders of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Ten Tribes Partnership and the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian tribe.

Provided by The Guardian Amanda Larson, who has no running water at her home, carries water for her son Gary Jr to have a bath in the Navajo Nation town of Thoreau in New Mexico last year. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

They added: “Helping to provide clean water to us, throughout Indian Country, benefits everyone, and its absence correspondingly jeopardizes the health of the entire United States of America.”

In the US, race – not where you live or income level – is the most significant predictor of plumbing poverty, with Indigenous households 19 times more likely than white households to lack indoor pipes for running water and sanitation.

Several CRB tribes suffer from plumbing poverty, including 30% to 40% of all Navajo Nation residents, who are 67 times more likely than other Americans to live without running water. The cost of hauling water is at least 70 times more expensive than piped water. The Navajo Nation has a diabetes crisis because sugary drinks are more readily available and cheaper than potable water.

Indigenous Americans have died from Covid-19, a highly contagious virus which requires good hygiene to curtail the spread, at twice the rate of white Americans, with CRB tribes like the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache suffering disproportionately.

FIRST NATIONS ARE NORTH AMERICANS
Related: ‘An indescribable moment’: Indigenous nation in US has right to lands in Canada, court rules

Last year’s Cares Act included $5m to support installation of temporary water stations and storage tanks, but tribal leaders were unable to invest the money in urgently needed infrastructure because of an arbitrary time limit on spending. An estimated $4.5bn is needed to address the widespread lack of water access on the Navajo reservation, which is bigger than West Virginia.

Contaminated water is also pervasive in Indian Country, and out west in particular, where mining companies have left groundwater sources with elevated levels of toxic chemicals like arsenic and uranium. An estimated 75% of residents on the Hopi reservation are forced to use drinking water laced with arsenic, which poses serious health risks including cancers and birth defects.

The Trump administration approved $5m towards building a new water system on the Hopi reservation, but that is only 25% of the estimated construction cost and provides nothing towards operation and maintenance of the new pipeline.

Researchers say that the Hopi case exemplifies the limits of the government’s current piecemeal approach: federal grants are too small, require complicated applications to a myriad of agencies and almost never take into account running costs. Tribal consultation – which is key to crafting tailored solutions – is mostly absent.

But this is a pivotal moment, many activists say. They believe Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, known as the American Jobs Plan, is an opportunity to remove bureaucratic barriers and right decades of wrongs denying Indigenous Americans access to safe tap water and sanitation.

SUPERSTITION TO COVER FOR MISOGYNISTIC FEMICIDE
Two women tortured in latest sorcery-related attack in Papua New Guinea

Lyanne Togiba in Port Moresby 
THE GUARDIAN

4/27/2021

Two women have been brutally attacked in Port Moresby by up to 20 men after being accused of witchcraft, in the latest instance of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea.© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

The women were tortured and burnt with hot irons for hours on Sunday in a settlement at 5 Mile in the capital.

One woman managed to escape and ran down a hill before she was rescued by police. She said she was being interrogated by the male perpetrators and pressured to admit to the killing of another woman who died earlier in the week

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© Photograph: David Gray/Reuters The attack occurred in Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby.

Related: 'They just slaughter them': how sorcery violence spreads fear across Papua New Guinea

Police found the second woman badly wounded and bound with ropes, lying in a garden. Both had very severe injuries.

Community leader Elliot Raphael said the incident was shocking and that a solution needed to be found to address the issue of violence against women immediately.




“All we know was that the ladies were picked up in the morning and interrogated, and from there we don’t know what happened before they were tortured and now this,” said Raphael.

The women were treated on the scene and taken to hospital. St John Ambulance chief executive Mathew Cannon confirmed the women were being treated for serious head and leg injuries. They will receive counselling support.

National Capital District (NCD) Metropolitan Supt Gideon Ikumu said up to 20 men fled before police arrived at the scene, but that the identities of the men were known to them.

“I strongly condemn these crimes and request the families and relatives of the two victims to come forward and provide their statements,” he said.

Sorcery violence – known as Sorcery Accusation Related Violence, or SARV – is persistent in PNG. This latest attack prompted outrage among senior police officers and politicians.

“People must change their mindset as we are living in a modern growing city. Police will ensure those responsible are brought to justice,” said Anthony Wagambie Jr, divisional commander NCD and central assistant commissioner.

NCD governor, Powes Parkop said: “I am totally disgusted and disappointed by the actions of the men who tortured the two women in the nation’s capital. I am appalled that men continue to believe and practice such barbaric practices in this day and age. The fact that it could still happen in the capital city shows we are a long way away from ending gender-based violence, and sorcery accusatory violence in particular.”

He said there was an urgent need to fund the National Gender Based Violence Secretariat and allocate funds to get the National Gender Based Violence strategy 2016-2026 rolled out as soon as possible.

“The strategy has been developed and these barbaric acts are allowed to continue because we have not funded the implementation of the strategy. It means we must multiply our efforts … to stop such violence and change behaviour and attitude. We are too slow at all levels.”