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Women and girls from Capirona gather to collect stones and make water filters, as part of the community experiment developed in partnership with the Yachana Foundation. Image courtesy of the Yachana Foundation.

In Ecuador, an Indigenous community goes thirsty despite its two rivers

Gabriela Verdezoto Landívar 12 Jun 2026
A cornfield flooded with salts in the eastern United States. Crops didn’t survive in the low-elevation sections of the field, which abuts a tidal wetland. Image courtesy of Jarrod Miller/Delmarva Saltwater Intrusion.

Risk of saltwater intrusion into coastal groundwater spans the globe: Study

Edward Carver 28 May 2026
Fishers in the Mekong River near Chiang Khong, Thailand. Elevated arsenic levels at testing sites in the Mekong indicate that contamination may be spreading into this vital waterway. Image by Stefan Lovgren.

Dangerous arsenic levels detected in Thailand’s Mekong mainstream for first time

Gerald Flynn 8 May 2026
Pa Haw, father of Saw Si Paw, takes to the Salween River each morning to inspect their nets for fish, despite heavy metal contamination linked to mining sites upstream. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.

Asia’s longest free-flowing river contaminated by arsenic linked to Myanmar mines

Gerald Flynn 20 Apr 2026

In Brazil, unfinished water project leaves Indigenous villages without safe water

Felipe Medeiros, Adriana Amâncio 14 Apr 2026

Afghanistan’s capital is in the grip of a water crisis

Associated Press 14 Apr 2026
The only water left for human and livestock to share in Berano Wereda, Homay Kebele of Ethiopia's Somali region. Image by © FAO/Michael Tewelde.

‘Sharing is off the table’ as drought reshapes the culture of Ethiopia’s pastoralists

Kaleab Girma 1 Apr 2026
Farmers sow rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

A nature-based solution to save the Mekong Delta’s water future (commentary)

Pham Phan Long 26 Mar 2026
Trash bags full of discarded plastic. Image by Adil Edin via Unsplash (Public domain).

Huge amounts of nanoplastics discovered in tap and bottled water

Shanna Hanbury 23 Mar 2026
Lake Victoria in Kenya. Image by Jozef020 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

World Water Day: Earth’s freshwater reveals new species & faces mounting threats

Mongabay.com 22 Mar 2026

Seven years after Brazil’s worst dam disaster, mining operations bounce back

Felipe S. Duran, Mylena Melo 16 Feb 2026
Ningsih is about to add chlorine to the "Gentong Mas Santun" septic tank, which functions to inhibit the growth of and eliminate bacteria and microbes in feces.

On Indonesia’s longest river, a Borneo community passes crucial public health milestone

Anggita Raissa 29 Dec 2025
A sewage outlet in Bangkok.

Marine heat waves and raw sewage combine to put human health at risk

Sean Mowbray 18 Dec 2025
Fledglings of Lesser Adjutant in the Parsa-Koshi Complex. Image by Hem Bahadur Katuwal.

Bird diversity drops in human-dominated habitats, Nepal study suggests

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 26 Nov 2025
A woman in her 60s fills empty jerrycans in a wheelbarrow with water she draws from an old well in Tallo village, Makassar.

Makassar women press for water as taps and wells run dry in sweltering Indonesian city

Sri Wahyuni 20 Nov 2025

Study finds deforestation fuels West Africa’s water crisis

David Akana 7 Nov 2025
Leaching ponds have been drilled into the mountains of Laos, using a mix of toxic chemicals to separate the rare earth minerals from the other materials siphoned out of the ground. Image supplied by source.

Rare earth mining expands into Laos, threatening entire Mekong River

Mongabay 27 Oct 2025
An elk in the Rocky Mountains, where the headwaters of the Colorado River lie. Image courtesy of Fin and Fur Films.

‘We can have abundant rivers and wildlife’: Director of ‘The American Southwest’ on new film

John Cannon 15 Oct 2025
A fisher mends his net at Yettinahalla.

Turning a stream into a river: Inside India’s Yettinaholé diversion project

Shradha Triveni 2 Oct 2025
A brilliant blue male Francis’s gorgeous sapphire, euthanized after being reared in captivity. Image courtesy of Jonathan Francis.

Discovery of dazzling blue butterfly underscores peril facing Angola’s forests 

Ryan Truscott 3 Sep 2025
An Indian pond heron or paddybird (Ardeola grayii) in a pond in Nepal.

In Nepal, artificial ponds offer drought relief despite lingering doubts

Mukesh Pokhrel 28 Aug 2025
The sun rises on the Salween River, which serves as a vital lifeline for Karen communities on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.

Asia’s longest free-flowing river faces threats of dams and diversions

Mongabay.com 6 Aug 2025
Boats sporting "No Dam" parade down the Salween River along the Thai-Myanmar border in March 2025. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.

Specter of dams and diversion looms over Southeast Asia’s Salween River

Gerald Flynn 19 Jun 2025
Munduruku people from the Sawré Muybu village gather in an assembly to receive feedback from Fiocruz on the hair sample test results determining levels of mercury contamination in people. Image by Joao Paulo Guimaeres via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

After crackdown on illegal miners, Indigenous Munduruku still grapple with health aftermath

Karla Mendes, Fernanda Wenzel 16 Jun 2025
A seminomadic man carries water in the Cholistan Desert.

In Pakistan, desert irrigation plans spark protests & fears among Sindh farmers

Waqas Alam Angaria 28 May 2025
eucalyptus forest

Eucalyptus for Brazil’s steelmaking dries out communities in Minas Gerais

Daniel Camargos, Emmanuelle Picaud, Simone Fant 29 Apr 2025
A flamingo in Salar de Uyuni, southwestern Bolivia.

Bolivian communities push back against foreign-backed lithium projects

Carla Ruas 17 Apr 2025
Banner image of the Javari River in the Amazon by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

World Water Day: 3 stories of resistance and restoration from around the globe

Kristine Sabillo 21 Mar 2025

As the rainforest gets drier, Amazon Indigenous groups thirst for clean water

Kevin Damasio 18 Feb 2025

Serious groundwater contamination in several parts of India: Report

Mongabay.com 16 Jan 2025

Across continents, Mongabay fellows share insights from reporting in the field

Michael Esquer, Swati Thapa, Tarinipre Francis 23 Dec 2024

Grassroots efforts sprout up to protect Central America’s Trifinio watershed

Maxwell Radwin 16 Dec 2024

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