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Pair of flamingos in Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Image courtesy of Maitha Bughanoom.

Arabian Gulf’s fragile marine ecosystem threatened by current crisis (commentary)

Razan Al Mubarak 11 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

Asia’s last great free-flowing river faces toxic contamination crisis

Mongabay.com 7 May 2026

Suspected chemical pollution threatens Nairobi Nat’l Park & key water sources

Elodie Toto 5 May 2026
Fishers collect their nets on the Sesan River, just a few hundred meters from the O’Ta Bouk-Sesan confluence. Fishers who use the O’Ta Bouk told Mongabay that their catches have declined significantly over the past three years. Photo by Andy Ball/Mongabay.

Cambodia tested waters amid pollution claims; months later, still no public results

Andy Ball, Gerald Flynn, Phoung Vantha 4 May 2026
Most of Chi’s annual income comes from selling apricot blossoms — a symbol of luck and prosperity in Vietnam — around Lunar New Year.

Saline intrusion in Mekong Delta leaves farmers and scientists at odds

Minh L Tran 30 Apr 2026
Young Atlantic salmon, Image by Jörgen Wiklund via Eurekalert.

Cocaine exposure drives salmon to alter movements

Shreya Dasgupta 30 Apr 2026
Children and adults cleaning and washing minerals in Kakanda, DRC. Image by Didier Makal/ Mongabay.

UN report flags disproportionate costs of clean energy transition

Victoria Schneider 30 Apr 2026
Women in the river pulling fish net; Hoa Lu, Ha Nam Ninh Province, Red River Delta Region, Vietnam.

Laos can do more to mitigate chemical pollution of rivers flowing into Vietnam (analysis)

Pham Phan Long 30 Apr 2026
Austin Lewis

Chesapeake Bay conservation bolstered by the power of business & viral videos

Erik Hoffner 29 Apr 2026
The town of Aggeneys in Northern Cape province lies close to the mining area. Image courtesy of Northern Cape Tourism.

Little-known company targets South African biodiversity hotspot for mining

Anna Weekes 23 Apr 2026

Oil spill continues in Gulf of Mexico vulnerable habitats, while Pemex admits fault

Caitlin Cooper 22 Apr 2026
A Chinese pangolin. Image by Sarita Jnawali of NTNC – Central Zoo via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

In Nepal, controversial dam threatens endangered pangolins: Study

Bibek Bhandari 22 Apr 2026

Vaupés River contamination identified near rapidly expanding Amazonian town

Aimee Gabay 21 Apr 2026
Excavations at the mine, which has been found to be the source of the pollution in two rivers in Karonga district. Image by Jordan Simeon Phiri for Mongabay.

Malawi government suspends coal miner’s license over river pollution

Charles Mpaka 20 Apr 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
The King River enters Macquarie Harbour, where decades of mining have contributed to contaminated sediment buildup at the river’s delta. Image by Stefan Lovgren.

In Tasmania, the mines have closed but the rivers remember

Stefan Lovgren 16 Apr 2026

BP sued in Kenya over alleged toxic waste from 1980s oil exploration

Associated Press 16 Apr 2026

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

Associated Press 14 Apr 2026

Repeated failures expose gaps in Indonesia’s nickel waste management

Hans Nicholas Jong 13 Apr 2026
Cattle forage through plastic and household waste at an open dumping site in Jaigaon. Image by Chandrani Sinha.

Indian border town adjacent to Bhutan is reeling from riverbed pollution

Mongabay.com 10 Apr 2026
Fishers in Dunga on the shores of Lake Victoria. Image by Achieng’ Otieno for Mongabay.

On the shores of Lake Victoria, a youth-led campaign to revive a wetland

Achieng’ Otieno 9 Apr 2026
A fan mussel (Pinna nobilis) in a Neptune grass meadow. Image by Arnaud Abadie via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

A French city cut its marine pollution — and its seagrass bounced back

Edward Carver 7 Apr 2026

Microplastics found in fish in Tuvalu, a remote South Pacific nation

David Brown 7 Apr 2026
Vietnamese activists hold a photo of dead fish, allegedly killed with toxic chemicals, during a protest to urge Formosa Plastics Group to take responsibilities for the cleanup in Vietnam, August 2016, in Taipei, Taiwan.

10 years after Vietnam’s Formosa steel plant spill, justice for victims remains elusive

Hướng Thiện 6 Apr 2026
Cymodocea nodosa seagrass in Spain, also known as Little Neptune grass. Restoring and protecting seagrass can have climate and coastal protection benefits. Image courtesy of Liam McGuire/Ocean Image Bank.

The underwater meadows that help keep beaches from disappearing

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Mar 2026
Lubumbashi River, at the level of the Kalubwe bridge, where significant fish mortality was reported in November 2025. Image by Ruth Kutemba.

4 months after DRC mine spill, residents remain impacted

Ruth Kutemba, Elodie Toto 26 Mar 2026
Northern gannet (Morus bassanus) nest made largely of plastic debris. Image courtesy of Martin Brogger.

Seabird nests built with plastic waste off the coast of Germany: Photo of the week

Shanna Hanbury 25 Mar 2026
Occupation of Funai’s Altamira branch. Image courtesy of the Medio Xingu Indigenous Women’s Movement.

Indigenous groups demand halt to Belo Sun Amazon gold mine

Shanna Hanbury 23 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
The construction site of Bridge Data Centre's 0.2 GW QHI01 data center in Khlong Tamru subdistrict, Chonburi province, Thailand. Photo by Andy Ball/Mongabay.

Thai data center boom sparks fears of water shortage, air pollution

Gerald Flynn 11 Mar 2026

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