Wodaabe from Chad | © Marie-Laure de Decker. The Wodaabes are a nomadic cattle herding people group living in Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Chad, and Sudan.
Almost no place on Earth gets more rain than this small hill town. Nearly 40 feet falls every year — more than 12 times what Seattle gets. Storms often drop more than a foot a day. The monsoon is epic.
But during the dry season from November through March, many in this corner of India struggle to find water. Some are forced to walk long distances to fill jugs in springs or streams. Taps in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya State, spout water for just a few hours a day. And when it arrives, the water is often not drinkable.
That people in one of the rainiest places on the planet struggle to get potable water is emblematic of the profound water challenges that India faces. Every year, about 600,000 Indian children die because of diarrhea or pneumonia, often caused by toxic water and poor hygiene, according to Unicef.
Half of the water supply in rural areas, where 70 percent of India’s population lives, is routinely contaminated with toxic bacteria. Employment in manufacturing in India has declined in recent years, and a prime reason may be the difficulty companies face getting water.
And India’s water problems are likely to worsen. A report that McKinsey & Company helped to write predicted that India would need to double its water-generation capacity by the year 2030 to meet the demands of its surging population.
A separate analysis concluded that groundwater supplies in many of India’s cities — including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai — are declining at such a rapid rate that they may run dry within a few years.
The water situation in Gurgaon, the new mega-city south of Delhi, became so acute last year that a judge ordered a halt to new construction until projects could prove they were using recycled water instead of groundwater.
(via Rains or Not, India Is Falling Short on Drinkable Water - NYTimes.com)
World’s Most Beautiful Abandoned Places
Italian product manager and web designer Francesco Mugnai recently added a collection of images to his blog touting some of the most beautiful images of abandoned spots and modern ruins that he’d ever seen. The images Mugnai has captured come from empty castles, shuttered power plants, and dilapidated churches around the world. From a sunken yacht in Antarctica to a forever-closed amusement park in Japan, these images all make up a sort of anti-phoenix; rather than rising as new from the ashes, these husks remain preserved in decomposition, forcing viewers to confront the strange beauty of ruination.
Join Demi and paint your pinkies blue to show you’re against girl-to-girl bullying. Share your pic using the submit button on the right or by just tagging your pic with #BluePinkyChallenge on Instagram. Want to spread the #BluePinkyChallenge? Watch our web series, HOW A DIFFERENCE IS MADE, for tips on getting your friends to join you: http://on.mtv.com/YW6Um7
This house is directly across from Westboro Baptist Church, the notorious hate group. You know the one, with all the ”GOD HATES FAGS!” protest signs. The guys that protest the funerals of children, soldiers and celebrities. Yeah, those guys.
This house was bought a few months ago and turned into a LGBT rights group’s HQ. WBC had no idea… until today… when the group “came out” and painted the outside of the home with gay pride flag colors. Right. Across. The. Street.
Now, WBC has to look at that house. Every day. Every. Day. Rock on!
Troll level: ActivistYou can read the full story here.
bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa hooojesus bless
