News
No Water, No Power
April 23, 2018
In 2017, drought in Kenya and neighboring countries became so severe earlier that the government of Kenya declared a national disaster. Already, the effects have been devastating: Food production dropped, leaving more than 2.6 million people without access to sufficient food. Some villagers have lost 40 percent of their livestock. Amidst the human tragedy of this drought, an unexpected actor […]
Solutions for Pollution
April 23, 2018
Addressing the crowd at Washington D.C.’s Wilson Center, Sasha Koo-Oshima immediately establishes the stakes of the matter at hand: the problem of water pollution. When water quality is degraded, she says, it’s “a potential destabilizing factor in global economy and security.” Along with three other panelists, Koo-Oshima, senior adviser of the Environmental Protection Agency’s International […]
Avoiding a Water Crisis: What’s Next for Cape Town – and Beyond?
April 17, 2018
Intense drought in South Africa’s Western Cape Province has led the world-renowned city of Cape Town to the brink of “Day Zero”— the date at which residents would be forced to collect strictly rationed water supplies from shared distribution taps. Water conservation efforts have so far prevented a massive water shutdown, but the city’s rapid population growth and reliance on […]
Power Switch
April 13, 2018
By Chris Warren Less than half of Nigeria’s 186 million people have access to electricity. But in the rural village of Gbamu Gbamu, newly installed utility poles and wires act as markers of a brighter future, powered by a new solar minigrid. The grid, an effort of local developers Rubitec Solar and Winrock’s USAID-funded Renewable […]
New Date: SWP to Continue Wilson Center Series with “Solutions for Dirty Water”
April 1, 2018
Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Around the world, pollution and disease contaminate essential supplies of drinking water. In this third part of its “Sustainable Water, Resilient Communities” series, co-hosted with Winrock International and the Wilson Center, the USAID-funded Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP) will present “Solutions for Dirty Water.” Moderated by SWP Director Eric Viala, experts […]
Protecting Resources, Improving Lives
March 27, 2018
By Lauren Keller, senior program associate and M&E specialist, Forestry and Natural Resource Management Nga Dang, Payment for Environmental Services development specialist. What do a pair of pigs have in common with a hydropower plant? Just ask Lang Thi Hoanh of Chieng Village in the Bat Mot commune of Vietnam. She and other women have […]
A Fighter for Forests
March 26, 2018
To close out National Women’s History Month and mark the recent International Day of Forests, Winrock honors the late Dr. Sandra Brown, a pioneering woman in the historically male-dominated field of environmental science. Dr. Brown made profound contributions to the science of the global carbon cycle, and co-authored work honored with the 2007 Nobel Peace […]
Safeguarding Sustainability
March 7, 2018
In the Maasai language, “Mara” means “spotted,” and as you look out over the plains of the Mara River Basin, you can see how the region got its name. The savanna is dotted with plants and animals alike: thorn trees and shrubs, lions, giraffes, migrating wildebeests. One of the most biodiverse regions in the world, […]
Innovation@Winrock
February 6, 2018
A year ago, Winrock International lost one of its valuable and visionary voices. Senior Scientist Dr. Sandra Brown, who died February 13, 2017, developed innovative methods to evaluate the environmental benefits of improved land management. She came to Winrock because she wanted to see the results of her research applied to benefit people around the […]
Staying Afloat
February 3, 2018
If you travel to Cambodia’s Tonle Sap basin, you might see flooded fields full of what look like reeds, foliage waving above the surface of the water. While it may not look like much, it’s actually rice — “floating” or “deepwater” rice. Flooding is a fact of life near the constantly rising and falling Tonle Sap […]