Millions in Tanzania’s largest port-city are at risk of contracting life-threatening diseases as a cocktail of untreated waste water and hazardous industrial effluents are randomly discharged into the Msimbazi River.

The river, which flows through the heart of the city, is severely degraded and under intense environmental pressure due to widespread discharge of human and industrial wastes, including raw sewage from pit latrines.

Industrial pollution, untreated sewage and open defecation have made the water in the river a toxic soup infested with bacterial infection.

As the globe marks World Rivers Day, health experts have cited sewage disposal into the Msimbazi River as being responsible for increased waterborne diseases, including diarrhea, cholera and dysentery.

Snaking through the city into the Indian Ocean, the 36-kilometer (22-mile) long river is widely polluted and infested with raw sewage, animal wastes and industrial chemicals.

As one of Africa’s fastest growing cities, with 70% of its 6 million inhabitants living in squalid conditions in informal settlements, the city is prone to flooding that is often causing waste-water pollution and diseases outbreaks.

Only 10% of Dar es Salaam residents connected to sewage system

Residents in Dar es Salaam have for decades watched in disbelief as the Msimbazi River turned into a cesspool infested with run-off emitting heavy stench.

Investigations conducted by Anadolu Agency revealed high levels of heavy metal in the river run off from local industry and a waste dump near the Vingunguti area, leaking sludge into the river.

Because only 10% of Dar es Salaam residents are connected to the city’s sewage system, the majority use pit latrine and sceptic tanks that produce a huge volume of unsafely managed fecal sludge that often end up in this river.

Investigations further revealed a local abattoir is discharging wastes into the river causing the color of the water to turn to brown-red.

“This neighborhood is not planned, local residents do not have the means to dispose of wastes from their toilets, as a last resort they direct it to the river,” said Khalid Mazimbo, a resident of Kigogo.

According to the Journal of Scientific Research and Reports, the soil around Msimbazi is infested with high concentrations of lead, chromium and copper as manufacturing and processing factories discharge heavy metals and strong alkalis from textile mills steel, paint dye and food processing.

In the Kigogo neighborhood on the banks of Msimbazi River, raw sewage is perpetually flowing into the river forcing a foul stench to waft into the streets and exposes residents to health risks, said locals.

On verge of total disaster

Virtually every time it rains, residents in the crammed neighborhood dump raw sewage directly into the river.

Menrad Kahumba, a public health expert at Muhimbili National Hospital warned that seeping sewage into the river can trigger a surge of dangerous bacteria.

“We are on the verge of a total disaster, people should stop dumping sewage into the river,” he said.

Looking at the river from the vantage point through the rolling hills of Kisarawe, it is hard to tell if it has lost its glory.

But as the water flow through past factories, hospitals and farms, its purity degrades and becomes murky.

Water pollution is a growing global crisis, threatening humans and wildlife. From piles of garbage to invisible chemicals, a wide range of pollutants end up in rivers and eventually into the ocean.

The Msimbazi River served as an important water source and its adjoining fertile floodplain provided a good area for farming and animal grazing, but with increasing human activities and changing weather patterns, the perennial riverbed has become seasonal.

Law prohibits man-made water pollution

Samuel Gwamaka, the Director General of Tanzania’s environmental regulatory body -- National Environmental Management Council (NEMC), warned individuals and industries about discharging effluents into the Msimbazi River because it is against the law.

“Our law is very clear, whoever is discharging trash or chemical in the river is breaking the law. We will not hesitate to punish anyone with such behavior” he told Anadolu Agency.

According to the country’s 2004 Environmental Management Act, man-made water pollution is prohibited.

The Msimbazi River, which passes through human settlement and industries, is severely polluted and is clogged with trash that have made it breeding ground of germs.

“The quality of the river’s water has sharply declined and it is no longer safe for domestic use, even for irrigation,” said Gwamaka./aa

About 3,000 people marched Saturday in the northern Chilean port city of Iquique to protest the presence of undocumented Venezuelans, with some demonstrators scuffling with migrants and a radical fringe setting fire to belongings at an empty immigrant camp.

The marching demonstrators shouted "No more illegal immigration" and sang the local anthem as well as Chile's national anthem, warning that "Chile is a republic that will be respected."

Police stepped in to break up a number of minor fights which they said were caused by Chileans who attacked Venezuelan migrants living on the street.

The protesters marched from Iquique's old town about 10 blocks to the Pacific Ocean where hotels and apartments line the seafront.

The migrants have scrambled around the city since early Saturday to try to find less visible spots to camp, AFP journalists said.

The demonstration took place a day after police evacuated a migrant camp that had existed for a year in the town square. Most of the migrants, poor and undocumented, are stranded in the city, surviving on odd jobs with no way to reach the capital.

"The hundred families" who lived on the square "are now wandering in various public spaces... they are trying to settle with their tents on the beaches" or in the city's industrial zone, said Jose Miguel Carvajal, governor of the Tarapaca region where Iquique is located.

Some more radical demonstrators went to a small camp set up by some Venezuelan migrants -- who were not there -- and burned their few belongings: tents, mattresses, bags, blankets and toys.

Chile is Latin America's wealthiest country by per capita standards.

Venezuela, meanwhile, is in an unprecedented economic and political crisis that has led millions of people to leave their country, rich in oil resources but mismanaged and rife with dysfunction.

Venezuela's national currency, the bolivar, has lost 73 percent of its value to the dollar so far this year. Inflation is about 3,000 percent./AFP

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ethiopia told the international community Saturday to steer clear of sanctions and avoid meddling over its war with forces from its Tigray region, and to let the African Union work on bringing all parties together.

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders, Deputy Prime Minster Demeke Mekonnen defended his country's conduct in the 10-month-old war.

“Prescriptions and punitive measures never helped improve situations or relations,” he said, less than 10 days after the United States threatened to impose sanctions against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders if they don’t take steps soon to stop the fighting.

“While cooperation and concern from our friends is welcome, we underline the need to employ constructive approach, cultivate trust and ensure understanding,” Mekonnen said, complaining that his country was facing a “unilateral coercive measure" without mentioning its source.

The U.S. mission to the United Nations didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

War erupted in Tigray in November after a political clash between Abiy and the Tigrayans who had long dominated the national government.

The war has triggered a hunger crisis, threatened stability in Africa’s second-most-populous country and upended Abiy’s image two years after he won the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace with neighbor Eritrea. Eritrea fought on Ethiopia’s side in Tigray.

The U.S. and United Nations say Ethiopian troops have prevented passage of trucks carrying food and other aid. Scores of people have starved to death, The Associated Press has reported.

The U.N. human rights office says all sides have committed abuses.

Witness accounts so far indicate Tigrayan civilians have been subjected to the most widespread atrocities, blamed on the Ethiopian government, Amhara militias and Eritrean soldiers. However, accusations against the Tigray forces have mounted since they retook much of their region of 6 million people in June and entered neighboring Amhara.

Mekonnen suggested international critics were swayed by a “twisted propaganda campaign,” and he said Ethiopia's leaders were coming to see humanitarian assistance efforts as “a pretext for advancing political considerations.”

Insisting the government was committed to aiding its people, he said it would work with "partners that adhere to the principles of neutrality, independence and humanity and the laws of the country.

“Apart from this, no excuse will justify any attempt to intervene in our internal affairs,” the deputy prime minister warned.

He said Ethiopia was willing to work with the African Union, and its new special representative to the Horn of Africa, toward an “Ethiopia-led national dialogue.”

“We only hope the African Union will be given the space to apply its own wisdom,” Mekonnen said.

Tigrayan forces leader Debretsion Gebremichael said in a letter to the U.N. last month that the AU “cannot provide any solution to the war."

In a subsequent letter to more than 50 heads of state and government and multilateral organizations, Gebremichael entreated them to pressure Ethiopia for the “immediate and unconditional lifting of the siege on Tigray” and “an internationally sponsored and all-inclusive negotiation” for a cease-fire.

BAMAKO (Reuters) - A former Rwandan army colonel who was accused of masterminding the slaughter of 800,000 people during the 1994 genocide has died in prison in Mali, Malian officials said on Saturday.

Theoneste Bagosora was serving a 35-year sentence after being found guilty of crimes against humanity by the then International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). His sentence had been reduced from life in prison.

"It is confirmed. He was over 80 years old, he was seriously ill, with heart troubles. He was hospitalised several times and had three surgeries. He died today in a clinic," a source in Mali's prison administration who sought anonymity told Reuters.

A second source at Bamako's Court of Appeal confirmed the death.

Prosecutors accused Bagosora, then cabinet director in the defence ministry, of taking control of military and political affairs in the central African country after President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down in 1994.

The Tanzania-based tribunal accused Bagosora of being in charge of the troops and Interahamwe Hutu militia who killed some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days.

Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of United Nations peacekeepers during the genocide, described Bagosora as the "kingpin" behind the killings and said the former colonel had threatened to kill him.

Police in Fort Worth, Texas, are seeking help in a triple homicide investigation after firefighters found three dismembered bodies – including one of a child – in a dumpster fire they extinguished this week.

Police identified one victim as David Lueras, 42, the Fort Worth Police Department said in a press release posted on Twitter Friday. The other bodies are that of an unknown child and a teenage or adult female. "The bodies were burned and heavily dismembered and there are body parts unaccounted for," police said.

The Fort Worth Fire Department on Wednesday morning at 6:17 a.m. CT

responded to a report of a dumpster fire outside of a business located in the 3100 block of Bonnie Drive in west central Fort Worth. As firefighters put out the fire, they discovered the bodies inside the dumpster.

The Fort Worth Homicide unit, which responded to the crime scene after the discovery, said that "the dismembered condition of the bodies is making the identification process difficult."

Police are seeking help from the public to identify the victims – who may be missing persons – and any suspects in the crime./agencies

Four years ago, the Scrubgrass power plant in Venango County, Pennsylvania, was on the brink of financial ruin as energy customers preferred to buy cheap natural gas or renewables. Then Scrubgrass pivoted to Bitcoin.

Today, through a holding company based in Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, called Stronghold Digital Mining that bought the plant, Scrubgrass burns enough coal waste to power about 1,800 cryptocurrency mining computers. These computers, known as miners, are packed into shipping containers next to the power plant, the company stated in documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of its initial public offering. Coal waste is a byproduct from decades of mining in the region, left behind in enormous black piles. Stronghold estimated that it’s currently burning about 600,000 tons of it per year at Scrubgrass.

According to the SEC filings, Stronghold plans to operate 57,000 miners by the end of 2022 — an expansion that requires buying up two additional coal waste power plants in the region.

What happened at Scrubgrass highlights a growing trend within the crypto world that alarms some environmentalists. Bitcoin mining is breathing new life into America’s aging fossil fuel power plants, creating a demand environmentalists say discourages investment in renewable energy sources at a time when shifting away from carbon-emitting sources of energy is essential.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies use blockchain technology, essentially a shared database of transactions, where entries must be confirmed and encrypted. The network is secured by “miners” who use powerful computers to compete in an enormous guessing game that ultimately verifies the transactions. If a computer “wins” the game, it’s rewarded with a newly created bitcoin, currently worth about $40,000. The process consumes a lot of electricity, and the computers generate a lot of heat, which means they require industrial cooling systems that need even more energy.

Because of this, the Bitcoin network currently consumes more electricity than many small countries, including the Philippines, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.

“Bitcoin mining is essentially waste by design,” said Alex de Vries, a Dutch economist, researcher and founder of Digiconomist, a site that tracks the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. “It’s a system where participants are forced to waste resources to provide some level of security on the network. The more value bitcoin has, the more money it’s worth, the more we spend on resources.”

The trend has accelerated in recent months after the Chinese government cracked down on bitcoin mining, which until May was home to about two-thirds of global bitcoin mining capacity, according to research firm Rystad Energy. On Friday, China went so far to announce that all cryptocurrency transactions were illegal, which delivered another blow to the industry. But the mining crackdown already led to an influx of bitcoin mining operations into the United States, with several states, including Texas and Kentucky, welcoming them with open arms, cheap electricity and tax incentives.

“These miners don’t just need cheap energy, but a stable source of power because their machines need to run 24/7, and fossil fuel sources are best suited for it,” de Vries said. “Miners are reviving gas plants and idle coal mines in places like New York and Montana.”

Stronghold officials declined to comment because the company is currently in an SEC-mandated quiet period ahead of its initial public offering. But in a recent filing, it described its operations as “environmentally-beneficial,” pointing to Pennsylvania's classification of waste coal power generation as a “Tier II alternative energy source.” This classification allows Stronghold to benefit from state subsidies.

Waste coal piles are an environmental hazard filled with contaminants that leach into waterways, killing fish and other wildlife, and they sometimes spontaneously catch fire, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Burning it as fuel in a power plant like Scrubgrass helps clean up the waste piles, but it emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as well as other dangerous greenhouse gases.

“Simply put, we employ 21st century crypto mining techniques to remediate the impacts of 19th and 20th century coal mining in some of the most environmentally neglected regions of the United States,” the company stated in the filing.

Stronghold

According to public filings, Stronghold works closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to prioritize higher-risk coal waste piles, including those already burning or contaminating waterways, to burn as fuel for its power plants, removing harmful particulates that would be released into the atmosphere from piles that ignite spontaneously.

Rob Altenburg, senior director for energy and climate at PennFuture, a nonprofit organization focused on clean energy, said he believes the state is taking the wrong approach to handling the enormous piles of waste coal and that burning it in power plants just makes a visible problem invisible.

“When it burns, they don’t see big towers of black soot,” he said. “And when people don’t see pollution, they don’t think it’s there.”

Jamar Thrasher, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said that the waste piles “continue to pollute our land, streams and air even while they sit there” and that “currently one of the most effective ways to remediate these piles is to consume them using the best available technology present at these plants like Scrubgrass to create electricity.” He added that “unfortunately, like other forms of electric generation using coal, natural gas and oil, this does result in emission of air pollutants which must be balanced against the environmental benefits provided by this form of generation.”

Altenburg and other air quality advocates prefer alternative approaches to remediation, including planting sea grass on top of waste piles to secure the surface and mitigate leaching problems or moving the waste coal into a lined landfill that prevents any leaching into waterways — a move the coal refuse lobby ARIPPA estimated would cost about $30 per ton.

Altenburg said he believes if the state diverted generous subsidies being given to the coal waste plants and considered the social cost of carbon emissions, it could also pay for remediation. But that would be politically unpopular.

“It’s much easier for our Legislature to pass a tax cut for a business than a bill spending money on environmental cleanup, even if the latter is more cost effective,” he said.

This year, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council recommended that the state’s alternative energy standards, which currently permit subsidies to waste coal plants, be reformed to phase out fossil fuel energy sources like waste coal plants unless they use carbon capture technology.

Chinese migration

Since China kicked bitcoin miners out in the spring, the proportion of bitcoin being mined using renewable energy sources has fallen as miners have migrated to countries with more fossil fuel-reliant energy grids, said Pete Howson, bitcoin expert and senior lecturer in international development at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom.

Many miners turned to China’s neighbors, including Kazakhstan and Abkhazia, recognized by most countries as part of Georgia, both of which have energy grids powered almost entirely by fossil fuels.

Others sought larger, more stable energy markets.

“A lot ended up in North America because there was enough cheapish power, and they could do deals with fossil fuel companies,” said cryptocurrency expert David Gerard.

Until the crackdown, bitcoin mining company Poolin did the vast majority of its mining in China, using mostly fossil fuels in Inner Mongolia and hydroelectric power in Sichuan.

The day after China announced the ban, Poolin Vice President Alejandro De La Torre headed to Texas.

“A very important factor for mining is the cost of electricity, and in Texas it’s very cheap. There’s a lot of oil, as well as wind power and solar,” he said. “There’s also a friendly political environment for bitcoin mining.”

In June, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted his excitement that Texas would be the next “crypto leader” as cryptocurrency kiosks rolled out in grocery stores.

Cryptocurrency advocates in Houston host a monthly Bitcoin meetup, which in August saw about 200 representatives from oil and gas companies and bitcoin mining companies gather to discuss energy trading,CNBC reported.

De La Torre, who attended the meetup, said Poolin is particularly drawn to using natural gas, a byproduct of the oil industry, that is otherwise being burnt off in flares.

“The narrative is that bitcoin mining is destroying the Earth,” he said. “But we can set up a machine that captures flared gas and runs it through a generator to make electricity. It takes the pollutant away from the atmosphere to create power used for mining.”

Endless expansion

While Poolin has moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to Austin, Texas, its employees have been flying across the other states to see whether they can find cheap energy deals or incentives for setting up operations.

“Kentucky has very attractive incentives,” he said. “That’s where all the coal power plants were located, and many have shut down. This means there’s a lot of electrical infrastructure that’s not being used.”

In late March, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed a pair of bills offering tax breaks to cryptocurrency miners who set up shop in the state.

Signs of this type of alignment are happening across the United States.

In New York, a former coal power plant on the shores of Seneca Lake converted to natural gas and has started bitcoin mining. Greenidge Generation, the company behind the power plant, on its website described its mining operation as “more than twice as efficient” as the global standard and “100% carbon neutral” through offsets. However, local residents said the power plant is polluting the air and heating the lake, as previously reported by NBC News. A full thermal study won’t be produced until 2023.

The CEO of Greenidge told NBC News in July that the lakeshore facility was operating within its federal and state environmental permits and had created 31 jobs.

In Montana, near the border with North Dakota, a Colorado startup called Crusoe Energy Systems is using natural gas, a byproduct of oil production, as a fuel to generate electricity for bitcoin miners in on-site storage containers. The gas Crusoe is using, bought from the oil field’s owner, Kraken Oil & Gas, would otherwise be burnt off in flares, emitting CO2 and other pollutants. Selling the gas to crypto miners is a win-win for miners and energy companies, proponents say. The process still generates CO2, but it also creates something of value.

De Vries views the process — which is being replicated around the world, including by Gazprom in Siberia — differently.

“Turning a byproduct of fossil fuel extraction profitable can extend the longevity of the power source, potentially making it operate longer than it otherwise would,” he said.

Howson agreed.

“Instead of building renewable infrastructure to power clean energy,” he said, “bitcoin mining is creating an incentive for fossil fuel power plants to become more profitable and continue doing what they are doing.”

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 23: The Ethiopian Embassy recently received a letter from the Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Ministry regarding the permanent closure of its headquarters in Qadisiyah, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting sources from the diplomatic sector. Sources confirmed the embassy has started making the necessary closure and departure arrangements; hence, all services have been stopped. It has been reported that Ethiopia decided to close its embassies around the world as a cost-cutting measure.

Sources went on to say that the Ethiopian diplomats in the country will leave soon, while those who were hired locally have been suspended. Sources pointed out that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expected to be the regional headquarters of the Ethiopian diplomatic facility in the Gulf. Sources added the embassy closure decision will have an impact on the Kuwaiti labor market; especially in terms of hiring domestic and skilled workers. They said Ethiopia sent the highest number of domestic workers during difficult times and when Kuwait had crises with other countries. Talking about the impact of the closure decision on the domestic labor agreement; sources clarified the agreement has yet to be signed, as the Ethiopian side is still waiting for the approval of the Kuwaiti government./agencies

Airlines reportedly canceled about 30 flights Friday to the Spanish islands of La Palma and La Gomera due to an ash cloud caused by the spectacular volcanic eruption. 

Iberia, Binter, Canaryfly and Vueling are among airlines that canceled flights although airports declared operational, local Efe Agency reported.

The first cancellation came from Binter earlier in the day when it said the stoppage will continue until conditions improve and allow flying to guarantee safety. The airline mainly connects La Palma with Tenerife North and Gran Canaria airports.

The volcanic eruption that has continued since Sunday, has destroyed nearly 400 homes and 200 hectares (494 acres) of land.

About 6,000 people have been forced from their homes and many will never be able to return.

Agricultural land, much of it for banana production, as well as businesses and roads, have also been razed by lava.

The volcano erupted for the first time in 50 years./agencies