World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

Israeli pilots jailed for storing sensitive maps on smartphones for convenience
UK service sector growth slows - business live
'Stay away from the coast': severe flood warnings as storms lash Britain
Baghdad car bombs kill more than a dozen near Iraqi capital's green zone
Japan mulls constitutional changes to enhance defence capacity
How UK social workers can support traumatised Syrian refugees
US retreats from bid to overturn shark fin bans
Congress's refusal to back IMF funding proposal is unfortunate and regrettable | Mohamed El-Erian
Jared Leto heckled for 'trans-misogyny' in Dallas Buyers Club
Cambodians get back on the buses
CCTV shows gunmen robbing patients at Rio hospital - video
Sri Lankan security forces destroyed evidence of war crimes, report claims
US scales back Pakistan drone strikes during Taliban talks, say reports
New jobs threat to IPC Media staff
City exposures: Lagos – in pictures
Mexico City: water torture on a grand and ludicrous scale
Cricket fan who took pet pig to the Gabba agrees to RSPCA mediation
Solar industry to launch marginal seats campaign to save renewables target
Perth bushfire: residents warned to leave or prepare to defend their homes
Victorian premier denies government is beholden to independent Geoff Shaw
Coalition’s direct action climate plan 'could undermine global efforts'
Looted Muslim shops in Bangui – in pictures
Storms hit battered south-west Britain
SPC Ardmona hurt by dumping of cheap Italian tomatoes – commission
Paul Howes calls for end to industrial relations ‘blood sport’

Israeli pilots jailed for storing sensitive maps on smartphones for convenience

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 01:42 AM PST

Court martial gives two officers prison terms, 11 suspended prison terms and one a fine, Army Radio station reports

Two Israeli combat pilots have been jailed for five days and 12 others disciplined for storing operational maps on their smartphones.

Military authorities discovered the security breach after one of the pilots reported that he had lost his mobile phone and that it contained sensitive data, Israeli Army Radio reported on Wednesday. The phone was recovered, the report said, and investigators found he had loaded maps, waypoints and other classified documents.

Other members of his squadron had done the same, so they could have the information readily at hand, the radio said.

The 14 pilots were court-martialed: two were sent to jail, 11 received suspended sentences and one was fined.

UK service sector growth slows - business live

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 01:39 AM PST

Pound falls as new business growth drops to eight-month low, but overall picture still healthy, says economists

Graeme Wearden

'Stay away from the coast': severe flood warnings as storms lash Britain

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 01:35 AM PST

Scores of trains are cancelled, motorists are told to watch for debris on roads and thousands of homes are left without power

UK storms - live updates

The latest in this winter's series of damaging Atlantic storms has lashed Britain causing fresh travel chaos on the roads and railways, cutting power to thousands of homes, and creating yet more flooding.

Winds of up more than 90mph, heavy rain and high tides prompted the Environment Agency to issue six severe flood warning – meaning danger to life – all in south-west England, from Weymouth in Dorset to Land's End in Cornwall.

It urged the public "stay away from sea fronts and beaches as conditions represent a significant risk to life". A further 76 flood warnings were in place across the country.

The Met Office has also issued "be prepared" amber warnings for strong winds sweeping across southern England and Wales.

About 39,000 homes have power restored to them overnight, with 5,000 homes still without electricity.

A spokesman for Western Power Distribution said about 200 engineers had been working throughout the night to repair damage caused by debris being blown into overhead lines by strong winds in the south west. "Over the last 12 hours or so, 44,000 customers in the south-west have been off supply at some point but we've managed to restore it to all but 5,000 homes," he said."It's an extremely exceptional event.

"We have new staff being drafted in from nearby to replace our teams this morning. We have a constant approach to this because of the ongoing strong winds."

The rail company First Great Western has been forced to cancel scores of train services. Branch lines to the Cornish towns of St Ives, Falmouth, Gunnislake and Looe have all been suspended. And the flooded road network meant no replacement bus service could be provided.

No trains were running on the main line between Penzance and Exeter. The company's Twitter feed said Wednesday looks set to be "another challenging day due to the weather".

The AA warned drivers to watch for debris and water on roads. Traffic Scotland told drivers to be especially careful on bridges.

A forecaster at the Met Office said the winds in the south-west were likely to "continue along a similar sort of strength" into Wednesday, and people could expect weather in other areas to be "much of the same".

"The band of rain which is moving across from the south-west will continue its journey north-eastwards during the course of the night, with fragmented outbreaks of rain – still pretty heavy – following on behind.

"It will continue to be very windy. We can expect to see gusts of 60mph-70mph quite widely across parts of South Wales, Devon and Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, those sorts of areas."

Wind speeds of more than 90mph were recorded in the Isles of Scilly.

Residents have been evacuated from 30 flooded houses in Kingsand, Cornwall, and Tamar Coastguard Rescue Team has helped "a number of people", the coastguard said.

In Looe, there have been further reports of flooding and people have been advised to stay away from the seafront amid fears of huge waves.

There are also reports that the sea wall collapsed in Dawlish, Devon, where two trapped in a car were rescued.

David Colmer, Brixham Coastguard watch manager, said: "As we have severe gale storm force winds, high tides and heavy rain, HM Coastguard is urging people to stay away from the coast.

"In this part of the country, conditions on the sea and along the coast are currently extremely treacherous.

"HM Coastguard's advice is simple: don't take risks by straying too close to cliff edges or breaking waves and please stay out of flood water. But if you do get into difficulty, or spot someone who might be in trouble, call 999 and ask for the coastguard."

Matthew Weaver

Baghdad car bombs kill more than a dozen near Iraqi capital's green zone

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 01:32 AM PST

Explosions occur near heavily fortified district where western embassies and prime minister's office are located

Four bombs have exploded near Baghdad's heavily fortified green zone, home to the prime minister's office and several western embassies, and in a busy square in the capital, killing at least 13 people.

The blasts came a day after two rockets were fired into the green zone, and are likely to heighten concerns about Iraq's ability to protect strategic sites as security deteriorates across the country.

Two of the bombs went off in cars parked opposite the ministry of foreign affairs, killing five people, security sources said.

The other car was driven by a suicide bomber who blew himself and the vehicle up outside a restaurant close to a checkpoint one street away from the green zone, killing four people, they added.

Another explosion, near Khulani Square in central Baghdad, left four others dead.

No group immediately said it had carrried out the attacks, but Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining ground in Iraq, particularly in Anbar province, where they overran two cities on 1 January.

Japan mulls constitutional changes to enhance defence capacity

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 01:27 AM PST

Tokyo wants to play greater role in international peacekeeping and step up defence posture

A government panel will urge Japan to allow its military to help allies that come under attack, in a major reversal of the country's ban on collective defence under its pacifist constitution.

The panel on Tuesday discussed ways that Japan could improve its defence capability and said it would present its near-final draft recommendation in coming weeks, before its final report is expected after April.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, wants Japan to play a greater role in international peacekeeping and step up its defence posture, mainly because of potential military threats that Japan sees from China and North Korea. As China's influence rises and that of the United States fades in the region, Japan is trying to expand its defence alliance outside its "cornerstone" ties with Washington and has signed defence agreements with several other countries, including Britain and Australia.

The 14-member panel, headed by former ambassador to the US Shunji Yanai, says the revision is possible if the government alters its current interpretation of the war-renouncing constitution. Formal constitutional change involves high hurdles, though Abe eventually hopes to achieve that.

The constitution, written under US direction after the second world war, says the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation" and that "land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained".

The government has interpreted those clauses as meaning that Japan cannot possess offensive military weapons such as inter-continental ballistic missiles or long-range strategic bombers.

Abe and other supporters of the change believe that restrictions should be removed from the military, and that Japan's current self-defence-only policy is inadequate as the region's security environment becomes more challenging. They say US warships may come under attack in or near Japanese waters, or there may be instances in which Japanese troops have to fight for allies during international peacekeeping missions, even when Japan is not attacked directly.

"Japan's preparation for national security threats in the region is not sufficient," Abe said during Tuesday's meeting. "We must cover all the bases to protect the people's lives and safety in any possible scenario."

Japan has repeatedly loosened restrictions on its military overtime as it tried to raise its international profile and meet expectations from the US and other countries. But its peacekeeping missions have been limited to non-combat roles because of its pacifist rules, and a change would allow its troops to do more.

The draft report is also expected to urge Japan to relax its restrictions on arms exports, participate more actively in UN-led security operations, and prepare a legal framework for its military to counter intrusions on remote Japanese-held islands, apparently including territory in the East China Sea also claimed by China. It would also urge Japan to strengthen its defence ties with its allies, most importantly the United States.

How UK social workers can support traumatised Syrian refugees

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 01:20 AM PST

Children will need physical and emotional support, as well as consistency, care and security

On a purely human level, the fact that the UK government has decided to allow hundreds of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees into the UK, is to be applauded. The UK has a proud tradition of being a place of refuge and it is refreshing that, amid the present hysteria around immigration, such a decent decision has been made.

However there are many more considerations that the government and social welfare services must bear in mind when it comes to the wellbeing of these vulnerable individuals.

Many of the families coming to the UK are likely to have been traumatised by their experiences and this will have profoundly affected their physical and mental health. Children will need physical and emotional health support, but will mainly need consistency, care and security. Education, a regular and predictable routine and the opportunity to be a child again, will be vital. Social workers should work with schools and families to secure school placements and this must be an early priority as this will establish the children in the community and allow them to get the consistency they require.

Despite opinion polls which tell us that the British public are concerned about the negative impact of immigration, on an individual level the British are welcoming and generous to new children in their children's classes and will be keen to befriend and support them. It is vital that school staff are supported throughout this transitory period. Agencies such as child and adolescent mental health services and the school nursing service should help the families to register with GP's and access the support services they will almost certainly need after the ordeal they have been through.

It is also important that class teachers are assisted in supporting the new children and the additional needs they may have, from the practical support with learning English to the more complicated ways in which the trauma they have suffered may manifest itself in the classroom.

NGO's also have a significant role to play. Both the families and schools will find that local and national charities can support them, for example a Homestart volunteer would be a fantastic support to these families as they settle into their new community. It is also important that the families are supported in maintaining links with friends and family left behind in Syria and the surrounding countries. News from home that friends and family are safe is vital for displaced people.

It would be easy to be cynical about such a small number of families being helped against the enormity of the Syrian tragedy and the world's lacklustre response. However, for the children and families concerned, this experience can be transformative and this will be achieved through the warmth and support of the community that welcomes them, both through the professional agencies and local families. It will also be a valuable opportunity for the children's classmates and wider school community to learn about the situation for children in Syria.

It is important that we remember we are lucky to live in a country that is both safe and free and that this gives us an obligation to open our doors to those whose circumstances are far less fortunate.

Andy Elvin is chief executive of international social work charity Children and Families Across Borders

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US retreats from bid to overturn shark fin bans

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 01:17 AM PST

Agency receives assurances from California, Maryland and Washington that ban would not interfere with legal fishing

The US federal government has stepped back from its plans to overturn state bans on the sale and possession of shark fins.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said in a statement on Tuesday it had decided against challenging state bans in California, Maryland and Washington.

The agency said it had received written assurances from the three states that the shark fin ban would not interfere with legal fishing for shark meat.

Noaa said it had initially been concerned the state bans could hurt fishermen who catch sharks for their meat, not their fins.

"It was important for Noaa to confirm that these state laws did not restrict the possession of shark fins in a way that would create problems for fishermen fishing legally for sharks in federal waters," the agency said in a statement.

Environmental groups accused the agency last week of trying to undermine the state bans on shark fin – which they argued that dramatically reduced the slaughter of sharks.

Up to 100m sharks are killed every year for their fins, according to recent estimates. The fins are seen as a high-end ingredient in soups.

In 2010, Congress passed a law banning the cruel practice of finning – cutting off the fin at sea and abandoning the animal to die. But eight states and three territories went further, banning the sale and possession of shark fins.

Environmental groups say the ban on shark fin sales has been more effective in stopping the killing of sharks.

Suzanne Goldenberg

Congress's refusal to back IMF funding proposal is unfortunate and regrettable | Mohamed El-Erian

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:56 AM PST

But in disappointment comes opportunity – and world leaders should seize the chance to pursue more aggressive reforms

Despite an elegant solution that involved no new commitments of resources, the US Congress has refused to take up a long-delayed funding proposal for the International Monetary Fund. In the process, it derailed a multilateral agreement that was hammered out back in 2010 – ironically, in the eyes of the rest of the world, with US President Barack Obama's administration taking a leading role. And it did so at a time when financial disruption in emerging economies is reminding the world of the importance of a strong stabilising anchor at the core of the international monetary system.

After the initial disappointment, many are hoping that Congress will again take up the Obama administration's IMF request after a short interlude. It will certainly have several opportunities to do so while working on other financial legislation. But, with Congressional elections due later this year, few are confident that lawmakers will be in any mood to change course until 2015 at the earliest.

This is an unfortunate and regrettable outcome for both the IMF and the international community as a whole. Congressional obstinacy is forcing the fund to miss out on an opportunity to strengthen its finances at a time when most other countries have already approved the initiative. It is also being held back from addressing, albeit modestly, governance and representation deficits that have steadily eroded the integrity, credibility and effectiveness of this important multilateral institution.

Meanwhile, global developments confirm that the recent period of financial tranquillity remains a tentative one. Rather than being anchored by fundamental and durable reforms, the current calm has been secured through prolonged reliance on central banks' experimental monetary policies, especially in the United States, Europe and Japan.

These policies have improved domestic prospects in advanced countries, but they have accentuated the policy dilemmas facing many emerging economies. In some cases, they have overwhelmed policymaking capability and added to internal political instability – all of this at a time when no one knows the full range of side effects and unintended consequences of the west's unconventional measures.

Yes, this is an important lost opportunity for all who value global growth and financial stability. That is undoubtedly bad news. But there is also a silver lining, because last month's disappointment can be turned into an opportunity.

The 2010 agreement was, after all, a compromise – albeit a hard-fought one – that advanced only marginally the cause of long-delayed IMF reforms. Moreover, there were insufficient assurances that the limited changes would end up providing a springboard for more meaningful reforms down the road. Indeed, rather than modernising economic multilateralism and revamping its governance, what many would have regarded as an unsatisfactory yet final partial compromise could have played into the hands of those who advocate regional arrangements as a substitute for multilateralism, not a compliment to it.

But this new opportunity, born of disappointment, will not be seized if the international community's approach is simply to wait for the US president to submit the same set of limited reforms to Congress again and again. Instead, leaders need to come together and support the initiation of discussions on a more comprehensive set of reforms.

Such reforms could start by targeting a more aggressive, and much-needed, realignment of voting power and representation at the IMF – one that reflects the world of today and tomorrow, rather than that of decades ago. This could be achieved by pursuing three specific initiatives.

• Leaders should target a much bigger shift in favour of emerging economies and away from Europe – in voting power, representation on the IMF's executive board, and funding obligations.

• The outmoded relic of a system that de facto reserves the position of managing director for European citizens should be eliminated once and for all.

• Third, policymakers should build on recent progress to ensure a more level operational playing field for the implementation of fund surveillance.

There is no better time than now to start working on these three initiatives. The last two – further improving the procedures governing the election of the next managing director and more even-handed surveillance – could be pursued rather quickly and without having to secure parliamentary approval. What is required is stronger political will by governments and, in the case of Europe, greater humility.

The first initiative, pertaining to voting power and representation, would inevitably take longer and be much more complicated to implement. In many countries, governments would need to obtain parliamentary approval. And the process of getting there is bound to require difficult negotiations and hard compromises. To adapt a concept that the columnist Thomas Friedman recently used for the Middle East, the key is to recognise that, at the national level, it is about "no victor, no vanquished". This is not about individual countries, but rather about the well-being of an international system that can better serve and protect individual countries' interests over the longer-term.

Acting through its 24 representatives on the IMF's executive board, the international community would be well advised to move quickly to empower the managing director to appoint an independent committee of outside experts to devise detailed proposals in each area, including by drawing on work that has already been undertaken. Indeed, the emerging world's recent bouts of instability, and the risk that they may spillover to advanced countries where growth has yet to achieve "escape velocity," are a timely reminder of the danger of reform paralysis.

Anyone who wishes to see a strong IMF at the centre of a fluid international monetary system – and most economists see great merit in this – would agree that such a multi-speed outcome is far superior to doing more of the limited same.

Mohamed El-Erian

Jared Leto heckled for 'trans-misogyny' in Dallas Buyers Club

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:49 AM PST

Jared Leto was heckled by an audience member during a film festival Q&A, who accused him of 'trans-misogyny' for his portrayal of a transgender character in Dallas Buyers Club

• Jared Leto interview: 'I road-tested my character to get a little judgment, some meanness, a little condemnation'

Jared Leto was heckled by an audience member during a Q&A at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, who accused him of 'trans-misogyny' for his portrayal of a transgender AIDS victim in the Oscar-tipped drama Dallas Buyers Club.

"You don't deserve an award for portraying a trans-woman, because you're a man," the woman continued, to which Leto replied: "Because I'm a man, I don't deserve to play that part? So you would hold a role against someone who happened to be gay or lesbian – they can't play a straight part?"

The woman complained that only straight actors ever play transgender characters, and that more trans actors should get the opportunity. Leto responded: "Then you've made sure people that are gay, people that aren't straight, people like the Rayons of the world would never have the opportunity to turn the tables and explore parts of that art," referring to Rayon, his character in Dallas Buyers Club. The audience applauded Leto's comments, and he privately continued the conversation with the woman after the Q&A.

Leto was given a Virtuoso award at the festival for his breakthrough performance, alongside June Squibb, Michael B Jordan and Brie Larson; he has already won a best supporting actor Golden Globe this year, and is tipped to win the Oscar in the same category.

There have been some other public criticisms of Leto's casting. Writing on Salon, Chelsea Hawkins said: "Given that transgender people are invisible in contemporary media, it becomes problematic that Leto is taking the role of a trans person when there are trans actors out there trying to find roles and work... he stories of underrepresented, oft-ignored and -misunderstood communities may be best told by the people who live those lives." She highlights trans actors like Laverne Cox from Orange is the New Black and Independent Spirit Award-nominated Harmony Santana, and argues that they need parts like Leto's.

Paris Lees, writing in the Independent, meanwhile said "Rayon isn't a person, she's a function... For truly accurate portrayals of trans people, cast trans actors."

• Tom Shone on Leto's Oscar odds

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Cambodians get back on the buses

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:43 AM PST

Phnom Penh brings back public buses after more than a decade to combat traffic jams in Cambodian capital

People in Phnom Penh have boarded city buses for the first time in over a decade, as authorities introduced a public transportation system aimed at relieving traffic jams in the Cambodian capital.

Phnom Penh's city hall launched a one-month pilot programme on Wednesday, with 10 air-conditioned buses travelling a single route that includes 36 stops through the city centre. If the programme is successful, more buses and routes will be added, said Koeut Chhe, a senior official.

The last time Phnom Penh had public buses was for a brief period in 2001, but the service was cancelled after two months due to lack of interest from the public.

The city of about 1.5 million people has about 1.5m motorbikes and more than 30,000 cars clogging the roads, according to Koeut Chhe.l

"Public buses can help reduce the traffic jams," he said. "We want to change the attitude of Cambodian people and convince people to use public transportation."

The current and previous bus programmes were funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, which helps with developmental projects in Cambodia.

It costs a flat rate of 1,500 riel (23p) for a single ticket, which is at least three times cheaper than the cost of a motorbike taxi for the full route.

CCTV shows gunmen robbing patients at Rio hospital - video

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:39 AM PST

A CCTV recording from inside a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, shows armed robbers entering and stealing belongings from waiting patients

Sri Lankan security forces destroyed evidence of war crimes, report claims

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:37 AM PST

Public Interest Advocacy Centre investigated allegations of widespread human rights violations in final months of civil war

Helen Davidson

US scales back Pakistan drone strikes during Taliban talks, say reports

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:08 AM PST

Islamabad calls for restraint but senior US official denies informal agreement reached, says Washington Post

The US has cut back sharply on drone strikes in Pakistan after Islamabad asked for restraint while it pursues peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The Post quoted aan American official as saying: "That's what they asked for, and we didn't tell them no." The newspaper said there had been a lull in drone attacks since December, the longest break since 2011.

The Post said the Obama administration indicated it would continue carrying out strikes on senior al-Qaida officials if they were to become available or to thwart any immediate threat to Americans.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the report.

The Post quoted a senior Obama administration official as denying an informal agreement had been reached, saying, "The issue of whether to negotiate with the Pakistani Taliban is entirely an internal matter for Pakistan."

While some Pakistanis welcome the strikes, saying they kill fewer civilians and are more effective against Taliban militants than traditional military operations, others argue they still cause civilian casualties, terrify residents and violate Pakistani sovereignty.

The Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has said he wants the drone strikes to end.

The Post said the current US pause came after a November strike that killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

That attack took place a day after Pakistan's foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz was quoted as saying the US had promised not to conduct drone strikes while the government tries to engage the Taliban in peace talks.

An annual study by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism found that CIA drone strikes against militants in Pakistan killed no more than four civilians last year, the lowest number of reported civilian deaths since the drone programme began in 2004.

New jobs threat to IPC Media staff

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:06 AM PST

Staff at the magazine publisher IPC Media are expected to bear the brunt of a redundancy programme ordered by its US-based parent, Time Warner, according to reports in America.

Its publishing division, Time Inc, is seeking to cut 500 jobs from its 7,800 total in what is said to be its "last big downsizing" before it is spun off by Time Warner as a separate company later this year.

Time Inc's chief executive Joe Ripp says in a memo to employees carried by Poynter) it is necessary to make "substantive and sometimes painful changes."

Part of those changes involves IPC being managed by Time's executive vice president, Evelyn Webster. A former IPC chief executive, she rose through the ranks of the company after joining it as a graduate trainee in 1992.

IPC has a stable of some 60 magazines, including Marie Claire, Woman's Own, NME, Horse & Hound, Country Life, InStyle and Now. It remains the biggest-selling consumer magazine publisher in the UK.

In January last year, IPC cut 150 jobs, about 8% of its total staffing.

Sources: New York Post/Poynter

Roy Greenslade

City exposures: Lagos – in pictures

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

Kicking off a new series of photobloggers in cities – Devesh Uba discusses street photography in Africa's most populous city

Devesh Uba

Mexico City: water torture on a grand and ludicrous scale

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

A grossly inefficient sewage system makes the city's tap water filthy and consigns millions to disease, will it ever improve?

Water in Mexico City comes out of the tap in a variety of colours (yellow, rusty or earthy tints), flavours (sulphuric, chlorinated or metallic) and textures (muddy or gritty). Water that doesn't smell, taste or look funky, however, is actually more dangerous, for it can sucker people into believing that it's drinkable. In general, all those who have other options don't drink the tap water.

The quality of water supplied to buildings here has consistently been ranked at the bottom of any list of world cities. In addition, rusty pipes, mould and old water tanks made from asbestos (prohibited since the 1970s but still used in lower-income buildings) can add harmful substances to the water. Over time, poor quality water can corrode the pipes and eventually cause them to burst.

The water I need to replenish my bodily fluids and to keep myself clean is pumped in daily through an underground pipe that empties into a huge cistern buried underneath the patio. An electric pump located in the patio lifts the water up from the cistern and into the large plastic water tank located on the roof, which in turn channels water back down into the bathroom, shower and kitchen.

In Mexico City, water is not free and every two months I must pay for the water I use. My apartment produces its own hot water with a gas-powered water heater located on my terrace, and the gas must be bought from a private company that sends a truck each month to fill up a stationary tank on the roof with liquified gas.

The lack of free, publicly supplied quality drinking water generates great business opportunities. To have water to drink, I buy large plastic jugs of water from bicycles equipped with a platform in front that service the neighborhood. Although each jug is relatively inexpensive, paying for water to drink is an added expense that adds up over the year.

It is not only drinking water that people must purchase. While those living in higher-income neighborhoods get cheap, government-subsidised tap water, the poorest parts of the population have no plumbing and receive no water at all in their homes. Those who live beyond the reach of the city's water pipes must buy water from trucks (called pipas) that distribute water out of a large hose at an even higher cost. For those who have no access to hot water in their homes, or those who lack indoor plumbing, there exists banos publicos. These public baths, which are actually private businesses, offer individual and communal showers for a modest fee, Turkish baths and saunas (soapy massages offered by teenage boys cost extra).

Public toilets also represent a booming private business niche these days, especially in the most visited tourist sites of the city, where for a small fee you receive access to urinals or toilets with toilet paper handed to you when you enter (some WCs even operate like the Metro, with ticket windows and turnstiles). Being that most of these WCs and some of the banos publicos are not licensed, chances are they don't even pay for the large quantity of water used.

To get access to needed water, whether it is in the shower, toilet or in a glass, you must pay for it. Yet even if people in the city are willing to pay for their water, soon there might not even be enough to go around.

Hydration at a price

Mexico City uses more water each day than any other city in the world. With its own water sources overexploited, an increasingly large part of its water must be brought in from outside the Mexico City valley.

So when I turn on the tap in my flat, the liquid that flows into my sink now mostly comes from distant bodies of water. Given that Mexico City is a mile-high mountain valley, bringing water up and into the city requires some pretty heavy duty machinery. Beginning in 1951, the Lerma river, located in the Toluca valley about 40 miles (70km) from the city, was the first outside water system to be tapped for use by residents of Mexico City.

The Lerma waterworks located in Chapultepec Park, equipped with pumps and pipes that connected the city to this distant water source, was an incredible engineering feat, acclaimed by the federal government (even though dozens of workers were killed in the process) and graced by the world's first underwater mural – Water, The Origin of Life, by Diego Rivera. For decades, the Lerma contributed up to 15% of Mexico City's water. Over the last few decades, however, it has largely been sucked dry. What's left of this once-great waterway is forcefed 170,000 tonnes of toxic slime from the factories, industrial parks and irregular cities located along the banks of the river.

As the Mexico City population has grown exponentially, other water sources have had to be tapped to meet the increasing demand. And as its pipes suck up water from further and further away, its water costs have increased exponentially. The Cutzamala river, twice as far away as the Lerma, now supplies up to one-third of Mexico City's water needs. The fact that local communities are being deprived of their own water sources in order to service the capital is a cause of discontent.

The Mazahua Indians who have lived around the Cutzamala for centuries now lack access to their own river water, and violent protests have resulted. In addition, as water sources tend to be interconnected, by overexploiting the river to supply drinking water to Mexico City residents, the Chapala lake in the very distant state of Jalisco is drying up.

Lack of rainfall and higher temperatures lead to lower levels in the main water sources outside the city (dams in Cutzmala have recently been as low as 30% of their capacity), and the quality of water pumped in from the bottom of these dams is poor. In extreme cases, such as the widespread death of fish due to increased temperatures, these water sources can be poisoned. Although Mexico City as a whole depends on Cutzmala for only 30% of its water, some areas, such as the Santa Fe neighborhood in the south of the city, depend completely on water from this source and suffer droughts when its water levels sink.

Pumping more and more water up and into Mexico City requires more and more electricity. To meet this increased demand, more and more dams have been built on the country's rivers. These dams monopolise the local use of the water and often force whole towns to move from their homeland, in turn leading to a flood of migrants into Mexico City. Many of the millions of urban land invaders in Mexico City over the past few decades are farmers who fled rural areas impoverished from an inadequate access to water.

The new, haphazard cities these forced immigrants have created creep up and cover the mountains surrounding the city, destroying the trees and forests that normally replenish oxygen and protect the soil from becoming unusable dirt and dust. The lack of trees in turn puts these areas at risk of flooding and mudslides that claim human lives each year. In addition, the new cities populated with millions of inhabitants that have sprung up around the periphery of Mexico City over the past couple of decades have put an added strain on the city's water supply.

Water has long ceased to be a free, readily available natural resource. Paying for a natural substance like water seems unnatural, which is perhaps why a good percentage of people and companies in Mexico City don't pay their water bills. If the city government should decide one day to end the subsidies and make customers pay the real cost of the poor quality liquid that comes out of their taps, blood would flow instead of water.

The demand for water in Mexico City doubles every 20 years, twice as fast as the population growth. For each square metre of new urban construction, 50 gallons of recoverable rainfall are lost each year, while for each acre of land occupied by humans the water that could be destined for more than 3,000 families is lost. With the relentless urbanisation of every part of the Mexico City valley, water is becoming less and less a renewable resource and more and more a scarce commodity.

Long drain running

Although the excrement that I and millions of others dump each day into toilets throughout Mexico City takes an amazing voyage beneath the city streets, through 6,000 miles of pipes, 68 pump stations and across almost 100 miles of canals, tunnels, dikes and artificial lakes, it has an uncanny knack of finding its way back to me.

The disposal of human sewage (known as aguas negras) has always been a major problem. Since the Spanish colony was first established here, canals and rivers have been used as dumping grounds for human faeces, with thousands of prisoners and indigenous workers forced to dredge the constantly clogged waterways. The fresh water lakes that irrigated the city's crops and provided drinking water also served as dumping grounds for humans, and this contaminated water (so toxic it was said to burn duck feathers) spread its stench and disease throughout the city. To deal with this situation, three huge, costly sewage works (the Western Interceptor in 1789, the Great Canal in 1900 and the Central Source in 1975) were built to funnel the aguas negras out of the city. As a result, a good chunk of the city's human sewage now rides rivers all the way out to the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean. Most, however, remains much closer to home.

In 1971, the federal government selected the Mezquital valley in the state of Hidalgo, about 50 miles north of Mexico City, as the ideal destination for the majority of the capital's massive amount of human waste. In fact, though, towns in the region had already been receiving faecal matter from the capital ever since the first sewage pipe funnelled excrement outside of Mexico City in 1608. As the land in the Mezquital valley is arid and lacks its own water supply, raw sewage from Mexico City is used to irrigate almost 40,000 acres of cropland. The sewage sent to the area receives absolutely no treatment, even the most basic one of separating solids from liquids, and thus the valley, watered by the greatest concentration of aguas negras in all of Latin America, is commonly referred to as the world's largest outhouse.

Human sewage might help float the local economy but it does so at a price. In return for being able to use sewage as a source of water for crops, locals suffer the stench that emanates from the miasma, and hordes of flies, rats, and other vermin invade the towns in search of sustenance. Local farmers are prone to several acute and chronic health problems, especially skin and intestinal diseases caused by all sorts of especially nasty parasites, but they are not the only people infected. The vegetables grown in the valley (along with all the microorganisms residing within) are transported daily to Mexico City's markets and supermarkets and can wind up in my salad.

Much of Mexico City's raw sewage, however, never even leaves the city. During the dry season, excrement in the open-air sewers dries up and goes airborne, returning to the city with the first rainfall or as brown snowflakes. Due to all the leaky or burst pipes, aguas negras constantly escape from the sewage system and leech down into the earth beneath the city. This underground sea of sludge, however, especially during rainy season, has a way of surging up to the surface, flooding homes throughout the city and provoking health disasters (during the 2011 "great black flood", 60,000 inhabitants in a single neighborhood had their homes inundated by dark rivers).

Official figures state that more than one-third of all the water that now flows through Mexico City's water system leaks out of the underground pipes at a rate of 12,000 litres per second, a total loss of over 1bn litres a year. Given that the aguas negras are much more corrosive, who knows what amount of faeces leaks out of its pipes and filters down into water basin or into the pipes that provide drinking water.

The tap dance

WC Fields, the great comedian and unrepentant alcoholic, was once claimed to have said that he never drank water because fish copulate in it. In Mexico City, it's not the fish you have to worry about. Unlike tap water in major European and American cities, there is incredible biodiversity in a single drop of Mexico City tap water. The city ranks number one in the world when it comes to gastrointestinal infections (about 90% of adults in the city are infected with Helicobacter pylori) and its drinking water has been shown to be an ideal vehicle for the transmission of salmonella, dysentery and a host of other common diseases.

One recent study by researchers at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México analysed 100 samples of tap water in Mexico City and found 84 microorganisms of nine different species, all of which are usually present in human and animal waste. One bacteria, helicobacter pylori, associated with ulcers and gastric cancer, was found in all samples, while E coli, which causes diarrhoea and urinary tract infections, was also well represented. Viruses, including the Legionella virus of hepatitis A and rotavirus, which can lead to liver and respiratory disease, also showed up in the tap water tested.

As the water used for public swimming pools and parks is treated water (that is, recycled sewage), the quantity of microorganisms is much higher than in tap water. Although international health standards recommend keeping the limit under one parasite egg for every litre of treated sewage water, in Mexico the acceptable limit is five.

Although few humans drink treated sewage water, most pets do (my cat seems to prefer toilet to tap water), and thus almost all are infected with parasites (and often pass them along to their owners). For instance, one gramme of dog faeces can contain up to 15,000 Cryptosporid eggs. Besides infecting humans, dogs and cats, the Cryptosporid parasite, one of the newer parasites on the scene, infects fish, birds, rats, deer, snakes, sheep, horses and pigs, and studies have found that about half of all cows raised for their milk are infested with Cryptosporid. Outbreaks of this parasite in Mexico City occur from contaminated water, contagion in hospitals and childcare centres, contact with infected animals or animal products, and from people who engage in oral or anal sex.

When humans get sick from an infectious illness, related health problems increase, especially heart disease. Secondary, chronic illnesses (meningitis, respiratory diseases, arthritis, birth defects, reproductive problems, cancer, hepatitis, and liver, kidney and heart problems) are often a legacy of gastrointestinal infections. Helicobacter bacteria can cause gastritis or colitis, which can in turn lead to ulcers and cancer, Salmonella can leave people with arthritis and colitis (as happened to me), while E coli can lead to kidney failure and hemorrhages. Some bacterial infections lead to thyroid immune dysfunction or neuronal paralysis, while viral infections have been shown to be involved in the onset of diabetes.

In addition to health problems associated with parasites in developing countries, Mexico City suffers many of the same problems as industrialised nations, including the contamination of the air, ground, food and water by toxic chemicals. Of the 4m tonnes of toxic waste generated in Mexico City each year, more than 95% is dumped directly into the city's sewer system. The chemical and petrochemical industries within the city generate 2.5m tonnes of hazardous waste, with only 15% treated in any way and the rest drained directly into the water supply. The most dangerous chemicals found in Mexico City water are nitrates, toxic metals, organic solvents, agricultural pesticides, herbicides and radioactive chemicals. Some of these chemicals can provoke acute and chronic toxicity while others can have harmful effects on human genes that lead to mutations and cancer. Floating within the city's water supply are also endocrine disruptor compounds, such as certain insecticides, hydrocarbons, polyaromatics, as well as pharmaceuticals and steroids that can disrupt the normal activity of human hormones, and can affect several inner organs and even reproductive organs (causing lower sperm count or fecundity). These aggressive chemicals commonly found in tap water aren't eliminated by saturated carbon or ozone filters or by boiling and thus are often present in tap water in buildings such as mine and even in the water distributed in plastic jugs.

In Mexico City, water is no longer innocuous but has instead become a tricky, potentially lethal substance. No one in Mexico City has ever drowned in a glass of water, but just by drinking water in the city many a life has been cut short.

Bottled safety?

Like all gringos, when I first arrived in Mexico City I was warned about drinking the water. Nonetheless, I regularly drank aguas de frutas in markets and on the streets and ate fruit ices made from water. Apart from several bouts of weird bowel movements, nothing really bad happened to me.

After getting salmonella and a subsequent outbreak of chronic, ulcerative colitis, however, water, the substance most present in my body and crucial for my survival, began to make me very nervous, fearing that even brushing my teeth, gargling or singing in the shower could do me in.

In the 1990s, following a cholera outbreak that killed more than 500 people, the Mexico City government increased the chlorine content in tap water as a safety measure. Besides leading to health problems (such as genetic mutations) that occur from consuming chlorine or as a result of the reaction between chlorine and faeces in the water pipes, the resulting unpleasant smell (much like swimming pool water) and taste made most people shy away from tap water.

Although water is a naturally occurring substance, most water drunk in Mexico City is now purchased and consumed from a plastic bottle. Mexico ranks second in the world in per capita consumption of bottled water, now the single most profitable product ever sold. In Mexico, bottled water is a multimillion dollar business, outselling soft drinks by 20%. Although multinational giants dominate the bottled water market, there are hundreds of local bottling firms, most of which are not licensed or regulated in any way, that compete for their market share.

Even though it costs thousands of times more than tap water, there is no assurance that the quality of water inside a plastic bottle is any better. Many brands claim to use electrolysis as a purification process, yet their bottled water is often merely filtered city tap water, with the toxic and parasitic ingredients intact. This is a common practice around the world, and not just among the illegal bottlers.

The quality of ice tends to be even worse, as the ice industry is even less supervised and regulated than the water industry. Besides the thousands of legal ice manufacturers, there are up to 6,000 unlicensed and unregulated companies in Mexico that make ice. Industrial ice, which represents 60% of all ice produced, is usually just frozen tap water.

Freezing does not kill parasites in water, but even if the water used is pure, the large blocks of industrial ice transported around the city in trucks, on customised bicycle pushcarts or dragged along the sidewalk by giant metal tongs pick up parasites on the way to the consumer. Although these blocks of ice are not made for human consumption, they are often chipped by ice picks and sold as flavored ices or used to chill drinks and food.

Due to pressure from the World Bank and other international institutions, water first began to be privatised in the 1980s with the sale of dams, the private control of the public water supply and the large-scale marketing of bottled water. In Mexico, water is auctioned off wholesale to the highest global bidder and multinational companies now lease or buy the land in which a water source is located and pay only a nominal fee to obtain unlimited access. Once they legally own the rights to water sources in Mexico, some multinational companies go to such extremes as to prohibit locals from collecting rainfall, claiming that this is their private property.

If, one day, the leaks in the water pipes were fixed and the city's water system repaired, if instead of dumping rain and river water out of the city it were collected to be used as drinking water, if people and corporations didn't dump their waste directly into rivers and lakes, the city might once again, as in the days of the Aztecs, have a naturally replenishing, self-sustaining, truly inexpensive supply of clean drinking water. As a result, many consumers within the city would save a substantial portion of their income, the government would save millions by not having to subsidise its supply and the ground water would be replenished.

With the huge profits being made from the privatisation of water in Mexico, however, this doesn't seem likely. Meanwhile, toxic substances and parasites transported around the city by different water sources continue to accumulate within my inner organs, paving the way for liver disease or cancer caused by dirty city water.

Kurt Hollander is a writer and photographer who has lived in Mexico City since 1989. This article is an adapted excerpt from his book, Several Ways To Die In Mexico City (Feral House)

Kurt Hollander

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