Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa’s national tyre recycling plan has been withdrawn amid a storm of controversy, just a week after she launched it in Pretoria

A Pinetown funeral parlour has been fined by the eThekwini municipality after it was caught illegally dumping its medical supplies in a Clermont neighbourhood.

The European Parliament has passed a new law to curb dumping of electronic goods such as mobile phones, computers and TV sets in landfill sites.

Now that the search-and-rescue teams trying to find survivors in the wreck of the Costa Concordia have signalled that the operation is moving into the "recovery" stage, there is growing concern about the environmental impact that the half-submerged ship might have on the local coastline.

Mainstream consensus in water security and politics holds that African water resources are at risk, and that most countries are water stressed. Moreover any decision-maker has to take into account the variability of rain, risks of droughts and floods and the fact that sovereignty over rivers and lakes is often shared as a result of the demarcation of colonial borders.

Moves to speed up a ban on exporting e-wasteⁱ to developing nations have been declared a success by green campaigners. But some fear it may hinder the flourishing repair industry which relies on e-waste in countries such as Egypt and consequently drive up the price of electronics.