Eddy's Good News: Clean water derived from sewage, and sparrows being good dads

Virgin Radio

4 Sep 2023, 09:25

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!

Be sure to listen each day between 10am and 1pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Monday 4th September 2023

Inspiring news from Africa and how the driest country has the highest public access to fresh, clean water. Say hello to Namibia, that is home to two ancient and world famous deserts, the Namib and the Kalahari. This is a place where water is in painfully short supply. But since a terrible drought gripped the country in the 1950’s, Namibia became pioneers in something called DPR, that’s direct potable reuse, or water derived from sewage. 

Before you go "ewwww, that’s disgusting, I’m so glad we don’t do that", well we do, the UK are also pioneers in DPR, where sewage is filtered and all the bad things are removed and killed and you’re left with clean water. In Namibia this water goes straight back into the public water supply, here it’s put back into rivers, and via the rivers and more filtration, ends up in our taps. Namibia’s circular water system is the envy of African nations and, despite the increasing problems of global heating, 99 percent of Namibians have access to clean, fresh water. As experts say, water should be judged not by its history but by its quality!

Credit: Positive News.

Fascinating research from the USA that shows urban sparrows are - surprisingly - better dads than their rural counterparts!

We all know that cities make humans more stressed, more frenetic and more aggressive and the same is true for the urban sparrow. Despite a lower population and nest density, urban sparrows are more aggressive in defending their territory. Scientists thought this increased aggression would result in less visits to the nest to look after and feed their young. How wrong they were! 

What scientists thought would happen was turned on its head as researchers found that not only did male urban sparrows visit their nests more often, and with more food, but they even began their regular visits earlier in the day, so their nestlings had their breakfast quicker than their country cousins! So just as the city might make you raise your game in your job, these city songbirds are described as ‘super-sparrows’, able to defend their territory and look after their babies better. City planners are using this research to design better cities with better wildlife integration and that’s a win for us all.

Credit: Good News Network.