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EL COLOMBIANO

El Nino Forces Water Rationing In Medellin

In Medellin, Colombia
In Medellin, Colombia

MEDELLIN — Colombian meteorologists blame weather phenomenon El Niño for unprecedented weather changes, bringing both extreme drought and rapid evaporation of water to the South American country.

Water supplier Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) has announced that citizens in the Colombian city must reduce their water consumption by 10% if local water supplies are to last throughout the dry period expected to persevere another 100 days, reports the El Colombianodaily.

In the Antioquia region where Medellin is situated, summer temperatures have already reached a record high and is set to peak at the end of February. EPM Manager Jorge Londoño de la Cuesta tells El Colombiano that the company is only getting 30% of the water usually supplied and is currently pumping water from rivers 48 kilometers away from the city to keep the tanks from running dry.


To guarantee sustainability, the Colombian government has adopted a resolution that criminalizes excessive water consumption. Since it was passed in December, more than 1,000 people — roughly 5% of the city's population — have been penalized for exceeding the limit of 28 individual cubic meters. The 1.2 billion pesos ($352,000) in penalty fees collected so far has gone to the the Environmental Fund for Watershed Protection.

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Society

Influencer Union? The Next Labor Rights Battle May Be For Social Media Creators

With the end of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, the creator economy is the next frontier for organized labor.

​photograph of a smartphone on a selfie stick

Smartphone on a selfie stick

Steve Gale/Unsplash
David Craig and Stuart Cunningham

Hollywood writers and actors recently proved that they could go toe-to-toe with powerful media conglomerates. After going on strike in the summer of 2023, they secured better pay, more transparency from streaming services and safeguards from having their work exploited or replaced by artificial intelligence.

But the future of entertainment extends well beyond Hollywood. Social media creators – otherwise known as influencers, YouTubers, TikTokers, vloggers and live streamers – entertain and inform a vast portion of the planet.

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For the past decade, we’ve mapped the contours and dimensions of the global social media entertainment industry. Unlike their Hollywood counterparts, these creators struggle to be seen as entertainers worthy of basic labor protections.

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