This parenting hack will help your baby stop crying in five minutes, say experts
Being a parent can be really hard work sometimes – there's no two ways about it. So when someone offers up a parenting hack, or tips to make the whole child-rearing process a bit easier, most weary mums and dads will pay attention.
One issue that many parents struggle with is their babies' endless crying, especially when they are fed, changed and have no obvious reason to be upset. Now, scientists have looked into the most effective methods for soothing a squalling infant, and concluded that carrying a baby and walking with it for just five minutes can help them stop crying and lull them back to sleep. The study showed that this method was more effective than simply holding the baby, as pacing triggers physiological changes, such as slowing their heart rate.
Twenty-one infants were monitored in experiments led by Dr Kumi Kuroda. The tests tracked changes in heart rate and behaviour of the babies as their mothers carried out different activities with them, including carrying, pushing them in a pram and holding them while sitting.
It turned out that crying babies calmed down quicker and their heart rates slowed within 30 seconds when they were carried and walked around. A similar effect happened when the babies were in a rocking cot, but not when they were in a stationary crib or when the mother held them while sitting.
All of the infants were more calm after five minutes of holding and walking, while nearly half had fallen asleep. It's important to flag though, those who were put down to sleep after being comforted often woke up as soon as their bodies were no longer in contact with their mothers. If the babies were held as they slept for longer before being laid down, they were less likely to wake up.
Dr Kumi said: 'Even as a mother of four, I was very surprised to see the result. I thought baby waking during a lay-down was related to how they are put on the bed, such as their posture, or the gentleness of the movement. But our experiment did not support these general assumptions.'
Monitoring the babies' heartbeats, scientists noticed how even the smallest change in movement affected them. For example, their heart rates went up when their mothers turned around and when they stopped walking.
Dr Kumi recommends carrying a crying baby steadily for about five minutes until they stop, then sit with them while they sleep for eight minutes, and then place them in their beds.
The significant results of the study have even led to the development of an app that will alert parents if they need to pick up their baby. But we're sorry to say, this isn't a magical fix that will work every time on every single child either. However, it's certainly worth a try. The study focused on mothers with their babies, but Dr Kumi believes the response is likely to be the same with fathers and other guardians.
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Telegraph
10 hours ago
- Telegraph
‘My daughter only knew hospitals until I had a son whose bone marrow saved her life'
'I've been thinking a lot about health privilege lately,' says Mina Holland, 'and I absolutely don't take good health for granted any more.' We are sitting in the garden of her house in Tulse Hill, south London, not far from where she grew up. It's a poignant anniversary for Holland. Six years ago today, her life changed forever when a routine check-up at Lewisham hospital turned into an emergency. Her 11-week-old daughter, Vida, was admitted for an urgent blood transfusion. 'I've never seen a baby with haemoglobin levels this low,' one doctor said. Holland is an author, journalist and occasional restaurant and wine list consultant, as evidenced by her large open kitchen, with its amply stocked wine rack and a pyramid of Mutti Polpa – the connoisseur's tinned tomatoes – by the back door. She has just baked some deliciously sticky cookies, which we take into the garden to eat. Her husband Freddie, a sound engineer, is at work; Vida and her four-year-old brother Gabriel are at school. Before that hospital trip in 2019, looking after Vida had been a struggle. Despite her frequent crying and pallor – people complimented her porcelain skin – the couple had no real idea anything was wrong. She wasn't an easy baby: a fussy feeder and an erratic sleeper. But they were first-time parents – what did they know? When they were first told about Vida's haemoglobin levels, they assumed it meant she was severely anaemic. But it soon became clear that it was more serious than that. Vida received a blood transfusion over four days – there's only so much you can give at once – and after just one instalment, the change was remarkable: her colour returned and she fed with gusto. The family took her home and tests began to investigate the cause of her anaemia, which could have stemmed from a number of things. They were vastly relieved to learn it wasn't blood cancer – but unsettled by the emerging discussions around 'bone marrow'. The effects of the transfusion soon wore off. Four weeks later, Vida's haemoglobin levels had dropped again, and her symptoms – poor appetite, restlessness, pallor – had returned. Holland was floored, watching her baby decline. But as a journalist, she threw herself into the research, typing in symptoms and exploring every possible avenue in search of a cause. She was becoming desperate. One condition Holland came across was extremely rare – but it seemed to match all of Vida's symptoms: Diamond-Blackfan anaemia (DBA), a genetic blood disorder in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough red blood cells. DBA affects only five to seven children in a million. But that's what it turned out to be, as the family discovered on a bleak day in July, when Vida was five months old. Neither Holland nor Freddie carry the gene for DBA, they would later learn, and the odds of Vida having it were infinitesimal. It felt like a life sentence of anxiety and grief. As well as an inability to produce sufficient red blood cells, DBA is associated with a predisposition to certain cancers and the risk of other abnormalities. Treatment pathways vary – a lifelong course of steroids or a bone marrow transplant were possibilities for the future – but in the short term, it meant regular blood transfusions, roughly every three weeks. Each time, a cannula had to be inserted into the arm of a screaming baby – often requiring both parents and three nurses – followed by a painstaking effort to keep her still for the next three hours. Holland has now written a book about these early years, called Lifeblood, which gives a visceral impression of the emotions they went through at the time; firstly the worry and uncertainty, followed by incomprehension, then the fear and grief at what they – and Vida – were facing for the rest of their lives. 'I'm really lucky in that we had a very favourable set-up,' she says today. 'Our parents are around, my mother-in-law is a psychotherapist, we've got access to all the top-notch children's hospitals. But I still just felt very, very alone.' Friends did their best, but she came to resent their platitudes. 'I can't tell you what would have helped – I think I just needed to be met in the despair, at that point.' There were endless hospital visits and life gradually reshaped itself around this new reality – DBA was all Holland could talk about. She couldn't work. She couldn't even watch TV. Every aspect of their lives was dictated by Vida's condition. They sold their flat – it felt like 'a crime scene', she writes – and moved in with Louise, Freddie's mother, whose home was near St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, where Vida was being treated, as well as the Evelina Children's Hospital at St Thomas's, south London. Vida was doing well on the transfusions – Freddie described her as 'full of life, but not haemoglobin' – but difficult questions loomed about the future. Around the age of one, she would become eligible for a steroid treatment: prednisolone, given initially at a high dose to jolt the bone marrow into producing red blood cells, then gradually tapered down in the hope it would continue to work at a sustainably low dose. This could mean an end to transfusions – but long-term, low-dose steroids are only effective in a minority of cases. The alternative was lifelong transfusions, which would not only severely limit her mobility but also require further treatment to manage the iron overload they cause. There was a third possibility: the bone marrow transplant. 'The idea of a bone marrow transplant just sounded wild,' says Holland now. 'Before this, bone marrow was a dish at the restaurant St John. Or something that I remember the dogs gnawing on at my grandmother's house. It just sounded so technical and so terrifying. And the idea of the complete destruction of the immune system in order to make your child independent of three-weekly hospital visits, was mind-boggling.' In a bone marrow transplant, the faulty marrow is replaced with healthy marrow from a matched donor, offering the possibility of a haematological cure. Graft-versus-host rejection can occur, though the risk is significantly lower if the donor is a family member, especially a sibling. (It is extremely rare for parents to be a match, and neither Holland nor Freddie were suitable donors.) Preparation for the transplant involves complete isolation and a course of chemotherapy and other drugs designed to destroy the immune system. Before Vida's DBA was even confirmed, Holland was convinced that transplant was her best option. 'I don't want illness to be her life's focus,' she writes. 'I wanted her to have all the freedom of movement and mind that healthy children and adults have.' In early 2020, Holland found out she was pregnant again. She and Freddie had wanted a second child anyway, 'and I really am keen to emphasise that he was never designed to be a saviour sibling', she says. The chances of that child being a match for Vida were one in four, and initially Holland had considered IVF to try to engineer this. 'But it was going to cost so much money, and the chances of it working were tiny. So we thought, well – one in four, let's try. We wanted another child, and if there was any way they could help, brilliant. 'Our second child will not be a 'designer baby',' Holland writes. 'Our child will be a much-loved family member who happens to have a trait that could help their sister in a way no one else could. We want to give Vida the best chance we can.' Gabriel was born in the winter of 2020, and in January 2021 they received the phone call – Gabriel did not have DBA. The relief was immense. 'A geneticist would say that because we already had a child with it, yes, the chances were higher, but actually based on probability it was a very low chance that he would have it as well. But obviously we were still scared.' A month later she and Freddie were informed that, should a transplant be warranted, Gabriel was a match for Vida. They were cautiously euphoric. 'When we found out that he was a match, it became a bit of a no-brainer. It was a big decision to go ahead with the transplant, because it's high-risk, but around that time the advice was changing: when she was diagnosed as a tiny baby, what we were hearing from the other parents in the DBA community and from her doctor, was this is not a decision you take lightly – it's dangerous, it's a year out of mainstream life, and there are a lot of things that could go wrong. Two years later, new research showed much better outcomes, both from donors who are related and not, and that the quality of life outcomes for kids who had had transplants were quite favourable compared to living on blood transfusions. 'I feel apprehensive about saying this because I know that there are lots of parents with children who are on transfusions, who are leading rich lives, but I know it's not easy.' In March 2023, Vida had her transplant, with bone marrow donated by her brother. Their parents did not underestimate the emotional implications of this. 'We have told Vida that Gabriel is 'sharing some of his blood with her',' Holland writes in Lifeblood. 'She is concerned about him 'going to sleep'; having his blood removed; we tell her that he has lots of it and that he won't remember […] Until now, Freddie and I have minimised the significance of what he will have to endure – the many blood tests, the general anaesthetic, the soreness in his lower back where the bone marrow will be taken, and the consequent anaemia which will require months of iron supplementation […] we are signing up our baby for the possibility of pain and distress. This doesn't sit comfortably.' In anticipation of the transplant, Vida had spent weeks in hospital, and had a Hickman line fitted through which to administer her 'conditioning treatment' – a cocktail of meds, including the chemotherapy, which inevitably made her ill, and caused her to lose her hair. But the transplant was a success. Gabriel's stem cell donation was 'abundant', her doctor informed them, and the new cells established successfully. She remained in hospital for five-and-a-half weeks as her immune system was non-existent, whereas Gabriel was sent home the following day and made a very quick recovery. When Vida returned home, there were restrictions. She had to take nine different medications four times a day; she had a controlled diet and could only drink boiled water. 'Every aspect of her day is monitored, curated, limited somehow,' writes Holland. Vida is six now, and flourishing. She started school midway through her reception year and is doing well, though she still has many hospital appointments. DBA makes her susceptible to certain cancers, so she has to be careful with sun protection, and she'll be on penicillin for life. Gabriel is sometimes jealous of these precautions and asks for medicine too. 'She's the patient, and it's obviously been hardest for her, but it's also been tough on Gabriel – in different ways. After the transplant, she often had to be readmitted, and we'd have to leave at a moment's notice to go to A&E at St Mary's. That was really hard for him; he was only three.' Vida hasn't questioned the constant hospital visits, Holland says. It's all she knows. 'I spent so long grieving that she was not going to have a normal life, that we were missing out on all the school activities and the swimming lessons – I was so worried about all that, but there have been aspects of it that have been quite wonderful, and I don't say that lightly.' Remarkably, Holland says, 'Vida loves going to hospital now. She used to get very frightened about the blood tests, it was traumatic for her and for us, but when I look at it as a whole, hospital has been a place where she gets focused time with one or both of her parents, she gets a lot of adult attention, she gets art therapy, she gets music therapy, she gets lots of presents. There have been rich moments too as well as very long, very empty, uncertain and frightening days. 'I think that how Vida's trauma is expressed will obviously evolve over time, and I feel I need to be quite alert as to how things could come out for her as she gets older.' At Easter, Vida's school put on an 'Eggstravaganza' where all the children were asked to make a diorama featuring hard-boiled eggs. 'I said, we've got to win this – let's make the hospital.' So they created 'Egg-elina Children's Hospital', based on the Evelina, with yolk transfusions and an 'eggs-ray'. And Vida won. The idea of the book came up while Holland was pregnant with Gabriel. 'I wrote it in a very sort of stolen-moments way, over about four years. The original plan was for it to be about Vida's first year, and finding acceptance, accommodating the unexpected. When things feel really bleak, it's hard to see how any good can come of them, but I know a lot of good has come from what happened. 'Even with the transfusions, I am glad those days are over but I look back on them fondly because I felt so held – particularly in the early days when I was always trying to second guess how she was doing, what her blood count was; I was always gazing at her face and ears and lips, trying to work out how anaemic she was. But when she went into hospital, I was sharing the responsibility. Obviously I wish that Vida hadn't had to go through what she has, and we could have been spared it – but it's sort of all I know now. I've been rewired.' In the UK, one in 25 babies is born with a genetic condition of some kind, and Holland's book will resonate with other parents facing similar challenges. Writing down what happened really helped, she says, 'and having a sense of – it sounds like a cliché – but being able to take control of the story. It was good to put it in my own words; I often don't know how I feel about things until I've written them down.' She is full of gratitude for the NHS. 'The biggest takeaway is just how hugely lucky we are to have the NHS, and what a precious thing it is. It's been incredible. I would love to know what Vida's medical bill is after six years of this; even the chelation medicine she had to have while she was on transfusion was well into five figures a year.' What people can do to help, she says, is give blood. Her book is out, inadvertently, just after World Blood Donor Day, which is on 14 June. 'For an hour spent in a blood donor centre you can save up to three lives. And in order to maintain blood supplies, 140,000 first-time donors are needed every year. 'I would just like to convey that it is an easy thing to do – having watched countless needles go into Vida, I've probably become hardened to it – and it has profound benefits for society.' How does she feel about Vida reading about herself in Lifeblood in the future? 'I feel quite guilty about the fact that for her first year I was just so sad, and I've been worried about what she might experience reading that. But I like to think that what comes across is extreme love.'
BBC News
14 hours ago
- BBC News
How groundwater pumping is causing cities to sink at 'worrying speed'
Cities around the world are sinking at 'worrying speed' Animation enabled Twenty-two years ago, when Erna stood outside her house, 'the windows were as high as my chest'. Now they're knee-height. As their home has sunk, she and her family have had to cope with frequent flooding. In the most extreme cases 'we used canoes - the water kept coming in and swamped the ground floor', she says. Erna lives in the Indonesian capital Jakarta - one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. Her home is in one of the worst-affected areas, the north of the city, and is now much lower than the road. The 37-year-old grew up here and remembers playing in nearby streets and praying in the mosque - that is now long gone, permanently underwater, as is the old port. The walls of her home, built in the 1970s, are cracked, and you can see where thick layers of concrete have been added to the floor to try to restore it to ground level - about 10 times since it was built, and a metre thick in some places. The house is still subsiding, and Erna can't afford to move. Erna and her mother, Soni, have had to raise the floors in their home many times This is one of dozens of coastal regions that are sinking at a worrying speed, according to a study by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. The team studied subsidence in and around 48 coastal cities in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. These are places that are particularly vulnerable to a combination of rising sea levels, which are mainly driven by climate change, and sinking land. Based on the study and population data from the United Nations, the BBC estimates that nearly 76 million people live in parts of these cities that subsided, on average, at least 1cm per year between 2014 and 2020. The impact on their lives can be huge - for example in Tianjin in north-east China, 3,000 people were evacuated from high-rise apartment buildings in 2023, after subsidence left large cracks in nearby streets. All 48 urban areas in the NTU study are shown in this globe. The most extreme cases of subsidence were seen in Tianjin, which has undergone rapid industrial and infrastructural development this century. The worst-hit parts of the city sank up to 18.7cm per year between 2014 and 2020. Select a city below to see how much it is sinking by. A map will display the most subsiding areas in that city in green, with details of factors contributing to subsidence. The subsidence rate is measured from a reference point in each city, which scientists assume is more stable than others - you can read more on the methodology at the end of this article. Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire Ahmedabad, India Alexandria, Egypt Bangkok, Thailand Barcelona, Spain Buenos Aires, Argentina Chennai, India Chittagong, Bangladesh Choose a city Dalian, China Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Dhaka, Bangladesh Dongguan, China Foshan, China Fukuoka, Japan Guangzhou, China Hangzhou, China Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Hong Kong, China Houston, United States Istanbul, Türkiye Jakarta, Indonesia Karachi, Pakistan Kolkata, India Lagos, Nigeria Lima, Peru London, United Kingdom Los Angeles, United States Luanda, Angola Manila, Philippines Miami, United States Mumbai, India Nagoya, Japan Nanjing, China New York, United States Osaka, Japan Philadelphia, United States Qingdao, China Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Seoul, South Korea Shanghai, China Singapore, Singapore St Petersburg, Russia Surat, India Suzhou, China Tianjin, China Tokyo, Japan Washington DC, United States Yangon, Myanmar A 3d model viewer showing land subsidence in the selected city Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 0 Please wait, a three-dimensional map is currently loading... Tap and move to rotate, pinch to zoom Fastest observed sinking Reference point Landmark Avenida 4 de , Fevereiro Ilha da Cazanga 0 -3.3 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Barrio Padre , Mugica Casa Rosada Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -1.5 Sandwip Para Chittagong Port Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -9.8 Basundhara , Residential , Area Bangladesh , National Museum Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -3.6 Rio das Pedras Christ the , Redeemer 0 -6.3 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Dalian Jinzhou , Bay , International , Airport Hongji Grand , Stage Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -16.4 Dongguan , Central Square Nongyuwei 0 -6.5 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Baofeng Temple Beijiaozhen 0 -6.3 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Nansha District The Canton , Tower 0 -6.8 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Central , Xiaoshan , district Lingyin Temple 0 -3.4 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Yongning , Subdistrict Nanjing City , Wall 0 -2.5 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Yinghai , Subdistrict, , Jiaozhou City Qingdao Railway , Station 0 -8 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Yingbin , Expressway Shanghai Tower 0 -10.3 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Classical , Gardens of , Suzhou North-west , Wujiang 0 -4.8 Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -18.7 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Bohai Bay Guwenhua Street East Abobo , district St Paul's , Cathedral Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -5.1 Adh Dheraa Al , Bahri Lighthouse of , Alexandria Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -2.7 Tuen Mun Vitoria Peak 0 -10.6 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Sidi Saiyyed , Mosque Piplaj Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -5.1 Tharamani Kapaleeshwarar , Temple Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -3.7 Bhatpara Victoria , Memorial 0 -2.8 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Gateway of , India Area near , King's Circle , station, , Matunga East 0 -5.9 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Karanj Surat Diamond , Bourse 0 -6.7 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Penjaringan National , Monument 0 -11.6 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Mochimaru, , Asakura , district Fukuoka Tower Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -5.7 Minato ward Atsuta-jingu , Shrine 0 -1.5 Observed subsidence per year (cm) East Konohana , ward Osaka Castle 0 -7.8 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Central , Breakwater, , Koto ward Tokyo Skytree 0 -2.4 Observed subsidence per year (cm) South Dagon , Township Shwedagon , Pagoda 0 -7.5 Observed subsidence per year (cm) City Hall Orange Island 0 -13.1 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Landhi Town Mazar-E-Quaid 0 -15.7 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Ancón district Lima Main , Square 0 -2.4 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Manila Bay Fort Santiago 0 -5.7 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Lakhta Winter Palace 0 -2.9 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Changi Bay Merlion Park 0 -4.6 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Area near , Sinjeong subway , station, , Yangcheon , District Blue House 0 -2 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Sagrada Familia Zona Franca Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -7 Kigamboni , district Askari Monument Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -3 Democracy , Monument Lam Phakchi, , Nong Chok Observed subsidence per year (cm) 0 -4.1 Istanbul , Airport Hagia Sophia 0 -13.2 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Big Ben South Upminster 0 -4 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Central , Southwest Sam Houston , Park 0 -11 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Hollywood Sign Coastal San , Pedro 0 -2.5 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Freedom Tower Coconut Grove 0 -2.2 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Breezy Point Central Park 0 -3 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Holmesburg Independence , Hall 0 -2.3 Observed subsidence per year (cm) South-west , Washington Memorial , Lincoln 0 -2.2 Observed subsidence per year (cm) East Nhà Bè Independence , Palace 0 -9.5 Observed subsidence per year (cm) Choose another city An animated line break showing building slowly sinking The perils of groundwater pumping Many factors can contribute to subsidence, including building, mining, tectonic shifts, earthquakes, and natural soil consolidation - where soil is pressed closer and becomes more dense over time. But 'one of the most common causes is groundwater extraction', explains the lead researcher on the NTU study, Cheryl Tay. It has had a major impact in half of the 48 coastal cities identified in the study. Groundwater is found beneath the Earth's surface in cracks and spaces in sand, soil and rock. It makes up about half of the water used for domestic purposes - including drinking - around the world. It's also essential for irrigating crops. But as cities grow, freshwater supplies come under strain. Households and industries in some places drill their own wells or boreholes and extract too much - as in Jakarta. Extracting excessive amounts of water in this way over extended periods of time compresses the soil, eventually causing the surface - and everything built on it - to sink or subside. 'A lot of the sinking cities are in Asia or South-East Asia,' says Ms Tay. 'That is likely because the demand for water is much higher there with very fast-growing populations and a lot of development. 'That could lead to higher rates of groundwater extraction and then this could snowball… This means that flooding will be more frequent, intense, and prolonged in the future,' she adds, explaining there could also be 'salt water intrusion that can affect agricultural land and the quality of drinking water'. Some types of ground are affected more than others and Ms Tay believes the risks are especially acute for the many coastal cities built on low-lying deltas - where rivers divide before flowing into the sea. This includes places such as Jakarta, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Shanghai. Almost half of Jakarta now sits below sea level. Its location on swampy land where 13 rivers flow into the ocean makes it particularly vulnerable. The combination of land sinking and sea levels rising accelerates the 'relative sea level rise', says Ms Tay. 'There are two components: the land moving down and the water moving up.' Flooding in Jakarta leaves residential and business districts underwater Indonesia's meteorological agency has said that 'the flood cycle, which used to occur every five years, could become more frequent' in Jakarta as 'the overall trend of extreme rainfall is increasing in Indonesia, in line with rising surface temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations'. Over the past decade, dozens have died in floods in the city and at least 280,000 people have had to leave their homes until the water receded. With parts of Jakarta now 4m lower than they were in 1970, Indonesia decided to build a new capital city - Nusantara - on a different island, Borneo, more than 1,200km (750 miles) away. It is further from the coast and will rely on a huge dam and reservoir to store river and rainwater. The plan is to purify and distribute water to all homes and offices in the new capital, eliminating the need to extract groundwater. However, the new city is controversial and development has slowed. There has been criticism of the $34bn price tag and its environmental impact on one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. Buildings in Ebute Metta, Lagos, where Rukkayat lives, are sinking - the white dotted line shows the highlighted structure's original position Five of the cities studied by NTU are in Africa, including Lagos in Nigeria. Last year, flooding affected more than 275,000 people there. Twenty-eight-year-old Rukkayat moved to Ebute Metta, in the east of the city, three years ago in search of work and a better life. But she could only afford to rent a house in a sinking area - one of the locations identified in the NTU report. 'It's hard to live in a place where it gets easily flooded if downpours or storms hit the city,' she says. 'I have to scoop water out of the corridor.' The walls of the house are cracked, the floor is damp and the roof leaks - a common situation in sinking areas, experts say. Both Lagos and Jakarta are facing rapid urbanisation and growing populations with more than half unable to access piped water, turning instead to pumping groundwater themselves. An animated line break showing water flowing under landmarks The bowl effect As many coastal cities deal with the combination of subsiding land and rising seas, they are looking for solutions - but these can sometimes contribute to other problems. Some, including Jakarta, Alexandria in Egypt and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam have built dykes, walls and sand barriers along their coastlines to try to prevent flooding from the sea. A seawall was built to stop seawater swamping homes in North Jakarta Alexandria has built concrete breakwaters to protect the city from the sea But as walls get higher and bigger, a 'bowl effect' can be created, says Prof Pietro Teatini of the University of Padova in Italy, potentially trapping rain and river water in areas and preventing it from flowing back into the sea. This can contribute to flooding. So, to drain excess water, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City are among those that have built pumping stations. However, this does not address the causes of subsidence or flooding. How Tokyo solved the problem When Tokyo found parts of its city were subsiding, it took a different approach and decided to tackle the root of the problem. The sinking slowed significantly in the 1970s after Tokyo imposed strict regulations on groundwater pumping. It also built a water supply management system, which scientists argue is the most efficient way to stop subsidence. The NTU study found that today the city is much more stable, although a few small areas have sunk by between 0.01 and 2.4cm per year between 2014 and 2020. So, how does Tokyo's system work? Almost all of Tokyo's water comes from forests and rivers controlled by two big dams outside the city. The water is purified in 10 plants and sent to a supply centre. The centre regulates the volume and pressure of the water. The centre distributes the water to homes and industries via pipes designed to resist earthquake damage. Despite the effectiveness of Tokyo's system, scientists are sceptical it can be applied widely given the high build and maintenance costs, says Prof Miguel Esteban of Waseda University in Japan. Nonetheless, he adds, some Asian cities still look at Tokyo's approach as a model. Taipei, for example, reduced groundwater extraction in the 1970s which, in turn, helped to slow down its subsidence rates. Many other cities - including Houston, Bangkok and London - also carefully regulate groundwater pumping to ensure it is neither too low nor too high. Some cities have tried different methods. Shanghai, for instance, has applied 'water injection, which works very well', says Prof Teatini. It injected purified water from the Yangtze River into the ground through wells that had previously been used to extract groundwater. Others, such as Chongqing in China and San Salvador in El Salvador, have adopted the principles of sponge cities. Instead of simply using non-porous concrete and asphalt in areas such as pavements, a sponge city makes use of surfaces that are designed to absorb water naturally, such as soil, grass and trees. The construction of parks, wetlands and green spaces is prioritised, along with lakes and ponds where water can be diverted and stored during the rainy season. The roof of this building on the edge of Chongqing is designed to absorb water and help manage heavy rainfall A residential complex in Berlin has been designed with areas to store and absorb water This may offer a 'more viable and sustainable solution, it costs only a tenth of building dams', says Prof Manoochehr Shirzaei of Virginia Tech University. But critics say that it is hard to add these features to existing developments and often they are not installed on a large enough scale to make a big difference. And behind any investment, there needs to be long-term political commitment, says Prof Shirzaei. 'Land subsidence emerges gradually over time, so to deal with that, we have to take difficult decisions which remain in place for decades,' he says, even if pumping restrictions are initially unpopular with voters who rely on wells and boreholes for water. Without change, experts warn there will be more people like Erna, fighting a losing battle as their homes gradually slip away. A note on methodology For its study the NTU chose coastal urban agglomerations within 50km (30 miles) of the coast, with a population of at least five million in 2020. It analysed satellite images, comparing data from 2014 to 2020 to estimate subsidence rates. The subsidence rate is measured from a reference point in each city, which scientists assume is more stable than others. However, if the reference point is also sinking or rising, other parts of the city might be sinking faster or slower than the measurements suggest. This could affect the BBC estimates of how many people are affected. The subsidence rates used here should therefore be seen as a relative measure, helping to identify which areas are likely more affected than others. A line break showing a wave
The Independent
19 hours ago
- The Independent
New coronavirus discovered in China ‘only small step' from infecting humans
A new coronavirus discovered in China is only a small step from mutating and causing another global pandemic, experts have warned. Scientists believe the variant, called HKU5-CoV-2, may infect a broader range of animals than Covid-19 – which caused millions of deaths – and may have more potential for jumping between species. US researchers fear that HKU5-CoV-2, found in China, in February, could also infect humans, leading to a widespread outbreak. The new study, published in Nature Communications, looked at a lesser-known group of coronaviruses called merbecoviruses, which includes HKU5 and MERS-CoV, which is responsible for the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The team from Washington State University looked at how the new pathogen interacts with human cells. They found that a small change in the virus's spike protein could allow it to attach to human ACE2 cells in people's throats, mouths and noses. HKU5-CoV-2 can infect and replicate inside human cells in both the airways and gut. According to the World Health Organisation, about 35 per cent of people infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome die. Since 2012, some 27 countries have reported cases, leading to 858 known deaths due to the infection, which spread from camels. But when HKU5 was discovered in February, scientists warned against exaggerating the risks because it does not enter human cells as readily as Sars-CoV-2, which caused Covid-19. HKU5 was first detected in bats by scientists from the Chinese laboratory where some say Covid originated in 2019. Prof Michael Letko, a virologist who co-led the study, said: 'HKU5 viruses in particular really hadn't been looked at much, but our study shows how these viruses infect cells. 'What we also found is HKU5 viruses may be only a small step away from being able to spill over into humans.' When Covid-19 emerged it was widely blamed on markets in China where different breeds of wild animal are kept caged and often slaughtered close to other animals. Meat is sold at the open-air stalls. Critics said the markets were the perfect breeding ground for new zoonotic diseases – those that spread to humans – to emerge. The scientists, whose experiments studied how the new pathogen interacts with human cells, believe the virus would have to carry certain mutations if it were to infect humans. 'These viruses are closely related to MERS, so we have to be concerned if they ever infect humans,' Prof Letko said. 'While there's no evidence they've crossed into people yet, the potential is there and that makes them worth watching.'
