Plants and artificially created salt marshes are being used to clean oils, diesel and chemicals in water from road gullies in a new environmental scheme.

Leicestershire County Council has set up a “living water” operation in Croft to treat water it collects from drains.

A weir system will drain the water through straw before it is passed to ponds where salt marsh plants remove the remaining pollutants.

Councillor Ozzy O’Shea said it would protect the environment and save money.

The council said straw is a natural filter which removes a high percentage of oils, hydrocarbons, salts and silt, while the bacteria and micro-organisms that live in salt marsh plants can also remove pollutants.

After this filtering process, the clean water will flow into Broughton Astley Brook which feeds into the River Soar.

Solid waste such as stones, sand, metals, and plastics will be removed and recycled, with some being used in land restoration projects.

Mr O’Shea, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “Cleaning this water using completely natural, chemical-free processes not only prioritises protecting our Leicestershire environment while maintaining our drainage system, but it also saves money for the council by dealing with this process ourselves.”

A 500m perimeter is being implemented to aid the protection of Endurance, the ship famously lost in the Antarctic by explorer Ernest Shackleton.

The vessel’s position on the Weddell Sea floor was finally identified in March, 107 years after its sinking.

Member states of the Antarctic Treaty have already declared the wreck, which lies in 3,000m of water, a Historic Site and Monument (HSM).

Now they have asked for a management plan to guide its ongoing conservation.

This will be drawn up by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT).

It will determine the kinds of restrictions and responsibilities that will be placed on anyone who goes near Endurance in the future.

It’s noteworthy that the Treaty parties have agreed to publish the exact coordinates of the wreck, at 68°44’21” South, 52°19’47” West.

Germany has taken a step closer to gas rationing after a drop in supplies from Russia.

The country has triggered the “alarm” stage of an emergency gas plan to deal with shortages, Germany’s economy ministry said.

It is the latest part of a standoff between the European Union and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

German economy minister Robert Habeck said Russia was using gas “as a weapon” in response to EU sanctions.

“We must not fool ourselves. The cut in gas supplies is an economic attack on us by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Mr Habeck said, adding Germans would have to reduce consumption.

Mr Habeck said there would “hopefully never” be a need to ration gas for German industry, but he added: “Of course, I can’t rule it out.”

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N50 billion for rehabilitation of roads in Taraba and Yobe States as well as the construction of injection substations to boost power supply in Gwarinpa area of the Federal Capital Territory.

N48.4 billion of the amount was approved for roads in Taraba and Yobe while the remaining N1.6 billion was meant for the FCT electrification project.

The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, revealed this to State House Correspondents at the end of the council’s meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday.

Giving the breakdown of the N48.4 billion, the minister said N29.8 billion was approved as revised cost for the rehabilitation of Yola-Hong-Mubi road and N18 billion was approved for the Yobe State Government as refunds for the construction of federal government roads in the state.

He said: “The Minister of the FCT brought his memo seeking for approval for the upward review of the contract for the construction of two 15 MVA injection substations at Life Camp Gwarinpa, in Abuja.

“In 2015, council approved the contract to supply 15/33 MVA injection substations to improve power supply in Gwarinpa, but regrettably for more than two years the contractors could not access the site due to ownership tussle of the land.

“By the time they later had access, prices went up, dollar appreciated and they came back in 2018 and are coming again today saying that given the population of Gwarinpa now, they need not two but actually three injection substations there and that contract was approved today for the sum of N1,640,406,426.26.”

Almost half a million people have been affected by floods and landslides in the Chinese province of Guangdong, according to authorities, after parts of southern China were hit by the heaviest downpours in 60 years over the weekend.

Flooding caused by the torrential rain has forced 177,600 people to relocate, destroyed 1,729 houses, damaged 27.13 hectares of crop and caused losses of more than $250 million, Guangdong’s Department of Emergency Management said.

Guangdong is one of at least seven provinces where the record rainfall has caused severe landslides and flooded roads, according to state media.

In southwestern Guizhou province, swollen rivers spilled over roads, sweeping away cars and homes, videos on social media showed.

The downpours come amid warnings by experts that extreme weather is becoming more frequent.

Precipitation in Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian reached its highest since 1961, local weather bureaus said on Saturday, as those areas recorded an average rainfall of 621 millimeters (24.4 inches) in the 46 day period from May 1 and June 15, according to state news agency Xinhua.

That figure is equal to more than 90% of the countrywide average of 672.1 millimeters for the whole of 2021, based on data by the National Climate Center.

Weather experts say conditions are ripe for further heavy rainstorms in the south of the country and heatwaves in the north.

Heavy rain is forecast to persist until Tuesday in the southern provinces of Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, Zhejiang and Guangxi and then move northward.