World over-using underground water reserves for agriculture. Gulf ecosystem restoration strategy released. Water as Basic Human Right Has a Market Price, Says U.N. Chief. As the 193-member General Assembly commemorates the first anniversary of its landmark resolution pronouncing water and sanitation to be a basic human right, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon triggered a political controversy last week when he implicitly declared that even human rights have a market price. "Let us be clear," he asserted, "a right to water and sanitation does not mean that water should be free. " Rather, he said, it means that water and sanitation services should be affordable and available for all, and that member states must do everything in their power to make this happen.
But what if member states transfer their obligations to the private sector, known to extract a heavy price - even from those who cannot afford to pay in the world's poorer nations? "Advocating for the human right to water is defined as water for basic health and safety needs," she said. "It does not mean free water for swimming pools and golf courses. " The Water Street Journal Daily. Www.waternewswire.com – www.waternewswire.com, water industry news and water stocks news, read news and publish your news. Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water. (NaturalNews) Many of the freedoms we enjoy here in the U.S. are quickly eroding as the nation transforms from the land of the free into the land of the enslaved, but what I'm about to share with you takes the assault on our freedoms to a whole new level.
You may not be aware of this, but many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties because, according to officials, that rain belongs to someone else. As bizarre as it sounds, laws restricting property owners from "diverting" water that falls on their own homes and land have been on the books for quite some time in many Western states. Only recently, as droughts and renewed interest in water conservation methods have become more common, have individuals and business owners started butting heads with law enforcement over the practice of collecting rainwater for personal use. Fog net project in Morocco. Peakwater.org.
Water Woes Hit Gap, Kraft, Nestle, MillerCoors. Companies including Gap, Kraft and MillerCoors are all dealing with financial hits from water shortages and floods, according to news reports. The Gap cut its profit forecast by 22 percent after the Texas drought killed much of the year’s cotton crop, Reuters said. Kraft, Sara Lee and Nestle have all announced plans to raise product prices after droughts and floods drove up commodity prices. And stocks of gas company Toreador Resources fell 20 percent after France banned fracking, in large part because of concerns over water quality. These stresses look set to intensify. On Tuesday, the World Resources Institute said that water consumption has been growing over twice as quickly as the global population. The report raised alarm bells as the world population races towards the 7 billion mark, which the UN estimates will happen on October 31. MillerCoors is also working with farmers to reform their irrigation practices. Picture credit: Mundoo.
The Drip... Water Sector News. Global Green USA. World Water Initiatives Close to 800 million people have no access to safe drinking water 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation services Only 10 nations worldwide share 65% of the world's annual water resources 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, 97.5% is salt water and 2.5% is fresh water, with less than 1% really available for human consumption 1 in 5 people are without access to safe drinking water Like so many environmental programs, including our own parent organization, Green Cross International, World Water Day owes its origin to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to designate March 22 of each year as the World Day for Water. Green Cross addresses the lack of access to water and sanitation through advocacy, education, and practical projects around the world. Today, more than 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean water. New Mexico regulators shuffled to new jobs. Saba Net - Yemen news agency. [04/May/2010] By: Mahmoud Assamiee SANA’A, May 04 (Saba)- Yemen is one of the poorest ten countries in the world in terms of water scarcity and the poorest one in the Middle East region.
With the population's explosion and expansion of growing qat tree, the narcotic plant which its young leafs are chewed, water crisis has become a real challenge threatening almost all parts of the country. Yemeni people, for decades, have used to irrigate their plants by traditional way, a matter that is leading to the fast consumption of ground water. Qat expansion and mismanagement of water are the main reasons behind water exhaustion. In the recent few years, people have started suffering water scarcity in several governorates which are threatened also by drought.
Sana'a Almost all people in Sana'a do not get enough supply of public water project, which arrives houses only one day every ten days. Sana'a basin is threatened by random digging for wells for irrigating qat trees. Amran Saba. WaterWired: 9 posts from March 7, 2010 - March 13, 2010. Who needs T. Boone Pickens to build a pipeline? Not New Mexico! Stella Davis' recent story in the Carlsbad, NM, Current-Argus about a private pipeline to transport water from Fort Sumner to Santa Fe recently caught my eye.
I wrote about this in April 2009 (the following and the map are from the Julie Ann Grimm's original story in the Santa Fe Mexican: Backers of a private pipeline are moving ahead with plans to bring water from Fort Sumner to serve homes and businesses in Santa Fe and other communities in the Rio Grande Basin. Water once used to irrigate alfalfa, wheat and other crops, would travel through 150 miles of pipeline, climbing nearly 150 miles and 4,000 feet in elevation to reach municipal water systems under the plan by Berrendo LLC. Five Eastern New Mexico farmers have filed applications to transfer water rights for about 2 billion gallons of water a year from their farmlands to Santa Fe and other cities.
Well, it's back. Dudley Jones, CID Manager, expressed his concerns: