(May 21, 2009, The New York Times)
It has long been an axiom of infrastructure planning that it takes a lot of water to make electricity, and a lot of electricity to make water.
Each day, for example, the nation’s thermoelectric power plants (90 percent of all power plants in the United States), draw 136 billion gallons [...]
(May 1, 2009, Treehugger)
The EPA has decided to hand over $82 million in Recovery Act funds to Arizona for water projects that will hopefully create jobs, give a sugar shot to local economies, and update old water and wastewater infrastructure. It’s one small chunk of $6 billion dollars in funds that will go to water [...]
(May 1, 2009, Examiner)
Massachusetts is awarding more than $986 million in loans for improvements to drinking water and waste water projects.
Gov. Deval Patrick announced Friday that 127 infrastructure projects throughout the state will receive the funding…
(Original Article Here)
(April 29, 2009, WJZ)
The effects of a destructive water main break in downtown Baltimore are still being felt Wednesday morning.
Mary Bubala reports many businesses were forced to close because of the rushing water Tuesday. However, Wednesday all government buildings will be open along with most local restaurants and attractions.
But many roads will remain closed. Lombard Street, the [...]
(April 16, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Cash-strapped California will receive $260 million in federal economic stimulus funds to fix dams, restore fisheries and habitat and help the state cope with drought conditions, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.
(Original Article Here)
(March 17, 2009, The Associated Press)
The global economic crisis threatens to shrink investment in water infrastructure, an already underfunded sector vital to growth and public health, the World Bank said Tuesday
The first global economic contraction since World War II threatens to overshadow the scarcity of clean water in many poor regions, where inadequate sanitation is [...]
(March 16, 2009, TerraDaily)
Tens of billions of dollars are needed annually to fix the world’s water systems, but policies to address the global financial crisis could help meet the target, the OECD says.In a report to the World Water Forum in Istanbul, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says demands for fresh water [...]
(March 16, 2009, The Environment News Service)
Global demand for water is greater today than it has ever been and demand will increase in the future, thousands of delegates to the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul heard at their opening session today. Driving the demand for water are population growth and mobility, rising living standards, [...]
(March 13, 2009, The New York Times)
Give I.B.M. credit for technological ambition and a willingness to tackle big problems.
I.B.M. is presenting a new bundle of services and research offerings at the World Water Forum in Istanbul on Monday. The package, grandly called Strategic Water Management Solutions, is the most recent entry in I.B.M.’s so-called smart [...]
(March 10, 2009, Reuters)
It’s hard to visualize a water crisis while driving the lush boulevards of Los Angeles, golfing Arizona’s green fairways or watching dancing Las Vegas fountains leap more than 20 stories high.
So look Down Under. A decade into its worst drought in a hundred years Australia is a lesson of what the American [...]
(March 8, 2009, The Fresno Bee)
It is China’s latest grand attempt to tame nature. Three canals will bring water hundreds of miles to Beijing and other thirsty cities in the north. More than 350,000 people in the way will be forced to move.
For many in Zhangyigang, a village of 942 people in brick and mud [...]
(March 5, 2009, The Sound News)
Rainy Seattle, nestled between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, enjoys an abundance of the wet stuff. Being surrounded by water and having it come down on us throughout the year is misleading in thinking that general availability and accessibility is the norm. The collective mindset reflects a standard, a high [...]
(March 5, 2009, Business Insider)
While we don’t have a smart grid for electricity in place yet, there’s already talks that we need a smart grid for water. Implementing a smarter system that could monitor water usage would save the the US as much as 30% to 50% of its water used each year, estimates Mark [...]
(March 1, 2009, The Chicago Times)
State officials are drafting plans to spend nearly $122 million in federal stimulus money to clean up Indiana’s aging, overflow-prone sewers and upgrade its drinking water systems.
Although federal agencies are still fine-tuning details of how the nation’s $787 billion stimulus package can be spent, Friday was the first deadline for [...]
(Feb. 27, 2009, Reuters)
“The south has plenty of water and the north lacks it, so if possible why not borrow some?” China’s revolutionary communist leader Mao Zedong said in 1952.
That probably seemed a great idea at the time.
But it is causing pollution as well as discontent among farmers facing forced resettlement to make way for a mammoth construction to [...]
(Feb. 26, 2009, EnergyBulletin)
Off-grid living can be challenging … but wait, what grid are we talking about here? Even rural homes are connected to a number of utility and communication systems without which, well, … we would feel uncomfortable to say the least.
There are electricity, gas, telephone and cable TV connections. But the absence of [...]
(Feb. 25, 2009, Aguanomics)
Readers will know that I favor neither public nor private (investor-owned) provision of water, since the problems of ownership structure are less important than the problems of monopoly. (And the solution to monopoly — if not competition — is careful community monitoring.)
For more evidence on what does and does not matter, read [...]
(Feb. 24, 2009, Coloradoan)
Plans to ramp up water conservation efforts in Fort Collins include a couple of tried-and-true methods – education and financial incentives.
Putting those plans to work would likely mean higher rates for water customers even as average per capita demand for water decreases, officials say.
Using less water has broad impacts, including prolonging the [...]
(Feb. 22, 2009, News24)
African economies are especially vulnerable to water shortages, delegates to the Implementing Environmental Water Allocations (IEWA) conference heard on Monday.
“Many African economies are held hostage to hydrology,” World Bank senior water resources specialist Rafik Hirji said at the start of the four-day event in Port Elizabeth.
It has attracted more than 300 experts, [...]
(Feb. 20, 2009, MSNBC)
Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) Executive Director Timothy Quinn issued the following statement today on the 2009 water supply allocations announced by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources. The Bureau announced that some agricultural contractors stand to receive no water deliveries this year, while municipal [...]
(Feb. 11, 2009, Great Lakes Law)
Before “green” became cool, “sustainable” was the guiding phrase for shaping environmental solutions with economic prosperity. Like most trends, the focus on sustainability brought valuable changes and discussions, but at some point the term became overused and lost its meaning. Terminology aside, the concept remains very useful and important, as [...]
(Feb. 15, 2009, Reuters)
China, faced with widespread water shortages exacerbated by its worst drought in decades, aims to cut the amount of water it uses to produce each dollar of national income by 60 percent by 2020, state media said.
The target, unveiled by Water Resources Minister Chen Lei, underlines Beijing’s growing concern over chronic water [...]
(Feb. 9, 2009, Scoop)
NZWWA CEO, Murray Gibb, is urging government to continue its reforms and rationalise water management in New Zealand.
“The question must be asked why a country of only four million people needs over seventy water utilities and twelve separate regional water regulators,” said Mr Gibb.
“With the imminent release of the Royal Commission’s report [...]
(Feb. 8, 2009, Michael Bristow, BBC News)
A multi-billion-dollar project to divert water from southern China to the arid north is already four years behind schedule.
The news comes as parts of northern and central China struggle to cope with severe drought.
Officials recently admitted that water would not flow along the project’s central route – a total [...]
(Feb. 6, 2009, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Water conservation amounts differ
The director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division told state lawmakers Thursday that metro Atlanta could save up to a third of the water it uses with aggressive and expensive conservation measures.
Metro Atlanta’s water planners have been less ambitious. In a draft conservation plan, they’re shooting for a [...]
(Feb. 2, 2009, Pat Gao, The Tawain Review)
Though hindered by the artificially low price of water, Taiwan is making headway in conservation and recycling efforts.
According to a report by the Water Resources Agency (WRA) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, by 2021 Taiwan’s total demand for water from conventional sources like rivers and dams will [...]
(Jan. 30, 2009, WaterTech Online)
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell on January 26 announced the investment of $94 million in 22 clean water projects in 20 counties.
The PENNVEST board of directors approved $75 million in low-interest loans and $19 million in grants at its quarterly meeting.
The awards range from a $125,000 loan to replace deteriorated drinking [...]
RED ALERT: Water Rationing to 5.5M to Begin in Mexico City: Population has Increased 600% in Last 60 Yrs.; Main Reservoir Below 60% Capacity; 10M in Mexico Sans Access to Potable Water (LosAngelesTimes)(Jan. 30, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
Reporting from Mexico City — Already-scarce water gets even scarcer this weekend for millions of Mexicans.
One of the world’s largest cities is launching a rationing plan in a drastic — and some say overdue — effort to conserve water after rampant development, mismanagement and reduced rainfall caused supplies [...]
(Jan. 28, 2009, E-Science News)
Scientists and engineers will face a host of obstacles over the next decade in providing clean water to millions of people caught up in a water shortage crisis, a panel of scientists and engineers said today at a briefing at the Broadcast Center of the National Press Building on the Final [...]
(Jan. 27, 2009, The Kansas City Star)
America’s roads, public transit and aviation have gotten worse in the past four years. Water and sewage systems are dreadful. The basic physical backbone of American society is barely above failing, a report by top engineers says.
It’ll cost $2.2 trillion to fix America’s ailing infrastructure, according to highlights of [...]
(Jan. 13, 2009, Pacific Institute)
Are we running out of water?
“Is there such a thing as ‘peak water’? There is a vast amount of water on the planet—but we are facing a crisis of running out of sustainably managed water,” said Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. “Humans already appropriate over 50% of [...]
(Jan. 23, 2009, Bloomberg)
Malaysia’s Selangor state plans to complete taking over the assets and operation of water companies including Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd. in March in a bid to revamp the industry and prevent water shortages within five years.
The country’s richest state, through its Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd. unit, will buy all the region’s [...]
(Jan. 14, 2009, Detroit Free Press)
It’s not very sexy. Yet it is one of the most important and potentially costly health-related issues facing our nation. I refer to the need to continue supplying safe, clean drinking water — billions of gallons a day. Threats to our water security are increasing and the infrastructure for delivery [...]
(Jan. 7, 2009, The Nation On Web)
With the sharp decrease in the graph of underground drinking water, City will be facing a critical water shortage in coming months. If government does not take concrete steps to cope with the situation, a water crisis is in the offing.
Sources in Wasa said that according to a State [...]
