water

October 19, 2011

Water Wars, 2: The Nile

The demands of other users are sparking tensions with Egypt.

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July 14, 2011

Against the Odds in South Sudan: Saving Lives One Toilet at a Time

AllAfrica.com writes about a USAID project in south Sudan to increase the number of toilets in communities. Bill Gates wants to reinvent the toilet. Toilets prevent fecal contamination (just writing those words can give you a shiver) which can lead to all sorts of diseases. Remember: lengthening lifespans can lead to the stability of the church and, in the long run, healthy church growth. So in the long run, building a toilet can actually build a church. Remember to take the long view:

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July 1, 2011

Al Jazeera on 21st Century Water Wars

Almost half of humanity will face water scarcity by 2030 and strategists from Israel to Central Asia prepare for strife. via Al Jazeera English. Ministries that bring water to water-stressed areas may not just be doing humanitarian work in the short-term: they may be peacemakers in the long-term. Water stress, drought, and related famines will be one of the things we focus on at the upcoming East Africa webinar. Al Jazeera has a good analysis now. I’ve been writing about this for quite a long time; see Water Wars: Yemen for example.

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June 8, 2011

The Future of Water

1. Millennium Development Goal #7c is to halve the percentage of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. 2. The reality is, the future is one of increasing water scarcity. Today, 1 out of 5 people live in countries where the water is physically scarce—over a billion people. One in 4 live in areas where access to water is reduced due to a lack of infrastructure to deliver water from sources to where it is consumed. By 2025, given current trends, over half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed or water-scarce countries. 3. Scarce [...]

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February 21, 2011

The impact of water & food on unrest in the Arab world

What does the Arab world do when its water runs out? One of the less remarked upon causes of the current country-destabilizing protests in the Middle East is simply rising food prices, directly linked to a growing regional water crisis. Three major food-price rises in the last five years have sparked the unrest. The Guardian has an in-depth analysis. See also: Curated Collection on Unrest in Egypt

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April 1, 2010

Infographic: drinkable water

Discuss: Drinkable water in the world by FlowingData is an excellent little infographic describing our water woes.

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March 23, 2010

Putting foul water to use

U.N. report: Let’s turn foul water from mass killer into global treasure – CNN.com suggests the chemicals in tainted water could be used, for example, for fertilizer in agriculture. Update: dirty water kills more than all violence.

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March 22, 2010

Chairman of Nestle on Water Worries

“Monday is World Water Day, but I suspect relatively few will have noticed,” writes Peter Brabeck-Letmanthe, the chairman of Nestle. “The harsh fact is that we will probably run out of water long before we run out of fuel… global water requirements will be 40% greater than what can currently be sustainably supplied.” And of course impacts UPGs far more, because they are poorest and in unsustainable areas. In BBC News.

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March 5, 2010

Water Stress in Syria

Hundreds of thousands of farming families are moving to urban areas, with economic and political implications. via NYT.

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December 8, 2009

Water Wars: Yemen

Saudi Arabia battled Yemeni-based rebels for two weeks, establishing a six-mile buffer zone inside Yemen and warning civilians to stay clear of it. Yemen did not cooperate with the Saudi government but agreed that Saudi Arabia had a right to defend its borders. Some 174,000 civilians have been displaced since the war began in 2004 (Wall Street Journal, http://bit.ly/4OZr0f). Most of the conflicts both within Yemen and between Yemen’s rebels and Saudi Arabia are simply over access to water. At current water usage rates, Sanaa’s wells will likely run dry by 2015. Researchers at Sanaa University have estimated that between [...]

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July 1, 1996

World facing water crisis

A UN report to a Beijing conference warned that water shortages, caused by rapidly increasing population and extravagant use, could be the cause of 21st century wars. In the next century, water could become as valuable as oil. The United Nations is calling for water conventions to prevent future conflicts, focusing mainly on water conservation and re-use rather than more expensive programs which are less likely to succeed. Unfortunately, the cost of implementing these reforms often comes into conflict with the immediate need for economic development. Many of the world’s largest rivers flow across international borders, and control of or [...]

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