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News
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Water-Food-Energy Nexus
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Just published: a new book on the nexus in the triangle water-food-energy. |
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Water as a resource: restoring sustainable water cycles
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Conference in Geneva in early 2011 |
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We use water more efficiently when we pay for it
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There are several reasons why water is overused. One of them is that it has no price; many people see it as free good. The words "privatisation of water" are highly contentious and need to be explained. Affordable water for basic human needs – for drinking, cooking and hygiene – is a fundamental human right. This is the duty of governments to provide.
Any use beyond basic needs – for instance, for watering the lawn or filling a swimming pool – should carry with it at least the full cost of the infrastructure. And water for industrial or agricultural production is most efficient and sustainable when it has to be paid for. This does not automatically mean to privatise it. |
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Brabeck at Harvard
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Water shortage -- how it develops from local to global and how global ideas can help solving it locally. |
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BBC World Debate: Are we running out of water
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Understanding water shortage -- in municipal supply a management problem, in the overall picture including withdrawals for agriculture an issue of massive overuse.
with Nick Gowing |
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Institute of Water Policy on water scarcity
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The Institute of Water Policy at NUS' Lee Kuan Yew School Public Policy (LKYSPP) played host to BBC World News' The World Debate Series on 30 June 2010, where a distinguished panel of international intellectuals and policymakers were in Singapore to discuss the question "Are We Running Out of Water?" and take questions from the audience. Herbert Oberhänsli was one of the discussants from the floor, stressing the issue of water for agriculture. |
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Next-generation water policy for businesses and government
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from John Briscoe, Harvard University
The solution to water scarcity, in part, will come from new technologies for better managing water as a resource. But to make these technologies more effective, business and policy leaders will need to work more closely to implement them. |
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Closing water gaps: Economic frameworks to inform decision-making
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Just published:
Charting Our Water Future. Economic frameworks to inform decision-making
IFC, McKinsey and a group of seven global companies.
The McKinsey study shows that the global water overuse is already today a much more urgent problem than initially thought.
Existing accessible, reliable, sustainable supply is estimated at 4,200 km3, while withdrawals are at 4,500 km3.
But the study does not only describe the problem, it proposes a fact-based tool to bring water abstraction for human use back into line with existing accessible, reliable and sustainable supply. |
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Valuing Water Properly Is a Key to Wise Development
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If water is to be allocated appropriately and used efficiently, the emphasis must be on financial costs for municipal supplies, and on opportunity costs for irrigation. |
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Water shortage and governance – what role for the public policy dialogue?
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During his time as UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan set up the UN Global Compact, not as code of conduct, but as a platform for dialogue. His successor, Ban Ky Moon, added a new dimension with the "Water Mandate" |
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The Next Big Thing: H20
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As food prices skyrocketed over the last two years, countries and state-sponsored companies were quietly snapping up land around the world. Few noticed when South Korea, China, Japan, Libya, Egypt, Persian Gulf countries and others acquired farmland in Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia, Brazil, Pakistan, Central Asia, and Russia. The purchases weren’t only about land, but also, if not mainly, about water. |
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Land grab or development opportunity? International farmland deals in Africa
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Over the past 12 months, large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia have made headlines in a flurry of media reports across the world. Lands that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest are now being sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares. |
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Davos: Aflaj heritage of Oman discussed in WEF
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Aflaj is one of the most efficient institutions for water managemnt -- and it has worked for 4,500 years. |
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Water for energy: The bad bet for biofuels
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In the ongoing debate about rethinking America's energy future, there has been far too little discussion about water. It takes a tremendous amount of water to produce our energy, no matter how you measure it.
Article written by Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute |
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Iraqi minister blames Turkey, Iran, dry winter for shortage of water
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Iraq is suffering from a water shortage because of the policies of Turkey and Iran, and insufficient winter rainfall, according to the country's cabinet minister in charge of managing water resources. |
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Unsustainable trends and imbalances
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.... illustrated with three very different trends and emerging imbalances: calorie intakes versus calorie needs, demographics, debt and water.
Georgetown University, Washington DC, 10 October 2008
and American Club Paris 18 June 2008 |
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UN Secretary General in Davos 2009: Water is very much near the top of the list
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Water scarcity threatens the populations of heavily settled parts of the world
The good news is that we also know how technology - new and ancient - can play an important role in mitigating water stress. |
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Water at WEF 2009 -- a new report on the risks from excessive withdrawals
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Just one quote from the report: "Under present conditions and considering the way water is being currently managed, we will run out of water long before we run out of fuel.” |
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Titanic battle: Big Oil vs. Big Water
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It's a combustible mixture in the West, where oil shale is plentiful beneath the Rocky Mountains but the water needed to extract it is scarce.
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Wasser und Energie
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Nichts läuft ohne Energie, auch nicht Hahnewasser ... |
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Water: Ethanol's Achilles Heel
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While many of ethanol's problems (energy inputs, land use, food prices and more) have been thoroughly discussed, we have oddly (or maybe purposely) overlooked its true Achilles heel: water. And if we stick to our current plans to massively boost ethanol, an ethanol-fueled water crisis will come fast and furious.
Robert Glennon, Huffington Post, December 2008 |
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Economist Debate on Water Pricing
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Another big debate on an important issue -- many write, but does anybody actually read ... |
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No news, but still important: The inconvenient truth about Cochabamba
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The ugly truth from Cochabamba: more than ever, water subsidies are being distributed to the more prosperous, and often it is the poor with no access to tapwater who pay for it. |
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Es gibt kein Menschenrecht auf einen Swimmingpool
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Unpopuläre Massnahmen gegen die Verschwendung des wervollen Gutes Wasser |
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Global drying
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Wall Street Journal US, Wall Street Journal Asia, and Mint on 16 June 2008: "The world’s agriculture and water crisis is only going to get worse. As China and India grow, their populations are demanding more and wider varieties of food stuffs, competition for arable land is intensifying and freshwater withdrawals for agriculture are soaring. Food prices are rising, in large part because agriculture suppliers can barely keep up with today’s demand. So what is the world doing? Reorienting land away from food production and towards plants cultivated for energy needs." |
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World Economic Forum on East Asia closes, identifying water shortage and climate change as top concerns
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We will be running out of water long before we run out of oil |
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Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns General Electric
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Jeff Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, said in Beijing: "We believe that, just as greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water." |
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Food, water and agriculture
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In the wider public and in politics, awareness of the risk of water shortage is still low. Both the probability of this becoming a global problem and the potential impact on societies are vastly underestimated. |
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Aflaj in Oman -- irrigation system and societal institution
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By Dr. Abdullah Saif Al-Ghafri
In the aflaj system, individual farmers own a share of water depending on the size of his farming land and his contribution in constructing the falaj. |
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The solution to water is more complex than the solution to climate change
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Despite the high profile of climate change on the 2008 WEF Annual Meeting agenda, water scarcity is being called "as critical" an issue. And: "The solution to water is more complex than the solution to climate change," said Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of Nestle, at a star-studded panel discussion that included U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. |
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"Water shortage as critical as climate change," with Ban Ki-moon
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"The challenge of securing safe and plentiful water for all is one of the most daunting challenges faced by the world today."
Ban Ki-moon, Davos January 2008 |
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Brabeck on YouTube about sustainable water use
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A surprising story of 4,500 years of sustainable water withdrawal and distribution: the aflaj system in Oman - learning from the Arabs |
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Coping with water scarcity in developing countries: The role for agricultural biotechnologies
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Biotechnology tools to increase the efficiency of water use in agriculture, specific water-related applications of micro-organisms, in wastewater treatment and in inoculation of crops and forest trees with mycorrhizal fungi. |
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Asia-Pacific Water Forum Summit Takes Aim at Regional Water Shortages
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The security of water resources and providing water for agriculture will become critical issues for the region in the coming decades |
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Water at WEF Annual Meeting 2008 - A Call for Action
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The Founder Chairman and several members of WEF have signalled a clear interest in pushing the water issues -- mainly water and agriculture -- higher up on the agenda.
We will report. |
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Biofuels as water guzzlers
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IWMI Report Concludes That Conventional Biofuels Not Sustainable for India or China Due to Water Issues.
If all national policies and plans on biofuels are successfully implemented, 30 million additional hectares of crop land will be needed along with 180 km3 of additional irrigation water withdrawals. For some individual countries the impact could be particularly severe, including China and India, with significant implications for water resources and with feedback into global grain markets. |
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Virtual water is a reality check
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Our growth prospects are directly linked to water as a resource; the availability of water is no longer just an issue for farmers but for the entire economy.
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Establishing a Water Caucus in US Congress
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The Congressional Water Caucus will serve as a forum for dialogue concerning US water issues and reaching viable solutions to those issues. The caucus will focus on promoting legislative issues involving water as well as educating Members on our nation’s water use and resources.
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The real crisis is not oil - it is all about water!
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The real crisis is not oil - it is all about water
by Michail Gorbachev
Without water security, social, economic and national stability are imperilled. This is magnified where water flows across borders - and becomes crucial in regions of religious, territorial or ethnic tension. In some cases, as between India and Pakistan over the Indus River, successful cooperation over water resources can be cited as proof that even states with difficult relations can work together. In other cases, the opportunities to improve regional relations which a common watercourse presents have not yet been grasped. |
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Narrow ideology keeps taps dry
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Many politicians and NGOs oppose private sector involvement in "essential resources" like water. Oxfam pretends: "Rich country governments and international agencies such as the World Bank... hinder development by pushing private sector solutions that do not benefit the poor."
Actually 98% of all water distribution in the developing world is in public hands -- and this is exactly where the most serious problems, severest imbalances between access of poor and waelthy can be observed.
The easiest and usual way for the prosperous to defend their privileges is through politics -- it is strange to see "well-meaning" advocay groups help. |
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Higher water prices means less waste, says study
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A study in India by scientists from India's Punjab Agriculture Universit has shown that by increasing the price of water used for irrigation, farmers will use water more efficiently and plant crops that are more water-efficient. |
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Water constraints rain on ethanol zeal
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Water constraints rain on ethanol zeal. "My biggest concern is water," says Roric Paulman, a farmer near Sutherland, Neb. "We can guarantee a crop because we can irrigate it; that's what's driven some of the farmland values." |
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Water at the OECD Forum: with Angel Gurria
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"Follow the water, and you will be able to solve the problem of poverty and other problems." Angel Gurria OECD Secretary General |
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Another neglected environmental issue: soil erosion
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Soil loss is a serious and continuous problem of many countries, but we don’t count this as a loss. Let's take Turkey as an example: the values of inorganic substances, mineral and metallic elements inside the soil who flows to the seas, the streams, the dams could be equal to its national budget. If we calculate the soil which we let flow to the seas we could revive Turkey. |
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An excellent new site on water policy
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The water challenge: understanding the issues: a new site at OECD |
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Water: How to Manage a Vital Resource
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“A water crisis will not occur not because of scarcity but because of poor management.” This was the main message from this morning session of the 2007 OECD Forum. |
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Water as a human right - a practical solution
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The South African standard of basic level of water draws on the World Health Organization’s standard of 25 litres per person per day. This amount is about 6000 litres per household per month for a household of eight people.
The City of Durban has already started with the programme, whereby the first 6000 litres of water is supplied to all (irrespective of social status) for free, thereafter a premium is charged for usage. The more water one utilises the more one pays. |
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Facts on water
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Just discovered: a very informative Australian site on water; go and have a look |
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Water shortage and climat change
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Interview with P. Brabeck, Chairman and CEO Nestle SA: "Using free water to irrigate corn for so:called green fuel is like a subsidy to damage your environment." |
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Water scarcity 'due to agriculture'
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Climate change is being blamed increasingly for prolonged drought and chronic water shortages across the world. However, one of the world's leading experts on water planning points out that the issue is overuse of water by agriculture over tha last 50-100 years. |
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Lester Brown on water and oil
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Water - more important than oil. Mankind survived thousands of years without oil, but would survive a few days only without water .... |
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Open Forum Davos on Water 27 January 2006
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Sneaking out? |
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