Water wars

[MNeagle]

Thought I'd start a tread about water issues & conflicts around the world.

Here's the latest:

Water conflict in Pakistan's tribal region leaves dozens dead

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A water dispute in Pakistan's tribal region has led to over two weeks of fighting and dozens of deaths, government officials said Sunday.

The conflict is centered in Kurram Agency, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's restive tribal region which borders Afghanistan.

Sixteen days ago, the Mangal tribe stopped water irrigation on lands used by the Tori tribe, according to Mumtaz Zareen, a senior government official in Kurram Agency.

Zareen told CNN that 116 people have been killed, including 13 on Sunday alone.

Another 165 people have been wounded over the course of the dispute.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/09/19/pakistan.water.dispute/index.html?hpt=T2

[MNeagle]

Indian Farmers Fight Billionaire Mittal, Posco for Water Rights

Related News:Asia · Japan · India & Pakistan · Commodities · Australia & New Zealand · Emerging Markets · Insurance .Indian Farmers Fight Billionaire Mittal, Posco for Water Rights
By Abhishek Shanker - Oct 4, 2010 10:01 AM CT
Email Share
Business ExchangeTwitterDeliciousDiggFacebookLinkedInNewsvi nePropellerYahoo! BuzzPrint ArcelorMittal and Posco are leading $80 billion in planned spending in India that would vault the country ahead of Japan as the second-biggest steelmaker. Standing in the way are farmers and their water supply.

The farmers refuse to move from irrigated land in three states that hold more than half of India’s reserves of iron ore, a key material to make steel. That’s stymied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ambitions to more than triple India’s steel capacity to 232 million metric tons.

“We’re not going to allow the government to take the land and water and give them to Posco,” said Prasanth Paikare, a spokesman for opposition group Posco Prathirodh Sangram Samiti that says it represents 25,000 farmers. “The government has promised us land at a new location but there is no good land available in the state now and there won’t be enough water for agriculture,” he said in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa state.

The farmers’ concern about water for crops has delayed plans by ArcelorMittal, Posco and at least five rivals to benefit from a steel market that has expanded more than 55 percent since 2005 as Indian imports of the metal tripled in the same period. Posco’s proposal to build a $12 billion steel plant in Orissa has stalled for five years as the South Korean company failed to persuade farmers to move.

“Repeated delays have left investors concerned about whether Posco can make it,” said Im Jeong Jae, who helps manage $26.3 billion of assets, including shares of the world’s third-biggest steelmaker, at Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management Co. “India is very important because it has the best growth potential after China for steel demand and Posco can also source iron ore and raw materials there.”

Lagging Behind

The latest hurdle is an environment ministry report due this month on the impact of the Posco project. Chief Executive Officer Chung Joon Yang has since announced investment plans in Indonesia and Vietnam, as it lagged behind Chinese steelmaker Baosteel Group Corp.

The 160 million tons of steel capacity planned in India would consume 640 billion gallons of water a year, based on average consumption of U.S. steel mills in a U.S. Department of Energy paper. That’s enough to provide enough water for drinking and cooking for 133 million people in India for a year, according to figures from the government.

That level of water consumption would yield 1 million tons of rice a year, which at today’s price of $299 a ton would fetch 0.3 percent of the value of the steel produced and be enough to feed 9 million people in India for a year, based on the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization consumption estimates.

Land and Water

“Posco wants our land, it wants our water,” said Makar Kandi, 75, who sustains a family of eight from a one-acre plot on which he grows betel leaves in Orissa’s Dhinkia village. “Agriculture is our only means. We’ll have no livelihood.”

India increased annual steel output by 34 million tons since 2005, compared with 219 million tons by China, the biggest-producing nation.

A ton of hot-rolled coil, a benchmark steel product, sells for about $685, compared with $299 a ton for a common variety of rice in India.

ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, faces delays for a $10 billion mill in Orissa and in Jharkhand state. Projects by Tata Steel Ltd., India’s biggest maker of the metal, are faring no better in the two states and in Chhattisgarh.

Iron Ore Attraction

According to an agreement with Jharkhand, Luxembourg- based ArcelorMittal would have access to 20 million tons of iron ore annually for 30 years. That’s enough to raise its self- sufficiency in the raw material by 33 percent. Iron ore prices have gained in two out of three quarters this year.

“Securing iron ore assets has become very important for the steel companies as prices both in the contractual as well as spot markets have been very volatile,” Elora Sahoo, an analyst at Dhanlaxmi Bank Ltd., said in Mumbai. “Having their own iron ore assets will help companies hedge against market price movements and control the cost of production.”

ArcelorMittal is now seeking to secure land at a new location in Jharkhand, said spokeswoman Mandakini Sud. There has been “good” progress in convincing locals, mostly people engaged in non-agricultural activities, to give up land, she said.

“With over 60 percent of India’s population dependent on the monsoons for livelihood, there’s population concentration and serious competition in areas with water,” Rahul Jain, an analyst at RBS Equities India Ltd. said in Mumbai.

Less Rainfall

What’s making the case worse for Posco is the declining rainfall in the Jagatsinghpur district where it’s planning its mill. Rain during the June-September monsoon period, needed for agriculture, has fallen 26 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to data from the country’s weather department.

That forced farmers to compete with manufacturers including Vedanta Resources Plc and Hindalco Industries Ltd. for water from the Mahanadi river. Posco plans to secure water through pipes from the Jobra dam on the river.

“Opposition to the project is unfounded,” Posco India Ltd. General Manager Simanta Mohanty said. “We will not use local water. There’s enough water available from Jobra.”

The steelmakers in June begun exploring sites in the southern state of Karnataka, which has the country’s second- biggest iron ore deposit. The catch? Lack of water.

“The state has decided to acquire dry and barren land, which gives little or no returns to the farmers,” said V.P. Baligar, industry secretary of Karnataka state. “On such land, water is an issue and we are trying to address it.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-04/indian-farmers-fight-billionaire-mittal-posco-for-water-rights.html

[gunDriller]

i visited Eastern Oregon in 2006.

one of the places i looked at, i visited the neighbors. they were great.

told me about their water wars. they would put a pump in the farm water canal, then the neighbor on the other side would un-plug the pump.

the asshole neighbor was upset because the woman managed a ranch & reported the asshole neighbor for hunting on the ranch property.

her husband (the good neighbor) was over 6 feet tall, and looked pretty strong.

it was wierd to see 2 grown men feuding over water, among other things.

the property i looked at had a very minimal well - .9 gallons per minute.

[Dogman]

Out west fighting over water is as natural as breathing air. And by the looks of things it is going to get WAY worse. More people in desert city's are using more water than the land can support. Pumping the aquifers dry and most important most of the west have been into a drought that is seeing no end.

In some ways the water wars in the western states of the u.s.a have been going on ever since and before they became states but now are starting to ramp up in intensity, for example California wants all it can get from neighbor states and it can never get enough. If you have a well in those areas just watch as your water table drops because of all of the pumping.

Out in west Tex around Pecos driving through it now you would never have a clue that years ago the area had a large farming community and a lot of the wells were artesian, just dig a well and out it came. Then they started to have to pump the water and the water table started dropping. Now you can drive all around the ares for miles and miles and see old big bore holes that used to be wells that are hundreds of feet deep and dry as dust. The aquifer has been pumped so low that it became too expensive to pump anymore.

The water wars here are alive and well today.

[MNeagle]

The Ten Biggest American Cities That Are Running Out Of Water

Some parts of the United States have begun to run low on water. That is probably not much of a surprise to people who live in the arid parts of America that have had water shortages for decades or even centuries. No one who has been to the Badlands in South Dakota would expect to be able to grow crops there.

The water problem is worse than most people realize, particularly in several large cities which are occasionally low on water now and almost certainly face shortfalls in a few years. This is particularly true if the change in global weather patterns substantially alters rainfall amounts in some areas of the US.

24/7 Wall St. looked at an October, 2010 report on water risk by environmental research and sustainability group, Ceres. We also considered a comprehensive July, 2010 report from the National Resources Defense Council which mapped areas at high risk of water shortage conflict. 24/7 Wall St also did its own analysis of water supply and consumption in America’s largest cities, and focused on the thirty largest metropolitan areas. One goal was to identify potential conflicts in regions which might have disputed rights over large supplies of water and the battles that could arise from these disputes. And, 24/7 Wall St. examined geographic areas which have already been plagued by drought and water shortages off and on.

The analysis allowed us to choose ten cities which are likely to face severe shortages in the relatively near-term future. Some of these are likely to be obvious to the reader. The area around Los Angeles was once too dry to sustain the population of a huge city. But, infrastructure was built that allowed water to be pumped in from east of the region. Las Vegas had similar problems. It was part of a great desert until Lake Meade was created by the Hoover dam built on the Colorado river.

Severe droughts that could affect large cities are first a human problem. The competition for water could make life in some of America’s largest cities nearly unbearable for residents. A number of industries rely on regular access to water. Some people would be out of work if these industries had poor prospects for continued operation. The other important trouble that very low water supplies creates is that cities have sold bonds based on their needs for infrastructure to move, clean, and supply water. Credit ratings agencies may not have taken drought issues into account at the level that they should. Extreme disruptions of the water supply of any city would have severe financial consequences.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report takes the following into account when assessing the likelihood of water shortages: “The risk to water sustainability is based on the following criteria: (1) projected water demand as a share of available precipitation; (2) groundwater use as a share of projected available precipitation; (3) susceptibility to drought; (4) projected increase in freshwater withdrawals; and (5) projected increase in summer water deficit.”

The ten cities on this list are the ones with the most acute exposure to problems which could cause large imbalances of water supply and demand. There are a number of metropolitan areas which could face similar problems but their risks are not quite as high. The water problem for US cities is, although it may not be evident, one of the largest issues that faces urban areas over the next ten years.

These are the ten largest cities by population that have the greatest chance of running out of water.


10. Orlando, FL

Major Water Supply: Floridan Aquifer
Population (U.S. rank): 235,860 (80th)
Population Growth Rate: 26.8% since 2000
Average annual rainfall: 48.35 in.

North-central Florida, especially Orange County where Orlando is located, has experienced frequent droughts in the last decade. As a consequence, the area has implemented extreme conservation measures, including aggressive water-rationing policies and lawn-watering bans. After the drought and resulting wildfires subsided, however, Orlando faced another problem. As of 2013, Orlando will no longer be able to increase the rate at which it uses water from the Floridan aquifer, the city’s main source of fresh water supply. This presents a major problem for city officials: how does the limited water supply continue to meet demand for one of the fastest-growing regions in the state? It is estimated that water usage in the Orlando area will increase from 526 million gallons per day from 1995 to 866 million in 2020. On the city website, the mayor is quoted, saying: “Orlando Utilities Commission water usage trends show Orlando water demand exceeding the supply by approximately 2014 if no action is taken.” There are plans in the works to tap the St. John’s river for irrigation, and eventually drinking water. Many, however, are skeptical that even this will be enough to meet Orlando’s growing demand.

9. Atlanta, GA

Major Water Supply: Lake Lanier, GA
Population (U.S. rank): 540,922 (33rd)
Population Growth Rate: 29.9% since 2009
Average annual rainfall: 50.2 in.

Between 2007 and 2008, the southeast experienced a major drought, which depleted the region’s major water supplies. No city in the south suffered more than Atlanta, the second-fastest-growing metropolitan area in the last eight years. The crisis began when the Army Corps of Engineers released more than 20 billion gallons of water from Lake Lanier, the city’s primary source of water. Continued poor rainfall brought the lake to its lowest recorded levels. At one point, city officials reported there was only three months left of stored fresh water to supply Atlanta. The drought eventually subsided and consistent rain returned the lake to less dangerous levels. However, Atlanta may continue to be at risk, as the lake is the site of an ongoing legal conflict between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, all of which rely on the reservoir for fresh water. Last year, a federal judge declared Atlanta’s withdrawals from the lake illegal, and if the ruling stands, the city will lose roughly 40% of its water supply by 2012.

8. Tucson, AZ

Major Water Supply: local ground water
Population (U.S. rank): 543,000 (32nd)
Population Growth Rate: 20% since 2000
Average Annual Rainfall: 12.17 in.

The NRDC study rates Pima county, Arizona, where Tuscon is located, as an area with extreme risk of water shortage. The city is in the Sonoran desert, an extremely arid region which receives less than 12 inches of rainfall each year. Currently, the Tucson region uses about 350,000 acre-feet of water per year. At this rate, Tucson’s groundwater supply, which now provides the majority of the city’s water, has a very limited life span. In addition to this, the city is currently bringing in 314,000 acre-feet per year from the Colorado River under the Central Arizona Project. However, Tuscon is growing rapidly, adding more than 20,000 people since 2000. This, combined with the political uncertainty of the Central Arizona Project allocation, places Tucson at extreme risk for future water shortages.


7. Las Vegas, NV

Major Water Supply: Lake Mead/Colorado River
Population (U.S. rank): 567,000 (28th)
Population Growth Rate: 18.6% since 2000
Average Annual Rainfall: 4.5 in.

In the middle of the Mojave Desert, with an annual precipitation rate of only 10 cm, Las Vegas must rely on distant sources for its fresh water. The city’s main source is Lake Mead, which supplies 85% of the water used in the Las Vegas Valley. Unfortunately, the lake is 59% empty and is approaching its first water shortage ever. In addition to Las Vegas, it would affect other areas of Nevada and Arizona. Moreover, it could potentially stop the Hoover dam from producing electricity – as soon as 2013. This would affect many big California cities that receive hydro-electric power through the dam.

6. Fort Worth, TX

Major Water Supply: multiple
Population (U.S. rank): 727,577 (17th)
Population Growth Rate: 36.1% since 2000
Average annual rainfall: 34.01 inches

As Fort Worth continues to grow (its population is expected to hit 4.3 million by 2060), the amount of water demand has continued to exceed the amount of water available through local supply. As a result, the city, which is in Tarrant County, must rely on storage water, making the system much more exposed to the worst effects of prolonged drought. To remedy this problem, the Tarrant Regional Water District is trying to bring in more water from Oklahoma’s Red River. Oklahoma, wishing to preserve its water sources, limits interstate water sales. Fort Worth has countered with a lawsuit, which is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

5. San Fransisco Bay Area, CA

Major Water Supply: various, including Lake Hetch Hetchy
Population (U.S. rank): San Fransisco: 815,359 (12th), Oakland: 409,189 (44th), San Jose: 964,695 (10th)
Population Growth Rate: 20% since 2000
Average annual rainfall: 20.4 in.

Much like the southeast in the early 2000’s, California has experienced intermittent droughts that have brought the area’s water supply to the brink of disaster. After several years of drought between 2005 and 2007, the Bay Area, which represents more that 3.7 million people, was forced to adopt aggressive water usage restrictions. Legal battles ensued between San Fransisco area legislators and those in the Sacramento delta who believed they deserved bay area water from major sources, like Lake Hetch Hetchy. According to the NRDC and CERES studies, the San Fransisco Bay area, including adjacent cities San Jose and Oakland, are “very likely” to experience a severe crisis as a result of water shortage within the next 50 years.

4. San Antonio, Texas

Major Water Supply: various ground water sources
Population (U.S. rank): 1,373,668 (7th)
Population Growth Rate: 20% since 2000
Average annual rainfall: 30.24 in.

Bexar County, Texas, where San Antonio is located, possesses the highest rating given by the Natural Resources Defense Council with regards to water sustainability. This means that the area is at extremely high risk for water demand exceeding supply by 2050 if no major systematic changes are made. As most surface water from lakes and rivers in Texas have already been claimed by varying districts across Texas, most counties are now looking at groundwater to meet future demand. San Antonio has attempted to secure water from a number of Texas groundwater conservation districts. Due to legal obstacles,this has proven to be difficult. Today, many experts, including members of the Texas Water Development Board, recommend undertaking a major project to ensure future sustainability, such as a desalination plant on the Gulf Coast.

3. Phoenix, AZ

Major Water Supply: Colorado River Basin
Population (U.S. rank): 1,593,659 (5th)
Population Growth Rate: 21.2% since 2000
Average annual rainfall: 8.3 in.

Like many of the other western cities on this list, Phoenix is extremely dependent on water imported from the Colorado River. This is because nearly half of the water the city’s residents use comes from this significant source. As the Colorado River Basin enters the eleventh year of its drought, the city’s reliance on the river may soon become a serious problem. If the drought continues, water deliveries to Arizona could potentially be cut back. To keep up a sufficient water supply, Phoenix is adopting an aggressive campaign to recycle water, replenish groundwater, and try to dissuade over-consumption. Time will tell if it these measures will be enough.

2. Houston, TX

Major Water Supply: Jasper Aquifer, Lake Houston, Lake Conroe
Population (U.S. rank): $2,257,926 (4th)
Population Growth Rate: 15.6%
Average annual rainfall: 53.34 inches

Throughout most of its history, the city of Houston primarily drew water from the Jasper Aquifer, located along the southeastern coast of Texas. Over the last 30 years, the city began to suffer from dramatic rises in sea level of nearly an inch a year. Geologists eventually realized that the cause was Houston’s withdrawal of fresh water from the aquifer located under the city. This discovery forced city officials to use nearby Lake Houston and Lake Conroe for municipal water instead of the aquifer. Since 2000, Houston has been the fifth-fastest-growing city in the country, and its presence in an area with high drought likelihood makes it an immediate risk for serious water shortages.

1. Los Angeles, CA

Major Water Supply: Colorado River Basin
Population (U.S. rank): 3,831,868 (2nd)
Population Growth Rate: 3.7%
Average annual rainfall: 14.77 in.

In the 1980’s, Los Angeles suffered a major crisis when the city was forced to stop using 40% of its drinking water due to industrial runoff contamination. Like Las Vegas, the city now relies on importing water from the Colorado river via hundreds of miles of aqueducts. The Colorado may only be a temporary solution, however, as the fastest growing city in the country continues to increase its demand at an unsustainable rate. In its utility risk rating, CERES gave the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power the highest likelihood of risk among the cities it assessed. That list included Atlanta and the Ft. Worth Area. On top of this, The Hoover Dam, which is the main source of electricity for LA and much of the greater southwest, is also producing at a lower rate than it has historically. Some scientists suspect this drop-off will continue to a point where its electricity production is too small to sustain the dam economically. Los Angeles, even if the dam doesn’t cease production in 2013, as some predict, it still faces serious water shortages.

Charles B. Stockdale, Michael B. Sauter, Douglas A. McIntyre

http://247wallst.com/2010/10/29/the-ten-great-american-cities-that-are-dying-of-thirst/3/

[zap]

Water will be like gold someday!

[MNeagle]

Water will be like gold someday!


Already a book out about water called "Blue Gold"!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41st3Ru%2BUPL._SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-dp,TopRight,12,-18_SH30_OU01_AA160_.jpg

Great read too.

P.S. I agree, water WILL be the battle in the future, the way things are going. It already is in many countries.

[skid]

There's no shortage of water in the PNW. In the last week alone it's rained 3-4 inches, and the rainy season has just started.....

[MNeagle]

Northern Ireland faces mounting water crisis


http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20101229/capt.de96ba1f29b2486581a9f9b07aeabb86-de96ba1f29b2486581a9f9b07aeabb86-0.jpg?x=213&y=152&xc=1&yc=1&wc=409&hc=292&q=85&sig=q7nDiPXmJbGYuqRPIyE7WQ--
AP – Members of the fire service fill tanks with water as people queue with empty bottles to collect water,


BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Frustration and fears of disease mounted in Northern Ireland on Wednesday as 36,000 people were left without water, some for more than a week, after a deep freeze and a sudden thaw caused aging pipes to burst.

With reservoirs running low, water supplies were cut off in many towns and cities, and residents turned to emergency water tankers and bottled water for their cooking, cleaning and drinking needs.

Scotland said it was sending 160,000 liters (42,000 gallons) of bottled water to help meet demand.

Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, called the situation "a grave crisis," and said people had been let down by their water supplier.

The Northern Ireland government scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday to discuss the crisis.

Doctors warned of potential disease outbreaks if water was not restored, but officials said it would take several days or more to bring back all service.

"This may go on for another short period, but we are doing our best to keep it as short as possible to get those reservoir levels up and provide water to our customers," said Liam Mulholland, of Northern Ireland Water.

He said the shortage had been aggravated by burst pipes in vacant properties spewing water as technicians try to trace and repair the problem.

The water company's website listed some 80 towns and cities with disrupted water supplies and advised customers where to find emergency supplies.

There also was substantial flooding in Northern Ireland, with some floodwaters contaminated by sewage, raising public health concerns.

Alison McCrystal, spokeswoman for the water company, urged consumers not to wash their cars, hose down their properties or do "anything unnecessary" to waste water during the shortfall.

She said emergency crews were working around the clock to restore service and ease fears that contaminated water could lead to a disease outbreak.

McCrystal also pleaded for people with empty properties or businesses to check that their pipes were intact and their water turned off to prevent more wastage.

Some families have not had fresh running water for eight days, with officials predicting it will take several more days to restore normal service.

"People with young families have not been able to flush toilets and wash themselves, never mind get access to drinking water," said Dr. Peter Maguire, a general practitioner. "It's just not good enough. What's happening is really not acceptable."

Many cities have made leisure and recreation centers available to the public so they can use bathroom facilities and have a place to do washing.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101229/ap_on_re_eu/eu_northern_ireland_water_crisis

[MNeagle]

South Africa relocates residents due to sinkholes

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50591000/gif/_50591960_southafrica_bapsfontein_1210_v2.gif

South African authorities have begun the relocation of 3,000 families after huge sinkholes appeared close to their homes near Pretoria.

The depressions are said to be the result of a massive extraction of water by farms in the area, causing underground caverns to collapse.

About 50 families living in an informal settlement in Bapsfontein have been moved so far, officials said.

Authorities have said the land is no longer fit for human settlement.

'Immediate evacuation'

"The situation is so bad that there are several sinkholes that have formed around the area," Zweli Dlamini, a spokesman for the Ekurhuleni municipality, told the BBC.

He said the area around the informal settlement had been categorised as unsafe due to the possibility of the sinkhole "swallowing that piece of land".

Underground water was increasing the danger to a degree that gave authorities no choice but to order an immediate evacuation, he added.

Some of the sinkholes are more than 80m (263ft) across, and cracks now run throughout the land, says the BBC's Africa editor Martin Plaut.

Families have agreed to move and have been promised better houses to live in.

The relocation process is expected to run until mid-January, according to the South African Press Agency (Sapa).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12083806

[Rebel Yarr]

There's no shortage of water in the PNW. In the last week alone it's rained 3-4 inches, and the rainy season has just started.....


Yeah - no wars over the shit out here...Oly penn gets 10-12 feet a year...

[MNeagle]

Hat tip to Ponce for this one:


Rise of the Peking Pound: China buys 10% stake in Britain's biggest water company.

By Sean Poulter, Consumer Affairs Editor

Last updated at 6:12 PM on 20th January 2012


Thames Water: Almost nine per cent of the holding company that owns the water and sewerage firm was bought by the Chinese

The Chinese government has bought nearly 10per cent of Britain’s biggest water company in a move that could signal an economic revolution.

It is the first of many investments in the UK’s infrastructure and business sectors that are predicted to transform the nation’s commercial DNA.

Projects as diverse as a new London airport in the Thames Estuary to vast new wind farms, nuclear power plants, the High Speed 2 rail line and a new super sewer for London will be trying to attract investment from the Chinese.
Separately, house builders, tech companies and manufacturers, who are struggling to borrow from UK banks, will be vying for a slice of the ‘Peking Pound’.

China’s sovereign wealth fund is buying 8.7per cent of Thames Water in a deal that could be worth £1billion.
The fund is fabulously wealthy, with reserves running to £300billion, which the Chinese government is keen to invest overseas.
However, the idea of an arm of a Communist Chinese government – albeit one that is adopting a more capitalist and consumer-led approach – owning a stake in a key strategic businesses is controversial.

Man on a trade mission: Chancellor George Osborne addresses the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong earlier this week.
It is unlikely that nations such as the US, Germany and France would contemplate foreign businesses or governments owning their infrastructure.

A TV poll by Sky News found 90per cent of people are opposed to Thames Water being foreign owned.
However, advocates insist that Britain will benefit from the promised Chinese investment that will fuel economic growth and create jobs.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, welcomed the announcement saying: ‘This is a significant step by China. It is a vote of confidence in Britain as a place to invest and do business.

‘This investment is good news for both the British and Chinese economies.’
Good news: Former Trade Minister Lord Digby Jones welcomed the investment by the Chinese.
The former Trade Minister Lord Digby Jones said the investment was good news. But he said it was wrong that British companies do not have the same freedom to invest around the world.

Speaking to the BBC Today programme, he said: ‘There are two worries. Everyone praises Britain for having an open market, including the Chinese, but it is not quite a level playing field.
‘I don’t think you would find the Germans doing this, or the French or the Americans.’
Lord Jones said pressure should be put on other countries to open up their economies to allow British business to expand around the globe.

The sovereign wealth fund is run by China Investment Corporation (CIC). It announced the purchase of the stake in Thames Water in a one line sentence.
The company did not reveal the price paid, however its stake in Thames Water, which has 14 million customers across London and the south, is thought to be worth more than £1billion.
The CIC chairman Lou Jiwei announced plans in November to invest in European and US infrastructure, beginning in Britain.

The plans are part of a drive to spur global growth and so underpin the demand among western consumers for Chinese goods.
CIC was created to invest abroad in the hope of earning a better return on a portion of China's £2trillion in foreign reserves.
Mr Lou has made clear that the fund's investments are made on commercial rather than political grounds and are aimed at making a profit.

Huge investments funds: Shanghai's Pudong skyline underlines the massive scale of the superpower's economy which has given them the cash to buy into firms like Thames Water
The decision to invest in Thames Water follows Mr Osborne’s return earlier this week from a visit to China.
During the trip, he outlined plans to make London the international centre for trading in the Chinese currency, the Renminbi, which could be worth billions to the City and the wider economy.

Thames Water, once publicly-owned, has gone through several foreign hands since privatisation in 1989.
It was owned by RWE of Germany for many years before being sold to a consortium called Kemble Water, headed by the Australian bank Macquarie.

In December, another huge sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, bought 9.9per cent of Kemble.

It is an attractive investment because profits are effectively guaranteed by a regime that allows price rises every year.
Fury: Protestors made their feelings plain after it had been agreed that Cadbury would be subject to a £11.5billion takeover from US giant Kraft worth.

Abu Dhabi: The sovereign state fund sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, bought 9.9per cent of Thames Water holding company Kemble in December.
Chinese entrepreneurs have already made tentative steps into buying British businesses. For example, Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, which is run by Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, bought Northumbrian Water in August for £2.4billion.

Other famous names to fall into Chinese hands include MG Rover and Volvo
.
Last year a Chinese food company made an unsuccessful approach to buy United Biscuits, home to famous brands such as Jaffa Cakes and McVitie’s digestives.
In the past, British governments have taken a hands-off approach to allowing foreign corporate giants to snap up important UK businesses, including water and energy companies.

The result is that American, German and French business giants now own a huge proportion of Britain’s infrastructure. However, giving the green light to foreign investment has created controversy. For example, the decision to allow Kraft of the US to buy Cadbury only then to lay off thousands of workers drew condemnation.

Similarly, the idea that four of the ‘big six’ energy firms are foreign owned has angered consumers. Npower and E.on are both German, EDF is French and Scottish Power is Spanish-owned.

The Spanish also own Heathrow, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stansted airports through Ferrovial’s ownership of BAA.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1kCXMkOTA (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089538/China-buys-10-cent-stake-Britains-biggest-water-company.html#ixzz1kCXMkOTA)

[ximmy]

government initiated global warming
less snow
less water in aquifers
heard populations to mega cities with water
a good way to control the nomad & survivalist

[MNeagle]

U.S. Intelligence Says Water Shortages Threaten Stability


Competition for increasingly scarce water in the next decade will fuel instability in regions such as South Asia and the Middle East (http://topics.bloomberg.com/middle-east/) that are important to U.S. national security, according to a U.S. intelligence report.

An all-out water war is unlikely in the next 10 years, as nations will be more likely to use water as a bargaining chip with each other, according to the report from the Director of National Intelligence (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/0113121D:US) released today.

As shortages become more acute, “water in shared basins will increasingly be used as leverage; the use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives also will become more likely beyond 10 years,” according to the study. The report was requested by the State Department and drawn from a classified national intelligence estimate.

The report, drafted principally by the Defense Intelligence Agency (http://topics.bloomberg.com/defense-intelligence-agency/), reflects a growing emphasis in the U.S. intelligence community on how environmental issues such as water shortages, natural disasters and climate change (http://topics.bloomberg.com/climate-change/) may affect U.S. security interests. It assumes no major changes in water-management practices.

Population and economic growth are the biggest near-term drivers of water shortages, a U.S. intelligence official told reporters on a conference call this morning. Climate-change effects become more apparent later in the century, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report is based on a classified national intelligence estimate.

Terrorist Targets

Rising tensions over water will make resource management a higher priority in international negotiations in which the U.S. could play a role, and nations will need to play closer attention to water security, he said. As water and hydroelectric power become more valuable, dams, irrigation projects and reservoirs could become more attractive targets for terrorists or military strikes, the official said.

Depleted groundwater for agriculture, which uses 70 percent of water, could destabilize markets and contribute to price swings such as those last year that sent food costs to a record (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/FAOFOODI:IND) and created unrest in the Middle East and North Africa (http://topics.bloomberg.com/africa/). Because of the amount of water used for farming, the most effective solution would lie in agriculture improvements, the official said.

Risking Instability

“Many countries important to the United States (http://topics.bloomberg.com/united-states/) will experience water problems -- shortages, poor water quality, or floods -- that will risk instability,” the study found. “North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia will face major challenges coping with water problems.”

Annual global water requirements will be 40 percent more than current sustainable water supplies by 2030, according to a 2009 report by the 2030 Water Resources Group, a World Bank- sponsored collaboration that included Coca-Coca Co. (KO) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/KO:US) and Nestle SA (NESN) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/NESN:VX) among its members.

“Water shortages, poor water quality, and floods by themselves are unlikely to result in state failure,” according to the U.S. intelligence report. “However, water problems -- when combined with poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions -- contribute to social disruptions that can result in state failure.”

Water-Sharing Issues

In addition, the report’s authors said, “some states are further stressed by a heavy dependency on river water controlled by upstream nations with unresolved water-sharing issues.”

Better water use will be necessary to reduce the strains on supplies and international tensions, according to the report, with the biggest potential gains through improved farming practices.

The report also examines seven river basins that may present risks to U.S. security interests, grading the management capacity of the Amu Darya in Central Asia and Afghanistan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/afghanistan/), and the Brahmaputra, which flows from Tibet through India (http://topics.bloomberg.com/india/) to Bangladesh, as “inadequate.” The study defines management capacity as the ability of nations, treaties and organizations in an area to manage political grievances over water.

The intelligence report described the political stability of the Mekong River watershed in Southeast Asia (http://topics.bloomberg.com/southeast-asia/); the Tigris and Euphrates in Turkey (http://topics.bloomberg.com/turkey/), Syria, Iraq and Iran (http://topics.bloomberg.com/iran/); and the Nile Basin in northern Africa as “limited.” The report rates the Indus in South Asia and the Jordan in the Middle East as “moderate.”

The United Nations (http://topics.bloomberg.com/united-nations/) designates each March 22 as World Water Day, and the State Department said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (http://topics.bloomberg.com/hillary-clinton/) will unveil a new public-private U.S. Water Partnership today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-21/u-s-intelligence-says-water-shortages-threaten-stability.html

[MNeagle]

Oil companies desperately seek water amid Kansas drought


http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/BbiFgP6mOGVJnyd3QbyMsQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://l.yimg.com/os/284/2012/03/09/CNNMoney-new-logo-27-gif_044803.gif (http://money.cnn.com/)By Blake Ellis | CNNMoney.com – 3 minutes 9 seconds ago

Oil companies drilling in the drought-ridden fields of southern Kansas are taking desperate measures to get the water they need to tap into the state's oil reserves.

Huge amounts of water are required to extract oil, especially when companies use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which requires millions of gallons of water to crack the shale rock and bring oil to the surface. But now that the entire state is in emergency drought status, with only 1.19 inches of rainfall last month -- the 10th driest July on record -- unprecedented water shortages are making it difficult for drillers to get the water they need.

Some companies are paying farmers for any remaining water they have left in their ponds, drilling their own water wells, digging ponds next to streams or trucking in water from as far away as Pennsylvania -- all of which is costing them a handsome sum of money and time.

"This has been the most unique challenge I've run into in a while," said Ruben Alba, partner at Petro River Oil, one of the smaller oil companies that has entered the oil play in Kansas over the past year.

Desperate for water: Petro River Oil had plans to frack and drill its first oil well last month, but much of the water supply the company intended to use was cut off when the state limited access to certain streams this summer due to the drought.

Alba's company drilled its own water well, but it wasn't pumping enough water, so he hired a company to truck water in, delaying the job by about six weeks. By the time drilling was complete, the company had paid nearly triple the amount it originally budgeted.


To avoid running into this problem again, Alba turned to local farmers and ranchers, asking them to sell his company water from their existing ponds or let him drill water wells on their land. But the whole process was taking up so much time that he hired a company called Select Energy to do the legwork for him.

Select Energy sources water for oil companies in drilling hotspots across the country, and some landowners can make between $70,000 and $85,000 over the course of a year and a half by selling the water in their ponds to the company, said Mike Wilson, a regional sales manager at Select Energy.

But many landowners aren't as willing to give up their water now that supplies have become so scarce.

"Farmers are scared about the water supply, too," said Jeff Gordon, CEO of Texas Coastal Energy Co., a small oil company that began exploring in Kansas last year. "They are now saying, 'We need to save our water for our crop and our livestock.' "

Related: Farmers hit the jackpot in Kansas oil boom


With two oil wells slated to be drilled in the next month, Texas Coastal is considering drilling its own water well at a cost of between $10,000 and $25,000.

Otherwise, it would have to pay to truck water in from out of state or buy it from local farmers and ranchers. Either method could add 3% to 4% to the overall cost of drilling an oil well. Depending on the size of the well and the amount of water required, that could add up to between $20,000 and $200,000.

To the oil companies, it's worth it. With oil prices hovering around $90 a barrel and the cost to produce a barrel of oil only around $15, the profits are huge, said Gordon, whose company is still aggressively leasing mineral rights, which gives it rights to drill on certain properties.

If the drought worsens or persists for too much longer, however, it could threaten the oil boom, particularly among the smaller drilling companies that can't afford the added costs and delays, he said.

Related: Boom chasers, next stop Kansas

"That can cripple a drilling company, as lack of water can basically suspend operations," he said.

Petro River's Alba said the drought won't affect his current drilling plans, but he will carefully assess water availability before expanding into other areas of Kansas.

Scrambling to get the oil companies to stay: Mike Lanie, the economic development director in Harper County, which is at the center of the oil boom, is determined to keep oil companies from pulling out.

Lanie and some other local entrepreneurs in the area have even been digging ponds next to streams. Lanie's brother is digging a 300-foot wide, 15-foot deep lake on the swampy area of his property to provide water to Select Energy, which will in turn sell it to oil companies.

Select Energy is also bringing in water-hauling trucks from Pennsylvania so that oil companies can begin hauling water from out of state if they need to -- a more expensive proposition because of fuel and labor costs.

In the end, Lanie expects the oil companies will do what it takes to get the oil they came for.

"From what I'm told, they don't plan on stopping," said Lanie. "They'll even use sewer lagoons or they'll haul it in from out of state if they have to, to keep those wells going."

View this article on CNNMoney (http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/10/news/economy/kansas-oil-boom-drought/index.html?source=yahoo_hosted)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-companies-desperately-seek-water-132900862.html?l=1

[MNeagle]

Many well users find their faucets are running dry

DAVID MERCER


Updated: August 14, 2012 - 4:42 PM


CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - After months of record-breaking heat and drought, many rural Americans who rely on wells for water are getting an unwelcome surprise when they turn on their faucets: The tap has run dry.

The lack of running water can range from a manageable nuisance to an expensive headache. Homeowners and businesses are being forced to buy thousands of gallons from private suppliers, to drill deeper or to dig entirely new wells.

Mary Lakin's family drained the last of its well water late last month in the small northern Indiana community of Parr. Since then, Lakin, her husband and two children have bathed and done laundry at relatives' homes and filled buckets from their backyard pool every time they need to flush a toilet.

Having water is "just something you take for granted," she said. "It's a big hassle, but we're surviving."

No one tracks the number of wells that go dry, but state and local governments and well diggers and water haulers report many more dead wells than in a typical summer across a wide swath of the Midwest, from Nebraska to Indiana and Wisconsin to Missouri.

It's not unusual for rural wells to stop producing toward the end of a hot summer. But this year is different. Some of the same wells that are known to run dry in August or September instead ran out in June.

Water suppliers and well drillers across the Midwest say they're working long hours to keep up with demand.

"It's seven days a week, man," said Carl Marion, a water hauler in Athens, Ill., north of Springfield. "I work until 12 or 1 o'clock every single night."

Wells are typically drilled 30 or 50 feet down. Some go hundreds of feet before hitting water. And the deeper the well, the more expensive it is, with costs starting at several thousand dollars and climbing in extreme cases into tens of thousands.

In the summer, when lawns, gardens, pools and livestock all drive up use, water levels can drop below a well's pump. If rain doesn't replenish the supply, sometimes the only option is to drill deeper or dig an entirely new well.

Older wells are particularly vulnerable because they may not hold water as efficiently or they may have been dug in places where most of the water is gone.
"It's sort of Darwinism," said George Roadcap, a hydro-geologist with the Illinois Water Survey. "The weak wells get shaken out at a time like this. Many people are using wells that are a hundred years old."

In other cases, well owners have hurt themselves with careless water usage, said Richard Hubert, who owns Hubert Water Hauling Service in Smithville, Ill., about 20 miles southeast of St. Louis.

"We've had a lot of people who were silly enough to take their water out of their well and put it into their pool. Or they ran around watering stuff when we've been dry for 10 weeks," Hubert said. "I don't know what you're thinking when you've got a shallow well, and it hasn't rained."

In many places, the effects of heavy water use go beyond an individual well owner. A large water user such as a farmer irrigating fields or filling livestock ponds can accelerate the drawdown for nearby households.

That appears to have happened to the Lakins and their neighbors, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which recently reviewed about a dozen dry wells in the area.

"In each of them, it was pretty obvious they were being impacted by pumping," said Mark Basch, head of the agency's water rights and use section.

Under Indiana water law, the department will determine to what extent large users are responsible for nearby wells running dry and assess them a proportional share of the cost of the solution, Basch said.

In Missouri, state officials said last month they would help farmers pay to keep wells pumping using deeper drilling or other means. Through the first week of August, they had agreed to spend more than $18 million on 3,700 wells.

Many homeowners hire water haulers to deliver weekly shipments straight into their wells to temporarily restore the flow.

Since June, Pamela Lashley has been paying $130 to $150 a week to sustain the four wells at Country Estate Kennel in Shiloh, Ill., about 15 miles southeast of St. Louis. The kennel owner has to spend the money to hose down dog runs, launder bedding and fill water bowls.

"It certainly adds to our boarding costs," she said. "It's not something that I put on my clients. It's something that I absorb."

She once considered connecting to a nearby municipal water system, but the initial hookup cost — $28,000 — quickly changed her mind. In the short run, water hauling is far cheaper.

Marion, who drives a water-delivery truck in the area around his home about 15 miles north of Springfield, charges $60 for 2,100 gallons, enough to refill many of the wells he serves for about a week.

A typical American household uses up to 2,800 gallons a week, though the figure can vary widely by location and other factors, according to the U.S. Environmental Protecion Agency.


Lawren Tucker of Petersburg, one of Marion's customers, is paying for water with money he would normally use to have his pasture mowed. But with the drought, there's no need for that.

"We are no different than a lot of folks around here. A lot of the farmers in the area have been hauling their own water," Tucker said. "It's part of country life in a drought."







http://www.startribune.com/local/166143746.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

[MNeagle]

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/293d5c35e49b4cd9bc6883644c7757f1/US--Desalination-Plant


Water purchase deal clears major hurdle for hemisphere's largest desalination plant in California






ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press
September 27, 2012 - 5:45 pm EDT











SAN DIEGO — The San Diego County Water Authority announced a tentative agreement Thursday to buy the entire output of what will be the Western hemisphere's largest seawater desalination plant, clearing a major hurdle for construction to begin.

The plant in Carlsbad will produce 50 million gallons a day, enough to supply about 7 percent of the San Diego region in 2020.

The agreement is subject to approval by the water authority board. Upon the board's approval, the developer — Poseidon Resources LLC — would sell bonds to finance 82 percent of construction of the project, which is estimated to cost about $900 million.

The water authority expects the plant to be completed in 2016.

Under the pact, San Diego would pay Poseidon $2,042 to $2,290 for an acre-foot of water, more than twice what it pays to import water from outside the region. For supporters, the premium is well worth paying to make the region less dependent on imported water from the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplied almost all its water in the 1990s and still provides nearly half.

"The story of San Diego has always been about the quest for reliable water," said Dennis Cushman, the San Diego agency's assistant general manager. "The history is drought and water supply shortage and being subject to decisions made by a board of directors in downtown Los Angeles ... This is about water reliability."

The San Diego agency estimates the cost is comparable to other new, local sources of drinking water, like treated toilet water or briny groundwater.

Poseidon, based in Stamford, Conn., was plagued with delays at its desalination plant in Tampa, Fla., which produces 25 million gallons a day.

Ken Weinberg, the San Diego agency's water resources director, said Poseidon underestimated costs on the Tampa plant and had problems with its contractor that he is confident will not be repeated.

"In the front of our minds was to Tampa-proof this project," Weinberg said.

[MNeagle]

US, Mexico Close to Colorado River water use pact



LAS VEGAS—Government leaders in the United States and Mexico are close to signing a
pact to add areas south of the border to Colorado River water sharing agreements
involving seven Western U.S. states, officials said Friday.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials characterized the talks as delicate
while final documents circulate among 15 water agencies and state officials in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

"The concern is that these are sensitive negotiations," said Kip White, a
bureau spokesman in Washington, D.C. "It has taken a long time to get here.
We're looking forward to a culmination of this later this month."

"It's not a completed agreement until the document is signed," added Rose
Davis, a bureau spokeswoman in Boulder City.

The framework of the five-year agreement became public with agenda items for
a meeting next Thursday in Las Vegas involving the Southern Nevada Water
Authority and Colorado River Commission of Nevada. The Las Vegas Review-Journal
first reported it on Friday.

The pact is an addendum to a 1944 U.S.-Mexico water treaty.

It developed from talks begun when the seven Colorado River states signed a
landmark agreement in 2007 to share the pain of shortages and the wealth of
surpluses from the Colorado River reservoirs of Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The
water users called at the time for federal officials to get Mexico to
participate.

The agreement would also link Mexican and U.S. water allocations from the
Colorado River during surplus and drought. The documents never refer to
shortage, but instead cite "low reservoir conditions."

"Provisions include Mexico agreeing to adjust its delivery schedule during
low reservoir conditions, Mexico having access to additional water during high
reservoir conditions, and a commitment to work together on a pilot program that
includes water for the environment," according to a summary submitted to voting
SNWA and Colorado River Commission members.

The agreement would let Mexico continue an emergency program begun two years
ago to store water in Lake Mead, the reservoir behind Hoover Dam near Las Vegas.


After pipelines and canals were damaged by a magnitude 7.2 Easter Sunday 2010
earthquake, Mexico asked the U.S. at the time to let it store water temporarily
while repairs were made to irrigation systems in a broad agricultural area south
of Mexicali. The area is irrigated by water from the Morelos Dam on the Colorado
River west of Yuma, Ariz.

The agreement also calls for a pilot program of water releases from the U.S.
to replenish wetlands in the Colorado River delta of the Gulf of California, and
it clears the way for the U.S. government and municipal water agencies to invest
in infrastructure improvements in Mexico in return for a share of the water such
projects would save.

Las Vegas gets 90 percent of its drinking water from drought-stricken Lake
Mead, and officials have talked about paying to build a seawater desalination
plant in Mexico to trade for additional water rights to Colorado River water.

The Review-Journal reported that the two largest municipal water agencies in
Arizona and California have signed off on the agreement.

New Mexico's Interstate Stream Commission is due to consider the agreements
next Wednesday.

Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California, said his board approved the agreement on Monday.

Officials with the Central Arizona Project didn't immediately respond to
messages Friday from The Associated Press.

The agreement calls for the Southern California district to pay Mexico $5
million over three years in return for 47,500 acre-feet of water. The agencies
in Arizona and Nevada would each pay $2.5 million over three years and receive a
total of 23,750 acre-feet.
An acre-foot of water is about enough to serve two Las Vegas-area households
for a year, officials say.


http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21965736/us-mexico-close-colorado-river-water-use-pact

[MNeagle]

More water for barge traffic

Water from Mississippi River reservoirs in Minnesota started heading downstream Friday in an attempt to help ease the threat of low river levels to barge traffic south of St. Louis.

The drawdown from Pokegama Lake, Lake Winnibigoshish, Leech Lake, Big Sandy Lake and Gull Lake will continue for three weeks. Water in those lakes had been held back and has been at "summer recreation" levels since Nov. 2 in anticipation of the current release, which is meant to cushion the effects of flow reduction from the Missouri River system, said Patrick Moes, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-St. Paul District.

A Missouri River dam reduces its flow every fall, dropping water levels about 3 feet south of St. Louis, Moes said. That could be significant this year, with the river running at such low levels that dredging has continued through the summer to maintain adequate depth for barges. Dynamiting of underwater rock formations near Cape Girardeau, Mo., is also being considered.

A barge industry trade group has asked President Obama to intercede in order to keep the Missouri River water flowing downstream. Moes said the Mississippi water from Minnesota is likely to cut only 3 to 6 inches off the 3-foot drop expected from the Missouri River flow reduction.

"If something doesn't change and we don't get water in the next three, four or five weeks, navigation could be shut down," he said. "There won't be enough water to float a barge."

Barge traffic into and out of the Twin Cities generally ceases for the winter in late November or early December. A shutdown in the South, Moes said, would have drastic economic consequences, driving up shipping costs of all kinds of commodities. Barges there are already being required to carry less weight.

The Minnesota reservoirs, which are also popular recreational lakes, will be drawn down to customary winter levels only, Moes said.


http://www.startribune.com/local/179802781.html

[Dogman]

Just for a grin I have been looking around my area with Google maps. And the 2012 updated photos show the lack of rain and lake/river levels. Bunch of ponds/tanks/lakes and rivers are hurting as far as the time of the satellite took the pictures. The updated maps that show the Mississippi are sad to look at also.

[Shami-Amourae]

Vice documentary on the water crisis in America:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrUVLpFaUoM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9iKF5pfms4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd6jCHI9C_M

[MNeagle]

Corps cuts flow on Missouri River despite pleas from Mississippi River shippers

ST. LOUIS — The Army Corps of Engineers on Friday began reducing the flow from a Missouri River reservoir, a move expected to worsen low water conditions on the Mississippi River and potentially bring barge traffic to a halt within weeks.

One result of this year’s drought, the worst in decades, has been a big drop in water levels on both the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

The Corps of Engineers office in Omaha, Neb., announced earlier this month plans to reduce the outflow from the Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, S.D. Corps spokeswoman Monique Farmer told The Associated Press that the reduction began as scheduled Friday morning. By late-morning, the flow that had started at 37,500 cubic feet per second had been cut to 35,500 cubic feet per second.

Farmer said plans call for a gradual reduction down to 12,000 cubic feet per second by Dec. 11.

“It’s just an extended period of drought, and that forecast is expected to persist into the spring,” Farmer said. “We’re hoping Mother Nature brings some snow this winter, but we’ve been told to expect low, stable conditions, that it’s probably going to remain dry.”

The cut in flow comes despite opposition from the governors of Missouri and Illinois and 15 U.S. senators whose states sit along the Mississippi River. Scott Holste, a spokesman for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, said the office never received a reply to a letter Nixon sent Army Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy, asking that the corps delay plans to reduce the Missouri River flow.

The Mississippi is nearing historic lows between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill. Barges are already required to carry lighter loads and the middle of the river could be closed to barge traffic if the water level at St. Louis dips below minus 5 feet. It was at minus 0.45 feet Friday.

A zero river reading at St. Louis was established more than a century ago. It’s the point at which people at that time thought the river would never drop below.

The National Weather Service forecast for river levels extends only as far as Dec. 6. It calls for the Mississippi River to get to minus 3.7 feet at St. Louis by then. Businesses that ship on the river and their trade groups expect to get to minus 5 feet by around Dec. 10.

Barge operators and those who ship on the Mississippi have warned that stopping barge traffic would risk economic catastrophe for coal, agriculture, petroleum and other interests. Some companies have said they may have to lay off workers if barge traffic is halted for any significant amount of time.

Barges carry 20 percent of the country’s coal and more than 60 percent of its grain exports. Other cargo — such as petroleum products, lumber, sand, industrial chemicals and fertilizer — also gets shipped along the Mississippi River.

Trade groups for waterway operators have even asked President Barack Obama to intervene. A message left with the White House on Friday was not returned.

The weather forecast offers little hope. No big storms are in the forecast. Scott Truett of the National Weather Service office in St. Louis said that while the drought has eased in the St. Louis area in recent months, it persists in the upper Mississippi and upper Missouri river basins — the areas that feed water to the mid-Mississippi River region.

“That means less runoff and hence low water levels,” Truett said.

The corps has taken several steps to keep the Mississippi open as possible, including increased dredging. It also plans to remove two rock formations in the river in southern Illinois that jut up, potentially scraping the bottoms of barges when water levels are low.

But that work isn’t expected to start until February. The letter signed by the 15 senators also asked the corps to expedite the rock removal.

Corps officials in Omaha say the drought already has hurt recreation in the upper Missouri River areas. The low water is exposing Native American artifacts, leaving them prone to looting. And if it persists into spring, hydropower could be impacted.

Corps officials in Omaha say they are bound by the Missouri River Master Manual to act in the best interest of the Missouri River basin, and what happens on the Mississippi is incidental.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/apnewsbreak-corps-cuts-flow-on-missouri-river-despite-pleas-from-mississippi-river-shippers/2012/11/23/83279994-3590-11e2-92f0-496af208bf23_story.html

[PatColo]

Friday, 23 November 2012 19:33 Parched Earth Policy: Are We Running Out of Water
http://www.collapsenet.com/images/stories/are%20we%20running%20out%20of%20water.jpg

"The scarcity, these analysts say, can no longer be avoided as the effects of a world water shortage will have life-threatening and global economic consequences.


"We're already in a water crisis here in the U.S.," said Mark LeChavallier, director of innovation and environmental stewardship for American Water, a water and wastewater utility company.


"It's big in areas on the West Coast and only getting bigger in areas like the East Coast. It's almost taken for granted that we will have water, but we can't do that anymore," he said."


continue reading (http://www.cnbc.com/id/49890504)

[MNeagle]

Water crisis runs much deeper than digging a well

Maintaining water systems and involving the local citizens are keys to providing effective help, says Ned Breslin, CEO of Water for People

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/9wbaEXbcXRRDysfz1j3RkA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/csmonitor/csm_logo_115.jpg (http://www.csmonitor.com/)By Gregory M. Lamb | Christian Science Monitor – 8 hours ago


It's easy to tell a powerful and heart-rending story about the lack of clean water that afflicts millions of people.

Paint a picture: A young girl must walk miles down a dusty road to collect water from a contaminated well or stream and then haul it home on her back. The journey takes so long that she can't take time to attend school. The water itself is so polluted that it causes illnesses in her family, perhaps keeping other family members from working or attending school.

It's a tragic picture that rightfully elicits funds from well-meaning donors. But it's only part of the story.


For decades aid organizations have been drilling wells and installing taps and hand pumps all over the developing world. But while some progress in improving access to clean water has been achieved, it hasn't been as dramatic as the number of these projects would suggest.

Why? Because a large percentage of wells and hand pumps fall into disrepair and are abandoned only a few years after they are installed. Pipes break, spare parts are unavailable, or people with the technical expertise to make repairs are nowhere to be found.

"People are walking past broken taps and going back to polluted water sources," says Ned Breslin, CEO of the nonprofit group Water for People. Up to 60 percent of water projects fail within 18 months to two years, Water for People says. "[The problem goes] way beyond just banging in infrastructure."

What's needed is the harder, less glamorous work of monitoring and maintaining water systems, Mr. Breslin says. That's why his organization pledges to monitor all of its water projects for 10 years after installation to make sure they are still in operation. The idea is that a project built to last – and properly maintained – costs less in the long run.

Breslin was speaking just prior to World Water Day, founded by the United Nations in 1993. This year the 20th World Water Day is being marked tomorrow, March 22.

Despite a concerted effort by governments and nongovernment groups, the problems of water scarcity and quality remain enormous. Some 783 million people don't have access to safe drinking water, 2.5 billion don't have adequate sanitation facilities, and nearly 6,000 people – mostly children – die from water-based illnesses each year, Water for People estimates.

Breslin's nonprofit, which is funded in part by donations from North America's water companies, applies another key tenet: Local people should be viewed as partners – not victims.

"Treating people as active agents in the solution, as opposed to just saying, you know, they're really poor and they can't afford it, is a very different approach," says Breslin, who received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship for his work with Water For People in 2011. "And, frankly, communities around the world respond to that. They respond to … challenging the story that they are poor and helpless."

Water for People now is looking to work with multinational corporations that share its concerns about the availability of clean water.

"We're partners with Coca-Cola," he says. "Coca-Cola has some of the greatest water-resources scientists around: How do we unleash them as part of the solution to sustaining water resources over time?"

More and more, climate change is exacerbating the water problem, Breslin says. "We see all around the world water resources under great threat. We have great concerns. We're seeing massive rainfall pattern changes.

"To me climate change is an absolute threat, and every corporation around the world that has some footprint in water is worried about it, and so are we," he says
.
Water for People doesn't advocate for any one solution to the world's water crisis.

"We can be creative and begin to address this problem with everything from aquifer recharging to better storage of water and a whole range of things … if we acknowledge it's a challenge," Breslin says. "We believe that there's a wide range of technical solutions that exist. There are new things constantly coming on line. The challenge is to get the best solutions for each particular locale."


http://weather.yahoo.com/water-crisis-runs-much-deeper-digging-well-152636882.html

[MNeagle]

Great Lakes positioned to be 'ground zero' in water conflicts

Climate change and population growth are making the Great Lakes region’s role as a global food producer more important as water shortages become more severe in other parts of the world.

“The coming water crisis will affect everyone and everywhere,” said Jim Olson, a water-rights lawyer in Traverse City, Mich.

The Great Lakes, one of the world’s most abundant collections of fresh water, are positioned to become “ground zero” as water vanishes elsewhere. North America’s largest lakes by volume, they hold 20 percent of all fresh surface water on Earth. Their 6 quadrillion gallons are enough to submerge the continental United States in 5 feet of water. They are the source of drinking water for 30 million Americans and 10 million Canadians.

They do not hold as much fresh water as the world’s largest lake, Russia’s Lake Baikal. But unlike the Siberian lake, the Great Lakes lie in a moderate climate and are accessible for shipping, recreation, tourism, drinking water, agriculture, energy production and manufacturing.

Water management pact

The lakes’ usage has drawn more attention in recent years from ­politicians and legal scholars who say Great Lakes water-management laws pale in comparison to those of the American Southwest, where battles over water have been fought for decades.

Scholars believe the region’s legal framework is evolving, as ­evidenced by intense negotiations that resulted in the Great Lakes region’s first binding water-management compact. The area has traditionally been less irrigated than others. But that is changing with concerns over weather becoming more unpredictable because of ­climate change.

“Farmers are just hedging against bad weather,” said Jim Hoorman, an Ohio State cooperative extension agent.

The long-term outlook has the potential to affect everything from shipping to recreation to water quality, as changing food markets worldwide prompt area land to be farmed more intensely. “We are blessed in Ohio with water, but there is a need for a long-term strategy on [better] managing the resource,” said Larry Antosch, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation senior director of policy development and environmental policy.

The issue gained more traction recently following the publication of a major essay by Lester R. Brown, president of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute.
In his paper, Brown notes half of the world’s population is in 18 countries that are water-stressed: They are pumping out aquifers faster than rain is replenishing them. That group includes the politically unstable Middle East but also China, India and the United States — the world’s top three food ­producers.

Brown theorizes that if the world has now reached what is known as “peak water” — that point at which water will forever be used faster than it is replaced — then the business of growing food will change because it will be more difficult to produce it in water-stressed areas.

One of the most water-stressed parts of the United States is the Great Plains region, where water is being depleted fast from the massive Ogallala aquifer by Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.

As Great Plains wells dry up, farms in the Great Lakes region and other parts of the Midwest will be under greater pressure to produce.

“We are going to see and are already seeing water-intensive industries move back to the Midwest,” said Jim Byrum, Michigan Agri-Business Association ­president.


http://www.startribune.com/nation/219134521.html

[Dick_Stabber]

WTF.. Now thats some funny shit

http://www.amazon.com/Future-Essentials-Organic-Dehydrated-Water/dp/B00BQ1VD6W/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=A3QT5A3E30OMFB

[gunDriller]

as long as they are using water to extract oil via tar sands & fracking, the US is on a collision course between energy needs and water needs for other uses - like farming.