Chloregy

From around the world and around the web, here are this week’s water stories that caught our eye. If we missed one you thought others should know about, please tell us about it in the comments.

water is too cheap

In Davos last week police used water cannons to disperse a small crowd of protesters. That’s one use for water, we suppose. But more on topic at the high-profile meeting, was water conservation and real pricing of this commodity. In this week’s Wall Street Journal review how population growth and climate change mean that smart market-based solutions and a new regulatory system are needed to ensure stability and access.

rising water costs

A perfect example of how water is under priced is India. According to DNA India, water is heavily subsidized – by as much as 60 percent for middle-class neighborhoods. Residents of Mumbai are facing possible rate hikes for their water. The rate increase is designed to bring the costs closer to reality and discourage waste. But can you imagine what that would do to your household budget?

a dry town, and we’re not just talking liquor

News about Yemen is on the rise, and given the many challenges for the impoverished country, we’re likely to hear a lot more about it. We already know there are growing concerns about militants and Al-Qaeda support. What you may not be aware of is the fact that the country is running out of both water and oil. Some experts the capital, Sanaa, could be bone dry in ten years. Talk about a source of instability!

growing concerns about energy and climate change

Above we can see how on a local level climate change and energy resources could turn into security nightmare, and that fact is not lost on the U.S. military. This week the Pentagon released its Quadrennial Defense Review. We’ll cut to the chase for you, the study concludes:

Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease and may spur or exacerbate mass migration.

Now, if it’s so clear that this is likely to be a problem, we wonder when climate change will register with the American people.

water scarcity gets its own conference

Later this month, some of the nation’s biggest companies, and many smaller ones too, will gather in San Francisco to discuss water scarcity risks and water footprints in the supply chain. Some of the speakers include representatives from Procter & Gamble, Nike, Intel, and many others. You know we’ll be watching what happens; think they’ll have a Twitter hashtag?

water conservation pays big

Dow Chemical’s production site in Freeport, Texas has a new feature: 80 water cooling towers made by Nalco Company. The new system is saving over 1 billion gallons of water and $4 million per year. We’re still information on how much the system cost, but something tells us that it’s a pretty good ROI.

Source: http://blog.airdye.com/goodforwater/2010/02/05/weekly-water-wrap-up-3/