http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html
Gaps in the Safe Water Drinking Act mean that certain pollutants found in America's tap water have not been officially banned by federal regulators - what can the EPA and other regulators do when technically the water does not violate legal standards?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/world/asia/18mekong.html?scp=1&sq=mekong%20river&st=cse
The New York Times reports on the increasing trend in damming the Mekong River. Although in the US dam decommissioning has recently been a trend (opening up waterways for salmon in places like the Augusta on the Kennebec River in Maine, the Mekong faces more dams with the promise of hydroelectric power and short term flood control, but with the potential for damage to the environment and displacement. We've seen this elsewhere where damming for flood control is counterbalanced by the loss of natural sediment and silt distribution in flood plains making those areas flood less often, but with more devastating results.
"The most controversial aspects of the dams are their effects on migrating fish and on the rice-growing Mekong Delta in Vietnam, where half of that country’s food is grown. The delta depends on mineral-rich silt, which the Chinese dams are partly blocking. Experts say the new dams will block even more sediment and the many types of fish that travel great distances to spawn, damaging what the Mekong River Commission, an advisory body set up in 1995 by the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, estimates is a $2 billion fishing industry.
Of the hundreds of fish species in the river, 87 percent are migratory, according to a 2006 study.
“The fish will have nowhere to go,” said Kaew Suanpad, a 78-year-old farmer and fisherman in the village of Nagrasang, Laos, which sits above the river’s great Khone Falls.
“The dams are a very big issue for the 60 million people in the Mekong basin,” said Milton Osborne, visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia, and the author of several books on the Mekong. “People depend in very substantial ways on the bounty of the Mekong.”
Some analysts see the seeds of international conflict in the rush to dam the river. Civic groups in Thailand say they are frustrated that China does not seem to care how its dams affect the lives of people downstream."
Economic frameworks to inform decision-making
Growing competition for scarce water resources is a growing business risk, a major economic threat, and a challenge for the sustainability of communities and the ecosystems upon which they rely. It is an issue that has serious implications for the stability of countries in which businesses operate, and for industries whose value chains are exposed to water scarcity.
Charting our water future: Economic frameworks to inform decision-makingshows that while meeting competing demands for water will be a considerable challenge, it is entirely possible to close the growing gap between water supply and demand. This report provides greater clarity on the scale of the water challenge and how it can be met in an affordable and sustainable manner.
The report offers case studies from four countries with drastically different water issues, which will collectively account for 40 percent of the world’s population, 30 percent of global GDP and 42 percent of projected water demand in 2030: China, India, South Africa and Brazil. The report’s methodology identifies supply- and demand-side measures that could constitute a more cost effective approach to closing the water gap and achieve savings in each country.
At heart of Yemen's conflicts: water crisis
A recent report shows that 70 to 80 percent of rural conflicts are over water shortages in Yemen, already on the brink of becoming a failed state.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1105/p06s13-wome.html
The World Bank considers Yemen "one of the most water-scarce countries in the world" where only 125 cubic meters of water are available yearly per capita compared to the world average of 2,500 cubic meters. Just 46 percent of Yemen's rural population has direct access to an adequate water supply and the number is only slighter better in cities, according to the German Development Service (GDS), which is working with the Yemeni government to improve water management.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/us/04sfwater.html?_r=2&hpw
As the Novato Sanitary District considers contracting with French water giant Veolia, local opposition has arisen over private operational control over the sewage system. Critics claim that privatization will mean higher rates, proponents say that efficiency will improve.
The Times article suggests that the key factor for communities faced with public-versus-private options is to properly enter into, assess and enforce their interests in contracts : "In 2002, the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, issued a report noting that any community needed to monitor and enforce contract provisions. “No matter how well a privatization arrangement is crafted,” it said, the public agency’s interests seldom matched those of the contractor."
Look for our forthcoming article in the ABA's Natural Resources and Environment journal on corporate social responsibility and water - one goal we propose is greater transparency in reporting by the private sector operators and water users so that communities will have greater information to make more informed decisions.
See Professor Gabriel Eckstein's blog on water issues and his August 3rd posting entitled, "Why do so many governments oppose a human right to water?" The short answer - governments want to avoid liability and responsibilities that come with enforcement of rights. Interestingly, we note that at the same time that many companies are coming out ahead of states and advocating for the right to water. This makes sense as if states have to enforce the right to access water, then they may be forced to turn to the private sector to help them physically realize the goal of providing water to constituents.
http://internationalwaterlaw.org/blog/
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/failed_states_index_the_last_straw
Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof profiles the founder of the non-profit organization "charity: water."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/opinion/12kristof.html?_r=2&em
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0627014620090313
California has entered one of the costliest and most severe droughts in memory, with hard-hitting effects on the agriculture sector. Reuters has presented some factoids on framing and water in California below. California's legal water regime, a hybrid of first-in-line (senior rights or prior appropriation) and riparian doctrines. The prior appropriation doctrine requires users to apply their share of water to continuing beneficial use - a severe impediment to conservation - if one uses less water this year, they may lose the difference next.
March 13 (Reuters) - California is the United States' top farming state, but its future is clouded by water shortages, forecast to worsen with climate change.
Here are some facts about California farming and water:
-- California leads all states as top farm producer measured by cash receipts of $36.6 billion in 2007, 13 percent of the U.S. total and nearly twice the output of No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Iowa.
-- The state has 75,000 farms and ranches and is home to nine of the the nation's top 10 producing counties.
-- It supplies over half of U.S. fruits, nuts and vegetables and over 90 percent of U.S. almonds, artichokes, avocados, broccoli and processing tomatoes. Grapes, lettuce and almonds are the biggest crops in cash value.
-- California produces 80 percent of the world almond crop and one-third of the world's canned tomatoes.
-- California is not technically a "breadbasket." It is not a top five U.S. producer of any grain product, but it is, surprisingly, the nation's largest dairy producer.
-- Overseas exports have risen in recent years to 25 percent of total production today from 16 percent 10 years ago. The top three destinations - the European Union, Canada and Japan - accounted for nearly 60 percent of the 48-commodity total.
-- Farming accounts for 2 percent of the state's $1.6 trillion economy, but its demand for equipment, transport, labor and other services make it a key economic sector for the world's eighth-largest economy.
-- The San Joaquin Valley accounts for 60 percent of the state's prime farmland and is the world's most productive agricultural region. It depends mostly on snowpack melt from hundreds of miles away for irrigation.
-- Farming accounts for 80 percent of the state's water usage, according to the Pacific Institute, but the farm industry and government put the number much lower at 40 percent to 60 percent.
-- California is expected to suffer its third straight year of drought in 2009. Economic losses could rise to $3 billion and 95,000 agricultural jobs will be lost. Federal water deliveries will be zero and state water allocations could be 15 percent of the amount requested.
-- Over the course of this century, climate models show California's water supply dropping 24 percent to 30 percent, most in the second half, according to studies by the University of California, Davis.
(Sources: Reuters, U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Department of Food and Agriculture, Public Policy Institute of California, Pacific Institute for Studies on Development, Environment and Security, Los Angeles Times and University of California, Davis)
Among the most significant findings of Water Disclosure 2.0 are:
'To provide appropriate incentives for the adoption of water saving technologies and behaviours, water prices need to be allowed to rise to reflect its full scarcity value,' the bank said in a report published on Monday.
It said that water shortages, pollution and flooding had for years constrained growth and affected public health and welfare in many parts of China, which it claimed would soon join the group of 'water stressed' nations.
