World Bank

The salinity of Bangladesh’s water supply is increasing, especially in coastal areas, due to sea level rise and natural disasters like floods and cyclones, according to a World Bank study, AlertNet reported. Families in remote areas sometimes have to walk miles to get safe drinking water. U.S. Water Supply The final measure of California snowpack [...]

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Violence broke out between the Massai and Kikuyu tribes in Kenya over water access that left hundreds homeless and 80 dead. The Kikuyus are farmers who trade for a living, AlertNet reported, while the Maasai are pastoral herders, and water scarcity often leads to violent disputes over the two for regular access. However, encouraging signs [...]

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Public Health Floods linked to climate change, along with the increased trade of certain goods, have played an important role in the expansion of dengue fever-causing mosquitoes, AlertNet reported. Dengue is now the fastest-spreading tropical disease in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Severe drought conditions in the United States last summer [...]

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Oil sand mining operations in Alberta, Canada have been shown to cause increased levels of the toxic pollutants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, in nearby lakes, according to a study from a team of Canadian researchers, reported The New York Times. The research tested sediment deposits from six lakes surrounding Fort McMurray dating back about [...]

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India’s climate outlook in the upcoming century is bleak, according to an analysis of eighteen different climate models reported in The Hindu. Average annual surface temperatures are expected to rise by 4-7 degrees Celsius, part of a warmer world with heat waves severe drought, and major floods, according to a World Bank-sponsored report. Read the [...]

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According to the BBC the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, released today, announced that the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide reached a record high at 391 parts per million in 2011. Other greenhouse gases, like methane, also were recorded at an all-time high. According to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin press [...]

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Oxfam has urged the World Bank to stop its support of large-scale land investments, the Guardian reported. The land purchased by international investors could grow enough food for 1 billion people, but is instead being used to grow biofuels or is left idle, according to a report Oxfam released Thursday. Researchers are hoping to gain [...]

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U.S. power producers are not calculating the cost of scarce water resources in coal, nuclear, natural gas and biomass energy production. That was the central finding in a study from The Civil Society Institute and the Environmental Working Group, reported in Bloomberg News. Water in a Changing Climate Pleasure boats and commercial ships in the [...]

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The price of five internationally-traded staple crops rose 10 percent last month.

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Asia Twelve tons of radioactive water leaked from a pipeline and may have reached the sea at Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said, Bloomberg News reported. The site has suffered repeated leaks, and 100,000 tons of wastewater are still being stored in basements. The World Bank is handing over $US 8 [...]

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Under a new law, mining and oil companies in Peru will be required to hold talks with local communities about the effects of natural resource extraction on the environment and water supplies, Reuters reported. The law stops short of giving communities the power to veto potential projects. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez faces criticism from within [...]

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On World Water Day, we look at: Water Innovation Hindustan Times features examples of grassroots water innovation in India. With 1.2 billion people, India is teeming with innovators and places to try out ingenious ideas in energy, water, banking, and health care, according to Fast Company. What makes a country ideal for innovation? Israel could [...]

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Proper Property Rights A United Nations committee working to establish guidelines for land rights has negotiated and agreed to about 70 percent of the items on its working list, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The U.S. government is chairing the committee, which is seeking to bring some order to what critics call [...]

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Costly weather extremes such as drought and floods are becoming more prevalent as climate change progresses, the Associated Press reported, citing a draft of a new study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The growing populations in vulnerable locations around the world will likely exacerbate the problem. Only 5 percent of the $97 billion [...]

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A year after heavy monsoon rains devastated southern Pakistan, new floods have forced more than a million Pakistanis out of their homes and damaged crops in Sindh province, Bloomberg reported. Water Pollution Accidents There is no “real way” of capturing the fuel that leaked into the Missouri River in Iowa from Enterprise Products Partners’ natural [...]

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Has Lake Michigan become unfishable? The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the lake is now “a liquid desert” as overfishing and the invasive quagga mussels have decimated its fish population. High global food prices and price volatility have compounded the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, according to the World Bank Group’s latest Food [...]

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China’s worsening power crisis leaves it few long-term options but to raise consumer electricity prices and swallow a dose of inflation, Reuters argues in an analysis of the country’s power shortages, as a lingering drought in southern and central China is also crippling the hydropower output. China Meanwhile, the water woes in the Yangtze River [...]

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Surprisingly to some, carbon emissions and energy in the United States and China will peak and stabilize in the 2030s after which they will increase much less, according to a new study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Read more details here. South Africa said it would conduct a comprehensive feasibility study of hydraulic fracking [...]

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USAID Newsletter The U.S. Agency for International Development published its bi-monthly newsletter last week. In this edition of “Global Waters”, read about the agency’s work with wastewater treatment in the Philippines, urban water provision in Africa, and a partnership with Coca-Cola. US, World Bank Say ‘We Do’ At a ceremony held on World Water Day, [...]

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An escalating confrontation over resources; a confrontation with global implications.

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