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Tag:

water management

World’s River Systems Are Stressed Out

World’s River Systems Are Stressed Out

written by Environmental News Network

According to the World Resources Institute (WRI) many, if not most of the world’s rivers are stressed. Determining a systems water stress is based upon measuring the ratio of total water withdrawals to the available renewable supplies within the catchment area. Rivers are an indispensible resource for our communities and ecosystems and we are hugely dependent upon them for agriculture, industry and our natural systems. A stressed river system can severely threaten regional water security and economic growth, and potentially contribute to political instability—especially in the absence of an adequate water management plan.

In addition to water volume removal resulting from over development, rivers are also increasingly faced with nutrient and chemical pollution, flooding and droughts, and human engineered adjustments further exacerbating the crisis mounting in our watersheds.

To address the issue, WRI sponsored the Aqueduct project to evaluate, map and score the world’s one hundred largest river systems affecting 180 nations. Their project defined a high stress system as one that exhibits withdrawal of greater than 40 percent of the available supply every year and an extremely high-stress system exceeds 80 percent. They found that eighteen of the “extremely high” stressed river basins traversed across countries that constitute $U.S. 27 trillion in GDP—clearly the crisis is affecting a lot of people.

Listed by highest population, the river systems exhibiting the highest water stress levels are as follows:

Qom River (Namak Lake) in Iran, Yongding He River in China, Brantas River in Indonesia, Harirud River in Afghanistan, Tuhai He River in China, Sabarmati River in India, Helmand River in Afghanistan, Sirdaryo River in Asia, Rio Maipo in Chile, the Dead Sea in Jordan, Solo River (Bengawan Solo) in Indonesia, the Indus River in Asia, Daliao He River in China, the Colorado River in the United States, the Palar River in India, the Bravo River (Rio Grande) in the United States, Liao He River in China and Huang He (Yellow River) in China.

River basin stress management is vital for our planet’s future. Yet successful management is dependent upon understanding, cooperation and proactive cohesive response from all stakeholders including government, industry and civilians. Using WRI’s maps and assessments communities and governments can make better high-level decisions for more targeted response.

Read more at the World Resources Institute.

Article by Robin Blackstone.



March 25, 2014 1 comment
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Climate Linked to Atmospheric River Storms

written by Walter Wang

It’s not every day that the weatherman reports on atmospheric river storms…but we may be hearing the term more frequently now as researchers have linked climate in the Pacific Ocean and West Coast mountains to these distinctive storms.

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November 11, 2013 0 comment
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Oxfam Ranks Food Giants on Sourcing and Environmental Policies

written by Yale Environment 360

The group Oxfam has published an online scorecard assessing the agricultural sourcing of the world’s biggest food and beverage companies, rating them on factors that include water resource management, climate awareness, and transparency.

Using publicly available information, the “Behind the

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February 28, 2013 0 comment
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New Global Standard Aims to Reduce Water Waste by Businesses

written by Yale Environment 360

The UK-based Carbon Trust has introduced what it calls the first global standard on water management and reduction in hopes of encouraging more sustainable water use by businesses.

The new standard, created by members of the group along with four early-adopting companies, including

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February 20, 2013 0 comment
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Business Sustainability Planning – Let Water Be Your Guide

written by Walter Wang

When most people think of water issues, the first thing that comes to mind is falling reservoirs and water rationing at the tap. While this is a very significant impact, our business sustainability consulting is reminded that water stretches much further and deep in to the heart of business. The reality is that water is linked to every facet of life on our planet and directly interacts

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February 18, 2013 0 comment
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Cultivating the Future Green Builders

written by Walter Wang

It’s arguably crucial for schools and colleges to do all they can to encourage future green builders; this means educating students about how to use sustainable technologies and alternative energy sources, while also conducting practical research. What, then, are schools currently focusing on, and what kinds of subjects are available? Moreover, what enterprise

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January 14, 2013 0 comment
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Israeli Delegation Brings Urban Water Expertise to India

written by Walter Wang

“There is a an almost uncanny fit between India’s needs in the urban water arena, and what Israeli companies are able to offer,” so says Abraham Tenne, VP Desalination at Israel’s Water Authority following a visit last week to India. The visit was one implementation of an agreement signed this past February between the two nations aimed at fostering cooperation, with a

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December 11, 2012 0 comment
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The Secrets of Saving: Israel’s Water Conservation

written by Walter Wang

Israel has always suffered from water deficiency, a fact which has fueled research and development in the field, and brought about a national practice of education regarding water conservation and advanced water management methods. Today, water management has been transferred to water corporations and the water economy is now based on desalination. Water prices

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July 26, 2012 0 comment
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All Sustainability is Local

written by Walter Wang

“All politics is local.” This quote from the late US Congressman Tip O’Neill continues to frame political strategies today. It turns out his premise also applies to environmentalism. All sustainability is local, as a Massachusetts software company reveals in a new application that takes on the complicated task of quantifying the green efforts of corporations.

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March 16, 2012 0 comment
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Bringing Water Efficiency Innovations to the Philippines and Vietnam

written by Walter Wang

A delegation of water companies and reps from the Israeli Water Authority and the Standards Institute of Israel plans to travel to the Philippines – ahead of IWA’s Water Loss 2012 conference in Manila on February 26-29. The aim of their visit is to promote a better understanding of water loss reduction and smart water management – fields in which Israeli

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February 24, 2012 0 comment
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Study Suggests Water Should be Conserved Now

written by Walter Wang

tractorFarmers and horticulturists are being advised to act now in order to survive the years of drought ahead.

A recent report commissioned by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) shows that higher temperatures and lower annual rainfall in summer is likely to reduce river flow

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October 28, 2010 1 comment
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Water Filtration: Safe Drinking Water from Thin Air?

written by Jared Friedman

Safe drinking water from thin air? That’s the claim of San Luis Obispo, California, based Atmospheric Water Systems (AWS), which offers a product line of air-filtering water systems under the brand Dewpointe. Founded more than a year and a half ago by Co-owner Stephen Krauss, Dewpointe systems takes a different approach to creating safe drinking water. Rather than filtering the water that comes through a pipe, Dewpointe filters the moisture out of the air to create drinking water. There are no water pipes attached to the machine. The rectangular device simply plugs into a wall.

I caught up with Mr. Krauss on the second day of this year’s West Coast Green event held at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California, and found out more about the Dewpointe system.

How does it work? Magic?

No, similar to a dehumidifier, Dewpointe pulls moisture out of the air; but unlike a dehumidifier, the goal of this device is to make that moisture drinkable. A series of filters take out 99.99% of the impurities and create clean drinking water. Impressive as this may sound, it also means that there must be moisture in the air for Dewpointe to operate effectively. Hence, all tropical or even moderate humidity environments in the United States such as coastal states, the south and mid-west work well. In desert environments or low moisture areas such as the south-western US, the Dewpointe will struggle.

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October 20, 2009 6 comments
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Water Management & Conservation — Singapore Sets Another Example

written by Edouard Stenger

Chris Tobias recently wrote about waste to energy in Singapore, illustrating the city’s exemplary response to fly ash left over from the incineration process. I just read an interesting French book on water, and one of the most interesting parts of the book was about Singapore.

Written by Erik Orsenna, a member of the prestigious Académie française, L’Avenir de l’eau (Water’s future) enables us to travel all around the world (albeit reading) and gathers facts and figures on how water issues differ from country to country.

Perfectly located between East and West Asia, Singapore is an important local hub for 4,000 international companies. The city’s geostrategic importance led to an important population boom, with the number of inhabitants climbing from 1.5 million at the time of independence in 1965 to more than 4.5 million today.

Despite receiving a lot of rainwater (there are 2,415 mm of precipitations per year, compared to roughly 500 mm for San Francisco and 1,200 mm for New York City), the city lacks water.

The precious liquid comes from four main sources: rain, water treatment, desalination and imports from Malaysia.

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August 26, 2009 1 comment
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War over Water — Climate Change & Clean Tech Opportunities in Chile

written by Robert M. Speiser

For thousands of years, the native Aymara people have been harvesting scarcely fallen raindrops along the Andean foothills in northern Chile by capturing the rainwater in nets for irrigation and drinking purposes. The people in this region, in and around the Atacama desert, are accustomed to fragile ecosystems and an extremely dry climate. However, today, even in the fertile central and southern regions of Chile, there are noticeable tensions over water rights and water availability.

Presently, it is not as if there are times when nothing flows out of the tap here. Nor are the urban folks of Santiago running outside their homes with their own polypropylene mesh nets ready to catch any drop of rain that falls. However, a convergence of factors – an increase in population growth, perceptible changes in climate patterns, and competition for water resources between various industries and hydro power – have caused a national “war over water” of sorts to emerge at the forefront of national environmental, economic, and political discussions.

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August 10, 2009 1 comment
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