In an interview with the BBC, former United Nations Secretary Boutros Boutros Ghali predicted that conflicts would soon arise between countries in the Nile basin over rights to water that flows through the Nile.
Egypt has long been the largest user of water from the Nile, but countries upstream are coming closer to more intensively using […]
The Christian Science Monitor recently noted that for the first time in history, the world’s glass is literally half full. According to World Health Organization and UNICEF statistics, about 700 million people in the developing world have gained access to safe drinking water in their residence, pushing the percentage of people with access to drinking […]
Japan recently hosted the third World Water Forum that featured about 10,000 delegates from 150 countries.
The United Nations has set a goal of reducing by half the number of people without access to safe water and sanitation by 2015. But that seems very unlikely, especially as the forum itself was bogged down by competing interest […]
Ronald Bailey wrote an excellent overview of the current water crisis, Water, Water Nowhere?, that identified a major cause of water shortages around the world — the lack of markets for water which tend to lead to gross misallocations of water. Bailey opens his article with a typically absurd example of the way water is […]
David Satterthwaite of the International Institute of Environment and Development in London recently told the BBC that the United Nations’ goals for clean water are unrealistic and do not do enough to address water quality issues in urban settings. Satterthwaite is working on a report for the UN that will make those points.
Satterthwaite told the […]
Israel is experiencing severe water shortages at the moment, though most of the shallow media coverage of the problem completely missed the main reason for the shortages — Israel’s massive subsidies that encourage wasteful water use.
The BBC recently reported that Israeli Water Commissioner Shimon Tal will call for a total ban on watering lawns for […]