After almost half a century, the United Nations has waded back into the murky world of water policy. But one of the ideas following this year’s international meeting has been shot down.
The Blue Nile river passes through the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
Australia’s emerging green hydrogen industry requires a secure supply of high-quality water. Competing demands for this scarce resource mean careful planning is needed to meet all water users’ needs.
Australian plumbing standards require apartment buildings to have systems designed for three times their actual peak water use. This can lead to costly water damage on top of inflated building costs.
Mike Joy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
A new study of dairying in Canterbury shows previous estimates vastly underestimate the impact of intensive farming. A 12-fold reduction in cow numbers could be needed to meet safe water standards.
Knowledge about groundwater is scarce in some countries, and most development is informal and limited to shallow use.
Torsten Pursche via shutterstock
Groundwater has the potential to support broad economic, humanitarian and social development in sub-Saharan Africa, as it has in other regions globally.
A draft plan for Sydney’s water supplies includes expanding desalination and potentially adding highly treated sewage to drinking water. All options must be on the table as the climate warms.
Billions of people globally rely on groundwater. Accurate data about water quality is key.
Shutterstock/ssupawas
A new book says Australia’s 20-year water trading experiment is sucking hundreds of millions of dollars each year out of the Murray-Darling Basin and directing water away from productive land.
Water flows from the Vaal Dam after several sluice gates were opened in February 2021. Heavy rains in the Gauteng province resulted in a spike in dam levels.
Deaan Vivier/ via GettyImages
Pipelines, dams, gadgets: does water management really need to be all about control and power? Adopting less masculine ideas and working with nature may be more prudent.
Wild swimmer Fiona Philp from Limekilns, Scotland took a daily dip in her garden pool during lockdown.
Iain Masterton/Alamy Stock Photo
With fewer people commuting, home water use changed radically overnight in March 2020.
An aerial shot of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam reservoir filling up. Taken in 2020.
Photo by Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2020
Nile communities carefully monitored and recorded the river’s flow. Centuries later these records are still being used by water resource managers around the world to analyse unpredictable river flows.
It won’t be easy to get the 11 countries in the basin to agree to a plan that avoids chronic water shortages in the future. Good information sharing and technical cooperation are critical.