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.
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Articles on Water use
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Hundreds of rivers are shared between two or more countries – this could be a source of cooperation or conflict.
Pouring these products down the sink causes society-wide problems for the entire sewerage system and the workers who maintain it.
For the second time in five years, millions of fish suffocated in the Darling River. This was not a natural disaster – it’s our doing
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.
Paris successfully took water back into public ownership. There is growing evidence to suggest England should do the same.
Rationing water at home will benefit moisture-starved ecosystems.
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.
Groundwater has the potential to support broad economic, humanitarian and social development in sub-Saharan Africa, as it has in other regions globally.
When plants moved from living in water to land, they had to adapt. How that happened can help address food security.
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.
It’s about developing a community of practice: people who can work alongside scientists, taking science out of the laboratory and into the field.
‘Hyperscale’ warehouses filled with computer servers use water for electricity and cooling.
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.
Gauteng citizens need to know the uncomfortable truth: for the next six years, their water supplies will increasingly have to be restricted.
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.
With fewer people commuting, home water use changed radically overnight in March 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.
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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.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University
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Visiting Adjunct Professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand
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Honorary Fellow, Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer, Western Sydney University
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Senior Lecturer in Environmental & Geographical Science, University of Cape Town
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Associate Professor in Law, The University of Melbourne
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Global Change Institute, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor of Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, RMIT University
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Professor, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney
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Deputy Director, Environment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
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Professor in Construction and Environmental Assessment, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor in Architectural Engineering, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)
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Chief Research Scientist, Climate Science Centre, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO
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Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation, Victoria University
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Professor, Aquatic Ecology and Director, Centre for Regional and Rural Futures, Deakin University
