Free Republic

NUEVO LEON; Residents have been without running water for days. A truck carrying more than 4,000 gallons of not potable is distributed to residents. The water is used to flush the toilet, launder clothing, wash dishes or bathe. People rely on bottled water bought from the store to cook and drink. Garcia is a municipality located to the northwest of the Monterrey metropolitan area. Nuevo Leon, one the wealthiest states in Mexico, is facing an unprecedented water crisis, with the taps running dry in parts of Monterrey and the surrounding areas. Authorities blame a four-year drought that has almost completely...

China will ramp up construction of dams, reservoirs and wells in response to a severe drought in the country’s south-west, but the move is likely to raise tensions with downstream countries, which have already blamed reduced river flows on Beijing. Most of south-west China has been affected by the drought, which began in November and has left more than 24m people without adequate access to drinking water. Downstream in Thailand, cargo boats have been stranded along the banks of the Mekong, which is at its lowest level in half a century, while fishermen complain of empty nets. Beijing has launched...

Which costs more, a dollar's worth of sugar or a dollar's worth of paint? That's not a trick question-the sugar costs more, if you count the liters of water that go into making it, according to a new study. Uncovering the water behind the dollars in sectors including cotton farming and movie making could help industries use water more wisely, the study's authors say. Researchers know little about how much and where water is used. The United States Census Bureau stopped monitoring companies' water consumption in the 1980s, so the most detailed information available is the U. S. Geological Survey's...

The growth in human population and rising consumption have exceeded the planet's ability to support us, argues John Feeney. In this week's Green Room, he says it is time to ring the alarm bells and take radical action in order to avert unspeakable consequences. We humans face two problems of desperate importance. The first is our global ecological plight. The second is our difficulty acknowledging the first. Despite increasing climate change coverage, environmental writers remain reluctant to discuss the full scope and severity of the global dilemma we've created. Many fear sounding alarmist, but there is an alarm to sound...

http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/Publications/ToThePoint/2001/052401.htm May 24, 2001 Water Shortages Wouldn't Exist if the Price Were Right By Deborah E. Moeller and B. Delworth Gardner On April 22, the Deseret News reported that Salt Lake residents will be asked to voluntarily curtail lawn-watering through the late spring and summer, while mandatory restrictions will be placed on many water users from North Salt Lake to North Ogden. Water managers insist there is no present "crisis," although Salt Lake City officials were told that the capital city will receive only 60 percent of its allocation from Deer Creek Reservoir, the city's single biggest source of water—an...

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/3096137.htm Posted on Fri, Apr. 19, 2002 Neighbors becoming water-use spies By Tom Avril Inquirer Staff Writer The region's drought restrictions remain a mystery to most people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Few residents have read - or can understand - them, and few authorities are enforcing them. Still, in communities across the region, sprinkler spies already are diming out their scofflaw neighbors. And Philadelphia is trying to wiggle out of the rules entirely. Despite the daunting bureaucratic jargon of the water restrictions - 2,545 words long in Pennsylvania; 3,961 in New Jersey - residents and law-enforcement authorities are starting...