How does improved water stewardship fit into cooling our planet? How well were the water-climate connections made at the recent Copenhagen climate deliberations?
If you're like me, you only have a lay person's understanding of ecology – and global politics for that matter. But I do know that the CO2 reduction and carbon sequestration strategies...
In the first hours of 2010, the city of Paris, whose water system has been under various forms of mixed public and private management for much of the last century, took back public control of its water utility. The decision is emblematic of changes occurring throughout the world, with the wave of utility privatizations ebbing in the face of...
It is widely acknowledged that greenhouse gas emission-fuelled climate change is having a profound and negative impact on fresh water systems around the world. Warmer weather causes more rapid evaporation of lakes and rivers, reduced snow and ice cover on open water systems, and melting glaciers. What is less understood is that our collective...
It’s not so unusual to see water stories topping the news these days. Even when that news is very bad, that’s very good news indeed.
The stories are frequently troubling; they should be. Climate change is increasing the ferocity of floods and droughts and water privatization is drowning our democracy. But it’s about time that the seamy details of...
If we learned anything from the World Water Forum it should be that the privatization model has failed and a grassroots movement is needed.
As the Fifth World Water Forum ended recently in Istanbul, a number of stories came out, each of which might have emerged as the main water story of the week. But in fact, to see the most important story of...
One man gathers rain to recharge groundwater reserves and another pushes salt water through a desalination plant for subsequent sale. Are these both viable solutions to the world’s water crisis?
With the impacts of climate change, water waste, contamination and mismanagement fast accumulating, ensuring clean and plentiful water to both people and...
Torrents of mud and boulders flattened villages in El Salvador recently, leaving over 100 people dead and thousands homeless. From all indications, climate change will be most acutely felt in an escalating frequency and ferocity of floods and droughts. It’s chilling to think that we ought to expect much more of this kind of devastation in the...
The commons is a theme just below the surface of everything that happens at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen. Even if it’s not often mentioned.
And a key topic under discussion during the deliberations in Copenhagen— environmental service payment programs— will be important to the people living in the closest connection to a commons-based way of...
A billion people live without access to clean water, 2.5 billion without proper sanitation. Some water advocates believe private investment and management is the solution to this crisis, arguing that the public sector lacks resources, is inept—or both. Adriana Marquisio, president of Uruguay's water workers' union, is determined to prove them...
With climate change deepening the water crisis, wonky discussions of how to manage our water systems are suddenly attracting increased public attention. "Unlike oil, there's no substitute for fresh water," says Maude Barlow, senior advisor on water to the president of the United Nations General Assembly. "We all need it."
