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"f the global community is to adequately address water challenges and associated risks, cooperation is imperative"

"Every inhabited continent, to varying degrees, has areas where there is extremely high water stress. These are areas where more than 80% of the local water supply is withdrawn by businesses, farmers, residents and other consumers every year. These so-called stressed areas are also the ones most vulnerable to episodic droughts. With chronic overuse of water resources, it only takes a string of years with bad rainfall or poor management decisions to plunge a region into crisis and chaos. Here's a look at seven extreme droughts that have occurred in the past decade."

"Lester Brown says grain harvests are already shrinking as US, India and China come close to 'peak water'"

"Five hundred scientists meeting in Bonn last month warned that 9 billion people would face the consequences of severe water shortages within a generation or two, but did not point the finger at industries devastating fresh water supplies. Meanwhile, a battle against a metal mining industry that has ravaged freshwater supplies in El Salvador shows just how difficult it is for a developing country to build economic alternatives for a water-secure future."

"More than 100 environmental, social and indigenous organisations protested in the Chilean capital, Santiago, this week to demand that the state regain control of the management of water, which was privatised by the then dictatorship in 1981."

"As population rises, overpumping means some nations have reached peak water, which threatens food supply, says Lester Brown"

"Climate change fears as 778,000 people face food insecurity amid Namibia's longest dry spell in a generation"

"From California to the Middle East, huge areas of the world are drying up and a billion people have no access to safe drinking water. US intelligence is warning of the dangers of shrinking resources and experts say the world is 'standing on a precipice'"

"The heavily polluted Ganges in India needs a clean-up operation, but activists must honour the river's spiritual significance to succeed where others have failed"

"More than 400 hydroelectric schemes are planned in the mountain region, which could be a disaster for the environment"

Millions of people will lose access to traditional sources of water because of "land grabs" in Africa, according to a report on Monday that looks behind the scramble for farmland in Africa.