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"The UK's first self-closing flood barriers have been installed to protect a Lake District town hit by devastating flooding. The £4.4m scheme has been put in place in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth, where the automatic barriers aim to prevent a repeat of the floods in 2009, when a month's rain fell in 24 hours, destroying 900 homes and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate."

"A £25billion rival to the Panama Canal could be built across Nicaragua - funded entirely by the Chinese. The hugely ambitious engineering project would give China control of a vital waterway to challenge the one completed by the US in Panama nearly 100 years ago. Legislation paving the way for a new canal was given the go-ahead by Nicaraguan politicians on Monday night and is expected to be approved by the National Assembly tomorrow."

"Residents of the Mathare slum area of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, are now able to access water through an ATM-style dispenser."

"Despite the recent rain in southern California, the area is still suffering from a historic drought. Homeowners who can't abide municipal water restrictions are trying lawn painting and synthetic grass - and lawn entrepreneurs are finding plenty of work: 'We all do it because we want to live in a beautiful neighborhood'"

"Nearly 20 million people in China live in areas at high risk of arsenic contamination in their water supplies, according to a study published on Thursday. The Chinese government has labelled arsenic contamination, which it first diagnosed in China in the 1970s, as one of the country's "most important endemic diseases," due to the chronic side effects which include cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. China has been undertaking time-consuming testing of wells but the process could take decades to complete, prompting the researchers of the new study to produce a computer model able to predict which areas would be most likely at risk."

With the swelling ranks of Syrian refugees in Jordan, an overstressed river is at risk of going dry.

"As water levels plummet to 45% in America's second-largest reservoir, new islands appear - and fears grow for a waterway that serves 40 million people"

"Texas voters last night approved the creation of a water bank expected to fund nearly $30bn in water infrastructure projects in the coming decades. The passage of Proposition 6 means the state will begin putting its 2012 State Water Plan - which calls for more than $50b in spending on new water infrastructure by 2060 - into action."

" Drought-stricken California has ordered the largest cuts on record to farmers holding some of the state's strongest water rights."

"North Korea says it is facing the worst drought in a century, sparking fears of worsening food shortages."

"Research shows that in some places the ground is sinking nearly two inches each month, putting infrastructure on the surface at growing risk of damage"