13 Water Conflict

"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'"

"Rising population and dwindling water supplies will affect millions of people and exacerbate conflict in the region"

"About one third of Earth's large groundwater basins are being rapidly depleted by human consumption even though we have scarce and inaccurate data about how much water remains in them, according to two new studies published in June 2015 in Water Resources Research. This means significant segments of Earth's population are consuming groundwater without knowing when it might run out."

"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"

"Within a week, India's ministry of environment and forest finds itself committed to conducting an overall impact assessment of dams in the rivers Ganga and Brahmaputra"

"Across much of Africa, cities are growing quickly. Current projections estimate that by 2050, 60 per cent of the population will be living in urban areas - half of them in slums. Many of these people have little access to services such as clean water and sanitation, and the UN has identified fixing this as a major priority."

"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 These are areas where more than 80% of the local water supply is withdrawn by businesses, farmers, residents and other consumers every year.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."

"Federal prosecutors say Norte Energia, the consortium building the $11bn dam, has violated agreed-to items that are endangering locals' means of survival"

"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"

"Researchers and citizens have known for some time that Turkey's glaciers are shrinking. Now scientists have calculated the losses and found that more than half of the ice cover in this mountainous country has vanished since the 1970s. A team of researchers from Ege University (Turkey) and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center analyzed four decades of "

"Now in its fourth year, the drought in California has reached record-breaking levels of dryness, with more than half of the state under the most severe level of drought. In some of the hardest hit communities, taps have run completely dry, leaving hundreds of households with no access to running water. On April 1, Gov. Jerry Brown announced the first mandatory water restrictions in California history."

"Forecasters expect quieter hurricane season this year which means less rain to help refill dry reservoirs and water withering crops"

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

"The Colorado River flows from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado through the southwestern United States. Along its route, the river passes through an elaborate water-management system designed to tame the yearly floods from spring snowmelt and to provide a reliable supply of water for residents as far away as California. The system is appreciated for the water it supplies, but criticized for the environmental problems and cultural losses that have resulted from its creation."

"With the city slipping slowly into the lagoon and sea levels continuing to rise, the delayed €5.4bn Mose flood barrier project will be fighting the laws of nature "

"From the iconic Hoover Dam of US to Mao's Three Gorges Dam in China and India's Sardar Sarovar, here is a selection of 12 mega dams of the world - but are they a boon or bane?"

"Nearly a year in the making and shot in a continuous take, Revolution follows the cyclical journey of a single water droplet."

"Getting good data on the many issues related to freshwater has long been a challenge. Here you will find data tables from the World's Water series, along with select content from the newest release, Volume 7 (October 2011). For the entire book, order directly from Island Press."

"A Billion people don't have access to sufficient water and with water use growing at twice the rate of the population, water will surpass oil as the most desired and needed liquid. BBC sent 4 correspondents around the world to investigate. Then Matt Frei talkes with Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University."

"Water security is defined as the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability. (UN-Water, 2013)"