Central Asia -- the level of the Aral Sea, formerly the world's fourth biggest inland sea, has dropped 16m (53 ft) and its area has almost halved

"Bangladesh capital faces acute water crisis", Planet Ark, December 13, 2001, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh authorities have been forced to call in the army to distribute drinking water in parts of the capital due to a chronic water shortage in the teeming city of nearly 10 million. Dhaka regularly faces devastating floods in the wet season,
but higher consumption is outstripping supplies.

 http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13708/story.htm

"Honduras rations drinking water due to lack of rain", Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Associated Press, December 11, 2001 -- The Honduran government initiated a seven-month rationing program for drinking water in the capital due to unseasonably low rainfall that has left aquifers practically dry... Honduras and countries across Central
America suffered from an intensive four-month drought that left more than 366,000 people malnourished and damaged 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) of grain crops in Honduras.

 http://enn.com/news/wirestories/2001/12/12112001/ap_rain_45839.asp

"Drought Covers 20 Percent of the World", ENS, October 4, 2001, Washington, DC -- A new satellite-based method for early detection, monitoring and analysis of drought shows that almost 20 percent of the world's landmass has been stricken by drought over the past two years.

 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-04-09.html

"International water crisis looms", National Post Online, Canadian Press, August 13, 2001 -- Millions of people face water shortage problems -- estimates vary from 450 million to 1.4 billion. The number will skyrocket to 2.7 billion by 2025, says a new study by the International Water Management Institute (previous studies put the estimate at 2.5 billion people by 2050, while other current estimates
see as much as half or even two-thirds of the total world population suffering water shortages by 2025). Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with some of the most heavily populated and poorest regions of the world, will be most affected, along with the Mediterranean region, including some parts of southern Europe, North Africa, and parts of North and
South America.

 http://www.nationalpost.com/news/updates/story.htmlf=/news/updates/st ories/20010813/business-521015.html

"Pressure Rising on World's Fresh Water Supply", ENS, August 14, 2001

 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2001/2001L-08-14-02.html

"Floods", New York Times, Beijing, August 26, 1998 -- At a government news conference on the disastrous floods Tuesday, Zhao Qizheng, chief of the State Council Information Office, said the government had decided to shut down logging activities in the upper catchments of the Yangtze River. The deforestation has led to more rapid runoff of rain waters and increased silting of river and lake beds. He said all cleared areas would be replanted in a long-term strategy of ecological restoration.

"Drought Evaporates Water Supply for Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Canton", Shenzhen, China, ENS, August 24, 1999 -- At the same time that flood waters along the Yangtze River in central China have killed 800 and displaced millions this summer, the drying up of the East River in southern China's Guangdong Province has led to a serious water shortage problem in the Pearl River Delta.

 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug99/1999L-08-24-01.html

"Iran drought turns lakes to scorched earth", Reuters, August 01, 2001 -- Iran is suffering its worst drought in 30 years. Most of the country's wetlands have dried out, and many farmers are struggling to survive.

 http://enn.com/news/wirestories/2001/08/08012001/reu_iran_44508.asp

"Iran flood toll reaches 200, foreign aid arrives", ENN, August 15, 2001

 http://enn.com/news/wirestories/2001/08/08152001/reu_iranflood_44639.asp

"Drought Chokes Off Iran's Water and Its Economy", New York Times, September 18, 2001

 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/18/international/middleeast/18IRAN.html

"Sudan Flooded Out After Parching Drought", ENS, August 23, 2001 -- Widespread flooding in northern Sudan after two consecutive years of serious drought have displaced tens of thousands of people, destroyed crops and threatened food security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FA0) said.

 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2001/2001L-08-23-01.html

"Asia's Dry Lands Crisis too Critical to Ignore", ENS, Bangkok, Thailand, November 10, 2000 -- The world can no longer afford to ignore the crisis in Asia's dry lands, the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) said. According to UNEP's Global Environmental
Outlook 2000 report, half of all land in South Asia has lost
agricultural potential because of poor agricultural practices,
deforestation, overgrazing and climate change. Degraded areas include
the sand dunes of Syria, the steeply eroded mountain slopes of Nepal,
and the deforested and overgrazed highlands of Laos. The result, said
UNEP, is desertification. Dramatic examples of this can also be seen
in the encroachment of desert in Western China, India and Pakistan,
and dust problems in the two Koreas and Japan, said the organization.
 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-10-10.html

"Countries and their water wars", The Earth Times, December 21, 2001
-- Wars over ownership of fresh water sources and rivers are already
underway in several parts of the world and deserts are expanding,
while people argue about how to deal with water conservation and the
importance of fresh water in geopolitics.
 http://www.earthtimes.org/dec/worldinchallengecountriesdec22_01.htm

"World water crisis will threaten one in three --UN", Reuters, August
13, 2001, Stockholm -- A looming water crisis could threaten one in
three people by 2025, sparking as much conflict this century as oil
did in the last, the U.N.-sponsored Third World Water Forum said in a
statement. "Water could become the new oil as a major source of
conflict," Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, patron of the 1999
World Water Forum, said after delivering the opening speech in
Stockholm.
 http://www.organicfarms.ca/news/xcnews.asp?cmd=view&articleid=119
 http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12012

"US expert warns Middle East of water crisis", Reuters, Damascus,
Syria, July 20, 2001 -- A former US senator and water expert has
warned that the Middle East could face a grave water shortage in the
next few years and urged leaders of the region to engage in joint
efforts to solve the problem. Paul Simon, author of "Protecting the
World's Water Supplies", warned in a lecture in Damascus on Wednesday
that wars in the next 15 years would be launched to control water,
not oil. He said US intelligence agencies had named at least 10 areas
in the world where wars over water were likely.
 http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11681

"Africa's potential water wars", BBC News, November 15, 1999 -- The
main conflicts in Africa during the next 25 years could be over that
most precious of commodities -- water, as countries fight for access
to scarce resources. Potential 'water wars' are likely in areas where
rivers and lakes are shared by more than one country, according to a
UN Development Programme (UNDP) report. The possible flashpoints are
the Nile, Niger, Volta and Zambezi basins. The report predicts
population growth and economic development will lead to nearly one in
two people in Africa living in countries facing water scarcity or
what is known as 'water stress' within 25 years.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_454000/454926.stm

"East African Water Clash Slams Nile Treaty", Nairobi, Kenya, October
18, 2001 (ENS) -- In a debate that may lead to confrontation between
Egypt and eastern Africa nations over the River Nile, Kenya's members
of parliament have voiced concern over the legality of an
international treaty that bars east African countries from using
water from Lake Victoria for irrigation. They dismissed the 1929 Nile
Water Agreement as "obsolete" and called on the government to demand
the review of the treaty and seek support of Tanzania and Uganda.
"This treaty only benefits Egypt and we cannot sit back while we have
water we can use to irrigate our land," said Energy Minister Raila
Odinga.
 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-19-01.html

The Economist magazine's Africa editor Richard Dowdon says part of
Egypt's motivation for supporting Eritrea in its conflict with
Ethiopia is its mistrust of Ethiopia's plans for the Blue Nile.
During the previous Ethiopian government, tensions with Egypt
increased rapidly when Ethiopia considered building dams on the Nile.

"The next war in our region will be over the waters of the Nile, not
politics." -- then-Egyptian foreign minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
1998

"Water wars: Part l - The Middle East", BBC News, 15 March, 2000 --
Meir Ben Meir, former Israeli Water Commissioner, paints a gloomy
picture of possible conflict over water between Israel, the
Palestinians, Jordan and Syria. "I can promise that if there is not
sufficient water in our region, if there is scarcity of water, if
people remain thirsty for water, then we shall doubtless face war. At
the moment, I project the scarcity of water within 5 years," he says.
The Jordan Valley is not unique. In other ancient water systems - the
Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates - there is also a danger of
conflict over water.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_677000/677547.stm

"Water Wars", by Jim Rogers February 2001, Worth magazine -- In 1995,
World Bank vice president Ismail Serageldin said that "the wars of
the next century will be about water." Already such conflicts are
springing up all over the world. In the Middle East, debates over the
use of the Jordan River have led to dangerous squabbles between
Israel and its neighbors. Turkey and Syria have argued over water
rights in the Tigris-Euphrates basins for years. Other sources, such
as the Aral Sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, as well as the
Ganges, which runs between India and Bangladesh, also are points of
contention.
 http://www.worth.com/content_articles/ZZZZSYLXAHC.html

"Water Wars of the Near Future", 2,300-word article by Marq de
Villiers, author of "Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource"
-- "Water shortages may not lead to shooting wars, but they most
certainly lead to food shortages, increased poverty, and to the
spread of disease. They make people poorer. They increase the
migrations of peoples, further straining the massive mega-slums of
the developing world. Standards of living deteriorate, social unrest
and violence increase... Bangladesh may never go to war with India...
but the stress caused by water shortages led to massive migrations of
people, upsetting the ethnic balance of several Bangladeshi and
Indian states, and leading to the rise of terrorist and nascent
revolutionary movements. By other definitions, then -- water wars."
 http://www.itt.com/waterbook/Wars.asp

"Water Conflict Chronology", compiled by Peter Gleick of the Pacific
Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security --
charts 63 incidents of conflict over water, mostly violent, since
1500 AD. The timeline shows that water conflicts are becoming more
frequent and more serious.
 http://www.worldwater.org/conflictIntro.htm

lastoasis.gif
"The Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity", by Sandra Postel , 1992,
Worldwatch, ISBN 0-393-31744-7
"Water scarcity will affect everything from prospects for peace in
the Middle East to global food security, the growth of cities, and
the location of industries," said Sandra Postel. Already, 26
countries have more people than their water supplies can adequately
support. Tensions are mounting over scarce water in the Middle East
and could ignite during this decade. And competition for water is
intensifying between city dwellers and farmers around Beijing, New
Delhi, Phoenix, and other water-short areas. Building large new dams
and river diversions is becoming prohibitively costly and
environmentally damaging. "In most cases, measures to conserve water
and use it more efficiently are now the most cost-effective and
environmentally sound ways of meeting water needs," Postel says.
"Together they constitute our 'last oasis'--and they have barely been
tapped." With techniques available today, farmers could cut their
water demands by 10-50 percent, industries by 40-90 percent, and
cities by a third with no sacrifice of economic output or quality of
life.
 https://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/BWB03P

"IMF Forces African Countries to Privatize Water", Globalization
Challenge Initiative, 8 February 2001 -- A review of IMF loan
policies in forty random countries reveals that, during 2000, IMF
loan agreements in 12 countries included conditions imposing water
privatization or full cost recovery. In general, it is African
countries, and the smallest, poorest and most debt-ridden countries
that are being subjected to IMF conditions on water privatization and
full cost recovery... Water privatization and greater cost recovery
make water less accessible and less affordable to the low-income
communities that make up the majority of the population in developing
countries.
 http://afjn.cua.edu/Water%20Privatization-May01.htm

"Water Wars -- Privatization, Pollution, and Profit", by Vandana
Shiva, 2002, South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-650-X
While drought and desertification are intensifying around the world,
corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into
bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match
-- or even surpass -- the oil wars of the twentieth. Vandana Shiva,
"the world's most prominent radical scientist" (the Guardian), shines
a light on activists who are fighting corporate maneuvers to convert
this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites. Outlines
the emergence of corporate culture and the historical erosion of
communal water rights. Shiva calls for a movement to preserve water
access for all, and offers a blueprint for global resistance based on
examples of successful campaigns.
 http://www.southendpress.org/books/waterwars.shtml

"Monsanto and water privatization", by Vandana Shiva, The Hindu, May
1, 1999 -- Over the past few years, Monsanto, a chemical firm, has
positioned itself as an agricultural company through control over
seed -- the first link in the food chain. Monsanto now wants to
control water, the very basis of life. "What you are seeing is not
just a consolidation of seed companies, it's really a consolidation
of the entire food chain. Since water is as central to food
production as seed is, and without water life is not possible,
Monsanto is now trying to establish its control over water," said
Robert Farley of Monsanto. "Monsanto plans to launch a new water
business, starting with India and Mexico since both these countries
are facing water shortages." Privatization and commodification of
water are a threat to the right to life. Water is a commons and must
be managed as a commons. It cannot be controlled and sold by a life
sciences corporation that peddles in death.
 http://www.portaec.net/library/food/waterwatch.html

Poor pay more -- poor people in the developing world pay on average
12 times more per litre of water than the rich do and it's often
contaminated, according to the World Commission on Water for the 21st
Century. Poor people pay huge premiums to water vendors -- 60 times
more in Jakarta, 83 times more in Karachi, 100 times more in Haiti
and Mauritania. 1.2 billion people around the world lack access to
safe water, and 3.4 million of them die each year from water-related
diseases.
 http://www.watervision.org/clients/wv/water.nsf/%28webNews%29/A9E2715B
E702AEDCC12567C40030C25A

"Monsanto plan to cash in on world water crisis", Independent
(London) September 26, 1999 -- Monsanto, the genetically modified
food giant, drew up plans to make billions of dollars out of the
world's water crisis, confidential company documents reveal. The
documents, seen by the Independent on Sunday, identify a "vast
economic opportunity" for the company in impending global shortages
of resources such as water. They outline a strategy to use
"environmental issues" to "deliver strong financial returns". The
business plan adds that two billion people worldwide "still lack
reasonable access to safe water" and says that this is likely to rise
to 2.5 billion over the next decade. "Initial entry into the water
business will create US$400m in annual revenues". The plan foresees
the potential to create several billion dollars in annual revenue.
Monsanto recently dropped plans to establish water businesses in
India and Mexico. A Monsanto spokesman confirmed that the company had
made plans to exploit the world water situation but had decided
several months ago not to proceed. He did not rule out that the
company might return to them in the future.

Water flows uphill toward money -- The village of El Mayor in the
Colorado Delta in Mexico grew up by a great waterway, rich with fish,
farms and forests. "Our river is gone," laments chief Onesimo
Gonzales. "No more fishing. Trees are dead. No one plants. The wells
are dry." The remaining families coax murky water for washing from a
distant borehole, but for drinking or cooking they wait for trucks
that sell clean water at seven pesos (65 cents) for a five-gallon
jug. At that rate, they would pay $13 million for the same amount of
Colorado River water that developers of Shadow Lake near Palm
Springs, California, bought for $3,400 for their $70 million
water-ski estate. The villagers' plight typifies what is happening
around the world as politics and engineering shape access to
dwindling water sources. -- "Wealth Dictates Where Water Flows" (AP)
May 18, 2001
 http://infomanage.com/forum/read.php?f=10&i=33&t=33

Newfoundland plan to export water stirs controversy", Wall Street
Journal , April 11, 2001 -- A plan by the Canadian province of
Newfoundland to sell lake water to the United States is meeting steep
opposition from some Canadian officials. The plan is to sell 13
billion gallons of fresh water per year from Gisborne Lake.
Newfoundland stands to gain $1.3 million a month in payments from the
company that would export the water. But critics say the deal would
set a dangerous precedent by making Canada's water a tradable good
that would be subject to the rules of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA). If that happens, the country may not be able to
stop U.S. or Mexican companies from exporting it. "If Newfoundland
does this, we will lose sovereign rights over our water," said Maude
Barlow, chairman of the lobby group Council of Canadians. "To see our
water sucked up by the Americans would be too much." [Subscription
required.]
 http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB986940839605624238.htm

"The Human Right to Water", by Peter Gleick, President, Pacific
Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, 1(5)
Water Policy 487-503 (1999), Elsevier Science -- More than a billion
people in the developing world lack safe drinking water. The failure
of the international aid community, nations, and local organizations
to satisfy these basic human needs has led to substantial,
unnecessary, and preventable human suffering. Access to a basic water
requirement is a fundamental human right implicitly and explicitly
supported by international law, declarations, and State practice.
Governments, international aid agencies, non-governmental
organizations, and local communities should work to provide all
humans with a basic water requirement and to guarantee that water as
a human right. (Acrobat file, 124kb)
 http://www.pacinst.org/gleickrw.pdf

The Blue Planet Project is an international effort begun by The
Council of Canadians to protect the world's fresh water from the
growing threats of trade and privatization. During March 16-22, 2000,
activists from Canada and more than a dozen other countries met in
The Hague to oppose the trade and privatization agenda of the Second
World Water Forum and to kick start an international network to
protect water as a common resource and a basic human right.
 http://www.canadians.org/blueplanet/index2.html

"Blue Gold -- The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of the
World's Water Supply", by Maude Barlow, International Forum on
Globalization Committee on the Globalization of Water, 1999 --
Experience shows that selling water on the open market does not
address the needs of poor, thirsty people. On the contrary,
privatized water is delivered to those who can pay for it, such as
wealthy cities and individuals and water intensive industries such as
agriculture and high-tech... Selling water to the highest bidder will
only exacerbate the worst impacts of the world water crisis.
 http://www.ifg.org/bgsummary.html

"Bolivia's War Over Water" reports from the scene by Jim Shultz,
executive director, The Democracy Center -- In April 2000 Bolivia
grabbed the world's attention when the city of Cochabamba erupted in
a public uprising over water prices. In 1999, following World Bank
advice, Bolivia had granted a 40-year privatization lease to a
subsidiary of the Bechtel Corporation, giving it control over the
water on which more than half a million people survive. Immediately
the company doubled and tripled water rates for some of South
America's poorest families. The entire city went on a general strike.
The military killed a seventeen-year-old boy and arrested the water
rights leaders. But after four months of unrest the Bolivian
government forced Bechtel out of Cochambamba.
 http://www.democracyctr.org/onlinenews/water.html

"Water as Commodity -- The Wrong Prescription", by Maude Barlow,
Council of Canadians: "Water as a fundamental right is guaranteed in
the Universal Declaration on Human Rights: A growing movement of
people believe that the imperatives of economic
globalization-unlimited growth, a seamless global consumer market,
corporate rule, deregulation, privatization, and free trade-are the
driving forces behind the destruction of our water systems. These
must be challenged and rejected if the world's water is to be saved."
 http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2001/s01v7n3.html

"Billions without clean water", BBC News, 14 March, 2000 -- Half the
world's population is living in unsanitary conditions without access
to clean water, according to a UN-backed report. The report, drawn up
by the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century, says three
billion of the world's most deprived people live in squalor and
misery without access to proper sanitation. It says access to water
should be seen as a basic human right as well as a key factor in the
fight against diseases such as typhoid and cholera. UN water expert
Brian Appleton says 5,000 children die needlessly every day from
waterborne illnesses: "That's equivalent to 12 full jumbo jets
crashing every day," he says. "If 12 full Jumbo jets were crashing
every day, the world would want to do something about it -- they
would want to find out why it was happening."
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/newsid_676000/676064.stm

"India's Ganges, a holy river of pollution", Reuters, Allahabad,
India, January 14, 2001 -- Hindus believe that a dip in the holy
Ganges during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival will cleanse their souls
of sin. But the pollution that bedevils the river could do untold
damage to the bodies of the faithful who will bathe in the Indian
city of Allahabad over the next few weeks. Ram Surat Das, a barefoot
old man, emerged from a crowd of Ganges bathers on Saturday holding a
steel pot of water. "I'll use this for drinking and cooking and get
some more tonight," he said. "It's absolutely clean. Of course it is,
it's Ganges water." So far he has survived the physical onslaught of
raw sewage, rotting carcasses, industrial effluent, fertilisers and
pesticides that infect the river from the Himalayan foothills to the
Bay of Bengal. Experts say pollution is to blame for a host of
diseases -- hepatitis, amoebic dysentery, typhoid, cholera and cancer
-- among the roughly 400 million people who live in the vast Gangetic
basin.
 http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9513

"Millions dying needlessly from dirty water - WHO", Reuters,
Brussels, March 23, 2001 -- More than one billion people have no
access to clean water and 3.4 million die every year from diseases
that could be easily remedied by better supplies and sanitation, says
the World Health Organisation. The world's poor pay more than the
rich for worse water -- up to 20 percent of household incomes -- but
are more at risk from water-borne illnesses, the WHO said during a
news conference to mark World Water Day yesterday. "About $16 billion
is spent on the provision of safe water and sanitation throughout the
world," said Wilfried Kreisel, executive director of the WHO's
European Union Office. "In order to halve the number of people
suffering from diseases due to contaminated water, it would be
necessary to spend $23 billion. (The $7 billion difference) is one
tenth of what Europeans spend annually on alcoholic beverages."
 http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10228

"Rivers Have Long Way to Flow to Meet New EU Law", Brussels, Belgium,
April 25, 2001 (ENS) -- Habitat destruction and pollution from
industry and agriculture have left many of Europe's rivers needing to
be revived in order to meet new European Union water standards. The
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says 50 out of 69 river stretches in
16 European countries suffer from "poor ecological status" due to
canals, dams and locks, floodplain drainage, over-abstraction of
water, industrial discharges, insufficient water treatment and heavy
use of fertilizers.
 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-25-10.html

"Biggest U.S. Water Polluters Not Punished", Washington, DC, May 28,
2001 (ENS) - More than one in four -- 26 percent -- of the nation's
largest industrial, municipal and federal facilities were in
"significant" violation of the Clean Water Act at least once during a
recent 15 month period. A new report by the U.S. Public Interest
Research Group (PIRG) says both state agencies and the U.S. EPA have
failed to properly pursue and punish polluters. The report,
"Polluters' Playground: How the Government Permits Pollution," tells
of the continued dumping of hundreds of millions of pounds of toxic
chemicals into waterways and the significant violation of the Clean
Water Act by almost 1,700 large facilities. Of 42 industrial
facilities in Significant Non-Compliance for the entire 15 month
period, EPA records indicate only one received a fine over the past
five years.
 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2001/2001L-05-28-06.html

"EPA Seeks Clean Water Rule Delay -- Revision Planned to Make
Pollution Control 'Workable'", Washington Post, July 17, 2001 -- The
Bush administration yesterday sought a lengthy delay in adopting a
new rule for cleaning up thousands of the country's polluted lakes,
rivers and streams while it attempts to rewrite the measure.The rule,
drafted by the Clinton administration, has been sharply criticized by
conservative Republicans in Congress and challenged in court by
utilities, manufacturers and farm groups that say it could force them
to spend tens of billions of dollars more annually on water cleanup.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5248-2001Jul16.html

"Water Ills Tied to Animal Waste, Study Concludes", Los Angeles
Times, July 25, 2001 -- Improper disposal of animal waste at hog,
dairy and egg farms is threatening drinking-water supplies,
recreational waters and health in parts of Southern California and
across the nation, according to a report released Tuesday by the
Natural Resources Defense Council. The "Cesspools of Shame" report
says waste water at so-called factory farms contains viruses and
bacteria, antibiotics, nitrates, ammonia, metals and other toxins
that contaminate aquifers and recreational waters. Improper waste
storage has also resulted in fish kills and the release of toxic
airborne chemicals that cause human illness, the report says.
 http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-000060736jul25.story?coll=la%2D
news%2Dscience

"Free drugs from your faucet -- How did tiny amounts of nearly every
drug under the sun get into our drinking water -- and what are they
doing to us?", Salon.com, October 25, 2001 -- The U.S. water supply
is laced with residues of hundreds of medicinal and household
chemicals, compounds that originate not at a Dow Chemical drainage
pipe but from our own personal plumbing. The contaminants come from
our bladders and bowels, our bathtub drains and kitchen sinks. As
much as 90 percent of anything the doctor orders you to swallow
passes out of your body and into your toilet. Wastes from farm
animals are never treated -- and loaded with antibiotics and
fertility hormones. As chemists make new concoctions, the water
supply takes the hit.
 http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/10/25/drugs_water/index.html

"Pharmaceuticals found in Canada's water system", Toronto Globe and
Mail, September 5, 2001, Ottawa -- Traces of medical drugs such as
antibiotics, estrogen and antidepressants are being found in Canada's
water system, Health Canada scientists say. Studies found
pharmaceutical compounds and chemicals from products such as
cosmetics and shampoos, veterinary medicines, food additives and
genetically modified foods in samples taken from sewage effluent.
Research conducted on water systems in Europe has discovered
compounds that make up such drugs as ASA, antidepressants and
blood-pressure medications.
 http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/
common/FullStory.html&cf=tgam/common/FullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/
config&vg=BigAdVariableGenerator&date=20010905&dateOffset=&hub=environ
ment&title=Environment&cache_key=environment

"Many of world's lakes face death, expert warns", Reuters. November
12, 2001, Tokyo -- Many of the world's freshwater lakes face death by
pollution, resulting in catastrophe for the human populations that
depend on them, an environmental expert warned. "There is not a lake
left on the planet that is not already being affected by human
activities," said William Cosgrove, vice president of the World Water
Council. "We're killing the lakes, and that could be disaster to the
human communities that depend on them." He said the situation faced
by many of the world's lakes -- estimated to number some five million
-- is dire.
 http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/11/11122001/reu_lakes_45550.asp

"Aerosol Pollution Could Drain Earth's Water Cycle", San Diego,
California, December 7, 2001 (ENS) -- Pollution may be seriously
weakening the Earth's water cycle, reducing rainfall and threatening
fresh water supplies. A new study by researchers at the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography suggests that tiny particles of soot and
other pollutants are having a far greater effect on the planet's
hydrological cycle than previously realized, directly affecting fresh
water availability and quality. The aerosols are a mixture of
sulfates, nitrates, organic particles, fly ash, and mineral dust,
formed by fossil fuel combustion and burning of forests and other
biomass.
 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-07-06.html

"African Ministers Mobilize to Finance Clean Water", Bonn, Germany,
December 10, 2001 (ENS) -- African ministers in charge of water from
22 countries are urging that action to reduce death rates due to poor
hygiene and polluted water be placed at the core of the forthcoming
World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa. There is a
need for "drastic measures to improve water, sanitation and hygiene
conditions for all our peoples," they declared. The recommendation
comes in the wake of figures showing that 6,000 people a day, or over
two million a year, are dying as a result of sub-standard sanitation.
 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-10-01.html

"Hidden Groundwater Pollution Problem Runs Deep", Washington, DC,
December 11, 2000 (ENS) -- Toxic chemicals are contaminating
groundwater on every inhabited continent, endangering the world's
most valuable supplies of freshwater, reports a new study from the
Worldwatch Institute. This first global survey of groundwater
pollution shows that a toxic brew of pesticides, nitrogen
fertilizers, industrial chemicals and heavy metals is fouling
groundwater everywhere. The study by the Washington, DC based
Worldwatch Institute also found that the damage is often worst in the
very places where people most need water.
 http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-11-06.html

"One billion people at risk from world's shrinking and polluted
lakes", Tokyo (AP) November 12, 2001 -- Nearly 1 billion people are
at risk because of overuse and pollution of the world's lakes, said
global experts gathered in central Japan to draw up plans for
fighting the trend. Already, more than half the world's lakes and
reservoirs -- representing 90 percent of all liquid fresh water on
the Earth's surface -- have been harmed by pollution and drainage,
said delegates at the International Conference on Conservation and
Management of Lakes.
 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2001/11/12/i
nternational0419EST0485.DTL


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