The News Review:

- Protesters warn of water wars as supplies run dry
- News analysis: Drought Britain
- Water supply to city fully restored

Protesters warn of water wars as supplies run dry
The Age – Mar 19, 2006
Others told of similar struggles. “We’ve been beaten, we’ve beenjailed, some of us have even been killed, but we’re not going togive up,” said Marco Suastegui, who marched alongside about 10,000protesters outside the convention centre. Mr Suastegui is leading the battle against a dam being built tosupply water to the Pacific resort of Acapulco. Opponents fear thedam will dry up the nearby Papagayo River. On Friday, protesters accused the forum of serving as a coverfor companies that wanted to privatise water services. Danielle Mitterrand, the widow of late French president FrancoisMitterrand, noted that French cities had rejected this model ofprivate water management. “If in France this is no longer themodel, why should we be promoting it in the rest of the world?” shetold the protest forum.

News analysis: Drought Britain
The Independent – Independent – Mar 19, 2006
“But now we are into the second year of drought and the situation is pretty serious. The modest rainfall of the last weeks will not help very much, because we are now getting to the point where demand increases, because plants start growing and taking up water. “The only really good chance of recharging water supplies is in the months when the leaves are off the trees. She added: “The companies are now getting the message. It is clear that we have got to do something very urgently because – if we have a continuing dry spring and summer – we face interruptions to public water supply in parts of the country. “Lady Young has long taken the companies to task over their leaking pipes, saying that her agency would not approve the building of new reservoirs while “far too much water” is being wasted. Their “profligacy”, she adds, makes it hard to persuade the public to economise… 5 million households. Thames Water – responsible for two-thirds of all the people affected by the hosepipe bans – has the worst reputation of all. It, alone, routinely loses enough water to supply a city the size of Leeds. Its losses in such well-heeled neighbourhoods as Westminster, Camden and Islington are worse than in many Third World countries. In much of north London the leakage rate is 60 per cent: more water escapes from the pipes than actually gets through them to the taps. On average, a staggering 260 litres of water are lost every day on the way to each property in the area. That is the equivalent of someone from Thames Water turning up at every home in the area and wantonly flushing the lavatory 32 times a day, every day of the year.

Water supply to city fully restored
Hindu – Mar 19, 2006
The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board suspended the water supply on March 13 to attend the leakage in the pipeline occurred on Sarada College Road. The Salem Corporation workers and the TWAD officials undertook round-the-clock restoration works to plug the leak. The breach had left residents in 40 wards in the city, which were the beneficial areas of the Mettur-Salem-Attur water supply scheme, without water for about four days. The Corporation, however, had arranged tanker lorries to supply water to a few affected parts… The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board suspended the water supply on March 13 to attend the leakage in the pipeline occurred on Sarada College Road. The Salem Corporation workers and the TWAD officials undertook round-the-clock restoration works to plug the leak. The breach had left residents in 40 wards in the city, which were the beneficial areas of the Mettur-Salem-Attur water supply scheme, without water for about four days. The Corporation, however, had arranged tanker lorries to supply water to a few affected parts. The lorries fetched water from the tanks coming under the Old Water Supply Scheme, which remained functional.