The News Review:

- KARACHI: City faces 96mgd water shortfall
- Labor’s water bomb – VicElection06News – Victoria Votes -…
- ‘Tension over water won’t lead to wars’

KARACHI: City faces 96mgd water shortfall
Pakistan Dawn – Nov 11, 2006
Sources in the water utility told Dawn on Friday that KWSB authorities suspended water supply from the Dhabeji pumping station for 36 hours without giving any prior notice which resulted in shortfall of 96MGD water. Orangi Town, Baldia Town, SITE, Surjani Town, North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Gulshan-i-Maymar faced water shortage, which would persist for another 72 hours. The purpose of the closure was to interconnect the old water supply system K-II with the newly-commissioned K-III Greater Water Supply project so that water from the old system could be used in case of any emergency. However, the sources said that due to some technical problems the two water supply systems could not be linked during the last 36 hours. From Dhabeji pumping station, water is supplied to the North-East Karachi pumping station for its onward distribution to different city localities. The work is also going on at the NEK pumping station where engineers are in a process of constructing a drain for dewatering. The KWSB authorities had felt that they would complete the required work within stipulated time and the work would cause no major water scarcity in the city…
The work is also going on at the NEK pumping station where engineers are in a process of constructing a drain for dewatering. The KWSB authorities had felt that they would complete the required work within stipulated time and the work would cause no major water scarcity in the city. However, as the link work could not be completed, water supply from Dhabeji to the NEK pumping station would be suspended for at least another day, the sources added. The sources said that the closure of water from Dhabeji pumping station during the last 36 hours caused shortfall of 96MGD water and residents of the affected localities started facing the impact of this unannounced closure from Friday. The affected localities would start getting water one day after the completion of work, which might take a couple of days to complete, the sources added. Meanwhile, residents of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block-2 complained that their locality remained without water for the last three days and despite lodging several complaints with the area nazim and officials concerned the water supply to their area could not be restored.

Labor’s water bomb – VicElection06News – Victoria Votes -…
The Age – Nov 11, 2006
Both conceded yesterday they did not know whether Victoria’ssecond largest city had passed the trigger point for stage fourwater restrictions. But the Liberal Party said Geelong’s storages were at 27 percent, considerably below the November 30 trigger of 29,600 millionlitres for stage four restrictions. The Premier, visiting Geelong to announce new plans for thebypass road, ran into controversy over the water supply amidsuggestions stage four restrictions should have been imposedalready. “I don’t know if they have or haven’t been,” he said, whenasked if the trigger points had been passed.

‘Tension over water won’t lead to wars’
Times of India – Nov 11, 2006
Planet earth’shydrological system pumps and transfers about 44,000 cubic kilometres of waterto the land each year, equivalent to 6,900 cubic metres for everyone on theplanet. The problem is thatsome countries get a lot more than others. Almost a quarter of the world’ssupply of fresh water is in Lake Baikal in the sparsely populated Siberia. With31% of global fresh water resources, Latin America has 12 times more water perperson than South Asia. Waterstressed Yemen is not helped by Canada’s over abundance of fresh water (90,000cubic metre per person) and water stressed regions in China and India are notrelieved by Iceland’s water availability of more than 300 times the 1,700 cubicmetre threshold. Hydrologiststypically access scarcity by looking at the population-water equation. Today,people in 43 countries live below the water stress threshold.