The News Review:

- Rudd backs Howard’s $10bn water plan
- EPA criticises poor monitoring of drinking water supplies
- Clashes on salt in Delta: Groups debate how to regulate levels of…
- JBIC team examines feasibility of Hogenakkal water scheme

Rudd backs Howard’s $10bn water plan
The Australian – Jan 25, 2007
Prime Minister John Howard today unveiled a $10 billion, 10-point plan to improve national water efficiency, including $3 billion to buy back water licences from irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin. In a lunchtime speech to the National Press Club, the Prime Minister called on states to hand over responsibility for water to the commonwealth, arguing competing priorities among state governments made sensible management of scarce water resources impossible and exposed the nation to "the tyranny of incrementalism". And, describing himself as "a climate change realist", he also acknowledged that climate change was affecting the nation’s water supply by increasing the deviation around annual rainfall averages. The Government, Mr Howard said, had to "make every drop count". Mr Rudd said while he would seek further briefings on the plan from government officials, he supported Mr Howard’s blueprint and believed the states should do the same. “I believe we need to develop a cooperative national response to what is a national water emergency and that means dealing cooperatively between the commonwealth and the states and territories so that we can have a long-term national solution to this problem for the three million people in the Murray-Darling system and also for the 17 million people in the rest of the country,” he told reporters. “I’m adopting a positive, bipartisan approach to this.

EPA criticises poor monitoring of drinking water supplies
Ireland Online – Jan 25, 2007
substring (2, 11); document. In a report out today, the agency says a high number of water supply systems are not being sufficiently inspected, putting the health of people who use these supplies at risk. The EPA says the general quality of drinking water in public water supplies is satisfactory. However, it is expressing concern about private group water schemes, a high number of which are contaminated with e-coli. The agency says the poor quality of these schemes is the most challenging issue facing local authorities, but no council audited for the latest report was taking enforcement action to have water supplies cleaned up.

Clashes on salt in Delta: Groups debate how to regulate levels of…
Free with registration – The Record – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jan 25, 2007
It’s an issue for Delta farmers whose crops suffer because of poor water quality. And it’s an issue for millions of Californians who rely on drinking water pumped from the Delta. The state Department of Water Resources says permanent gates planned for construction in the south Delta could help keep the.

JBIC team examines feasibility of Hogenakkal water scheme
Hindu – Jan 25, 2007
Bashkaran Dharmapuri: Representatives of the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) visited Hogenakkal on Wednesday to examine the feasibility of the Hogenakkal Comprehensive Drinking Water Supply Scheme. The team led by Yoichi Yamanoto, Deputy Director, Water Supply and Solid Waste, JBIC, and Eri Nakamura, Development Systems Programmer, JBIC, inspected the site (River Cauvery), which has been chosen as the source for the water supply project and areas identified for establishment of Water Treatment Plant. Collector Pankaj Kumar Bansal briefed them about the chemical and bacteriological treatment of water before supply. The team also held discussions with the TWAD officials at the Collectorate. Senthil pointed out that the surface water would be tapped near Hogenakkal.