The News Review:

- Senate panel rejects governor’s plan to build more dams
- ZIMBABWE: Water train to thirsty Bulawayo?
- Water project likely to be commissioned by month-end
- Investment column: A watertight case for long-term investment

Senate panel rejects governor’s plan to build more dams
San Diego Union Tribune – Apr 24, 2007
“I don’t think that we will have to scale back,” Schwarzenegger said. “I think that the people of California deserve and need more water storage. ”Lawmakers have been warned by scientists that the state’s water supplies are the most vulnerable of the California’s natural resources to climate change. An estimated two-thirds of Californians depend on the Sierra Nevada snowmelt for drinking water while Central Valley growers use it to irrigate their fields. The state Department of Water Resources has said as much as 90 percent of the snowpack could be diminished by the end of the century. Schwarzenegger has said the state, in partnership with local communities, should build more reservoirs to capture water that today is stored through the summer months in the mountain snowpack. The Department of Water Resources is advocating for dams to be built above the existing Friant Dam north of Fresno and another in the grasslands north of Sacramento.

ZIMBABWE: Water train to thirsty Bulawayo?
Reuters AlertNet – Apr 24, 2007
m, as opposed to the 73 million cu. m of rainwater that we received during the previous season," said Bulawayo’s executive mayor, Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube. Bulawayo’s unreliable water supply has forced many industries to relocate from the dry Matabeleland North Province, but the city has managed to supply water to its 1. 5 million people with the help of its dams, one of which, the Lower Ncema, has already run dry and been decommissioned; another, the Umzingwane, is expected to be decommissioned in June. Two more dams, the Upper Ncema and the Inyankuni, will run out of water in August, according to the city council, leaving the municipality dependent on the remaining water supply dam, Insiza, which is expected run dry in October, before the onset of the rains. In 1992, the city’s water supplies ran dry during the country’s worst ever drought but a Norwegian organisation came to the rescue, sinking 77 boreholes in high water-yielding aquifers, but only 20 of them are still functioning. A government parastatal has taken over maintenance of the boreholes, but it has said it did not have the funds to repair them…
5 million people with the help of its dams, one of which, the Lower Ncema, has already run dry and been decommissioned; another, the Umzingwane, is expected to be decommissioned in June. Two more dams, the Upper Ncema and the Inyankuni, will run out of water in August, according to the city council, leaving the municipality dependent on the remaining water supply dam, Insiza, which is expected run dry in October, before the onset of the rains. In 1992, the city’s water supplies ran dry during the country’s worst ever drought but a Norwegian organisation came to the rescue, sinking 77 boreholes in high water-yielding aquifers, but only 20 of them are still functioning. A government parastatal has taken over maintenance of the boreholes, but it has said it did not have the funds to repair them. Most public infrastructure in Zimbabwe is in a state of disrepair as the country battles the world’s highest annual inflation rate of more than 1,700 percent. Fanuel Masikati, spokesman for National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), told IRIN that the municipality had not yet officially approached them to transport water from the Zambezi River. "We are a bulk carrier which can deliver any commodities to any part of the country, although that would require some resource allocation for such a programme to be properly implemented.

Water project likely to be commissioned by month-end
Hindu – Apr 24, 2007
Chandrashekar said completion was likely to be delayed by two or three days. The project would meet the drinking water requirements of an estimated three lakh people in the city. The quantum of drinking water supply in Mysore would increase from 33 MGD to 44 MGD. When the project is implemented, residents of the city who had been making do with drinking water supply on alternate days would receive drinking water supply everyday, officials said. The Melapura second stage plant would ensure supply of 125 litres of water a day a person in Mysore, officials added. Though the installed capacity of drinking water supply to Mysore from Belagola, Hongalli and Melapura first stage is 44 MGD, the residents of the city have been receiving only 33 MGD of water on account of technical hurdles, outdated network of pipes and wastage…
When the project is implemented, residents of the city who had been making do with drinking water supply on alternate days would receive drinking water supply everyday, officials said. The Melapura second stage plant would ensure supply of 125 litres of water a day a person in Mysore, officials added. Though the installed capacity of drinking water supply to Mysore from Belagola, Hongalli and Melapura first stage is 44 MGD, the residents of the city have been receiving only 33 MGD of water on account of technical hurdles, outdated network of pipes and wastage. Somashekar, who said he had staged a protest in front of the Mysore Palace during Dasara festivities to pressure the Dharam Singh Government to sanction the project, said the Rs. 5-crore project had been executed with financial assistance from the Mysore City Corporation and the Mysore Urban Development Authority.

Investment column: A watertight case for long-term investment
Telegraph.co.uk – Apr 24, 2007
In a fascinating analysis of the opportunities in water, San Diego-based investment manager Summit has put together a list of the underlying drivers for water investing. It is an awesome array of challenges and opportunities. The supply of water is finite. Indeed the amount of fresh water available to man is calculated to be about half of one per cent of all the water on Earth. Rivers and lakes make up about one hundredth of this already small amount. You would think we would look after such a rare resource, but supplies are disappearing at an alarming rate as we pollute surface water and use ground water supplies faster than they can replenish themselves. The water table in China is falling by three metres a year…
About a fifth of the world’s population does not have adequate supplies of drinking water. Many more do not have even basic sanitation. Lack of investment in water supply networks is a huge problem in both the developed and developing world. Infrastructure needs in the US alone are expected to cost up to $1,000bn (£500bn) over the next 20 years. Put together constrained supply and booming demand and you have the basis for the world’s most compelling long-term investment theme. It is little wonder against such a backdrop that water-related businesses have been such impressive performers in recent years. In the US, Summit calculates, water utility stocks have posted a total return (with dividends re-invested) of 383pc since 1996.