The News Review:

- Greece struggles with water shortage
- FEATURE-Summer in Baghdad – power cuts and dry taps
- Threat to disrupt water supply on Independence Day

Greece struggles with water shortage
International Herald Tribune – Aug 3, 2007
A few Aegean islands, like Mykonos and Santorini, have such plants, but others are building their own. “We hope to get a plant set up within the month,” said Rafael Moraitis, the sub-prefect of Tinos. The problem of dwindling water resources is not limited to the islands: Greece is one of the driest countries in Europe. Water reserves have fallen by about 30 percent in Athens, where half of the country's population of 10 million lives, and are at their lowest level in five years, the state water board said. “The crisis on the islands is a very small part of a general problem in Greece,” said the director of the Greek office of Greenpeace, Nikos Charalambides. He blames wasteful agricultural practices but also an ambitious government plan for increasing tourism. “It is outrageous to plan the creation of golf courses and swimming pools when water tanks are running dry, and we don't have the resources to cultivate water-hungry crops like cotton…
” One of the main demands for water is irrigation for agriculture, which is the third most lucrative industry in Greece after tourism and shipping and consumes 85 percent of all reserves. “A reduction of as little as 10 percent in this figure would be enough for us to supply another 10 million Greeks with water,” according to Ioannis Mylopoulos of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Dwindling water supplies have provoked other problems. The state power board has warned that its hydroelectric plants are producing just half the power they were last year. A pressurized electricity grid also has affected water supplies. Frequent power cuts on hot days, caused by the increased use of air conditioners, have disrupted the operation of desalination units. “As long as the state continues to opt for short-term solutions to preserving water and producing energy, these problems will persist,” Charalambides, of Greenpeace, said.

FEATURE-Summer in Baghdad – power cuts and dry taps
Reuters AlertNet – Aug 3, 2007
Those with wells share water with neighbours. People with buckets are a common sight. The number of Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies has risen from 50 per cent to 70 percent since 2003, while 80 per cent lack effective sanitation, British charity Oxfam said in a report last month. INSURGENT ATTACKS Muna Joseph, a middle-aged woman who lives near Baghdad’s central Karrada district, said she had not had water for three days. "Water is one of our simplest rights but always there is a water crisis. We want to live a normal life, we are human. " The man in charge of Baghdad’s water supply, Sadiq Shumari, blamed the water shortages on insurgents who had cut power lines between the main water purification plant in Khark’s Tarmiya district and a major electricity station in Salahuddin Province…
embassy in Baghdad, said the water shortages were due to a nationwide power cut on Wednesday and possible leakages in water pipes due to old equipment or illegal tapping. "You need electricity to power the water treatment plants which purify and pump out water to households. What happened on Wednesday was a blackout across Iraq which caused the network to fall down," he explained. The network was now almost back up to pre-Wednesday levels. Baghdad has about one or two hours of electricity a day and most residents rely on neighbourhood generators and smaller diesel-powered machines to supplement the supply. "We don’t know what we should spend our salaries on — electricity, diesel, food, medicine and now water.

Threat to disrupt water supply on Independence Day
Hindu – Aug 3, 2007
Gowde Gowda, president of the Mysore Division Water Works Employees’ Association, which represents permanent employees, extended support to the agitation. Mr Halakatti contended that many of the contract workers had been working with Vani Vilas Water Works since 1990. When the corporation took over the task of water supply in April 1997, it had “erroneously” described these workers as “contract labourers”. Before the task of distribution of water came under the purview of the corporation, the employees were getting their salary through “hand receipt” and considered as daily wage workers. But when the corporation took control of Vani Vilas Water Works, salaries were paid to these employees through “benami” contractors, he said. He said that after June 2001, salaries for workers were being paid through contractors selected through the tender process. “Since then, we have been considered as contract employees and have been deprived of minimum wages, provident fund, Employees’ State Insurance and other benefits,” Mr.