The News Review:

- Thirsty villages finally get water supply
- Water, Water, Everywhere
- Speculators and water an uneasy mix
- Not enough water in case of fire
- Completion of Bulk Water Supply Scheme demanded
- Water Will Become the Oil of the 21st Century
- New Dam To Ease Water Supply In KB

Thirsty villages finally get water supply
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus 
Water supply to the five communities was stopped after lab tests showed that the water provided to the villages was unsuitable for human consumption. The problem has been solved with the addition of a new borehole and the clean-up of the existing boreholes, allowing their use to resume. The problem has been solved and everything is fine as the normal supply of water has resumed, said Charalambos Zorbas, Palodia community leader. The problem started in May when the State Lab tested the quality of the water supplied to Yerasa and found it unsuitable. Tests to the drinking water provided to the other four communities followed suit, indicating that they too had been drinking unsafe water.

Water, Water, Everywhere
Sin Chew Jit Poh, Malaysia 
Rashid, the executive director NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation of Bangladesh, more than 97 per cent of the world’s water is salt water. The remaining three per cent is freshwater, much of which is contained in the polar caps, glaciers, or soil moisture. Thus only one percent of the world’s water supply is readily available for human consumption. Come to think of it, only one percent of all water supply is readily fit for human consumption and much of that goes into many uses other than for drinking. Like watering the lawn, washing cars, farming, manufacturing and energy production.

Speculators and water an uneasy mix
Reuters UK, UK 
“Where we are it’s broad acre cropping. But the market now is driving significantly more per mega litre from horticulture than you can get a profit margin out of wheat and barley,” he says. Across the world, speculators are increasingly looking to water as a new profit engine as supplies dwindle, caught between booming populations demanding more access and climate warming threatening its very availability. Australia, the most parched inhabited continent, has for 25 years had an internationally unique water market to better share supplies among farmers and reverse years of allocating more water than the country’s rivers and dams could spare. That market last year traded $1. 1 billion in permanent and seasonal water rights, according to Mark Siebentritt, the Operations Manager for national water broker Waterfind, who says business last year grew by 20 percent. But Kingwill, whose corporatised farm lists on the Australian Stock Exchange, says prices are being pushed up by a metaphorical gold rush, luring bankers and speculators both at home and internationally to a new and waterlogged Elysian field.

Not enough water in case of fire
Inquirer.net, Philippines 
We found no major problems, but there were few water supply sources, which is very important in fighting fires, said Renato Sanchez, an engineer and one of the inspectors. Pasay Mayor Wenceslao Trinidad earlier ordered the creation of a team to inspect buildings and establishments near the overhead train system following a series of fires that have disrupted its operations. He also directed its members to inspect the Central Park Condominium that was hit by a fire last month. The mayor previously received reports that the building had a low water supply that made it difficult for firemen to put out the blaze. There were also complaints that the condominium suffered from occasional power failures and had elevators that were not working.

Completion of Bulk Water Supply Scheme demanded
Trading Markets (press release), CA 
However, in 2004, the then Punjab government initiated a project titled Bulk Water Supply Scheme to Murree. The cost of project was about 6 billion and completion date was fixed as June 2008. The project was stated after the detailed deliberations of the Punjab government officials and NESPAK and Public Health Engineering Dept after conducting the detailed feasibility and soil tests, the site near village Chaparian at River Jhelum was found suitable for the provision of water to Murree and its surroundings. The company after awarding the contract conducted the detailed survey for construction of road.

Water Will Become the Oil of the 21st Century
Telegraph-Journal, Canada 
Analyst’s at JPMorgan have inferred that Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and Danone consume 575 billion litres of water per year, enough to satisfy the daily water needs for every human on this planet. Haven't we heard this mantra with respect to oil supply and reserves? Another interesting factor that comes into play is that there is no substitute for water compared to commodities such as oil of which there are alternative sources of energy such as natural gas, coal, and wind power to name a few. Climate change is also playing havoc with supplies of fresh water supply and its availability in very complex ways that often lead to droughts as witnessed in countries such as Australia and sub Sahara Africa. Supplies of water, the clean variety that is easily accessible to the majority of the population, is starting to see strain on the supply side due to growing global population and an emerging more financially equipped middle class in Asian countries. These people want the benefits that people in the west have enjoyed for years by way of a water intensive lifestyle. Here in North America water is cheap by world standards and almost an entitlement. Industrialization in poorer countries is contaminating rivers and other water reserves because they don't employ the same safety protocol that we follow here again in North America.

New Dam To Ease Water Supply In KB
Bru Direct, Brunei Darussalam 
The dam comes as an answer to the growing need of water for industries based in Kuala Belait, which is expected to rise further as the Sungai Liang Industrial Park (SPARK) is taking shape. 5 million dam and reservoir will be completed by year 2010. Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awang Hj Abdullah bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar, Minister of Development, officiated the ceremony. Also in attendance were Dato Paduka Dr Awang Hj Mat Suny bin Hj Mohd Hussein, Deputy Minister of Development; Hj Mohd Rozan bin Dato Paduka Hj Mohd Yunos and Dato Paduka Hj Rashid bin Hj Abdul Rahman, Permanent Secretaries at the Ministry of Development, as well as senior officials from the Public Works Department.