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https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu
This forum is committed to informing and educating our visitors. A life threatening problem exists involving dramatically declining supplies of pure, safe, delicious water which is affecting nearly every living man, woman and child around the globe; what experts label as the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - AND the noble investment opportunities designed to support those who are adversely affected. |
World Water CrisisIn the extraordinary new book Blue Planet Run, hundreds of photographers from all over the world track mankind's vital race to provide safe drinking water to the one billion people who lack it... Presented by TIME in Partnership with CNN http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1724375,00.htmlThe Staff of Life Source Sacred Bath Dried Up Seabed Digging Deep Short Supply Yuck Fishing Holes Pipeline Factory Filth Dirty Water Desalination Filtration Outhouses Toilet Solution Research and Development Slow the Melt Emergency Supply Seedling Ring Around the Well Refreshing World Water Crisis In the extraordinary new book Blue Planet Run, hundreds of photographers from all over the world track mankind's vital race to provide safe drinking water to the one billion people who lack it... Presented by TIME in Partnership with CNN http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1724375,00.html |
World water crisis worsened by corruption, repression: UN report20 February 2006 – Corruption, restricted political rights and limited civil liberties are all factors that lie behind the planet’s growing water crisis, says a new United Nations report that focuses on the precious resource of fresh water. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said today that the second edition of the UN World Water Development Report shows the global water crisis is largely a crisis of governing systems that “determine who gets what water, when and how, and decides who has the right to water and related services.” The report will be released on 9 March in Mexico City by Gordon Young, Coordinator of the UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), and Cristobal Jaime Jazquez, Director-General of the National Water Commission of Mexico. Entitled “Water, a Share Responsibility,” the report builds on the conclusions of the first water development study published three years ago. It presents a comprehensive picture of freshwater resources in all regions and most countries as it tracks progress towards the water-related targets of the UN Millennium Development Goals. Known collectively as the MDGs, these targets were set at a 2000 UN Summit and aim to reduce major global ills such as poverty, illiteracy and hunger by 2015. The report examines a variety of key issues, including population growth and increasing urbanization, changing ecosystems, food protection, health, industry and energy. It also looks at risk management and how water is valued and paid for. A set of conclusions and recommendations to guide future actions and encourage the sustainable use and management of the world’s increasing scarce freshwater resources are also included. The UN World Water Development Report is a joint undertaking of 24 UN agencies in partnership with governments and other stakeholders and is produced on their behalf by the Water Assessment Programme, whose secretariat is hosted by UNESCO. The second edition will be launched one week before the Fourth World Water Forum that will be held in Mexico City from March 16 to 22. The report will be formally presented by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. |
We are grateful to Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security for assistance in collating these data.
Water Factshttp://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/Today’s water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access. More people in the world own cell phones than have access to a toilet. And as cities and slums grow at increasing rates, the situation worsens. Every day, lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills thousands, leaving others with reduced quality of life. Choose a Topic:
Water
Sanitation
Children
Women
Disease
Economics
Environment
Water in the NewsWater woes in Pakistan—26-Dec Resource LinksLook for more facts in our collection of Water Resource Links. References
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Peter Gleick: Peak WaterSaturday, 22 January 2011 16:17 Peak water is coming. In some places, peak water is here.We’re never going to run out of water — water is a renewable natural resource (mostly). But increasingly, around the world, in the U.S., and locally, we are running up against peak water limits. The concept is so important and relevant that The New York Times chose the term “peak water” as one of its 33 “Words of the Year” for 2010 (along with “refudiate,” “top kill,” and “vuvuzela”), a term that a colleague and I defined in a new research paper in May in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (available here). Water Number: Three (3) definitions of “peak water.” Peak Renewable Water: This is the limit reached when humans take the entire renewable flow of a river or stream for our use. Water is renewable, but there is a limit to how much can be used. Humans have already reached “peak renewable water” limits on the Colorado River. We use it all and can’t take any more. In fact, of course, we probably shouldn’t even take as much as we do, for ecological reasons (see “Peak Ecological Water” below). Increasingly, we are reaching peak renewable limits on many of our rivers and streams. The Yellow River in China no longer reaches the sea much of the year. The Aral Sea has been devastated because the entire flows of the Amu and Syr Darya rivers have been consumed. The Nile Delta is typically dry much of the year. Peak Non-Renewable Water: While much of our water supply is renewable, there are “non-renewable” water sources as well, where our use of water depletes or degrades the source. This most typically takes the form of groundwater aquifers that we pump out faster than nature recharges them — exactly like the concept of “peak oil.” Over time, groundwater becomes depleted, more expensive to tap, or effectively exhausted. Central Valley aquifers are overpumped, unsustainably, to the tune of 1-to-2 million acre-feet a year. So are groundwater aquifers in India, China, the Great Plains, and other places. This cannot continue indefinitely — it runs into peak non-renewable water limits. Peak Ecological Water: The third definition, and perhaps the most important (and difficult) one, is peak “ecological” water — the point where any additional human uses cause more harm (economic, ecological, or social) than benefit. We’re good at measuring the “benefits” of more human use of water (semiconductors manufactured, or food produced, or economic value generated), but we’re bad at measuring on an equal footing, the ecological “costs” or harm caused by that same use of water. As a result, species are driven to extinction, habitat is destroyed, water purification capabilities of marshes and wetlands are lost. For many watersheds around the world, we are reaching, or exceeding, the point of “peak ecological water.” California as a whole may not have quite reached peak water, but parts of California and some of our water systems are long past the point of peak water, in all three definitions of the term. We’ve done a great job in this state at capturing, storing, moving, and using water. But there are limits — an idea still lost on some of our policymakers, such as those who recently lamented our inability to capture and use every drop of water that fell in the recent extreme storms — a 19th century notion long ago overwhelmed and overtaken by physical, economic, and environmental realities. Large new surface water storage is simply not going to happen (though California could do far more with smarter flood-control projects and improved groundwater storage, as I described in a recent Sacramento Bee op-ed. This is a topic for another post). Many of our groundwater basins are past the point of peak ecological water. The Sacramento-San Joaquin river systems, at some times of the year, are past the point of peak renewable water and peak ecological water because of the devastating ecological impacts of our water use on wetlands, migrating birds, fisheries, aquatic flora, and more. Our water rights allocations from the State and Federal projects exceed peak water limits because they promise more water to users than can ever be delivered. We struggle from one year to the next, hoping for rain. We refuse to measure and monitor all of our water uses in a system with limits. We shy away from needed conversations about water use priorities and rights. As a result, we’re racing toward peak water limits and we can no longer afford to pretend all the water we want will be available, when we want it, at a cheap price, without consequences. A wet December and January doesn’t change that reality. |
Curious About Drinking Water But Didn't Know Who To Ask???
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Committed to Highlighting Investment Opportunities
By Nick Hodge
Friday, December 5th, 2008
Each day news stories break that smart investors treat as a series of "dots."
They absorb these dots, and connect them in such a way that trends emerge.
And if you've been paying attention, you'll have recognized a serious trend emerging.
Here are a few of those big dots:
One-third of China's Yellow River polluted
ADB approves $300 mln for water, sanitation in small cities of Sindh
ITT completes first Rural Drinking Water Safety Project in China
Water Filtration Plant Costs Skyrocket
S.Korea's Doosan partners win $293 mln Saudi deal
Those are recent water headlines—from just the last three days—that I plucked from a series of news sites and industry newsletters.
As you can see, new deals in the water sector are rampant.
Increased demand, crumbling infrastructure, and now, the possibility of a second infrastructure-focused stimulus, have reignited interest in this sometimes seemingly cyclical sector.
Millions of dollars are changing hands everyday.
The headlines above discuss projects and deals worth well over $4 billion. That's only five headlines from three days.
Fact is, water is here to stay as a long-term bull. And you'll want to start thinking about staking an early claim in the profitable water stocks that will emerge.
Water Stocks
I've dissected and analyzed water stocks and related scenarios in these pages, and pages of our sister publications, many times.
The sector can be broken down into three basic vehicles for investment:
Water utilities
Water ETFs & funds
Water infrastructure and related companies
Your investment goals should dictate which sector you go after.
Looking for slow, incremental growth and dividends? Check out water utilities.
After long-term value and steady growth? Try water ETFs and funds.
More often than not, I seek out the best water stocks with the highest growth scenarios, most advanced products and services, and the best chance to capitalize on niche solutions to big water problems.
Here are a few of the companies in that position right now, along with their specialty:
Layne Christensen (NASDAQ: LAYN), wastewater treatment, source identification, pipeline rehabilitation
Tetra Tech Inc. (NASDAQ: TTEK), water quality assessments, pollution remediation and control
Flowserve Corp. (NYSE: FLS), pumps, valves, seals, systems automation
Insituform Technologies (NASDAQ: INSU), in-ground pipe rehabilitation and replacement
Water stocks are great for some investment objectives. For others, a managed fund or ETF is in order.
Let's review some of those now.
Water ETFs
Here's a list of the four main water exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the market:
PowerShares Water Resources (NYSE: PHO)
PowerShares Global Water (NYSE: PIO)
Claymore S&P Global Water (NYSE: CGW)
First Trust ISE Water (NYSE: FIW)
The last thing I want to address is the core group of stocks that call these ETFs home.
I've exhaustively researched the top ten holdings of each of these water funds. And I found some interesting trends.
Most notably, I found the the same few stocks continually appear in the top ten holdings of each ETF, namely Tetra Tech (NASDAQ: TTEK), ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT), Veolia Environment (NYSE: VE), and Nalco Holding (NYSE: NLC).
That research gave me a good idea of what the funds are including, so I can decide whether to recommend water stocks a la cart or funds.
A good start with microcap water companies -
UGSI - http://www.undergroundsolutions.com/ - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=6066
GWTR - http://www.gwtr.com/ - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=2768
GSPH - http://www.geospatialcorporation.com - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=7572
HYFXF - http://www.hyflux.com/home.php - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=12741
CNFO - http://www.cnfowater.com - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=14600
ESPH - http://www.ecospheretech.com/ - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=9667
Great big board choices -
NLC - New Position - http://www.nalco.com/ASP/index.asp - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=15024
Berkshire did buy one new stock during the fourth quarter, initiating a position in Nalco Holding (NLC), which is a company that offers water treatment products and services.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=12656
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=3118