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China is running out of water and can no longer afford to irrigate its northern plains, an expert has warned. China needs to reduce food production on its dry northern plains or aquifers will diminish to a "dire" level in 30 years, one the country's leading groundwater experts has warned. Zheng Chunmiao, director of the Water Research Centre at Peking University, said the world's most populous country will have to focus more on demand-side restraint because it is becoming more expensive and difficult to tap finite supplies below the surface. "The government must adopt a new policy to reduce water consumption," Zheng told the Guardian. "The main thing is to reduce demand. We have relied too much on engineering projects, but the government realises this is not a long-term solution." Read more... and participate in the ongoing discussion by joining the LinkedIN-Presence of S ustainable | W ater | M anagement: http://www.linkedin.com/

Hydropower is clean energy, renewable, non-polluting, low cost, easy to power peaking, will help improve resource utilization and overall efficiency of the economy and society. Traditional energy sources in the Earth's increasingly tense situation, give priority to developing countries in the world electricity, water, efforts to use water resources. Whether China has proven reserves of hydropower resources, water resources may be developed or are first in the world. Power industry in the hydropower industry as the most important clean energy and renewable energy types, occupies a very important position, the development of space is very huge. In the new century, especially in the power system to promote, mobilize the whole society to participate in the construction of hydropower development initiative, accelerated development of hydropower into the period. In 2004, Gongboxia operation of Unit 1 as a symbol of China exceeded 100 million kilowatts installed capa

The World Bank has proposed putting in place a mechanism for dispute resolution and joint management of water resources for the two countries Pakistan and Afghanistan. The name of the program is Kabul River Basin (KRB) Management Commission on the pattern of Pakistan-India Permanent Indus Commission 1960. Through GIS and digital elevation model (DEM), one component of the project would assist dialogue for greater cooperation on utilisation of water and development of a joint system for data collection, verification, analysis, storage and dissemination. The entire program will be implemented in four years.   Down reported that “the bank wanted to develop institutional capacity in both countries, particularly Afghanistan, for promotion of greater cooperation and understanding through exchange and sharing of hydro-meteorological data of the KRB between the two countries and development of a management plan using hydrological, hydraulic and economic models.”   For more i

Water availability or - seen from the opposite - water scarcity increasingly pose challenges that need to be addressed not just in the (near) future but now. The pressure is there in particular as the in-availability of water has immediate effects. Societies (they might be as small as a little village or even smaller) collapse, industrial processes cannot be performed as required, etc. Various reports prove that the outlined scenarios are not scenarios of the future but happen now. For instance the case of Yemen where political turmoil happen for months now [1]. Additional debates and further reports underscore this perspective [2], [3], [4]. With regard to economic/industrial processes it is also recognised that water - its availability - will influence the development of techniques and technologies [5], [6]. It is accepted that comprehensive "transformations", both in terms of society as well as in terms of economy are needed to successfully and sustainably tackle the issue

Past weekend (12./13. June 2011) the Italians were asked to vote on, among others, the privatisation of the public water systems. The rejection was overwhelmingly with 96% voting against it [1], [2]. Now it is in question what this result implies for Europe and the rest of the world, respectively. Are private investors per se excluded from investing in water systems? Is the reputation of "private investors" that dubious - and if yes, why? - that the public society is not willing to give such persons/institutions "access" to the so far public water business? Who actually would be able to invest sustainably into the water business, etc. [3], [4], [5]? On the other hand, the referendum past weekend in Italy shows also how sensitive the issue of sustainable and safe water supply is, that the broad public is truly sensitised for this issue and finally, it is more than obvious that "water business" promises a profitable long-term business for the benefit of the

The second issue of the Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management (Q02/2011) will be released early July this year. As in the previous issues the Notes will contain the following sections > Key Note (* this time two key notes will be published) > T echnology > Research > P olitics & Society     As earlier, contributions from concerned stakeholders are warmly welcome. Topics may range from pure scientific hydrological issues to practical water management solutions - focussing on sustainability - and may not be limited to industrial or municpal subjects. Contributions may, for instance, cover reviews of technical achievements, short presentation of water management concepts, announcements of conferences related to water/water management, etc. You are invited to contribute with outstanding, brief and concise inputs (e.g. in the form of abstracts of white papers, papers, and any other communication form). The contributions may consist of 200-300 words