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World Water Week is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues. Organized by Stockholm International Water Institute, it brings together the world’s experts, practitioners, decision makers and leaders to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions. World Water Week opened in Stockholm on Monday August 22nd with calls for better urban water management to ensure food and water security. Around 2,500 experts from some 130 countries are attending the 21st edition of World Water Week in Stockholm. They are working on preparations for the United Nation’s conference on sustainable development set to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The group expects to publish a declaration at the end of this week (August 26). Despite the U.N.’s adoption of a resolution recognizing access to clean water and sanitation as a human right, 1.6 billion people continue to live in areas affected by drought, and that the number could easily rise to tw

The third issue of th e Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management (Q03/2011) will be released early October 2011. Focus of that issue will be directed towards a technical/technological issue that more and more becomes important - also for water services: smart grids/smart metering . Most recent findings from research and development will be compiled in the sections: Key Note Technology Research Politics and Society The challenge is that infrastructure elements - be it at local levels (private households) or at levels larger than regional (resources supply networks) - need to be modified from more or less static and often technically outdated systems towards intelligent systems being able to react more sensitively and precisely on varying demands and situations. As earlier, contributions from concerned stakeholders are warmly welcome.Topics may range from pure scientific issues to practical management solutions - focussing on sustainability - and may not be limited

A series of reports document the environmental relevance of beer production. Due to the current situation, attention is primarily paid to climate change and water demand issues. Accordingly, brewing beer seems to have a significant effect on local water resources. However, as with many other reports the results of the analyses are quite often different (depending upon the scope of the individual studies). One thing appears to be clear: the process of brewing beer has some potential to be improved with regard to water consumption and after brewing water treatment. In addition, the container alternatives (glass bottle, metal can, etc.) need not be forgotten in a comprehensive sustainability analyses of any beverages. Further readings: [ 0 ], [ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ], [ 4 ], [ 5 ], [ 6 ]

In the past few years a series of incidents happened that demonstrated unambiguously the vulnerability of our society with regard to its economic, social and environmental stability and prosperity: the dot com boom and bust right at the beginning of this century followed by the bank and, nowadays, the state debt crisis; ever shorter life cycles of products and services; a huge tsunami hit the shores of Indonesia and many other pacific countries (2004), severe earth quakes shook Italy (2009) and Japan (2011) - the latter one leading to another gigantic and destructive tsunami resulting in a nuclear disaster classified to be comparable with the Chernobyl accident in 1986; finally, we are facing a proven severe climate change (incl. desertification), we are confronted with decreasing amounts of natural resources (precious metals, rare earths, energy carriers, etc. to mention a few prominent ones) and we realise a challenging water supply issue (exploration, supply, treatment, etc.). I

Laos intends to become the hydroelectric battery of a power-hungry Southeast Asia. With regional growth at around 6% annually over the next decade, the requirement for energy is huge.Laos’ power ambitions are laid out in its Seventh National Socio-Economic Development Plan for 2011-15. In the document, the government outlines its plans to build 10 hydropower plants, generating some 5015MW of electricity. “In 2006, the country had 10 hydropower plants producing 700 MW. Today it has over 16 plants producing north of 2,540 MW,” Xavier de Nazelle of Aloe Private Equity, an investment company that focuses on clean energy and eco-processes, told CNBC. And foreign investors are keen to enjoy a slice of the return. According to data from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, between 2001 and 2009, US$4 billion worth of foreign direct investment went into electricity generation or 34% of all FDI into the country. “The amount of foreign investment coming into the country is almost

The recent turbulences at the world's stock exchange centers again have risen the question of 'How well-funded are the public/private resource supply systems?'. Already in the past, various analyses have been performed [1], [2], [3] to investigate aspects like financing, manageability, etc. of private efforts in historically public domains. With the largely unstable economic systems today, the question is repeatedly addressed if and in how far private efforts in sensitive public domains are of benefit for the broad public [4], [5]. Examples exist where obviously improper management has resulted in financially disastrous situations [6]. There exists also a resource management issue: what is the right and appropriate tool to govern water consumption? Various sources promote a sustainable water regulation via the price of water supply [7], [8]. In this context more dedicated studies have been performed for Western-Europe [9], [10] and the emerging countries [11]. Further Read

In order to modernise outdated water (and any other resource) supply systems developments have been initiated to implement smart grid/smart meter technology into the water sector. On a national level Italy (gas) and New Zealand (water) can be seen as forerunners in this case. Accordingly South-East Queensland has a comprehensive smart water grid that increasingly attracts international attention [1]. Other regions are closely observing the technical development and discussions are going on if and how to implement smart grid/smart meter technology in other regions/sectors [2], [3], [4]. Recent reports inform about a significantly growing application of smart meters in private households [5] whereas criticizers point at the missing use case of smart meters for e.g. water in private households [6], [7]. References: [ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ], [ 4 ], [ 5 ], [ 6 ], [ 7 ]