Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

Breaking the Cycle of Neglect and Failure Through Evidence-Based Research

Jul 25, 2010 by Luke MacDonald and Kellogg J. Schwab
Listed In: Water & Health   Water Policy   

Evidence-based research provides solutions that work. MacDonald and Schwab argue that we will need greater commitment to rigorous research programs to meet the challenges ahead.  

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

Towards an Interdisciplinary Ecological Approach to Infectious Disease

Jul 25, 2010 by Rita R. Colwell
Listed In: Water & Health   Water in the Environment   Water Policy   

photo by NASA

Modern medical practice has a laser-like focus on treatment of disease in isolation, but life is not like that. Dr. Colwell argues that we need an integrated, proactive ecological approach to infectious disease prevention.

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

Imperatives for Urban Water Professionals on the Pathway to 2050

Jul 25, 2010 by Paul Reiter
Listed In: Water & Energy   Water & Food   Water & Health   Water in the Environment   Water Infrastructure   Water Policy   

Adapting to rapidly changing conditions on a crowded planet. Looking forward to 2050, the challenges of adding 2 billion more people to an already resource-constrained planet will require major changes in the resources efficiency, energy efficiency and cost of urban water systems of the future. A step change including the integration of city planning and urban water system design will be required to optimize the efficiency and resilience of urban water systems in addition to the development of physical and institutional linkages between agricultural, energy and urban water uses.

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

H2Ownership: Ancient, Equitable Traditions of Efficient Water Resource Trading in Desert Cultures

Jul 25, 2010 by James G. Workman
Listed In: Water & Food   Water in the Environment   Water Policy   

Who or what should own water? The question is at once simple and complex and emphatically important for the valuation and management of increasingly water resources. In most of the world, monopolies determine price, leading to conflict and waste. But three case studies of desert cultures show that where individuals own and exchange equitable shares of water, civilization can thrive in the driest of landscapes. Part of our Trading Water series.

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

H2Own: Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits

Jul 25, 2010 by Montgomery Simus
Listed In: Water Infrastructure   Water Policy   

© iStockphoto.com

As Aldo Leopold stated long ago and we have seen more recently with the success of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) in fisheries management, vesting ordinary citizens with “ownership” of natural resources leads people to conserve them. By securing equitable shares of water and allowing everyone to trade what they save, innovative technology and the concept of H2Ownership can unlock equitable and competitive markets to effectively harness individual greed to create a widespread incentivized race to conserve, and a Leopoldian understanding and communal ethic about where the water comes from, how it is used, and where it goes. Part of our Trading Water series.

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

Water Rights and Human Rights: The Poor Will Not Need Our Charity if We Need Their Water

Jul 25, 2010 by David Zetland
Listed In: Water Policy   

Each year, about 2.8 million people die due to problems with poor water supply, sanitation and hygiene. Over three-quarters of the dead are children. Some argue that a human right to clean water would improve this situation... Part of our Trading Water series.

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

The World is Dry

Jul 25, 2010 by Erik R. Peterson
Listed In: Water & Energy   Water & Food   Water & Health   Water in the Environment   Water Infrastructure   Water Policy   

How can we address meet an ever-increasing global water appetite with a finite amount of available freshwater?  Erik Peterson discusses this most pressing dilemma.  

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

Agriculture—Meeting the Water Challenge

Jul 25, 2010 by Nadia S. Halim
Listed In: Water & Food   Water Policy   

Syngenta Int. AG

Access to safe water plays a pivotal role in sustainable development, including food security and poverty reduction. More food can be produced with less water – to meet this challenge, governments, NGOs, and public-private partnerships should facilitate implementing available technologies on the farm to enable efficient water management for food production and environmental protection.

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

10 Years from Now—Rethinking Water Supply Management in the Developing World

Jul 25, 2010 by Edward D. Breslin
Listed In: Water & Health   Water Infrastructure   Water Policy   

Conventional approaches to community-based water supply management sadly are unsustainable and contribute to water point failure throughout Africa and Asia in particular.  New ideas are emerging that hold great promise for the future and could lead to truly lasting water supply solutions, in stark contrast to the stark reality of failed water systems on the ground today.

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Opinion

Water challenges and solutions

The First Stop on the Road to Corporate Water Reporting: Measurement

Jul 25, 2010 by Eva Zabey
Listed In: Water Policy   

External demands on companies to report on their water use and impacts are intensifying. But before reporting, business needs to measure, and many groups are developing approaches to do just that.

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