The Stream, August 22: World Water Week 2011

Deutsche Welle highlights some of the pressing topics on the agenda of this year’s World Water Week in Stockholm, which over the next six days will focus on the growing challenges of securing water for the world’s booming urban areas.

Efforts to boost agricultural production to feed the world’s rising population could lead to widespread destruction of forests, wetlands and other natural systems that protect and regulate the world’s water, according to AlterNet.

The Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes have filed a suit against the Oklahoma government in an effort to stop water being taken from tribal lands. Reuters sheds some light on the long-standing water dispute between Native Americans and the state government.

As the United Kingdom is cutting spending on flood defenses, many British insurers are threatening to tear up an agreement with the government that commits them to cover high-risk properties, Bloomberg reported.

Can the U.S. natural gas industry self-regulate? The Atlantic analyzes the recent report by the U.S. Department of Energy, which called for the creation of a private sector agency that would set safety standards and address environmental concerns.

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