The Stream, May 6: Planned Chinese Dam Construction Prompts Fears of Relocation, Habitat Damage, and Seismic Activity

Earlier this year, China announced plans to build a series of dams on the Nu River, a Unesco World Heritage site. The dams, The New York Times reported, will force tens of thousands of relocations, could potentially trigger earthquakes, and destroy endangered-fish spawning grounds.

Improving Water Management
Countries around the world, from Australia to South Africa to the Dominican Republic, are rationing residential water supplies to avoid supply depletion, but failing to address fundamentally inadequate community water supplies. A scientist from The Land Institute argues in Al Jazeera that avoiding larger supply problems will only promote conflict in the long run.

Private v. Public Water
A 19th-century fight in Boston over who owned the city’s water infrastructure created the now-assumed precedent that the water supply is publicly owned. But, The Boston Globe reported, that was anything but certain at the time.

Runoff Rules
San Diego, California’s water-quality regulators are working on a permitting system to limit how much pollution can flow into the area’s storm drains. Developers, municipal officials, and environmentalists are still ironing out the guidelines, KPBS reported, after two years of debate.