Entries by Sarah Haughn

San Diego television tells drought’s story

/in , , , /by

SAN DIEGO – San Diego’s local television station, KPBS, engages the public in a televised journey into how the state’s current water shortage affects agriculture. The production, “Agriculture: San Diego’s Working Water,” explores the lives of farmers and government officials who are looking for ways to cope with California’s dangerously dry climate. Read more here. […]

Prince of Jordan to talk water in Vegas

/in , /by

LAS VEGAS – Jordanian Prince Feisal Ibn Al-Hussein is scheduled to visit Las Vegas in October to deliver a keynote address at the inaugural WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition. Al-Hussein is a chairman of the Royal Water Committee in Jordan. He is known for his involvement in water resource management and alternative water resources, says […]

Water tapping: Utah confronts Nevada government on pipeline pollution

/in , , , /by

SALT LAKE CITY – The Las Vegas leviathan once more has engineers working overtime to slake its insatiable thirst. The city is proceeding with its twenty-year request to build a 285-mile pipeline; but this time, two Utah counties are requesting their share of the project. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah county officials are […]

Iceland empathizes with FIJI bottled water controversy

/in , /by

REKJAVIC, Iceland – Iceland has recently taken an interest in Fiji’s bottled-water tax crisis, reports MarketWatch. Both countries are islands that export the resource to the United States and Europe. While Fiji’s private sector benefits from the nation’s mineral water, much of the Fijian population goes without access to safe drinking water, Iceland’s IceNews reports. […]

Polluted paradise: California to decide fate of Salton Sea

/in , , , /by

SACRAMENTO – A bill that determines the future of Southern California’s biodiverse desert oasis will soon pass through the hands of the state’s Assembly Appropriations committee. The legislation follows up on a 2003 agreement to restore Salton Sea. The water-body currently both thrives and suffers from fertilizer-rich agricultural runoff from neighboring Imperial and Coachella valleys. […]

China tolerates news of public dissent over polluted water

/in , , /by

BEIJING – Residents of Xingquan, a small community in southwest China, rioted against workers of a cement factory. Rioters claimed the factory was polluting their waters, reported Reuters. After being shut down for pollution elsewhere, Gaoyuan Building Materials Company allegedly moved tainted equipment nearer the rioters’ village. Although over 300 people participated in the riot, […]

Virtual geology: New map to expose hidden water, minerals, and oil

/in , , , /by

LILLESTROEM, Norway – A new geological map, launched in Norway, shows the planet reduced to bedrock and that which lies beneath it. Ian Jackson, chief of operations at the British Geological Society, tells Reuters he believes the project will profit both public and private interests. The online cartography project, christened OneGeology, premieres the UN-declared International […]

Aboriginal Landowners Win Water Rights in Australia

/in , /by

Australia’s High Court recently ruled that Aborigines have the right to use their water and protect it too. The victory gives the traditional landowners in Australia’s Northern Territory the right to deny fishing in up to 80 percent of the territory’s coastal waters. Known as the Blue Mud Bay case, the court’s reaction to the […]

Aquatic agora: Louisville launches water talk

/in , /by

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – Water, on both global and local scales, soon takes the stage during Louisville’s fifth Sustainable City Series. Residents of the city are set to gather and discuss ways in which they can work toward making their burgeoning metropolis a model for water-wise, sustainable development. Read more here and here. Source: Business First, […]

Dry spells and large-scale agriculture: Climate change threatens Uganda’s food security

/in , , /by

Sustainable agriculture helps Ugandan farmers cope with water shortages by Sarah Haughn Circle of Blue KAMPALA, Uganda – An unexpectedly brief rainy season in Uganda is putting pressure on large-scale agriculture operations, challenging them to get what they can out of their crops and their workers. In the face of climate change, plantations that depend […]

Bankers in India doing rain dance beneath money tree

/in , , , , , , , /by

INDIA — The battle against inflation in India this year has bankers praying for a healthy autumn bumper crop. But with rain levels fluctuating, predicted profits from agriculture continue to tickle and torment traders in the stock market. Inadequate irrigation techniques and lower than average rainfall remain concerns for both economists and farmers on the […]

Arsenic-laced well water poisons Indian rice supply

/in , , /by

INDIA — The bucolic portrayal of verdant, water-soaked rice paddies may be less benign than supposed. A new study reports that well water used to flood the paddies actually contains a high level of toxic inorganic arsenic. According to the New York Times, the study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, suggests that […]