Water Scarcity, Food Security Concerns Prompt Global Land Grab

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Area nearly the size of France purchased, leased for food production around the world. Africa, South America, parts of Europe targeted by cash-rich, food-poor nations

Madagascar Cancels Water Deal with Saudi Arabia

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Madagascar Cancels Water Deal with Saudi ArabiaMadagascar's government has ended a water export deal with Saudi Arabia because it was opposed by environmental, civil society groups in the country.

Climate Change Is Water Change — Water Experts React to Barcelona Negotiations

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Climate Change Is Water ChangeWater experts have convened in Barcelona to ensure water management strategies are integrated into global climate change negotiations – so far their efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

Qatar Food Company Signs $1 billion Deal to Use Sudan Farmland

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Sudan-Farmland-290Qatar furthers the trend of Gulf Arab Countries off-shoring their agricultural production to secure food supplies for its citizens and other populations in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Qatar’s Hassad Foods signed a deal last week, worth potentially $1 billion, to develop 20,000 acres of land in northern Sudan, Reuters reports. Cultivation could expand to 250,000 acres.

Climate Change Burden-Sharing Must Not Compromise Developing World’s Growth, India’s PM

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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Barack Obama earlier this year.Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that developing countries will not compromise their financial growth for climate change, and that, instead, rich countries need to ensure access to clean technologies.

Peter Gleick: Water and Population part 2

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In a previous post here, I raised the population and water issue in a general way. My point was that ignoring the population component of our resource challenges was a mistake, certainly in the long term and in some places, in the short term. I think this is indisputable -- resource constraints are worse than they would otherwise be if populations are large and growing rapidly rather than small and growing slowly, or even shrinking.

Jordan Plans to Give Dying Dead Sea New Life

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The Dead Sea's Salt Encrusted ShoreJordan's government is making its own plans to rejuvenate the shrinking Dead Sea with salt water from the Red Sea

Water: Iraq’s Other Problem

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Iraq also blames upstream dams in Turkey for the river’s low levels, which permit seawater intrusion in the Tigris and Euphrates. Both sides tried to ameliorate the situation with Thursday’s agreement.Add water shortage to the list of problems besetting the Iraqi government.

Iraq Demands More Water from Turkey, Syria

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Three months after Turkey promised to release more water down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Iraq still struggles with its water supplies.

Drinking From The Sea

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Pressed by growing urban populations, drier and warmer climates and the need to fortify supplies stretched by the increasing worldwide thirst, metropolitan and national governments on five continents are building record numbers of industrial plants to use a nearly alchemic technology to produce drinking water from the sea.

Yemen Uncovers Buried Water

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hadhramautvalley After four months of exploration, engineers in Yemen have found an important new source of high-quality water.

West Bank in Acute Humanitarian Crisis, World Bank Water Report Says

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Amid bloody ethnic conflict, the prolonged five-year drought in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip drags on in dismal every-day monotony, but a World Bank report published last month is raking the coals between Israelis and Palestinians over vital aquifers that they share.