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Trengove argued that the city provided a standard option for Johannesburg residents where people used as much water as they pleased and were billed at the end of the month.

"Rich people are given the luxury of using water first and paying later," he said.

This system was never offered to the residents of Phiri.

Trengove added that there was discrimination in the way the city treated the rich, mostly white residents of Johannesburg and the poor, mostly black residents.

"Discrimination between the rich mostly white residents on the one hand and the poor mostly black residents on the other is sheer discrimination on grounds of poverty and race... there is absolutely no justification for that," he said.

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“The consequences for humanity are grave. Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is a potent fuel for wars and conflict.”

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Large gold-mining companies operating to the west of South Africa's commercial centre, Johannesburg, stand accused of contaminating a number of water sources with radioactive pollutants.

One case involves the Wonderfontein Spruit ("water course", in Afrikaans): a stream that runs 90 kilometres from the outskirts of Johannesburg to the south-west past the towns of Krugersdorp, Bekkersdal, Carletonville and Khutsong, before flowing into the Mooi River near Potchefstroom.

Mariette Liefferink, an environmental activist, blames the mines for the high concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, copper cobalt and zinc in the waters of the spruit. She is particularly troubled by the levels of uranium, which gives off radioactive by-products such as polonium and lead.

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One of the most intact and biodiverse rainforest regions on Earth, located in the Upper Amazon Basin on the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border, is now threatened by imminent oil development, warns a conservation organization based in Washington with close ties to its counterpart groups in South America.

Known as the Napo Moist Forest ecosystem, this region is renowned for its record-breaking diversity of life and is so remote that it is home to several uncontacted indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation.

Yet the governments of Ecuador and Peru have just given the green light for three major new oil projects in the area.

"Three different oil companies are set to begin operations in what is arguably the most biodiverse spot on Earth," said Dr. Matt Finer, an ecologist with the DC-based nonprofit organization Save America's Forests.

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[ 07 December 2007: Message edited by: Frustrated Mess ]

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Widespread offshore mining in declared protected seascapes is a major concern among interest and environmental groups in the Philippines. They say this will impact the country's ability to fight global warming, climate change, environmental destruction and loss of livelihood.

The Cebu City-based nongovernmental organization Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center, or FIDEC, and Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fishermen across the country, have identified 13 foreign and local companies currently engaged in aggressive oil and gas exploration around the country. The Department of Energy has announced that at least 20 petroleum firms have expressed interest in exploring the country's oil and gas deposits in offshore areas.

FIDEC executive director and veteran environmental campaigner Vince Cinches said Japan Petroleum Exploration Corp. and Forum Exploration Canada are in charge of the oil hunt in Tañon Strait, a protected seascape separating the island provinces of Cebu and Negros.

During a consultation among fisherfolk, marine scientists and environmentalists last month in Cebu City, Cinches said investors in offshore mining are now encroaching on the waters of Mindanao to search for oil deposits.

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There was just a report out a couple of days back regarding the Athabaska River in AB, which stated it was in serious trouble because of the oil companies over use of it.

Then last evening the Knowledge Network had a program on about the destruction of the Aral Sea, and how peoples living along the shores lives have been devastated.

Now, what is really salient to the notion of water aparthied, is that we have people like 1fixer who say "Canada won't be impacted by Global warming and water shortages so why do we care".

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Nobody ever really knows precisely what's going on when a crisis like this hits. There might be as many as 100 pools like this across the nation, with assets of something like $200 billion.

They are supposed to offer daily liquidity for the public sector in much the same way that money-market funds do for the private sector. They are supposed to invest their clients' money in the safest possible securities, good old boring things like U.S. Treasuries, top-rated commercial paper and certificates of deposit.

It seems, however, that some of the commercial paper investments the Florida pool, and others like it across the country, purchased were backed by subprime mortgages and other things that have declined precipitously in value.

The people who manage the funds find themselves in the position of not being able to figure out exactly what the assets are worth, because they don't trade, or don't trade much, and no one seems to know what the stuff is.

Cents on the Dollar

Got that? Neither do I. Let me try this again.

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Since 1932, at least 1.2 million acres of wetlands or 1,900 square miles have vanished from the Louisiana shores—an area about the size of Rhode Island. At least ten square miles are lost every year, and if nothing is done to stop this loss, far more than 500 square miles will disappear by 2050.

Indeed, some 530 square feet disappeared while you were reading the last sentence.

“We’re facing annihilation down here every summer,” says Walter Williams, creator of Mr. Bill, “and my documentary warned about the loss of wetlands protection from hurricanes.” Williams is alarmed by wetlands destruction that has left New Orleans vulnerable to hurricanes every season. In 2002 the State of Louisiana started using Williams’ documentary in the “America’s Wetlands” campaign. It wasn’t long before Shell Oil Company co-opted the movement and polluted the message.

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Seventy percent of diseases in rural Africa are water borne, according to the deputy-governor of Sokoto state, Barrister Mukhtari Shagari.

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A journey down the Yellow River reveals one of China's most pressing problems today — the shortage of water across northern China.

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Julian Rosales' farm is within a stone's throw of one of North America's biggest rivers, but the Mexican landowner fears he will not be able to sow his crops next year for lack of water.
ADVERTISEMENT

Rusty tractors plow Rosales' parched earth along the banks of the Rio Grande on Mexico's border with Texas where thousands of local farmers say their livelihoods are at stake because Mexico was this year forced by a bilateral treaty to transfer millions of liters of water to the United States.

While farmers and lawmakers in arid northern Mexico seek to challenge the water payment in an international court, the farmers' plight is a symptom of a much bigger problem: the Rio Grande and its underground aquifers are being sucked dry on both sides of the frontier.

The eastern border region is slowly heading toward a water crisis.

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Residents of Tongo Fields and its environ are currently been faced with severe water shortage as a result of uncontrolled mining activities in the area.

Most of the water sources have dried-up as miners have cleared the forest, which serves as major source for water supply for the communities.

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According to an International Crisis Group report, “Competition for water is increasing in Central Asia at an alarming rate, adding tension to what is already an uneasy region.” The Eurasian Economic Community, a consortium of regional governments, has reported that between 1960 and 2000, the population of the region tripled and the area of irrigated lands – largely used for agricultural mainstays like cotton and rice – almost doubled. As a result, the demand for water skyrocketed.

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