A list of news and blog posts and other web items we stumbled upon in the past week…
- China’s Water Problems Are Even Worse Than You Think: Report (Wall Street Journal China Real Time Blog)- details a recent study published in PNAS describing deepening water crisis with continued development with mention of the South-North water transfer project, impacts from virtual water exports and infrastructure challenges.
- City says sewage will solve water shortage ( The Columbus Dispatch) – article from last April details how the hurdle to adopting wastewater reuse in some cities is not technological, but overcoming the “ewww factor” among users.
- Sewage sludge could contain millions of dollars worth of gold (Science)- Science Blog post cites recent study in ES&T that estimated that there was about US$13 million worth of metals in annual sewage sludge produced by a million person city. Extracting those metals for economic benefit is a different challenge that some cities are investigating.
- 2014 Breaks Heat Record, Challenging Global Warming Skeptics (New York Times) – discusses the NOAA and NASA report that 2014 was the hottest year on record since record-keeping began in 1880, surpassing 2010 as the previously warmest year. The 10 warmest years have now all occurred since 1997.
- Design water-smart cities (The Hindu)- discusses the “smart cities” slated to roll out in India. Key features include universal access to both water and sanitation, which should not be deprived to individuals based on an inability to pay.
- Water heritage (The Hindu)- discusses the evolution of the Shatashrunga villages in India from using wells accessed by the use of the Persian Wheel to pumps powered by the new electrical lines.
- Water crises are a top global risk (World Economic Forum) – details the World Economic Forum’s new report citing water crises as the biggest threats facing the planet over the next decade.
Contributed by Shafik Islam and Amanda Repella
