Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20 countries containing half the world’s people.

The overpumping of aquifers for irrigation temporarily inflates food production, creating a food production bubble that bursts when the aquifer is depleted. Read more

Postwar Angola is keen to expand irrigation for much-needed development, Namibia is prioritising clean drinking water and sanitation, while Botswana wants to preserve the integrity of the world-renowned Okavango Delta for tourism.

All three depend on an equitable share of quality water from the Okavango River, the fourth largest in Africa, running 1,600 kilometres from Angola to its inland delta in Botswana. Read more

As freshwater disappears from the super-populated Peruvian coast, the most water-intensive crops are expanding unabated as highly profitable exports. Observers warn about the harm this is causing and demand greater responsibility from the government and all involved.

With rising international commodity prices, the value of Peruvian exports reached more than 3 billion dollars between January and November 2010 — 30.2 percent more than the same period in 2009.

One example of this boom is the asparagus industry, which employs 120,000 people in the fields alone, according to official figures. But this crop requires huge volumes of water. Read more

A primary topic of discussion at a weeklong international water conference here can best be summed up in two words: ‘dirty water’.

Ironically, the venue for the vibrant debate – focusing mostly on pollutants, industrial waste and human sewage – is a city described as home for ‘world class water’.

And rightly so, claims Gosta Lindh, managing director of the municipally-owned Stockholm Water Company. Unlike people in most other parts of the world, ‘We are blessed with an almost limitless supply of good, clean drinking water,’ he boasts.

The company, which provides fresh water to some 1.2 million consumers, claims a functioning ecological cycle: re-use of waste products after sewage water-treatment and the use of sludge as agricultural fertiliser. Read more

Russia

The Water Universe Museum in St. Petersburg is located in an old water tower and in a a former a water storage reservoir at the Main Water Supply Station. The Interiors of both buildings are original. The Water Tower Exhibition is dedicated to the history of water supply from the 18th century to modern times. Water wells and wooden pipes, copper sinks and ceramic water dispensers are exhibited in the tower.

The Underground World of St. Petersburg invites us to follow the way of water from the water stations to households and back to the sewage treatment plants. The Universe of Water exhibition tells visitors about the power and value of water, and its mystical and metaphysical features.

Belarus

A new Museum of Water recently opened in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. It covers several themes – rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ground water, siliceous water and other mineral waters. Exhibitions also show the history of hydrology research, water supply and wastewater treatment.

Ukraine

The Water Museum is one of the most popular museums in Kiev. It was founded in 2003 in a disused water tower which is more than 130 years old.

In the museum, which is situated underground, there are huge aquariums, a working model of an artesian well, a gigantic toilet bowl, a sanitary sewer and a magic grotto with a waterfall, real rain, electric storms and thunder. Read more