The 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit (1st APWS) will be held in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, Japan on Dec. 3 and 4 with the theme, "Water Security: Leadership and Commitment". Around 300 participants from 49 countries are expected to attend.

Convened by the Steering Committee for the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit and the Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF), the summit is under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, in collaboration with the APWF's Governing Council, chaired by Prof. Tommy Koh, ambassador-at-large of Singapore. The summit will bring together top-level leaders from various sectors, and institutions and stakeholders involved in water and sanitation issues such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Conservation Union, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, UNESCO, Singapore PUB, Streams of Knowledge, UN-Habitat, UNESCAP, Japan Water Forum, among others.

By Sahana Singh*

SINGAPORE, Aug 31 (IPS/AMIC) - Government officials, sanitation experts, funding agencies and civil society representatives are unanimous that Asia’s water delivery and sanitation problems should be tackled with the same urgency as disaster relief.

NASA will soon be recycling urine from humans and lab animals, as well as water used for washing and other necessities, in space stations for astronauts' consumption. Thanks to a high-tech water recovery system (WRS), all kinds of waste water will become potable, even better than city tap. "This recycled water is thousands of times better than the water taken from water treatment plants on the Earth," say NASA officials.

Currently, each International Space Station member user, according to NASA, consumes 4.4 litres (1.2 gallons) each day of water. One litre of water is estimated to cost 11,000 U.S. dollars. The cost to transport water up to the ISS each year? A whopping 24 million dollars.

With the new WRS set to be transported to the ISS in October 2008, the crew will be able to recycle 93 percent of all water used on the station. About 85 percent of urine will also be reused.

Inadequate and, oftentimes, contaminated drinking water has severely impacted the health of populations in many countries. Some of the countries with significant populations whose only consumption is of contaminated water include Sudan (12.3 million), Iran (5.6 million), Venezuela (5.0 million), Syria (3.8 million), Zimbabwe (2.7 million), Tunisia (2.1 million), and Cuba (1,2 million). (Source: Wi

It is possible to drink too much water. In a condition called hyponatremia — low sodium levels in the blood —the electrolyte (mineral) content of the blood is diluted, resulting in the kidneys being unable to secrete the body's excess water. It is said that endurance athletes, such as marathon runners, who drink large amounts of water are at higher risk of hyponatremia. (Source:

On the average, food provides about 20 percent of total water intake, while the remaining 80 percent comes from water and beverages of all kinds. Fruits and vegetables such as watermelon and cucumbers are nearly 100 percent water by weight. Even beer, wine and caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea or soda can be sources of water but these should be a major portion of one's daily total fluid intake.

Journalists interested in understanding the complex issues of covering water quality may enroll, at no cost, in a self-guided course currently being given by News University, an online site for journalists.

By Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, Aug 17 (IPS) - As the world faces new threats of water scarcity, triggered by phenomena like global warming and bioenergy demands, Singapore and Iraq have been singled out as two political extremes in water management.

By Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, Aug 15 (IPS) - A top United Nations official has learned through personal experience what it is like to live without safe drinking water during her visits home to the Tanzanian capital.

By Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, Aug 14 (IPS) - The world is on the verge of "a new and more serious era of water scarcity" than ever before, is the ominous warning coming out of an international water conference here.

By Riccardo Petrella (*)

LOVAINA, August 2007 (IPS) - It is well known that even in countries where mineral water is public property, it is private companies that are making major and easy profits from selling it. The 'business' of bottled mineral water has become one of the most lucrative and fast-growing sectors around the world, dominated until recently by Nestle and Danone, now closely trailed by two other grande dames of water, Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola.

By Richel Langit-Dursin

JAKARTA, Aug 10 (IPS) - On weekends, groups of children and their parents crowd around South Jakarta’s Halimun Pier to go for a joy ride on one of two water taxis, recently introduced by the administration.

By Anil Netto

PENANG, Aug 10 (IPS) - When religious leaders from different faiths sought to jointly affirm the sacredness of water as the source of life but were shooed away by authorities, it was seen as a move to scuttle interfaith harmony as well as support plans to privatise a common resource.

The competition is open to journalists in developing countries who publish or broadcast original investigative reports on issues relating to water supply, sanitation or hygiene (WASH) in their countries. Journalists can submit up to two pieces of work.

By Irfan Ahmed Chaudhury

ISLAMABAD, Aug 9 (IPS) — Faced with acute water shortages, the Pakistan government has launched a 1.3 billion U.S. dollar subsidised drip irrigation programme that could help reduce wastage over the next five years.

A huge underground 'ocean' the size of the Arctic Ocean has been found hundreds of miles beneath eastern Asia, according to scientists. The water was found via an underground seismic wave scanner.

The 'wet zone' discovery is said to run from Indonesia to the northern tip of Russia.

According to reports, the water is "locked in moisture-containing rocks 400 to 800 miles (700 to 1,400 kilometres) beneath the surface. Experts say that the water got there during a shifting of the earth's  tectonic plates. This caused the ocean bottom to be pulled beneath continental plates all around the Pacific Rim, they added.

China has built 12 million water cellars, a way of collecting rainfall, across some 700 counties in 13 regions over the past two decades. These rainwater catchment facilities provide drinking water to a population of 36 million and irrigate hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland all over the said regions.

(Source: Xinhua Net, July 25, 2007) 

In proportion to population size, the regions with the least access to safe water are the Pacific islands (48 percent of people do not have access) and sub-Saharan Africa (42 percent do not have access).

Heat-resistant volcanic shrimps, bacteria-farming furry crabs, and a giant species of lobsters weighing 4 kilos have been found living in the world's deepest and remotest oceans.

By Stephen Leahy

VIENNA, Jul 27 (IPS/IFEJ) - The second smallest nation on Earth hopes to turn itself into an example of sustainable development that others can emulate.

But the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu and its 10,500 people may only have 50 years or less to set that example before it is swept away by rising sea levels due to climate change.