By Mel Frykberg

GAZA CITY, Jul 2 (IPS) - Gaza is being forced to pump 77 tonnes of untreated or partially treated sewage out to sea daily due to the Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. The fear is that some of this is creeping back into drinking water.

By Nergui Manalsuren

India is poised to meet its sanitation and hygiene challenges with a 48 percent coverage in 2007, a marked improvement from merely 1 percent in 1981. 

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 4 (IPS) - Practical solutions to the global sanitation crisis will require greater knowledge-sharing among developing nations, and also even more support for those efforts by multilateral institutions like the World Bank and United Nations, experts say.

By Tahir Qadiry

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Feb 2 (IPS) - An unprecedented cold wave sweeping parts of Asia has been especially tragic in Afghanistan where emergency services have failed completely.

By Johanna Son and Jaime Lim

BANGKOK, Jan 21 (IPS) - News reports that initial work has begun on the Nam Ngun-3 hydropower project in Laos are a stark reminder of Thailand’s increasing reliance on its neighbours to satisfy its appetite for energy.

By Ramesh Jaura

NUSA DUA, Bali, Dec 13 (IPS) - 'SIDS' and 'AOSIS', the two agitating words heard repeatedly ten years ago in one of Japan's large cities Kyoto, appear to have evaporated in the tropical heat of the Indonesian island Bali.

By Ann Ninan

NEW DELHI, Dec 12 (IPS) - Precious little is expected to emerge from the ongoing United Nations climate change conference in Bali, but climatologists and scientific experts warn that time is rapidly running out for planet earth.

By Sahana Singh

BEPPU, Japan, Dec 4 (IPS) - Although 2.6 billion people in the world -- two-thirds of whom are in southern or eastern Asia -- are living without access to basic sanitation, the issue has been a poor cousin to water supply in terms of visibility and financing.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

SINGAPORE, Nov 29 (IPS) - A report released by the Asian Development Bank (AsDB) in this affluent city-state on Thursday urges the region’s policymakers to place water-related issues high on their development agenda.

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 14 (IPS) - The campaign to save South-east Asia’s largest waterway from being blocked by a series of massive dams picked up pace this week, with activists accusing a regional river authority of abandoning its mission to protect the Mekong River.

By Irfan Shahzad*

KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov 2 (IPS/AMIC) – Access to safe water may be touted as a human right, but inadequate supplies, crumbling water systems and the galloping needs of growing populations are forcing experts, government utilities and funding agencies ponder over devising sustainable water service networks in Asia’s teeming cities.