Spanish region may ship water to relieve drought
Spain's northeast Catalonia region will need to import water by ship and train from May to ensure domestic supplies if the current drought persists, the regional government said in a report.
The report, sent to Reuters on Friday, said rainfall in all but one of Catalonia's 15 river basins was below emergency levels for the year so far.
"Forecasts show that if scant additions to reservoirs continue as they have in the past 11 months, resources need to be brought in by ship during May to prevent cuts in domestic supply," the report said.
Plans are for seven boats to come in May to regional capital Barcelona, at first from nearby port Tarragona, then from French port Marseille. A further three ships may arrive in August from a desalination plant in southern Spanish port Carboneras.
The Generalitat, or regional government, estimated that upgrading port facilities to handle water would cost 35.2 million euros ($55.30 million), and the cost of chartering 10 ships 44 million euros.
Contacts have also been made with state rail company Renfe to charter trains to carry water, but the Generalitat provided no timetables or financial details in its plans.
Catalonia is home to 7.2 million people, or 16 percent of Spain's population, and its capital Barcelona is the country's second city.
Spain needs water to irrigate crops to reduce its dependence on imported grain, and to drive hydroelectric power stations.
Currently, however, hydroelectric reservoirs are just 57.8 percent full and reservoirs for consumption, including agriculture, are 41.4 percent full....
From business24-7.ae
Saudi plans to import wheat to save water
Saudi Arabia’s plan to start importing wheat and end a massive grain self-sufficiency programme it launched more than two decades ago will weaken the Kingdom’s food security and aggravate a painful Arab farm gap.
The Gulf Kingdom, the world’s richest in oil resources and one of the poorest in terms of water, said this week it would begin importing wheat at the start of 2009 and gradually eliminate a 25-year grain programme that has allowed it to be self sufficient but drained its scarce desert water wealth.
“We have decided that the first imported shipment of wheat will enter the country at the beginning of 2009,” said Saleh bin Mohammed Al Suleiman, director-general of Saudi’s Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organization...
Suleiman estimated the Kingdom’s wheat demand at nearly 2.7 million tonnes in 2007, adding that almost all the demand in 2007 and the previous years had been met through local production.
In January, Saudi Arabia announced plans to import wheat and cut purchases from local farmers by 12 per cent a year to conserve water, following reports about an alarming decline in underground resources...
From boston.com
Vt. lawmakers told of water crisis ahead
Lawmakers studying legislation that would protect Vermont's ground water heard dire warnings yesterday from a Canadian author about a worldwide shortage of fresh water that she said could worsen exponentially in the coming years.
"It's going to surpass energy as a national security issue for the United States," said Maude Barlow, an Ottawa-based environmentalist and author of the books "Blue Gold" and "Blue Covenant."
"There are alternative forms of energy, but we haven't yet found an alternative to water," Barlow told a joint hearing of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee and the House Committee on Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources.
The Senate has passed, and the House panel is soon to take up, legislation that would declare the ground water under Vermont a public trust.
That's a legal doctrine that the legislation's backers say could provide protections for the state's underground aquifers essentially by restricting individual users from sucking them dry.
Barlow lauded the Senate for passing the bill and said she hopes the House will follow suit.
But she said that even with a new law in place, Vermont might be targeted by litigation brought under the North American Fair Trade Agreement saying the state's efforts to limit water withdrawals interfere with international trade in bottled water.
"The bottled water companies are everywhere in New England."...
Senator Virginia Lyons, Democrat of Chittenden and chairwoman of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, said the idea of a public trust as applied to a lake is that someone with a home on the shore can use the lake, but can't take all the water from it.
Sets up new permitting and reporting requirements. Commercial and industrial users would have to report withdrawals of more than 20,000 gallons per day and obtain a state permit for those larger than 57,600 per day.
Exempts all but the largest farms, which would have to report to the Agency of Agriculture if they withdraw more than 50,000 gallons per day...
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