Water being an emotive issue, only a mandated institution can provide a platform to build consensus among States On the occasion of World Water Day, 2002, Kofi Annan, the then U.N. Secretary General, had warned that "water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict.' Similar sentiments were echoed recently by Ban Ki-moon in his message on World Water Day, 2008, that the problems growing from the scarcity of a vital resource (like water) would spill over state borders creating a high risk of violent conflict.

An agreement which defines acceptable use of water from North America's Great Lakes has been thrashed out by farmers, industrialists, environmentalists and politicians. The Great Lakes in Northeast America are a huge natural resource but fears have been raised that piping the water to parched areas of the USA would lead to ecological disaster in the long term. The Great Lakes Compact aims to strike a balance between the needs of the region's industry and ecology.

Mideast Can Avert Impending Water Crisis - World Bank MOROCCO: April 11, 2008 RABAT - The Middle East is overusing limited water resources and the amount of water available per head will halve by 2050, leading to social strains as more people quit the countryside, the World Bank said on Thursday. But a crisis can still be averted if governments seize the opportunity to repair water networks, build new infrastructure including desalination plants and educate people not to waste limited resources, according to a report by the bank.

Severn Trent Water faces a

The scarcity of reliable perennial water sources, including groundwater, is posing serious challenges to the provision of municipal water to the rapidly growing rural communities and small towns in Barani areas. While new crops should be required new marketing channels and offer new value-added activities for farm communities, but assistance is needed to fully exploit these opportunities.

Spanish Region May Ship Water To Relieve Drought SPAIN: April 7, 2008 MADRID - 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.

NAFTA, US Drought Endanger Canada's Water

India's violation of water sharing deal hampers irrigation Raheed Ejaz New Delhi deprives Dhaka of its agreed share of the Ganges water as stipulated by the Gangers Water Sharing Treaty 1996 causing the tributaries to dry up and hampering seriously irrigation in the south-west. India has also not heeded the complaints Bangladesh earlier registered with the Indian authorities.

In 1998, Karnataka agreed to abide by the conditions imposed by the Union Water Resources Ministry if Tamil Nadu withdrew its objections to Cauvery water being used to augment supply to Bangalore, according to the minutes of a meeting convened by the Union Secretary (Water Resources) and attended by officers of the Cauvery basin States on drinking water supply schemes of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on June 29, 1998.

Actor Rajnikanth on Friday blasted senior political leaders of Karnataka for politicising the Hogenakal row, and called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to nip the issue in the bud lest it went theRajnikanth Cauvery way. The entire Tamil film industry, including artistes of Kannada origin, observed a token fast here to condemn attacks on theatres screening Tamil films and Tamil institutions in Karnataka, over the water project.