How to balance the environmental, social and financial costs of large-scale dams with the benefits of hydro-electric power for developing countries prompted an emotional debate on Tuesday at the Third World Water Forum. As many as 80 million people wordwide have been displaced by reservoirs and incalculable damage has been done to once healthy river ecosystems and fauna, according to a World Commission on Dams report released in 2000 by the World Bank and a consortium of non-governmental organisations.

The explosive growth of three private water utility companies in the last 10 years raises fears that mankind may be losing control of its most vital resource to a handful of monopolistic corporations. In Europe and North America, analysts predict that within the next 15 years these companies will control 65 percent to 75 percent of what are now public waterworks. The companies have worked closely with the World Bank and other international financial institutions to gain a foothold on every continent. They aggressively lobby for legislation and trade laws to force cities to privatize their water and set the agenda for debate on solutions to the world’s increasing water scarcity. The companies argue they are more efficient and cheaper than public utilities. Critics say they are predatory capitalists that ultimately plan to control the world’s water resources and drive up prices even as the gap between rich and poor widens. The fear is that accountability will vanish, and the world will lose control of its source of life.

Unless we dramatically change our ways, between one-half and two-thirds of humanity will be living with severe fresh water shortages within the next quarter century. The global fresh water crisis looms as one of the greatest threats ever to the survival of our planet. Tragically, this global call for action comes in an era guided by the free-market principles of what has been called the "Washington Consensus." This includes an unprecedented assault on the commons. Everything is now for sale, even those areas of life, such as social services and natural resources, that were once considered the common heritage of humanity. Faced with the suddenly well-documented fresh water crisis, governments and international institutions are advocating the privatization and commodification of water. Price water, they say in chorus; put it up for sale and let the market determine its future. This is the context in which the 3rd World Water Forum is taking place in Kyoto, Japan from March 16-22.

This document considers the economic impact of diamonds in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. It states that the many global campaigns to stop trade in conflict diamonds has tended to ignore the benefits of the legitimate industry for these countries. The author describes a study that attempts to verify the claims regarding the positive aspects of the industry. It is important because concern about possible economic damage to these countries has caused NGOs campaigning against conflict diamonds to be less aggressive where consumers are concerned, than might otherwise have been the case.

The most important international water meeting ever opens in Kyoto, Japan on March 16th to address life and death issues. These range from helping the 2.7 billion people who will face water scarcity by 2025 and preventing the 5 million annual deaths from water-related diseases, to growing dangers of accelerating conflicts over water and saving the world's lakes, rivers and wetlands.

Rwanda has reafforested at least 6,000 ha destroyed during the 1994 genocide, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported on Monday. Citing a statement issued by the agriculture ministry, the agency reported that at least 160 million seedlings had been planted since 1994. However, natural forests in Rwanda have declined from 643,000 ha to 221,200 ha in 41 years, according to the ministry, the main cause having been human activity.

A new monitoring facility adds Kenya to a worldwide network to detect ozone depletion and monitor the levels of ozone-damaging pollutants. The high-tech monitoring station was inaugurated last week at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, and is the first of its kind in tropical and sub-tropical Africa.

While it is seen as a project that has brought some remarkable economic prosperity to the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho and an engineering feat surpassed by none of its kind in the whole world, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) has left a trail of destitution, uncertainty and hopelessness amongst the communities affected by it in the Mohale area.

Among the world's water experts, privatization has become something of a dirty word. Once thought of as the new frontier for private investors, the idea of letting corporations operate municipal and regional water systems has been criticized by environmentalists, international organisations, and governments alike as a flawed solution for getting water to the poor people who need it the most.

With the world poised for war in Iraq, thousands of participants gathered in Kyoto for the 3rd World Water Forum are expressing their concern over another potential source of conflict - water. "Our discussions will have far more effect on humankind for the 21st century than the current crisis in the Middle East, or any other political problem of the day," believes William Cosgrove, vice president of the World Water Council, a think tank on water founded in 1996. To date, no fewer than 300 potential water conflict zones have been identified by the United Nations.

This study, from the Energy and Development Research Centre (EDRC) at the University of Cape Town, forms part of a broader study on the economic impact of climate change in South Africa, and concentrates on the existence value of the biodiversity that is threatened by climate change. It is predicted that climate change will cause significant biodiversity loss in South Africa and it is possible to measure direct economic costs of this loss.

WATER-L is a new e-mail list for news and announcements related to the World Water Forum and water policy issues. Water-L is created by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Third World Water Forum and the World Water Council.
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The Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, will personally hand over a clean-up directive to the management of the Thor Chemicals plant in Cato Ridge. Thor Chemicals is notorious worldwide for giving mercury poisoning to its workers and for widespread mercury contamination of the surrounding land and streams.

The latest heavy rains in Zambia, while causing localised damage, were good news for those who planted late, says the latest UN Resident Coordinator's report. Zambia has been struggling with food insecurity brought on by drought. The December 2002 vulnerability assessment indicated that 2.7 million people or 28 percent of the population required food aid to survive.

The coveted mountain gorillas at the Bwindi National Park are facing new pressures, this time from the very people supposed to protect them. The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is allowing more tourists to track the primates than they (primates) can tolerate.

Dozens of bulldozers and excavators belonging to five multinational mining companies operating in Ghana are poised to tear apart thousands of hectares of forest reserves in the Ashanti, Western and Eastern Regions of the country, if the government gives them approval to haul out what they describe as rich deposits of gold beneath the forests.

Slightly over 30,000 people have been displaced since late 2002 by attacks and counterattacks by Mayi-Mayi militias and the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma (RCD-Goma) rebel movement along the western bank of the River Lomami, between Katako Kombe and Lubefu, in Kasai Oriental Province, central Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the official relief and development agency of the US Catholic community.

Lack of portable drinking water in certain rural areas of the country has made the eradication of Guinea worm infection difficult. According to the Minister for Health, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, even though the disease has been decreasing over the past two years and is now confined to only three regions, the unavailability of potable drinking water has made the eradication of the disease difficult.

The government should ensure that land rights issues faced by the Batwa, Rwanda's third and smallest ethnic group, are effectively addressed through the implementation of new national land laws, an international NGO, Minority Rights Group (MRG), says in a new report.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has installed a new high-tech monitoring station in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, to monitor air quality and detect ozone depletion in the eastern African region. The Kenya-based environmental body said on Thursday that the newly installed Nairobi Validation Station, within the world environmental headquarters grounds in the Gigiri suburb, was the first of its kind in "tropical and subtropical" Africa.