New buildings are being constructed without water fountains, and existing buildings are decommissioning older fountains.

If certain challenges can be overcome, wave power could be a major clean energy source for the half of the world's population.

The business case: Autovias's Waterway (Via des Aguas) program aims to mitigate the impacts of its roadways on water resources in Brazil's Guarani aquifer recharge zone. In order to find a solution to prevent water damage during the rainy season, Autovias has developed an ambitious project that collects water on the highway's surface and directs it towards the aquifer. The preservation of this vital water reserve was one of the main objectives in the program's design. Although the company is not more...

The draft Convention on Transboundary Aquifers aims to create a framework for proper management and exploitation of underground water resources, calling on States to cooperate on aquifers’ use and to prevent and control their pollution. Aquifers contain 100 times the volume of surface fresh water, but are largely not covered by international regulations despite their transboundary conditions, and their great environmental, social, economic and strategic importance. The new Convention would app more...

The Yamuna catchment area of the National Capital Territory is one per cent of the river's total catchment area but it generates more than 50% of the pollutants found in the Yamuna. The crucial stretch is a mere 22-km-long portion of its 1200 kilometre journey. Waste water with little or no oxygen flows through this stretch. TERI studies say that more than 70% of the 84 districts that make up the Delhi sub-basin, are water-stressed due to depletion and degradation of quality of ground and surfac more...

This multi-year program involves a 2,000-strong community of scientists from 82 nations seeking to provide a more complete and accurate understanding of the oceans and the life that they sustain.

The maps visualize hydrogeological information collected within the WHYMAP project at a global scale. World-wide Hydrogeological Mapping and Assessment Program, UNESCO, 2008.

Summary: 'This monograph represents a major undertaking by hydrologists and hydrogeologists around the world. It represents a multicultural approach to groundwater resources and their use and aims to contribute to a better understanding of the crucial role played by groundwater resources in support of both the ecosystems and mankind.' Editors: Igor S. Zektser and Lorne G. Everett, World-wide Hydrogeological Mapping and Assessment Program (WHYMAP), UNESCO, 2008. (PDF, 342 pages)

'The book is a collection of colorfully written stories about eight projects with strong participatory components. Drawing extensively on the uplifting personal stories of project beneficiaries, the book reveals the challenges confronted when adopting a participatory approach toward the use of public resources. Yet it also points to the substantially positive results that can be achieved when those challenges are overcome through the involvement and commitment of motivated beneficiaries, nongove more...

'On account of the magnitude of the expected impacts of climate change on the region, and of the link between GHG emissions and one of the region’s main sectors (energy), climate change lies at the core of MENA’s (Middle East and North Africa) development agenda. Far from considering climate change a sector-specific concern (to be addressed with standalone interventions), the strategy outlined in this document proposes to put climate change squarely at the center of the dialogue that the Wo more...