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Saturday, 10 May 2008 |
A biologist by training, Claude Villeneuve is one of the heads of posters of environmental education in Quebec. Professor at college and university, author and renowned lecturer, he was director of the Institute for European Environmental Council in Strasbourg. President ekolac consultants, it acts as a consultant accredited to UNESCO and UNDP. By Claude Villeneuve, see death in nature.
"" The water is the thing most needed to maintain life, but it is easy to bribe ... Because the earth, sun, wind, they are not subject to be poisoned, nor diverted or stolen, while all this can happen to water, which, for this reason, requires that the law come to his rescue. This is the law that I propose: Anyone who corrupt the water of others, water spring or rainwater collected, including throwing some drugs, or will be diverted by digging, or stolen, the owner will bring its complaint before the astronomers and make himself the estimate of damage.
The old philosopher had issued a clear principle that the polluter-pays almost 24 centuries before Pierre Paradis, Jean Charest and many others ... Brier, who dared write, there are already three centuries that everything has been said and that one comes too late, was he right? Common sense legislators of antiquity would never be able to transpire through more than two millennia of laws?
The issue of water, its uses and abuses that humanity subjected to this essential resource has not finished worry us. It is probably the issue that we bring in the most tangible of our environment in the decades to come. Indeed, one can think live with polluted air, contaminated soils, flora and fauna scarce ... |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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Saturday, 10 May 2008 |
The forested watersheds provide a high proportion of water used for domestic, agricultural, industrial, and environmental areas upstream and downstream. Those who manage land, forests and water resources have a heavy task is to maximize the wide range of benefits that multi provided by forests, without harming the water resources and ecosystem functions. To meet this challenge, there is an urgent need to improve understanding of the interactions between forests or trees and water, sensitize and strengthen capacity in the field of forest hydrology, and to integrate this knowledge and research findings into policy. It is also essential to establish institutional mechanisms for strengthening synergies in order to solve problems related to forests and water, and implement and enforce action programmes at national and regional levels.
In the past, policies relating to water and forests are often based on the assumption that, whatever the hydrological and ecological conditions, forest cover was the best plant to maximize efficiency in water, regulate the flow and ensure a seasonal good water quality. The conservation (or expansion) of forest cover in the catchments areas upstream was therefore regarded as the most effective measure to increase the available water resources for agricultural uses, industrial and domestic, but also to prevent flooding in areas downstream.
The International Year of Freshwater 2003 and the third World Water Forum (Kyoto, Japan, 2003) served as a guide to integrate policies in this biophysical understanding of the interactions between forests and water. The International Expert Meeting on Forests and water, held in Shiga, Japan in November 2002 in preparation for these events, highlighted the need to adopt a more holistic approach taking into account the interactions between Water, forests and other land uses and socioeconomic factors in ecosystems catchment complex. Over the past five years, the Declaration of Shiga has become a key reference for developing a new generation of politicians of Water Affairs and Forestry (see article Zingari and Achouri, in this issue).
This article provides an update on the current state of knowledge on the interactions between forests and water ecosystems in the catchment. It summarizes some key issues being highlighted by discussions between forest hydrologists, other experts and policymakers in the water sector in the years following the Declaration of Shiga, the third World Water Forum and the International Year of Freshwater.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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Saturday, 10 May 2008 |
Water in the war
The conflict drags on in the Palestinian territories adds the direct and indirect impacts of military activities a general environmental degradation caused by the collapse of administrative structures. The destruction of sewage and water increases the risk of groundwater contamination unprotected, which seriously affect the health of the populations concerned.
Water in health GAZA
Alain Gresh, March 6 this year, stressed that Gaza endure the worst humanitarian situation since 1967. A correspondence Stevan Erlanger published by the New York Times on November 6, 2007 already mentioned the growing risks of a health crisis resulting from lack of maintenance of infrastructure-water treatment and sewage, due to security measures adopted by Israel on the import of energy, pumps, pipes and other spare parts necessary for the proper functioning of the networks in the territories under the control of Hamas.
An observation confirmed by an article by Mel Frykberg, published by the Middle East Times on January 2, 2008, which stated, moreover, that the water quality has not been tested for over a year because labs analysis could not import the chemicals needed for testing. Those made by the World Health Organization (WHO) several years ago had yet concluded that water from Gaza is not consumable without serious risks to health.
Water in health Iraq
After the first Gulf War, 30% of the water reserves of Kuwait have been unusable for 10 years. There is now among the Kurdish civilian population, in 1987-1988 bombed by chemical and biological agents, rare cancers, birth defects among children, miscarriages, recurrent lung infections, neuro-psychiatric problems serious.
The weapons containing depleted uranium, used in conflicts in Kosovo, Serbia-Montenegro and Iraq, many still polluted sites.
The Iraqi children have been victims on three occasions conflicts that have affected the region for thirty years. The eight-year war with Iran in 80 years and the Gulf War in 1991. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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Sunday, 27 April 2008 |
 Drinking water fit for consumption
The workshop on Rural Settlement Strategy, held on March 24, 2007, identified some problems of land use and to establish working groups to propose new guidelines for the Official Plan 2008. Since then, these groups of residents of rural areas met to discuss these issues and to prepare discussion documents for members of the public who were invited to comment.This discussion document focuses on the shortcomings of the official plan on groundwater resources. The Working Group on groundwater resources, hereinafter called the "Working", was created to address the concerns expressed by residents of rural areas on the quantity and quality of their water future. The community is concerned by the fact that a reduction in the quality and quantity of their water may reduce the value of their residences, affect their quality of life and threaten the financial viability of their businesses. In addition to the possible effects of the declining quality of their water on their health, affected residents are concerned also be required to treat their water.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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Sunday, 27 April 2008 |
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The 30th session of World Heritage Committee held in Vilnius, Lithuania, from 8 to 16 april 2008. On this occasion, several sites related to water were included among cultural property on the World Heritage List.
The aflaj irrigation system in Oman, for example, represent some 3 000 irrigation systems still in operation. Aflaj is the plural of falaj, which in classical Arabic, means "divided into shares and equitable sharing of a scarce resource to ensure sustainability," which remains the essential feature of these irrigation systems. The archaeological remains suggest that irrigation systems existed in this extremely arid region from 2 500 BC.
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Freshwater Quality 
