Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Singapore's PM says water security may spark conflicts

Reuters: Singapore's prime minister said on Tuesday that water security may be a source of conflicts, while launching an institute in the city-state to research Asia's water problems. Lee Hsien Loong told water industry players at the start of a one-week water summit in Singapore that the provision of safe and cheap water was becoming harder because cities were growing bigger and global warming was having an effect.

The Asian Development Bank said in November that developing countries in Asia could face an unprecedented water crisis within a decade due to a mismanagement of resources. "More and more cities and countries see access to water as a security concern and a potential trigger of conflict," Lee said….

Washing utensils and vegetables in Bangladesh, photo by Anwar Huq, Wikimedia Commons via Public Library of Science (PLoS), under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

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