BULGARIA: Blue Danube Meanders Into Road Building

The European Union Danube Strategy (DS), unfolding this year, is proving to be a litmus test for the viability of the concept of ‘green growth’ in Eastern Europe.

ENVIRONMENT: Small Islands Urge Action at UN Oceans Meet

Faced with rising sea levels, dying coral reefs and decreasing fish stocks, small island developing states (SIDS) are feeling the effects of ocean decline, and they want wealthier countries to do more to ensure the survival of the world’s seas and other waterways.

ECUADOR: Native Groups Poised for Nationwide Protests Over Water Bill

Indigenous organisations in Ecuador opposed to a water reform bill that they say would give mining companies and agribusiness privileged access to water have threatened to extend their protests around the country in order to keep the legislature from passing the bill without certain modifications.

Residents Hope 2010 Flooding Prompts Govt Action in Luanda

The water seeped into Feliciana Teresa Matia’s home from beneath its mud floor and when her 20-year-old son Francisco got up to go to work, grabbing a metal pole for guidance in the dark, he was electrocuted.

ENVIRONMENT: Oil Spill Gives Urgency to UN Oceans Meet

The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has given increased urgency to the fifth Global Oceans Conference taking place here at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

U.S.: Offshore Drilling Badly Tarnished by Gulf Oil Leak

As oil seeps into the environmentally and economically critical Gulf of Mexico following an explosion on a rig there two weeks ago, some groups are saying this catastrophe should mark the end of offshore drilling for oil - and be a "clarion call" for moving away from fossil fuels.

CUBA: Drought Looming – Again

As Cuba feels the impact of a drought that is affecting the entire Caribbean region, authorities have stepped up calls for water savings in households and the public sector.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Some For You, Some For Me: Sharing the Inkomati River

At Ekuvinjelweni village, in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province, the Komati River flows clear and fast through the mountains.

ECUADOR: Native Groups in Showdown Over Water Bill

The second and final parliamentary debate of a new water bill to regulate water resource management in Ecuador is due to begin May 4, amid stark divisions among indigenous movements and between them and the government of left-leaning President Rafael Correa.

MIDEAST: Settler Sewage Ruins Palestinian Crops, Drinking Water

Residents of this Palestinian village refuse to buy the idea that the flood of raw sewage from the adjacent Israeli settlement of Kfar Etzion, that destroyed vineyards and contaminated their drinking water, was an accident.

Savings Spurned in Zimbabwe Water Purification

Zimbabwe spends an estimated 100 million dollars a year importing aluminium sulphate for water treatment plants. But a local entrepreneur has developed a technique to extract the needed compound from kaolin and flint clays abundantly available within the country.

SOUTH AFRICA: Children Help to Assess Water Health

Miss, Miss, there are tiny creatures here in the water!" a Grade 7 pupil shouts excitedly, trying to draw attention to his water sample. At first, the liquid looks clear, but upon closer examination, one can make out a tiny aquatic invertebrate.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Sharing the Okavango

Each January, a giant pulse of water from heavy summer rains over the south of Angola enters the Okavango River system and begins a five-month journey through Namibia to a richly biodiverse swamp in Botswana's Kalahari desert. The river is a rarity, scarcely disturbed by human development along its 1,100 kilometre length: shaping its future is the delicate task of the Okavango River Basin Commission.

MOZAMBIQUE: Co-existing With Floods

April signals the tail end of the flood season in Mozambique. The country's water managers will soon be able to appraise the effects of changing policies.

WATER-LESOTHO: Getting Community Consultation Right

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project will move into its second phase in 2010. The first phase has been praised as a shining example of transboundary water sharing in Africa, but community dissatisfaction may mean a rough ride for its extension.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Benefits of Working Together on Water

The river basin organisation people are gathered in Botswana again: the theme this year is "benefit-sharing", an approach to allocating water that, it is promised, will accomplish nothing less than to make more water.

MOZAMBIQUE: Weather Service Key to Flood Disaster Management

Mozambique's government learned some tough lessons from the devastating floods that hit the country a decade ago. Experts say the disaster management plans drawn up since are a model for other African countries.

NAMIBIA: Banking Water for the Future

In the driest capital city south of the Sahara, water engineers are "banking" ground water to meet future demand, but the enormous costs might sink the project before water can be harvested.

SOUTH AMERICA: Clear Water – Mercosur’s Underground Treasure

Invisible beneath a vast area of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the Guaraní Aquifer is one of the world's largest reserves of freshwater. Despite supplying water to millions of people, it is neither contaminated nor overexploited.

WATER : Swazi Village Gets a Self-Sustaining Water Supply

No one loves the bill collector, and Sifiso Shongwe gets a chilly welcome as he goes from household to household collecting money for Maphilingo's community water scheme.

SIERRA LEONE: Plan For Sanitation Rests with Community

Lying forgotten in the bush somewhere is a sign declaring "Ogoo Farm is an open defecation-free community."