First Worldwide Estimate Of Investments In Combating Water Pollution

First Worldwide Estimate Of Investments In Combating Water Pollution

File image courtesy AFP.
by Staff Writers
Hanoi, Vietnam (SPX) Jun 25, 2010
An innovative market in water quality is rapidly emerging worldwide, as cash-strapped governments in countries as diverse as China, the United States, Brazil and Australia invest billions of public and private dollars in schemes that reward people who protect water resources, according to a new report that is the first to quantify payments for watershed services that could help avert a looming global water quality crisis.

Calling the water crisis a threat to humanity that exceeds global warming, the authors of the study released at the global Katoomba conference in Hanoi said that a number of regions of the globe seem to be responding to such frightening indicators as the steady proliferation of "dead zones" in waterways around the world.