CHICAGO, Nov 16, 2007 (AFP) - Rising sea levels could swallow up to 40 percent more potable groundwater than previously thought because of tricks of topography, a new study has found.

Many current predictions about the impact of global warming look at how much land would be lost to rising sea levels.

But researchers at Ohio State University have found that in many coastal regions sea water will leach into the water table and contaminate groundwater well beyond the shoreline.

BEIJING, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - An ambitious water diversion project in China risks submerging cultural relics up to 4,000 years old, despite efforts by heritage officials to rescue them, state media said Tuesday.

With just three years left before the South-North Water Diversion Project -- a 25-billion-dollar scheme to divert water from China's lush south to its parched north -- is finished, only one third of the preservation project has been completed, China Daily reported.

BEIJING, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - Rat infestations, dying fish and algae outbreaks signal a severe deterioration in the biological habitat of the Yangtze, China's longest river, state press said Tuesday.

'The Yangtze river is a gene bank for biodiversity,' Xinhua news agency quoted vice agriculture minister Niu Dun as saying at a forum in Shanghai.

'But as the economy has developed at a fast pace, the aquatic resources of the Yangtze river have severely fallen into decline and many species are facing extinction.'

SYDNEY, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) - Some water restrictions introduced in Australia's most populous state because of a long-running drought will become permanent because of the threat of global warming, officials said Sunday.

Banned forever will be the practice of hosing pathways and the daytime use of sprinklers to water lawns and gardens.

The New South Wales government said the restrictions would remain in place even when the drought is over and dam levels are at capacity.

BEIJING, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - More than 1,000 polluting factories have been closed down near China's third largest freshwater lake after it was choked by an algae bloom this year, state media reported Thursday.

More than two million people in Wuxi city in the eastern province of Jiangsu were left without clean tap water in early June because of the algae bloom that spread across Taihu lake, once renowned for its scenic beauty.

BEIJING, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - Nearly 10,000 fish have died in rivers at China's old Summer Palace, highlighting the environmental woes facing Beijing as it strives to clean up ahead of the 2008 Olympics, state press said Monday.

The fish were found floating in the river at Yuanmingyuan Park over the weekend and, while the waterway has a foul stench, the exact cause of the pollution that killed them is not yet known, the Xinhua news agency said.

BEIJING, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - China plans to toughen penalties for water polluters, state press said Monday, as a new report showed two of the nation's major rivers remain heavily contaminated despite a decade of clean-up efforts.

A draft amendment to the nation's water pollution law was introduced to parliament on Sunday that dramatically increases the fines firms will have to pay for contaminating the nation's rivers and lakes, the China Daily reported.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, floods and hurricanes: global warming means urban planners need to rethink how and where to build cities, water experts warned at a conference in Stockholm this week.

Almost 80 percent of the world's population lives less than 50 kilometers (30 miles) from a coastline, a jarring fact given that one of the effects of global warming is rising sea levels, according to the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

STOCKHOLM, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - Almost a third of people in the world have no access to a toilet, a privation that has dramatic consequences and leads to millions of deaths each year, experts at a water conference said this week.

Children, highly susceptible to hygiene-related diseases, are the main victims.

CAIRO, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - The land of the Nile is seeing a rising tide of protests at a shortage of drinking water amid accusations the government would rather irrigate golf courses than slake the thirst of villages.

A wave of demonstrations and ensuing clashes with police in recent weeks has left dozens injured in a country where the Nile River provides 95 percent of fresh water and irrigation uses up 80 percent of that.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - Biofuels, hailed by many as the green solution to offset a coming oil shortage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are not a cure-all solution, experts at a water conference in Stockholm warned this week.

Biofuels, which are made from crops, require huge amounts of water, a resource that is already in short supply in many parts of the world. Bioenergy could thus end up diverting water resources desperately needed for food crops.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 13, 2007 (AFP) - Sweden's prime minister called for more pressure on the United States and the major developing countries over climate change at the opening Monday of an international conference on water issues.

'If we really want to make a difference and tackle global warming, we must act together,' Fredrik Reinfeldt told delegates in a speech to open the World Water Week conference in Stockholm.

'The EU is not enough to make a change,' he added. 'We need to make the US, China, India and other countries commit themselves to actions.'

STOCKHOLM, Aug 13, 2007 (AFP) - An international conference on water opened in Stockholm on Monday, gathering some 2,500 experts from around the world to discuss issues such as global warming and the diversion of water for biofuels.

The World Water Week conference was opened by Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who called for governments, individuals and all sectors of society to cooperate in the face of climate change.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 11, 2007 (AFP) - Climate change and a potential water shortage in some regions, also due to the diversion of water to crops for biofuels, will be at the centre of the 2007 World Water Week which opens here Monday, with 2,500 international experts expected to attend.

The theme of the annual event's 17th edition will be 'Progress and Prospects on Water: Striving for Sustainability in a Changing World.'

Organiser Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) noted that water was playing a key role in global warming.

ANKARA, Aug 10, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of Ankara residents flocked to mosques Friday to pray for rain, as severe water shortages in the city of four million frayed nerves and triggered calls for the mayor's resignation.

'Allah, bring down life-giving rains from the heavens upon us,' the imam of the historic Hacibayram Veli mosque pleaded, after parts of the capital suffered several days without water.

ANKARA, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - Ankara residents were gearing up Tuesday for tight water rationing after months of exceptionally dry weather depleted the capital city's reservoirs.

From midnight Tuesday, under a municipal plan that divides the city of nearly four million into two, each section will alternately face 48-hour-long water cuts.

Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek said in a television interview that the rationing would last for five months at the most, but could be called off earlier in the event of heavy autumn rainfall.

MOSCOW, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - In a Moscow where the gap between rich and poor grows more visible every day, there is one feature of life here that brings city dwellers of all incomes together: ice-cold summer showers.

For three weeks every summer, Moscow neighbourhoods have their hot water shut off one by one, forcing residents of Russia's glitzy capital to resort to some fairly primitive remedies.

MOSCOW, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - In a Moscow where the gap between rich and poor grows more visible every day, there is one feature of life here that brings city dwellers of all incomes together: ice-cold summer showers.

For three weeks every summer, Moscow neighbourhoods have their hot water shut off one by one, forcing residents of Russia's glitzy capital to resort to some fairly primitive remedies.

AMMAN, July 29, 2007 (AFP) - Jordan's health and water ministers resigned on Sunday following the outbreak of hundreds of cases of water-borne diarrhoea and fever in the north of the country, Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit said.

'Responsibility in this case was two-fold -- moral and technical. And because the two ministers concerned have a moral obligation they tendered their resignation today,' Bakhit told a news conference.

'I recommended to his majesty King Abdullah II that their resignations be accepted and a royal decree was issued to accept them.'

GLOUCESTER, England, July 25, 2007 (AFP) - Residents in western England formed long lines for rationed water on Wednesday after floods crippled a treatment plant and deprived hundreds of thousands of people of tap water.

Some 350,000 residents in the Gloucestershire area have been warned they could face up to two weeks without mains water after the treatment plant was deluged at the weekend by the overflowing River Severn.