The figure shows average water requirement for biofuels. Underlying data need to be interpreted in context. For example, rainfed jatropha is produced in Mali as a biofuel, which means that it receives less water than in many comparable contexts, but also with somewhat lower output of biofuel. India in contrast, has been irrigating jatropha to achieve commercially acceptable yields. The two contexts will produce different water footprint measurem...

Figure compares the water necessary to produce, transport, and convert a given crop into a fuel in two different regions. This shows important variations, and points to the need for careful matching of energy crops and production and conversion systems with available water supplies. The global trade in biofuel crops has created a ‘virtual water exchange’ where some countries with low water resources ‘export’ their water in the form of bio...

To date there are three main groups of issues that are relevant to environmental and security issues in the region. These are access to and quality if natural resources (primarily water and land but also forest and more generally biodiversity resources), existing or potential pollution from industrial facilities, hazardous and radioactive waste sites; and cross-cutting issues such as natural disasters, climate change, public health, environmenta...

To date there are three main groups of issues that are relevant to environmental and security issues in the region. These are access to and quality if natural resources (primarily water and land but also forest and more generally biodiversity resources), existing or potential pollution from industrial facilities, hazardous and radioactive waste sites; and cross-cutting issues such as natural disasters, climate change, public health, environmenta...

The Concept of National Security of Belarus focuses on both external and internal security issues. It directly refers to environmental problems such as global climate change, trans-boundary transport of pollution and the risk of serious accidents at industrial facilities located in Belarus and other countries close to Belarus borders, land degradation and radioactive contamination resulting from the Chernobyl.

Water overuse is damaging the environment in many major basins. High overuse tends to occur in regions heavily dependent on irrigated agriculture, such as the Indo-Gangetic Plain in south Asia, the North China Plain and the High Plains of North America, and in areas undergoing rapid urbanization and industrial development. An estimated 1.4 billion people now live in river basin areas that are ‘closed’ (in that water use exceeds minimum recharge l...

The Working for Water programme was launched in 1995 and is administered through the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. The programme works in partnership with local communities which it provides with jobs, and also with government departments including the then Departments of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Agriculture, and Trade and Industry, provincial departments of agriculture, conservation and environment, research foundations and...