From around the world and around the web, here are this week’s water stories that caught our eye. If we missed one you thought others should know about, please tell us about it in the comments.

water is too cheap

In Davos last week police used water cannons to disperse a small crowd of protesters. That’s one use for water, we suppose. But more on topic at the high-profile meeting, was water conservation and real pricing of this commodity. In this week’s Wall Street Journal review how population growth and climate change mean that smart market-based solutions and a new regulatory system are needed to ensure stability and access.

rising water costs

A perfect example of how water is under priced is India. According to DNA India, water is heavily subsidized – by as much as 60 percent for middle-class neighborhoods. Residents of Mumbai are facing possible rate hikes for their water. The rate increase is designed to bring the costs closer to reality and discourage waste. But can you imagine what that would do to your household budget?

a dry town, and we’re not just talking liquor

News about Yemen is on the rise, and given the many challenges for the impoverished country, we’re likely to hear a lot more about it. We already know there are growing concerns about militants and Al-Qaeda support. What you may not be aware of is the fact that the country is running out of both water and oil. Some experts the capital, Sanaa, could be bone dry in ten years. Talk about a source of instability!

growing concerns about energy and climate change

Above we can see how on a local level climate change and energy resources could turn into security nightmare, and that fact is not lost on the U.S. military. This week the Pentagon released its Quadrennial Defense Review. We’ll cut to the chase for you, the study concludes:

Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease and may spur or exacerbate mass migration.

Now, if it’s so clear that this is likely to be a problem, we wonder when climate change will register with the American people.

water scarcity gets its own conference

Later this month, some of the nation’s biggest companies, and many smaller ones too, will gather in San Francisco to discuss water scarcity risks and water footprints in the supply chain. Some of the speakers include representatives from Procter & Gamble, Nike, Intel, and many others. You know we’ll be watching what happens; think they’ll have a Twitter hashtag?

water conservation pays big

Dow Chemical’s production site in Freeport, Texas has a new feature: 80 water cooling towers made by Nalco Company. The new system is saving over 1 billion gallons of water and $4 million per year. We’re still information on how much the system cost, but something tells us that it’s a pretty good ROI.

Water covers more than 70 percent of the earth, unfortunately 97 percent of it is salt water. Of the remaining three percent, most of that is frozen and inaccessible, leaving a mere .5 percent available for human use.

more water facts

• Fewer than 10 countries control more than 60 percent of the planet’s fresh water.
• Every year, more than 1.5 million children die from water-related disease.
• Water.org says that one in eight people do not have access to clean water.
• An American uses more water in a single five-minute shower than most poor people in the third world use in a day.
• Water shortages have been reported near water bottling plants, including those in Wisconsin, Texas, Florida and New Hampshire.

who’s using the water?

Of course, water is a renewable resource, but mother nature is not able to keep up with the pace of human activity.

Population growth means more agriculture, manufacturing, and sanitation. Agriculture accounts for the vast majority of our fresh water demands. Often regions devote 70 percent or more of their water towards growing crops for food or commodities such as cotton.

As part of Blog Action Day, we want to bring your attention to the water waste in the textile industry. Textiles are the third biggest user of water and cause of water pollution.

You may be surprised to learn that the fiber to make one simple cotton tee uses 713 gallons of water. Then, dying that shirt can take almost eight gallons. That’s a lot of water. Did you know that more than 2 billion t-shirts are sold each year? That’s a lot of water!

climate change and everyday choices

When you think about climate change causing sea levels to rise, more drought, longer droughts, world population increases and the precious little fresh water we have for all the creatures on this planet, we believe that water is better used for food than for clothing. Especially because there are excellent alternatives. We now have recycled PET fabric that’s as soft as cashmere and stronger than cotton. And we have ways to dye the fabric that use no water at the point of coloration.

We encourage everyone to make smart choices about water use every day. Everything from taking shorter showers, to using non-toxic cleaning supplies to choosing clothing that’s not needlessly consuming and polluting our fresh water. Together we can fight climate change and water scarcity.

The man who brings wonder to the world every night with Cirque du Soleil, wants to bring clean water to everyone in the world. Guy Laliberté’s OneDrop Foundation is staging a two hour online event tomorrow, October 8, at 8pm ET.

The live webcasts from around the world will bring together environmentalists, politicians, and celebrities. The organization has called on some pretty heavy hitters: Shakira, Bindi Irwin (Steve Irwin’s daughter), Vice President Al Gore, Salma Hayek, Bono, and many others.

The question is, with Guy broadcasting from the International Space Station and all these big names, why isn’t there more buzz for this event. Facebook shows only 2,311 “confirmed guests.” That seems pretty low. Showtimes’ Dexter had over 13,000 people saying they’d be watching the season premier.

Maybe people just have too many other crises on their minds at the moment? Or people just do not think that the lack of clean water for one in eight people on the planet or that 3.5 million people die each year from water-related disease is a major problem.

Where do you see accessible, clean water on the scale of things the world needs to address? And if you think it’s important, what are you doing about it?

We just discovered waterchannel.tv, a rich online resource that hosts hundreds of videos about water issues and global warming. Videos run the gamut from water quality to education, all submitted by an active  community of experts and advocates.

Here are a few of our favorites:

At the Water’s Edge

Blue Gold: Water Wars

Advancing Sands: Deserts and Migration

Groundwater: A Borderline Case

Have you found any great videos you’d like to share with us?

Monday’s New York Times features an article exploring the report “In Search of Shelter,” released from a global climate summit in Bonn. “In Search of Shelter” details growing accounts of migration driven by climate change, and the resultant populations of displaced citizens. Times contributor Tom Zeller highlights the large communities in Asia that rely on the Himalayas to replenish rivers and provide drinking water. With those glaciers rapidly shrinking, millions of residents will eventually be without water and forced to relocate.

A common, and probably valid, fear is that impoverished communities—those with the fewest resources and heaviest reliance on the “whims of the weather”—will be the most severely impacted.

In large part, the concept of climate-induced migration is one met with contention and skepticism. After all, how can something so elusive be measured? A myriad of factors may be at play with any single decision to move, including political, economic, and familial considerations. Since it’s nearly impossible to isolate climate change as a catalyst for migration, the numbers surrounding the phenomenon are frustratingly inconsistent.

Still, environmental leaders worldwide are desperately trying to find empirical measurements for the phenomenon. Visit the New York Times for the full story and to read the complete “In Search of Shelter” report.

What do you predict will be the impact of climate migration?