fresh water

(Stanford University) The Woods Institute for the Environment has awarded five faculty planning grants to develop long-term research programs at Stanford University that help solve the world's urgent demands for fresh water.

A new survey finds the top worries of respondents threatened or hit by Hurricane Katrina are that they would not have enough fresh water to drink (42 percent very worried) and that they would not be able to get needed medical care (41 percent very worried).

Chemical engineers have developed a chlorine-tolerant membrane that should simplify the water desalination process, increasing access to fresh water and possibly reducing greenhouse gases.

(Society of Chemical Industry) The world needs to develop a means of securing the supply of clean fresh water within the next 10 years if we are to tackle looming water shortages, leading expert warns.

Despite widespread concerns about preserving the world's largest body of fresh water, researchers report that pollution is continuing in Russia's fabled Lake Baikal.

The deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal holds 20 percent of the world's unfrozen freshwater and is home to more than 1,500 species found nowhere else on earth.