Speed blogging

• A very interesting World Bank paper from 1996 describes water trading, and the many ways that it can help the poor. (This paper is pre-Cochabamba, so it may seem a little optimistic, but the continued failure of government water provision means that it's still relevant.) Lots of useful and important observations in here.
  
  
• One of which led me to the privatization of water rights in Chile (1981) as well as the water supplier to Santiago (the capital). Chile now has nearly 100% water coverage, 24/7, for its citizens. Nearly 100% of water is metered; the poor are given direct income assistance to make sure that they can afford to pay their bills. Here's another interesting paper [pdf] on public-private performance of Santiago's utility (it was good before it was privatized).
  
  
• Desalination lobbyists and water managers on junkets in California. On the same topic, salaries of California's public workers (including many water managers) can get pretty high ($574,000?) and Australians in Melbourne will pay $ billions for their desalination plant -- whether or not they use it.
  
  
• A nice post on the chemicals in fracking fluids and some analysis on how big the business of cleaning frack-water is going to be (<$1 billion/year).
  
  
• WaterAid is having a hard time providing water services in Mali (a case study of institutions).
  
  
• Jay Lund (UC Davis Professor of Civil Engineering) on why many Delta levees are uneconomical.

H/Ts to RM and JWT