Recycling Batteries and The Toxic Hazards of Battery Disposal
Almost all small household electronic appliances and devices are powered by batteries. Although many devices come supplied with rechargeable batteries, even rechargeable batteries eventually wear out and will require replacement. Proper disposal of all batteries is particularly important to avoid contamination of landfill.

Diageo Reuses Waste From Manufacturing
In an effort to reduce its carbon footprint and ultimately send zero waste from its manufacturing facilities to landfills, Diageo, the world's leading spirits, wine and beer company, recently announced that its Plainfield, Illinois facility is implementing a new byproduct reuse initiative that will send berries and seeds from gin production to Waste Management, Inc.'s local composting site.

Box4Water – turning wastewater into drinking water
The Luxembourg-based cleantech company Epuramat recently introduced its newly developed container water treatment facility Box4Water to the public for the first time. Box4Water can treat very dirty wastewater all the way up to drinking water quality.

Sanitation: slow progress, action crucial, say 2400 experts in Stockholm
Slow progress on sanitation will cause the world to badly fail the Millennium Development Goals while weak policy, poor management, increasing waste and exploding water demands are pushing the planet towards the tipping point of global water crisis.

California "water bank" in works amid drought
California's state government is forming a "water bank" to buy water for local water agencies at risk of shortages next year should a current drought persist, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Thursday. Schwarzenegger in June declared the most populous U.S. state to officially be in drought and declared nine counties in its farm-rich Central Valley to be in a state of emergency because water supplies were so low after two years of below-average rainfall.

Climate change will erode foundations of health
The warming of the planet will be gradual, but the effects of extreme weather events -- more storms, floods, droughts and heat waves -- will be abrupt and acutely felt. Both trends can affect some of the most fundamental determinants of health: air, water, food, shelter and freedom from disease.

U.N. Highlights Global Sanitation Disaster
The world's sanitation crisis, caused primarily by the lack of toilet facilities for over 2.6 billion people, is "an insult to humanity", says the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

WHO Fact Sheets on Environmental Sanitation in Emergencies
WHO is developing fact sheets to provide guidance to assist rapid response to crisis situations. The first addresses emergency situations specifically. The second covers a wide range of environmental sanitation issues of use beyond the immediate emergency situation. The third provides information on various vector-borne diseases that need to be monitored in an emergency situation. The fourth shows the impact of water and sanitation on a number of specific diseases.

International Small Community Water Supply Network
The International Small Community Water Supply Network was formed to promote the achievement of substantive and sustainable improvements to the safety of small community water supplies around the world, particularly in rural areas, as a contribution to the Millennium Development Goals related to water and sanitation.

A Fresh Look at Water
An estimated one billion people live without clean water, and 2.6 billion people lack sanitation facilities, according to the World Health Organization, in Geneva. Despite the growing interest in water issues among private donors, charity leaders say they still face an uphill struggle to meet all the needs. They say the issue has been a problem for such a long time that donors do not see an urgency.