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| | |  Sunday, January 10, 1999 Published at 15:56 GMT Special Report
There are plans to pipe water from Austria down south to much dryer countries like Spain - but some people who live at the source of the water in the Alps are not keen on the idea. Fields of filth The disposal of raw, untreated sewage on farmland in Scotland has led to fears that dangerous viruses may be lurking in the soil or finding their way into the water supply. Customers 'lost out' in water sell off The civil servant who was in charge of water privatisation, Sir Patrick Brown, has said that the customer "should have done better" when the industry was privatised. Getting fat on water According to our Water Week poll it seems that consumers think they get a reasonably good service. But they are concerned about the reports of high profits and big salaries in the water industry. Where has all the water gone? Britain has just weathered floods and storms in a wetter than average winter, but experts are already warning that it could be a very dry summer. The water companies under pressure The recent years of drought, millions of gallons of water lost through leaky pipes and rising rates of water consumption are all problems faced by the water companies. Campaigners claim beauty spots 'at risk' Environmental campiagners have said that many of Britain's wetlands which are under threat have been left off an government list of sites to be saved. Minister warns of world water shortage Clare Short has warned that two-thirds of the World's population could be suffering water shortages by the year 2025 if current standards are allowed to continue. The summer of '76 Cast your mind back to 1976 when Britain was in the grip of the worst drought of the century and thousands of people were left for hours without water every day. Sardar Sarovar dam: At what price progress? Under the Ghandi style leadership of an extraordinary woman the people who live on the banks of the Narmada river in India have managed to halt the construction of a dam that threatens to destroy their way of life.
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