Public supply water use refers to the withdrawal, treatment, distribution, and end-use of water by public or private utilities that provide potable water to multiple users, typically including residential, commercial, institutional, and light industrial sectors, as well as public services such as firefighting. In water-resources research, it is quantified in terms of withdrawals from surface water and groundwater, conveyance losses, and delivered volumes, often disaggregated by customer category and metering data. This topic encompasses system efficiency, demand patterns, infrastructure leakage, per capita use, and interactions with regulatory, hydrologic, and climatic constraints in integrated water-resource planning and management.
The water infrastructure politics of eThekwini, the municipality that includes the city of Durban, have been splashed across the digital pages of South Africa's news outlets in recent years.
Environment
Nov 6, 2025
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In a plan that will reverberate more than 300 miles north at Mono Lake, Los Angeles city leaders have decided to nearly double the wastewater that will be transformed into drinking water at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation ...
Environment
Nov 3, 2025
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21
Wetlands are an important part of the ecological system, providing a myriad of benefits for people, wildlife, and the environment. They also serve as "nature's kidneys," filtering out pollutants from surface water. A new ...
Environment
Oct 28, 2025
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50
Public water systems in the U.S. were far less likely to report suspiciously rounded lead levels after the Flint, Michigan water crisis drew national outrage and federal scrutiny, according to new research led by the University ...
Environment
Oct 7, 2025
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155
The Colorado River, which provides water across the Southwest, has lost about 20% of its flow in the last quarter-century, and its depleted reservoirs continue to decline. But negotiations aimed at addressing the water shortage ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 6, 2025
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132
More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to safely managed drinking water, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that progress toward universal coverage was moving nowhere near quickly enough.
Environment
Aug 26, 2025
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The Colorado River is in trouble: Not as much water flows into the river as people are entitled to take out of it. A new idea might change that, but complicated political and practical negotiations stand in the way.
Earth Sciences
Aug 7, 2025
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20
The worst water Colt Smith has seen in 14 years with Utah's Division of Drinking Water was at a mobile home park, where residents had been drinking it for years before state officials discovered the contamination.
Environment
Jul 24, 2025
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With four areas of the U.K. now facing drought conditions, new research from the University of Surrey shows that helping households use less water means first understanding their everyday habits—and getting the public onboard ...
Environment
Jul 16, 2025
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For nearly a month, hundreds of thousands of Iowans have not been allowed to water their lawns—even though there's no drought.
Environment
Jul 11, 2025
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