Word: waterous
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...North Korea HIGH WATER, RISING TENSIONS North Korea marked its 61st anniversary Sept. 9 by vowing to "mercilessly annihilate the U.S. imperialists" in response to any aggression, just days after Pyongyang announced its continued pursuit of a uranium-enrichment program. The hermit state also opened a dam on the Imjin River without warning on Sept. 6, sending 40 million tons of water across the border into South Korea, where six people were swept away. Seoul has demanded an apology, calling the North's excuses for releasing the water "not acceptable...
...what it captures, including sewage. Here's how it works: More than half the island is crisscrossed by a grid of drains that not only prevent flooding, to which low-lying Singapore is prone, but more important, capture rainwater. That rainwater eventually flows into canals. From the canals, the water runs to one of several reservoirs and then to a treatment plant, where it is purified for home use. The wastewater, meanwhile, runs into a gigantic underground pipe, nearly as wide as a subway tunnel, that traverses the length of Singapore. To speed the water flow, this giant pipe tilts...
...government's enlightened policies have developed an expertise in water management that has spawned a host of profitable companies. Chief among them is Hyflux, a water-treatment company that purifies waste-, salt- and rainwater. Hyflux was started in 1989 by a chemistry graduate named Olivia Lum, who grew up so poor in a Malaysian village that rains regularly flooded her grandmother's small wooden house...
...company struggled for nearly half a decade. Then came the penguins. "To convince Singapore [that it could treat water], we tried our first project in a bird park with the penguin tank," explains Hyflux's Ong. Because penguins are used to pristine arctic water, the water in their tank needed to be continuously cleaned. The penguins were pleased enough by Hyflux that the company was allowed to recycle part of Singapore's wastewater into drinking water, which has in turn propelled Hyflux from a start-up into a global player in water treatment. Its systems are now used in cities...
Hyflux's membrane technology shows that even the dirtiest water can be cleaned. Seawater in Singapore, for instance, is first dosed with acids to adjust alkaline levels and then cleaned of contaminants like oil and grease. The water passes through a sieve of sand that removes silt. Then it is shot through a stringy honeycomb of plastic membranes at high pressure, which "polishes" the water, Ong says. In the case of desalination in Singapore, Ong adds, the water becomes so clean that minerals have to be restored for it to be consumed. In 2008, Hyflux reported net profits...