Modern bioenergy systems are attracting increasing attention from governments in Asia as a potential solution to a range of policy problems related to energy security and sustainable development. Despite growing interest in bioenergy systems, there is still a limited understanding of how their expansion could impact on natural resources such as water. This paper aims to shed some light on the relationship between modern bioenergy development and water depletion using a case study on the biofuel sector in Thailand.

Ethiopia is often highlighted as a country in which a lot of foreign land acquisition is occurring. The extent to which these investments also constitute significant acquisitions of water is the subject of this paper. It is apparent that water availability is a strong driver of the recent surge of investments in agricultural land globally, and in general the investments occur in countries with significant 'untapped' water resources. Ethiopia is no exception.

Discusses the potential opportunities and pitfalls of introducing market forces into the process of water allocation. Proposes several preconditions for beneficial privatization of water allocation and argues for a more sophisticated form of analysis than that generally allowed by proponents of basic needs or of free market approaches.

The São Francisco River provides about 70% of the surface water in Northeast Brazil and like much of Brazil the basin includes communities characterized by a broad range of incomes and persistent poverty (Brito and Gichuki 2003). The basin’s agricultural systems cover a similar range between capitalized export-focused enterprises and subsistence farms. Major corporations and cottage industries comprise the industrial water use sector while cities and towns tap the basin for municipal supplies. The basin also hosts several important water-dependent ecological zones.

This paper examines the water dimensions of recent large-scale land acquisitions for biofuel production in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and Northern regions of Ghana. Using secondary sources of data complemented by individual and group interviews, the paper reveals an almost universal lack of consideration of the implications of large-scale land deals for crop water requirements, the ecological functions of freshwater ecosystems and water rights of local smallholder farmers and other users.