A gene that makes bugs highly resistant to almost all known antibiotics has been found in bacteria in water supplies in New Delhi used by local people for drinking, washing and cooking, scientists said on Thursday.

The NDM 1 gene, which creates what some experts describe as “super superbugs“, has spread to germs that cause cholera and dysentery, and is circulating freely in other bacteria in the Indian city capital of 14 million people, the researchers said.

By Chris Holly 

Written by Jeff Thurston

Water is valuable, but clean water that people can drink has greater value. Some regions have an abundance of clean water, and others have do not – a geographic factor. In other places pressure on natural ecosystems that generate water are placing great stress on ecosystems, often overwhelming them. The production of clean water is a result of the protection and stewardship of natural ecosystems, but also the result of efficient and effective management.  And, on that basis geospatial technologies have a large role to play.

Engineer Han Jiping in an aqueduct being built in China’s Henan province. Water will be rerouted from the wet south to the dry north. (Jonathan Watts, unknown / September 29, 2010)

Reporting from Zhengzhou, China —