Sharp water-course rising and flooding are among the main threats of water-produced disasters in the Region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNESCO: Floods

They included disruption to operations from drought or flooding, declining water quality that required costly on-site pretreatment, increases in water prices, and fines and litigation relating to pollution incidents.

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Water rescue units were on standby in low-lying areas prone to flooding, just in case, he said.

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In Brisbane, which was paralysed by flooding two years ago, water has been creeping into low-lying parts of the central business district.

BBC: 'Major flood crisis' hits Queensland, Australia

The MTA took extensive measures before the storm to limit the amount of water flooding into tunnels, including by boarding up ventilation grates in low-lying stations, piling sandbags at station entrances, inflating a rubber dam in the Long Island Rail Road's West Side yards in Manhattan and hastily erecting a floodwall across the mouth of the No. 3 train tunnel near East 148th Street in Harlem.

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If the project is successful, as a pilot has been, it will also establish the use of an internet-based management system, mitigate losses from flooding and increase the supply of water to industry.

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Questions have been raised as to why water levels in the Wivenhoe dam - west of Brisbane - were not reduced in preparation for the flooding.

BBC: Australia floods: Queensland launches inquiry

During that visit, an Indian professor's research predicted that global warming would force the migration of 125 million residents of low-lying areas in India and Bangladesh because of flooding, salinization of soils and shrinking fresh water supplies.

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At Exeter, Network Rail is using a water-filled tube to act as a dam to protect the main railway line between London Paddington and Penzance from flooding.

BBC: Braunton 'cut off' by flood water as rain hits Devon