TEGUCIGALPA, Apr 2 (Tierramérica) - The government and sugar industry leaders in Honduras are pushing for passage of a biofuels law in the next six months to regulate ethanol production.

In the past two years, Honduras generated about 140 megawatts from ethanol or carburant alcohol from sugarcane pulp, Agriculture Minister Héctor Hernández told Tierramérica.

The law is also necessary to regulate "the commercialization of this fuel that is being presented as an alternative to the high international prices of petroleum. We are thinking of investing around 100 million dollars to promote this sector," he said.

Honduras produces some 8.7 million sacks of sugar per year, 67 percent of which goes to domestic consumption. The rest is exported, bringing in some 40 million dollars, according to the Central Bank.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 2 (Tierramérica) - The utilization of wastewater is big business for Brazil's big cities, which could solve their water shortage problems, Marcelo Zanini, director of the water treatment firm Biosistemas, told Tierramérica.

Supplying one cubic meter of water and the services for its drainage cost 8.3 dollars in Sao Paulo, but existing technologies permit its reutilization for one-third that price, he said.

Channeling water from a source 130 km to handle the shortage in the Sao Paulo metropolitan region could be put off 15 years if the city treated its wastewater for reuse -- with financial, energy and environmental benefits, said Zanini.

Recycling water through biological processes and membranes offers "infinite" opportunities, given that now just a quarter of the 130,000 companies in Sao Paulo state do so, he added.

MEXICO CITY, Apr 2 (Tierramérica) - A mathematical equation created in Mexico for predicting how an object grows or shrinks, using digital images, is proving useful for many sciences, particularly medicine.

"It's very simple, but it is widely accepted and is already being used in many developed countries in the medical field, something we had not imagined when we came up with it," Ernesto Bribiesca, mathematician at the Autonomous National University of Mexico and creator of the formula, told Tierramérica.

The "compacity" equation, first revealed in 2000 in various scientific publications, is used for measuring the conformation of the mass of any object and to project its reduction or expansion.

The equation is helping doctors predict the growth of cancerous tumors or any organ of the body, as well as the changing shape of a mountain, a plant or any other thing, Bribiesca said.

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 2 (Tierramérica) - More than 400 young people from 50 countries will participate Apr. 12-14 in an international Water and Youth Festival in the Argentine capital to determine ways to ensure access to water and to have a voice in public policies.

"We are working to create a space for debate about problems related to water, to share experiences and seek consensus for local, regional and global actions, and to form a youth movement for protecting water," Cecilia Iglesias, of the Environmental Network Civic Association, one of the festival organizers, told Tierramérica.

"It will be the beginning of a process for youth involvement and organizing to confront the challenges to ensuring the right to water in the framework of environmental sustainability," she said.

Participating in the event will be some 300 youth organizations and representatives from inter-governmental bodies.