Monthly Archive for August, 2011

For Development, China Moves Millions

Published on 08/31/2011 in dams, displacement of people, hydropower, policy, privatization and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.globalpost.com

“In the country’s headlong drive toward development, moving large numbers of people quickly and often painfully goes hand in hand with building the world’s biggest dam, the longest stretch of high-speed rail, even re-shaping whole cities.

In the best-case situations, those who get moved end up with nicer homes, indoor plumbing, access to services and cleaner living conditions. The dark side is that frequently the relocated become internal migrants mired in debt, without farmland or income.

“Eventually, every forced migrant in China becomes a refugee,” said Chen Zongshun, author of an investigative book about the 1.5 million people relocated for the world’s biggest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.

A study this spring says demolition and forced relocation are the biggest flashpoints for social unrest in China, even more than toxic pollution or labor issues. With an estimated more than 180,000 protests per year in China, that’s certainly not lost on a government that now spends more on domestic security than its military budget.

Perhaps this level of unrest shouldn’t be a surprise when one considers just how many people have been moved, and lost farms and families in the process, with little or no recourse. Thousands of them flock to Beijing every year, seeking redress for lost homes and farmland, often forced back to the provinces with nothing, or having spent a few days in jail. Even those thousands displaced for the destruction of old parts of Beijing had troubles.”

Read more: Global Post

 

 

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Horn of Africa Drought

Published on 08/30/2011 in displacement of people, drought, peak water, policy and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: .

Retrieved from: www.aljazeera.net

“As Muslims around the world mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and celebrate Eid Al-Fitr, many Somali Muslims will not be able to participate due to the ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa.

Hundreds of thousands of Somalis, threatened by drought and civil war, have wound up at Dadaab - the world’s largest refugee camp.

Situated on the Kenyan-Somali border, the Dabaab complex comprises three refugee camps – Dagaheley, Ifo and Hagadera. Spanning an area of 50km, the camps are designed to host a total of 90,000 people.

However, with a population of 440,000 hungry refugees, Dabaab houses nearly five times more people than its infrastructure is supposed to handle.

And with drought threatening 12 million people throughout the Horn of Africa, the numbers are growing.

Al Jazeera’s Azad Essa, reporting from Dadaab, said that despite aid agencies claiming that the number of new arrivals had reduced to around 800 per day from a high of 1500-1800 arrivals per day in July, little on the ground has changed.

“A few thousand have moved to the new Ifo camp, but thousands still remain on the outskirts, living in squalor conditions.”

Read more: Aljazeera

 

lily victoria

Police Beat, Tie-Up, and Fire On Citizens Protesting Dying Ramsar Protected Lake in Iran

Published on 08/30/2011 in agriculture, climate change, contaminated water, dams, desertification, drought, lakes, management, nuclear power, peak water and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Lake Urmia protests. Retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

“Like a chain of dominos, citizen protests are erupting everywhere: following the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions catalyzed in part by skyrocketing food prices, political protests have swept throughout the Arab world. But it hasn’t stopped there, and not all battles are political.

In Jordan, ordinary people are protesting government plans to include nuclear power in its arsenal of energy sources, while in the United States, Bill McKibben and other well-respected community members, including Jim Hansen from NASA, have been arrested for marching against the Keystone XL Pipeline –  a carbon bomb that climatologists say would officially end the battle against climate change (humanity 0 vs. climate change 7 billion). But none of these latter environmental events has garnered such an extreme response as the Lake Orumiyeh protests in Iran, where bloggers report that people are being arrested, beaten, and in some cases tied to trees for protesting the slow death of the world’s second largest salt lake.

Dried up Mecca

In part because of drought and in part because of poorly managed dam construction and irrigation projects, Lake Orumiyeh or Urmia in Northwestern Iran has shrunk to roughly 60% of its original size. Once a mecca for flamingos and other wildlife, the dying lake now more closely resembles a dusty moonscape.

Residents in Azerbaijan that rely on the Ramsar protected site for their sustenance claim that Revolutionary Guards are responsible for shrinking lake levels and the subsequent rise in salinity and decrease in biodiversity. Global Voices claims that if Lake Urmia dries up completely, millions of people will have to settle elsewhere.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

 

lily victoria

Ohio River Basin Part Of Pilot Water Quality Trading Market Program

Published on 08/30/2011 in agriculture, contaminated water, policy, rivers, tap water and water conservation. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.sdpb.org

“American Farmland Trust has received a $1 million Conservation Innovation Grant(CIG) from the USDA to develop the first U.S. interstate water quality trading market for agriculture.

In this second phase of the project, the collaborators will launch pilot water quality trades between farmers and public utilities in the Ohio River Basin.

Utilities or manufacturers that face high pollution control costs can buy nutrient reduction credits from farms with lower costs. Farms will be able to sell nitrogen and phosphorus, potentially generating greenhouse gas reduction credits from on-farm conservation practices that result in new income for their operations.

The Ohio River Basin is an area that spans 14 states, with phase-two of this project focusing on Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Illinois. The overall goal of the collaborators is to improve water quality in the Ohio River Basin and reduce hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Read more: Farm & Dairy

 

lily victoria

Lingering Droughts Plague SW China

Published on 08/30/2011 in drought, peak water, rivers, tap water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.csrpioneers.com

“A persistent drought in Southwest China’s Guizhou province has created a water shortage for 5.5 million people and 2.8 million livestock, local authorities said.

Nearly 70 of the province’s counties and cities have been plagued by the drought, according to a meteorological monitoring report released on Monday.

There will be little rain in Guizhou before mid-September, according to the report. Temperatures above 35 C will persist, exacerbating the effects of the drought, the report said.

The drought, which began in early July, has dried up hundreds of reservoirs and rivers, devastated crops and reduced available supplies of drinking water.

A long-lasting drought has also plagued Southwest China’s Sichuan province, leaving 1.68 million people and 1.25 million livestock short of drinking water, said Yang Hai, a provincial drought relief official.”

Read more: China Daily

 

 

lily victoria

Federal Water Tap, August 29: Tar Sands and Shale Gas

Published on 08/29/2011 in oil and policy. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.tcktcktck.org

“Few Significant Impacts
The State Department concluded its environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The department’s preferred option is to build the pipeline, with a few variations and minor route changes.

Assistant Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones, who took questions from reporters, was adamant that the State Department’s recommendation was “not the rubberstamp for this project.” A 90-day consultation period now begins. The department, with a few opportunities for public input, will discuss with other government agencies whether the project is in the national interest. President Obama will make the ultimate decision.

In an attempt to move official opinion, a group of pipeline opponents is staging daily protests until September 3 outside the White House gates. On the first day, some 70 protestors, including environmental writer Bill McKibben, were arrested.

A Little More Than a Rounding Error
The U.S. Geological Survey has released a new assessment of natural gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale, estimating that the rock formation underlying much of the mid-Atlantic U.S. contains 84 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of technically recoverable natural gas. That number, which does not consider the economic feasibility, is the mean value in a range of estimates. There is a 95 percent probability that the formation contains at least 43 TCF, and a 5 percent probability that it contains at least 144 TCF.

The previous assessment of the Marcellus Shale by the USGS, done in 2002, pegged technically recoverable natural gas reserves at 2 TCF. Technological improvements in the subsequent decade have led to the upward revision.

But as the New York Times points out, the estimate from the USGS is substantially lower than the Energy Information Administration’s estimate of 410 TCF, which was released earlier this year. The NYT says this calls into question the methods the EIA uses to calculate gas reserves and its use of consultants with industry ties.”

Read more: Circle of Blue

 

lily victoria

Los Angeles Learns To Love Its River

Published on 08/28/2011 in dams, floods, hydrology, management, policy and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.bbc.co.uk

“In the 1930s two big floods across Los Angeles’ wide area of wetlands forced the government to act. The Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with flood control.

Much of the river is used as a giant storm drain

It took 30 years to complete, but they concreted, dammed, drained and guided the river from the mountains to Long Beach and to the ocean.

Rail and road links were built alongside it, and the security the channel provided led to the rapid development and sprawling growth LA has seen in the last 80 years.

It doesn’t rain much in Southern California, but when it does the trickle in the bottom of the canal becomes a flood and the water almost overflows as rainwater rushes off the city streets, covered as they are in tarmac and concrete, and races to the sea.

There were just a few stretches where the water table was too high for the concrete to survive. In these dirt-bottomed sections wildlife thrives, and it starts to look like a real river.”

Read more: BBC

 

lily victoria

Tripoli Faces Severe Water Shortage

Published on 08/28/2011 in oil, peak water, policy, tap water, water shortage and water wars. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.foxnews.com

Libyans are experiencing a severe water shortage in the capital Tripoli.

While rumours circulate that it is due to sabotage or poisoning by Gaddafi forces, the truth is that the water tanks are empty because there has been no electricity to power pumps for 45 days.

 

Read more: Aljazeera

lily victoria

Unchecked Pollution Chokes Lebanon’s Rivers

Published on 08/26/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, groundwater, hydrology, oceans, rivers, tap water, wastewater and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.dailystar.com

”Poisoned with effluent and often strewn with garbage, Lebanon’s rivers are grotty and unwell. They should be both a source of usable water and recreation, but a report published by the United Nations Development Program and the Environment Ministry in 2010 compiled data showing that rivers, both coastal and inland, contain unacceptable levels of raw sewage. In many, E-coli and coliform are not only above acceptable levels for drinking water, they are also above levels acceptable for bathing water as set by the Environment Ministry.

Blessed among its neighbors in terms of water potential, Lebanon’s contaminated rivers are both a source of sickness and disease and a contributor to the pollution of the country’s coast and marine life.

Haddad points out that the high concentration of heavy metals in river water can accumulate in the human body, affecting the nervous and digestive systems and damaging the heart and kidneys. Meanwhile Mark Saadeh, PhD, a hydrogeology specialist, recites a phrase well known in his profession: “The health of a marine environment is determined by the state of rivers.”
Read more: The Daily Star

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Regulations spur costly water upgrades for Savannah

Published on 08/26/2011 in contaminated water, policy and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: SC low country

“Compliance with expected changes in pollution permits along the Savannah River will likely cost Savannah about $25 million over the next five to seven years, a city water official told City Council at a workshop Thursday.

“It’s going to be mandated,” said John Sawyer, water supply and treatment director. “There’s nothing we can do.”

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expects to finalize soon a new limit on how much oxygen-depleting waste the river can handle. The current permitted load of 550,000 pounds a day was revised to a new “Total Maximum Daily Load” of 130,000 pounds a day last year. Municipalities and industries up and down the river are hashing out how much each will be able to reduce and discussing with the EPA and with state environmental officials from Georgia and South Carolina the possibility of trading pollution permits, Sawyer said.

“The load changes were required under a settlement to a Sierra Club lawsuit in which the EPA concluded that water in the Savannah Harbor is deficient in dissolved oxygen and doesn’t meet its Clean Water Act designation for coastal fishing.”

Read more: Savannah Now

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