EURASIA

Afghanistan: Flash Flood Kills At Least 27 In Northern Province

Last modified on 2012-05-11 16:44:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“KABUL, Afghanistan — A flash flood swept through villages in a mountainous area of northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 17 people, authorities said.

It was the second major flood reported this week in the north.

Abdul Jabar Taqwa, the governor of Takhar province, said flood waters broke through a dam early Friday, washed down a valley and damaged several villages in Ishkamish district.

“It was a very powerful flood. It hit around midnight,” Taqwa said. “Dozens of villages have been hit. I’m worried that the death toll will go up.”

Taqwa said 17 people were killed in the flooding. Earlier, the governor had received reports of 27 deaths.”

Read more: Huffington Post

 

Recipe For Safer Drinking Water? Add Sun, Salt And Lime

Last modified on 2012-05-09 18:04:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In many developing countries, the only source of water is contaminated with viruses and bacteria. In fact, the United Nations estimates that 1 in 6 people don’t have access to enough fresh drinking water.

Pouring water into clear plastic bottles and placing them in the sun can kill disease causing organisms in about six hours. It’s a simple and cheap method that’s been around forever, and it helps. (Who says sun tea isn’t safe?)

But there’s a hitch – the water has to be clear enough for the sun’s rays to penetrate – and much of the world’s water supply is murky from the clay soils in riverbeds and lake bottoms that mix with the water. Enter the scientists.

“Basically, you need to be able to read a newspaper through it. That means it’s clear enough for the UV radiation to penetrate and kill the pathogens. If you can’t see through it, it just won’t work,” explains Joshua Pierce, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Michigan Tech.”

Read more: NPR

 

MENA Changing Drastically & NASA Has The Pictures To Prove It

Last modified on 2012-05-07 18:37:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Lake shrinkage in Iran

Retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

Left: August 1985. Right: August 2010.

Iran’s Lake Oroumeih (also spelled Urmia) is the largest lake in the Middle East and the third largest saltwater lake on Earth. But dams on feeder streams, expanded use of ground water, and a decades-long drought have reduced it to 60 percent of the size it was in the 1980s. Light blue tones in the 2010 image represent shallow water and salt deposits. Increased salinity has led to an absence of fish and habitat for migratory waterfowl. At the current rate, the lake will be completely dry by the end of 2013.

Urban Growth in Morocco

Retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

Left: July 2, 1985. Right: June 24, 2011.

The Moroccan cities of Agadir, Inezgane and Tikiouine are close to the Atlantic coastline (seen in blue in the images), and stretch into the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Agadir was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 1960. Reconstruction has focused on tourism, turning this area into a winter destination. The 1985 image shows the area 25 years into the rebuilding. By 2011, the urban areas reach into the Sahara Desert. Growth has been influenced by the expanding fishing industry and modern commercial ports.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Beckoning war on water

Last modified on 2012-05-07 01:39:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“India’s feverish pursuit of building dams on the rivers allocated to Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) has received the attention of the International Crisis Group (ICG) whose objective is to evaluate the consequences of a developing situation for peace in the world and give early warnings of eruption of conflicts unless they are resolved well in time. The ICG rightly foresees the outbreak of war between the two countries if India resorts to stopping water from flowing into Pakistan, which according the IWT is its share, and that creates a dangerous situation for Pakistan. The ICG also draws attention to a report of last year released by the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Congress wherein it was stated that New Delhi was building three dams on Chenab and Sutlej. By virtue of these dams, the reports said, India would come into a position to divert water way from Pakistan right at the time it badly needed it for the crops, thus putting a question mark on the relevance of the IWT.

The ICG’s foreboding or the US Congress’s apprehensions are not something that should come as a surprise to experts in the field or even the general public in Pakistan who are aware of the fact that the headwaters of these rivers fall in the Indian occupied part of the disputed state of Kashmir and are also familiar with the Indian designs against the existence of Pakistan. Thus, there has been a lot of hue and cry not only among the farming community that is directly affected, but also the people and the media. Only the political circles, the ruling coalition and to a large degree also the opposition, are turning a blind eye to New Delhi persistent manoeuvres to hold Pakistan by its jugular vein when it deems fit to do so.”

Read more: The Nation

 

Water Shortage Pushing Leopards Into ‘Man’s Territory’-Mumbai

Last modified on 2012-05-05 15:15:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Explaining the reason behind leopards abandoning their natural habitat and encroaching upon ‘man’s territory,’ Vijay Hinge, district forest officer (planning), says the Western Ghats — where Nashik is located — are surrounded by dams and water bodies. The ample supply of water in the 4km-stretch around canals and rivers fed by the dams gives rise to natural vegetation. At Nashik, the Godavari river has helped in the growth of sugarcane and orchid fields. Since they can find easy prey like foxes, birds, rabbits and frogs in sugarcane fields, leopards make them their home. But in times of water shortage and when sugarcane has been harvested — as is the case now — leopards have no option but to venture out of their new habitat in search of food and water.

Leopard sightings in residential areas have been on the rise in recent years. From 2004 to March 2012, Nashik residents have had at least 10 confrontations with leopards. Sightings and attacks in sugarcane fields or at the borders of the jungles have been more frequent.”

Read more: DNA

 

Salt Threatens Massive Mangrove Forest

Last modified on 2012-05-05 15:09:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“However, as a recent report by Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman warns, these mangroves are in trouble. They face rising temperature, rising seas, silt and pollution washing down from deforested areas in the Himalaya, and pressures from aquaculture activities around the Sundarbans.

They are also being assaulted by rising salinity, brought by the formerly fresh rivers and streams that feed them. As agriculture increases in the region, water levels drop, minerals accumulate, and salinity rises. Brackish water is also expanding underground.

“Predictions from Sundarbans territory show that salinity may be double over the next few decades posing risks for survival of flora in Sundarbans,” writes Rahman.

He continued, “Natural vegetations of such areas are being destructed causing major changes in landscapes and biodiversity. Destruction of remaining natural habitats in core areas, buffer zones and corridors are also occurring. Most of the coastal districts already face severe salinity problems, with saline water pushing up to 250 km inward during the dry season.”

According to Rahman, Sundari trees and nypa palms are declining, changing the makeup of the ecosystem.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

It’s Raining, Again: Britain Endures Damp Drought

Last modified on 2012-05-04 16:14:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Sodden fields. Deep puddles. Flash floods. This is what drought looks like in Britain.

Last month, water authorities banned 20 million U.K. homeowners from using hoses to water their lawns or wash their cars, saying two exceptionally dry winters had plunged much of Britain into drought.

Since then, the rain has hardly let up. Official figures show that April was both cooler than average and the wettest in a century, leaving a trail of flooded properties, canceled events and grumpy residents.

But officials insist the drought and the watering ban remain — to the bafflement of many Britons.

In eastern England, Daniel Allen noted with irony that he’s been told he can’t water the lush foliage in the grounds of his riverside pub, the Rushbrooke Arms — “which is incredible as I had a river running through it yesterday.”

The River Lark usually runs past the thatched pub in Sicklesmere village as a trickle.”

Read more: NPR

 

Big Changes in Ocean Salinity Intensifying Water Cycle

Last modified on 2012-05-03 14:33:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A paper in Science today finds rapidly changing ocean salinities as a result of a warming atmosphere have intensified the global water cycle (evaporation and precipitation) by an incredible 4 percent between 1950 and 2000. That’s twice the rate predicted by models.

These same models have long forecast that dry areas of Earth will become drier and wet areas wetter in a warming climate—an intensification of the water cycle driven mostly by the capacity of warmer air to hold and redistribute more moisture in the form of water vapor.

But the rate of intensification of the global water cycle is happening far faster than imagined: at about 8 percent per degree Celsius of ocean warming since 1950.

At this rate, the authors calculate:

• The global water cycle will intensify by a whopping 16 percent in a 2°C warmer world
• The global water cycle will intensify by a frightening 24 percent in a 3°C warmer world”

Read more: Mother Jones

China’s Looming Conflict Between Energy and Water

Last modified on 2012-05-02 16:19:21 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Yet, in expanding coal-industry bases in west China, one crucial challenge has so far received far less attention than it deserves: Coal-based industries are massively water-intensive (in fact, coal mining, coal-based power generation, and petrochemical processing together account for more than one-fifth of China’s total water usage). And much of western China is already short on water — think Gobi desert and camels, as opposed to Pearl River Delta rice paddies. “The west of China is an environmentally fragile area,” says Professor Wang Xiujun, who conducts research on climate and precipitation jointly for the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography and the University of Maryland. “There’s not much water to spare.”

When new industry comes to town, water is secured by tapping local lakes and rivers, pumping groundwater, and constructing reservoirs to capture rainwater, which diverts its normal flow and reabsorption into the soil. All three have unintended environmental consequences, says Sun Qingwei, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace China and a former government scientist based in western Gansu province.”

Read more: Yale Environment 360

INDONESIA: Living with dirty water

Last modified on 2012-04-30 22:09:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Heavy pollution of river water by household and industrial waste in the Indonesian province of West Java is threatening the health of at least five million people living on the riverbanks, say government officials and water experts.

Poor sanitation and hygiene cause 50,000 deaths annually in Indonesia, with untreated sewage resulting in over six million tons of human waste being released into inland water bodies, according to an ongoing study by the World Bank.

Ibu Sutria, 53, lives in a wooden shack on the banks of West Java’s Krukut River, which runs approximately 20km south from the capital, Jakarta, to the city of Depok. “Sometimes the river is clean, sometimes it’s dirty,” she said. Sutria suffers from regular bouts of stomach ache and diarrhoea, and says the river is constantly flooded.

“People use the river for a toilet and children play in it because they have nowhere else to swim.” She and others in her community use nearby ground water to wash themselves because they think it is cleaner than river water.

Pak Jumari, 35, is a leader of a community group living along the Ciliwung River, which runs north for 97km from the West Java city of Bogor. Since 2010 he has been using a boat to keep his own section of the Ciliwung clean by scooping out rubbish. “We find many detergents and soaps in the river, “he said. “We no longer use it for washing or drinking.”

Fishermen on the Ciliwung use “blast fishing” – bombs made of kerosene and fertilizer to kill fish so they are easier to catch – which has worsened pollution. Nevertheless, his community still fishes in the river, with few reported ill effects, he said.”

Read more: IRIN

Groups to raise awareness against water privatisation

Last modified on 2012-04-29 15:35:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Various groups of citizens of Mangalore will raise awareness among people on the proposed move of the State government to privatise water supply in the city.

At a meeting here on Saturday, the groups took note of the decision of the Mysore City Corporation asking Jamshedpur utilities and services company (JUSCO) to stop water supply in that city. “The same company was slated to take up the supply in Mangalore. We cannot allow it here,” said Vidya Dinaker of the Citizens Forum of Mangalore. “We now have better understanding of the ills associated with privatisation of water supply,” she said.

T.R. Bhat, a retired bank official, said that people had to dispel the impression that privatisation of water supply would ensure 24-hour water. “We need to be concerned about how the increase in water charges will affect the poor. We are not sure of the hidden charges that these private water supply companies will impose,” he said. Absence of necessary personnel and water leakage cannot be a reason to hand over the supply to private agencies, he said.”

Read more: The Hindu

 

Drought Causes Water Shortage, Parches Crops

Last modified on 2012-04-29 15:28:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Tribal women in forefront of the war against drought and water scarcity

Last modified on 2012-04-26 20:58:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Today, however, all that is changing thanks to a water management revolution led by ordinary village women, a majority of them tribals.

“The magic has been worked through our Self Help Group’s (SHGs) water management programme,” says Sadmoni Hembram, 39, of Tilaboni village, who proudly informs that she has a multi-crop land that yields two vegetable and one paddy crop in a year these days.

In an area where development has been stunted due to a weak government machinery and increasing Maoist influence, SHGs like Sadmoni’s ‘Petre Madwa’ have spearheaded developmental initiatives like the Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) under the government’s Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY). Of course, this has been achieved with guidance from Pradan, an NGO working on creating sustainable livelihood in the region.”

Read more: The Weekend Leader

 

Help for a Plastic Planet: New Report Focuses on Solutions to Global Plastic Pollution

Last modified on 2012-04-25 16:06:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Photo retrieved from: www.alternet.org

“Man-made debris in the oceans is now found from the poles to the equator and from shorelines, estuaries and the sea surface to ocean floor. While the types and absolute quantities vary, it is clear that plastic materials represent the major constituents of this debris, and there is no doubt about the ubiquity of such debris on a truly global scale.

Many conferences and documents on the subject of “Marine Debris,” especially those funded by industry, have been evasive about plastic: the single most destructive and overwhelmingly most common substance of concern in the waste material that washes from our shores to oceans and back onto shores around the globe. The significance of plastics being singled out as the main source of marine debris around the globe is that plastic production continues to increase at a rate of about 9 percent annually and the waste from it is cumulative: “Since most plastic items will not biodegrade in the environment it seems inevitable that quantities of debris will increase over time…” (Andrady 2011).

The second reason for hope is that the report offers real solutions, and a methodology to choose them, in addition to an excellent scientific accounting of the many threats posed by plastic pollution to the environment, wildlife, humans and our economies. The solutions specified in the report take account of the fact that the vast majority of communities around the globe are not able to manage non-biodegradable plastic waste because there is no plastic recycling infrastructure or market, and the volume of plastic waste overwhelms landfill capacity.”

Read more: Alternet

Protestors Condemn Ch. Karnchang over Xayaburi Dam Construction

Last modified on 2012-04-25 15:53:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Coinciding with Ch. Karnchang’s Annual Shareholders Meeting, dozens of protestors rallied in front of the company’s headquarters in Bangkok on Tuesday, demanding a halt to all construction activities occurring on the Xayaburi Dam. Civil society groups and community representatives from villages along the Mekong River inside Thailand traveled hundreds of miles to make their voices heard. Together, their colorful affair helped to articulate the anger felt by many people whose lives and livelihoods would be impacted by the project.

“We are here today to oppose the irresponsible investment of Thailand’s company in Laos. They see the Mekong as a project site to make profit, but they do not see lives. We are here today to tell them there are millions of us who will have to bare the cost of their dam,” said Somkiat Kuenchiangsa from the Chiang Khong Conservation Group in Chiang Rai province.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

Gas ‘fracking’ gets green light

Last modified on 2012-04-25 15:48:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Ministers have been advised to allow the controversial practice of fracking for shale gas to be extended in Britain, despite it causing two earthquakes and the emergence of serious doubts over the safety of the wells that have already been drilled.

“The experts say hydraulic fracturing, whereby a well is drilled hundreds of metres deep and pumped full of water, sand and chemicals in order to release methane gas, should be allowed on a wide scale, although they accept that two small earthquakes in Blackpool last spring were caused by the first stages of fracking activities in the only British plants operating.

The government’s own data revealed serious questions around the safety of fracking in areas of known seismic activity, such as the two wells in Lancashire, because of evidence that the resulting earthquakes have damaged the integrity of at least one well. There is also apparent confusion over which government agencies should be overseeing the process to ensure its public safety, with the responsibility shared among several bodies that appear not to be co-ordinating.

“Environmental groups are worried not just about the potential dangers from earth tremors caused by fracking, but about the effects on the UK’s push to tackle climate change. Last month, the chancellor, George Osborne, and the new energy secretary, Ed Davey, launched a new “dash for gas” when they announced measures to encourage the building of new gas-fired power stations across the UK. Green groups argue this will put carbon-cutting targets out of reach, by locking in high-carbon emitting infrastructure and crowding out investment in renewables. “We should be developing the huge potential of clean British energy from the sun, wind and waves, not more dirty and dangerous fossil fuels,” said Atkins.”

Read more: The Guardian

Melt Or Grow? Fate Of Himalayan Glaciers Unknown

Last modified on 2012-04-24 20:12:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Himalayas are sometimes called the world’s “third pole” because they are covered with thousands of glaciers. Water from those glaciers helps feed some of the world’s most important rivers, including the Ganges and the Indus. And as those glaciers melt, they will contribute to rising sea levels.

So a lot is at stake in understanding these glaciers and how they will respond in a warming world. Researchers writing in the latest issue of Science magazine make it clear they are still struggling at that task.

Just a few years ago, it seemed that the Himalayas were on the brink of disaster. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made alarming claims about the fate of all that ice. You can almost see Jeffrey Kargel at the University of Arizona cringe as he describes it.

“One page had the most egregious errors you could imagine, just one after another, including the claim that the glaciers would disappear by 2035,” he says.

But the claim was dead wrong. The error put a lot of egg on the face of the IPCC. But it also sent glacier scientists scrambling. They knew very little about the state and the fate of those glaciers, even the basics.”

Read more: NPR

 

Damming the Poor: It’s Time to Create River Parks for People

Last modified on 2012-04-24 01:30:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In their free-flowing form, large rivers like the Tana are among the most productive, life-giving ecosystems on the planet.  These natural supermarkets continue to feed hundreds of millions of very poor people each and every day.

Many fish species wait for floods to swim out onto a river’s floodplain, where they spawn prolifically.  When a fish spawns on a floodplain, its offspring will have many advantages over other fish born in the river itself. The water spilling onto a floodplain during floods is enriched with nutrients, helping young fish to grow.  The drowned vegetation of the floodplain harbors a bounty of insects to feed upon, and provides places where newborn fish can hide from bigger fish and other predators.  Rivers with large numbers of floodplain-spawning fish produce far more fish for people to eat than those without floods and floodplains.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

Supreme Court seeks CPCB report on ground water contamination

Last modified on 2012-04-20 16:56:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Eole Uses Wind Power to Make Water From Desert Air

Last modified on 2012-04-20 16:27:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A  revolutionary way to condense water from the desert air, powered by – and housed within – a wind turbine has been tested in the UAE  since October of 2011, by French innovation startup Eole Water.

The ground-mounted version has proven that it can condense up to 800 litres a day from air with just the 15-20% humidity typical of the region, and the company believes that a tower top turbine will produce levels well over 1,000 litres (264 gallons) a day.

Water marketing director Thibault Janin told ReCharge News: “The prototype is not yet on a mast because we wanted to check that it could operate in difficult desert conditions first — and so far the results have been very good. And would be even better, of course, if it was placed in coastal or offshore areas where there is higher humidity and more wind.”

Now that the ground test worked, the next step will be to erect the wind turbine-cum-air-condensation system.

Since the test suggests that in desert conditions, the turbine on a tower can produce 1,000 litres of drinking water, the company believes that in coastal regions or islands, with typically higher humidity, it could produce twice that amount.

The turbine needs at least seven-metre-per-second winds to generate 30 kW of electricity to move the water to the storage tanks and to power its purification system.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Last modified on GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Merck and Safe Water Network Launch Initiative to Improve Water Access and Help Reduce the Impact of Water-Borne Disease in India

Last modified on 2012-04-16 19:14:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Safe Water Network, announced the launch of a three−year, $1.5M partnership to increase access to safe water and reduce the impact of water-borne disease among impoverished communities in Andhra Pradesh, India.

This initiative addresses a critical need in India where an estimated 70 − 80 percent disease is related to water contamination and poor sanitation, and where more than 120,000 children under the age of five die each year from rotavirus diarrhea alone.

“India faces significant water and sanitation challenges. Seventy−five percent of the country’s surface water is contaminated by human, agricultural and industrial waste[2], while half of the country’s population lacks access to basic sanitation[3]. Those living in urban slums and rural environments are most affected. In many areas of the country, a growing dependence on groundwater for drinking is associated with a rise in health problems due to fluoride, salinity, water-borne pathogens, nitrate and other contaminants found in the water. In Andhra Pradesh, only 31 percent[4] of households treat their water before use, and 43 percent[5] of children under the age of five are stunted, a common result of frequent episodes of diarrhea.

This joint effort draws on Safe Water Network’s field experience in India, Ghana and Kenya to address the operational, economic, cultural and environmental challenges to safe water access. The team will apply a rigorous method to data collection and analysis to produce effective demand generation and education methods that can be replicated at scale throughout India.

The initiative will add a dozen sites to Safe Water Network’s existing field projects in Andhra Pradesh, which already provide nearly 40,000 people access to clean water. The additional sites will provide safe water access to another 20,000 – 30,000 people. Each phase of the initiative will be documented, including the data on health outcomes. Key findings will be shared with the water and sanitation sector as well as other organizations to help them address the global water crisis.”

Read more: Safe Water Network

Water Wars: Why India and Pakistan Are Squaring Off Over Their Rivers

Last modified on 2012-04-16 19:00:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“India’s Wular Lake, a popular picnic and tourist spot nestled in the Kashmir Valley, is an unlikely site for conflict. But India’s plan to build a structure on the Jhelum River at the mouth of the lake that will allow it to release water during the river’s lean winter months has outraged neighboring Pakistan, which believes the project will give India the power to control how much water flows downstream to its farmers. After two and a half decades of deadlock and 15 marathon rounds of bilateral talks — the most recent occurring in late March — the countries appear a long way from finding common ground.

The dispute isn’t the first of its kind, nor will it be the last. The waters of the Indus River and tributaries like the Jhelum — and the dams built on them by India — have long been one of the main points of contention between the rival neighbors, along with the disputed region of Kashmir itself and cross-border terrorism. Pakistan, whose agriculture-dominated economy is heavily reliant on the Indus and its tributaries, fears upstream dams allow India to manipulate the flows of water as it sees fit. Many in Pakistan accuse New Delhi of wantonly exacerbating the country’s dire water shortages, choking its agricultural production and ruining livelihoods.

“Indeed, India has ramped up its hydroelectricity projects in recent years to try to boost its woefully inadequate power supplies. The government has a total of 45 projects either already completed or in the proposal stage on the western rivers, some as large as 1000 megawatt and many as small as 2 and 3 megawatt. This expansion has irked Islamabad. “India is putting more and more restrictions and constrictions on Pakistan’s waters,” Kamal Majidulla, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani’s special assistant on water resources and agriculture, tells TIME.

A 2011 U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report said that studies show no single dam will affect Pakistan’s access to water, but the cumulative effect of multiple hydroelectric projects could give India the ability to store enough water to limit Pakistan’s supply at crucial moments in the growing season. India has never abused its water supplies in this way, the report adds, and New Delhi rejects the theory as an unsubstantiated hypothesis. But the report’s observations serve as a suitable analogy for India and Pakistan’s water conflicts overall. While no single legal or diplomatic tussle will rupture the fragile relations between the countries, the cumulative effect of a series of standoffs could cause tensions to boil over.”

Read more: TIME

Middle East Water Woes Beg for Environmental Sewage Solutions

Last modified on 2012-04-16 16:17:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The environment is politics and in the Middle East this is ever so stark, ravaged by internal socio-religio-political conflicts and international wars. Wars internally and externally are based on oppression, division, exclusion, land theft, and expropriation of the Middle East’s oil reserves. The Middle East is the globe’s oil capital. Those who want to own it are traditional colonial powers who will do anything and promise anything from political freedom to militarisation to democracy to get at it; it’s why war and conflict still proliferate in the region.

Easily forgotten in all the wars and conflicts are survival basic resources such as water. Water for thirst, water for industry, water for agriculture and water for sanitation. The Middle East’s oil-rich countries are able to cross-subsidise oil-money for purchases of food crops or agri-land for growing food to be imported into the region. This is neither environmentally sustainable nor economically.

Things will run dry, monetary-wise and resource-wise, so hard rapid environmental resource conservation must dictate all immediate and future plans.

Accessing ancient geological aquifers for stored groundwater slowed down with lack of sustainable use and management of resources. When groundwater supplies started dwindling, desalination became the next option, the primary social-water-feeder.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

What happens when all the wells run dry?

Last modified on 2012-04-09 16:27:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“From 2006 to 2011, they note, up to 60 per cent of Syria’s land experienced one of the worst droughts and the most severe set of crop failures in its history. The United Nations reported that more than 800,000 Syrians had their livelihoods wiped out by these droughts, and many were forced to move to the cities to find work – adding to the burdens of already incompetent government.

”If climate projections stay on their current path, the drought situation in North Africa and the Middle East is going to get progressively worse, and you will end up witnessing cycle after cycle of instability that may be the impetus for future authoritarian responses,” argues Femia.

An analysis by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, published last October in the Journal of Climate, found that droughts in winter in the Middle East – when the region traditionally gets most of its rainfall to replenish aquifers – are increasing, and human-caused climate change is partly responsible.”

Read more: National Times

Companies, households use Malang dam as garbage dump

Last modified on 2012-04-06 15:29:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Negligence and a lack of supervision has led Sengguruh dam in the East Java town of Malang to be used as a waste disposal site for household garbage and industrial waste, state water firm Perum Jasa Tirta says.

“Besides the industrial waste from the hundreds of companies, there has been a huge volume of household waste — about 20 to 30 cubic meters a day during the dry season, and up to 80 cubic meters a day during the rainy season,” Jasa Tirta spokesman Tri Hardjono said in Malang on Monday as quoted by Antara.

Tri added that the waste not only contaminated the water in the dam, but also made it shallower, obliging local authorities to dredge the dam every year as the local power plant relies on it for water.”

Read more: Jakarta Post

Japan: Plant Leaks Radioactive Water

Last modified on 2012-04-06 15:12:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says tons of highly radioactive water appear to have leaked into the ocean from a purification unit. The Tokyo Electric Power Company is struggling to keep the melted reactors cool and contain radiation; the leak raises concerns about its ability to keep the plant stable. Similar leaks have occurred several times since last year, and officials say they do not pose an immediate health threat. Workers spotted the leak on Thursday coming from a section of hose on a device used to decontaminate cooling water leaking from reactors. The company said it appeared to have stopped the leak.”

Read more: The New York Times

Pakistan and India to go to War over Water?

Last modified on 2012-04-05 22:26:26 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“But now a rising new element of discord threatens to precipitate a new armed clash between southern Asia’s two nuclear powers – water.

Lahore’s “The Nation’ newspaper on Sunday published an editorial entitled, “War with India inevitable: Nizami,” the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief and Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust At issue are Pakistan’s concerns over India’s ongoing construction of two hydroelectric dams on the upper reaches of the Indus River. Islamabad is concerned that the 45 megawatt, 190-foot tall Nimoo-Bazgo concrete dam 44 megawatt Chutak hydroelectric power project will reduce the Indus River’s flow towards Pakistan, as they are capable of storing up to 4.23 billion cubic feet of water, violating the terms of the bilateral 1960 Indus Water Treaty. The Indus, which begins in Indian-controlled Kashmir, is crucial to both India and Pakistan, but is currently experiencing water flows down 30 percent from its normal levels. The Indus is Pakistan’s primary freshwater source, on which 90 percent of its agriculture depends. According to a number of Pakistani agriculture and water experts, the nation is heading towards a massive water shortage in the next couple of years due to insufficient water management practices and storage capacity, which will be exacerbated by the twin Indian hydroelectric projects, as they will further diminish the Indus’ flow.

So, if push comes to shove, who’s got Pakistan’s back?

China.”

Read more: oilprice.com

Feverish Chinese Dam Building Could Trigger Tsunami

Last modified on 2012-04-05 22:16:20 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“More than 130 large dams that China is building in its western region, an area of high seismicity, are vulnerable to earthquakes or could induce earthquakes, according to a new report released by the Canadian-based environmental group Probe International. In a worst-case scenario, dams could collapse creating a tsunami that would wipe out everything in its path, including downstream dams, and cause untold loss of life and property.

To pierce the Chinese government’s secrecy over its dam-building, the Probe report overlays a Chinese map of dam locations with US Geological Survey earthquake data and a United Nations’ seismic hazard map. Probe also used Google Earth satellite images to confirm the state of completion of about one-half of the dams.

According to the report, 98.6% of the dams being constructed in western China are located in moderate to very high seismic hazard zones. The Zipingpu Dam, for example, which is now thought to have triggered the magnitude 7.9 Sichuan earthquake in 2008 that killed an estimated 80,000 people, was built in a moderate seismic zone. The force of that quake cracked the dam and shook it so severely that it sank one metre and moved 60 centimetres downstream.”

Read more: Probe International

 

Look How Unequally Water Is Divided In The Middle East

Last modified on 2012-04-04 00:25:22 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“THE southern provinces on Lebanon’s border with Israel fare worse than the rest of the country by most measures. Water is one thing in short supply. Swathes of fertile farming land sit idle. Officials say the lack of water is partly to blame for the region’s underdevelopment. While Lebanon as a whole has water in abundance, the south’s rivers are shared with Israel which gets the lion’s share. This is nothing new, but a new study has sketched out the extent of the imbalance for the first time.

Rivers that straddle borders have long caused tensionns in the Middle East. International law says that the useable water should be divided into “equitable and reasonable” portions according to such factors as population. But this directive is often overruled by bilateral agreements. These are lawful but often outdatedand the more powerful country usually gets the better deal.”

Read more: Business Insider

 

Water Wars Heat Up

Last modified on 2012-04-04 00:18:44 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water demand in the summer season shoots up anywhere between 20 to 40 per cent in the city. Vigyanapura is feeling the heat already, with absolutely no water supply.

This area was promised new connections under the upcoming Cauvery project. But from the past one month, the residents have been drawing water from the water tankers who charge exorbitant rates. The area corporator Sukumar has pitched in with 25 loads of water supply for the population of 15,000 due to the increase in the panic calls from the public because of no water supply. He said, “Earlier, I use to get around 50 calls a day from different areas. But this time, I get around 200 calls per day pertaining to water scarcity. Each day around 40 tractors with 4,000 litres capacity and 5 tankers with 7,000 liters capacity are supplied.”

The city at present receives around 900 million litres of water per day (MLD) ,while the demand in the core areas alone is around 1250 MLD. Earlier, in the� Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) monthly council meeting, a few corporators brandished empty pitchers in the council, demanding the council to make arrangements for drinking water through the BWSSB.”

Read more: IBN

People Forced To Drink Polluted Water

Last modified on 2012-04-02 18:25:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Chakwal—Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has revealed that most of the water sources in district Chakwal are providing unsafe drinking water, mainly due to presence of micro-organisms, iron and fluoride.

According to report of Technical survey for Water Supply Schemes ( WSS) conducted by PCRWR throughout the country,out of 202 WSSs in district Chakwal, only 21% are supplying water safe at source.

Mostly untreated water was being supplied to the consumers, which was causing many waterborne diseases among adults as well as kids alike.

PCRWR is conducting a country wide study of water supply schemes under Provision of Safe Drinking Water project. The project, launched in 2006, is now nearing completion that is billed as the most detailed and comprehensive survey of its nature in Asia.

The outcome of the survey conducted in the Chakwal district, has revealed that these schemes are providing piped water supply to an enumerated population of 1.125 million persons on 202 surveyed water supply schemes.”

Read more: Pakistan Observer

Concerns over India rivers order

Last modified on 2012-04-02 18:11:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“A supreme court order in India asking the government to link more than 30 rivers and divert waters to parched areas has sparked concerns in neighbouring countries.

Bangladesh says it would be hardest hit because it is a downstream country to two major rivers that flow from India.

New Delhi is yet to respond to the neighbouring countries’ reactions.

The multi-billion-dollar project was announced by the Indian government in 2002 but had since remained on paper.

Experts in Nepal say the country’s unstable political situation could open the door for India to build dams and reservoirs in Nepalese territory for the inter-linking project – known as the ILR.”

Read more: BBC

 

11 Rivers Forced Underground

Last modified on 2012-04-01 15:47:01 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Rivers are the lifeblood of many plant, animal, and human communities. Yet many of the world’s rivers have been dammed, degraded, polluted, and overdrawn at alarming rates.

Some of the world’s great rivers, from the Colorado to the Indus, don’t always reach their ends because people have diverted so much water for agriculture, industry, and municipal uses. Other rivers have been completely covered over by development, as people attempted to “tame” nature by ending flooding and maximizing usable land area.

But what happens to once-thriving freshwater ecosystems when the rivers they depend on are entombed in sewer pipes beneath layers of concrete and soil? Few species can make the transition to subterranean living. Ironically, it was often rivers and streams that attracted people in the first place, but those very sources of life can fall victim to the expanding concrete jungle.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

Drought fears for Midlands and south-west England

Last modified on 2012-04-01 15:20:54 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The government agency expects drought to spread west across the country following the recent dry weather.

It comes amid reports that rivers are at their lowest levels since 1976, with a severe lack of rainfall not seen since the drought of 1921.

From Thursday, hosepipe bans are due to come into force in parts of south-east England and East Anglia.

Those areas are already officially in drought, while that status was declared in South and East Yorkshire earlier this week.

Two years of lower-than-average winter rainfall has meant rivers across the country have not been replenished.

The past week’s hot weather saw 1mm or less fall across the whole country, the Environment Agency said in its latest Drought Management Briefing on Friday.”

Read more: BBC

 

Farmers urged to undertake rainwater harvesting

Last modified on 2012-03-30 16:35:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Farmers are advised to undertake rainwater harvesting in agriculture lands as it would dilute the fluorosis content in the ground water and would improve the ground water table.

Presiding over the farmers’ grievances meeting, Mr. C.N. Maheshwaran, Collector said that to encourage the farmers for creating RWH facilities, the district administration and the agriculture department had developed a model project in mango orchards near Kaveripattinam town in the district.

The scheme, besides diluting the fluorosis content in the water will also prevent soil erosion and improve the moisture content of the soil.

The administration is planning to take the farmers to the model RWH facility near Kaveripattinam before the next grievances meeting.

In the meantime the proposal would be sending to the government for its approval recommending providing subsidy for the farmers. If the government approves the proposal, farmers would be getting over Rs. 8000 per acre, he added.”

Read more: The Hindu

 

China to flood nature reserve with latest Yangtze dam

Last modified on 2012-03-30 16:26:27 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China’s Three Gorges Corp. on Thursday marked the beginning of construction for a dam that will flood the last free-flowing portion of the middle reaches of the Yangtze, the country’s longest river.

The 30 billion yuan ($4.75 billion) Xiaonanhai dam is decried by environmentalists because it will flood a nature reserve designed to protect about 40 species of river fish.

Completion of the dam would turn the middle section of the Yangtze into a series of reservoirs, leaving “no space for fish”, said environmentalist Ma Jun, who has been active for over two years in trying to prevent the dam.

“This is the last one, the last section in 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) along the Yangtze that was left for endangered or local fish species. This would be their last habitat,” Ma told Reuters.”

Read more: Reuters

 

Why the Right to Water Is Under Attack

Last modified on 2012-03-29 15:13:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“It was less than two years ago, in the summer of 2010, that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution recognizing water as a human right. This was followed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) adopting a resolution on “human rights and access to safe drinking water and sanitation,” which made these rights legally binding. The recognition of the right to water at these U.N. bodies, and the developments since, such as the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on right to water and the resolution by the World Health Assembly recognizing right to water, have helped place water rights on the global agenda.

These successes were partly the result of collective efforts of water justice activists over the last 10 years. IATP’s own advocacy on right to water was a direct response to the reference to water as a “need” [instead of a right], in the Ministerial Declaration of the 2nd World Water Forum in 2000.”

Read more: AlterNet

 

Water: New weapon Of Mass Conflict

Last modified on 2012-03-28 17:34:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A classified US report listed India’s three major river basins — Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra —among the world top 10 water conflict zones in ten years from now.

The report based on National Intelligence Estimate on water security said the chances of water issues causing war in next 10

years were minimal but they could disrupt national and global food market and cause tension between states.

“Beyond 2022, use of water as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism will become more likely, particularly in South Asia (India), the Middle East and North Africa,” the report said.

An insight on where India stands on water crisis is available in the recent household census data for 2011.

The per capita availability of water for a household has reduced with increase in number of households from 24.1 crore in 2001 to 33.1 crore in 2011.

As a result around 3.8 crore women travel on average more than 500 meters to fetch drinking water — an addition of 1.2 crore women in this water fetching women club. Their collaborative effort means covering 47 times the distance between earth and moon every day.”

Read more: Hindustan Times

Economic Talks Open Arab League Meeting In Iraq

Last modified on 2012-03-27 17:05:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Economic ministers tentatively agreed to cooperate on proposals for tourism and to deal with water shortages and natural disasters. The proposals, put forward at the summit’s opening meeting, still need to be approved by the rulers and heads of government on the final day of the gathering Thursday.

“We are suffering mainly from the lack of finance and some technical problems,” Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said at the economic ministers’ meeting.

As in Iraq, where the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers are drying up, water resources also are strapped elsewhere across the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates and Jordan say their ground water is rapidly depleting, and the Dead Sea is drying up. Much of the problem is due to the failure of governments in the region to manage growth and use of the major rivers.

In Libya, the fall of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime last year halted construction on a $25 billion project to pump water to the country’s north, said economic delegation official Giuma Rahuma.”

“Many farmers are in the north,” Rahuma said. “The (Libyan) revolution stopped the project. Maybe it will start again next year, or in two years.”

Read more: NPR

What Modern Society Can Learn From a 2,800 Year Old Earthen Water Well

Last modified on 2012-03-27 16:48:22 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“At the third Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies in Ancient Civilizations (WWTAC) held last week in Turkey, attendees from Libya to Australia and Israel revealed technologies used by their respective ancestors that were in many cases far more sustainable than our modern interventions. Case in point: a 56 km 2,800 year old earthen water well from Eastern Anatolia that still works today!

Ancient water works

Today’s Zaman explained that throughout the three day event held at the Barcelo Eresin Hotel in Istanbul, leading academics discussed an enormous variety of water technologies employed by ancient civilizations, including the Hittite Ponds of Hattusa, the Nomad Cisterns in Antalya, to the Ancient Greek method of water conservation.

Professor Unal Oziş told attendees of his “Water Works of Four Millennia in Turkey” discussion that water systems built three millennia ago, such as the Şamran Canal basically made out of clay, continue to be used today. By contrast, modern people replace their technologies every few years and we have built our programs with obsolescence in mind.

Cradle to Cradle and other design philosophies – and conferences such as WWTAC – will hopefully compel us to revisit more sustainable approaches to water management such as those practiced by theBerbers in Morocco, but another key concern for water specialists is the rate at which modern society depletes water supplies.

“To think that an earthen canal is still in use after 2,800 years is a miracle,” Oziş told the paper, adding that “our ancestors could live with very little water, whereas we are of course monsters in this regards.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

US Intelligence Report: Expect Water Wars Soon

Last modified on 2012-03-23 05:20:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A report released today on global water security from the Defense Intelligence Agency assesses that in next 10 years, water instability will be likely in “nations important to the United States”, and says that in the next decades, the use of water as a weapon will become more likely.

The report, which focused on the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Mekong, Jordan, Indus, Brahmaputra, and Amu Darya water basins, states that the availability of potable water will not keep up with demand without better water management.

While environmentalists have pointed to agroecology, food sovereignty and viewing water as part of the commons as a path towards responsible water management, the intelligence report sees biotechnology, agricultural exports and virtual water trade as the way forward.

Today, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who requested the report, commented on the report in a speech at the State Department, saying, “As the world’s population continues to grow, demand for water will go up but our fresh water supplies will not keep pace.” “These difficulties will all increase the risk of instability within and between states,” she said.”

Read more: Common Dreams

 

Israelis and Palestinians in West Bank water wars

Last modified on 2012-03-21 16:29:22 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Settlers have taken over 30 springs and are trying to take control of another 26 – most of which are located on land privately owned by Palestinians, the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The takeover appears to reflect Israel’s efforts to exert more control over the West Bank, territory that the Palestinians want for their future state, the document said.

“Similarly to other Palestinian resources and properties seized by Israeli settlers, the water springs are being exploited to further the economic and political interests of settlers,” said the report, based on surveys taken last year.

Israel has faced escalating international condemnation for its approach to the allocation of water in the West Bank, with the French parliament’s foreign affairs committee in January accusing Israel of implementing “apartheid policies” on the issue.

Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said the report was further evidence of increasing claims by Palestinian farmers and civilians about their obstacles in accessing water.”

Read more: The National

 

Water Sector Options for India in a Changing Climate

Last modified on 2012-03-21 16:13:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“On the eve of the World Water Day 2012, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People (SANDRP) is happy to publish its new report: Water Sector Options for India in a Changing Climate. The report highlights that for the poorest sections, also most vulnerable in the climate change context, the water, food, livelihood and energy security, closely linked with the environment security, is already getting severely affected in the changing climate. It is well known that water is the medium through which climate change impacts are most dominant. South Asia is considered possibly the most vulnerable region in terms of number of people that would be affected by climate change impacts, and within South Asia, India has the largest vulnerable population. The importance of understanding the Water Sector Options in such a situation cannot be underestimated. The report highlights the options for coping and mitigating climate change challenges in water sector in India.”

Read more: www.sandrp.in

Children of the Salween River

Last modified on 2012-03-20 22:56:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“At least 20 dams have been proposed for the mainstream Salween River, which flows from the Tibetan Plateau in China, through Burma and Thailand to its delta in the Andaman Sea. 13 are located in China, with two sites already undergoing preparatory work (Songta and Maji); none have been approved. Another seven are in Burma; two have been suspended but two more, the megadams Tasang and Hatgyi, are under active consideration. China and Thailand plan to invest in both.

The likely impacts of these dam cascades range from destroying fisheries and high biodiversity zones to flooding fertile land, from displacing over a hundred thousand largely indigenous peoples to triggering earthquakes and risking dam failure in this seismically unstable region. Of gravest concern for Burmese communities along the Salween, however, is the violence that has erupted around the Tasang and Hatgyi dams between the Burmese military and indigenous groups like the Karen and Shan. Tens of thousands have already been forced to leave their homes to escape the violence and occupation of their homes by the Burmese army.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

Are We Running Out of Water?

Last modified on 2012-03-19 15:51:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Early in 2001, the Rio Grande River failed to reach the Gulf of Mexico for the first time.

With that nefarious event the Rio Grande joined a growing list of once-mighty rivers that are running dry from overuse:  the Colorado River in the U.S., the Yaqui in Mexico, the Indus in Pakistan, the Ganges in Bangladesh, the Yellow and Tarim in China, and the Murray in Australia, along with many other rivers large and small.

Not surprisingly, fisheries in these once-bountiful rivers have crashed.  After all, fish do need water.

We’ve tapped underground water sources pretty heavily as well.  The water level in the Ogallala Aquifer in the Midwestern U.S. has dropped more than 150 feet in some places, leaving many farmers’ wells bone dry.

As water is sucked out of aquifers, the overlying soil and rock can compact or collapse into the dewatered void, causing tall buildings to teeter in Mexico City, automobiles to tumble into sinkholes in Florida, or swallowing tourists on the fringes of the shriveling Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

What Threatens Peace in India’s Northeast?

Last modified on 2012-03-19 15:40:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Roads through Manipur are frequently blockaded for months over the issue. Elections for the Manipur state assembly provided a break in the usual routine of ethnic animosities, but those could erupt again at any time.

In addition, the larger region could find itself in turmoil over environmental issues sparked by an attempt to build 168 big dams here. Popular protest movements have already gathered steam over these dams, which many people fear will lead to loss of their land and livelihoods. There are also fears of earthquakes leading to dam ruptures in this region.

Answering local residents’ concerns about the dams is essential to lasting peace, said Sanjib Baruah, a professor of political studies at Bard College in New York and author of “India Against Itself,’’ a book about conflict in the region.”

Read more: The New York Times

 

Drought risks killing off British wildlife

Last modified on 2012-03-19 10:47:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Following the driest 18 months on record for some parts of the country, streams and rivers are drying up leaving insects, fish, mammals and amphibians fighting for survival.

Olympics kept from going brown by watering cans and recycled sewage water

Last modified on 2012-03-19 10:38:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Gardeners are also preparing to use “grey water” – domestic waste water – to help irrigate the million square meters of meadows, wetland and woods at the East London site.

Water firms banning hosepipes lose 300m gallons a day in leaks

Last modified on 2012-03-19 10:28:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The seven water firms due to impose hosepipe bans are losing almost 300million gallons a day through leaks.

The huge volume disappearing down the drain would be enough to supply the daily needs of 11million people.

Two of the biggest companies involved, Anglian and Southern, are introducing rationing despite the fact they have missed official leak reduction targets.

Consumers will be angry that companies are imposing restrictions backed by a £1,000 fine before they meet their own obligations to save water.

Between them, the seven companies are wasting 286million gallons or 1,299.2million litres of treated water every day, the equivalent to 520 Olympic-size swimming pools.”

Read more: Daily Mail

Time to tackle water crisis, global forum told

Last modified on 2012-03-15 20:03:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A global meeting on water opened in France on Monday with demands to provide billions of poor people with clean water and decent sanitation and address the spiralling demands of the future.

“The challenges are huge and the problems are deep-rooted,” French Prime Minister François Fillon said as he opened the sixth World Water Forum in the southern city of Marseille.

“The number of human beings who have no access to clean water is in the billions. Each year, we mourn millions of dead from the health risks that this causes. This situation is not acceptable — the world community must rise and tackle it.”

“As many as 20,000 participants from 140 countries are expected for the six-day event, including scores of ministers for the environment and water and a scattering of heads of state from francophone west Africa.

“Separately, a massive UN report, issued only once every three years, said water problems in many parts of the world were chronic.

“Without a crackdown on waste will worsen as demand for food rises and climate change intensifies, it said. “Pressures on freshwater are rising, from the expanding needs of agriculture, food production and energy consumption to pollution and the weaknesses of water management,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in the report.

“Climate change is a real and growing threat. Without good planning and adaptation, hundreds of millions of people are at risk of hunger, disease, energy shortages and poverty.”

“Demand for food will increase by some 70% by 2050, which will lead to a nearly 20% increase in global agricultural water consumption, the UN’s Fourth World Water Development Report said.

“Abstraction of aquifers has at least tripled in the past 50 years and now supplies almost half of all drinking water today. “In some hotspots, the availability of non-renewable groundwater resources has reached critical limits,” the report said.

“The report demanded an overhaul in the use of water, especially by curbing waste. Smarter irrigation, less thirsty crops and the use of “grey,” or used water, to flush toilets are among the options.”

Read more: Bworldonline

Israel says it backs Gaza Strip desalination plant

Last modified on 2012-03-14 03:01:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Israel said Tuesday it backed Palestinian plans to build a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip and was willing if requested to provide its skills for the project.

“Asked by AFP on the sidelines of the World Water Forum if Israel supported the scheme, Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau said, “By all means.”

“We have been waiting for such projects for many, many years. It is high time, almost 20 years after (the) Oslo (Accords on Palestinian autonomy), that they will start working and take responsibility for handling their own things,” he said.

“I would like to see more such projects under way.”

“On Monday, the Palestinian Authority lobbied at the Water Forum for a desalination facility, costing more than 350 million euros ($450 million), to provide 1.6 million Gazans with fresh water by 2020.

“According to a 2009 World Bank report, between 90 and 95 percent of the water available in Gaza is not fit for human consumption.

“Surging population growth and overpumping of ground water has caused the aquifer to drop alarmingly, causing a rise in salinity from the sea.”

Read more: AFP

Scientists Warn of Catastrophe for Food Security in the Mekong

Last modified on 2012-03-13 15:46:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“So far 51 dams have been built or are being built on tributaries to the Mekong River, mostly in Laos. At least 27 more could begin construction between 2015 and 2030. The PNAS study found that “the completion of 78 dams on tributaries, which have not previously been subject to strategic analysis, would have catastrophic impacts on fish productivity and biodiversity.” Many of these dams are not being discussed or monitored at the regional level.

89 dams appear, 100 fish species disappear

The Mekong River Basin is home to 65 million people. Dr. Guy Ziv, the lead author of the PNAS study and an environmental scientist now at Stanford University, told Nature that “Most of the people are poor and get 81% of their protein from subsistence fisheries.” As a result, the fates of the Mekong’s fish and people are closely intertwined. The study warned that if all of the proposed dams are built, fish productivity would drop by 51% and 100 fish species would become critically endangered.

Ziv and his colleagues highlighted the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Cambodia, which will soon begin construction. The dam will block fish migrations on two of the major tributaries of the Mekong River, the Sesan and Srepok rivers. The impacts will likely be more serious than some of the dams proposed for the mainstream river. The PNAS study found that the Lower Sesan 2 Dam alone would cause a 9.3% drop in fish biomass for the entire river basin. Projects like this are not just a local concern, but a regional concern.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

Water Rights Groups Blast Corporate-Dominated Water Forum

Last modified on 2012-03-13 15:37:38 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“As the World Water Forum gathers in Marseille, France, for its 6th meeting since 1997, water rights activists are criticizing the corporate-led, profit-motivated gathering as a move for global control of water.

Shayda Naficy, senior organizer ofCorporate Accountability International‘s Challenge Corporate Control of our Water, slams the forum as a platform for corporations to push their privatization efforts:

The World Water Forum is another tool in the corporate move to shift policy debates to opaque, elite forums insulated from broad democratic participation, asserting market assumptions as a starting-point for water policy. Since its 1997 inception, the WWF has been a lightning-rod for international protest, as a prime example of corporate interference with water governance. Organized by the private trade association, the World Water Council, in conjunction with host governments, this year’s Forum will be held in France, the home of the two largest water corporations, Suez and Veolia. While the movement to reclaim public control of water has made major strides in France in recent years, most notably with the 2010 transition of the Paris water utility back to public control, the Forum location of Marseille remains a stronghold for the private water industry, and the home turf of the World Water Council.”

Read more: Common Dreams

Private water suppliers hit pay dirt as water crisis worsens

Last modified on 2012-03-12 17:39:07 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) officials say they are helpless as they are not empowered to monitor private suppliers.

K. Lakshminarasimhan, a resident of Anugraha Layout in Akashnagar of Mahadevpura, spends nothing less than Rs. 2,000 a month on the five to six tanker loads he needs. Although he has a borewell, it has dried up, forcing him to buy water.

The bad news is that private suppliers are so much in demand that most take two to three days to deliver. “We have to keep a tab on the levels in our underground sump and overhead tank and place the order at least two days ahead. Moreover, we are not sure of the quality of water. I add a little potassium permanganate in the sump every time I get it filled up. This has become a big headache,” Mr. Lakshminarasimhan said.”

Read more: The Hindu

Indian water aggression or genocidal war?

Last modified on 2012-03-13 15:42:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water scarcity and hydrologic scenario:

A 65-year history of water aggression by India, the upper riparian, is genocide in slow motion. Pakistan’s surface flows in the Indus Basin System average I45 MAF annually. However, the Western nallahs/streams that flow basically during the monsoons and can average 5 to 10 MAF, depending on the wet or dry cycles, is not included. It seems that the water mined from underground aquifers, which is around 40 MAF annually, is not really a renewable resource. There is negligible rainwater harvesting in the northern zones of Pakistan. But the south, including Balochistan, is semi-arid or a desert.

In comparison, the Indian federation although very secretive about its water data is, reportedly, having annual surface flows of 750 MAF in its main rivers. The figures for aquifer mining are not available. Since most of the northern, central, eastern and southern India is blessed with extensive precipitation, they have developed sophisticated rain harvesting methods; practiced in the entire northern rim highland states, as well as south India, where they refer to it as “tank irrigation”. Thus, it is a fallacy that Pakistan per capita water availability is close to the Indian average.”

Read more: The Nation

 

Myitsone Dam Continues: Kachin NGO

Last modified on 2012-03-09 18:33:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) claims that work at the Myitsone Dam is continuing, despite a presidential statement last September suspending construction on the controversial Chinese-backed megadam project in Burma’s restive north.

“The Myitsone dam project continues,” the KDNG said in a press release dated March 2. “An electric transformer is being built in Nawng Hkying village of Waimaw Township. Some CPI workers are still at the dam site and in Myitkyina, and there is still equipment at the dam site. Road and bridge construction to deliver supplies to the seven dam project also continues.”

Located at the confluence of the Irrawaddy River, the 6,000-megawatt project is financed by state-backed China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) at an estimated cost of some US $3.6 billion. However, following a massive grassroots campaign opposed to the dam, President Thein Sein announced last year that the project would be suspended for at least his tenure as president.”

Read more: irrawady.org

 

Brash SJV congressman shifts California water wars

Last modified on 2012-03-08 07:02:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“After 20 years under CVPIA (Central Valley Project Improvement Act), Congress can conclude one thing: flushing fresh water into the San Francisco Bay is not helping to recover species and people are suffering needlessly.”

“That’s how Republican Nunes introduced H.R 1837, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act. It passed in the House with a bipartisan vote of 246/175.

H.R. 1837 is no hip-pocket, showboat legislation. It is a thorough and thoughtful attempt to turn the boat in the right direction in the ongoing California water crisis. Among other things, it lengthens the 25-year federal water contracts to 40 years; preempts strict state environmental laws and directs more water to farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta without threatening Sacramento Valley water supplies.

It also would throttle back an overly ambitious and dubious attempt to restore salmon to the San Joaquin River. Nunes’ bill will restore the river below Friant Dam using less water for less fragile fish species.”

Read more: Western Farm Press

 

US Researchers Clean Waste Water & Create Energy in One Generator

Last modified on 2012-03-04 21:10:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Researchers from Pennsylvania State University have developed technology that treats waste water and generates energy at the same time – two priorities for Middle Eastern municipalities. Combining Reverse Electrodialysis (RED) technology developed in the Netherlands and Norway, which harvests energy where fresh water and sea water meet, with Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) that use organic matter to create an electric current, Professor Bruce Logan and his team have found the ultimate solution for developing countries that have limited access to water and power.

Where fresh water and salt water meet

RED technology involves placing fresh water and salt water in intermittent chambers of a fuel cell which are separated by membranes and then create an electrochemical charge, but Penn State researchers told the BBC that this technology has limitations.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Dam proposal opens the floodgates of debate

Last modified on 2012-03-04 20:59:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In areas where rain is scarce it is common to see people storing water to get them through dry seasons.

Using the same principle, officials want to dam a major lake in Jiangxi province that has shrunk noticeably but their plan has run into opposition.

Their proposal to dam Poyang Lake took a major step forward this month when it won the backing of the Hydroelectricity Planning Institute.

Since 2008, the eastern Chinese province has strongly lobbied leaders in Beijing, lauding the project as a way to tackle drought as well as adjustments to the water flow caused by the massive Three Gorges Dam upstream.

But critics of the 10 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) plan say authorities have played down the potentially disastrous ecological impact that a dam might bring to China’s largest freshwater lake. It is also a crucial winter habitat for endangered migrating birds protected under international conventions.”

Read more: China Daily

Encroaching Deserts Threaten Life Along Tibet’s Longest River

Last modified on 2012-03-02 15:28:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Rising temperatures, reduced rainfall and excessive numbers of grazing animals are worsening desertification and drying up grasslands in western Tibet, says a Chinese geologist who has explored one of the region’s uncharted rivers.

Yang Yong said he had observed desertification in parts of the upper reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, and believes this could be caused by climate change as well as human activity.

The Yarlung Zangbo (also called the Yarlung Tsangpo) is Tibet’s largest river, originating in the west of the region. Along its 2,057 km (1,286 mile) length, it passes through India, where it is known as the Dihang and the Brahmaputra, and Bangladesh, where it is called the Jamuna.”

Read more: AlertNet

 

Thailand Defies Neighbors on Contentious Xayaburi Dam

Last modified on 2012-03-01 15:53:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Bangkok, Thailand – As the governments of the Mekong region continue to deliberate on the proposed Xayaburi Dam in Laos, the Thai government has defied the regional decision-making process and pushed ahead with the project’s implementation. Recent oversight hearings by the Thai Senate and the National Human Rights Commission confirm that the government has joined Laos in concluding that the regional process is complete, thereby allowing Thai developer Ch. Karnchang to proceed with construction.

“The Thai government has ignored the agreements made last year amongst the four regional governments and the concerns expressed by Cambodia and Vietnam. With more than eight provinces in Thailand at risk from the Xayaburi Dam’s transboundary impacts, the state has also disregarded its duty to protect its own people from harm. It’s irresponsible to push forward with this dam, when the project’s impacts on Thailand have yet to be adequately studied,” said Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaign Coordinator for International Rivers.

An investigation by International Rivers last week revealed that preliminary construction on the Xayaburi Dam is continuing, despite the agreement by the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in December 2011 to pursue further study of the impacts of hydropower on the Mekong River before deciding whether to build the project.  A large number of workers have been employed for a two year period to construct access roads and facilities for the project.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

inShare1 Sierra snowpack at 30 percent of normal, but reservoirs are still pretty full

Last modified on 2012-02-29 23:39:20 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“California’s Sierra Nevada snow pack levels are just 30 percent of normal for this time of year, state water officials said Tuesday. But experts said not to expect water restrictions this summer because many of the state’s reservoirs and aquifers are still brimming from last year’s wet winter.

“This year’s thin snowfall, the result of an unusually dry winter storm season, means the Sierra snow pack — California’s primary water source — is at its lowest level at the end of February since the 1991 drought, when it was at 18 percent of the historic average.

“But on Tuesday, the state’s major reservoirs, still swollen from the 2010 storms, were 104 percent of normal for this time of year. And groundwater banks in Silicon Valley and many other parts of the state are at healthy levels.

“We need very wet conditions in March to bring us up to anywhere near average snow levels,” said Ted Thomas, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources. “The bright spot is that we do have good carry-over reservoir storage from last year’s very wet winter.”

“All three of the Bay Area’s largest water districts said Tuesday that they don’t expect any mandatory restrictions on water use for their customers this summer.

“The season is turning out to be one of the driest in recorded history.

“Since July 1, San Jose has received 2.84 inches of rain, just 25 percent of the historic average for this date. Oakland has received 37 percent of normal, with 5.69 inches, and San Francisco stands at 38 percent of normal with 6.86 inches.

“Other parts of the state, including Los Angeles, Fresno and Redding, also are at or just below 50 percent of normal.

“The dry winter is already causing some problems, however. Ranchers with no irrigation for their cattle pastures are having a difficult time, and fire officials are worried that without much more rain and snow, this summer could be a rough fire season.”

Read more: Mercury news

New Technology Turns Air Into Drinking Water For Troops

Last modified on 2012-02-29 22:51:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Military leaders’ greatest concerns are often to ensure water sources are always available, even in the most arid of places.

“One Israeli company took up the challenge to ensure water can be readily available, anywhere and at any time, by extracting it from the most common of things: air.

“Water-Gen, based in Rishon LeZion, Israel, specializes in water generation and water treatment technologies integrated with tactical military vehicles and ground units. Their technology extracts water from the ambient air humidity, and turns it into drinking water.

“First, the system filters the air so that water can be extracted and accommodated in containers. Then, it is cooled and purified into drinking water. This water can be served from a tap within the system or inside the cabin.

“Chairmen and co-CEO, Arye Kohavi, says that “water transportation is one of the most common reasons for the departure of convoys across Afghanistan. These convoys are attacked and have casualties.” He adds that “if we can produce the water to the exact point where it is consumed, we spare the need to transport water and reduce the risk and expenses.”

“According to the Water-Gen, the device, which can be fitted onto vehicles, produces 10-20 gallons (40-80 liters) of pure drinking water a day, even in harsh weather and field conditions. The system, which is operated by solar or electric energy, is designed to meet military needs and standards, the company adds.”

Read more: Triplepundit

Soak the English: Welsh want paying for any water piped across the border

Last modified on 2012-02-29 16:05:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“He said he did not object to water being moved from Wales to England. “I see no reason why that should not happen as we are rich in that resource in Wales.”

But he added: “I think there should be adequate and reasonable recompense for that provision. I’m not talking of an Opec situation when come sudden droughts to England we get the guns out and say you’ve got to pay twice or three times more. Just a reasonable return on what is being delivered.

“Llwyd’s comments come at a time when the worst drought to grip the UK in more than 30 years is already threatening wildlife and farmers’ livelihoods.

Widespread hosepipe bans are likely even before spring has begun. Stretches of south-east England have been declared to be officially in drought and other areas are considered “at risk”.

“He quoted figures from Welsh Water (Dwr Cymru) that the country’s reservoirs are 98% full, adding: “I believe that we are witnessing the renaissance of a resource, and it falls on all of us here and the Welsh government to do what we can to ensure that we really do capitalise on the most important resource of all.” ”

Read more: The Guardian

Water Central to Control of Japan Nuclear Plant

Last modified on 2012-02-29 00:46:06 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Nearly a year after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sparked triple meltdowns at reactors here, the taming of Fukushima Daiichi has become in large part a quest to control water.

“Water is crucial to the continued safety and stability of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, even after reactor temperatures fell at the end of last year to a level at which little radioactivity is being emitted. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. is still injecting hundreds of thousands of gallons into the reactors every day to keep them from overheating again. Because that water and groundwater—now contaminated—is leaking out of the reactors at an estimated 10,000 tons a month, cleaning it up and storing the excess is a constant challenge.

“Tepco has to keep bathing the nuclear reactors in cooling water until the fuel is removed. And until Tepco can plug the leaks and cracks in reactor piping and buildings, contaminated water will keep welling out. Officials estimate it will take six years to plug the leaks and 25 to remove the fuel.”

Read More: http://online.wsj.com/

Artificial Glaciers Water Crops in Indian Highlands

Last modified on 2012-02-28 20:54:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A remote Indian village is responding to global warming-induced water shortages by creating large masses of ice, or “artificial glaciers,” to get through the dry spring months. (See a map of the region.)

Located on the western edge of the Tibetan plateau, the village of Skara in the Ladakh region of India is not a common tourist destination.

“It’s beautiful, but really remote and difficult to get to,” said Amy Higgins, a graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies who worked on the artificial glacier project.

“A lot of people, when I met them in Delhi and I said I was going to Ladakh, they looked at me like I was going to the moon,” said Higgins, who is also a National Geographic grantee.

People in Skara and surrounding villages survive by growing crops such as barley for their own consumption and for sale in neighboring towns. In the past, water for the crops came from meltwater originating in glaciers high in the Himalaya.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

Troubled Waters: How Mine Waste Dumping Is Polluting Our Oceans, Rivers, And Lakes

Last modified on 2012-02-28 20:39:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“These mine wastes, or tailings, can contain up to three dozen dangerous chemicals, including arsenic, lead, mercury, and cyanide.

Each year, mining companies dump over 180 million tonnes of these hazardous mine wastes into rivers, oceans, and lakes – that’s more than 1.5 times the amount of waste that US cities send to landfills each year.

The Troubled Waters report examines the impacts of ten corporations’ waste dumping practices in water bodies in 11 regions around the world, including those in Papua New Guinea, Turkey, Canada, Indonesia, United States, and Norway.

The report calls on mining companies to stop using our oceans, rivers, and lakes as dumping grounds for their toxic wastes. The report recommends additional steps that must be taken by mining companies to protect people and ecosystems from irresponsible aquatic waste disposal, including dry stacking and backfill, where safe, and adopting measures to produce less waste.”

Read more: no dirty gold

 

Dressing New York City’s Water Tanks

Last modified on 2012-02-27 18:31:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“We’re hoping this project inspires New York to become more sustainable,’’ said Mary Jordan, the organization’s founder, adding that other objectives include “to promote New York City tap water and lower our consumption of plastic waste.’’

Read More: NY Times BLOG

 

3 Years Of Drought, And It Could Get Worse

Last modified on 2012-02-24 18:10:09 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A SEVERE drought exacerbating water shortages and hindering agricultural production in southwest China’s Yunnan Province could get worse as there is little prospect of rain any time soon, the country’s weather authority said yesterday.

Most areas in Yunnan will have sunny and cloudless weather this week, the National Metrological Center said.

A drought that has plagued the province for the past three years has affected 6.31 million people in 91 counties, according to provincial civil affairs authorities. More than 2.42 million people and 1.55 million livestock are short of drinking water.

Reservoirs have been drying up, while wheat and other plants are withering in most of the affected counties. People have to walk greater distances to larger reservoirs to collect water.

On some reservoirs in Shilin County it is possible to drive on the reservoir bed as the earth has dried and cracked, Xinhua news agency said.”

Read more: Shangai Daily

Drought Summit As Rivers In England Dry Up

Last modified on 2012-02-23 15:45:34 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has hosted a drought summit as parts of England struggle with groundwater levels lower than in 1976.

She invited water companies, farmers and wildlife groups to discuss the situation in south-east England, East Anglia and the East Midlands.

Ms Spelman said beforehand the meeting was to work out “preventative measures” that could be taken now.

Anglian Water said some reservoir levels are 20% lower then normal.”

Read more: BBC

 

Farmers warn food prices could go up because of drought

Last modified on 2012-02-22 19:01:27 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Mr Kendall said in the past, when the UK relied on imported food, farmers were ignored during a drought. For example golf courses would continue to be watered – but farmers banned from irrigating crops.”

Read more: The Telegraph

Malaysian Indigenous Communities Demand Referendum on Mega-Dams

Last modified on 2012-02-21 15:58:31 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The 110 meter (360 foot) high dam in Batang Ai National Park in Sarawak, financed by the Asian Development Bank, began operating in 1985. It caused the displacement of some 3,000 people from 26 longhouses. These people have been relocated to cultivate cocoa and rubber but the program has not been successful, says Amarhit Kaur, author of “A History of Forestry in Sarawak.”

The Bengoh dam on Sarawak’s Kiri River is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. Some 250 families involving 1,500 people from four villages are rejecting the government’s resettlement plans to give each family a free house and three acres near the dam. Instead, they preferred to resettle themselves on higher ground upstream of the dam on their traditional territory.

The 63 meter (206 foot) high Bengoh dam is expected to submerge about 8.72 square kilometers (3.3 square miles) of land. Wildlife habitat will be destroyed, affecting two species of hornbill and 50 other species of birds, seven species of bats, 14 species of mammals and 52 species of fish.”

Read more: Earth First!

 

Jordan’s Green Fairytale- ‘Once Upon A Water’ Campaign

Last modified on 2012-02-20 16:13:44 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“According to the WHO, Jordan has one of the lowest water resource availability per capita in the world. By the year 2025, if current trends continue, per capita water supply is expected to fall from the current 200 cubic meters per person to only 91 cubic meters, putting Jordan in the category of having an absolute water shortage. The Once Upon A Water In Jordan campaign, launched by the influential 7iber media site, is hoping to raise awareness of this dire water situation and also encourage Jordanians to take positive action now.

The title of the project plays on the Arabic for ‘once upon a time’ to which one letter is added to make it read ‘once a upon a water’. According to the campaigners this projects want to:

channel efforts and conversations around the water issues throughout Jordan into one platform that invites interested multimedia professionals and environmentalists to collaboratively produce digital stories of Jordan’s diminishing water, with the technical support from 7iberINC.

Such stories will seek to amass a wealth of oral history and thus put a human face on an ongoing issue, in the eyes of the average citizens and communities affected by the loss and scarcity of water.”

Read more: Green Prophet

SYRIA: Insecurity makes drought-hit farmers even more vulnerable

Last modified on 2012-02-20 15:52:34 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Instability in Syria has aggravated an already vulnerable situation for tens of thousands of farmers and herders affected by recurrent drought, but only a fraction of them have received assistance because of chronic “serious underfunding” of humanitarian programmes in Syria, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns.

“They are really in bad shape. They need assistance,” said Abdulla Tahir Bin Yehia, FAO representative in Syria. “We are willing and able to reach many of the farming communities affected by the drought and the crisis, provided resources are made available by the donor community.”

“[But] no single donor has given us a single penny this year,” Bin Yehia said. “Funding from the donor community is absent.”

So far, FAO – a technical agency which needs to be funded to operate – has relied on its own funds, as well as money from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund.”

Read more: IRIN

Chinese dam triggers earthquake, rattles Hong Kong

Last modified on 2012-02-18 16:34:31 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Zhong Yijun, the vice director of the Guangdong Provincial Seismological Bureau, told China News Service (Zhongguo xinwen she), today’s earthquake in Hong Kong was caused by the filling of the Xinfengjiang reservoir.

The magnitude 4.8 quake, which hit at 2:34 AM local time, occurred in Heyuan prefecture in the northern part of Guangdong Province and could be felt in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. There were no reports of injuries.

This isn’t the first time the dam has triggered a temblor. Xinfengjiang caused China’s largest and most famous reservoir-induced seismic event in 1962 when it triggered a 6.1 magnitude earthquake that toppled buildings and cracked the dam.

The phenomena, known as “reservoir-induced seismicity” (RIS), occurs when a full reservoir creates extra pressure in the micro-cracks and fissures in the ground under and near the reservoir, in essence lubricating them. When the reservoir is drawn down, the friction caused by the mass of the reservoir relaxes, allowing slippage to occur.”

Read more: Probe International

 

Tibetan Village Stops Mining Project Near the Nu River

Last modified on 2012-02-17 16:47:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A Nu Challenge Looms for Ethnic Groups

After the villagers of Abin successfully canceled the mining project near the Nu River in January, they claimed the mountain itself had played a role. In these remote regions of western China, where many non-Han ethnicities reside, traditional views and nature worship can still be found. But while Abin was successful, development projects continue to be a looming threat to the traditional livelihoods of thousands of ethnic villagers living along the Nu River valley.

In particular, the 13-dam cascade first proposed in 2004 has returned to haunt the landscape, as seen through the roadwork, tunnels, and make-shift workers huts and equipment springing up along the Nu River. The watershed is home to thirteen different ethnic groups, most of whom are subsistence farmers. As many as 50,000 largely Lisu, Tibetan and Nu villagers would lose their farmland and be forced to move to prefabricated houses in new towns and look for work. Moreover, China has been reluctant to accord its ethnic minority nationalities “indigenous” status under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which recognizes the rights of indigenous people to prior consultation and consent. The dams would even wipe out portions of the pilgrimage route around Mount Kawagebo – a serious blow to the Tibetans both in and outside the area. As one ethnic Tibetan told the New York Times in 2007:”

“If people are forced to move because of the project, they are going to lose the way of life that makes them special. It’s inevitable that people will lose their traditions if they move away.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

Thirsty Gulf Country Quits Exports of Precious Groundwater

Last modified on 2012-02-13 17:16:54 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Dubai’s water scarce neighbor Abu Dhabi recently announced that it has banned all groundwater exports, Gulf News reports. Established yesterday at a Ministerial Service Council meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ban will keep the Emirate’s dwindling groundwater supply within its own borders.

Water is more important than oil

Last year General Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, proclaimed that water is more important than oil, even though the country relies on this fossil fuel as a main source of income.

He added that water research, action plans, and solutions should be placed at the top of the nation’s priorities.

The Ministry of Environment and Water subsequently compiled a study of the Emirates water sources, which prompted the Federal National Council (FNC) to propose a ban. It was upon this recommendation that the Council cancelled all future groundwater exports. This ministry will also be responsible for framing the necessary legal matters.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

China detains Korean ship over Yangtze chemical leak-Xinhua

Last modified on 2012-02-13 17:09:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A Chinese maritime court on Saturday ordered the detention of a South Korean cargo ship over a chemical leak that polluted the Yangtze River, contaminating drinking water in parts of Jiangsu province, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The country’s second water pollution scare in a month sparked a run on bottled water.

The court ordered the cargo ship, Gloria, to be detained at the city of Nantong and set a bail of 20.6 million yuan ($3.3 million), Bu Xiaofang, a spokesman of the Zhenjiang municipal government, was quoted as saying late on Saturday.

Officials in Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province said phenol, an acid compound used to make nylon and detergents, was found in its water source last week. The pollution caused tap water in some parts of the city to emit a pungent smell, sending panicked residents to stockpile bottled water from supermarkets.”

Read more: Reuters

 

Water Wars: The drive to develop and consume pose threats to the Great Mekong River

Last modified on 2012-02-11 15:11:34 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Every morning at sunrise, Sutas Kom Sri casts his net into the river out of faith. As the fog unveils the horizon, the Mekong River looms before him, luring him into the richness of its waters. But like other fishermen in this part  of   the  Mekong   in north east Thailand, his daily catch has been steadily declining through the years. As a result, he says, more and more fi she rmen ha v e  be en  abandoning their nets. “ T h e r e ’ s   l e s s e r   fi s h   a n d   t h e y ’ r e s m a l l e r   i n   s i z e , ”   h e   s a y s .   “ W e ’ r e earning less than half than what we u s e d   t o   g e t   e i g h t   y e a r s   a g o . ”   T h e r e a son  for   thi s ,  he  be l i e v e s ,   i s   the waters’ increasing unpredictability wrought  by  dams   in China   in  the upper mainstream. Now he sees a bigger threat, a new dam in Xayaburi province in northern Laos, the first hydropower dam to be built on the mainstream of the Mekong River. But unknown to him and to the other fishermen in Chiang Khan, they would likely stand to lose in a complex web of power play that courts the interests of only the moneyed and the powerful.”

Read more: Asia News

Lake’s Deterioration Needs Urgent Attention

Last modified on 2012-02-06 16:47:36 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The situation on Dongting Lake, once China’s largest freshwater lake, remains grim despite growing awareness on ecological conservation, a local environment official has warned.

“I often tell people that our mother lake is seriously ill and needs urgent attention,” said Zhao Qihong, director of the administration for East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve.

A number of factors are to blame, he said, with heavy pollution and intense human activities the two biggest culprits, while overexploitation and unscientific development has hastened the lake’s deterioration.

“There will always be a conflict between preservation and development,” Zhao said, explaining that many residents around the lake still rely heavily on its resources to make a living.

Extreme weather such as severe droughts and floods in recent years have also taken their toll on eco-diversity, while water projects on the Yangtze River may have led to changes in the water temperature and the lake’s flux.

Authorities have stepped up protection of the lake in recent years, he said, including ordering more than 200 polluting factories to close down. Government-led projects have also helped ‘land’ most all-year fishermen, who put a huge burden on fish stocks and whose number used to top 6,000.”

Read more: China Daily

Arab Region To Target Reducing Adverse Effects Of Desalination

Last modified on 2012-02-06 16:19:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“With 5 per cent of the world’s population and only 1 per cent of global freshwater water resources, the Arab region is heavily affected by water scarcity and heavily dependent on non-conventional water resources such as desalination and treated wastewater.

The collective water shortage of 17 Arab countries is currently estimated at over 30 billion cubic metres and this deficit is expected to triple by 2030 and increase to over 150 billion cubic metres by 2050, the Arab Water Academy in Abu Dhabi said yesterday.

The current heavy reliance on fossil fuels for water desalination is not sustainable — Saudi Arabia alone uses 1.5 million barrels of oil per day at its plants.

Many of the problems related to desalination could be reduced by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. This will reduce the cost of energy consumption, which accounts for 30-50 per cent of the overall water desalination costs.”

Read more: gulfnews.com

 

Giving an invasive water pest the bullet

Last modified on 2012-02-03 15:28:54 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“An invasive species, the zebra mussel clogs up water works and systems across the UK, costing millions of pounds each year to remove.

“With each female zebra mussel able to produce up to a million eggs per year, serious infestations can quickly form.

“Thankfully a Cambridge-based company called Biobullets has come up with a much easier – and cheaper – means of removing them. A method that owes much to the ancient Greeks and their Trojan horse.

“The toxin in question, potassium chloride, is safe to use in the water supply system as anything that is not eaten by the zebra mussels degrades in less than three hours.”

Read more: BBC News

Villagers Protest Pension Cuts For Water Debts

Last modified on 2012-02-02 16:32:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Armenian Water and Sewerage, a company managing most of the country’s water supply and distribution networks, has been successfully filing civil lawsuits against customers in some rural areas, with courts ordering them to pay sizable amounts of money for water debts . Most villagers describe these decisions as groundless.

The Bailiff’s Office says at present there are court rulings and enforcement orders on as many as 285 indebted customers allegedly owing a total of 96 million drams (nearly $250,000) to the company. However, the data appears to be in conflict with figures suggested by some involved in the dispute.

Dashtavan, a village in Armenia’s southern Ararat province, claims to have at least 570 households that have found themselves in dire straits after running into debts and losing controversial litigations. The community’s total debt is estimated at 39 million drams (more than $100,000). The local governor’s advisor says there are people in the same situation in at least two dozen other villages. A majority of the population in Saralanj, a village in the central province of Kotayk, are also at the receiving end of the controversial legal matter.”

Read more: azatutyun

Christian Pilgrimage and Middle Eastern Water Scarcity

Last modified on 2012-02-02 16:08:49 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In the current climate of political contest and a reduced Jordan River, currently conveying 2 percent of its historic flow, it is worth thinking anew about the importance of the Jordan, borders and water. In place of reactionary territorial claims justified through religious precedent, perhaps the time has come to acknowledge biblical depictions of regional societies in which local economies and resource availability provide the basis of coexistence. Neither ancient nor modern claims will matter when the water sources run dry.

Water scarcity in the Middle East may lead to more internecine violence or to the actual demise of large, poor families. Every Middle Eastern government with a coastline looks to solve the problem through large de-salination projects without regard for the saline byproducts, the enormous energy costs and the need for global capital investment. While global capital finds it way into most local infrastructure projects these days, it causes particular concern to think of global capital setting water prices in situations like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which the state (or proto state) encourages families to expand in the name of winning the demographic war. Yet the diminishing water table may be the very agent of political transformation.”

Read more: Huffington Post

Remedies for water famine for 2020

Last modified on 2012-01-30 20:01:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“With Bangalore bursting at its seams with the increasing population, the power shortage, bad civic conditions and the water shortage have posed a major question about the functioning of corporation bodies.

“Discussing the daunting question of water availability in the city — the Bangalore Water Supply Sewerage Board, the Bangalore Bruhat Mahanagara Palike, the Bangalore Development Authority, the Lake Development Authority and the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation Limited came together to devise an action plan to meet the impending water famine that is expected to strike Bangalore by 2020.

“The present population of Bangalore is 85 lakhs and this will increase to 1.26 crores by 2020 as the current annual growth rate is four per cent.

“Calculating the data of water availability, usage and leakage right now and estimating it with the growth rate, the per capita availability will go down drastically by 2020.”

Read more: Ibn live

China Cadmium Spill Threatens City Water Supplies

Last modified on 2012-01-30 16:01:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

Iraq Water Crisis Could Stir Ethnic Clash

Last modified on 2012-01-28 16:29:48 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“International aid organizations have been reporting an increase in violent incidents concerning water supply.

This is happening against a worrying backdrop of mounting sectarian violence between Iraq’s majority Shiites, who dominate the government and the security forces, and the minority Sunnis who lost power when Saddam Hussein‘s dictatorship was toppled after the U.S.-invasion of March 2003.

With U.S. forces withdrawn from Iraq, government forces under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki haven’t been able to contain a wave of bombings and assassinations by Sunni groups, including al-Qaida.

Shiite vengeance on a significant scale may not be long in coming and with it the risk of a sectarian civil war.

Iraq’s water comes primarily from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Both rise in Turkey, which has constructed a chain of dams over the last decade, with more to come. This has drastically reduced the flow of water into Iraq.

Syria, which has also suffered because of the Turkish dams, and Iran have been building dams too, further cutting the river flows from the north and the east into a country that until the late 1950s was a breadbasket for the Arab world.

Iraqi farmers recently blocked border crossings from Iran east of Baghdad to protest Tehran’s diversion of the al-Wind River that irrigates one of Iraq’s largest agricultural areas.”

Read more: UPI

 

Metrowater to monitor groundwater in expanded areas

Last modified on 2012-01-28 16:13:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The monitoring would help in understanding the groundwater level in those areas where rainwater is not being harnessed properly. For this purpose, the water agency is in the process of identifying observational wells.

Creating public awareness of the benefits of rainwater harvesting coupled with good rains over the past few years had improved the groundwater level in the city. Metrowater is expected to adopt a similar strategy to popularise RWH in the suburban areas that were merged with the civic body. The pressure on the water agency would be less if the newly added localities also harness rainwater effectively. The demand for drinking water in the Chennai Corporation limits has increased from 800 million litres a day to around 1,100 mld following the inclusion of the suburban areas.

“In the city, we study the groundwater table during the end of the monsoon as the fluctuations in the level would have settled. Good rainfall for eight years consecutively and proper maintenance of the RWH structures in most buildings has helped sustain groundwater resources,” an official of Metrowater said.”

Read more: The Hindu

 

Flooding and water scarcity ranked as top threat for UK

Last modified on 2012-01-28 00:09:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water scarcity and flooding is likely to become the main problem for the UK in the future, which will need to adapt to increase its reliance, was the stark warning from the first comprehensive climate change risk study.

“As part of the assessment, 700 potential climate change impacts were investigated, with flooding ranked as the worst risk for the UK, closely followed by water shortages, soil erosion and prolonged heatwaves.

Flood risk is projected to increase significantly across the UK, with analysis for England and Wales showing unless plans to adapt to changing risks are implemented, that by the 2080s climate change and population growth could see damages to buildings and property reach between £2.1bn – £12bn, compared to current costs of £1.2bn.

Water quality is also predicted to be affected, as it depends on water volume and river flows to dilute pollutants. This, states the report is likely to increase water treatment costs and damage the local ecosystem.

“The CCRA also predicts increasing pressure on the UK’s water resources and warns that without action to improve water resources there could be major supply shortages by the 2050s in parts of the north, south and east of England, with the Thames River basin predicted to take the brunt of the drought.”

Read more: edieWater

Afghan Olive Farms Waiting for Water

Last modified on 2012-01-27 16:43:31 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“We’re faced with a lack of water,” he said. “The problem is that the canal department is asking for both water and electricity at the same time – and we can’t satisfy both demands simultaneously.”

“The United States Agency for International Development said last year that it was refurbishing and modernizing the dam, where the turbine-driven generators were in poor condition and at risk of failing. The agency said it plans to finish the repair work by mid-2012.

But as Hezatullah, head of the Nangarhar Olive Factory, pointed out, the industry has declined not just because of water shortages, but also as a result of years of war and poor maintenance of farms.

There used to be 700,000 olive trees in the province, which borders on Pakistan, but three-quarters of them were destroyed by decades of war starting with the Soviet invasion of 1979, he said. The farms once employed 12,000 workers, but now run on a skeleton staff of 800.”

Read more: Environment News Service

 

No Doubt Pakistan’s Water Crisis Is Predominantly Manmade

Last modified on 2012-01-23 22:34:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Pakistan has in most areas of agriculture a monsoon climate, and there might be abundant rainfall during the wet season and then a very long dry season where crop production depends very heavily on irrigation water.

“Groundwater is a very important source of irrigation for farmers. Ground water is being over-pumped extensively in order to meet current demands for food production but if our demands exceed that renewable supply, then we must be in the situation that we might be over-pumping groundwater to satisfy the demand, or taking too much water from river basin systems, result in formation of salinity and barren land that in long run cause food scarcity. Over-pumping of groundwater for agriculture, industry or domestic use comes at a sharp ecological price. It disrupts the natural hydrologic cycle, causes Rivers and wetlands to dry up, the ground to collapse and fish and wildlife and trees to die.

“Water and agricultural sectors are likely to be the most sensitive to climate change. Fresh water availability is expected to be highly vulnerable to the anticipated climate change. While the frequency and severity of floods would eventually increase in river deltas. The arid and semi-arid regions could experience severe water stress.

Read more: Eurasia review

Morocco’s Berbers Had Water Management Sorted

Last modified on 2012-01-23 16:24:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“These indigenous traditions have been falling apart since dam projects funded by the World Bank have disrupted local practices. “Now families are fighting over water, this was never the case in the past, our system was perfect, we don’t know why international organizations have come to help” Houssa’s mother said.

Water allocation methods

Water allocation methods used by the Berbers depend on two things: Land Tenure and Time. First Land Tenure is divided by elevation and the paths of springs. Land above the spring is used for seasonal grazing and land below for agriculture and personal use. And the organization of land-ownership is designated by tribe – so any water issues that arise are discussed between different tribes.

Second, Berbers allocate water by time, not quantity. This is true whether the allocation is between villages, between lineages (large extended family units), or between individual users. Careful allocation schedules are decided unanimously and set by days of the week.

So, three days for the upstream riparian and four for the downstream riparian, then by days between villages and finally hours between family lineages. This is because different times of the day have different evaporation rates throughout the year, so the schedule is methodologically designed to respect the natural water flow while ensuring fair allocation for all.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Chinese Dam Project in Cambodia Raises Environmental Concerns

Last modified on 2012-01-22 15:56:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“But after the Chinese company Sinohydro, one of the world’s largest construction companies, started work on the 193-megawatt Kamchay Dam in 2007, access to the countryside surrounding this tranquil town has been restricted. Mrs. Thavry’s husband, Kim Sopha, 39, like hundreds of others in nearby villages, must now travel about 10 kilometers, or 6 miles, beyond the dam site to collect the bamboo.

“Before, all you needed was a bicycle and a knife,” Mrs. Thavry, a 32-year-old mother of two, said recently as she perched on a small stool outside her wooden home near the riverbank. “But it’s completely different now.”

Today, villagers must take a truck and a boat to arrive at an unrestricted area where bamboo plants grow. Mrs. Thavry’s husband sometimes spends a week at a time in the forest to maximize his pickings and reduce travel expenses.

Downstream from the Kamchay Dam, inaugurated last month by Prime Minister Hun Sen, giant boulders bake in the sun where river waters once flowed. Owners of riverfront restaurants complain that business has fallen now that there is often no water to attract customers who might also enjoy a swim.”

Read more: New York Times

 

Garbage Plant Polluting Drinking Water Source

Last modified on 2012-01-22 06:27:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“TRIVANDRUM – The wastes from Kerala’s capital city of Trivandrum dumped at the garbage treatment plant at Vilappilsala village have been polluting Karamana River, a major source of drinking water for the people in the city.

This was revealed by the Advocates Commission appointed by the Kerala High Court to ascertain the extent of pollution and health problems caused by the plant to the people in the village, 16 kms from the city.

In its report submitted to the court, commission headed by Advocate K Meera said that the situation in the village was very grave and needed immediate attention. The report pointed out that the waste materials dumped in the plant were polluting the entire area and this condition can lead to the outbreak of contagious and deadly diseases. The 80-page report said that the waste from the plant was flowing into the Karamana River, which flows through the city. The river starting from the southern tip of the Western Ghats at Agastyar Koodam, flows 68km westward and merges into the Arabian Sea at Panathura area near Kovalam.

The water from the river is diverted to the city for drinking water purpose through a dam at Aruvikkara. The water also used for irrigation purpose through another dam at Peppara.”

Read more: Khaleej Times

 

Groundwater Dropping Globally

Last modified on 2012-01-20 17:05:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Groundwater levels have dropped in many places across the globe over the past nine years, a pair of gravity-monitoring satellites finds. This trend raises concerns that farmers are pumping too much water out of the ground in dry regions.

Water has been disappearing beneath southern Argentina, western Australia and stretches of the United States. The decline is especially pronounced in parts of California, India, the Middle East and China, where expanding agriculture has increased water demand.

“Groundwater is being depleted at a rapid clip in virtually of all of the major aquifers in the world’s arid and semiarid regions,” says Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist at the University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling in Irvine, whose team presented the new trends December 6 at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.”

Read more: Science News

 

France accuses Israel of water ‘apartheid’ in West Bank

Last modified on 2012-01-19 17:56:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The French parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee published an unprecedented report two weeks ago accusing Israel of implementing “apartheid” policies in its allocation of water resources in the West Bank.

The Israeli Embassy in Paris had no foreknowledge of the report and thus did not refute it or work to moderate it. Foreign Ministry officials called the incident “a serious diplomatic mishap.”

The report said that water has become “a weapon serving the new apartheid” and gave examples and statistics that ostensibly back this claim.

“Some 450,000 Israeli settlers on the West Bank use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians that live there,” the report said. “In times of drought, in contravention of international law, the settlers get priority for water.”

The author of the report was Socialist Party MP Jean Glavany, who in the past served as agriculture minister under French President Lionel Jospin and as cabinet secretary for President Francois Mitterrand.”

Read more: IOA

 

Saving energy means saving money as well as saving the mekong

Last modified on 2012-01-16 17:35:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Numerous rivers are being dammed for power production as Laos pursues its vision to become the “Battery of Asia”, and about 90% of this power is for export to Thailand and Vietnam.

Obviously Laos is not the only country growing in this region, and the demand for electricity is understandably strong. But the “Land of a Million Elephants” is becoming the “Land of 50 Dams” and that affects us all. This is because the dams are on the tributaries and water catchments of the great Mekong River. Indeed, according to the Mekong River Commission, nearly one-third of Thailand is actually in the Mekong River basin. The current dams in the Mekong basin produce around 1,600 megawatts yet the potential is estimated at 30,000 MW. And with around 60 million people depending on the Mekong for food, water, and transport the number of people directly linked to the river is huge _ approximately the same as the population of Thailand itself. And these dams will have an uncertain impact on this important inland fishery.

Electricity is vital for economic growth and it is vitally important for countries to have very reliable sources of high-quality power to drive their economies forward. But not all electricity has to be used in an inefficient way, and by getting serious about energy efficiency, the demand growth can be reduced. And this will mean that fewer dams are needed on the precious Mekong and its basin. Countries such as Thailand and Vietnam getting more strict about energy efficiency will better preserve the region’s key river.”

Read more: Bangkok Post

 

1m affected by drought in E China

Last modified on 2012-01-16 06:52:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The drought has sharply reduced water levels in Poyang Lake, the country’s largest freshwater lake, and rivers in Jiangxi, threatening water supplies to more than one million people residing near the lake and rivers, said an official with the province’s flood control and drought relief headquarters.

The water-surface area of Poyang Lake shrank to less than 200 square km this month, or 5 percent of its full size, revealing much of its underwater terrain and stranding fishing boats.

In Gongqingcheng, a city by the lake, authorities had to borrow water from a nearby county as the city’s sole water supplier, the Changqing Reservoir, is drying up.

Meager rainfall was the main reason for the drought. The province’s rainfall in 2011 was 20 percent less than the amount that fell on average annually. Precipitation was especially scarce in the past two months, extending the drought season in the region.”

Read more: China Daily

Thawing Permafrost Reduces River Runoff

Last modified on 2012-01-14 15:48:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Chinese researchers have revealed that the amount of water entering the Yangtze River near its source on the Tibetan plateau has fallen by 15% over the past four decades, despite a 15% increase in glacial melt and increased rainfall over the same period.

Wang Genxu, an ecologist at the Chengdu-based Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), says that the findings came as a surprise. “It is in contrast to results from the Arctic where global warming has generally caused increased river discharge,” he says.

Wang and his collaborators at the Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute (CAREERI) in Lanzhou, also part of the CAS, have just completed a five-year project to document changes in glaciers, snow and permafrost and to assess their impact on water resources in western China.”

Read more: Nature

 

China To Divert Flows Of Its Rivers

Last modified on 2012-01-14 15:17:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“This year, China will spend over 10 billion U.S. dollars to divert the flows of its rivers in the direction of the arid areas in its north. This was announced by E Jingping, head of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project commissioned by the State Council. It must be said in the past few years that China has spent about 22 billion U.S. dollars on this project, which has been compared to the Great Wall of China in grandiosity.

Late Chairman Mao Zedong first put forward the idea of the river diversion project in 1951. At the time, he said that there was ample water in the south but little in the north. It would be helpful if the south lent some water to the north. The Water Resources Ministry took the Chinese leader’s idea as a guideline for action and embarked on a plan to implement it. However, some time later, the Chinese leaders shifted priorities to other projects. As a result, the process dragged on for years. Only in 2002, after years-long droughts, the plan was adopted. It provided for the construction of canals running along Western, Central and Eastern routes.

As the year 2010 approached, it became clear that the project was far from completion. The Central route which will be completed in 2014, while the Eastern route in 2013. The work on the Western route which involves building massive dams and tunnels has not started yet. South-East Asian countries flatly oppose the diversion of the water from the River Mekong, whose headstreams are located in China. The reason the project has been put on hold is the delay in resettling 330,000 people who live along the Central route.”

Read more: The Voice Of Russia

 

8 Mighty Rivers Run Dry From Overuse

Last modified on 2012-01-12 17:06:16 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“One of the largest rivers in North America, the 1,885-mile (3,033-kilometer) Rio Grande runs from southwestern Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. It defines much of the border between Texas and Mexico. But the once grande river is looking more poco these days, thanks to heavy use on both sides of the border.

Less than a fifth of the Rio Grande’s historical flow now reaches the Gulf. For a few years in the early 2000s, the river failed to reach the coast entirely. All that separated the United States from Mexico was a beach of dirty sand and an orange nylon fence.

Here, the river defines the international border across the Adams Ranch near Big Bend National Park.

Algae colors the confluence of the Rio Grande and Arroyo San Carlos.

The population in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is exploding in both the United States and Mexico, driven by NAFTA-era factories and agricultural productivity. But by the time it reaches Matamoros, the river’s level is so low that it often falls below the Mexican city’s intake pipes. Farmers in Texas say they lose $400 million annually due to lack of irrigation water.

The region’s wetlands, once critical stopover points for migrating birds, are getting choked off. All these problems are made worse by the decades-long drought gripping the region.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

 

Rivers must flow: The case against big dams

Last modified on 2012-01-11 18:32:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“More than 50,000 large dams now choke about two-thirds of the world’s largest rivers. The consequences of this massive engineering programme have been devastating. Large dams have wiped out species; flooded huge areas of wetlands, forests and farmlands; displaced tens of millions of people, and affected close to half a billion people living downstream.

Large dams hold back not just water, but silt and nutrients that replenish farmlands and build protective wetlands and beaches. Dams change the very riverness of our waterways, in ways we can’t always see, but that the earth can certainly feel.

Of all the complex and interconnected environmental disruptions that dams inflict on the landscape, the most obvious is the permanent inundation of forests, wetlands and wildlife. Reservoirs have flooded vast areas - at last count, the world’s dams had flooded an area bigger than the United Kingdom.

Equally important is the quality of these lost lands: river and floodplain habitats are some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. Plants and animals that are closely adapted to valley habitats often cannot survive along the edge of a reservoir.”

Read more: Aljazeera

 

 

Water Pollution In Israel Threatens People, Animal, Plants

Last modified on 2012-01-10 04:03:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water pollution in Israeli lakes, streams and groundwater aquifers is reaching alarming levels. Although the country has regulations in place to prevent discharges, including a comprehensive Water Law, contamination is commonplace. And now scientists are finding that water quality problems threaten both wildlife and human health.

The lutra, a cousin of the otter found in lakes and rivers throughout Northern Israel, is in danger of extinction. Hunting is one of the threats to this fish-eating swamp dweller. Guest workers, mostly from Thailand, have been responsible for a great deal of lutra poaching. Arriving from areas in Southeast Asia where unrestricted wildlife trapping is the norm, these workers often clash with Israel’s stricter protections.

However, the more pervasive danger for the lutra is polluted water flowing through its habitat. In a recent study published in the Israeli journal Ecology & Environment, scientists reported that low water quality and lack of flow in the Jordan River has nearly wiped out the lutra south of Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee). The population north of the lake is relatively stable, but its disappearance in other areas has shocked ecologists.

Additionally, industrial waste from factories in the Rotem Plain has been leaching into groundwater near Ein Bokek Nature Reserve for almost two decades. Ein Bokek is one of the most important reserves in Israel, hosting a myriad species of animals and plants.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Last modified on GMT. 0 comments. Top.

As Kalimantan Coal Rises, Its Major Rivers Disappear

Last modified on 2011-12-28 20:21:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Rivers in East Kalimantan are threatened by the growing coal mining industry, an environmental activist warned on Monday.

The Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), an NGO in the province, said 27 branch rivers have disappeared, either buried or diverted in the interest of the coal mining industry. As a result, major rivers such as Mahakam river have been polluted, and local residents have increasingly lost natural freshwater sources.

“Mining activities have many impacts,” said Jatam coordinator Kahar Al Bahri. “Our records show 27 tributaries of main rivers are now gone because of mining interests. Water quality is degrading and ultimately that reduces food production.”

Kahar also said mining excavations have left large holes that in the last two years have caused accidents killing at least 13 people in Kutai Kartanegara and Samarinda districts.

Excavation sites abandoned by 57 mining firms in Samarinda had 100 bore holes measuring 1,200 hectares, while 213 companies in Kutai Kartanegara left 32 holes measuring 836 hectares.”

Read more: Jakarta Globe

Melting Glaciers Mean Double Trouble for Water Supplies

Last modified on 2011-12-26 18:03:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Glacial Water

“But glaciers act as natural reservoirs, storing water in the winter and doling it out in the summer as the ice slowly melts.

“If most of it disappears, there will be extreme consequences for most of these regions,” Clarke said. “The stream flow will change, the timing of peak stream flow will change, and the temperature of streams will change.”

Even the total volume of runoff will change, added Michel Baraer, of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, because glacial ice keeps the water locked away in a form in which it doesn’t easily evaporate.

Thus, even if precipitation remains the same in the high mountains, more of the water will be in liquid form, which evaporates more quickly.

Building dams also will not solve the problem of decreasing runoff. “Evaporation from reservoirs is much higher than sublimation [conversion of solid into gas] from glaciers,” Baraer said. “Dams will never, ever, replace the [natural] hydrological systems that are in place today.”

Peak Water?

Already, Baraer said, Peru is on the verge of facing water shortages. That’s because one of the largest rivers coming off the high Andes glaciers, the Rio Santa, is already running low on glacial melt, he said.

Previously, scientists had thought the problem lay several decades in the future.

But based on satellite measures of ice cover and water-flow at gauging stations in the river, his team has concluded that the Rio Santa has already hit “peak water”—the point at which glacial runoff plateaus and then begins to decline.”

 

Read more: National Geographic

 

Russia oil spills wreak devastation

Last modified on 2011-12-21 17:10:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

EU launches 10m.-euro Gaza desalination project

Last modified on 2011-12-21 16:56:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The European Union has launched a 10 million euro project to erect a desalination facility over the next three years in Gaza, to combat what the governing body calls “the humanitarian water crisis” in the territory.

Acting EU representative to the West Bank and Gaza, John Gatt-Rutter, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Palestinian Water Authority head Shaddad Attili last week, as well as with members of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility and UNICEF.

The facility, according to the EU, will be a “medium-term intervention” and will provide safe drinking water to approximately 75,000 inhabitants of Khan Yunis and Rafah.

“As the EU has reiterated in the past, the continued policy of closure in Gaza has damaged the natural environment, notably water and other natural resources,” Gatt- Rutter said. “I hope that this intervention can bring real change for some Palestiniansliving under unsustainable conditions in the Strip.”

Attili praised the EU’s decision to provide these funds.

“The facility is one component of a rolling program of interventions designed to tackle Gaza’s acute water problems and save its underground aquifer from imminent collapse,” he said Sunday.

Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan likewise praised the EU’s decision to fund the plant, saying Monday the Israelis have been saying everywhere they want thePalestinians to build it.”

Read more: The Jerusalem Post

World Rivers Review

Last modified on 2011-12-14 18:30:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Flying across any continent today confirms that the world’s rivers are dominant features in the landscape, and are places where humans and animals gather to reap the many benefits and services they provide. Rivers of all sizes all over the world have underpinned the process of human development. As we progress into the twenty-first century, this development process must now be reassessed. Across the world, we have mismanaged and in some places almost destroyed the core ecological fabric on which river health – and indeed our own survival – depends. Human-caused stressors now endanger the biodiversity of 65% of the world’s river habitats, putting thousands of aquatic wildlife species at risk.

One of the most comprehensive studies of global rivers to date has examined human stressors on all the major rivers of the world. This study, published in September 2010 in the journal Nature, evaluated the state of the world’s rivers by taking into account the major “ecological insults” we impose upon them. The 23 threat factors used in this analysis all have well-documented impacts on human water security and aquatic biodiversity. These were grouped according to their effects on river ecological health and biodiversity, and on human water security. Each of these threats was weighted separately, which is important since the effects of a factor such as nitrogen pollution on fish, for example, are not the same as its consequences for human water security.

Using geo-referenced global databases jointly developed by the team, the combined impact of these multiple threat factors can be displayed graphically, demonstrating global conditions across the 99 million km2 of major river basins included in the study.”

Read more: International Rivers

Mekong Governments Delay the Xayaburi Dam Pending Further Study

Last modified on 2011-12-09 20:14:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In a crucial decision for the people and ecosystems of the Mekong River Basin, the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam agreed today to delay the Xayaburi Dam, the first of eleven dams proposed for the Mekong River, pending further study on the impacts of the proposed Mekong mainstream dams. Japan and other international donors will be asked to assist in conducting the studies. No timetable for the delay was announced.

The government representatives did not give a joint press conference, but rather spoke to journalists separately. Te Navuth, Secretary General of the Cambodian National Mekong Committee told reporters, “When the four member countries agreed to conduct a further study, this meant the construction would not start until we have a clear result.”

“Today the Mekong governments responded to the will of the people of the region. We welcome the recognition that not nearly enough is known about the impacts of mainstream dams to be able to make a decision about the Xayaburi Dam,” said Ms. Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia Program Director for International Rivers.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

More Radioactive Water Leaks at Japanese Plant

Last modified on 2011-12-05 14:39:36 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“TOKYO — At least 45 tons of highly radioactive water have leaked from a purification facility at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, and some of it may have reached the Pacific Ocean, the plant’s operator said Sunday. Nearly nine months after Fukushima Daiichi was ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami, the plant continues to pose a major environmental threat. Before the latest leak, the Fukushima accident had been responsible for the largest single release of radioactivity into the ocean, threatening wildlife and fisheries in the region, experts have said. The new radioactive water leak called into question the progress that the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, appeared to have made in bringing its reactors under control. The company, known as Tepco, has said that it hopes to bring the plant to a stable state known as a cool shutdown by the end of the year.

The trouble on Sunday came in two stages, a Tepco statement said.  In the morning, utility workers found that radioactive water was pooling in a catchment next to a purification device; the system was switched off, and the leak appeared to stop. But the company said it later discovered that leaked water was escaping, possibly through cracks in the catchment’s concrete wall, and was reaching an external gutter.  In all, as much as 220 tons of water may now have leaked from the facility, according to a report in the newspaper Asahi Shimbun that cited Tepco officials.

The company said that the water had about one million times as much radioactive strontium as the maximum safe level set by the government, but appeared to have already been cleaned of radioactive cesium before leaking out. Both elements are readily absorbed by living tissue and can greatly increase the risk of developing cancer.”

Read More: NY Times

 

Unusual drought triggers alarm across Balkans

Last modified on 2011-12-02 17:05:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The waters of the mighty Danube are so low that dozens of cargo ships are simply stuck, stranded in ghostly fog or wedged into sand banks on what is normally one of eastern Europe’s busiest transport routes.A lack of rain has triggered the worst drought in decades for this time of year, dropping river levels to record lows and sounding an alarm in parts of central and eastern Europe. Power supplies are running low in Serbia, drinking water shortages have hit Bosnia, and crop production is in jeopardy in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. The Czech Republic is at its driest since records began in 1775.

Meteorologists say they are not sure why the region has had far less rain than average since August — but they don’t see any more coming quickly. That is bad news for shipping companies that are already reporting big losses.”

Read more: SF Gate

 

Israel threatens to cut water and power to Gaza

Last modified on 2011-11-30 23:06:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Israel has warned it might cut all support to the Gaza Strip, including vital water and power supplies, if the Palestinian Authority pursues its path towards reunification with militant group Hamas.

The Power Politics of Water Struggles

Last modified on 2011-11-29 16:30:44 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“When you’re driving through a war zone, your instinct may be to roll up the car windows. Wrong move. A bullet is less likely to hit you than to strike the glass, which will shatter and probably cause injuries. It takes firsthand experience to learn these tricks of the trade, and for years, Mark Zeitoun has sought out such experience.

Yet he did not scout out war zones as a combatant or journalist; he was delivering water.

A leading thinker in the field of water issues, Dr. Zeitoun helped pioneer a way of analyzing international water tensions, departing from the idea that water struggles are characterized either by peaceful cooperation or armed conflict. He suggests that countries’ approaches can vary by many gradations in between.

Dr. Zeitoun’s philosophy on water politics, known as hydro-hegemony, “significantly influenced the way we look at hydropolitics across the world,” said Tony Allan, a water resource analyst at King’s College, London.

Today Dr. Zeitoun, 44, grapples with global water issues from his office at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. But his voyage to understanding has been a long one, taking him from his native Canada, Congo, Chad, the Palestinian territories and Iraq.”

Read More: Green Blogs New York Times

 

Kerala ready to talk to TN on Mullaperiyar dam issue

Last modified on 2011-11-23 22:28:45 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The State Minister for Water Resources, Mr P. J. Joseph, has said the Kerala is willing to hold talks with Tamil Nadu on the Mullapperiyar dam issue if only to ensure the safety of its people.

“Speaking to newspersons here after a conference of officials convened to discuss the issue on Wednesday, he said the State was committed to maintaining the supply of water to Tamil Nadu even if a proposed new dam were to come up.

“The State Government was willing to give such an undertaking before the Supreme Court or to the Centre or even sign an agreement with Tamil Nadu.

“But the Minister said the State Government viewed the state of affairs around the dam site seriously given the context of a repeat ground movements from quakes.

“The Minister said that the State Government would like the Centre to intervene in the matter. It was willing to provide all information needed by the Centre.

“A project report prepared by the State Government provided for maintaining the current reservoir level which would enable it to retain the supply of water to Tamil Nadu.”

Read more: The Hindu Business Line

Regional tensions limit Bhutan climate summit aims

Last modified on 2011-11-18 19:22:48 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Four Himalayan nations, faced with erratic weather and the threat of melting glaciers and catastrophic floods, are hashing out a plan for preserving the vast mountain range and helping millions living in the foothills cope with climate change.

“But as India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan set to work on a new 10-year management policy, three other major Himalayan nations will be conspicuously absent.

“Organizers have downplayed the fact that Pakistan, China and Afghanistan are not attending the Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas, saying the talks Saturday in Bhutan’s capital of Thimphu are focused on securing ecosystems, endangered species, forests and food and water sources for only the eastern part of the range.

“The summit, to some extent, is the Himalayan answer to an urgent need for action amid the international community’s inability to agree on limiting greenhouse gas emissions thought to cause global warming. Expectations are again low for a breakthrough at the next U.N. climate talks, beginning Nov. 28 in Durban, South Africa.

“Regional tensions have long prevented Himalayan cooperation, including basic research in the world’s largest block of glaciers outside the polar regions, and accounting for 40 percent of the world’s fresh water.”

Read more: APress

Holy Water: A precious commodity in a region of conflict

Last modified on 2011-11-09 17:39:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“IN ISRAEL, not far from the place where Jesus is said to have walked on water and fed thousands with just five loaves of bread and two fish, government engineers have performed a miracle of their own—they’ve made a river disappear. The Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee on its way to the Dead Sea in a slow laze past a series of campsites to a concrete complex, beside which white-robed pilgrims submerge themselves in its waters. From there, it pushes onward, winding through olive groves, farmers’ fields, and patches of brushwoods. Then, suddenly, it stops. At a pumping station less than three kilometers from the river’s source, five broad green pipes dip like elephant trunks to suck the water out. Beyond this point, the river has been reduced to less than 2 percent of its original flow.

The disappearance of the Jordan River, much like the area’s dropping aquifers, is a symptom of the struggle for water that has shaped the modern Middle East. The flow of a river that once irrigated the fields of the West Bank has been channeled through pipes, pumps, and canals to gush from the taps in Tel Aviv, and to “make the desert bloom” in the Negev. This diversion of water may be a technical marvel, but it’s emptying rivers and leaving critical aquifers dangerously susceptible to the intrusion of salt water and raw sewage.”

Read more: Orion Magazine

 

Government’s Citarum River dredging project kicks off

Last modified on 2011-11-09 16:41:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Public Works Minister Joko Kirmanto will inaugurate the project at the flood-prone Baleendah district, Bandung regency, some 15 kilometers south of Bandung city. The dredging project will stretch some 180 kilometers.

Citarum River Area Center head Hasanudin said the labor-intensive project was expected to be completed in three years and would minimize the annual flooding of as much as 7,000 hectares as the Citarum River swells during the rainy season, which usually leaves Bandung, Purwakarta, Karawang and Bekasi regencies inundated.

“The project will simultaneously be carried out from Sapan in Bandung regency, Najung and Jatiluhur in Purwakarta and Muara Gembong in Bekasi,” Hasanudin told The Jakarta Post in Bandung on Tuesday.

The normalization project includes dredging millions of cubic meters of sediment, making sheet piles for embankments, pedestrian bridges and straightening a number of stretches thus far regarded as impeding the river flow.

Hasanudin said the project came in anticipation of the quinquennial flooding that usually engulfs some 12,000 hectares in river basin areas. The last floods were in February of last year, leaving 50,000 hectares of farmland in Karawang flooded for three weeks.

Some 250 NGO community empowerment groups will help educate residents living near the Citarum River, showing them how to protect the river basin areas. The NGOs will encourage residents to recycle waste rather than dump it into the river.”

Read more: The Jakarta Post

Thames Water’s dilemma: flood Heathrow or a river with sewage?

Last modified on 2011-11-03 18:50:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Imagine the scene: tens of thousands of tonnes of sewage have backed up behind a jammed gate and a decision has to be made – to flood one of the world’s busiest airports or inundate a small river very few people know exist.

It is a stark version of the choices made daily around the planet between costly economic infrastructure and the natural world: inevitably, the River Crane, and its populations of perch, eels, kingfishers and dragonfly larvae, lost.

The Environment Agency, the UK’s official enforcement body, now reports almost the entire west London river has been “killed” by the huge influx of grey sludge washed down the toilets and drains of nearby Heathrow airport, starting last Saturday night. Experts, who estimate 3,000 fish are floating dead in and along the oxygen-starved Thames tributary, say it will take “months, probably years” to recover. Anglers and other people are being warned to stay out of the water in the seven mile stretch from the A4 to the River Thames at Twickenham, though the risk to the Thames itself is thought to be low.

Thames Water issued an apology in which the company said engineers battled for hours to free the jammed sluice gate and commandeered 20 trucks to haul sewage away by road before being:”

Read more: Guardian

 

Sinking North China Plain Threatens Development

Last modified on 2011-11-03 14:54:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Since the 1950s, constant land subsidence has occurred across nearly 70,000 square kilometers there, with some places sinking 3.18 meters and at an annual rate of more than 100 millimeters

Beijing, Tianjin, Tanggu and Cangzhou are the most affected areas – Cangzhou has sunk about 2.4 meters since the 1970s, said Wu Aimin of the Chinese Academy of Geological Environment Monitoring.

Land subsidence can be caused by a number of factors, including natural factors such as crustal movement, natural soil compaction and human factors, such as oil and gas pumping. But the recognized root cause of land subsidence in the North China Plain is the excessive extraction of underground water.

Since the 1980s, Beijing, Tianjin and Tanggu has extracted more than 600 million cubic meters of water over the accepted level every year, according to the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences

Haihe basin has drained more than 100 billion cubic meters of underground water above the accepted level, nearly 70 percent of the amount of the water in the Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake. And in 2010, 50 percent of Beijing’s water supply came from underground water.”

Read more: China.org.cn

 

Energy firm says ‘fracking’ triggered British earth tremors

Last modified on 2011-11-03 14:48:45 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“British energy firm Cuadrilla Resources said a study of its drilling along Lancashire’s Fylde coast, northwest England, concluded “it is highly probable” that the fracking “did trigger a number of minor seismic events.”

A tremor of magnitude 2.3 on the Richter scale was recorded in the area in April followed by a second of magnitude 1.5 in May.

“The seismic events were due to an unusual combination of geology at the (Preese Hall-1) well site coupled with the pressure exerted by water injection as part of operations,” Cuadrilla said, citing a report it had commissioned.

“This combination of geological factors was extremely rare and would be unlikely to occur together again at future well sites,” it added.

Cuadrilla chief executive Mark Miller said the company “unequivocally accepts” the findings of the report, carried out by a team of independent seismic experts.”

Read more: Raw Story

 

 

Residents Tear Down Bangkok Flood Barrier

Last modified on 2011-11-02 17:08:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Residents in northeastern Bangkok have destroyed part of a canal floodgate in an attempt to divert floodwaters away from their homes amid allegations that authorities are allowing the outskirts of the city to flood to protect central areas.

Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay, reporting from the Thai capital on Wednesday, said residents had smashed through the barrier “with their bare hands” in the hope the action would drain the water from their homes.

Police stationed 400 officers to guard floodgates which city official say are essential to prevent the centre of the city and industrial areas from being flooded.

Local officials had said that central Bangkok would be largely safe from flooding, but with anger mounting among those outside the capital and with the threat of further damage to floodgates, our correspondent says that is no longer the case.

The anger around the flood gates has led to a political battle between the city and federal governments.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered a metre of the flood gates open despite objections from officials in the city who fear the rediverted waters will reach two nearby industrial estates.

With water levels along the Chao Phraya – the river that flows through Bangkok – reaching 3.3 metres, its highest level in days, authorities say keeping the floodgates closed is necessary to prevent waters reaching central areas of a city that is home to 12 million people.”

Read more: Aljazeera

 

Sundarbans to have dolphin sanctuaries

Last modified on 2011-11-01 18:53:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Department of Forest has initially proposed to declare 32 kilometres of Pashur and Andharmanik rivers and their channels in Dhangmari, Chandpai and Dudhmukhi areas in the eastern Sundarbans as dolphin sanctuaries.

“Soon the ministry will issue an order on the proposed sanctuaries, following which fishing will be restricted in those areas,” Tapan Kumar Dey, forest conservator (wildlife section), told The Daily Star.

Hundreds of fishermen catch fish, shrimp and crab in the water bodies, known as a hotspot of dolphins, also a breeding ground for fish, he said.

The places were identified through a series of studies by Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project (BCDP) since 2002.

The waterways of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, are the lone habitat of around 676 freshwater mammals — 225 of Ganges river species and 451 of Irrawaddy — the largest population in a single habitat.

These dolphins are among the world’s most endangered mammals.

Although the animals are not targeted directly, they often get entangled in fishing nets and die in dozens every year. They are also threatened by the rising salinity and pollution.”

Read more: The Daily Star

 

Bangkok braces for flooding from high tides

Last modified on 2011-10-28 22:36:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) — Severe flooding in Thailand Friday threatened central areas of Bangkok, a bustling capital barely above sea level and facing inundation at the next high tide predicted at 13 feet.

“Residents who decided to stay in their homes despite government pleas to get out waited anxiously to see if the highest tide, forecast for Saturday afternoon, would overwhelm defenses along the Chao Phraya River and its many canals.

“Bangkok’s outer suburbs are already submerged but the the central city has so far been largely spared the misery Thailand has been suffering for months in the nation’s worst flooding since 1942.

“But now the city must face two converging demons of water.”

Read more: CNN

Bangkok Becomes Medieval-Style Fortress Against Deadly Flood

Last modified on 2011-10-22 02:31:27 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Floods have smothered much of Thailand, killing at least 317 people and prompting Bangkok to surround itself with makeshift walls, leaving those outside the perimeter to suffer from diverted water, reminiscent of medieval times when people dug moats and sealed off their fortress cities against plague, war and other calamities.

“We have been doing everything we can, but this is a big national crisis,” Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said.

“I’m begging for mercy from the media here,” she said, after heavy criticism for her poorly coordinated response to the floods.

Bangkok is now a virtual island under siege from a relentless flow of brown water, strewn with garbage and chemicals, after three months of widespread monsoon rains and increasingly swollen rivers, all flushing alongside the capital and draining into the nearby Gulf of Thailand.

Many U.S. and other foreign companies — which were lured to this tropical Southeast Asian country to profit from workers’ low wages and other cheap costs — have found their modern factories and warehouses devastated because they are located outside Bangkok’s survival-of-the-fittest flood walls.

Distraught investors watched in dismay as swirling liquid drowned several sprawling, investor-friendly, low-lying “industrial parks” after breaching insufficient barriers.

The worst-affected industrial zones are 50 miles north of Bangkok where three rivers converge at Ayutthaya, which was founded in 1350 and became an opulent capital before it was abandoned in 1767 because elephant-riding troops from Burma invaded and destroyed it.

Multinationals which suspended or slowed operations due to the floods in Ayutthaya included Canon, Ford, Honda, Isuzu, Nikon, Seagate Technology, Sony, Toyota and Western Digital.”

Read more: Scoop

 

Hydro-control turning China into dreaded hydra?

Last modified on 2011-10-18 19:01:45 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Asia’s water map fundamentally changed after the 1949 Communist victory in China. Most of Asia’s important international rivers originate in territories that were forcibly annexed to the People’s Republic of China. The Tibetan Plateau, for example, is the world’s largest freshwater repository and the source of Asia’s greatest rivers, including those that are the lifeblood for mainland China and South and Southeast Asia. Other such Chinese territories contain the headwaters of rivers like the Irtysh, Illy and Amur, which flow to Russia and Central Asia.

This makes China the source of cross-border water flows to the largest number of countries in the world. Yet China rejects the very notion of water sharing or institutionalised cooperation with downriver countries. Whereas riparian neighbours in Southeast and South Asia are bound by water pacts that they have negotiated between themselves, China does not have a single water treaty with any co-riparian country. Indeed, having its cake and eating it, China is a dialogue partner but not a member of the Mekong River Commission, underscoring its intent not to abide by the Mekong basin community’s rules or take on any legal obligations.

Worse, while promoting multilateralism on the world stage, China has given the cold shoulder to multilateral cooperation among river-basin states. The lower-Mekong countries, for example, view China’s strategy as an attempt to “divide and conquer”. Although China publicly favours bilateral initiatives over multilateral institutions in addressing water issues, it has not shown any real enthusiasm for meaningful bilateral action. As a result, water has increasingly become a new political divide in the country’s relations with neighbours like India, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Nepal.

China deflects attention from its refusal to share water, or to enter into institutionalised cooperation to manage common rivers sustainably, by flaunting the accords that it has signed on sharing flow statistics with riparian neighbours. These are not agreements to cooperate on shared resources, but rather commercial accords to sell hydrological data that other upstream countries provide free to downriver states.”

Read more: Bangkok Post

 

China Invests Billions To Avert Water Crisis

Last modified on 2011-10-17 04:22:22 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The vice minister of water resources said China’s unbridled economic growth had left up to 40 percent of its rivers badly polluted and the country faced “huge pressures” on supplies of water.

“Industrialisation and urbanisation, including ensuring grain and food security, are exerting higher demands on water supplies… while our water use remains crude and wasteful,” Jiao Yong said at a press briefing.

Over 46,000 reservoirs in China need to be rebuilt or reinforced to ensure that surrounding farmlands and communities are safe from flooding and have enough water for irrigation, he said.

More funding would also be needed to protect the reservoir of the $22.5 billion Three Gorges Dam — the world’s largest — from geological disasters and pollution, he said.

The government has long held up the world’s largest hydroelectric project as a symbol of its engineering prowess.

But the dam has created a reservoir stretching up to 600 kilometres (370 miles) through a region criss-crossed by geological faultlines and critics fear seismic disturbances such as a huge earthquake could cause a catastrophe.”

Read more: AFP

 

India and Pakistan at Odds Over Shrinking Indus River

Last modified on 2011-10-13 15:59:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Nearly 30 percent of the world’s cotton supply comes from India and Pakistan, much of that from the Indus River Valley. On average, about 737 billion gallons are withdrawn from the Indus River annually to grow cotton—enough to provide Delhi residents with household water for more than two years. (See a map of the region.)

“Pakistan’s entire economy is driven by the textile industry,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “The problem with Pakistan’s economy is that most of the major industries use a ton of water—textiles, sugar, wheat—and there’s a tremendous amount of water that’s not only used, but wasted,” he added.

The same is true for India.

That impact is an important part of a complex water equation in countries already under strain from booming populations. More people means more demand for water to irrigate crops, cool machinery, and power cities. The Indus River, which begins in Indian-controlled Kashmir and flows through Pakistan on its way to the sea, is Pakistan’s primary freshwater source—on which 90 percent of its agriculture depends—and a critical outlet of hydropower generation for both countries.

Downstream provinces are already feeling the strain, with some dried-out areas being abandoned by fishermen and farmers forced to move to cities. That increases competition between urban and rural communities for water. “In areas where you used to have raging rivers, you have, essentially, streams or even puddles and not much else,” said Kugelman.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

The South Pacific’s water crisis And not a drop to drink

Last modified on 2011-10-07 00:58:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“ONE canary in the climate-change coalmine may have just quietly fallen from her perch. The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has declared a state of emergency after a fresh water shortage forced it to shutter its schools and hospitals and begin water rationing across the country. Observers blame the shortage on the changing weather patterns and rising sea levels associated with climate change—and warn they could be a sign of things to come for the whole region.

“Climate scientists have linked the episode to a weather event known as La Niña, which has brought with it a punishing drought. Families who already rely almost solely on rainwater have been rationed to two buckets per day. The Red Cross and the New Zealand Defence Force have flown in water and desalination machines, but even so the government warns that Tuvalu has less than five days’ drinking water left.

“Even worse: nearby Samoa, which has a population 15 times that of Tuvalu and Tokelau combined, has begun to ration water in parts of its territory for the same reasons. The freshwater crisis racking the region, which The Red Cross calls “dire, with rain not expected for the next couple of months”, shows no signs of abating and every indication of spreading throughout the region’s fragile eco-system.”

Read more: The Economist

 

South Pacific water shortage hits Tokelau

Last modified on 2011-10-04 19:36:04 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Tokelau declared a state of emergency late on Monday, following a similar move in neighbouring Tuvalu, where water is already being rationed.

“A New Zealand-administered territory of three islands, Tokelau’s 1,400 people have less than a week’s drinking water left.

“The lack of rainfall is blamed on the La Nina weather pattern.

“Officials said Tokelau had run out of natural fresh water and was relying solely on bottled water.

“New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said other islands in the South Pacific were also reporting water shortages.”

Read more: BBC News

 

River Eden study aims to reduce farm pollution

Last modified on 2011-09-28 17:29:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water quality monitoring stations have been set up along the River Eden in bid to reduce agricultural pollution.

“Experts from Newcastle, Durham, and Lancaster universities want to find ways to prevent farm waste affecting water quality.

“Water samples from the 10 stations will be regularly analysed and results posted online.

“The project is being funded by Defra, which hopes farmers will use the information to reduce pollution.

“A spokesman for Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) said: “The live, real-time data, made available via the web, can be used by councils, rivers trusts and the public to help in understanding how to improve river water quality where they live.

“Water pollution from agriculture can arise from artificial fertilisers, livestock manures or soil erosion and is strongly affected by the way the soil is managed.”

Read more: BBC

Don’t be political on water, TRC told

Last modified on 2011-09-28 17:22:54 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Taranaki’s environmental watchdog risks being accused of political interference because elected councillors are making decisions about who is prosecuted for water pollution, the auditor-general has advised Parliament.

“But the Taranaki Regional Council said yesterday it was the lawyers who made the final decision on who was taken to court.

“The auditor-general’s review of the way Taranaki, Waikato, Whanganui and Southland’s regional councils are dealing with water quality issues – including dirty dairy farming – was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

“In both Taranaki and Waikato the auditor-general found councillors were deciding whether or not to prosecute those who breached the Resource Management Act, the report noted.

“Enforcement decisions should be made by council staff rather than elected representatives – as happens in central government – to ensure they were independent of political influence, the report said.

“In our view, councillors should not be involved in investigating breaches, or deciding whether to prosecute.”

Read more: Stuff

Study Shows Natural Processes Can Limit Spread of Arsenic in Water

Last modified on 2011-10-11 21:17:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Many people in Bangladesh and other parts of Asia have been poisoned by drinking groundwater laced with arsenic—not introduced by humans, but leached naturally from sediments, and now being tapped by shallow drinking wells. In recent years, to avoid the problem, deeper wells have been sunk 500 feet or more to purer waters—but fears have remained that when deep water is pumped out, contaminated water might filter down to replace it. Now, a study has shown that deep sediments can grab the arsenic and take it out of circulation—a finding that may help to keep wells safe elsewhere, including in the United States. The study, led by researchers at Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, appears in the current online edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.

“Lead author Kathleen Radloff and her colleagues injected arsenic-rich water into a deep aquifer in Bangladesh, then monitored arsenic levels over nine days. They found that arsenic fell by 70 percent after 24 hours, and continued to decline over the monitoring period. They attributed this to the arsenic sticking to the surfaces of deep sediment particles, in a process called adsorption.

“However, the process may have limits. The results were applied to a hydrological model of the Bengal Basin, the aquifer that serves most of Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal. Using the model, the team found that the risk of arsenic contamination is limited when wells are restricted to household use, but increases significantly if they are also used for irrigation, even if much arsenic adsorbs to the sediment.”

Read more: EPonline

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Ancient Mediterranean Water Supply Networks Revived

Last modified on 2011-09-13 15:51:19 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

Years of drought had dried up the ancient water supply networks existing around the Mediterranean Rim. However, with rainfall returning over the past 5 years, the hydraulic heritage has come to life again. The names of the tunnels that carry the revived streams -khettaras in Morocco, foggaras in Algeria or qanâts in Iran- evoke the trickling sounds of water. These underground infiltration galleries are the most characteristic and original illustration of local communities’ recovery of ancestral schemes. As IRD researchers and their partners1 show, these water mines in the middle of the desert, most of which had been abandoned, have now been restored by oasis inhabitants.

These communities are now reinvesting in the maintenance of khettaras and in agriculture, especially young people returning to rural environments after experiencing unemployment in towns and cities. This is a risk owing to the uncertainties of climate, but fully assumed to revive collective action and to reappropriate the rules governing water-supply access, indeed in anticipation of possible new shortages in the years to come.

Click Here To Read More: Science Daily

Editorial: Bracing for a water crisis

Last modified on 2011-09-11 16:56:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Thousands of households across Jakarta were seriously inconvenienced by the recent breakdown in the supply of tap water following the collapse of a dike at the Buaran Dam in East Jakarta last week, at a time when Jakartans were celebrating the long-awaited religious holiday of Idul Fitri.

The problem facing the city, however, is more serious than just an accidental water cut. This is particularly so because the two water operators that serve the city, PT PAM Lyonaise Jaya (Palyja) which oversees the west of the city and PT Aetra which provides tap water to residents in the eastern part, rely almost totally on the same source of raw water.

Read More: The Jakarta Post

Scientists Warn Of Citarum Pollution Dangers

Last modified on 2011-09-10 15:25:38 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Sunardi, a lecturer in environmental toxicology at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, said that if the pollution continued it would disrupt the river ecosystem, which could lead to the loss of fish and diseases for humans. “The first diseases that could hit people living along the river are skin diseases and diarrhea. If the river is heavily polluted by heavy metals, the effects are not be seen instantly. It will take years, even decades, to see the impact,” he said.

Gadis Sri Haryani, limnology director at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), expressed a similar opinion saying that if the Citarum River continued to be polluted by heavy metal substances, it could have results similar to the Minamata disease in Japan.

Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome caused by mercury poisoning. It was caused by the release of methyl mercury in the industrial wastewater from the Chisso Corporation’s chemical factory, which happened from 1932 to 1968. The toxic chemical accumulated in fish which were eaten by locals.

Symptoms include numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms.

By March 2001, 2,265 victims had been officially recognized with 1,784 fatalities,and over 10,000 receiving financial compensation from the company. By 2004, the company had paid US$86 million in compensation, and in the same year was ordered to clean up its contamination.”

Read more: Jakarta Post

Protests Over Shrinking Salt Lake Continue In Iran

Last modified on 2011-09-08 15:01:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Over the last couple of weeks Iranians have gathered in Tabriz and Orumieh in their thousands to protest the slow disappearance of Lake Orumieh, which is crucial to agriculture and tourism in the region. On Saturday, the protesters gathered again and security forces on motorcycles clashed with them, arresting scores of peaceful environmental campaigners.

The Guardian reported that Farank Farid, a prominent women’s rights activist, was among the protesters currently held in custody according to the committee of human rights reporters in Iran. Amateur videos posted on sites such as Youtube also show what appears to be riot police attacking the peaceful protestors on Saturday.

Tabriz and Orumieh are located in Iran’s Azerbaijan region, home to the country Azeri ethnic minority who campaigners state have been marginalised by the government. Indeed, locals claim that Revolutionary Guards are responsible for the shrinking lake levels due to their damming policies which mean that there are currently 36 dams built on the river leading up to lake Orumieh.

Officials in Iran insist that the falling lake levels are due to drought, rising temperatures and climate change.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Wanted: Bridges Over Troubled Waters

Last modified on 2011-09-08 14:42:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“As Pakistan went to the Court of Arbitration in The Hague once again in mid-August 2011, seeking an order for India to put on hold construction of the Kishanganga dam until the final decision of the court, the overwhelming response among Indian policymakers was: “Oh, not again.”

The project on the Jhelum River, one of the main tributaries of the Indus, has been opposed by Pakistan since it got off the drawing board. But India has steadfastly maintained that the run-of-the-river project follows the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty between the two countries to the letter. Just about everybody in India feels that the treaty is the best basis for apportioning the waters of the giant Indus river basin, that India as the upper riparian country has stuck to the treaty through war and peace, and that Indians are unfairly blamed for Pakistan’s water woes to cover up the inefficiency or worse of the water policymakers in Pakistan.

Given the near-unanimity of this view in India, and the near-constant rhetoric in Pakistan that “India is stealing our waters”, there is very little space for any level-headed, rational and scientific conversation on the subject. The trust deficit is so high – especially in India since many of the country’s terrorist attacks over the last three decades have been traced back to Pakistan – that anybody advocating a dialogue would be lucky not to be dubbed a spy.”

Read more: China Dialogue

Controversial Chinese projects in Cambodia bow to public pressure

Last modified on 2011-09-07 16:55:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“CSG, a state-owned company established in 2002 to transmit and distribute electrical power in China’s southern provinces, has quit all its potential power projects in Cambodia, said the company’s spokesman Rambo Niu Feng.

The power utility had conducted feasibility studies for at least six proposed dams in Cambodia with a total power output of more than 3,300 megawatts, according to 3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN), a Cambodian civil society organisation that works to support hydropower-dam-affected communities living along the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong rivers in northeastern Cambodia.

China has become the biggest builder of dams and roads in Cambodia and, according to 3SPN Co-ordinator Meach Mean, the projected output of the CSG schemes is far above Cambodia’s power consumption of 500MW.

The company’s involvement in several dams in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos threaten local populations and ecosystems, said International Rivers, an international NGO. In a letter to CSG chief executive Zhao Jianguo on 22 June 2009, International Rivers expressed its concerns with some of the Chinese firm’s projects in Southeast Asia, including the Sambor and Stung Cheay Areng hydropower projects in Cambodia.

The Sambor project would have “unacceptable impact on fisheries”, while the Stung Cheay Areng project would flood nine villages, the letter from International Rivers said.”

Read more: South China Morning Post

Farmers’ Right To Water

Last modified on 2011-09-08 14:57:10 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The recent killing of three innocent farmers by police in Maval of Pune district, Maharashtra led to pandemonium in Parliament and in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Questions were raised on why it happened and who was responsible for the killing. The Government was reportedly planning to divert more water from Pavna dam situated close to Pune city to Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, which is one of the richest municipal corporations in India.

Since diverting irrigation water to domestic and industrial purposes would affect their livelihood farmers who are historically relying on this water for crop cultivation opposed it.

Though this problem was widely covered by media, the ‘real issue’ has been buried in the furore over the killing of the farmers. The issue raised by the farmers is genuine, has a larger context and not specific to Pavna dam alone.

A large quantity of water originally allotted for irrigation has been increasingly diverted to non-irrigation purposes without even consulting farmers who are entitled to its use. Rapid urbanisation, along with changing lifestyle of the masses, puts enormous pressure on the government to augment water supply for urban use.

FARMERS HIT

Since the availability of water is limited, any reallocation will have to come from irrigation water. This reduces the overall availability of irrigation water, resulting in reduction in area irrigated. The tail-end farmers have been facing extra-marginal burden today in most of the command areas.”

Read more: The Hindu

 

Citarum River Brings Fresh Water Along With Disease, Poor Harvests

Last modified on 2011-09-06 16:54:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Photo retrieved from: www.cbunga.wordpress.com

“The heavily polluted Citarum River has become a vector for disease for the 25 million people in western Java who rely on it for potable water and irrigation. In the first of three articles, The Jakarta Post’s Tifa Asrianti reports on the river’s deteriorating condition and its public health effects.

Nurhayati, 38, a resident of Sukamaju village in Majalaya, Bandung regency held up her right hand.

Compared to her smooth left hand, the right was wrinkled and had swollen wounds, making it look as if it belonged to a much older person.

“This has been going on for eight months. At night it feels hot and itchy. I can’t concentrate on my work,” Nur said.

She is one of hundreds of people in Sukamaju suffering from the same symptoms.

While medication obtained from a local health community center has helped other residents with the same malady, the problem will return if the residents continue to draw water from the river.

Citarum River traverses 269 kilometers through nine regencies and three cities. Of the 25 million people who depend on the river, 10 million live along its banks, split evenly between urban and rural residents.

There are significant agricultural activities along the riverbanks, interspersed with scattered industrial clusters.

Pollution in Citarum River raises health and food security issues, as residents living along its banks use water from the river for their daily needs.”

Read more: Jakarta Post

Illegal Dam Construction On The Mekong Must Be Halted

Last modified on 2011-09-02 17:31:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A field visit to the site of the proposed Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River in Laos has revealed that construction on the dam’s access road and work camp is rapidly forging ahead, in spite of commitments by the government of Laos to temporarily suspend the project.

The trip to the Xayaburi dam site on July 23 revealed that a substantial construction camp has been established near Ban Talan village, with at least a few hundred workers present. An access road leading down to the dam site was also under construction and some land had been cleared without compensation provided to the owners.

The government of Laos appears to be set on unilaterally moving forward with the Xayaburi dam in violation of international law and its commitments under the 1995mekong Agreement. By building this dam, Laos is disregarding its regional commitments and robbing the future of millions of people in the region who rely upon the river for their livelihood and food security.

Representatives from the four lower mekong countries – Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand – had originally been scheduled to meet in Phnom Penh in order to discuss the next steps in the mekong River Commission’s (MRC) Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA), the regional decision-making process for the Xayaburi dam. However, the meeting was postponed indefinitely without explanation.”

Read more: The Nation

 

 

Yunnan’s Chromium Trail

Last modified on 2011-09-02 17:25:10 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The dumping of 5,000 tonnes of toxic metal tailings next to an important drinking source has brought to light years of illegal disposal of factory waste.

In mid-August, the Yunnan-based blogger Dong Rubin revealed that a nearby factory in south-west China – Luliang Chemicals – had dumped 5,000 tonnes of toxic chromium tailings on a hillside in the township of Yuezhou. The resulting water pollution killed fish and livestock, endangered the drinking water of tens of millions of people and attracted widespread media attention across China.

Speaking to Guangzhou’s Yangcheng Evening News, Dong explained the impact of the pollution incident: “At its highest, the most toxic type of chromium, hexavalent chromium, was 2,000 times over the limit. Contaminated water was flowing directly into the Nanpan River, which feeds the Pearl River.” The Pearl River is an important source of drinking water for the downstream city of Guangzhou.”

Read more: China Dialogue

 

How The Environment Agency Has Spun The News On River Quality

Last modified on 2011-09-01 15:25:17 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“But we must take the EA’s words with a heavy pinch of salt. The Wandle, which it says has “become a vibrant rich habitat due to better environmental regulation”, was massively polluted only a few years ago when Thames Water spilled thousands of gallons of industrial-strength chlorine into it; and only three months ago 450,000 tonnes of raw sewage escaped into the Thames, killing fish and leaving pollution.

However, the greater spin is to suggest that these and other English rivers are in good nick. The 10 rivers chosen here have been carefully selected and do not reflect the true status of our rivers, most of which are suffering because of abstraction, sewage, blockages to fish passes and other pollution.

What the government has done is to measure these rivers via what is called the General Quality Assessment (GQA). This assesses the water quality by the levels of oxygen demand (BOD), ammonia and dissolved oxygen found in the water. By this measure, rivers are indeed improving across the board and it is correct to say there has been a steady improvement in quality for 20 years, with 70% of rivers reaching “good” or “fair” standard.”

Read more: Guardian

 

For Development, China Moves Millions

Last modified on 2011-08-31 18:15:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“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

 

 

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

Last modified on 2011-08-30 17:54:10 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“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

 

 

Lingering Droughts Plague SW China

Last modified on 2011-08-30 17:26:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“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

 

 

Unchecked Pollution Chokes Lebanon’s Rivers

Last modified on 2011-08-26 17:57:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

”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

Rainwater Storage At Homes To Go Binding

Last modified on 2011-08-25 03:04:49 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The government is going to amend the country’s ‘building code’ to make harvesting of rain water mandatory for all the buildings as the level of ground water is falling fast because of excessive use.

Sheikh Abdul Mannan, a member of Rajuk (planning), has said that the government wanted to encourage the builders so that they keep provisions for rooftop harvesting of rain waters. The developers can also preserve rain water in any ground facilities if roofs are not an option for them.

But it is going to be binding for them one way or the other.

He said a new provision titled, ‘Rain Water Harvesting and Ground Water Recharging’ will be punched in the ‘Dhaka Mahanagar Building (Construction, Development, Protection and Removal) Rule’ enacted in 2008.

“The provision must be included in all building plans from 2012 if the code is amended by the end of this year,” he said.

Local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam on Tuesday told parliament that the government was working on ensuring collection of 70 percent water demanded in the capital city of Dhaka from rainwater and water holes in the next 10 years.

Engineer Mannan said 87 percent of water requirements in the city came from underground source, 13 percent from the Buriganga and the Shitalkkhya rivers.

“The water of these rivers has become unfit for use even after refining,” he said.

“Dependence on ground water is increasing to meet the demand. As a result, the level of ground water is decreasing two-three metres (eight-10 feet) every year, which raises fears of landslide. In this situation, use of surface water is being emphasised,” he added.”

Read more: bdnews24.com

Expanding Deserts, Falling Water Tables and Toxins Driving People from Homes

Last modified on 2011-08-25 02:35:17 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“People do not normally leave their homes, their families, and their communities unless they have no other option. Yet as environmental stresses mount, we can expect to see a growing number of environmental refugees. Rising seas and increasingly devastating storms grab headlines, but expanding deserts, falling water tables, and toxic waste and radiation are also forcing people from their homes.

Advancing deserts are now on the move almost everywhere. The Sahara desert, for example, is expanding in every direction. As it advances northward, it is squeezing the populations of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria against the Mediterranean coast.

The Sahelian region of Africa – the vast swath of savannah that separates the southern Sahara desert from the tropical rainforests of central Africa – is shrinking as the desert moves southward. As the desert invades Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, from the north, farmers and herders are forced southward, squeezed into a shrinking area of productive land.”

Read more: Common Dreams

 

Vietnam’s Rice Bowl Threatened By Rising Seas

Last modified on 2011-08-23 22:15:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Sitting amid buckets of rice in the market, Nguyen Thi Lim Lien issues a warning she desperately hopes the world will hear: climate change is turning the rivers of the Mekong Delta salty.

“The government tells us that there are three grams of salt per litre of fresh water in the rivers now,” she says. “Gradually more and more people are affected. Those nearest the sea are the most affected now, but soon the whole province will be hit.”

The vast, humid expanse of the delta is home to more than 17 million people, who have relied for generations on its thousands of river arteries. But rising sea water caused by global warming is now increasing the salt content of the river water and threatening the livelihoods of millions of poor farmers and fishermen.

Vietnam is listed by the World Bank among the countries most threatened by rising waters brought about by higher global temperatures, with only the Bahamas more vulnerable to a one-metre rise in sea levels. Such a rise could leave a third of the Mekong Delta underwater and lead to mass internal migration and devastation in a region that produces nearly half of Vietnam’s rice.”

Read more: Guardian

 

U.S. Faces A Big Dam Problem In Pakistan

Last modified on 2011-08-22 21:41:20 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The United States would provide about $200 million to get the ball rolling. The Pakistani government hopes that would attract private investors and help from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Money isn’t the only problem facing the Diamer-Bhasha Dam. Its location is in the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region, adjacent to the Jammu-Kashmir state that India administers and claims as its territory. The entire border area, including Gilgit-Baltistan, has been in dispute since the India-Pakistan partition of in 1947. In any discussion of where a nuclear war might start, Kashmir is always a contender.

And then there is China, India’s not-so-friendly neighbor to the north. China is investing heavily in Pakistan. For India, the only thing worse than having the United States and the World Bank helping to build a dam in Pakistan would be for the Chinese to build it.

There’s little doubt that had the Diamer-Bhasha Dam been in place over the last two years, it would have mitigated flooding that killed an estimated 2,000 Pakistanis. Nor is there any doubt that energy-starved Pakistanis could use the 4,500 megawatts of power that the 890-foot-tall dam would generate.

Ninety percent of the $20.7 billion that the United States has sent to Pakistan to buy its cooperation in the War on Terror has gone to the Pakistani military, though military aid lately has been suspended.

Meanwhile, the Chinese buy friends in Pakistan by building nuclear power plants. The Saudis build mosques and sell them cheap oil. The United States sends them F-16s and bombs them from drone aircraft. We could use some good PR in the civilian population.”
Read more: stltoday.com

Pollution In Ganga Claims More Lives Than Bomb Blasts

Last modified on 2011-08-21 20:53:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Today most people do not realize that nearly a million people living along the banks of the Ganga die each year due to illnesses caused by its polluted water…,”

“A few dozen people dying in bomb blasts in India becomes big news worldwide, and rightly so. But the tragic deaths of many people, who are dependent on the Ganga, goes unnoticed even in India. We must change this,” he said, quoting Swami Chidanand.

“Ganga is languishing in such polluted state that people hesitate to bathe in her waters even in Kashi. This is caused by reckless and ill-planned industrialization and urbanization, made worse by lack of elementary civic facilities in towns and villages along it,” Advani observed.

“In the upper reaches of the river, hydro-electric projects have caused considerable damage to the Ganga and its natural ecology, leading to drying up of long stretches of the river-bed and depriving the nearby villagers of their main source of water, he said.

Suggesting measures to clean the river, the BJP leader quoted Swami Chidanand, “We must launch a mission, which I call the 3-T Mission — toilet in every home, tap in every home bringing clean water, and tree-plantation on a massive scale in every village and town.”

“Millions of Indians abroad would be inspired if India takes up this comprehensive Ganga Mission. They would even be willing to make generous contribution to this project,” Advani said on his blog, quoting Swami Chidanand.”

Read more: Times of India

What Italy’s Defeat of Water Privatization Means for the Rest of the World

Last modified on 2011-08-21 20:33:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“In Italy last month, an overwhelming number of people (96 percent of the 57 percent of the population that voted) cast their ballots for a peaceful future based on shared ownership of water.

The referendum overturned a law passed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government, which would have encouraged private companies to buy up public water utilities and guaranteed them a profit on their investment, opening the door to rate hikes.

The referendum also stripped Berlusconi government ministers of special court privileges and reaffirmed public opposition to nuclear power.

With the referendum victory behind them, organizers have now fixed their sights on passing a general water law to guide public management of the common good.”

Read more: Alternet

 

 

 

Pakistan’s Water Crisis

Last modified on 2011-08-18 15:05:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The problem of water scarcity in the Indus basin is predicated partly on the inherent limitations of water supply in the Indus River System and partly on the growing water demand associated with inefficient water use in the process of economic and population growth.Unsustainable development practices have exacerbated the problemwith intrusion of salinity into the ground water, contamination of aquifers with harmful chemicals such as fluoride and arsenic and pollution of surface water due to lack of an institutional framework for environmentally safe disposal of urban and industrial waste. An important dimension of the water issue in the years ahead is the phenomenon of climate change, which could take the crisis to a critical level.

Water scarcity can be measured by the availability of water compared with the generally accepted minimum per capita requirement of 1,700 cubic metres per person per year. In their book, Freshwater Under Threat: South Asia, Mukand S Babel and Shahriar M Wahid have estimated that the per capita availability of water in the Indus basin is 1,329 cubic metres per capita per year. This is significantly below the threshold requirement. Another interesting indicator of the water problem is the measure of development pressure on water resources, which is the percentage of available water supply relative to the total water resources.”

Read more: The Express Tribune

 

Desalination Should Be A Last Resort

Last modified on 2011-08-12 17:39:55 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“One of humankind’s worst tragedies is currently unfolding in the Horn of Africa, and it is caused by the absence of water. Two years of failed rain, and subsequent drought and famine, is responsible for the daily deaths of roughly 2,000 people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.

According to the Director of Yale’s Environmental Engineering Program, water scarce countries like these in Africa and the Middle East can achieve greater water security by developing desalination plants. However, as you might have guessed, this conviction does include a rather large caveat.

De-salting the sea

Menachem Elimelech also told PBS that even the most advanced desalination technologies, which are becoming increasingly necessary in countries like Israel, Singapore, and Spain, still use three times as much energy as conventional water treatment.

There are two kinds of desalination technologies at work in the world. The Gulf Countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which have been hydrating their citizens with desalinized water for decades, still rely on archaic thermal desalination plants that boil water and condense the resulting steam in order to produce potable water.

This process uses a lot of energy.

But even new technologies such as reverse osmosis, which involves blasting seawater at very high pressure through molecular-sized perforations in a plastic membrane that captures all but 0.05% of the salt pumped through it, is energy intensive.

The most advanced desalination plant requires as much electrical energy to produce 1000 liters of clean water as 30 100 watt lightbulbs left on for an hour. If this doesn’t seem a lot to you, consider this: Israel’s fifth desalination plant along the Mediterranean produces 500 million cubic meters of water every year. A cubic meter is equivalent to 1,000 liters.

That’s a lot of lightbulbs, particularly for Israel, which has very few of its own energy sources with which to power these plants. But even oil-rich nations have to exercise caution.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Blood Spills In Water War

Last modified on 2011-08-10 17:09:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Four farmers were killed in police firing as a protracted farmers’ agitation against an urban water-supply project in Pune district turned violent on Tuesday afternoon.

Several farmers and 20 policemen were injured, two of them seriously. More than 300 protesters were rounded up.

A strong crackdown restored traffic on the blocked Pune-Mumbai expressway, Pune rural police said.

Around 1.30pm, more than 400 villagers, agitating for years against an urban water supply project they fear will divert water meant for farming, clashed with police. Encircled by the mob, a police officer opened fire, the superintendent of police (Pune rural) Sandeep Karnik said.

“We fired in self-defence,” he said. “There was unfortunately no option…. When our men pleaded with them to disperse and lift their blockade, some of them pelted them with stones from behind.”

The dead, who include a woman, have been identified as Moreshwar Sopan Sathe, 40, Shyam Waghu Tupe, 40, Maruti Barku Khirode, 35, and Kantabai Ankush Thakar, 45.

Karnik said an inspector and an additional SP were among the policemen injured.

The farmers of Gahunje village, 40km from Pune, have been opposed to the project since 2008 when work on it started. They stepped up their resistance recently when it emerged the authorities had been working silently on the project that will ensure 24-hour drinking water supply to urban dwellers under a civic body run by Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.”

Read more: The Telegraph

 

Uzbekistan Weekly Roundup

Last modified on 2011-08-09 15:59:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The water wars between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan show no sign of abating, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) reports. Not only does Tashkent continue to wage an aggressive propaganda war against Tajikistan’s planned Rogun hydropower station, it has held up freight cars bound for Dushanbe on Uzbek railroads, causing heavy losses. Uzbekistan has repeatedly called for international organizations to render a judgment on the dam, evidently in the hopes that this will work in its favor.

But so far, multilateral bodies seem cautious about apportioning blame. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) recently released a report on the situation in the Amu Darya Basin, criticizing Central Asian governments for failing to come to an agreement on water issues. According to the UN report, climate change is aggravating the situation, with the number of days in the year that have temperatures higher than 40 degrees Celsius now doubled, and temperatures projected to rise in the next 50 years.

Neighboring Afghanistan, where 80 percent of the people depend on farming for a living, is also demanding more water. Johannes Linn, senior resident scholar at the Washington-based Emerging Markets Forum, says if peace finally comes to Afghanistan, there will be more irrigation needs for agriculture, RFE/RL reports. This will immediately affect Turkmenistan downstream, and then Uzbekistan. The Rogun dam will be the highest hydroelectric station in the world, and downstream, Uzbekistan understandably feels threatened as it needs water for its cotton crop, says Linn.”

Read more: Eurasianet.org

 

Iceberg Harvesting Can End Third-World Drought

Last modified on 2011-08-08 15:11:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A French entrepreneur backed by a software company claims to have proved that he can tow giant icebergs across the world to end drought conditions.

“Georges Mougin, 86, has championed his plan to harvest icebergs to solve water shortages for 40 years — and a computer simulation now shows that the ambitious project might be possible, The (London) Sunday Times reported.

“Under the plan, engineers would encircle an iceberg with a harness that contains a skirt made from an insulating textile. The skirt unfolds underwater and covers the iceberg to stop it from melting.
With the help of ocean currents, the iceberg is then towed to drought-stricken lands.

“They are floating reservoirs,” Mougin said.

“He formed his company, Iceberg Transport International, in 1976 but shelved his iceberg-towing project after he was told repeatedly that it was too expensive and too difficult.

“However, in 2009, he was approached by the French software firm Dassault Systemes, which provided Mougin with 15 engineers to build a computer simulation to test his ideas.

“The simulation proved that it was possible to tow a seven-ton (6.35-tonne) iceberg from the waters around Newfoundland, easternCanada to Spain’s Canary Islands in 141 days, with only 38 percent of the iceberg melting.”

Read more: fox news

With War And Neglect, Afghans Suffer From Water Shortage

Last modified on 2011-08-08 03:50:11 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Affluent people often use mineral and purified water sealed in bottles, while ordinary and poor residents have no choice but to live on almost contaminated water coming through underground pipelines from water tanks with poor management.

Likewise, other national infrastructure like water supply systems has also been badly damaged due to more than three decades of war and civil strife in Afghanistan.

In most of the villages, there is no water supply through pipelines and residents especially women have to travel hundreds of meters and even miles daily with pitchers on their heads to fetch drinking water which in many cases is not hygienic.

Continued drought and protracted war added to the environmental problems in the war-ravaged central Asian state.

Air pollution has also been contributing to contaminating underground water sources in Afghanistan.

The head of Afghan Environment Directorate Mustafa Zahir has warned that 68 percent of Kabul’s underground water is contaminated.”

Read more: Xinhuanet

 

Cleaning Citarum

Last modified on 2011-08-08 03:31:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“It has been two years since the government embarked on a grand scheme to clean Citarum River and its tributaries, which 25 million people depend on water and electricity.

The first year was spent planning the gargantuan task of cleaning the heavily polluted river, while last year saw the start of several programs out of a total of 80 that are planned.

The program, Integrated Citarum: Water Resources Management Investment Program — or the Citarum Roadmap for short — is a 15-year plan to reduce pollution in the Citarum River. The roadmap encompasses 80 activities, from waterway management and environmental preservation, to disaster mitigation and community empowerment.

This year, several government bodies have started running their programs, including raising awareness and constructing physical infrastructure.

The project is the first of its kind in terms of scale, and the extensive involvement of various stakeholders, from local communities and NGOs, to seven ministries and 12 local administrations.

The government teams in the field, however, have been facing various kinds of challenges.

Many factories still dump their untreated waste in the river, polluting Citarum with heavy metals that will not be easy to remove. The administrations, meanwhile, have yet to enforce the bylaw on industrial waste. ”

Read more: The Jakarta Post

Work underway on controversial Mekong River dam

Last modified on 2011-08-05 19:38:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“By building this dam, Laos is disregarding its regional commitments and robbing the future of millions of people in the region who rely upon the river for their livelihood and food security,” said Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia program director for International Rivers.

The dam — the first of 11 proposed in the waterway’s lower basin — would generate 1,260 megawatts of electricity, mostly for export to Thailand, according to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) — created by Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in 1995 to oversee sustainable development along the waterway.

Laos proposed building the dam in September 2010, the main goal being to generate “foreignexchange earnings for financing socio-economic development in Lao PDR,” according to the river commission.

Under earlier agreements, Laos has the right to proceed on its own without approval of the other three nations. But Laos’ choice in late April to defer a decision appeared to indicate that the desperately poor country wants its neighbors’ support, especially that of Vietnam, which is a major trading partner and political patron.”

Read more: MSNBC

 

Harvest rainwater or your taps could run dry

Last modified on 2011-08-04 02:49:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“BANGALORE: The BWSSB has empowered itself to take stern action against owners of those houses where rainwater harvesting (RWH) apparatus is not installed. Having issued a deadline of December 31, 2011, for installation, and published a gazette notification on July 7, BWSSB can now cut off water and sanitary connections to houses without RWH.Through the notification, the regulations titledBangalore Water Supply and Sewerage (Rain Water Harvesting) (Amendment) Regulations, 2011, have come into force. The amendment states that where the owner or occupier of a building fails to provide RWH within the deadline, modified under section 72A of the Act, water supply could be disconnected.

BWSSB chairman PB Ramamurthy called on citizens to install rainwater harvesting by December 31. A senior BWSSB official said if they fail to adhere to the deadline, the water board can disconnect water and sanitary connections.”

Read more: Times of India

LAOS: Villagers brace for relocation as dam project moves forward

Last modified on 2011-07-29 17:57:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“I don’t have any power over this decision,” said Ting, 50, who like other Lao villagers, goes by only one name. He earns a living ferrying passengers across the Mekong River in a motorized skiff and lives in Pakmon, a village of 150 families just 30km upstream from the proposed US$3.8 billion dam in the impoverished Xayaburi Province.

“In June, a Lao official came to Pakmon and said any families who lived below 275m – the projected height of the dam’s reservoir – would be forced to relocate.

Now Ting and other villagers, many of whom earn no more than US$500 per year, are anxious to see if the dam will be built, and how their main livelihoods – fishing and farming – will be affected.

According to the US environmental group International Rivers, more than 2,100 people will be forcibly resettled and 200,000 people will be affected.

“Given the Laos government’s legacy of poor planning and uncompensated losses, the communities that will be forcibly resettled by the dam are likely to suffer greatly,” Ame Trandem, a spokesperson for International Rivers, told IRIN.

“Unchartered waters”

Plans to dam the lower stretch of the Mekong, the world’s 12th-largest river, have put Laos on a collision course with its neighbours and environmentalists, who fear livelihoods, fish species and farmland could be destroyed, undermining the food security of thousands.

China, which borders Laos, already operates four dams on the upper stretch of the river.”

Read more: Irin

Can water end the Arab-Israeli conflict?

Last modified on 2011-07-29 17:45:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Around three weeks ago on a late Tuesday morning, Israeli soldiers armed with a truck and a digger entered the Palestinian village of Amniyr and destroyed nine water tanks . One week later, Israeli forces demolished water wells and water pumps in the villages of Al-Nasaryah, Al-Akrabanyah and Beit Hassan in the Jordan Valley. In Bethlehem, a severe water shortage have led to riots in refugee camps and forced hoteliers to pay over the odds for water just to stop tourists from leaving.

Palestinians insist that the Israeli occupation means that they are consistently denied their water rights which is why they have to live on 50 litres of water a day while Israeli settlers enjoy the luxury of 280 litres. Clearly, water is at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, but commentators are now insisting that shared water problems could help motivate joint action and better co-operation between both sides, which could in turn help end the conflict.

“It’s a shame that water is being used as a form of collective punishment when it could be used to build trust and to help each side recognise that the other is a human being with water rights,” says Nader Al-Khateeb, the Palestinian director of the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME).

“We should be using water as a tool for peace and to bridge the gap of confidence in the region - not to create a water crisis,” he adds. As part of his work with FoEME - which also operates in Israel and Jordan - Al-Khateeb says he has already witnessed the success of co-operative water projects. Over the past ten years, the FoEME “Good Water Neighbors” initiative has brought together 29 cross-border communities to encourage them to work together to resolve shared water problems.”

Read more: Aljazeera

 

Water Woes, Tensions And Wars

Last modified on 2011-07-29 17:38:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The water spring lies in our area and you dare connect pipes and take away all our water?” shouts Rajesh Thapa, a resident of the upper Tara at Sita Ram Dahal, a resident from the lower Gadhi.

“There’s not enough water for us. Our water mills are drying up and if this continues, we don’t care. We’ll wreck your intake tanks and pipes.”

“As Dahal squares it out with Thapa, villagers from Tara have gathered around the small teashop where once again a tiff has broken out. It goes on for an hour or more and Dahal, outnumbered, finally walks away grumbling, “They just don’t listen…”

Dahal, secretary of the Gadhi Drinking Water Supply Project User’s Committee, later says that the conflict has been going on for two years now.

According to him, the committee took over the project in 1997 as the service from the project was becoming irregular and inefficient due to lack of proper maintenance. With the help of the Federation of Water and Sanitation Users in Nepal (FEDWASUN), it lobbied and succeeded in receiving a separate budget for the rehabilitation of the nearly defunct project from the annual plan of the District Development Committee (DDC). Since then, he says, due to some miscommunication over financial aid and benefits to the local people, the upper village communities started opposing the project rehabilitation plan.”

Read more: Republica

Will China’s designs on the Brahmaputra leave India parched?

Last modified on 2011-07-25 21:55:27 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“With climate change leading to the decreased inflow of water into the Himalayan rivers, water disputes among the countries sharing waters of the Himalayan rivers is expected to assume serious proportions in the years ahead.

Not long back, Sardar Asef Ali, an adviser to the Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, had remarked that the sharing of river water is a sensitive issue and it could trigger a war between India and Pakistan. Without mincing words, he said, “India will have to stop stealing Pakistan’s water as the latter will not hesitate to wage a war”. He also said that the Indus water treaty was a proper forum for resolving the water dispute between the two countries.

Against this backdrop, the most recent Chinese plan to diver the water of Brahmaputra to its Xinjiang provinces which is water deficient is a matter of concern for India. For an overwhelming proportion of the population in north eastern India is dependent on this river for its very survival.

Following a mounting concern in the political circles over the Chinese move, India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna informed the Indian Parliament in June that India will take up the issue with China after getting proper feedback on the Chinese plan on the Brahmaputra diversion project.”

Read more: DNA

 

 

Water Experts Warn of Conflict Over Mekong Dams

Last modified on 2011-07-21 15:38:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The race for hydropower development among Mekong countries could lead to conflicts or even war over water, regional security experts say.

Hydroelectric projects have begun to spring up across the Mekong River, with some already under way and other already creating tensions between Southeast Asian neighbors.

Experts on water security met in Siem Reap on Friday at a two-day conference of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific in an effort to address upcoming issues surrounding such projects and other water conflict.

“Some water-related conflicts will take place because some farmers or people who used to be living alongside the Mekong River basin, because of the dam construction, they need to be resettled, which means that there are refugees because of the dam construction, and then it will give some kinds of social impacts on particularly poor people and the marginalized,” Seungho Lee, a water expert from Korea University, based in Seoul, said on the sidelines of the conference Friday.”

Read more: VOA

 

Water pollution and health awareness driving bottled water consumption in China

Last modified on 2011-07-21 15:40:44 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Bottled water plays a major role in solving water pollution problems and providing the public with safe and convenient drinking water. It is one of the fastest growing and competitive industries in China.

The report begins with an overview to the bottled water market in China covering the market size and growth. It also gives a brief introduction to the various bottled water segments widely used in the market. It further shows overall import and export of mineral and aerated water, as well as the segmented share for major countries.

An analysis of the drivers influencing the industry growth includes China’s rampant water pollution, increasing health awareness, poor quality tap water, huge population and increasing disposable income, panic water buying triggered by chemical spills and impact of natural calamities.”

Read more: openpr

North India Hydro Boom Leaves Communities High and Dry

Last modified on 2011-07-19 22:08:11 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Rivers and streams are being diverted from one valley into another, with serious impacts. The 800 MW Parbati-II Hydroelectric Project is one such example. The Parbati River is  just one of a number of rivers and streams being diverted through a long tunnel from the Parbati valley into the Sainj valley.  A part of the Great Himalayan National Park was de-listed to permit the project to go forward, despite the fact that the area was a prime nesting site for the rare Western Tragopan bird, for the conservation of which the park has been set up. Another project will devastate a local apple-growing community by drying up about 35 of their water springs.

Projects are being built and proposed at higher and higher altitudes and closer and closer to the snowline (and the Chinese border). The Kashang projects start around 3,000 m. (10,000 feet). If one is to go by the ecological devastation caused by projects at lower altitudes, the prospect of what will happen to the fragile Alpine ecosystem is frightening. Himanshu Thakkar, Coordinator of SANDRP, says that the projects will change the microclimate which will result in accelerated melting of the snow and glaciers. The strategic implications of having these projects so close to the border with China are not being discussed in the public domain.

Cascade dams do not leave any stretch of the river flowing free.  Sutlej River originates from Lake Rakshastal in China. It enters India in Kinnaur District of the State. Within 7 kms (4.3 miles) of entering India it flows from one tunnel into another. All these projects are so-called run-of-river projects. It is funny (in a sad way) how these projects are proposed. It is said that the powerhouse of the proposed 261 MW Yangthang-Khab project will be submerged in the reservoir of the proposed 1020 MW Khab-Shaso project. Both project proponents are in a race to acquire all permissions and sanctions before the other to win the battle of the duelling dams.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

Catastrophe looms unless China signs water-sharing agreement with India

Last modified on 2011-07-18 16:45:06 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The new plans involve the diversion of water from the Brahmaputra to the upper reaches of the north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang which has recently experienced serious droughts.

The plans follow the announcement in 2010 that China is building a hydroelectric project near the ‘great bend’ in the Yarlung Tsangpo, as the Brahmaputra is called in Tibet. The hydroelectric dam is the biggest in the world and will have an electrical capacity almost half that of the UK National Grid.

The Brahmaputra originates in south-western Tibet and flows through southern Tibet, breaking through the Himalayas and into Arunachal Pradesh in India. It flows south-west through the Assam Valley then South through Bangladesh. It merges with the Padma River in the Ganges Delta, before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

The river is hugely important for irrigation and transportation in the region, and is highly susceptible to channel migration. The lower reaches are sacred to Hindus.

The level of apprehension in India is particularly high because of China’s level of secrecy regarding water flows. China refuses to enter into any water-sharing agreement with its neighbours and in the past major dam building and diversionary projects have only become public when spotted on satellite pictures of the region.”

Read more: Left Foot Forward

 

Water Not Fit For Drinking

Last modified on 2011-07-17 15:26:06 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“ALLAHABAD: Several localities in Old City areas including Dariyabad, Rani Mandi, Nakhas Kohna, Ahmadganj and others are receiving contaminated water supply over the past several months and nothing has been done by the health department and Allahabad Jal Sansthan to resolve their misery.

The pipelines supplying drinking water to the area are choked with sewage water and other impurities. A resident of Dariyabad complains, “Nothing has been done uptil now despite the fact that people are falling sick on a regular basis but the water supply has not been improved.”

Similarly residents of the densely populated areas of Khuldabad, Himmatganj and Rajroopur also complained of the contaminated water supply in the areas. Here, water flowing in sewerline is mixing with main water supply line due to leakage in joints and as a result, contaminated water is flowing in taps.”

Read more: The Times of India

 

Majority of water bodies facing extinction

Last modified on 2011-07-14 06:55:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“All is not well with the health of Hyderabad’s water bodies. With the authorities turning a blind eye to the plight of these lakes, more than 70 per cent of them have either been encroached upon by private parties, turned into dump yards or filled up to make way for a more lucrative realty project.

“Be it the major water bodies like Hussain Sagar, Himayat Sagar, and Osman Sagar or the lesser known `kuntas’ like Yerra kunta (Saroornagar), Khaja Guda (Gachibowli), Mundli kunta (Kukatpally), Thammidi kunta (Hi-Tec City), Erla Cheruvu (Lingampally) among others, all have met with a similar fate of exploitation and neglect.

“And a toothless Lake Protection Committee (LPC), constituted under the Hyderbad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) a year ago, has not improved matters any better. Complaints registered with this committee that has been entrusted with the job of maintaining Hyderabad’s lakes and tanks either go unheard or are forgotten soon after a preliminary visit to the site.

“Take the case of Chakali Vani Kunta near serene water body, which is one among the many small lakes dotting the area, now has a concrete wall standing tall right in the middle of it. Local activists allege that it is the doing of Rajiv Swagruha project authorities who have a housing scheme there. While the matter has been repeatedly posted with the protection committee, little has been done about it so far.”

Read more: Times of India

KMSS declares crusade against construction of Subansiri dam

Last modified on 2011-07-12 16:24:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS) on Sunday declared a statewide crusade against Congress government’s decision to continue construction of the Lower Subansiri National Hydel Power project at any cost.

The announcement came after chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday talked about bringing back the barges carrying the turbines of the mega dam which were sent back by KMSS on their way to Gerukamukh.

Asking every individual of the state and organization to come under one roof to fight against construction of the the mega dam, KMSS general secretary Akhil Gogoi asked the Centre to declare the Brahmaputra river stretch as “neutral river zone” for the sake of protecting the riverine rights of the state and its bio-diversity.”

Read more: Times of India

City learns U.S. model to control pollution of Saigon River

Last modified on 2011-07-11 18:41:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“This is the first time the city applies the approach of EPA for controlling pollution of the Saigon River, and this model could be applied for other river basins in Vietnam,” Triet told the Daily on the sidelines of a seminar on measures to fight pollution of the Saigon River that was held here yesterday.

At the moment, his institute is making a master project of seeking feasible solutions to protect the water source of the river so as to ensure crude water supply for the whole city in the future.

He said with this master project, the institute suggested HCMC, Binh Duong and Tay Ninh provinces to carry out 13 priority projects to quickly control the river’s pollution between now and 2015. The project has total implementing budget of over VND17 trillion, or some US$820 million.

The Saigon River has been severely polluted by receiving huge amounts of untreated industrial and household wastewater each day.

At the moment, HCMC alone discharges over one million cubic meters of household wastewater into the river each day. Furthermore, Binh Duong is also discharging 41,500 cubic meters of urban wastewater and another amount of over 40,000 cubic meters of industrial wastewater each day.

Le Viet Thang, a scientist of the institute, told the seminar that a recent research had discovered that over 80% of the household wastewater along the river basin was still untreated, all flowing into the Saigon River.

INDIA – CHINA – TIBET The difficult relationship between India and China over the Brahmaputra River

Last modified on 2011-07-11 18:29:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China and India are facing growing needs for water,” Rev Nishant said. “Both these nations have limited water resources. However, the increasing use of water in agriculture and industry has lead to a tussle for water. The two neighbouring countries are entering a phase when water is scarce and if the water deficit grows at the same frantic pace, the economic growth of both countries may suffer.”

“China and India, the exporters of food, would become largely importers of food – an unfortunate turn that would add to the global food crisis. India has more agricultural land than China (160.5 million hectares against 137.1 million hectares), but most of the large Indian rivers have their source in Tibet. All major rivers of Asia originate from the Tibetan plateau, except the Ganges.”

“China now wants to implement projects to redirect water from rivers that flow from the Tibetan plateau. This would affect the flow of trans-boundary rivers into India and in other neighbouring countries. Dams, canals and irrigation systems can make water a political weapon. Even the refusal to share hydrological data at this juncture of crucial importance is equivalent to using water as a political weapon.”

Read more: Spero

France Becomes First Nation To Ban Fracking

Last modified on 2011-07-07 18:32:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“France became the first nation to ban the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking in drilling for natural gas and oil on June 30 when French senators voted to ban the practice. Oil and gas companies operating in France with fracking permits will have them revoked according to the legislation passed by a 176 to 151 vote. The bill passed the National Assembly on June 21.

“We are at the end of a legislative marathon that stirred emotion from lawmakers and the public,” French Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said late yesterday before the vote. Hydraulic fracturing will be illegal and parliament would have to vote for a new law to allow research using the technique, she said.

France’s fracking ban comes at the same time that the New Jersey State Senate voted to ban the practice, which contaminates drinking water. For a bit of more good news, North Carolina’s Governor Bev Perdue vetoed a state senate bill that would have allowed fracking in the state.”

Read more: care2

 

The Decline Of Agriculture?

Last modified on 2011-07-05 16:36:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Severe weather events around the world will increase, even parts of the globe that don’t normally see extreme weather events,” said Steff Gaulter, Al Jazeera’s senior weather presenter. “Those parts of the world that already struggle with water shortages will find matters worsening, including Australia, Mexico, the southwest United States, and parts of Africa.”

Gaulter agrees with the FAO that poorer countries are likely to be the worst affected because they have less resources to cope with disasters.

“With worsening water-shortages, there will be more crop-failures, which means an increase in malnutrition,” she added. “There is also likely to be an increase in disease as people drink water that is unsuitable for consumption. All of this is an added expense that will be particularly punishing for poorer regions to endure, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Approximately 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa currently lack access to clean drinking water.

“It is also estimated that by 2020, an additional 75 to 250 million people there will also face water shortages,” said Gaulter. “That’s in less than ten years.”

Read more: Aljazeera

Britain’s Rivers ‘Being Ruined By Demands Of Water Companies’

Last modified on 2011-07-03 14:59:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Current abstraction by firms from rivers and groundwater sources is so high that it would take the equivalent of 23 million people to stop using water every day to get back to environmentally sustainable levels.

The report by Policy Exchange, David Cameron’s favourite think-tank, calls for the UK’s water companies to be charged more for using the most environmentally vulnerable rivers and boreholes, with cheaper rates for those that frequently flood.

This would force companies to use the most at-risk sources less often, and allow those rivers to eventually return to environmentally sustainable levels, the report argues. There would also be higher charges for abstraction during droughts.”

Read more: The Independent

 

Burma’s war in Kachin State directly related to the Chinese dams?

Last modified on 2011-07-03 05:27:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Last Friday, hundreds of people in the US, Denmark, United Kingdom, Malaysia, and elsewhere gathered to protest the recent deadly clashes between Burmese authorities and ethnic militias in Burma’s northern Kachin State.

Standing in front of Burmese and Chinese embassies, Kachin nationals held up placards calling end to the hostility plus to stop dam-building by Chinese companies in Kachin State, Kachin News Group said.

Chinese power companies are building a series of dams in northern Burma to supply electricity to China. The biggest and most controversial of these dams is the Myitsone Dam, a massive 3,600MW hydropower plant being built by China Power Investment and situated in an area of great cultural and ecological significance. The environmental impact assessment on this first dam on the Irrawaddy also expressed grave concerns.

According to the Burma Rivers Network, the current conflict is closely related to the dams. The government has sent in troops because it wants to gain control of a region that hosts major Chinese investments in hydropower. Kachin State has till now been largely controlled by Kachin forces.”

Read more: Asian Correspondent

 

Ravi Water Flow: India, Pak Engineers Battle It Out

Last modified on 2011-07-01 16:47:07 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“AMRITSAR: Every year the banks of river Ravi becomes the battle field for the engineers of both India and Pakistan during rainy the season. Indian engineers are at war of wits with their Pakistani counterparts in not only preventing the erosion of strategically important land on banks of Ravi but also in neutralising Pakistan’s offensive to deflect river course to India.

Sources informed TOI on Thursday that Pakistan has constructed various bundhs along the river in Amritsar and Gurdaspur sectors to deflect the river course. They have also constructed defense structures including bunkers by raising high bundh on Ichhogil canal.

Due to construction of these bundhs, a large part of land from Ranian and Kakkar villages of Indian side are washed away during the rainy season. During this season Pakistan releases water, nearly one lakh cusec, from its villages of Mandhal and Marala and it increases the water level in Indian villages up to 3 lakh cusec. This high flow of water submerges villages around Ranian and Kakkar. ”

Read more: The Times of India

Water wars: 21st century conflicts?

Last modified on 2011-06-29 19:09:17 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water scarcity is an issue exacerbated by demographic pressures, climate change and pollution,” said Ignacio Saiz, director of Centre for Economic and Social Rights, a social justice group. “The world’s water supplies should guarantee every member of the population to cover their personal and domestic needs.”

“Fundamentally, these are issues of poverty and inequality, man-made problems,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Of all the water on earth, 97 per cent is salt water and the remaining three per cent is fresh, with less than one per cent of the planet’s drinkable water readily accessible for direct human uses. Scarcity is defined as each person in an area having access to less than 1,000 cubic meters of water a year.

The areas where water scarcity is the biggest problem are some of the same places where political conflicts are rife, leading to potentially explosive situations.

Some experts believe the only documented case of a “water war” happened about 4,500 years ago, when the city-states of Lagash and Umma went to war in the Tigris-Euphrates basin.”

Read more: Aljazeera

 

 

 

Agra plan to clean filthy Yamuna

Last modified on 2011-06-28 18:58:36 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Uttar Pradesh officials have devised a novel method to clean up the highly-polluted Yamuna river: excavate 10 ponds to store waste water that was hitherto flowing into the river from 19 drains, treat this and then use it to create clusters of greenery along the river.

“This project envisages a series of 10 ponds along the river to store drain water for treatment. The plan will not only recharge underground reserves but help our greening efforts in a big way, plus of course prevent polluted water from flowing into the river directly,” District Forest Officer N.K. Janoo said.

“Around 30 million litres of water from the 19 drains will be treated every single day. Dirty water will be flushed into ponds using gravitational force. The size of the ponds will vary, according to the capacity and catchment area of each drain.

“The patches for the massive sapling plantation programme, along the river front in the city, have been identified, Janoo added. In the first phase of the project, about 2.5 km area from Hathi Ghat to the Lal Ghat area of the city will be used as pond and plantation sites.

“The plan has received general approval from the state government. Details have to be filled in, for which a series of surveys and strategising excercises are being conducted with the cooperation of related government bodies and NGOs.”

Read more: ndtv

Floods, Droughts, And A Global Water Warning

Last modified on 2011-06-27 17:58:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE ), a joint satellite mission by NASA and the German space agency DLR, tracks freshwater availability over the globe. And according to hydrologist James Famiglietti at the University of California, Irvine, it’s not revealing a pretty picture. His team has observed steadily declining groundwater reserves in many of the world’s major aquifers, particularly those in the arid and semi-arid parts of the globe. Between 1994 and 2006, annual fresh-water flow increased 18% suggesting an acceleration in the global water cycle of evaporation and rainfall.

A redistribution of precipitation from the mid latitudes to higher and lower latitudes means that wet regions get wetter and dry get drier . Famigliette’s research is among the first to demonstrate that these conditions–previously predicted by climate models–are already happening. And this isn’t just a story about available drinking water because it causes tremendous concerns about food, energy, economic, and international security.”

Read more: Wired

 

China’s Water War With India

Last modified on 2011-06-27 15:27:29 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Is China trying to divert the Brahmaputra waters to its dry north and north-western regions? Or, is it merely trying to build small dams along the river? The Government of India seems clueless if SM Krishna’s recent remarks are any indication. Can the country afford to ignore such a momentous issue?

Sometimes news found in the mainstream Indian media can be flabbergasting. Take the case of the purported ‘diversion’ of the Yarlung Tsangpo. A ‘serious’ national newspaper spoke of the “Yarlang Tsangpo, it is what the Brahmaputra river is called in Mandarin”. Yarlung (not Yarlang) Tsangpo is the Tibetan name for the river originating near Mt Kailash. It has nothing to do with Mandarin.

The article further states that the Ministry of Water Resources has asked the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) for a report on the Chinese activities near the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo, as it enters Indian territory: “Sources do not rule out the possibility that the ‘new’ images could be of existing structures, since the resolution of India’s satellite images has increased substantially in recent months… This means structures, which have been there, are now visible in much greater detail.”

Great news, but the NRSC scientists are wasting their time looking for structures near the Grand Bend of the Brahmaputra. In reality, the diversion is planned a few hundred kilometres upstream, near the city of Tsetang in Central Tibet.

It seems the Ministry hasn’t done its homework before sending a request to NRSC. Also, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna is not a good student. He mixes the ‘diversion scheme’ with the dams being built on the Brahmaputra. While answering a question on the diversion, he affirms that Zangmu Dam “is no cause of concern to India as it is a ‘run off the river’ dam”. ”

Read more: The Daily Pioneer

Double Choke Point: Demand for Energy Tests Water Supply and Economic Stability in China and the U.S.

Last modified on 2011-06-25 16:34:09 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The coal mines of Inner Mongolia, China and the oil and gas fields of the northern Great Plains in the United States are separated by 11,200 kilometers (7,000 miles) of ocean and 5,600 kilometers (3,500 miles) of land.

But, in form and function, the two fossil fuel development zones—the newest and largest in both nations—are illustrations of the escalating clash between energy demand and freshwater supplies that confront the stability of the world’s two biggest economies. How each nation responds will profoundly influence energy prices, food production, and economic security not only in their domestic markets, but also across the globe.

Both energy zones require enormous quantities of water—to mine, process, and use coal; to drill, fracture, and release oil and natural gas from deep layers of shale. Both zones also occur in some of the driest regions in China and the U.S. And both zones reflect national priorities on fossil fuel production that are causing prodigious damage to the environment and putting enormous upward pressure on energy prices and inflation in China and the United States, say economists and scholars.”

Read more: Circle of Blue

 

Why a Corporate Power Grab at the UN Threatens Our Most Critical Resource

Last modified on 2011-06-24 20:26:36 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“There is no admission of problems with the Water Mandate, or the United Nations Global Compact itself” — the strategic policy initiative committed to human rights, labor and the environment – Blue Gold and Blue Covenant author and activist Maude Barlow, who also chairs the National Council of Canadians and Food & Water Watch, explained to AlterNet. “These initiatives continue to flourish, not least because the most powerful member states of the United Nations are fully behind them. This also means that the United Nations is not funded fully. Programs and agencies often rely on private sponsorship to function, and are often barely getting their core administrative budgets funded.”

“Another major problem is that routinely compromised and controversial institutions like World Bank, International Monetary Fund and regional development banks in general are in control of the United Nations’ biggest projects. In April, the World Bank assumed control of the United Nations Climate Conference’s new $100 billion Green Fund, which is the opposite of a comforting proposition, considering the World Bank’s repeatedly noxious financing of oil and coal projects.”

“That gives control of billions of dollars to those who have been the most ardent promoters of water privatization,” added Barlow, whose foreword for the Council of Canadians’ recently damning report on private sector influence over the United Nations (PDF) argued that the planet is on the verge of a water crisis of terrifying proportions. “We’re also seeing the IMF forcing indebted nations to sell off public assets, including water systems, as a condition of receiving financial support. The whole system is rigged for these corporations, and they still are losing contracts, not meeting their obligations and watching as remunicipalization moves forward in France and other core markets.”

Read more: AlterNet

Five women land in jail on dacoity charges after a water war

Last modified on 2011-06-23 15:02:45 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The family had an altercation with their neighbour in Sangam Vihar over filling their buckets in 2006 summer from a public water tanker and in a fit of rage they ended up entering into their neighbour’s house and creating a ruckus. The neighbour, in turn, accused them of looting various articles and properties from their house and named all the six members of the family as trespassers. They were booked by the police for committing dacoity under section 395 of the Indian Penal Code which entails a sentence up to life imprisonment. The counsel for the convicts sought leniency saying there was no one else in their family to look after their children and a harsher view, taken by the court, would ruin their lives.”

Read more: IBN Live

Central Asian States To Fight For water

Last modified on 2011-06-22 15:28:16 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“During the Soviet regime, this phenomenon was observed in all Central Asian republics. Through the development of technology it became possible to irrigate the former alpine pastures and water consumption has significantly increased.

Further increase in water intake was one of the main reasons for the Aral Sea disaster, which made the vast areas within a radius of hundreds of kilometers of coastline of the former Aral Sea unsuitable for human life.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the region’s water problems have become more acute. First, the central authority that to some extent smoothed the contradictions between the elites, playing an arbiter in resolving major issues, and was a financial contributor and resource for local republics, has disappeared.

When they became independent, in addition to freedom the newly formed government acquired numerous problems. The economic development in the region in previous years was carried out mainly with Moscow funds. Now they had to cope on their own. Various tricks of the local elites to obtain preferential loans from Russia were not a way out. With the exception of Kazakhstan, the standard of living in the rest of the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union rapidly descended to the indicators of the most Third World countries.

In particular, it was applicable to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. One way to overcome poverty and reach recovery was ambitious water projects in these countries. The largest of them is a construction site Rogun on Tajik territory, strongly opposed by Uzbekistan, fearing that it will not have enough water.”

Read more: Pravada

 

Kaoline Plant to Blame for River Pollution

Last modified on 2011-06-21 17:39:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“GUANGZHOU – A kaoline plant is to blame for water pollution that caused death of huge amount of fish in South China’s Guangdong province, local environment authorities confirmed Monday.

Huazhou-based Deying Kaoline Plant has been illegally discharging untreated acid waste water to the Longwo River close to the village of Longtan, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Environmental Protection said in a statement after an investigation.

Local residents complained on Sunday via Internet postings that huge amount of fish died as a result of water pollution.

The postings also said thousands of residents along the river were affected by the pollution, and some began to store up bottled water.

The provincial environmental protection department has since ordered the local government to halt the discharging of waste water from the plant and use lime to neutralize the contaminated water.

By Monday evening, water quality in the Longwo River has been improved and the Hedi Reservoir, a drinking water resource in the lower reaches of the river, is in normal condition, said the statement.

The Guangdong provincial environmental monitoring center also enhanced surveillance on water quality in the area, it said.”

Read more: China Daily

 

Water lilies cause massive Philippines flooding

Last modified on 2011-06-20 19:50:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“More than half a million people in the southern Philippines have been affected by flooding after water lilies clogged the country’s second longest river, officials said Monday.

“The lilies smothered a section of the 320 kilometre (200 mile) Rio Grande, preventing the water from emptying into the Moro Gulf to the southwest of Mindanao island after strong rains over the past week, authorities said.

“The Rio Grande is the longest river in the Philippines’ main southern island of Mindanao, and is the country’s second biggest river system overall.

“Twenty-three municipalities are already flooded, affecting 559,067 people,” regional social welfare head Pombaen Kader told AFP by telephone from the southern city of Cotabato.

“Water levels started going up in recent days owing to heavy rain, and “the river flooded its banks because water could not pass through thick water lilies”, she said.

“Kader said the water had reached rooftops in some places, forcing authorities to evacuate more than 1,000 people. Many others had refused to leave, despite their homes being partially submerged, she said.

“Troops have been struggling to cut through the packed water lilies while battling intermittent rains and strong currents, regional military spokesman Colonel Prudencio Asto told AFP.

“We had about 400 to 500 soldiers helping out in the effort. They are trying to cut through the growth using chain saws,” Asto said.

“He said that last week the water lilies covered up to 25 hectares (62 acres) of water.

“The growth was about 10 feet thick in some areas and so tightly packed that they (troops) could walk on top of it,” Asto said.

Read more: Google

Palestinian Environmentalist Talks About Water, Dams & Finding Peace

Last modified on 2011-06-17 17:08:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A passionate advocate for better water policies, he was part of the team which recently constructed a dam near Jericho to harvest rain run-off in the winter months. With a capacity of approx 700,000m³, it is hoped that the new dam constructed at Al-Ouja Wadi (around 13kms north of Jericho) will help alleviate the worst of the water problems facing the city. For example, the dam aims to dilute the increasing salinity of the underground water wells which makes the water undrinkable.

Although the dam is the first to be built by an entirely Palestinian team, Al Harithi recognises the importance of co-operation between Israel and Palestine to resolve shared problems such as water scarcity.

“You may know the axiom ‘environment knows no boundaries,” says Al-Harithi, “therefore I believe Israelis and Palestinians can concentrate efforts to find solutions for the many environmental problems that face both nations- not only the water issues but also the degradation of many eco-systems, trans-boundary environmental pollution like burning of huge amounts of plastic in open air as well as biodiversity conservation. If these issues – and others – are not solved in bilateral cooperative ways, then only God knows how the future would deteriorate!”

Since 1989, Al Harithi has also been involved in various projects to promote peace at a grassroots level in Jordan, Palestine and Israel. He went on to establish the Palestinian Peace Society which focuses on co-existance work between Palestinians and Israelis to ease the tensions of conflict.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Dozens Killed In Burma Amid Clashes Over Chinese Dams

Last modified on 2011-06-16 22:07:16 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Dozens of people in northern Burma have reportedly been killed in the clashes between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army. Thousands more are trying to flee across the border after fierce fighting erupted this month around the construction sites of two Chinese-financed dams in the region.

Amid growing fears that the conflict could escalate, the Burma Rivers Network said China‘s massive hydropower investments had widened the gulf between the government – which wants to benefit from cross-border electricity sales – and Kachin independence groups, which fear the dams will bring environmental, cultural and social disruption.

“The conflict is closely related to the dams. The government has sent in troops because it wants to gain control of a region that hosts major Chinese investments in hydropower,” Sai Sai, of the Burma Rivers Network, told the Guardian.

Details of the fighting remain sketchy. The authorities have yet to acknowledge the conflict. The Irrawaddy magazine – which is published online by overseas critics of the Rangoon government – said stability in northern Burma had deteriorated rapidly with several explosions in the Kachin state capital, Myitkyina, the government closure of Sino-Burmese trading routes and the destruction of at least three bridges.”

Read more: Guardian

 

The Reason For Our Water Crisis

Last modified on 2011-06-16 15:43:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The equitable allocation of shared water resources is a principle codified under customary international water law. It applies both to the underground mountain aquifers that straddle the 1967 line separating Israel from the West Bank, as well as to the coastal aquifer that runs the length of the Mediterranean coast and under Gaza. It also applies to the Jordan River Basin.

This principle means that wherever water crosses one or more borders, it must be shared fairly, and equitably and in a manner that respects the water rights of all those involved.

To most people, this would seem perfectly reasonable. Not to Gilad Erdan, however, whose performance helped explain why few in the international community believe the current Israeli government is genuine or capable of negotiating real peace, and why international support for UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September continues growing apace.

In particular, Erdan shamelessly tried to blame the severe water crisis affecting Palestinians on Palestinians, singling out for particular criticism the refusal of PA officials such as myself to meet with Israeli officials. His claims were repeated in The Jerusalem Post two weeks ago.”

Read more: The Jerusalem Post

China’s Drought Threatens Farm Income, Drinking Water, Wildlife and Hydropower

Last modified on 2011-06-14 19:41:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“To cope with the drought, Beijing ordered the Three Gorges Dam — the world’s largest hydroelectric plant, built at the upstream Yangtze River — to sacrifice its power generation for irrigation and drinking water.

Over the last three weeks, every minute, some 600,000 cubic meters of water — equivalent to the volume of seven Olympic-size swimming pools — was released from the dam to the drought-stricken areas. But this is viewed as a late gift.

“The dam operators lack experience in managing the water flow,” said Yang Fuqiang, a senior adviser on climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “They waited for too long until the drought impact reached extremes. And when they finally released water, the natural connection between the river and surrounding lakes was already broken, making it difficult to refill the lakes.”

Water levels in many lakes, streams and reservoirs along the Yangtze River were reported to be close to historic lows, until last week saw heavy rains. In part of the drought-hit regions, the sudden water increase on sun-baked soils caused floods that blocked roads, destroyed houses and displaced families. However, in other parts, some 2 million people are still lacking drinking water.”

Read more: New York Times

 

Sri Lanka Rural Communities Bank On Safe Drinking Water

Last modified on 2011-06-14 15:51:21 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

Dam Project in Turkey Breeds Controversy

Last modified on 2011-06-13 17:45:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“HASANKEYF, Turkey, Jun 13, 2011 (IPS) – The tranquillity and mystery of this town on the banks of Tigris River will not last long. The millennia-old town will be nearly totally destroyed once the nearby Ilisu dam, built for energy and irrigation, is complete.

“I don’t want to be forced to move from here,” said Nurten Kandemir, 27, who was born and has lived most of her life here. Kandemir’s family along with other residents of the town have to evacuate the area in the coming months. “I feel a part of my body is taken away from me,” she told IPS.

Hasankeyf is dotted with captivating architecture surviving from the times of Roman, Byzantine, Assyrian and Muslim empires.

The construction of Ilisu, part of the larger South-eastern Anatolia Project, started in 2006. After completion, it is expected to produce 1,200 megawatts of electricity.

Many local and international groups are criticising what they call the detrimental effects of the dam on environment, archaeological sites and the rights and culture of the people living in the area.

Some hydrologists warn that Ilisu’s large and deep reservoir will negatively affect the quality of the water as there will be less influx of oxygen. They say the dam will alter the ecosystem of the area and threaten to make some species extinct. Fish eggs, for instance, are not expected to survive in the deep reservoir of the dam.”

Read more: IPS News

44% Population Lacks Access To Safe Drinking Water

Last modified on 2011-06-13 17:10:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Islamabad—Shortage of affordable and safe drinking water is manifested in Pakistan with an estimated 44% of the population without access to safe drinking water, while in rural areas 90% of the population lacks such access.

As one indication of the intensity of the problem, it is estimated that about 200,000 children in Pakistan die every year of diarrheal diseases alone, according to a report of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR).

Pakistan was a water rich country just a few decades ago,however, a recent World Bank Report mentioned that Pakistan is now among the 17 countries that are currently facing water shortage.

It is pertinent to mention here that the major source of drinking water in Pakistan is groundwater, so water availability is the second most serious issue.This becomes even more daunting as estimated level of water available may decline considerably in the foreseeable future.

Talking to APP, Spokesperson PCRWR Lubna Naheed said with decrease of quantity, the quality of water is also deteriorating badly by municipal, industrial and agriculture wastes.”

Read more: Pakistan Observer

England Sees Driest Spring In A Century As Drought Hits UK

Last modified on 2011-06-12 13:44:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The drought conditions will continue even if rainfall returns in the next two months, because the soils are so dry it will take longer to recover than usual.

Marsh explained: “The very moderate infiltration since the winter has left groundwater levels below, to well below, average across most major aquifers. Above-average summer rainfall would ameliorate the drought’s impact but with soils still exceptionally dry in much of southern Britain drought stress will continue with an expected substantial delay in seasonal recovery in runoff and recharge rates and, correspondingly, notably low autumn flows.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed on Friday that Anglia was suffering a severe drought, and is expected to confirm soon drought conditions in parts of the south-west of England, the Midlands and Wales.

Farmers have been worst hit, but other companies – such as food processors, energy companies and some manufacturers – that rely heavily on abstracting water from rivers or underground sources are expected to experience problems. The amount of water they are allowed to abstract is to be cut in the worst affected areas. The Environment Agency said it was difficult to predict accurately at this stage exactly which businesses would be hit.”

Read more: Guardian

 

Chinese Takeaway Kitchen

Last modified on 2011-06-10 17:55:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“WAIST-DEEP in the muddy water, hundreds of people swirl their pans, scouring the black sediment for the sparkle of gold dust. They have come from all over Myanmar to Kachin state, where the N’Mai and Mali rivers merge to form the mighty Irrawaddy, knowing that a good day may yield $1,000-worth of gold—and that time for gold-panning is running out.

Across the river, the corrugated-iron roofs of a prefabricated barracks glint in the midday sun. They house hundreds of Chinese labourers working on the Myitsone hydropower project. This, according to Myanmar’s government, will be the sixth highest dam in the world, and generate 6,000MW of electricity a year. On completion in 2019, the dam will flood the gold-prospecting area and displace more than 10,000 people. All the electricity will be exported to China. All the revenue will go to Myanmar’s government. If an environmental and social impact study was conducted at all, it did not involve consulting the affected villagers.

A local Catholic priest who led prayers against the dam says his parishioners were moved to a “model” village, into tiny houses on plots too small for cultivation. The letters of concern he sent to Myanmar’s leaders went unanswered. He says he will stay in his historic church “till the waters rise over the doorstep”.”

Read more: The Economist

 

How Dams Can Bring About Rainfalls and Drought

Last modified on 2011-06-09 15:03:41 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“It is undisputed that dams can influence local rainfalls. Humidity evaporates from reservoirs and irrigated fields and gets recycled as rainfall. Evaporation from reservoirs can also cause more frequent storms. On the other hand, dams and levees can reduce evaporation and rainfalls when they drain wetlands and open up woodlands for deforestation.

The Niger Delta in West Africa illustrates how dams can influence rainfalls. In September, the delta’s wetlands extend to an area of 30,000 square kilometers – roughly the size of Belgium – and feed rainfalls over a much larger region. Yet upstream dams on the Niger have reduced the flows into the delta by 10-15%, and a major proposed hydropower project upstream on the river would reduce inflows by a further 33%. “Such a change would significantly reduce the window in the seasonal cycle when the wetland can influence rainfall,” warns Christopher Taylor of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Great Britain.

What does this mean for the Three Gorges Dam? A group of researchers in the US and in China analyzed regional rainfall data before and after the completion of the dam on the Yangtze. They found that precipitation decreased somewhat south of the reservoir, and increased significantly about 100 kilometers north of the reservoir.

Yet the rainfalls around the reservoir are only half the story. The dam has impacts on wetlands throughout the lower Yangtze basin. During the flood season, the Yangtze used to greatly expand the area of the Dongting and Poyang lakes, two large flood basins in the Yangtze Valley. Their combined surface used to expand from about 4,000 to about 24,000 square kilometers every year. Land reclamation for agriculture reduced the size of the lakes, and by storing flood water for electricity generation, the Three Gorges Dam is now greatly diminishing the seasonal expansion of the two flood basins. During this year’s drought, the majestic Dongting Lake – home of the famous Chinese dragon boat races – turned into a sad mudflat with isolated pools of water.”

Read more: International Rivers

Hangzhou acid spill sparks panic water buying

Last modified on 2011-06-07 19:32:26 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A round of panic buying of mineral water swept the city of Hangzhou on Monday after a highway accident saw 20 tons of a toxic chemical flood a nearby river, affecting the drinking water supply of hundreds of thousands of residents.

“The accident happened at 11 pm Saturday when a truck carrying 31 tons of carbolic acid was hit by another heavy lorry. The crash punctured a large hole in its tank, causing the chemical to leak out and be washed into the river by heavy rains. 

“The Xin’an River, a tributary of the Fuchun and Qiantang rivers, is the main source of drinking water for several cities in Zhejiang, including Hangzhou, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

“Lao Xinxiang, a spokesman of the Hangzhou Environment Protection Bureau, told reporters on Monday that five water utility companies in the city had been ordered to stop drawing water from the Xin’an, affecting 552,200 residents.

“The acid has been greatly diluted in the water, and the current level will cause little harm to people,” Hao said, referring to the increased discharge at the Xin’an River dam that is trying to rapidly dilute the spill.”

Read more: Global Times

PIPES: The emptying of Yemen

Last modified on 2011-06-07 15:51:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The problem begins with an increasingly cataclysmic water shortfall. Gerhard Lichtenthaeler, a specialist on this topic, wrote in 2010 how in many of the country’s mountainous areas, available drinking water – usually drawn from a spring or a cistern – is down to less than one quart per person per day. Its aquifers are being mined at such a rate that groundwater levels have been falling by 10 to 20 feet annually, threatening agriculture and leaving major cities without adequate safe drinking water. Sanaa could be the first capital city in the world to run dry.

And not just Sanaa: As a London Times headline put it, Yemen “could become first nation to run out of water.” Nothing this extreme has happened in modern times, although similar patterns of drought have developed in Syria and Iraq.

Scarce food resources, columnist David Goldman points out, threaten to leave large numbers of Middle Easterners hungry and one-third of Yemenis faced chronic hunger before the unrest. That number is growing quickly.

The prospect of economic collapse looms larger by the day. Oil supplies are reduced to the point that “Trucks and buses at petrol stations queue for hours, while water supply shortages and power blackouts are a daily norm,” according to Reuters. Productive activity is proportionately in decline.”

Read more: The Washington Times

 

Israeli Enviro Minister: Please Keep Politics Out of Water!

Last modified on 2011-06-06 16:49:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In a statement to the panel Hydro-Diplomacy: A Path to Peace, at the For’UM Conference on Innovation, which took place in Paris on May 31, Israel Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan called for keeping the water issue out of the political conflict. He noted to other ministers in the room from the Midde East North Africa Region that water scarcity and water source pollution threaten both the Israeli and Palestinian populations and said that if the issues of water supply and political conflict are not separated, cooperation and a solution to the water problems plaguing the entire population of the region will not be reached.

The Paris conference took place under the patronage of Mr. Alain Juppe, French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs at the initiative of Ms. Valerie Hoffenberg, France’s special representative to the Middle East, and was organized in cooperation with the Union for the Mediterranean. The For’UM focused on four main areas – water, energy, food security and information and communication technologies.

Minister Erdan participated in the panel on “Hydro-diplomacy: A Path to Peace” which aimed to come up with regional solutions to the water scarcity problems in the region as a path toward cooperation and peace.

He was joined in the round table discussion by Shadad Attili, President of the Palestinian Water Authority, Mohammad Najjar, Jordanian Minister of Water and Irrigation, Mr. Jafaar Hassan, Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and Mr. Rafik Husseini, Deputy Director General of the UFM.

By 2025, 90% of the population in the Middle East and North Africa is expected to suffer water shortages. Urgent action is therefore needed. At the For’UM, France joined the Middle East Desalination Research Centre, the only multilateral institution that has survived the Oslo Accords.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Improving life along Danube: At nature’s cost?

Last modified on 2011-06-06 15:37:49 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Danube is a watery thread 2,857 kilometers (1,775 miles) long that binds the diverse peoples of 19 nations sharing its basin, weaving together economies and cultures from the richest nations of Europe to the poorest.

This month, European leaders are set to adopt a euro100 billion euro ($140 billion) Danube strategy to deepen those ties and improve the lives of 100 million people with faster transportation, cleaner water, less pollution and enhanced protection for wetlands and flood plains.

But it also envisions altering the Lower Danube to accommodate year-round navigation. Environmentalists warn this may have an irreparable impact on bird life, threaten the last breeding grounds for the majestic Danube sturgeon, and bring more polluting waterborne traffic to the Danube Delta, the largest wilderness remaining in Europe south of Scandinavia.

The Danube Strategy highlights the trade-offs needed to protect nature while advancing development, particularly among eastern European nations still lagging far behind Western living standards 20 years after the collapse of communist rule.”

Read more: Roanoke

 

China’s Seven River Systems Are All Polluted

Last modified on 2011-06-06 14:32:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The overall environmental situation in China is very grim with all seven major river systems polluted, according to Li Ganjie, Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, speaking at a press conference on June 3 to discuss the Report of the State of the Environment of China (2010).

However, Li refused to comment on recent discussion among the general public that the severity of the current drought is due to the Three Gorges Dam.

Li said the surface water pollution across the country is still relatively grave. China uses a six-grade classification scheme for water quality. Grade 1 is the best, water no worse than grade 3 can be used for drinking, but sometimes requirestreatment, and water worse than grade 5 cannot be used for irrigation.

Of 204 rivers and 209 monitoring points, 59.9 percent of rivers were grade 3 or better, 23.7 percent of rivers were grade 4 or 5, and 16.4 percent failed to meet any grade standard.

The seven major water systems are the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Pearl River, the Songhua River, the Huai River, the Hai River, and the Liao River. Overall, the average pollution level is minor, but the Yellow River and Liao River have medium pollution, while Huai River is heavily polluted.

Eutrophication of lakes (reservoirs) is still a prominent problem—an excess of nutrients, for example from fertilizer runoff, causes algal bloom and subsequent problems such as hypoxia or lack of oxygen. Eutrophication was found in 11 of the 26 water bodies tested.

This year, the lower portion of the Yangtze River was hit with the worst drought in 50 years, causing problems for fisheries in the Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan Provinces, and leaving many people without drinking water.

Li admitted that the Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi Provinces are currently experiencing severe drought, where water levels are at their lowest position in several large lakes, including Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, and Hong Lake. This is a problem that has occurred very rarely in recent decades.”

Read more: The Epoch Times

Has the Three Gorges Dam created Chinese drought zone?

Last modified on 2011-06-04 15:46:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Hong is one of millions in China affected by the worst drought to hit China since 1961. As of the end of May, Dongting Lake had already shrunk to less than 45 percent of its usual surface area, according to state-run media. Local conservationists estimate more than one thousand hectares of wetlands located on the east side of Dongting Lake have dried up entirely.

Situated downstream from the dam, Dongting Lake is the second largest fresh water lake in China. But record low rainfall this year has caused sharp drops in water levels in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, causing the drought to spread throughout Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The region has suffered from 40 to 60 percent less rainfall than usual. Millions lack adequate drinking water.

However, for Hong, the dry spell is not the only culprit to blame for her fish-less lake. Along with other farmers and environmentalists, she points to the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydro-power project as a resource nightmare that has exacerbated the drought.

“The Three Gorges Dam has definitely influenced things here,” she told CNN. “The impact is clear.”

Farmer He Shishun agrees. Usually the 49-year-old slowly works his modest plot of land with his aging water buffalo to reap two rice harvests per year along with a variety of fruits and vegetables. This year, due to the water shortage, he will ration his resources and plant just enough for one rice harvest. Unable to grow fresh produce at home, He has been forced to purchase fresh produce for his family at a local market, for high prices that stretch his meager income.”

Read more: CNN

 

 

Chaos in Yemen Drives Economy to Edge of Ruin

Last modified on 2011-06-03 15:19:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“As foreign currency supplies dwindle, the elaborate system of patronage and corrupt payoffs that maintained a modicum of stability in Yemen is starting to crack, with former loyalists breaking off and fights erupting over a smaller and smaller pool of cash. The embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, desperate to keep his supporters happy, has demanded multimillion-dollar loans from Yemen’s top businessmen in recent weeks, according to Yemeni officials and members of the business elite.

The most fundamental of Yemen’s diverse woes is lack of water. Since the political crisis began in January, the price of water has risen fivefold in some areas, tenfold in others. The drills that pump water from Yemen’s rapidly dwindling underground supplies are falling silent, because the diesel they require has grown so expensive and scarce. The area around Sana is especially arid, and it could become the first capital ever to run out of water, said experts at the World Bank.”

“The bigger challenge than the political mess is the economic mess,” said one Western diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity under standard diplomatic protocol. Even if the political situation stabilizes, the diplomat said, the opposition’s hopes of increasing foreign investment and changing Yemen’s endemic corruption will not be realized “in one month, six months or even the next year.”

Read more: New York Times

 

The Marsh Arabs Who Restored A Global Ecosystem

Last modified on 2011-06-02 16:41:21 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“Soon after arriving in Iraq I realized that the devastation [to the marshes] was all the way up stream with most cities dumping raw sewage and industrial waste directly into the water of the Tigris and Euphrates – in other words, Iraq is using the Tigris and Euphrates as open sewers!”

“Indeed, Alwash states that part of the aim of setting up Nature Iraq was to help educate a new generation of Iraqis about the importance of protecting the environment be they mountains or marshes. “It was vital that I take under my wing young Iraqis and train them… I am glad to report to you that I am about to hand over the day to day operations of Nature Iraq to the next generation of environmental activists.” As well as the difficulties they face in restoring the marshes, those who work in region face very real security threats. Many don’t venture into the marshes without an armed security guard. This may seem a step too far but a dozen employees of the project have died in terrorist attacks in the last seven years alone.

Half Way Through An Impossible Task

When I ask Alwash what motivates him to continue his work through droughts, dangers to his life and other difficulties, he replies that in all honesty he is not sure how to answer that question. “Coming to Iraq has had a huge tax on me personally and professionally, regardless of the recognition that Nature Iraq has gotten over the years. It is my ardent desire to see my children enjoy the marshes as I did, but that is not enough to explain my personal motivation… I suppose in a sense the impossibility of the task is what motivates me.

“In 2002/03 people were saying that the marshes cannot be restored, nor do the people of the marshes want them restored yet the evidence on the ground countered those claims and 8 years later we have the marshes back (albeit only 50% of the marshes) and some 100,000 people have come back.” Wildlife is flourishing in the marshlands again, reeds are shooting up and the Basra Reed Warbler and the Greater Flamingo can now been seen flying across the marshland. The Marsh Arabs that are returning to their homes in the marshes are also playing an important role in the recovery of this precious ecosystem.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Groundwater Depletion Is Detected From Space

Last modified on 2011-05-31 19:35:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Yet even as the data signals looming shortages, policy makers have been relatively wary of embracing the findings. California water managers, for example, have been somewhat skeptical of a recent finding by Dr. Famiglietti that from October 2003 to March 2010, aquifers under the state’s Central Valley were drawn down by 25 million acre-feet — almost enough to fill Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir.

Greg Zlotnick, a board member of the Association of California Water Agencies, said that the managers feared that the data could be marshaled to someone else’s advantage in California’s tug of war over scarce water supplies.

“There’s a lot of paranoia about policy wonks saying, ‘We’ve got to regulate the heck out of you,’ ” he said.

There are other sensitivities in arid regions around the world where groundwater basins are often shared by unfriendly neighbors — India and Pakistan, Tunisia and Libya or Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories — that are prone to suspecting one another of excessive use of this shared resource.

Water politics was hardly on Dr. Famiglietti’s mind when he first heard about Grace. In 1992, applying for a job at the University of Texas, he was interviewed by Clark R. Wilson, a geophysicist there who described a planned experiment to measure variations in Earth’s gravitational field.”

Read more: New York Times

 

Europe’s dry spring could lead to power blackouts, governments warn

Last modified on 2011-05-31 19:01:17 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“One of the driest springs ever recorded in northern Europe could lead to power blackouts this summer, with nuclear reactors going offline because of low river levels. The exceptionally dry weather will also raisefood prices and has already forced water restrictions on millions of people, say governments, farm groups and meteorological organisations across the continent.

Large parts of southern Britain, northern France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other northern and eastern European countries have had their driest three-month spells in more than 50 years, receiving just 25-60% of their long-term average rainfall since February. This has led to parched soils and difficult growing conditions for farmers, as well as to river levels that are dangerously low for wildlife.

Patchy rain has moistened soils in parts of northern Britain, France and Germany over the past few weeks, but with summer approaching and temperatures soaring to over 30C in France, it is not expected that any rains will compensate for months of exceptionally dry weather.

Last week the European Union warned that soils were now “critically dry” in six countries. The French wheat harvest is now expected to be 11.5%-13% down on average despite an increase in the area planted this year and German output is expected to fall 7-9%. In south-east England, many farmers expect crops to fail dramatically unless steady rains come soon.”

Read more: Guardian

 

Rights Group says Gaza’s Drinking Water Polluted

Last modified on 2011-05-30 21:56:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“A Gaza rights group said Monday in a fact sheet that quality of drinking water in the Gaza Strip is way below international standards.

“Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said that 95% of the drinking water is below World Health Organization (WHO) standards, stressing that the Israeli practices contributed to decreasing the availability of drinking water and increased level of contamination of Gaza underground water reserves.

“The fact sheet focused on the Gaza Strip’s desalination stations, especially the quality of the produced water and monitoring policy.

“It explained that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory in 1967 is the main reason for the water shortage and contamination.

“It reported that the Israeli authorities dug more than 26 wells along the armistice demarcation line between Israel and Gaza in an attempt to prevent the flow of ground water.

“It said that Israeli forces deliberately destroyed the infrastructure of the water sector in Gaza, targeting wells, reservoirs, ponds , the main supply lines and irrigation systems.

“The sheet addressed the pollution of the underground reservoirs, adding that this source is being depleted, which leads to the deterioration of water quality.

“As for the quality of the drinking water, the fact sheet said that the level of chloride in the water wells exceeds by eight times the WHO criteria. The nitrate concentration increased in most wells also to eight times WHO’s criteria

Read more: wafa

Vast amounts of resources are being lost to leaky pipes

Last modified on 2011-05-30 19:05:32 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A total of 6 billion cubic meters of tap water are lost through leaking pipes every year in China, a country that faces chronic water shortages.

“That’s enough water to turn Beijing into a four-meter-deep swimming pool, or meet a year’s demand for water in the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Hainan, the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly reported Friday.

“China’s water problem is getting worse. This year, several provinces and municipalities along the Yangtze River which were previously rich in water resources, including Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi, were hit by weeks of severe drought, leaving millions facing a shortage of drinking water and 166,000 hectares of farmland with no harvest. Drought also brought the threat of plague and higher grain prices.

“The shortage makes the water leakage more unbearable. Leaking pipes resulted in a loss of 6 billion cubic meters of water in 2009, and so far no one seems to be taking responsibility for it, according to the China Urban Construction Statistical Yearbook 2009.

“Water pipe leakage is a problem that every country faces, but in China, the rate remains high and seems to be getting worse, the Southern Weekly reported.

Read more: global times

Drought? Quake? Blame China’s Big Dam

Last modified on 2011-05-30 03:17:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Natural disasters have long been agents of social and political change in China, and droughts especially so. In part, it was the control of droughts and floods along China’s Yangtze River — Asia’s longest — that inspired the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the 2,500-meter-long superstructure that stands as a symbol of the Communist Party’s careful, successful stewardship of China’s economy over the last 30 years.

It has long been an object of controversy in China, but its pedigree — it was a pet project of Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s modern economy — made it a mostly off-limits subject for criticism.

That all changed this month when China’s State Council announced that there were “urgent problems” with the dam, including issues with pollution and the relocation of populations displaced by the project. And with one week’s hindsight, it also appears that the State Council was aware of a more immediate, looming problem, as well: The Yangtze is now experiencing its worst drought in 50 years, and Chinese voices — both powerful and common — are starting to question the sacrosanct pile of concrete that now dams it. Even the People’s Daily, the official voice of the Party, got in on the act (albeit via quotes on the news pages).”

Read more: Jakarta Globe

Illegal Dam On Canal Triggers Protest

Last modified on 2011-05-29 14:58:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Hundreds of farmers and fishermen of Charmontaz union under Galachipa upazila formed a human chain on the bank of Bailabunia canal on Friday demanding removal of illegal dam on the canal.

They also brought out a procession joined by over 1,000 affected people.

About 10,000 acres of land remain uncultivated as a few local influential people who took lease of the 10-km long canal, raised the barrier on the canal.

Charmontaz union is an isolated newly emerged land mass, about 30 km away from Galachipa upazila headquarters and about 60 km off Patuakhali district headquarters.

Ainalee Howlader, 55, a farmer of the area said, Mosharef Khan, Basir Khan, Kuddus Khan and other influential people stopped the water flow of Bailabunia canal illegally two years ago.

“We can’t cultivate our land in the dry season as the lessees stop the water flow illegally. Most of the farmers grow green crops here”, he added.

Abdur Rahman, 45, another farmer alleged the lessees also bring saline water through the sluice gate to cultivate fish in the canal.

“The farmers will be deprived of Aush paddy as the time for seedlings is almost over”, he added.

“We are becoming poorer as we miss two out of three crops”, Solaiman, 40, another farmer alleged.

“Cultivation of green crops like watermelon, potato, ground nuts, pulses has stopped due to water crisis”, he added.”

Read more: The Daily Star

 

 

Averting a Nightmare on the Nu

Last modified on 2011-05-28 01:47:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Nu River valley in Yunnan province – known as China’s Grand Canyon – sits at the epicentre of China’s seismic zone. This dramatic landscape is also wracked by torrential rains that kill dozens of people each year. But in spite of the constant threat of landslides, life teems here. Unlike America’s Grand Canyon, the Nu valley is dotted with hundreds of towns and villages, many of which perch precariously on the mountainside.

However, the valley’s fragile resilience is hanging in the balance, threatened by the recently revived proposal to build a 13-dam cascade along the main body of the Nu River, one of three waterways that form the famed Three Parallel Rivers world heritage site and the heart of China’s cultural and biological diversity. If it goes ahead, the cascade would displace 50,000 people and ruin one of China’s most important biodiversity hotspots.

Two senior Chinese geologists, Sun Wenpeng and Xu Daoyi, have also raised serious concerns about the earthquake risks associated with building such an ambitious hydropower scheme on a major structural fault.”

Read more: China Dialogue

 

China: County denies drinking water shortage

Last modified on 2011-05-27 16:59:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“SHANGHAI – Water authorities in Xuyi county, Jiangsu province, have denied there is a drinking water shortage, although the lingering drought has greatly affected life of the locals.

A report by the Beijing Morning Post, which sent a reporting team to the county to cover the drought, said on Wednesday that the county has cut water supplies for several hours a day for more than two months. That has aroused wide concern around the country.

The report also mentioned the water level of Hongze Lake on the lower reaches of the Huaihe River is the lowest in 45 years.

Xuyi county is located at the south bank of the lake, the fourth largest fresh water lake in the country.

However, Ji Yufan, the director of the flood and drought control headquarters in Xuyi county, denied the link of limited water supplies to drought and said “the situation is much better”.

“Just worse than last year,” Ji told China Daily on Wednesday. “We have enacted a series of drought-relief measures since February.”

Ji said that they established two temporary water supply stations, capable of providing about 500,000 tons of water every day to town residents and farm workers who live in the area.

He also told China Daily that the drought is affecting the rural area more than the town.

“The lack of water supplies in town is caused by the current upgrading of the water supply system,” he said.

“It’s true, the water supply has been cut off for a few hours every day since Chinese New Year,” said Zhang Yun, a staff member of the water and wastewater treatment department of the Xuyi water bureau.

“The current equipment is too old to provide enough water to residents,” she said.

Zhang told China Daily that the water supply will return to normal at the beginning of June when new facilities are completed.

Local residents have been complaining about the restricted supply of drinking water.”

Read more: China Daily

 

Liquid Medicine: Controversial call to add lithium to drinking water for mental health

Last modified on 2011-05-26 19:17:37 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“For decades, it’s been the gold-standard treatment for the most distressing of mental health disorders: mania, schizophrenia, major depression.

But now, lithium– the third element of the periodic table and an essential constituent of soil, oceans and every living organism — is being heralded by some experts as the next fluoride: and additive with such therapeutic potential, it should be ingested by millions of Americans every time they pour a glass of drinking water.

It’s provocative prospect that research suggests might reduce rates of suicide, violent crime and hard drug use.

The idea gained widespread traction in 2009, when researchers studying 18 communities in Japan concluded that areas whose water supplies contained higher natural levels of lithium were significantly less vulnerable to suicide.

A subsequent study published this month in the British Journal of Psychiatry, surveying all 99 counties in Austria over five years, replicated the findings and concluded that — conservatively — 4 to 15 percent of the country’s geographic variation in suicides was due to lithium in content in regional water supplies.

“As a matter of empirical science, this connection between water-based lithium and suicide is absolutely becoming widely accepted,” Jacob Appel, a psychiatrist and bioethicist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told The Daily. ”

Read more: The Daily

 

 

Yangtze delta hit by worst drought in decades

Last modified on 2011-05-26 18:49:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Yangtze delta is caught in its worst drought in 50 years,  forcing an unprecedented release of water from the Three Gorges Dam and prompting warnings of power shortages.

“The drought is damaging crops, threatening wildlife and raising doubts about the viability of China’s huge water diversion ambitions.

“Up until June 10, billions of cubic metres of water will be released from the dam as engineers sacrifice hydro-electric generation for irrigation, drinking supplies and ecosystem support.

“The drastic measure comes amid warnings of power shortages and highlights the severity of the dry spell in the Yangtze delta, which supports 400 million people and 40 per cent of China’s economic activity.

“From January to April, the worst-hit province, Hubei, has had 40 per cent less rainfall than the average over the same period since 1961. Shanghai, Jiangsu and Hunan are severely affected.

“Regional authorities have de- clared more than 1300 lakes ”dead”, which means they are out of use for irrigation and drinking supply. The shortages affect 4.4 million people and 3.2 million farm animals, according to the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

“The narrowing and shallowing of the Yangtze – Asia’s longest river – and its tributaries has stranded thousands of boats and left a 220-kilometre stretch off limits for container ships.

“The central government has sent water pumps and diesel generators to Hubei and Hunan to ease the impact. This is expensive and adds to the pressures on China’s energy supply system at a time when the state grid authorities are warning of the worst summer power cuts in seven years.”

Read more: SMH

Oroumieh Lake, Iran’s Largest, Turning To Salt

Last modified on 2011-05-26 18:36:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“From a hillside, Kamal Saadat looked forlornly at hundreds of potential customers, knowing he could not take them for trips in his boat to enjoy a spring weekend on picturesque Oroumieh Lake, the third largest saltwater lake on earth.

“Look, the boat is stuck… It cannot move anymore,” said Saadat, gesturing to where it lay encased by solidifying salt and lamenting that he could not understand why the lake was fading away.

The long popular lake, home to migrating flamingos, pelicans and gulls, has shrunken by 60 percent and could disappear entirely in just a few years, experts say – drained by drought, misguided irrigation policies, development and the damming of rivers that feed it.

Until two years ago, Saadat supplemented his income from almond- and grape-growing by taking tourists on boat tours. But as the lake receded and its salinity rose, he found he had to stop the boat every 10 minutes to unfoul the propeller – and finally, he had to give up this second job that he’d used to support a five-member family.

“The visitors were not enjoying such a boring trip,” he said, noting they had to cross hundreds of meters of salty lakebed just to reach the boat from the wharf.”

Read more: Huffington Post

 

Water crisis pushes Israel to approve world’s 2nd-largest desalination plant

Last modified on 2011-05-25 22:26:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Finance Ministry has approved the construction and operation of a desalination plant in Soreq in southern Israel. Officials said the facility would contain a capacity to produce 150 million cubic meters of drinking water per year, or the second largest desalination plant in the world.

“On completion of the plant, which is one of the world’s biggest desalination plants, the desalinated water will constitute over 65 percent of the economy’s domestic water consumption,” Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said. “This step will make a significant contribution to solving Israel’s water crisis.”

“On May 23, the ministry signed an agreement for the $400 million project with an Israeli-led joint venture, SDL. SDL was owned by Israel’s IDE Technologies and the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Water International Holdings, winners of a desalination tender.

“Officials said the desalination pant would be completed in 2013. They said the 100-dunam facility, designed to operate on reverse osmosis  technology, would be based on the so-called build-own-transfer model, designed to avoid government ownership. Investment in the project has included the European Union’s European Investment Bank.”

Read more: world tribune

Feeding Abu Dhabi With Water From Air

Last modified on 2011-05-24 02:28:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

” Abu Dhabi farmers may be able to grow food with water pulled out of dense air. With just four days back up supply of water, and desalination projects usurping considerable energy, Abu Dhabi is facing down a variety of long-term challenges. Among them, how to sustain agriculture in the desert without using a ton of energy and water? The answer lies in exactly two things that make this Gulf nation virtually uninhabitable in the summer: persistently high humidity levels and relentless sunshine.

Hot n’ humid

The Emirate’s mean humidity level amounts to approximately 61% and maximum levels reach as high as 85%. While not ideal for playing football in the dead of summer, this humidity can be helpful in other ways.

The National reports that G-earth will extract condensation from this saturated air to provide water for Abu Dhabi greenhouses, while solar energy will be harvested to provide electricity.

In addition to reducing farmers’ dependency on costly energy and water, this initiative spearheaded by Abu Dhabi Farmers’ Services Center (FSC) may also have positive environmental ramifications.

Eschewing the grid

Not only are the fuels burned to render Abu Dhabi’s saltwater fit for consumption a major contributor to climate change, but the leftover brine is hazardous to the Gulf’s marine ecosystem. Meanwhile, many organic farms are using water from rapidly depleting aquifers in order to grow food. In partnership with Anexo Emirates, a Swiss consultancy group, FSC intends to make it easy for farmers to transcend current agricultural restraints.

The new technology will be geared towards hydroponic farming, where plants are grown in water instead of soil. Aldo Garbagnati, Anexo’s Chief Executive Officer, said that Abu Dhabi’s farmers will be able to grow rich food that has zero impact on energy and water.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Reservoirs Have Little In Reserve

Last modified on 2011-05-24 01:38:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“BEIJING – Nearly 1,600 water reservoirs in Central China’s Hubei province are running at the minimum water level needed for operation, forecasting a prolonged dry spell over the parched province, the local drought relief authority said on Monday.

As of Sunday, the province’s reservoir water storage stood at 9.75 billion cubic meters, a 40-percent decrease from last year. The low water level makes it unlikely the drought can be eased, with two earlier rounds of rainfall but no more forecast in May, the statement said.

The lasting drought has so far affected 889,000 hectares of crops and left 761,000 people and 175,000 livestock in the province short of drinking water.

Hanjiang River, a major branch of the Yangtze River in Hubei, has almost dried up and put a huge strain on irrigation supplies for paddy fields along its range.

The water level of the Danjiangkou Reservoir, part of China’s massive South-to-North Water Diversion Project, dropped to 4 meters below the minimum level.

Honghu Lake, the biggest lake in the province, has seen one-fourth of its 35,300-hectare area dry up, stranding thousands of fishing boats. The water level reaches 30 cm in the deepest areas, where it used to stand at two to three meters.

Hubei Governor Wang Guosheng, also chief of the Yangtze River flood control and drought relief headquarters, said on Monday that the river has experienced the lowest level of rainfall since 1961, with 40 to 60 percent less rainfall on average in drought-stricken provinces in its middle and lower reaches including Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi.”

Read more: China Daily

Monsoon session set to pass new water Bill

Last modified on 2011-05-23 17:51:22 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh is planning to bring a law to regulate exploitation of ground water in the state.

“This was first mooted in 2005 following a Central government advisory. However, the then Mulayam Singh government feared that restriction on ground water extraction would antagonise the farmer votebank. After coming to power in 2007, Mayawai government drafted a Bill. It took two years for the ground water department to prepare the UP Ground Water Conservation, Protection & Development (Management, Control and Regulation) Bill 2010.

“It was put in public domain for objections and suggestions. The Bill was opposed by the industrial and business lobby as it proposed strict regulation on extraction of ground water in multi-storey buildings and use of heavy pumps to draw water.

“As per a study of the state ground water board, state’s dependency on ground water resources has doubled over the years but the capacity to recharge aquifers through rain water harvesting have gone down.

“The situation is grim in 60 of the 71 districts. There are over 630 townships in the state, mostly dependent on ground water. Over 60% of total water demand of industries is being met through ground water resources. Nearly 70% of agriculture is dependent on tube-wells and rain water. The number of state tube-wells is over 28,000, deep tube-well over 17,000 and shallow private tube wells around 40 lakhs.

“As the situation is turning from bad to worse with each passing year, a senior official told TOI that the state government is seriously considering to bring the Bill in the assembly for enactment despite opposition from some quarters. ”

Read more: Times of India

Jakartans Lament The Sorry State Of The Capital’s Rivers

Last modified on 2011-05-22 00:24:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) reported that none of Jakarta’s rivers could be qualified as being in good condition. According to the BPLHD, 71 percent of the city’s river water is heavily polluted, 20 percent is partly polluted, and 9 percent is lightly polluted.

Ateng Muhammad Ganipia, 52, a motorcycle taxi driver, said he realized that the city’s filthy rivers were a reflection of the residents’ attitude toward and lack of awareness about the need to maintain the rivers.

Ateng described the East Flood Canal in South Jakarta during his childhood as “clean and deep”.

“I remember when my friends and I played and jumped into the river. We used to sing out an ‘anthem’ for the canal, reflecting the bond of the children with the river,” he said, and then sang the “anthem”.

Ateng is not the only person who wishes the city’s rivers were clean.

Endang Kustana, 56, a food stall owner in Cideng, Central Jakarta, said that he missed the days when the Cideng river was clean during his childhood.

“I remember that people washed their dishes in the water,” the native Jakartan said.”

Read more: The Jakarta Post

Critics Hail Admission of Chinese Dam Flaws

Last modified on 2011-05-21 17:51:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Critics of China’s Three Gorges dam said an unusual Chinese government statement this week acknowledging serious flaws in the project, while unlikely to mark a major shift in policy, could provide ammunition to those opposing other hydropower projects in the world’s biggest dam-building nation.

“In a statement approved by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the country’s cabinet, the State Council, said Thursday that the $23 billion Three Gorges project, while providing “huge comprehensive benefits,” also suffered from a number of problems that were “urgently in need of resolution.”

“Among the problems were ecological deterioration, the potential for geological disasters and the uncertain status of the more than a million people relocated to make way for the dam.

“Beijing has publicly recognized problems associated with the dam on several occasions before, but activists said Thursday’s statement was unique in bearing the imprimatur of Mr. Wen, the country’s No. 2 leader.

“The National Energy Agency announced in January that China plans to add 140 gigawatts of new hydropower capacity over the next five years, with the goal, outlined in the latest five-year plan, of producing 11% of its energy from nonfossil fuel sources by 2015.

“The plans include a long-debated cascade of 13 dams along the Nu River in the country’s ecologically diverse southwest, which is home to dozens of endangered species.”

Read more: WSJ

Aflaj: Ancient Channels Keep Water Flowing In The Desert

Last modified on 2011-05-21 16:20:41 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In the arid landscapes of Oman and the United Arab Emirates, water has always been a huge issue. Whilst desalination which removes salt from water may have offered a temporary (and very expensive) solution to this age-old problem, in the past, drought and a dwindling supply of naturally available water meant that waste wasn’t tolerated and conservation was the order of the day. Nothing attests to this more than the two and half thousand year old architectural water wonder that is the ‘Aflaj‘ system.

The aflaj water system (falaj in singular) is an ancient technique by which underground tunnels are dug to channel water from distant sources to villages where it was needed. It’s a tried and tested method which helps conserve water and is still used around the world today in places such as the Sahara desert and Oman.

In Islam, water is held in such high regard that its life-giving properties are mentioned in the Qur’an sixty-three times and paradise is described as “gardens beneath which rivers flow.” Muslims also make wudu before prayers five times a day by washing with water and the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) stated that amongst the people God will ignore on the day of resurrection include those “[who] possessed superfluous water on a way and withheld it from travellers.”

As such, water is declared a public good that must be available to all and shared between everyone fairly.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Drought Worsens China Power Supply Crunch

Last modified on 2011-05-21 15:20:54 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Much of central China is enduring its worst energy crisis in years, with factories and residents facing power cuts as supply runs short of demand – a problem worsening as drought dries rivers, reducing hydroelectric capacity.

Authorities are warning that manufacturers in booming industrial regions west of Shanghai may face even tighter power rationing when demand surges in the peak summer months while electricity generators curb output due to rising costs for coal and oil.

Though summer rains may eventually relieve the drought, with even the powerful Yangtze river running too low for shipping in some stretches, China appears to be hitting limits to its growth in a resource scarce-environment. The power crunch comes at time when worries over inflation make rising energy costs and crop failures less welcome than ever.

Hydroelectricity provides about one-fifth of China’s power and with river beds running dry it has fallen by about 20 percent, according to a report by UBS analyst Tom Price.

The industry group China Electricity Council has estimated a power shortfall of 30 million kilowatts in the summer. That is only 3 percent of China’s generating capacity, but the shortages are concentrated in key manufacturing regions such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu, near Shanghai.

Last week, the government ordered a suspension of diesel exports to help prevent shortages as factories hit by outages step up use of fuel-powered generators.”

Read more: Associated Press

 

Water storage: IRSA proposes building new dams ‘on war footing’

Last modified on 2011-05-19 06:02:20 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Sources close to the authority told The Express Tribune that Irsa will recommend that the government begin dam construction immediately in order to secure the country’s water supply. Irsa will also recommend negotiating a water treaty with Afghanistan, which plans to build 12 dams on the Kabul River.

“So concerned are Irsa officials about the inadequacy of Pakistan’s water storage capacity that they are willing to back the Katzara dam because their preferred Kalabagh dam is too politically controversial to be completed in the timeframe Irsa deems necessary.

“It is not Irsa’s recommendation to build Katzara dam, but we are going to table a proposal to the water and power ministry that they build Katzara dam instead of Kalabagh dam,” sources told The Express Tribune.

“The proposal was first devised by former Irsa chairman Fateh Ullah Khan Gandapur, who suggested that the government create a 37 million acre feet (MAF) dam at Katzara instead of Kalabagh, to ensure that the process of building up storage capacity was not held hostage to political differences.

“If once the proposed dam is filled, the water stored in it will be enough to meet the country’s requirements for three to four years,” sources quoted the former Irsa chairman as saying at a May 16 briefing at the authority.”

Read more: Tribune

Experts for using saline water to tide over Delhi’s water woes

Last modified on 2011-05-15 19:34:44 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“With Delhi facing an acute shortage of water, experts have suggested mixing saline water, abundantly available in several parts of the city, with fresh water to tide over the increasing gap between demand and supply.

“According to rough estimates, the national capital requires 3,324 million liters of water a day (MLD), while the supply is nearly 2,034 MLD. Average water consumption in Delhi is estimated at 240 liters per capita per day (lpcd), the highest in the country.

“Delhi receives its water mainly from river Yamuna, rains, Bhakra storage and Upper Ganga Canal.

“According to the latest report of Central Ground Water Board on the state of ground water in various Indian cities, ground water exploitation has not only resulted in depletion of fresh ground water resources but also gradual “invasion” of brackish water (that has more salinity than fresh water but not as much as sea water) into fresh water aquifers.

“Thus it has become eminent to explore the brackish water areas located within shallow or water-logged areas to promote the scientific management and proper planning for exploitation of brackish water which is the only effective controlling method of spreading brackish water front,” the report says.”

Read more: DNA

People’s Power Blocks Dam Construction in Northeast India

Last modified on 2011-05-12 16:16:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Lower Subansiri scheme illustrates the problems of the dams in Northeast India. The 2000 MW project is being developed by NHPC, an Indian state enterprise, at a cost of approximately $2 billion. The 116 meter-high dam will submerge a 47 kilometer stretch of the Subansiri River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra. Its electricity would be exported from the impoverished mountain region to mainland India. The French export credit agency Coface provided $100 million in funding for the project’s turbine contract. According to official data, only 38 families will be displaced if the dam is completed. Yet the project will wreak havoc with the agriculture and rich ecosystems of the Subansiri and Brahmaputra floodplains.

As Neeraj Vagholikar describes in his excellent report, Damming Northeast India, the water level in the Subansiri will fluctuate 400-fold every day once the project is in operation. In winter, the dam will release a trickle of only 6 cubic meters per second for most of the day, but will gush 2,560 cubic meters per second when electricity demand is highest during the evening hours. “The project will starve and flood the dam on a daily basis,” comments Vagholikar. This will greatly affect agriculture and wildlife in the floodplains and wetlands of Assam, including the Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage Site. The high concentration of dams on the tributaries of the Brahmaputra will also create great safety risks. Yet the cumulative impacts of the dams in Northeast India have never been assessed.”

Read more: International Rivers

Luhri hydel project faces green opposition

Last modified on 2011-05-09 19:12:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Environmental activists and local villagers have questioned the proposed building of the World Bank funded 775 MW Luhri project by SJVNL in Himachal Pradesh.

“The environment clearance public hearings for the project were organised from 5 to 7 May at various places of Shimla, Kullu and Mandi districts,” Manshi Asher a top environmental activist said today.

“While the first two public hearings saw stiff local opposition as well as objections by environmental activists, it was the hearing held yesterday at Theksu, Kullu which really faced the heat and had to be finally cancelled by the government,” said Asher.

The proposed Rs 4795 crore project involves construction of a 86 m high concrete gravity dam (with gross reservoir capacity of 35 million cubic meter) from which 38.14 km long twin tunnels of 9 m diameter will bring water to an underground power house about 40 km downstream of the dam site.

“The reservoir of the project will submerge 153 hectares of land. Total land to be acquired is 290 hectares. More than 27 villages of 3 districts will be impacted by the project,” said Asher.

“Locals have been raising a lot of crucial issues relating to the impacts of this project.The disappearance of Satluj in a stretch of 20 km will impact local climate which is already facing the impacts of global warming,” Asher claimed.”

Read more: My Himachal

 

Bahrain Water Report Q2 2011

Last modified on 2011-05-09 16:07:48 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Bahrain receives groundwater by lateral under-flow from the Dammam aquifer, which is part of an extensive regional system. Excessive extraction from this aquifer has led to supplies having an increased saline content because water is drawn from adjacent brackish and saline water sources.

“More than half of the country’s water is provided by the Hidd independent water and power plant (IWPP), with just 9% of supply for consumption provided by ground water in 2011. Desalinated water now accounts for more than 80% of Bahrain’s water provision, a proportion that is likely to increase over time.

“Desalinated water capacity has increased significantly since 2009 with the commissioning of the third phase of the Hidd Power Company desalination plant, which has raised output to 90mn gallons a day (g/d) – an increase of 60mn g/d over its previous capacity.

“The Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) is the agency responsible for the production and supply of power and water in Bahrain, working as an independent arm of the state. It has successfully pushed for the development of IWPPs via the third phase of Hidd’s desalination plant and the award of the Al Dur IWPP contract.

“The kingdom has also drafted a national policy for wastewater, including the reuse of treated sewage effluence. A major boost to wastewater treatment capacity will come with the development of the Muharraq wastewater plant, which will have a capacity of 100,000m3 per day (m3/d).”

Read more: PRlog

Israel water shortage greater than previously thought

Last modified on 2011-05-06 18:03:07 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Investments of NIS 52 billion will be needed in the coming decade to develop water production and supply systems to deal with the shortfall of natural water sources, which considerably exceeds previous estimates, according to a master plan for water now being finalized.

“But the Water Authority itself is a major obstacle to the plan’s implementation, as it suffers from an acute personnel shortage and lack of power, including the inability to make decisions on desalination facilities.

“The master plan, drafted by a Water Authority task force with the help of environmental organizations, was submitted this week to the National Planning and Building Council.

“A dramatic change has taken place in the amount of natural water available in the aquifers and Lake Kinneret, due to dwindling precipitation, the task force said. And a recent study found that the water supply is even smaller because of processes such as a rise in the salinity of the groundwater, which has rendered 10 percent of it unfit for use.

“A further 15 percent decrease was caused by a deterioration in water quality, urbanization (which prevents rainwater from entering the groundwater ) and climate change.”

Read more: Haaretz

Mining Silt, Sewage and Transformer Waste Streaming Into Iraq Rivers

Last modified on 2011-05-05 15:19:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Tanjero River that flows southwest of the city of Sulaimani in Iraq, is remembered by many to be a sizeable and beautiful river. It might not be the Euphrates, the great biblical river which allowed for the growth of civilization, but today it is reduced to a polluted and sewage filled stream. In a recent visit to the river conducted by Nature Iraq, the organization found extensive damage caused by in-stream gravel-mining, a common occurrence throughout Iraqi river systems. Such practices destroys habitats and fisheries and leads to erosion (read here why erosion is bad). According to Nature Iraq, in a report they sent to Green Prophet, the entire sewage load of the city is dumped into the river and then it is used to irrigate agricultural fields and water livestock around Sulaimani, Arbat, Said Sadiq and New Halabja, with each town and village adding their own contribution to the sewage and toxic load that the river carries.

The river banks, along with many open spaces throughout the area, are also used a dumping grounds for construction wastes, as well as industrial and municipal garbage.

It’s happening in remote areas that can’t be monitored effectively: On the recent trip to the river, Nature Iraq spoke with men who were burning electronic waste (transformers) along the waters’ edge to pull out the metals they contained. Transformers are known to contain extremely toxic materials and the men were aware that this activity was not allowed within the city but the river area was away from prying eyes, says a Nature Iraq spokesperson.

Polluters can conduct their work there without worry of detection by authorities.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

 

The Next Big Thing In Industry: Water Profiteering

Last modified on 2011-05-02 16:43:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“My colleague, Anil Naidoo from the Council of Canadians, and I were invited to the meeting to debate the libertarian economist David Zetland and William Muhairwe, managing director of Uganda’s national water company. Both Zetland and Muhairwe are big proponents of full-cost pricing and dismissive of the government’s role in providing water.

Some may wonder why Anil and I would go there to debate, especially when the audience was comprised of people employed in the water industry. The truth is that there is no better place to really figure out what they are up to. An hour debate was a small price to pay for free entrance to the $2,500.00 event that gave us real insight into the newest plans of the global water cartel.

The conference started on a sour note with a keynote address from Michel Camdessus, former Managing Director of the IMF. Camdessus is one of the masterminds behind the scheme to force the 1.44 billion people who make $1.25 a day to pay for the full cost of water. It was also disappointing that Kofi Annan appears to be running interference for the water corporations, basically saying in his speech that the time for protest is over and that we all need to get along.

One of the most distasteful moments of the conference, which was held in a Five Star hotel in Berlin, was when Sanjay Bhatnagar, CEO of WaterHealth International, took the mic to brag about how his investors were making piles of money selling water in villages in Africa and India. WaterHealth issues smart cards that are used to fill jugs with water—a 21st century “innovation” for redistributing wealth from the poor in the developing world to the “global investors” of the company.”

Read more: Food & Water Watch

 

Escalation of civil war in Burma necessitates immediate halt to Salween dam plans

Last modified on 2011-05-02 16:29:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Huadian Group to build four 10-mln-kw hydropower bases in 2011-15

Last modified on 2011-04-29 17:06:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Huadian Group, one of China’s leading power giants, is planning to build four 10-million-kil owatt hydropower bases in China during 2011-2015, said the company in a report on sustainable development of hydropower.

According to report, the four bases will be located in up stream and midstream of Jinsha River, Wujiang River, and Nujiang River , all of which are in the southwestern part of China.

The four hydropower bases are expected to increase total hydropower installed capacity of the company by 10-26 million kilowatt s by 2015, accounting for 8 percent of China’s total hydropower instal led capacity.

By the end of 2010, hydropower installed capacity of Huad ian reached 15.38 million kilowatts, about 17 percent of total install ed capacity of the company and 7.3 percent of China’s total hydropower installed capacity.”

Read more: iStockAnalyst

 

Emerging Powers Harnessing Neighbours’ Hydroelectricity

Last modified on 2011-04-25 19:21:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Emerging countries like Brazil and China are building numerous hydroelectric dams at home and abroad to help drive their economic growth. But while in Latin America the phenomenon is touted as an integration process, in Asia it has generated tension over the shared use of rivers.

Brazil, the leader of this strategy in Latin America, has an agreement to build five hydropower dams in Peru, and is interested in building two similar plants, which would depend on reaching agreements with Bolivia: a joint venture between the two countries on the stretch of the Madeira river that forms part of the border between them, and a Bolivian plant.

A large part of the energy generated by these projects will be exported to Brazil, whose government projects an annual 5.9 percent increase in demand for energy from now to 2019, when the country will need 167,000 MW, over two-thirds of which will come from hydroelectricity.

Building dams outside of the country is one way to evade stiff opposition from environmentalists and indigenous groups in the Brazilian Amazon, where nearly all of the country’s as-yet untapped hydropower potential is found.

Cachuela Esperanza on the Beni river in northern Bolivia, near the Brazilian border, will have a potential of 990 MW, according to a project drawn up by Tecsult, a leading Canadian consulting firm. That is nearly the equivalent of Bolivia’s entire demand for energy. ”

Read more: IPS

Last modified on GMT. 0 comments. Top.

China risks civil strife with support for foreign dams: activists

Last modified on 2011-04-23 03:23:26 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Chinese support for controversial dam-building schemes around the world risks a backlash from affected communities and even violence due to a lack of transparency and the ignoring of residents’ wishes, activists said on Wednesday.

“Chinese companies and banks are becoming deeply involved in such projects in Africa and Asia, and despite a growing awareness they have to be more transparent and accountable, this frequently does not happen, the activists said.

“”We are dismayed to see a reckless role of many companies,” Peter Bosshard, policy director of California-based International Rivers, told the Foreign Correspondents Club of China.

“”There is still often a complete lack of transparency and consultation, particularly with civil society groups in the host countries,” he added.

“Beijing says that Chinese companies operating abroad have to comply with relevant national laws and that they must respect people there and the environment.

“Rights groups say this frequently does not happen.

“In Myanmar, Chinese companies are building or funding some particularly divisive dam schemes, Bosshard said.

“”If such huge infrastructure projects go forward, the (Myanmar) army takes over and occupies the villages,” he said.

“”There’s no question that the indigenous populations are very unhappy with these projects which they see as an extension of military rule in Burma, and that this will lead to serious conflict.”"

Read more: Reuter

2011 Global Water Awards Go to MENA Nations

Last modified on 2011-04-22 18:20:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Almost half of the international winners were from the Middle East, but surprisingly, traditional fossil-fueled water projects dominated the awardees.

Advanced cleantech water companies that genuinely hold the promise of a sustainable water development, such as the many innovators that Israel’s Kinrot has incubated (GE Partnership With Kinrot Ventures Takes Clean Water Innovation Global) were not represented among the global winners. Nor were any of the many international solar companies now innovating sustainable desalination.

Israel’s 50 year old IDE Technologies, owned by big polluters Delek and Israel Chemicals, was selected as the winning desalination company of the year, for “complete mastery of both membrane and thermal desalination” (“thermal” means fossil-fueled.)

Two awards were won by tiny Oman. Salalah IWPP funding won for the desalination deal of the year, for its $1 billion 445 MW gas-fired power and water plant, and the Nimr reed beds in Oman won for industrial water project of the year.

Dubai’s Electricity and Water Authority won the award for public water agency of the year for its  “fluctuating charge showing customers how much their bills are affected by the change in oil and gas costs. Realistic billing has made the authority free to act on an independent financial footing.”

Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Sewage Lake cleanup won for water reuse project of the year. The water performance initiative was won by SEEAL from Algiers.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan was keynote speaker at the prestigious ceremony, which attracted hundreds of the top figures from the global water market.

Israel has long spearheaded the incubation of sustainable water technologies, and its start-upsnurtured by Kinrot Technologies are now being bought out by global companies like GE, which was another winner of the Global Water Awards: for its GE Water division (not one of GE’s more clean tech divisions).”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Concern over Myanmar’s Irrawaddy dam

Last modified on 2011-04-22 17:36:39 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“ Chinese companies are funding a multi-billion dollar project to dam the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar.

The river, the longest one left undammed in southeast Asia, is important to the Kachin people, and millions of people up and down its length would be affected by the changes, experts say.

When it is dammed, it will leave an area the size of New York City submerged.

There are now concerns over who is to benefit from the river’s riches.

Our special correspondent in Myanmar, who we cannot name for security reasons, filed this report.”

Read more: Aljazeera

 

Last modified on GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Salty days await Chennaiites

Last modified on 2011-04-19 17:27:38 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A severe drinking water shortage is threatening Chennai because of salt water intrusion into its water sources, warn experts. Central Chennai is the worst affected, they say and add that the content of  Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is increasing. Irregulated tapping of groundwater in commercial and residential areas is why the city has lost its water sources forever, they say.

“CPR Environnmental Education Centre joint director P Sudhakar said there was a huge increase in the use of groundwater in the last two years. “As more and more multistoreyed apartment blocks have come up, we have noted a 25% increase in the use of ground water sources in the last two years.

“Central Chennai is the most critical as water consumption is increasing and the area doesn’t have any water bodies or sources to preserve groundwater,” he said.

“Salt water intrusion, experts say, occurs mainly due to the reduction of groundwater gradients. “Over-exploitation of groundwater sources allows saline water to displace fresh water from the city and region,” said a Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) official.

“Along with the massive development and the growing population, Sudhakar said the demand for groundwater had increased 100 times in the last 10 years. ”

Read more: Times of India

Thames Water Fined For Basingstoke Canal Pollution

Last modified on 2011-04-18 20:18:36 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“A water company has been fined £12,000 after admitting allowing untreated sewage to enter a Surrey canal.

The Environment Agency investigated after more than 300 fish were found dead at the Basingstoke Canal in Woking in September 2009.

Thames Water admitted at Woking Magistrates’ Court. to allowing pollution to enter the canal.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the company said it admitted responsibility for a “deeply upsetting incident.”

She said: “Any pollution incident is one too many and although these are few and far between, we continue to work to eliminate them all together.”

‘Gasping for life’

Following the incident, the company spent £40,000 to restore the quality of the water and investigate the cause, she added.

Readings taken by the Environment Agency at the time found high levels of oxygen and ammonium. The number of dead fish included roach, bream, perch and gudgeon.”

Read more: BBC

 

Dubai plans reservoir of treated water

Last modified on 2011-04-18 01:09:31 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Safely treated waste water could be the answer to Dubai’s need for having an underground water reservoir for meeting any fresh water crisis.

“ Diminishing natural groundwater is a serious threat to fresh water security in the arid region where desalination plants are the major source of water supply. Environmental experts have always highlighted the need for underground water reservoirs citing that cities here would have only a few days of water if desalination plants are damaged due to any reasons.

“Last year, Abu Dhabi started working on underground reservoirs. Now, Dubai is exploring ways to make use of safely treated and good quality sewage water for recharging ground water, which, in the long run, will help make an emergency reservoir of underground water.”

Read more: Khaleej Times

 

Water Wars: China’s New ‘Political Weapon’?

Last modified on 2011-04-20 16:00:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering speed as it raked the banks of towering trees and boulders. When the torrent struck their island in the Brahmaputra river, the villagers remember, it took only moments to obliterate their houses, possessions and livestock.

No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.

“We don’t trust the Chinese,” says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood. “They gave us no warning. They may do it again.”

About 800 kilometers (500 miles) east, in northern Thailand, Chamlong Saengphet stands in the Mekong river, in water that comes only up to her shins. She is collecting edible river weeds from dwindling beds. A neighbor has hung up his fishing nets, his catches now too meager.

Using words bordering on curses, they point upstream, toward China.

The blame game, voiced in vulnerable river towns and Asian capitals from Pakistan to Vietnam, is rooted in fear that China’s accelerating program of damming every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies, divert vital water supplies.

A few analysts and environmental advocates even speak of water as a future trigger for war or diplomatic strong-arming, though others strongly doubt it will come to that. Still, the remapping of the water flow in the world’s most heavily populated and thirstiest region is happening on a gigantic scale, with potentially strategic implications.

On the eight great Tibetan rivers alone, almost 20 dams have been built or are under construction while some 40 more are planned or proposed.”

Read more: Huffington Post

 

Emiratis Fear Dwindling Water Supplies Will Impact Future Generation

Last modified on 2011-04-15 19:47:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In the United Arab Emirate the average citizen consumes 550 litres of water per capita daily, which is three times the global average and quite high for a country located in the water-scarce Middle East. Despite this water luxury, many Emiratis are increasingly aware of the scale of the problem and in a recent survey carried out by Procter & Gamble and YouGov Siraj, worries over water shortages in the region are higher than they have ever been.

The survey found that 28% of Emiratis worry that limited natural resources will be a real issue for future generations and 25% of married couples with children in the UAE are concerned that there will be not enough fresh water for their children.

An encouraging 57% of Dubai residents reported that they take an active role in monitoring their water consumption and use only what is necessary. This illustrates a rising awareness among Emiratis and follows the recent announcement that 300 mosques in Dubai have been targeted to reduce their water and electricity consumption.

The ‘Green Mosques’ project, which is being championed by the ‘Green Sheikh’,  aims to reduce consumption by 20% and save around 6 million Dh.

More worryingly, however, the survey found 24% of residents across Abu Dhabi and Dubai don’t believe their personal actions can make any difference to water consumption. This is a real issue when looking at water conservation as tackling personal behaviours is an important aspect of the saving water.

Jamie Wasky, Associate Director of YouGov Siraj, added: “Sustainability is a key issue in the region and this research shows there is an improvement in awareness but that there is still a long way to go in changing people’s perceptions on water and energy conservation.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

Chinese Firm To Build Seven Power Plants On Nam Ou

Last modified on 2011-04-14 14:51:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A Chinese company plans to build seven hydropower plants along the Nam Ou River, one of the largest tributaries of the Mekong.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Thongmy Phomvixay and Sinohydro Ltd Deputy Managing Director Sen De Cai signed a master plan for the Nam Ou hydropower development project on Monday.

Under the plan, Sinohydro will build two major reservoirs and seven hydropower plants along the 475 km Nam Ou River. The river rises in China and runs through Phongsaly province before entering the Mekong River at Pak Ou in Luang Prabang province.

Once completed, the seven power stations will have a total production capacity of 1156MW, generating 5 billion kilowatt hours a year. The power will be sold to Electricite du Laos for domestic consumption – specifically in the north of the country – and to Thailand, Vietnam and China.

Sinohydro will initially build three power plants along the Nam Ou River. The construction of the remaining power plants will depend on the demand for electricity in Laos.

According to a senior official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Investment Promotion Depart-ment, Sinohydro will use the master plan as a framework for signing agreements with the government to develop power plants in the future.

Sinohydro cannot build all seven power stations at the same time due to the high construction cost and low demand for electricity. The Lao government is required to sign the master plan so the company can begin development along the Nam Ou River.”

Read mor: Vientiane Times

 

Activists Fight To Stop Dam Across Mekong

Last modified on 2011-04-08 18:31:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The $3.5 billion Xayaburi dam is slated for the wilds of northern Laos and would generate power mostly for sale to Thailand. The project pits villagers, activists and the Vietnamese media against Thai interests and the Laotian government in its hopes of earning foreign exchange in one of the world’s poorest countries.

A decision on whether the dam gets the green light, is axed or deferred for further studies is expected April 19 during a meeting in the Laotian capital among Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Opponents warn it could open the way for 10 more dams being considered along the lower Mekong.

“Our lives and livelihoods depend on the health of the Mekong River,” said Kamol Konpin, mayor of the Thai riverside town of Chiang Khan.

“As local people have already suffered from dams built upstream in China and watched the ecosystem change, we are afraid that the Xayaburi dam will bring more suffering.”

China has placed three dams across the upper reaches of the Mekong, but otherwise its 3,000-mile (4,900-kilometer) mainstream flows free.

The Xayaburi would cut across a stretch of the river flanked by forested hills, cliffs and hamlets where ethnic minority groups reside, forcing the resettlement of up 2,100 villagers and impacting tens of thousands of others.

Environmentalists say such a dam would disrupt fish migrations, block nutrients for downstream farming and even foul Vietnam’s rice bowl by slowing the river’s speed and allowing saltwater to creep into the Mekong River Delta.”

Read more: The Associated Press

 

Record Numbers Of Salmon and Sea Trout in English Rivers

Last modified on 2011-04-08 18:08:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Record numbers of salmon and sea trout are being found in iconic English rivers, say the Environment Agency, which has announced that river water quality in England has improved for the 20th consecutive year.

Over 70% of rivers are now graded as ‘very good’ or ‘good’ under the organisation’s own classification. Cleaner rivers have resulted in the recovery of British wildlife once thought to have vanished forever in some regions.

50 years ago, no salmon or sea trout were seen in the River Tyne, but already this year, more than 15,000 have been recorded migrating up river – the highest since records began. The number of sea trout in the Thames has also hit a new level; many fish species in the lower reaches of the river were wiped out in the 1830s due to pollution. The River Mersey meanwhile, once said to be the most polluted river in Europe, is the cleanest it has been for a century.

The Environment Agency says the improvements have been achieved through investment by water companies, tougher action on polluters, reduction in discharges from industry and businesses, changing farming practices and thousands of local projects such as building fish and eel passes throughout the country.”

Read more: Positive News

Lessons From the Field—Rainwater Harvesting in India

Last modified on 2011-04-07 15:27:30 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“How will vast regions of India, where highly unreliable rainfall makes the difference between famine and sustenance, cope with climate change? Over 85 percent of the cultivated area in this country is either directly dependent on rain or depends on rain to recharge its groundwater. Seasonal rain provides water for irrigation, drinking, and household needs. It provides water to livestock and is necessary to grow fodder for animals. The question of how these areas will adapt as rainfall becomes even more variable with climate change is especially important now, as groundwater is being pumped from deeper and deeper wells to grow water-guzzling crops like sugarcane, rice, wheat and even flowers.

I ask these questions once again, because for once I have some answers. I traveled to Hiware Bazaar village in Ahmednagar district to find an amazing example of environmental regeneration. This village of a thousand-odd families in the rain shadow, drought-prone region of Maharashtra was reportedly destitute and lawless some 15 years ago. Today, it is an incredible example of how rainwater harvesting can create prosperity.

In 1972, when water scarcity had hit the state, a dam to encourage water to sink into the ground was built under a new employment guarantee scheme. But like most dams this structure leaked. Water scarcity increased. The next water harvesting structure led to a murder in the village, as people fought over the water it provided. Villagers took to making, drinking, and selling country liquor (country liquor is made from a potent mix of chemicals and plants in different regions), instead of water. The surrounding forests were hacked down. Villagers recall how a forest guard was beaten and tied up as he tried to stop people from felling trees. By the early 1990s, migration was the only alternative to poverty in this village.”

Read more: National Geographic

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Last modified on 2011-04-06 12:17:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Why the Strategies Behind Nestlé’s New Bottled Water Brand May Be Good for the Company but Bad for Public Water

Last modified on 2011-04-06 12:22:31 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“As many consumers in the United States and Europe are dropping bottled water, the industry is beginning to see a decline in sales. In fact, between 2007 and 2010, Nestlé Waters, the biggest water bottler in the world, saw its total sales drop 12.6 percent.

Today, Nestlé appears to have developed new strategies to combat this challenging sales climate, which center around its Pure Life brand. Unfortunately, while the brand has been profitable, these tactics do not bode well for public water in the United States or abroad.

Nestlé has shifted the focus of its advertising dollars in the United States to its new Pure Life brand. Between 2004 and 2009, spending on Pure Life advertising increased by more than 3000 percent; the company’s nearly $9.7 million expenditure on the brand in 2009 was more than any other bottled water company spent on a leading domestic brand, and more than Nestlé’s next five spring water brands combined.

While Nestlé’s global water division’s sales are falling in Europe, the United States and Canada, they are growing rapidly in the “emerging markets” that Nestlé is targeting in the rest of the word. In 2010, Nestlé’s sales of bottled water in these “other regions” increased by 25 percent over its 2009 sales in these areas.

Pure Life differs from Nestlé’s previous brands in the United States in terms of the source of its water, the messaging used to sell it, and its target audience:

• Pure Life bottles municipal tap water rather than spring water, which can help the company avoid the costly conflicts over water access and labeling that have plagued its spring water operations in the past, allowing it instead to vie with its main competitors, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, on price.
• The company focuses its messaging on the health benefits of bottled water, especially compared to sugary soft drinks, which improves the image of its product and helps it appeal to parents and teachers who are concerned about their children’s health.
• It also specifically targets Hispanic immigrants in the United States and “emerging markets” in developing nations abroad — consumers who are accustomed to inadequate water infrastructure and therefore less inclined to drink from the tap because of safety concerns.”

Read more: Food & Water Watch

 

 

Cutting Edge Energy From Estuaries?

Last modified on 2011-04-06 11:42:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Battery-operated electric vehicles are cutting CO2 emissions and raising awareness of our transportation carbon footprint. Recent cutting edge research now shows that batteries can also be harnessed in rivers and estuaries as a non-dam and hopefully low-impact form of electricity generation.

According to Stanford University, a team lead by Yi Cui (Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering), has developed a battery that takes advantage of the difference in salinity between freshwater and seawater to produce electricity.

The battery is simple, consisting of a positive and negative electrode immersed in water containing electrically charged particles, or ions – in this case, sodium and chlorine (i.e. table salt).

• Step 1: A small electric current charges the battery, pulling ions out of the electrodes and into the water.
• Step 2: The fresh water is replaced with seawater, thereby increasing the amount of charged ions. Salty seawater contains 60 to 100 times more ions than freshwater.
• Step 3: The salt water increases the electrical potential, or voltage, between the two electrodes, allowing the battery to generate far more electricity than the amount used to charge it. Electricity is then drawn from the battery for use, draining the battery of its stored energy.
• Step 4: Seawater is discharged and replaced with river water, and the cycle starts again.

The impacts and limitations

According to the Stanford article, the potential environmental impact of the battery should be low. They recognize that river mouths and estuaries are environmentally sensitive areas. They chose manganese dioxide for the positive electrode, in part because it is environmentally benign. The discharge water would be a mixture of fresh and seawater, released into an area where the two waters are already mixing, at the natural temperature.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

 

Sri Lanka achieves MDG on water and sanitation

Last modified on 2011-04-03 02:27:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Amidst international development agency – WaterAid – calling upon the South Asian region to invest more in sanitation to save the lives of over 2.8 million children under the age of five, the Sri Lankan Government said the island had achieved the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals on water and sanitation that targeted a coverage of 84.5 percent by 2015, three years ahead.

“Minister of Water Supply and Drainage Dinesh Gunawardena said that Sri Lanka had a total coverage in water and sanitation of 85.5 percent in 2011 and had set its own target to reach 100 percent by 2020.

“In an interview with the Sunday Observer last Friday, just two days prior to Sri Lanka hosting the fourth South Asian Conference on Water and Sanitation (SACOSAN) in Colombo, from April 4 to 8, the Minister said Sri Lanka would be the most progressive story of the region committed to provide better water and sanitation to all Sri Lankans.

“While Sri Lanka tops the other countries in the region with improved sanitation facilities and safe drinking water, many in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bhutan die and suffer due to water and sanitation-related health problems.

“According to WaterAid, the situation in the region is still shocking despite the commitments made at the previous SACOSAN conferences.

“As 500 experts from SAARC countries gather in Colombo at SACOSAN IV to review the commitments set out in the Delhi Declaration in 2008, WaterAid has warned that all countries in South Asia except the Maldives and Sri Lanka are currently off track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halve the proportion of people currently living without access to a toilet.”

Read more: Sunday Observer

China Three Gorges Hydropower Project Proceeds as Planned After Protests

Last modified on 2011-04-02 15:32:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China Three Gorges Corp., operator of the world’s largest dam, said its Xiangjiaba hydropower project in southwestern China will continue as planned after local residents ended a five-day protest this week.

“The Xiangjiaba project is progressing as planned,” Yan Fei, a spokeswoman for China Three Gorges, said in a text message sent by mobile phone today. “There has been no notice of changes to the plans.” The hydropower facility will have total capacity of 6.4 gigawatts and is expected to start electricity generation in June 2012, according to China Three Gorges’ website.

More than 2,000 residents of Suijiang county in China’s Yunnan province protested for five days, blocking local roads, over compensation offered them for relocating because of the dam, the China Daily newspaper reported today. China has moved more than a million people to make way for hydropower projects as the government seeks to ensure the energy supplies needed to fuel the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

Construction of the Xiangjiaba hydropower project will require the relocation of 20,000 peopleliving in Suijiang county by June 2012, when the reservoir created by the dam puts 50,000 mu (8,237 acre) of land under water, according to the China Three Gorges’ website.

Protesters Disperse

Protesters in Suijiang gathered on March 25 and dispersed by March 29, China Daily said, citing the county government. Police weren’t used to disperse the protestors, the newspaper reported. Five calls to the county government’s news department weren’t answered today.”

Read more: Bloomberg

 

Riots over forced migration at Chinese dam project leave 50 hurt

Last modified on 2011-03-31 02:12:49 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Thousands of people clashed with police in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province over compensation for being forced to resettle for a dam project, a human rights watchdog and the government confirmed Wednesday.

“The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said thousands of people blocked major traffic routes in Suijiang County from Friday until Tuesday when 1,500 paramilitary police, led by an armored vehicle, forcibly dispersed the crowd, leaving 30 protesters and 20 police injured.

“The Hong Kong-based center said an ambulance was wrecked after paramedics in it took care of injured police and ignored protesters.

“About 100,000 people in the region are to be moved to make way for the construction of a dam and power plant on the Jinsha River, but disputes over payment for grave removal and resettlement remain unresolved.

“The center said the government offered people 1,000 yuan ($152) for grave removal that cost more than 5,000 yuan and that the people are dissatisfied with the quality of resettlement houses that are located in an earthquake zone.”

Read more: iStockAnalyst

Billion-plus people to lack water in 2050: study

Last modified on 2011-03-30 03:56:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, with Indian cities among the worst hit, a study said Monday.

“The shortage threatens sanitation in some of the world’s fastest-growing cities but also poses risks for wildlife if cities pump in water from outside, said the article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The study found that under current urbanization trends, by mid-century some 993 million city dwellers will live with less than 100 liters (26 gallons) each day of water each — roughly the amount that fills a personal bathtub — which authors considered the daily minimum.

“Adding on the impact of climate change, an additional 100 million people will lack what they need for drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing and toilet use.

“”Don’t take the numbers as destiny. They’re a sign of a challenge,” said lead author Rob McDonald of The Nature Conservancy, a private environmental group based near Washington.

“”There are solutions to getting those billion people water. It’s just a sign that a lot more investment is going to be needed, either in infrastructure or in water use efficiency,” he said.”

Read more: Brisbane Times

Blogging for Water: SUCCESS!

Last modified on 2011-03-29 16:18:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Lots of fun was had by all as over 100 bloggers spent March 22, World Water Day, blogging to raise $10,000 in 24 hours to bring sustainable clean water to villagers in India. The initiative, called typeTAP, was the brainchild of The Adventure Project, an innovative non-profit founded last year with the aim of raising awareness and funds to support the world’s most effective social ventures.

The idea was to find at least 100 bloggers who could inspire at least 10 readers to give US$10 to assure clean water for villagers in India. In the end 148 bloggers joined in, 321 donations were made, and as midnight arrived, the popular project had raised $11,390.  With matching funds from TPRF,  over $22,780 will go to train local mechanics to repair hundreds of broken-down pumps that have left countless villagers with no ready source of clean water.

All funds collected go to WaterAid, a charity that takes a unique approach to providing the poorest communities with potable water. Rather than building and abandoning wells that would quickly fall into disrepair, WaterAid equips and trains villagers to repair water sources across their region. More unique still, they strive to educate women so that they can become economically independent participants in what are often conservatively traditional communities.”

Read more: The Prem Rawat Foundation

 

New Mekong Dam a Go, and a Blow to Megafishes?

Last modified on 2011-03-29 02:46:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A meeting between four Southeast Asian countries this week could determine whether construction of the first of up to a dozen controversial dams on the Mekong River can proceed.

The dams are designed to generate electricity for the region, but environmentalists fear they will disrupt the Mekong’s delicate freshwater ecology—which supports the endangered giant Mekong catfish and dozens of other critical species—and threaten local communities who rely on the river for food and jobs.

“We believe the Mekong River dams should not be built,” said Ame Trandem, a campaigner for the environmental group International Rivers.

The Xayaburi Dam in northern Laos is the first of 11 proposed dams planned for construction on the lower Mekong River. Nine dams are planned for Laos, and two others are slated for Cambodia.

The approximately 3,000-mile (4,800-kilometer) Mekong River is traditionally separated into two parts on maps: The upper Mekong flows through China, where it is known as the Lancang River, while the lower Mekong runs alongside Myanmar and through Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam before emptying into the South China Sea.

The Xayaburi Dam will take eight years to complete and cost an estimated $3.5 billion. It will generate 1,260 megawatts of electricity, most of which will be sold to Thailand.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

Big Coal WikiLeaks Emergency in Bangladesh: Does Obama Support Removal of 100,000 Villagers?

Last modified on 2011-03-25 17:21:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

“When thousands of Bangladeshi take to the streets again on March 28th as part of a decade-long battle to halt a devastating British-owned open-pit coal mine, the world will not only be watching whether Bangladesh’s government will honor a coal ban agreement from 2006 or resort to violence.

In light of disturbing WikiLeaks cables, American and worldwide human rights and environmental organizations will also be questioning why the Obama administration is covertly pushing for Bangladesh to reverse course and acquiesce to an internationally condemnedmassive open-pit mine that will displace an estimated 100,000-200,000 villagers and ravage desperately needed farm land and water resources.

The short answer, from US Ambassador James Moriarty’s leaked memos:” “Asia Energy, the company behind the Phulbari project, has sixty percent US investment. Asia Energy officials told the Ambassador they were cautiously optimistic that the project would win government approval in the coming months.

Two years ago, an independent review of the coal mine by a British research firm warned:

“Phulbari Coal Project threatens numerous dangers and potential damages, ranging from the degradation of a major agricultural region in Bangladesh to pollution of the world’s largest wetlands. The project’s Summary Environmental Impact Assessment, and its full Environmental and Social Impact Assessment are replete with vague assurances, issuing many promises of future mitigation measures.”

Read more: AlterNet

 

Taiwan To Remove Dam To Restore Habitat For Precious Fish

Last modified on 2011-03-24 22:26:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A check dam in Shei-Pa National Park in central Taiwan will be removed in May to help restore the habitat and passageway of the country’s precious Formosan landlocked salmon, park director Chen Mao-chun said Tuesday on World Water Day.

Check dam No. 1 of the Chichiawan Creek, one of 10 built on the river to reduce channel erosion and prevent sediment from filling a downstream reservoir, creates a barrier that prevents the fish from migrating upstream, Chen said, but that is now set to change.

According to Wang Ching-ming, a professor at National Taiwan Normal University who has studied the species for 25 years, the dam’s removal will be as precious and significant for Taiwan’s ecology as “man’s first step on the moon.”

He said the dams have blocked and separated the landlocked salmon’s habitat, preventing them from mixing among different groups and causing water quality in the separate areas to be uneven.

That lack of exposure to different salmon is believed to have diminished the genetic diversity of the species and increased its chances of extinction.

Environmental and ecological changes have also narrowed the habitat of the fish to 1,700-1,900 meters above sea level, from a previous range of 1,500-2,000 meters, Wang said, making the breakdown of barriers within the habitat even more important.”

Read more: Focus Taiwan News

Tokyo tap water not safe for infants

Last modified on 2011-03-23 21:19:26 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

 

At Fault On The Nu River

Last modified on 2011-03-23 15:57:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“With the ongoing crisis at its earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan is paying a heavy price for ignoring “large-scale environmental evaluations”. This is the assessment of two prominent Chinese geologists, Xu Daoyi and Sun Wenpeng, who told chinadialogue that the incident holds important lessons for China.

The two experts argue that the Japanese authorities underestimated the potential impact of deep-ocean faults and earthquakes on power plants. As a result, they failed to locate their atomic energy facilities on the country’s less vulnerable west coast and, ultimately, to avoid the radiation crisis the world has watched unfold over the past week.

There are worrying parallels in China, said Xu and Sun. But rather than focusing on the nuclear industry, their gripe is with their country’s hydropower sector – and, more specifically, thecontroversial plans to build a cascade of dams on the Nu River, China’s last great waterway without large-scale hydropower and the focus of an animated public campaign.”

Read more: China Dialogue

 

This World Water Day, Think — Energy

Last modified on 2011-03-22 17:44:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“We don’t think much about water when we flick on a light, power up our computer, or open the fridge for a drink. But there’s some H20 hiding behind every activity that uses energy – which, of course, includes almost everything we do.

In fact, the single biggest draw on U. S. rivers and lakes is not toilets, golf courses, or even irrigated farms. It’s thermal power plants that generate electricity to light our homes and cities, run appliances and factories, and generally keep our plugged-in society humming.

Thermoelectric generation accounts for 49 percent of the water withdrawn from the nation’s water sources, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. On average it takes about 23 gallons of water to produce 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity. That means a typical refrigerator can use 40 gallons of water a day – not at your home, but at the power plant that produces your electricity.

Thermal power plants – fueled by coal, oil, natural gas, or uranium – boil water to produce steam, which then drives a turbine to generate electricity. These fossil fuel and nuclear plants produce about 90 percent of the electricity used in the United States.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

Libyan Violence Dampens Great Man-Made River Project

Last modified on 2011-03-20 21:50:59 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The Omar Mukhtar Reservoir in Libya’s southern desert is the second largest in the world, and an integral component of the $20 billion Great Man-Made River project (GMMR). Begun in 1984, the mammoth pipeline designed to transport water from the south to Libya’s dry northern cities has experienced huge setbacks as a result of Gaddafi’s power struggle with rebel forces. Despite the recently announced ceasefire, CNN reports continuing violence, which is taking its toll on the Canadian firm Pure Technologies’ bottom line. In addition to a delayed shipping consignment worth $10.7 million to the war-besieged country, Pure Technologies expects to lose approximately $2 million technical support revenue.

According to Canadian Business, the company has delayed all construction until conditions in the country stabilize, and have made moves to diversify their business to be less dependent on Libya.

As conditions escalated last week, the British foreign service also evacuated hundreds of oil workers in the region. One of the chartered planes that left from Malta to Gatwick Airport in England was shot at, according to a Guardian report.

Designed to pump water from the underground Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System to sustain the six million inhabitants in the north, the GMMR is one of the most ambitious and costly irrigation projects in history. Critics worry that the ancient aquifer will be depleted.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

“Hydro-diplomacy” needed to avert Arab water wars

Last modified on 2011-03-20 20:08:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The United Nations should promote “hydro-diplomacy” to defuse any tensions over water in regions like the Middle East and North Africa where scarce supplies have the potential to spark future conflicts, experts said on Sunday.

“They said the U.N. Security Council should work out ways to bolster cooperation over water in shared lakes or rivers, from the Mekong to the Nile, that are likely to come under pressure from a rising world population and climate change.

“The Middle East and North Africa are the regions most at risk of conflict over scarce water supplies, they said, but history shows “water wars” are very rare.

“”We think that water is an issue that would be a appropriate for the U.N. Security Council,” Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water, told Reuters ahead of a meeting of experts in Canada this week to discuss water and security.

“U.N. studies project that 30 nations will be “water scarce” in 2025, up from 20 in 1990. Eighteen of them are in the Middle East and North Africa, with Libya and Egypt among those added to the 1990 list that includes Israel and Somalia.”

Read more: Reuters Africa

Japan radiation fears heighten as tainted water discovered in wake of nuclear plant damage

Last modified on 2011-03-19 22:16:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Traces of radioactive iodine were found in Tokyo‘s tap water, heightening concerns about leaks from one of Japan damaged nuclear plant, officials said Saturday.

“Tests of spinach and milk from farms near the blighted Fukushima Dai-ichi complex also detected radiation over government safety limits.

“Government ministry officials said the tainted water was found in tap water in Tokyo and five other prefectures but did not exceed accepted safety levels.

“The food came from producers up to 65 miles from the crippled plant, suggesting the area of contamination could be far wider than initially thought.”

read more: NY Daily News

Japan Cites Radiation In Milk, Spinach Near Plant

Last modified on 2011-03-19 21:21:10 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In the first sign that contamination from Japan’s stricken nuclear complex had seeped into the food chain, officials said Saturday that radiation levels in spinach and milk from farms near the tsunami-crippled facility exceeded government safety limits.

Minuscule amounts of radioactive iodine also were found in tap water Friday in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan – although experts said none of those tests showed any health risks. The Health Ministry also said that radioactive iodine slightly above government safety limits was found in drinking water at one point Thursday in a sampling from Fukushima prefecture, the site of the nuclear plant, but later tests showed the level had fallen again.

Six workers trying to bring the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant back under control were exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation – Japan’s normal limit for those involved in emergency operations, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the complex. The government raised that limit to 250 millisieverts on Tuesday as the crisis escalated.

Officials said the crisis at the plant appeared to be stabilizing, with near-constant dousing of dangerously overheated reactors and uranium fuel, but the situation was still far from resolved.”

Read more: Associated Press

Last Ditch Plea on Yangtze Dam

Last modified on 2011-03-15 07:32:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China’s Xiaonanhai dam, a controversial hydropower scheme planned for the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is set to destroy the region’s last reserve for rare fish. But, in spite of the sacrifice being made in its name, there are strong doubts about the actual benefits the development will bring.

One public figure convinced that the scheme is a mistake is geologist and environmentalist Fan Xiao. In an open letter to some of China’s most senior political figures, including premier Wen Jiabao, Fan has reiterated the demands of the green movement, calling for a public hearing on the project; urging the government to reconsider the decision to shrink the area’s protected fish habitat; and arguing that the dam should be abandoned.

“The Xiaonanhai Dam will ruin the reserve,” wrote Xiao in his letter. “Removing the dam site and nearby stretches of the river from the protected area is a decision to wreck a nature reserve to suit the hydropower industry, and to disregard national laws on environmental protection.”

The letter was sent to a list of names from China’s political elite: as well as Wen Jiabao, Fan addressed the chair of the economy planning body the National Reform and Development Commission (NDRC) Zhang Ping, minister for environmental protection Zhou Shengxian, agriculture minister Han Changfu and water-resources minister Chen Lei.”

Read more: chinadialogue

 

Drinking Water Poisoned, Village Has Lucky Escape

Last modified on 2011-03-14 03:18:01 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

 

“In a shocking incident, a drinking water bore well in Kumarapalayam village near Coimbatore was poisoned with pesticide by an unidentified gang, leaving four villagers hospitalised and a shoal of fishes dead on Saturday morning.

A major tragedy was averted and the 360 families in the village were fortunate to escape. Supply from the poisoned borewell was stopped within minutes after four villagers including two women complained of chest pain and giddiness after drinking the water.

Granules of highly toxic furadan, a pesticide banned in several countries, were found scattered around the borewell. About one kg of furadan is suspected to have been thrown into the borewell pipes by drilling a hole in its steel cap. Fortunately, none of the children in the village consumed the toxic water as it may have been fatal, revenue officials said.

Police are clueless about the gang responsible for this incident. They suspect that enmity between a section of the villagers may have prompted the culprits to poison the water. “We have initiated a probe and hope to nab the culprits soon. A case has been registered under Section 284 of the Indian Penal Code (negligent use of poisonous substances.),” the Coimbatore rural SP, Dr N Kannan said. ”

Read more: The Times of India

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Dam Nation

Last modified on 2011-03-09 03:20:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Next week, China’s National People’s Congress, which is now meeting in Beijing, will formally adopt the country’s next five-year plan. The document will define the country’s vision for the next half-decade, including an increasingly desperate balancing act between economic growth and environmental protection. At least 200 million Chinese will join the urban middle class by the end of this decade, and the government sees continued rapid growth as the best recipe for the preservation of social stability. But at the same time, the country bursts at the ecological seams. Lush forests have given way to dust bowls and industrial wastelands. Plant and animal species are going extinct at a rapid pace. Millions of people are being displaced from lands that can no longer sustain them. Birth defects — likely related to exposure to polluted air, water, or food — in some places reach 20 times the global average.

At first glance, the next five-year plan (or what has so far been shared with the public) appears to be the greenest in China’s history. On Feb. 27, Premier Wen Jiabao emphasized the new priorities in a well-publicized Internet chat session: “We can no longer sacrifice the environment for the sake of rapid development and reckless construction…. These will only lead to overcapacity in production, increased pressure on environmental resources, and unsustainable economic growth.” The five-year plan’s expected provisions include targets and financing to promote the rapid expansion of alternative energy, and tighter limits for toxic pollutants, among other measures.

The new plan comes in the wake of notable environmental reforms that Beijing has adopted in the last few years. At the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen, the Chinese government committed to reducing the carbon intensity of China’s economy, even though its greenhouse gas emissions per capita are much lower than those of industrialized countries.”

Read more: Foreign Policy

Avoiding Water Wars

Last modified on 2011-03-08 01:37:31 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“With the climate change and as a consequence shrinking water availability across the Middle East, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, violent conflict between states is increasingly likely. This matter was on the agenda of annul World Water Week forum in Stockholm held in 2006, but it could not answer the question raised in the meeting whether we are heading for an era of “hydrological warfare” in which rivers, lakes and aquifers become national security assets to be fought over, or controlled through proxy armies and client states? Or can water act as a force for peace and cooperation? It has been estimated by the experts that by 2025, more than two billion people are expected to live in countries that find it difficult or impossible to mobilize the water resources needed to meet the needs of agriculture, industry and households. Population growth, urbanization and the rapid development of manufacturing industries are relentlessly increasing demand for finite water resources. Symptoms of the resulting water stress are increasingly visible. In northern China, rivers now run dry in their lower reaches for much of the year. In parts of Pakistan and India, groundwater levels are falling so rapidly that from 10 percent to 20 percent of agricultural production is under threat.

In the past, there have been wars between the countries over religions, usurpation of territories and control of resources including oil, but in view of acute shortages of water in Africa, Middle East, Asia and elsewhere, the future wars could be fought over water.

In addition to Kashmir dispute, the Indus River Basin has been an area of conflict between India and Pakistan for about four decades. Spanning 1,800 miles, the river and its tributaries together make up one of the largest irrigation canals in the world. Dams and canals built in order to provide hydropower and irrigation have dried up stretches of the Indus River. The division of the river basin water has created friction among the countries of South Asia, and among their states and provinces. Accusations of overdrawing of share of water made by each province have resulted in the lack of water supplies to coastal regions of Pakistan. India and Bangladesh have also dispute over Ganges River water and India is resorting to water theft there as well. Nepal and Bangladesh are also victims of India’s water thievery. India had dispute with Bangladesh over Farrakha Barrage, with Nepal over Mahakali River and with Pakistan over 1960 Indus Water Treaty.”

Read more: Pakistan Observer

China’s Dam-Building Will Cause More Problems Than It Solves

Last modified on 2011-03-04 19:10:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The five-year plan also includes the most relentless dam-building effort that any nation has ever undertaken in history. If approved, this program would cut off the country’s nose to spite her face. It would irreversibly destroy China‘s great rivers and biodiversity hotspots of global importance.

China already counts more dams within its borders than any other country. It has paid a huge price for this development. Chinese dams have displaced an estimated 23 million people. Dam breaks in the country with the world’s worst safety record have killed approximately 300,000 people. Scientific evidence suggests that one particular project, the Zipingpu Dam, may have triggered the devastating earthquake in Sichuan of 2008. Dams have also taken a huge toll on China’s biodiversity, causing fisheries to suffer and driving charismatic species such as the Yangtze River Dolphin to extinction.

As part of its low-carbon diet, the Chinese government plans to approve new hydropower plants with a capacity of 140 gigawatts over the next five years. For comparison, Brazil, the United States and Canada have each built between 75 and 85 gigawatts of hydropower capacity in their entire history. Achieving the new plan’s target would require building cascades of dams on several rivers in China’s south-west and on the Tibetan plateau – regions which are populated by ethnic minorities, ecologically fragile, rich in biodiversity, and seismically active.”

Read more: Guardian

Hydropower Projects Speed Up in Tibet

Last modified on 2011-03-03 15:39:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Currently, a number of key hydropower projects are being constructed simultaneously in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet Daily reported.

In a bid to push forward its economic and social leap-forward development and long-term stability, Tibet recently formulated a medium- and long-term energy development plan to make detailed arrangements for the region’s energy construction.

The Phomdo Water Control Project mainly is aimed at irrigation and power generation with due attention to flood control and water supplies.

With a planned reservoir capacity of 1.23 billion cubic meters, the project will be able to irrigate an overall farmland area of 16,370 square kilometers, expected to produce 255 more tons of grain.

The construction of the Phomdo Project, with a total investment of about 4.57 billion yuan, is estimated to last 69 months.”

Read more: China Tibet Online

Opposition to Taiwanese Chemical Plant Grows

Last modified on 2011-03-02 16:46:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“My parents, grandparents and great grandparents were all oyster farmers, and now my kids also work in this field.

“We’ve been doing this for more than 100 years,” Hsieh said.

This area in western Taiwan’s Changhua County will look and function very differently if Taiwan’s government allows state-owned oil refiner CPC Corporation to build a $20bn petrochemical plant here.

Plans for the 2,000-hectare plant include a 300,000 barrel-a-day refinery, factories that produce 25 types of chemical products, and a plant that will significantly boost Taiwan’s capacity to produce ethylene.

Ethylene is a lucrative and much sought-after petrochemical product used in construction materials, textiles and plastic and film products.

First proposed in 2006, with the current site selected in 2008, the Kuokuang project has been stalled for four years because of objections from farmers, local residents and environmentalists.

It has seen the strongest public opposition to an industrial project in Taiwan in years.

Objections have intensified recently as stakeholders step up efforts to win government approval.

Ecosystem fears

Opponents say it will harm the precious eco-system, and pollute the air and water in an area that provides much of the country’s fish and farm products.”

Read more: BBC News

The U.S. and Water Wars in Central Asia

Last modified on 2011-03-01 23:54:31 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The report is called “Avoiding Water Wars: Water Scarcity and Central Asia’s Growing Importance for Stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” It doesn’t explicitly address the chance of war between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan over water, but it quotes former CENTCOM commander Anthony Zinni saying: ‘‘[w]e have seen fuel wars; we’re about to see water wars.’’

The substance of the report’s Central Asia sections won’t surprise anyone who has followed thespat between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan over their water issues. But the more interesting parts of the report concern what the U.S. ought to do about it. For one, the authors call attention to the wide disparity in U.S. spending on the issue:

We pay too little attention to the waters shared by their [Pakistan and Afghanistan's] Indian and Central Asian neighbors—Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. For example, in 2009 the United States provided approximately $46.8 million in assistance for water-related activities to Afghanistan and Pakistan compared with $3.7 million shared among all five Central Asian countries for these efforts.”

Read more: Eurasianet

Wikileaks Confirms Egypt’s Hostility Over Nile Water Agreements

Last modified on 2011-03-01 03:22:19 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The government of the fallen “Pharaoh” Hosni Mubarak has now finally been exposed by more WikiLeaks cables published last week, confirming what East African countries long suspected and what a Ugandan diplomat a few weeks ago spilled – Egypt did consider the use of force against the water producing countries upstream, should push come to shove over what Cairo thought was “excessive use of lake and river waters for agri-irrigation, domestic consumption, and industrial use.”

The pre-independence agreements signed by a biased Britain with Egypt in 1929 and in 1959, literally gave the Egyptians veto rights over the use of the Nile waters and sources upstream, affecting the producer countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo DR, and Ethiopia – where the so-called Blue Nile springs from – and of late even the soon-to-be independent Republic of South Sudan.

A hydrologist, under diplomatic cover provided by the Egyptian Embassy in Kampala, is permanently based in Jinja to monitor the release volume of water for the present Owen Falls and Kiira power stations and his instructions are to be followed or else, the latter never fully explored nor exercised in the past under Mubarak.”

Read more: eTN

Water Bills To Soar By Up To 8%

Last modified on 2011-02-27 15:39:46 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“FAMILIES will face yet another raid on budgets when their water bills rocket in April, it was confirmed yesterday.

Industry regulator Ofwat announced that some annual bills in England and Wales will jump almost 8%.

The average charge is set to rise by £16 – or 4.6% – to a record £356.

Families, who are already being clobbered by sky-high petrol, energy and grocery bills, have been angered by the new water charges as people are lumbered with the firm that covers their area.

Northumbrian Water customers face the biggest price rise of 7.8% while those in Southern Water’s region will pay 6.4% more.

South West Water is the most expensive firm with the average bill rising 5.1% to an average of £517.

Dame Yve Buckland, chairwoman of watchdog the Consumer Council for Water, said: “Many people are struggling with rising bills – and debt is rising.

“One in six customers already say they cannot afford their water bill.

“We want the companies to think how they might share the benefits of this unexpected financial gain with their customers.”

Read more: Mirror

Pak-India Water War

Last modified on 2011-02-24 16:31:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“It is rumored that the Indian government is taking seriously a statement made by the Pakistan Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, during his visit to the United States. The assertion is “water is taking the centre stage to an array of disputes between India and Pakistan”. Why to make so much fuss about this, in fact every Pakistani today feels that India is way bent to convert Pakistan into a desert by controlling its rivers and diverting the flow towards Mother India. The Indians are probably perturbed because they think that the issue has now come under the security spotlight.

The water crisis of Pakistan is directly affecting the food security of the agriculture based country. Like Egypt, Pakistan is also a single-river system-based country which is of course, the Indus. The Ganges-loving Indians are after Pakistan’s Indus – a war of geographical deities. Pakistan is a hydraulic society, whose complete economy is agrarian based; even its industry is nothing more than value addition to agricultural produce. Pakistan’s economy is based on informal sectors, therefore is outside the proper evaluation network. 80% of this is based upon agriculture. India has realized the real Achilles heel of this economy and is trying to steal Pakistan’s share of water. The Indians are even having a second thought over the Indus water treaty, rather they have almost redefined the terms and conditions as per their own national interests.

The biggest dispute between Pakistan and India in coming months is going to be the Indus water treaty. It is the declared water aggression which the Indians have perpetrated. The Indus Basin Treaty is based upon four cardinal principles of agreement; one is the division of three eastern rivers to India and three western rivers of the Indus water system to Pakistan. Second was the financial support to assist Pakistan in making dams and canals to make with the loss of eastern rivers.”

Read more: Pakistan Observer

Citalugtug River Contaminated Waste Plant, Residents Protest Banjaran

Last modified on 2011-02-22 18:24:07 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Village People Cipaku RT 2 RW 3 and Kampung Sindanglengo RT 1 RW 1, Tarajusari Village, Kec. Banjaran, Kab. Bandung complained about waste disposal in the River Citalugtug by paper mill PT. Papyrus Sakti Paper Mill and the textile factory of PT. Adetex. They felt that the waste issue and the unpleasant smell caused Citalugtug polluted river that makes people unable to use the water for daily life.

Didi Supriadi (75), residents of Kampung Desa Sindanglengo RT 1 RW Tarajusari was deeply disturbed by the smells coming out of the waste. In addition to the unpleasant smell issue, he added, the waste makes Citalugtug River dusky red. “Every day they throw the waste into the river. However, the time could not be determined. Can the morning or evening,” he told the “AP”, Tuesday (22 / 2).

According to him, which resulted in waste due to a red river of the chemical dyes used in Paper Factory of PT. Papyrus for coloring paper. Meanwhile, blackish color in Citalugtug River, he continued, as a result of PT. Adetex who dispose of waste coal.”

Read more: Pikiran Rakyat

Kerry Panel Warns of Central Asia Water Wars

Last modified on 2011-02-22 17:33:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“As water demand for food production and electricity generation increases, in part as a result of the quickening pace of climate change, so too must our efforts to provide water security,” he said. While much of the current U.S. focus is on Afghanistan and Pakistan — including some high-profile water projects — Kerry noted that the well-being of neighboring countries like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan will become increasingly important.

The report comes as the Obama administration fights to retain diplomatic funding for Afghanistan’s civil reconstruction and money to help Pakistan recover from devastating floods suffered last year. Mindful of the bitter budget fights looming before the Senate, the study does not make any specific spending recommendations. Rather, it concentrates on assistance that the United States can provide inexpensively or via already-existing mechanisms like workshops to offer technical expertise.

Climate change making a bad situation worse

A Kerry aide said the committee will likely go on to examine water issues in other parts of the globe, but wanted to start with the region that consumes the biggest bulk of U.S. foreign assistance. Based on staff travel and interviews in the region, the report focuses on the Amu Darya River Basin, shared by Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and the Indus River Basin, which hosts a major network of rivers flowing between India and Pakistan.”

Read more: Climatewire

Tar Sand Row Threatens Canada-EU Trade Deal: Sources

Last modified on 2011-02-21 18:09:26 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Canada says the standards would instantly constrict a possible future market for its oil sands — tar-like oil that is trapped in sediment and forms the world’s second-largest proven crude reserves after those of Saudi Arabia.

“Canada has been lobbying the Commission and member states intensively to avoid a separate default value for fuel derived from tar sands,” said a briefing note prepared by EU officials for climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard.

“It has raised the issue in the context of EU-Canada negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement,” adds the note, one of several from last year released last week under freedom-of-information laws.

Sources said on Monday that Canada had gone further, threatening to void the free trade deal, which is expected to be agreed later this year. There was no immediate comment from the Canadian embassy in Brussels.

Environmentalists oppose the tar sands industry, saying the extra energy needed to extract oil from the site in the western Canadian province of Alberta intensifies the impact on climate, while polluted waste water harms wildlife and pollutes rivers.”

Read more: Reuters

What Does The Arab World Do When Its Water Runs Out?

Last modified on 2011-02-21 03:54:10 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Poverty, repression, decades of injustice and mass unemployment have all been cited as causes of the political convulsions in the Middle East and north Africa these last weeks. But a less recognised reason for the turmoil in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and now Iran has been rising food prices, directly linked to a growing regional water crisis.

The diverse states that make up the Arab world, stretching from the Atlantic coast to Iraq, have some of the world’s greatest oil reserves, but this disguises the fact that they mostly occupy hyper-arid places. Rivers are few, water demand is increasing as populations grow, underground reserves are shrinking and nearly all depend on imported staple foods that are now trading at record prices.

For a region that expects populations to double to more than 600 million within 40 years, and climate change to raise temperatures, these structural problems are political dynamite and already destabilising countries, say the World Bank, the UN and many independent studies.”

Read more: Guardian

The Water Wars

Last modified on 2011-02-17 16:14:41 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“You can lease a river in Chhattisgarh for 22 years. At just Rs. 1 per annum. While thousands go thirsty.

“Their barrage drowned a cremation ground on the banks. Dozens of village located downstream were left with little water. What belonged to us for centuries is no longer available for our use,” he laments.

Thakur is talking about the Sheonath, the first river to be handed over to a private group, Radius Water Limited (RWL), in 1998 by the government of undivided Madhya Pradesh through its undertaking, MP Aydhyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam Ltd (MPAKVN), now Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC). Despite major losses to the government, the state didn’t scrap the deal nor could it help the thirsty villagers.

Since then, Chhattisgarh has seen hundreds of companies investing in the state and many vying for the river waters. In a recent deal, the Water Resource Department (WRD) gave its nod to 141 private and government projects for which it will be supplying nearly 2,600 million cubic metres (mcm) of water from rivers every year. Interestingly the state supplies only 2,000 mcm of water for irrigation every year.

Carved out of Madhya Pradesh on 1 November 2000, Chhattisgarh wasn’t a water-scarce state. According to unofficial estimates, the state has 32,000 ponds. With major river basins — Mahanadi, Godavari, Narmada and Brahmani Kachar — and several major rivers — Kurkut, Mahanadi, Kharun, Sheonath, Indravati, Jonk, Kelo, Sabri, Hasdev, Peri, and Maand — water shortage was never an issue.

But the priorities have changed. Earlier, dams were built to store water for irrigation. Now, they are being constructed for supplying water to industry. In fact, the Chhattisgarh government openly declares that it is committed to giving water to industries throughout the year but not to farmers for rabi crop.”

Read more: Tehelka

India Confirms Rice Export to Bangladesh

Last modified on 2011-02-17 04:23:09 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Indian minister informed Dipu Moni that the rice price would be cheaper than that in the international market and that New Delhi was also ready to export 12,000 tonnes of sugar to Dhaka.

Krishna also assured the minister that necessary steps were being taken to stop the killing of innocent Bangladeshis along the border.

The ministers expressed their satisfaction over the recommendations of the Standing Committee of foreign secretaries regarding endorsement of the draft SAARC Charter of Democracy.

They also endorsed the standing committee recommendations to fully make operational the South Asia University and for establishment of the South Asia Forum.

During the meeting, the Bangladeshi foreign minister raised the issue of augmentation of Ganges water during the dry season, and expressed interest in setting up joint venture projects to tap Bhutan’s hydro-power.

“She also sought Delhi’s support in the sale of 200 megawatt electricity, from Palatana power project in Tripura to Bangladesh,” the release added.

In the meeting, Dhaka had requested Delhi to issue notification to allow Nepal and Bhutan transit through India, which would give the two countries access to the Mongla and Chittagong ports.”

Read more: Bangladesh News

“Dam” Victory for Turkey’s Environmentalists!

Last modified on 2011-02-15 16:44:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Turkey’s ongoing water resources and energy problems have already resulted in the damming of a number of rivers in that country to create reservoirs for both water storage and creation of hydro electricity.  A planned government project to construct a dam across the Macahel Valley, the country’s lone UNESCO recognized natural biosphere reserve, has now been canceled.  The cancellation is attributed to intense efforts by local and international environmentalists to save what is considered to be a unique natural haven for a number of wildlife species, according to Turkey’s Hurriyet English News Agency.

The planned project, in which a large dam was to be constructed as part of a hydro-electricity project, has been the subject of the environmentalists fight for past few years. The dam’s construction plans were announced then for the region in northeastern Turkey to help solve the country’s increasing energy need, as well as provide much needed fresh water.

Being a UNESCO recognized natural biosphere reserve the region is unique for a species of honeybee, the Caucasus bee, one of the world’s three most important bee species, and which actually reproduces in the valley. The valley is also home to a large number of larger animal species, including bears, deer, wolves, jackals, red foxes, badgers, martens and weasels.

Turkey’s damming projects have been ongoing for some time; including ones like the damming of the Euphrates River, turning a once mighty river into not much more than a stream.”

Read more: Green Prophet

China Bids To Ease Drought With $1bn Emergency Water Aid

Last modified on 2011-02-14 03:55:45 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China has announced a billion dollars in emergency water aid to ease its most severe drought in 60 years, as the United Nations warned of a threat to the harvest of the world’s biggest wheat producer.

Beijing has also promised to use its grain reserves to reduce the pressure on global food prices, which have surged in the past year to record highs due to the floods in Australia and a protracted dry spell in Russia.

The desperate measures were evident at Baita reservoir in Shandong – one of several key agricultural provinces afflicted by four months without rain. With nearby crops turning yellow, a mechanical digger cut a crude, open-cast well into the dried-up bed of the reservoir. Muddy water from the five-metre deep pit was pumped up to the surface via a hose that snaked past a fishing boat stranded on the cracked earth.

As the water spluttered on to his wheat field, farmer Liu Baojin expressed concern the support may have come too late. Despite the emergency well digging and partial compensation from the government, he fears he may have to seek work in the city if his harvest fails.”

Read more: Guardian

For the Freedom of Rolling Rivers

Last modified on 2011-02-08 19:07:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In order to gain a better understanding of the Salween River issue, Wang set out on a nine-day expedition with volunteers and media reporters in February 2004. This first trip to the Salween River produced a large number of pictures and written and audio records. When the voyagers returned to Beijing, they financed the “Love Salween River” photography show.

“We just want to introduce the beauty of the Salween River to more people and gather more support from them,” they said. “Even if the power station goes on to be built, we still need to tell the public and later generations what the river was once like.”

According to Wang, there are options available in choosing potential sources of energy, but there is no way to turn the clock back once the natural eco-environment has been destroyed. “A lot of people will be displaced in order to develop hydropower in the government’s poverty relief effort. But will they gain prosperity once removed from their roots? From their traditions? How many generations did it take to form their customs and culture? And it could all be destroyed in the blink of an eye.”

On February 18, 2004, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao wrote in his instruction on the Salween River dam project that: “A scientific decision will be made through cautious discussion on such a large-scale hydropower project that has generated widespread public concern and provokes different opinions from environmental groups.” When the instruction was issued, Wang and her friends were still wandering in the valleys of the river. When she read the news on her cell phone, she couldn’t help but cry aloud.”

Read more: China.org.cn

Reserve Chairman of Israel’s Science and Technology Commission Denounces IEI Oil Shale Plan

Last modified on 2011-02-03 18:26:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“One of the main issues is whether it makes sense to conduct oil shale exploration in a region that is so environmentally, historically, and socially sensitive. Also in question is whether IEI has done enough to prove that in-situ oil shale exploration will not harm the region’s groundwater or soil.

Under the draconian National Fuel Law, the Ministry of Infrastructure granted IEI (and a heavyweight oil consortium that has financial backing from Lord Jacob Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch) carte blanche.

Under this law, the local community were not consulted, nor was an independent environmental impact assessment required. The Citizens Coalition to Save Adullam, composed of scientists, lawyers, businesspeople and educators, who stand to lose the most if the pilot project goes awry, have questioned the validity of this law half a century later.

Until now, there has been significant political pressure to support the project, on the grounds that it could free Israel from the shackles of Arab oil. Even at the local level.

Head of the Judean Regional Council, Mr. Moshe Dadon provided perhaps the most scathing revelation:

“I’m getting a lot of political pressure from the government offices to endorse this project, prior to any real assessment of its repercussions on the environment, the local tourist economy, and the public health. We would rather reject the company’s financial offers and protect the area’s open space and tourist welcoming character.”

Read more: Green Prophet

China To Develop Controversial Nu River Hydro Projects

Last modified on 2011-02-01 18:12:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The construction of dams and reservoirs on the UNESCO-protected Nu River — also known as the Salween — was first proposed in 2004, but disputes among China’s leadership and opposition from both Chinese and southeast Asian environmental groups has delayed the projects.

The Nu River, which begins in the Himalayas and snakes its way along the far western edge of Yunnan before entering Myanmar and Thailand, is one of the few major Chinese rivers yet to be dammed. The Chinese government says total potential capacity on the river could stand at 42 gigawatts.

The construction of big hydroelectric projects slowed in China after the completion of the world’s largest facility at the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, with China’s leadership wary about the costs of relocating thousands of displaced residents as well as the environmental impact of massive reservoirs.”

Read more: Reuters

Burmese to Get Just One Percent of Energy from Dams

Last modified on 2011-02-01 16:21:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Since China is the main investor in the dam projects, it will receive most of the electricity. China will get 48 percent, while 38 percent will go to Thailand and 3 percent to India. Only one percent will be available for domestic consumption,” said Sai Sai, the coordinator of Burma Rivers Network (BRN), one of the groups that took part in the seminar.

The remaining 10 percent, he added, will be used by the Burmese military and on large-scale development projects such as the construction of a natural gas pipeline from western Burma’s Arakan State to China.

According to BRN, the 21 dams being built in Kachin, Shan, and Karenni states and Mandalay and Sagaing divisions will produce a total of 35,640 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

Following visits to Burma by Chinese officials late last year, Chinese investment in the Tasang dam, located on the Salween River in Shan State, is set to increase from US $6 billion to $10 billion, said Sai Sai, who added that the dam will be the largest in the state when it is completed.”

Read more: The Irrawaddy

Last modified on GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Israel’s New Water Crisis Management Plan

Last modified on 2011-01-30 21:27:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The growing water crisis in Israel has prompted the Cabinet to approve an emergency plan to increase production of desalinated water.

“The plan, which entails around-the-clock operation of desalination facilities in the country, is expected to result in production of some 420 million cubic meters of the life-giving fluid in 2013.

“The increased production will enable the country to wrestle with the results of the increased consumption and the drop in precipitation in the region, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The plan will “ensure the orderly supply of water to residents of Israel while maintaining existing sources of water,” according to the PMO statement.”

read more: IsraelNationalNews

China Makes Water a $12 Billion Priority

Last modified on 2011-01-30 22:47:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China suffers from an annual shortage of 40 billion cubic meters of water, the minister said, with two-thirds of cities having trouble accessing water.

“The water shortage is one barrier in the way of the government’s goal of meeting demand for important grains from domestic supplies. While the government has continued to declare statistical self-sufficiency, grain purchases from abroad surged last year, with imports in key categories reaching their highest levels in 15 years.

“Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Sunday’s briefing, Chen Xiwen, one of China’s leading agricultural policymakers, said that “with changes in global trade and resources, our self-sufficiency may decrease.” But he added that self-sufficiency is “still an important concept…. It’s dangerous for a country with a population as large as China not to defend self-sufficiency in grains.”

Read More: Wall Street Journal

Iraq water shortages raising ethnic tensions

Last modified on 2011-01-29 20:27:54 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A worsening water shortage in Iraq is raising tensions in the multi-ethnic Kirkuk province, where Arab farmers accuse the Kurdistan region of ruining them by closing the valves to a dam in winter.

“”We are harmed by the Kurds, and the officials responsible for Baghdad and Kirkuk will not lift a finger,” said Sheikh Khaled al-Mafraji, a leader of the Arab Political Council that groups mainly Sunni tribal leaders.

“At the heart of the conflict is the Dukan dam, built in 1955 in Iraq’s northern autonomous region of Kurdistan, 75 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Kirkuk province.

“”They release too much water from June to September while from October it is the opposite: there is not enough drinking water and even less to irrigate our lands,” Mafraji complained.”

Read more: Yahoo News

Lingering drought may cut water supply in east China province

Last modified on 2011-01-28 16:52:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water supplies to nearly one million people will cease if a drought in east China’s Shandong Province lasts until the end of March, disaster prevention officials warned Thursday, as much of China’s northern region continued to experience less than average rainfall, which started months ago.

“The drought is the worst in six decades, said Yang Zhendong, director of the provincial flood and drought control office.

“Little rain has fallen in the province since September, with only 12 millimeters since September 23, about 15 percent of the normal level, he said.

“Officials said some 3.2 million people across the province have been affected by the shortage.”

Read more: People’s Daily Online

Iraq’s largest hydropower dam grinds to halt

Last modified on 2011-01-27 19:39:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Record low water levels at Iraq’s largest hydroelectric dam have ground turbines there to a halt, amplifying a power shortage that led to riots last summer, a top official said on Thursday.

“Adel Mahdi, advisor to the electricity minister, said water levels at the Mosul dam on the Tigris River had fallen to 298 metres (977 feet) above sea level.

“”It is the first time since 1984 when the dam was built that water levels have fallen this low,” Mahdi told AFP.

“”The installed power generation capacity of Mosul’s hydroelectric plant is 1,175 megawatts, but the current production is zero, because the turbines need a minimum water level of 307 metres (1,007 feet) to operate,” he added.”
 
Read more: Yahoo News 

Indonesia water issues are risk, opportunity for Japan

Last modified on 2011-01-27 14:35:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“This is the second installment of a two-part series about issues affecting Southeast Asia. This piece examines water and sanitation problems in Indonesia, which present risky but lucrative business opportunities for Japan.

“On Jakarta’s outskirts, along a muddy-colored river, rundown houses stand next to each other and people live in close proximity. Children–some even barefoot–play in narrow lanes awash in murky water, surrounded by cats, chickens and other animals.

“In the village of Pekojan, where water and sanitation facilities are seriously lacking, people appear to be accustomed to living under such conditions. But at a school in the middle of this sprawling slum, children looked excited–and rather proud–of having better access to one of humanity’s basic needs: clean water.”

read more: Daily Yomiuri Online

In Photos: Pakistan flood survivors

Last modified on 2011-01-27 14:28:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“View the photo slideshow of communities throughout Pakistan that were ravaged by the Indus River floods, which began in late July 2010 and affected around 20 million people.

“Around 2,000 people died, and property damage exceeded $43bn.

“Images are courtesy of Islamic Relief, an NGO that has been active in flood relief efforts.”

To view photos visit: Al Jazeera

S Korea Reports More Cases of Foot-and-Mouth

Last modified on 2011-01-22 03:07:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“South Korea on Friday confirmed three more cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which shows few signs of abating despite nationwide quarantine efforts.

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said two cases of FMD were detected at small cattle farms in Asan and Gongju, about 95 km and 160 km south of Seoul respectively.

Quarantine officials have culled animals on the properties, as well as livestock within a 500-meter radius that have not received vaccines.

Another case was found at a pig farm in Pohang, about 400 km southeast of Seoul. Seven cities and provinces have been hit by the disease in the country’s worst outbreak of FMD.

The farm ministry, meanwhile, said that 2.3 million livestock have been culled since the first outbreak was confirmed on Nov. 29 last year, with losses amounting to more than 2 trillion won (1.78 billion U.S. dollars).”

Read more: Xinhuanet

China to spend $301 billion on water projects

Last modified on 2011-01-21 20:14:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

” China will invest 2 trillion yuan ($303.8 billion) over the next five years to build water-related infrastructure projects and improve rural drinking water quality, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, citing a government official.

In 2011, Beijing will invest more than 20 billion yuan to push forward construction of key projects, Xinhua said, citing Zhou Xuewen, who is in charge of project planning with the ministry of water resources.

The investment will also go into projects to provide 60 million more people with access to safe drinking water in rural areas, Zhou said, adding that 77 percent of rural people will have access to safe drinking water by the end of the year.”

Read more:  reuters

Israel Sends Wrong Message About Desalination

Last modified on 2011-01-20 16:37:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“SDL Desalination Ltd, a company owned by IDE Technologies and Hong Kong’s Hutchison Water, announced earlier this week that it has begun construction on the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination plant. The plant, slated to be ready by 2013, is the final one of three that are intended to meet 44% of Israel’s water needs in 2013.

For a country such as Israel which needs water and has very limited sources, technically, this is good. However, as Israeli journalist Yermi Brenner pointed out in an article on the Huffington Post last August, it’s more complicated than that. Apparently, over the summer, the Israel Water Authority sponsored a television commercial campaign featuring Israeli actress Renna Raz and having a message that Israelis need to conserve water only until the plants open in 2013. Talk about a bad message. Conservation and reduction will still be needed.

Plus, desalination isn’t a perfect solution. It comes with a slew of pros and cons. While the big pro is having drinkable water, some cons include a high maintenance cost of building and running these plants and possible harm to the  nearby ecosystem by  the waste from the plant.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Last Refuge of Rare Fish Threatened by Yangtze Dam Plans

Last modified on 2011-01-19 18:29:47 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The last refuge for many of China’s rarest and most economically important wild fish has mere days to secure public support before it is trimmed, dammed and ruinously diminished, conservationists warned today.

The alarm was raised after the authorities in Chongqing quietly moved to redraw the boundaries of a crucial freshwater reserve on the Yangtze, which was supposed to have been the bottom line for nature conservation in one of the world’s most important centres of biodiversity.

The Upper Yangtze Rare and Endemic Fish Nature Reserve was created in the 1990s as a haven for species that were threatened by the Three Gorges dam, the world’s biggest hydroelectric plant.

Among the hundreds of species it protects are four types of wild carp that experts say are essential to China’s food security because they provide the diverse genetic stock on which fish farms depend for healthy breeding.

In recent years, the importance of this 400km-long ecological hold-out has increased as China’s hunger for energy has driven power companies to build two more mega-dams – Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu – that have swamped the shoals and stilled the rapids along thousands of kilometres of Asia’s biggest river.”

Read more: Guardian

Restoring Iraq’s Wetland Marshes to the Original Eden

Last modified on 2011-01-18 16:36:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A place so beautiful, teeming with water and life, that according to the Christian faith it was the birthplace of mankind.

That was until the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein drained these great wetlands of southern Iraq, destroying them, turning them to desert.

However, since his overthrow, a remarkable effort has begun to restore these Mesopotamian Marshes, among the most important wetland habitat in the world.

One man is leading the way, attempting to rejuvenate the marshes and bring back the diversity of animals and plants that once lived there.

A BBC film crew has followed his progress, revealing how he and his colleagues are succeeding in attracting rare birds back to a land ravaged by persecution and war.

In the 1990′s Saddam Hussein drained the wetlands to punish the indigenous Marsh Arab tribes, who had risen against him in the aftermath of the first Gulf War.

He built a network of canals to channel water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers around the marshes, dumping it straight into the Arabian Gulf.

Within a matter of months, the marshes, which had covered 15,000 square kilometres, were reduced to less than 10% of their original size.”

Read more: BBC

Vision: 8 Reasons Global Capitalism Makes Our Lives Worse — And How We Can Create a New Kind of Economy

Last modified on 2011-01-18 16:00:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Globalization wastes natural resources. Consumerism is threatening the planet, natural resources are stretched to the breaking point and yet we have an economic system that encourages us to consume more and more, says Norberg-Hodge. Consumer culture is increasingly urban and when rural people move to the city the food they used to grow themselves is now grown on industrial-sized chemical-intensive farms. Food must be trucked to cities, waste must be trucked out. Large dams are needed to provide water and huge centralized power plants must be fueled by coal and uranium mines.

4. Globalization accelerates climate change. Globalization’s “success” is often attributed to efficiencies of scale, but mostly it is fueled by deregulation and hidden subsidies that make food from around the globe cost less than food from down the street. With efficiencies of scale, it’s really the opposite, says British MP Zac Goldsmith, “Tuna caught off the east coast of America is flown to Japan, processed and flown back to America to be sold to consumers; English apples are flown to South Africa to be waxed, flown back to England to be sold.”

Read more: AlterNet

A New Era for Tibet’s rivers

Last modified on 2011-01-18 14:07:17 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The rushing waters of the Yarlung Zangbo, the last of China’s great rivers to remain undammed, will soon be history. On November 12 last year, the builders of the Zangmu Hydropower Station announced the successful damming of the river – the first public announcement on a matter that, until now, has been kept under wraps.

The Zangmu hydroelectric power station is being built on the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo (known as the Brahmaputra when it reaches India) between the counties of Sangri and Gyaca. Around 7.9 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) is being invested in the project, located in a V-shaped valley 3,200 metres above sea level. At 510 megawatts, the plant is much smaller than China’s 18,000-megawatt Three Gorges Dam, but still equivalent to the entire existing hydropower-generating capacity of Tibet.

The construction workers have now reached the centre of the river. The water is being diverted into sluiceways and rows of grouting machines and stone crushers are working at full pace, while trucks come and go. One worker said that the winter here is mild, so there’ll be no need to stop work. ”

Read more: China Dialogue

Agriculture Becomes Our Top Environment Issue

Last modified on 2011-01-16 16:25:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Worldwatch Institute released its annual State of the World report this week, with a clear message that the state of agriculture–both small- and large-scale, domestic and local–is a mirror from which we can gauge the health of the planet and the fate of our species.

Traditional views toward hunger alleviation, for the more than 1 billion people around the world who do not have enough to eat, have emphasized increased agricultural production without clearly thinking through distribution roadblocks or environmental consequences. As a result, the planet is growing more food than ever, but hunger is more pervasive than ever, according to Worldwatch.

Many existing agricultural methods have stripped soils of nutrients, sucked aquifers dry, and polluted water with pesticides and fertilizers. And now, working with depleted and degraded resources, we must face climate change, which is already starting to express itself in changing rainfall patterns, more intense floods and droughts, and changing global temperatures that interfere with traditional growing seasons.”

Read more: National Geographic

Work Begins on Dam Project in Koh Kong

Last modified on 2011-01-13 16:54:47 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“On December 28, Hun Sen presided over the groundbreaking of the 338-megawatt Stung Russey Chrum Krom project in Koh Kong, which is being built by China Huadian Corporation.

The projects have drawn criticism from environmentalists, who have raised concerns about the impact the dams could have on  Southern Cardamom’s Protected Forest and the livlihoods of local residents.

Ame Trandem, Mekong Campaigner for the NGO International Rivers, said yesterday that the dams pose a major risk to “more than 2,000 hectares of evergreen forest and animal habitat which are expected to be inundated by the dam’s reservoir”. She added that the “natural flow of the river will be significantly disturbed”.

Trandem said there has already been disruption and water pollution from the influx of construction workers to the area and called for  construction to stop “until a proper environmental mitigation plan is developed and carefully implemented”.

Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum, yesterday called for a committee of community leaders, local authorities, civil society, company representatives, and relevant ministries to be formed in a bid to increase transparency around dam projects and include local groups in decision making.

Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Stung Russey Chrum Krom project, however, Hun Sen lashed out at critics of the dams, saying environmental impacts were a natural consequence of economic progress.”

Read more: The Phnom Penh Post

Battle to Reach Thousands of Sri Lanka Flood Victims

Last modified on 2011-01-13 15:58:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“More than one million people have been affected by the floods,” UN children’s fund spokesman Mervyn Fletcher told the BBC from Colombo.

“That means they have either been forced from their homes or have seen their property flooded.

“Access to clean water is becoming a major problem and we and other agencies are distributing purification tablets.”

The UN says that crocodiles and snakes are a threat to anyone wading through the flood waters.

Mr Fletcher said that the floods were especially bad news for people in the east, who in recent years have also endured a civil war and a tsunami.

Food shortages

The floods have left some stretches of railway line under nearly a metre of water.

Officials in Ampara to the south of Batticaloa say the rainfall there since Saturday has been the highest ever recorded in such a short time.

“There is a shortage of food for children,” a member of Sri Lanka’s minority Muslim community in Ampara told BBC Tamil on Wednesday.

“We were forced to divide a single breakfast food parcel into four and give it to our four children.”

Read more: BBC

An Inside Look at the Daily Struggle for Water in One of the World’s Largest Cities

Last modified on 2011-01-08 20:01:01 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Time and distance are at least as important as cost. According to the WHO/UNICEF report, if people face a round trip of more than 30 minutes or have to make more than one trip to collect water, they “progressively collect less water, and eventually fail to meet their families’ minimum daily drinking-water needs.”

Fighting for a prime-time slot

The expansion of water availability has been most successful in large urban areas of the global South. Among the beneficiaries have been the residents of Kadam Chawl (“Footsteps Slum”), a short row of tiny homes clinging to a narrow terrace on a hillside in the northern part of Mumbai, India’s largest city.

In a city like Mumbai, where the total available water supply is barely sufficient to fill the needs of the population, a community of ordinary people won’t get its fair share without first fighting for it and then working hard, day by day, to keep the flow coming.”

Read more: AlterNet

India’s Hidden Climate Change Catastrophe

Last modified on 2011-01-06 18:21:36 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Poverty has assaulted rural India,” he said. “Farmers who used to be able to send their children to college now can’t send them to school. For all that India has more dollar billionaires than the UK, we have 600 million poor. The wealth has not trickled down.” Almost all the bereaved families report that debts and land loss because of unsuccessful crops were among their biggest problems.

The causes of that poverty are complex. Mr Sainath points to the long-term collapse of markets for farmers’ produce.  About half of all the suicides occur in the four states of India’s cotton belt; the price of cotton in real terms, he says, is a twelfth of what it was 30 years ago. Vandana Shiva, a scientist-turned-campaigner, also links failures of cotton farming with the farmer suicides: she says the phenomenon was born in 1997 when the Indian government removed subsidies from cotton farming. This was also when genetically modified seed was widely introduced.

“Every suicide can be linked to Monsanto,” says Ms Shiva, claiming that the biotech firm’s modified Bt Cotton caused crop failure and poverty because it needed to be used with pesticide and fertilisers. The Prince of Wales has made the same accusation. Monsanto denies that its activities are to blame, saying that Indian rural poverty has many causes.

Beyond any argument – though no less politically charged – is the role of the weather in this story. India’s climate, always complicated by the Himalayas on one side and turbulent oceans on the two others, has been particularly unreliable in recent years. In Rajasthan, in the north-west, a 10-year drought ended only this summer, while across much of India the annual monsoons have failed three times in the past decade.”

Read more: The Independent

Mine-ing the Brahmaputra Waters

Last modified on 2011-01-06 16:06:41 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“India and China make competing plans for the river’s precious waters, ignoring the functions it already performs – in sustaining rich ecosystems, flora and fauna, cultures and a wide range of livelihoods. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited India in mid-December last year, one of the issues on which his stand was keenly anticipated was that of the hydropower and dam construction on the Brahmaputra in Tibet/China. It has been long speculated that the Chinese are planning a large number of dams on the Yarlung Tsangpo (as the Brahmaputra is known in Tibet). Among the many dams and diversions that China is supposed to have planned on the river, one gigantic project stands out. This is the 40,000 MW hydropower and diversion project at the Great Bend on the river just before it enters India.

The Tsangpo flows through 1625 kilometres in Tibet, and then enters India in Arunachal Pradesh, where it is known as the Siang. Further down, the Siang – after its confluence with the Dibang and Lohit – is known as the Brahmaputra. India is thus on the downstream side of all the developments being planned in China on the river.”

Read more: India Together

Hydropower Dreams Fade On Green Concerns

Last modified on 2011-01-05 04:42:47 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“India’s hydropower projects are in troubled waters. Once touted as an important engine for power capacity addition, the share of hydropower in total installed generation capacity has hit a historic low of 22 per cent.

And, it is expected to slow down further, as the sector is mired in controversies and technical problems. So much so, the country is set to miss even the revised 11th Plan capacity addition target of 8,237 Mw.

While hydropower, along with nuclear, is regarded as a cleaner source of energy, environmental and social concerns have impacted the sector’s growth, since the projects are invariably located in environmentally fragile regions. With a little over 5,000 Mw added during the five-year period ending March 31, 2012, capacity addition in the sector could be lower than the 7,886 Mw added in the 10th Plan period. At 37,367 Mw, it is currently 22 per cent of the total 167,077 Mw installed capacity.

The country’s biggest hydropower producer, government-owned NHPC, would not be able to meet its 3,000 Mw capacity target for the current Plan, says its chairman, S K Garg. And, the country’s biggest power producer, NTPC, that had hoped to make it big in hydropower projects, has been forced to go slow. “We may not be very aggressive in hydro but we will continue to pursue it,” says NTPC chairman Arup Roychoudhury.”

Read more: Business Standard

“Mining” Groundwater in India Reaches New Lows

Last modified on 2011-01-03 04:14:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Nearly a third of India is suffering from chronic water shortages, and making up for it with “the world’s largest groundwater mining operation,” according to experts.

A band of land stretching across northern India, at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains, is one of the most heavily populated and intensely irrigated regions in the world. The area is chronically short of water. But the region still has a limited supply of it in underground aquifers, according to water resources expert Shama Perveen of Columbia University.

According to a new study by Perveen and her colleagues, Upmanu Lall and Naresh Devineni, some parts of India are using groundwater three times faster than it’s being replenished.

The team’s new analysis draws on a 100-year record of daily rainfall in India, reflecting how much water has been available in various parts of the country as its residents endured both droughts and floods.

By estimating water needs over dry spells and across decades, and comparing the estimate with actual rainfall, they found that many areas have been falling chronically short for many years.”

Read more: National Geographic

Northern Ireland in Water Crisis

Last modified on 2011-01-02 01:06:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Frustration and fear of disease mounted in Northern Ireland on Wednesday as 36,000 people remained without water, some for more than a week, after a deep freeze and a sudden thaw caused aging water pipes to burst.

With reservoirs running low, water supplies were cut off in many towns and cities, and residents turned to emergency water tankers and bottled water for cooking, cleaning and drinking.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said James Lawson, a resident of Lisburn, near Belfast, who has been without water for 13 days, the BBCreported.

“You can’t wash, you can’t eat because you can’t wash your dishes,” Mr. Lawson told the BBC. “I think it’s a fiasco.”

Scotland said it was sending 42,000 gallons of bottled water to help meet demand.

Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, called the situation “a grave crisis,” and said that people had been let down by their water supplier. The Northern Ireland government scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday to discuss the matter.”

Read more: New York Times

Jordan’s Disi Water Conveyance is On Track – but to Where?

Last modified on 2010-12-28 17:54:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The pipeline will bring water from water from the ancient aquifer to the capital Amman was first begun in 2009 and has experienced construction delays, which were later denied , and also considering other projects including building a desalination plant near Aqaba . Jordan is also planning its own version of the Red – Dead Sea water conveyance project, in which Jordan plans to “go it alone” without waiting for neighboring Israel to take part.

The al-Disi aquifer, most of which lies under Saudi Arabia, is estimated to be 325 km long, and is said to be “locked” within non-porous sandstone rock and not subject to recharging by rainfall. It is largely unknown how much water the aquifer contains or its archeological history.

What is known is that the water in the al-Disi is not rechargeable and is quite old (ie. 20,000-30,000 years old). This means it was created during a period when water resources were more plentiful in the region; possibly as a result of last Great Ice Age.”

Read more: Green Prophet

The Lost Lands of Takalar

Last modified on 2010-12-25 19:13:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The environment and investment office of Takalar regency recorded seven kilometers of its coast as seriously eroded, five kilometers as moderately damaged, and the remainder as slightly affected with a small part unaffected.

“Erosion in Takalar is getting worse,” said Alwy Rahman, the head of the environment and investment office of Takalar recently.

Apart from the coastal zone, settlements, roads and bridges as well as cemeteries have also been adversely affected.

The varying degrees of erosion have forced 400 families to relocate.

According to Alwy, unless promptly dealt with, the erosion is likely to have a worse impact.

“We need to build concrete embankments and breakwaters quickly. But sadly, we don’t have enough funds to do this,” he said.

Soil in Takalar is said to be eroding mainly because of human activity removing the area’s natural protection against waves.

People are removing mangroves on a large scale, fishing using explosives therefore destroying coral reefs which normally function as barriers to waves.”

Read more: The Jakarta Post

China’s Ability to Feed its People Questioned by UN Expert

Last modified on 2010-12-24 18:38:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“With memories still fresh of the famines that killed tens of millions of people in the early 1960s, the Chinese government has gone to great lengths to ensure the world’s biggest population has enough to eat, but its long-term self-sufficiency was questioned by UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter.

“The shrinking of arable land and the massive land degradation threatens the ability of the country to maintain current levels of agricultural production, while the widening gap between rural and urban is an important challenge to the right to food of the Chinese population,” said De Schutter at the end of a trip to China.

He told the Guardian his main concern was the decline of soil quality in China because of excessive use of fertilisers, pollution and drought. He noted that 37% of the nation’s territory was degraded and 8.2m hectares (20.7m acres) of arable land has been lost since 1997 to cities, industrial parks, natural disasters and forestry programmes.”

Read more: Guardian

Syria Launches Its First ‘Water-Scarcity Park’

Last modified on 2010-12-23 20:51:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Following five years of drought which has driven nearly half a million people away from drought-hit areas and put the country at risk of increasing desertification, Syria has inaugurated a water scarcity park to highlight the need to conserve dwindling water supplies.

Using drip irrigation techniques, the 1,000 square metre ‘water scarcity park’ will harvest rainwater and also use solar power to generate electricity to pump water for irrigation. Drip irrigation is a technique used to conserve water as draws water directly from it sources and takes it the plants through a network of pipes with small holes so that water waste is minimal.

The park which was opened by the country’s Vice-President Dr Najah Al-Attar, is located in Dummar, a suburb of Damascus and is planted with various drought-resistant flora. It is hoped that the park will be used as model for public and private parks and help rationalize the consumption of water and energy.

The water scarcity crisis in Syria has been blamed on a combination of poor water management, lack of rainfall and the over-extraction of water. In the past, Syria was comfortably supported by the Euphrates River in the top half of the country but the diversion of large amounts of water into agriculture and industrial sector means that the supplies are not sufficient to support the population. According to reports in The National, scientists reported that between 2002 and 2008, water availability dropped from 1200 cubic meters to 750 cubic meters per person in Syria.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Predicting the World’s Next Water Pollution Disaster

Last modified on 2010-12-23 20:22:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Only a tiny fraction of the ore miners exhume contains gold, copper, lead, zinc, or the other metals they’re after. The rest is waste, or tailings, full of large quantities of metals and minerals ranging from benign to very toxic. These fine-grained wastes are often held in tailings ponds that can cover many square miles.

Unfortunately the dams holding tailing ponds aren’t always examples of high-level engineering and, in some countries, may be made by simply bulldozing the tailings themselves into an embankment, explains geologist Johnnie Moore, of the University of Montana.

“There is the potential for huge amounts of [toxic waste] to move into a river system whenever any of those things break, and in fact it does happen,” he said.

Last summer a discharge of acidic waste escaped from a Fujan province copper plant run by China’s largest gold producer, Zijin Mining Group Co. The accident poisoned enough Ting River fish to feed 70,000 people for a year and also contaminated their water supply, according to reports from the Reuters news agency. Two years earlier, runoff from a gold mine near Dadong contaminated the water supply for more than 200,000 people. Over the years, similar disasters have occurred in Spain, Peru, the Philippines, and elsewhere, and there are plenty of other sites in China that scientists have their eye on.

Other toxic processes that use mercury and cyanide to extract valuable minerals from rock create the potential for environmental disaster as well.”

Read more: National Geographic

No Dams on the Brahmaputra, Pleads Northeast

Last modified on 2010-12-14 19:32:48 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“To ease tension further, an internal ministry group has gone on to say that it has found no evidence yet that China was planning to divert the waters from Brahmaputra. But it is not clear if New Delhi has any detailed information on China’s plan of action.

With reports that China plans to build at least 21 dams on the Yarlung Tsangpo and several others on its tributaries, the fear is that Assam and Arunachal Pradesh would be badly affected. Indian engineers have raised apprehensions that China might have plans to divert the 78 billion cubic metres (bcm) of water to its arid southern part. This is the volume of water that the river brings into the Northeast and further flows down to the vast plains of Bangladesh. This would leave the Northeast and Bangladesh high and dry. For Bangladesh, Brahmaputra brings fresh water and fertile silt for farming. Added to it are issues related to safety of construction of huge dams on an earthquake-prone zone. A solution being advocated is institutionalising water-related negotiations with China. While Arunachal wants speedy establishment of user rights on the rivers, Assam wants concrete step – a water-sharing treaty between the two countries. Experts point out that the river balances the entire ecological landscape of the region. It’s not only China that plans to dam the river, India is also aggressive on harnessing the hydropower generation capacity of the river and its tributaries. Since there is no water-sharing treaty, it is bound to come up as a major trans-boundary issue between New Delhi and Beijing.”

Read more: Tehelka

Agua Del Grifo Igual A La Embotellada

Last modified on 2010-12-14 17:29:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“El agua embotellada es una industria que en la actualidad mueve miles de millones de dólares. Su demanda, en las últimas décadas, se incrementó de forma exponencial (en América del Sur, por ejemplo, el consumo llegó a triplicarse entre 1997 y 2004, según una estadística publicada por el periódico británico The Guardian).

Para algunos, se trata de una cuestión de marketing, de una estrategia que ha logrado vender con éxito un elemento de la naturaleza que puede conseguirse -en los lugares donde hay disponibilidad de agua- abriendo el grifo y a bajo costo. Otros, en cambio, aseguran que prefieren el agua embotellada porque sienten que es más segura, pero, sobre todo, porque su sabor es mejor.

Ahora, un proyecto en España parece haber encontrado una solución para quienes prefieren el agua de botella. Se trata de un proceso de nanofiltración que hace que el agua potable tenga el mismo sabor -o incluso mejor- que el del agua embotellada.”

Leér más: BBC Mundo

78,000 Tonnes of Garbage Collected from Three Gorges Dam After Water Level Raised

Last modified on 2010-12-13 19:46:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Environmental sanitation workers from southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality have collected 78,000 tonnes of garbage from the Yangtze River near the Three Gorges Dam, ensuring the dam’s safe and effective operation after its water level was raised.

More than 68,000 workers in nearly 21,000 boats retrieved the garbage.

In late October, the water level in the dam was lifted to its designed maximum of 175 meters, allowing the dam to play its full flood control, power generation, navigation and water supply roles, said Wang Yuankai, a Chongqing municipal work administrator.

Raising the dam’s water level increased the surface area of water in the dam. It also increased garbage collectors’ workload, with about 60 percent more garbage appearing.

The cleanup operation helped ensure the water quality of the dam and its navigability.

The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest water-control and hydropower project.”

Read more: China-Wire

First Nations Rally Against Lower Churchill Dam

Last modified on 2010-12-13 18:27:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“About 100 members of an aboriginal group rallied outside provincial government offices in Happy Valley — Goose Bay, Labrador today to protest against plans to build a hydro-electric dam on the Lower Churchill River. Some of the protesters, members of NunatuKavut, formerly known as the Labrador Métis Nation, drove several hundred kilometres to protest in temperatures that dipped to -18 C with the wind chill. They were expressing their opposition to a deal under which Labradorians would lose a large section of one of the world’s most beautiful, sacred and historic rivers while the power generated at the Muskrat Falls dam would be shipped to Newfoundland,Nova Scotia and possibly the US.

“We find it quite upsetting that everybody is celebrating green energy but in order to make green energy, they’re flooding Labrador,” Chris Montague, president of NunatuKavut told the Coast in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “It’s been the same story with the Upper Churchill,” he added. “They flooded an area nearly the size of the Avalon Peninsula to bring green energy down into North America, so nobody seems to care about Labrador. Nobody seems to care about us.”

Montague is especially angry that the $6.2 billion power deal was announced with no notice to the 4,000 members of NunatuKavut. “We only heard about this Muskrat Falls deal the day before on the news,” he says. “No one in government called us about it until after the news release.”

Read more: The Coast

Potentially Saltier Than The Dead Sea, Iran’s Lake Orumiyeh Is In Trouble

Last modified on 2010-12-13 17:45:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Like the Dead Sea, Lake Orumiyeh has shrunk to half its former glory. And the creatures that used to call it home have sought solace elsewhere, as the lake becomes increasingly saline. Located in the northwest province of West Azerbaijan providence, Lake Orumiyeh is part of the world’s largest saltwater wetlands, according to the Financial Times, but both drought and irrigation projects risk drying it up altogether. If this happens, it will leave behind an enormous and dangerous reservoir of salt.

One resident of Ghoschi, a town located astride the lake, claims that flamingos used to call out six or seven times a day, but now they are no longer there. And the brine shrimp on which they fed have disappeared completely.

Nearly 70% of waterfowl species have disappeared while the former shore is now a “salt-strewn desert.”

Environmentalists claim that an extended drought accounts for nearly 70% of the lake’s loss, but the rest is attributed to irrigation projects that are used to cultivate 1.4 million hectares of agricultural land.

Residents worry that like the Aral Sea, the lake will dry up completely, leaving behind up to 10 billion tonnes of salt that could potentially cause storms that would travel as far as Tehran. Up to 13 million people could be displaced.”

Read more: Greenprophet

Melting Glaciers to Bring Floods and Drought

Last modified on 2010-12-10 19:11:10 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Within a few decades, melting glaciers could leave arid areas such as Central Asia and parts of the Andes even drier as the ice melts into water and flows downhill, causing disastrous floods in the lowlands, finds a new report by the UN Environment Programme presented today at the UN climate talks in Cancun.

Compiled by UNEP’s Polar Research Centre GRID-Arendal and experts from research centers in Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America, the report says the larger glaciers may take centuries to disappear but many low-lying, smaller glaciers, which are often crucial water sources in dry lands, are melting much faster.

Glacial melt will change the lives of millions as over half of the world’s population lives in watersheds of major rivers originating in mountains with glaciers and snow.”

Read more: AlterNet

Growth Threatens Water Supply

Last modified on 2010-12-09 17:16:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“BEIJING – The expected rapid urbanization during the coming 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) will threaten the security of China’s water resources, authorities said.

Pollution control and prevention guidelines on eight major rivers and lakes across the country for the next five years were jointly released on Tuesday by the ministries of Environmental Protection, Water Resources, Agriculture, Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Industry and Information Technology, and the National Development and Reform Commission.

All the plans mentioned that rapid urbanization and fast economic development are posing great challenges to water protection in the eight rivers and lakes, including Haihe River near Beijing and Huaihe River, which marks the boundary between China’s north and south.

The volume of pollutants in these waterways during the next five years will increase by 35 to 40 percent due to the industrialization and urbanization in the Haihe River area, according to the plan for that water system.

The plan for the Yellow River said rapid economic development along the river area would create a water shortage of about 14 billion cubic meters by 2030.

According to the plan for Liaohe River, which flows through Liaoning province, breakneck GDP growth will increase the pressure on the river system.”

Read more: China Daily

Dick Cheney Accused Of Bribing For Nigerian Natural Gas Project

Last modified on 2010-12-09 16:39:26 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The 46th Vice President of the United States and former CEO of Halliburton Company has been charged with resorting to bribery in order to secure a natural gas project in Nigeria, according to a CNN report.

Dick Cheney is also on the Genie Energy board, which oversees the strategic financial, operational and public policy matters related to shale oil ventures both in the United States (AMSO LLC) and in Israel (Israel Energy Initiatives). IEI is the company that aims to test AMSO’s in-situ oil shale extraction technology in the Elah Valley.

Israel Energy Initiatives was caught conducting preliminary surveys for an oil shale pilot project in the Adullam district late last year (though they were granted a license to do so from the Ministry of Infrastructure), without first submitting an independent environmental impact assessment or consulting the local community. This was before the strategic advisory board was formed.

The Citizen Coalition to Save Adullam subsequently organized and has launched a relentless campaign to demand due process and protest the threat to their land, which has culminated in a legal petition to revoke the company’s license.

Writing for AOL, Matthew Kalman drew attention to a Rothschild “family battle” that has emerged as a result of an open letter that Green Prophet sent to David de Rothschild, in which we site the potential ecological and social impact should this project proceed without due process.

Dick Cheney, Rupert Murdoch, Lord Jacob Rothschild, and Harold Vinegar from Shell are just a small handful of powerful executives who stand to profit from oil shale exploration in Israel, which is being exploited under the guise of Zionism and energy independence.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Oil & Wine Don’t Mix: Over 1,000 Israelis Protest Oil Shale In Adullam

Last modified on 2010-12-08 17:43:07 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Even though fires raged on in the North, killing 42 of their own and leaving sentimental Israelis in a somber mood, more than one thousand people attended the event in central Israel organized by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI).

People who live in the Adullam District of the Judean Hills are fighting for an area laden with heavily wooded national park lands, well-maintained biking and hiking trails, and land that small-scale farmers painstakingly cultivate for their food and produces internationally-acclaimed wines. They are fighting for the land that provides a livelihood for small tourism-based businesses.

What is it that protestors oppose?

- Increased greenhouse gas emissions.

- On-site storage of hazardous materials (that could potentially infiltrate ground water).

- Multiple boreholes.

- Risk of other pollutants.

- The landscape that supports thousands of local residents will be altered for decades to come.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Nam Theun 2 Dam Inauguration Hides Project’s Real Costs

Last modified on 2010-12-07 20:25:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“After over a decade of controversy, the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in central Laos is inaugurated this week, although there is little reason to celebrate. As tens of thousands of people continue to suffer the impacts of the project, 34 civil society groups and individuals from 18 countries have called on the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to take immediate action to meet their promises to affected communities.

The project has displaced 6,200 indigenous people on the Nakai Plateau and affected more than 110,000 people downstream who depend on the Xe Bang Fai and Nam Theun rivers for their livelihoods. The most urgent unresolved issues that must be addressed include:

• Communities on the Nakai Plateau still have no means for a sustainable livelihood, threatening their long-term food security
• Tens of thousands of people living downstream along the Xe Bang Fai River have suffered poor water quality, diminished fisheries and flooding of their riverbank gardens, and the project’s funding is inadequate to restore their livelihoods
• The Nam Theun 2’s reservoir has opened up access to the Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area, exacerbating logging and poaching and threatening its ecological integrity
• Whilst the project was supposed to improve standards for hydropower development more generally in Laos, there is little evidence that this has happened.”

Read more: International Rivers

Hydroelectric Dam Plan Meets Resistance in Turkey

Last modified on 2010-12-06 23:24:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In late October, a natural and cultural protection board barred a government-backed plan to construct 22 hydroelectric dams in the valley by declaring it a “protected zone”.

For ecologists and local associations who had been fighting the projects, it appeared to be a decisive victory.

But just days later, the government released an updated version of a draft environmental law which, if approved, some ecologists fear could expose to development at least 80 percent of Turkey’s key biodiversity sites — including Ikizdere.

Among other things, the new law would revoke the status of more than 1,000 “natural heritage sites”, abolish the authority of local boards such as the one which has protected Ikizdere, and place the future of all these sites under the auspices of a new central board dominated by bureaucrats, who ecologists fear will dance to the government’s tune.

“This act has the potential to cause huge and irreversible harm to nature,” Engin Yilmaz, director of Turkish NGO the Nature Association, told SETimes.”

Read more: SETimes

EuroSibEnergo, China Yangtze Power to Construct Hydro Power Plants in Russia

Last modified on 2010-12-03 00:14:06 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Electricity firm EuroSibEnergo, the power unit of Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s business empire, and China Yangtze Power Co, the country’s largest listed hydropower corporation and operator of the Three Gorges Dam, have signed an agreement on the establishment of a joint venture for construction of hydro-electric power plants in Russia.

“The joint venture will be established on a parity basis. In the next three years the company will study a list of six projects aimed at constructing hydro and thermal power plants in Siberia and the Russian Far East with an overall planned installed capacity amounting to 10,000 megawatts and will also prepare the project’s feasibility study. After the study is ready, China Yangtze will seek to arrange financing from Chinese lenders,” EuroSibEnergo said in a statement.

It is expected that a portion of the energy produced at power plants in Russia will be exported to China’s northern and north-eastern territories, which suffer from power shortages.

In October 2010, China Yangtze Power and EuroSibEnergo signed a hydro-power cooperation agreement.”

Read more: Rionovosti

Bromine in the Dead Sea Makes Mercury Above it More Lethal

Last modified on 2010-12-02 16:36:01 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The research, led by scientist Daniel Obrist and colleagues at Nevada’s Desert Research Institute with a group of Israeli researchers at Hebrew University, found that mercury was concentrated into the most toxic form in the air above the Dead Sea.

The atmosphere over the Dead Sea, researchers found, is laden with oxidized mercury, a much more toxic form of Mercury than the elemental form. The finding was surprising, as such high levels of oxidized mercury have only been found at the polar regions.

“We’ve found near-complete depletion of elemental mercury – and formation of some of the highest oxidized mercury levels ever seen – above the Dead Sea, a place where temperatures reach 45 degrees Celsius,” Obrist noted.

The findings are a concern because oxidized mercury threatens the food supply more readily than the elemental form. That is because, once oxidized in what scientists call elemental mercury depletion events – it is then readily deposited on a surface such as the ocean, and can then find its way into the food chain.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Northern Europe Freezes, Cyprus in Drought

Last modified on 2010-12-01 16:24:58 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures disrupted road, rail and air transport in many parts of northern Europe on Wednesday while the Mediterranean island of Cyprus suffered in the heat after its driest November in more than a century.

Britain laboured under its worst early winter weather in almost two decades, with Edinburgh airport and London’s Gatwick airport closed. Snow blanketed much of the country, causing delays on major roads and railway lines.

British gas and power prices soared on increased domestic consumption and demand for electrical power from neighbouring countries such as France and Belgium also hit by the cold.

“It’s insane, there’s a lot of panic,” one gas market participant said. “If we have the smallest supply issue it’s going to be worrisome.”

Temperatures in parts of Germany reached a record -18 degrees Celsius for December 1 and there has been heavy snowfall. Flights at Frankfurt airport, one of Europe’s chief hubs, were disrupted.”

Read more: Reuters

China Approves More Hydropower Amid Clean Energy Push

Last modified on 2010-11-30 00:09:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday in reports on its website (www.ndrc.gov.cn) that it had approved the construction of the 2.6-gigwatt (GW) Changheba hydropower project in Sichuan province this month.

The commission said it had also approved the 2.4-GW Guan’di hydropower station and the 600-megawatt Tongzilin hydropower project, both in Sichuan, in September.

The approvals come after the NDRC agreed in late October for China Three Gorges Power Corp (CTGPC) to proceed with early-stage studies for the 8.7-GW Wudongde and 14-GW Baihetan hydropower projects. [ID:nTOE6AE05G]

Approvals for big hydropower projects had almost come to a halt in recent years amid complaints about the environmental impact and economic viability of large dams, as well as the treatment of migrants displaced during the impoundment of reservoirs.

But energy officials have raised an alarm this year that the nation’s carbon emission cuts and clean energy goals will be not be met unless more approvals were given for large hydropower projects.”

Read more: Reuters

Cabinet To Receive Emergency Water Plan

Last modified on 2010-11-27 21:19:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The plan is meant to cover the gap until all the desalination plants are up and running and the water supply begins to stabilize.

This could be Shani’s last appearance before the cabinet as he finishes up four years in the position in January. A search committee has been set up to find a replacement, although there remains a possibility that a temporary head from within the authority will serve for a few months until the committee finishes interviewing candidates and presenting their recommendations to the national infrastructures minister, sources told the Post.

Hasson formed the new lobby to ensure that water management policy was being developed for the long term. A respectable number of MKs from across the political spectrum put in an appearance and pledged to raise the water issue in the committees on which they sit such as Foreign Affairs and Defense and Economic Affairs Committees.

At the launch of the lobby, Shani described an increasing downward trend in precipitation over the years.

“When I was studying water resources at university in 1974, the commonly quoted number was 1.5 billion cubic meters of water from natural sources per year available to Israel. When I entered the Water Authority, I had that number checked and discovered it had not been accurate for a number of years. Lately, that number has shrunk to 1.17b. cubic meters per year.”

Read more: Jerusalem Post

Investigative Report Exposes Fraudulent CDM Hydropower Project in China

Last modified on 2010-11-26 19:14:54 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“A field visit by Germany’s GEO Magazine finds that the Taijiang Yanzhai Hydropower Project located in Guizhou province, China, does not deserve to receive carbon credits through the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). GEO Magazine found that the project does not result in real greenhouse gas emission reductions and also violates the rights of the local population. Local dam-affected farmers assert that they were forcibly evicted from their homes.

The Project Design Document (PDD) for the project submitted to the CDM was marred by misleading and often patently false claims, according to GEO. For example, construction on the project began eight months earlier than reported in the PDD, and the importance of the income generated through the CDM to increase the financial viability of the project was grossly inflated.

The use of CDM credits from hydro projects within the European Union’s internal carbon trading scheme is regulated by the EU Linking Directive. They must comply with the criteria and guidelines of the World Commission on Dams (WCD), the most comprehensive framework for energy and water planning that protects dam-affected people and the environment, and ensures that the benefits from dams are more equitably distributed.

RWE, a German power company and one of the biggest CO2 emitters in Europe, is hoping to buy the credits from the Taijiang Yanzhai project to avoid having to reduce emissions from its coal plants. RWE paid for certification company TÜV SÜD to assess the WCD compliance of the Taijiang Yanzhai dam. TÜV SÜD found that the dam is WCD compliant.”

Read more: International Rivers

Arab World and Med Region More Vulnerable to Climate Change

Last modified on 2010-11-22 16:51:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The seriousness of climate change in the Arab World was pointed out recently in an article in the news site ArabBusiness.com, in which it was noted that powerful dust storms in Iraq, freak floods wreaking havoc in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and rising sea levels eroding Egypt’s coast are all sure signs that countries in the Middle East are some of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

This is certainly nothing new as the Middle East has never been an area that has received ample rainfall. With one of the fastest growing populations in the world, especially in countries like Egypt, people living in the Arab World by the year 2015 will have to survive on less than 500 cubic meters of water a year each, against a world average exceeding 6,000 cubic meters per head, according to Mohamed El-Ashry, former head of the Global Environment Facility.

Five hundred cubic meters of water per person per annum is barely enough to survive on, much less maintain a decent quality of life. Although desalination is now widely used in Saudi Arabia, and in the Gulf States, especially in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, strict measures of water conservation and recycling, such as those now being considered in Abu Dhabi will now have to become the norm.

After all, if a small country like Israel, with a population of 7.5 million can reclaim 75% of its sewage waste water then why can’t Arab countries do the same? The ravages of climate change will not go away soon; and the sooner that Arab countries take more measures to conserve water, the better off they will be.”

Read more: Green Prophet

4,000 Hold Protest To Save Agusan Watershed

Last modified on 2010-11-18 16:12:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur — At least 4,000 people joined Saturday’s “Motor Caravan to Save Mt. Magdiwata” in a bid to stop illegal miners from encroaching into the watershed forest reserve surrounding the 633-meter high peak to cut trees for mining tunnels.

The local parish priest and other religious leaders led prominent citizens and representatives of business and other sectors in a motor caravan protest aimed to stop logging, mining and other destructive activities that threaten the water supply of around 100,000 residents of this capital town.

The caravan of about 200 vehicles, including some 10-wheeler trucks, marched through the town’s major streets to end up at the foot of the Mt. Magdiwata range. Protesters in open cargo trucks bore placards, and chanted “Stop mining, stop cutting trees inside Mt. Magdiwata.”

San Francisco Water District General Manager Elmer Luzon, who joined the march and led his colleagues, said his office decided to take to the streets to dramatize their continuing opposition to ongoing illegal mining and logging activities inside the watershed.

“We have already tried all legal means and done exhaustive leg work to coordinate with various government agencies, but it seems it was not enough as illegal logging and mining activities continue to this day,” Luzon said.”

Read more: GMA News

Abu Dhabi’s Climate Change Choice: Trees Or Water?

Last modified on 2010-11-17 17:12:06 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) has planted one million trees in four years in order to stave off climate change and desertification, and to restore its heritage of indigenous trees.

Although the group has planted trees that are accustomed to the desert environment and therefore well-adapted to scant water resources and high temperatures, the Federal National Council (FNC) addressed the Ministry of Environment and Water with concerns about Abu Dhabi water scarcity.

“The UAE used 4.5 billion cubic metres of water in 2009. Slightly more than half of the water supply comes from groundwater,” according to The National. “The agricultural sector uses 97 per cent of that groundwater, while contributing 3.3 per cent of GDP.”

Referring mostly to water used for growing food, but applicable to all vegetation, FNC members stressed that the Ministry must re-evaluate its growing scheme.

“Agriculture needs a fundamental rethinking,” Mr al Zaabi, an FNC member from Sharjah, said at a recent meeting with the Ministry. “What do we plant, where do we plant it, and how do we plant it?”

Failure to do so could deplete groundwater sources. Meanwhile, various FNC members voiced urgent concerns about the Emirate’s backup in the event that an emergency compromises the 83 desalination plants that The National suggests provides 65% of Abu Dhabi’s commercial and residential water supply.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Clean Water At No Cost? Just Add Carbon Credits

Last modified on 2010-11-16 17:40:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The villages of Africa and South Asia are littered with the ghosts of water projects past. A traveler winding through the dirt roads and trails of rural India or Ethiopia will find wells, pumps and springs with taps ─ but most of the wells will be contaminated, the pumps broken, the taps rusted away. When the British group WaterAid began its work in the Konso district of southwestern Ethiopia in 2007, the first thing it did was look at what had come before. It found that of 35 water projects built in the area, only nine were functioning.

People who work on providing clean water in poor countries estimate that about half the projects fall into disrepair soon after their builders move on. Sometimes someone loots the pump. Or it breaks and no one knows how to fix it. Or perhaps spare parts are available only in major cities. Or the needed part costs too much for the village to afford ─ even if it is just a few dollars.

Unlike one-shot vaccines, water systems need to function all day, every day, forever. So sustainability ─ the issue we find so important that it started off the Fixes series ─ is particularly crucial. It’s important to donors, who don’t want to see their money wasted. It’s important to the groups that do the work: no project is successful unless it’s taken over by local people to run. And it’s most crucial to villagers themselves, who grow cynical about promises after they see project after project inaugurated only to fail.”

Read more: New York Times

Vital Films presents Facing East

Last modified on 2010-11-08 18:15:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Retrieved from: Vimeo

Alcanza El Azúcar Su Máximo En 30 años

Last modified on 2010-11-04 15:13:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Crece la demanda de los grandes países importadores tradicionales -China, Pakistán, Unión Europea, Indonesia o Rusia- que registran cosechas nacionales menos generosas de lo previsto debido a una climatología mediocre”, subrayan Kona Haque y Alex Bos, economistas del banco Macquarie.

Citan por ejemplo las inundaciones en Pakistán (noveno consumidor mundial) y la ola de calor del pasado verano boreal en Rusia (primer importador).

La Organización Internacional del Azúcar (ISO), que en agosto preveía un excedente de 3.22 millones de toneladas de la oferta mundial en 2010/2011, tras dos años de déficit récord, redujo sus previsiones a un excedente de dos millones de toneladas.

Gran parte de las necesidades las ha cubierto hasta ahora Brasil, de lejos el mayor productor.

Cuando las lluvias paralizaban este verano los transportes en el interior del país, más de 120 barcos en espera de carga atascaban los puertos brasileños, “lo que generó una situación caótica” para el comercio mundial, explicó la consultora Kingsman.

“Al mismo tiempo el sur de Brasil sufría sequía, lo que afectará considerablemente la temporada de los rendimientos de caña de azúcar”, agregó.”

Leér más: El Mexicano

Watch Out: The World Bank Is Quietly Funding A Massive Corporate Water Grab

Last modified on 2010-11-02 23:34:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Billions have been spent allowing corporations to profit from public water sources even though water privatization has been an epic failure in Latin America, Southeast Asia, North America, Africa and everywhere else it’s been tried. But don’t tell that to controversial loan-sharks at the World Bank. Last month, its private-sector funding arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) quietly dropped a cool 100 million euros ($139 million US) onVeolia Voda, the Eastern European subsidiary of Veolia, the world’s largest private water corporation. Its latest target? Privatization of Eastern Europe’s water resources.

“Veolia has made it clear that their business model is based on maximizing profits, not long-term investment,” Joby Gelbspan, senior program coordinator for private-sector watchdog Corporate Accountability International, told AlterNet. “Both the World Bank and the transnational water companies like Veolia have clearly acknowledged they don’t want to invest in the infrastructure necessary to improve water access in Eastern Europe. That’s why this 100 million euro investment in Veolia Voda by the World Bank’s private investment arm over the summer is so alarming. It’s further evidence that the World Bank remains committed to water privatization, despite all evidence that this approach will not solve the world’s water crisis.”

Read more: AlterNet

Yemen’s Water Crisis Could Worsen Security

Last modified on 2010-11-01 18:25:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Recently this harsh stretch of land, which shares its northwestern and most volatile border with Saudi Arabia and is flanked by Oman in the east, has been the scene of much hullabaloo over a terror plot in the US. Most of the country’s problems are attributed to Al-Qa‘ida’s presence in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a disruptive presence indeed. But scientists are trying to draw attention to another crucial source of present and future danger: water scarcity.

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) claim that within the decade, Yemen’s capital city Sana’a could exhaust its water reservoir. Meanwhile, the population, a third of which is malnourished and 40% of whom live on less than $2 each day, is set to double in the next two decades. The city’s fossil reservoir is being drained at an unsustainable rate of 5m each year. In part this water is being used to souse the country’s ghat habit – as both a moderate cash cow and recreational stimulant -  as well as other crops, and in part it is being squandered.

While a tribal management system was long effective in regulating water use, it largely disappeared with the creation of the Republic of Yemen and the deployment of diesel well pumps; what remains is an unregulated and unsustainable use pattern across the country—a race to use more water, faster, before it disappears.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Sedated Shrimp In British Waters

Last modified on 2010-10-31 16:56:24 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Drugs are partially broken down in the treatment process but what we are realizing now is that a lot more gets through than we thought. The treatment plants weren’t designed to break down medicines so some inevitably get concentrated [and] released into streams or onto beaches. Effluent is concentrated in river estuaries and coastal areas, which is where shrimps and other marine life live – this means that shrimps are taking on the excreted drugs of whole towns.

The research team tested the prawns by exposing them to the same level of prozac found in British waters and found that while prawns normally find sanctuary in dark places, these sedated shrimp were five times more likely to swim towards the light becoming more vulnerable to predators. The effects of other pharmaceuticals like hormones, pain relievers, and heart medicine are still unknown.”

Read more: Treehugger

Nuclear-Powered Water For The UAE?

Last modified on 2010-10-29 20:19:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Photo retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

“Like a Middle Eastern version of Las Vegas, Dubai’s biggest challenge is water, which may be everywhere in the gulf but is undrinkable without desalination plants. These produce emissions of carbon dioxide that have helped give Dubai and the other United Arab Emirates one of the world’s largest carbon footprints. They also generate enormous amounts of heated sludge, which is pumped back into the sea.

And while they desalinate the equivalent of four billion bottles of water every day, they only have a four-day back up plan. This is particularly dangerous since an oil spill or algae bloom could easily compromise their water supply.

“Today, the gulf’s salinity levels have risen to 47,000 parts per million, from 32,000 about 30 years ago,” according to the paper, which Christophe Tourenq, a senior researcher at the World Wide Fund for Nature in Dubai explained is harmful to the gulf’s marine environment.

In response to these problems, Abu Dhabi recently committed to building underground aquifers, but there is still the issue of energy. With peak oil looming and the emirates running short, they are grasping in whatever direction they can to avoid a waterless future.”

Read more: Green Prophet

France Provides 4 million For Gaza Wastewater Treatment Plant

Last modified on 2010-10-28 21:40:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Beit Lahia wastewater treatment plant receives wastewater from the 250,000 inhabitants of the municipalities of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and Um Al Nasser. The plant today operates at over four times its nominal capacity. In 2005, AFD, the World Bank, Belgian and Swedish Development & Cooperation and the European Union mobilized USD 46 million of financing, at the request of the Palestinian Authority, for the implementation of a two-phase project. The first phase provided for the construction of a pumping station in Beit Lahia and the implementation of infiltration basin to transfer the sewage to the new site at East of Jabalia to avoid any new flooding of the surrounding areas of Beit Lahia.

The second phase of the project aims to build a biological treatment plant in Jabalia with a capacity of 35,600 m3/day. This plant is expected to meet all the needs of the North Gaza by 2015. An agricultural system will also be set up to recover and reuse the treated wastewater. The construction started early September and is running after time to complete works in less than 3 years to avoid any important damage of the groundwater resources.”

Read more: AlterNet

What Abu Dhabi Plans For When The Water Runs Out

Last modified on 2010-10-26 20:55:06 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Relying almost entirely on desalination plants for drinking water, and with approximately 90% of its groundwater unfit for drinking, Abu Dhabi’s water security is deeply uncertain. A major oil spill or a serious case of sea pollution could ground the plants; without them for even a few days, experts say Abu Dhabi’s constituents will face tremendous suffering.

The government recently announced the details of Plan B: millions of dollars of desalinated water – taken from excess winter supplies – are slated to be pumped into underground aquifers. Though cheaper, less environmentally destructive, and more secure than above-ground holding tanks, this plan does not come without risks.

The Government’s emergency water strategy was unveiled at the recent International Symposium of Managed Aquifer Recharge, according to The National.

Ten times cheaper than water storage tanks, pumping the water underground will prevent exposure to bacteria, provided that Abu Dhabi’s Environment Agency and the Ministry of Environment and Water are able to keep the area surrounding the aquifer free of contaminants.

Pipes inserted from 60-900m deep will pump desalinated water into underground aquifers that have existed for millions of years. There it will mix with existing, dense brackish water.

An estimated one tenth of the water will be lost to create a protective layer between the fresh and salty water, though it will be necessary to monitor this to ensure that expensive desalinated water is not re-salted.”

Read more: Green Prophet

The New Oil: Should private companies control our most precious natural resource?

Last modified on 2010-10-19 20:48:49 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Sitka, Alaska, is home to one of the world’s most spectacular lakes. Nestled into a U-shaped valley of dense forests and majestic peaks, and fed by snowpack and glaciers, the reservoir, named Blue Lake for its deep blue hues, holds trillions of gallons of water so pure it requires no treatment. The city’s tiny population—fewer than 10,000 people spread across 5,000 square miles—makes this an embarrassment of riches. Every year, as countries around the world struggle to meet the water needs of their citizens, 6.2 billion gallons of Sitka’s reserves go unused. That could soon change. In a few months, if all goes according to plan, 80 million gallons of Blue Lake water will be siphoned into the kind of tankers normally reserved for oil—and shipped to a bulk bottling facility near Mumbai. From there it will be dispersed among several drought-plagued cities throughout the Middle East. The project is the brainchild of two American companies. One, True Alaska Bottling, has purchased the rights to transfer 3 billion gallons of water a year from Sitka’s bountiful reserves. The other, S2C Global, is building the water-processing facility in India. If the companies succeed, they will have brought what Sitka hopes will be a $90 million industry to their city, not to mention a solution to one of the world’s most pressing climate conundrums. They will also have turned life’s most essential molecule into a global commodity.”

Read more: Newsweek

Egypt To Grab Sudanese Land To Meet Its Wheat Needs

Last modified on 2010-10-14 17:06:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“During the heat of this year’s scorching summer, Russia’s wheat supply took a serious hit and the country scaled back its exports. One of their main wheat importers, Egypt lacks the water to provide what is a staple for its 80 million strong population. As the population inflates and water becomes even more scarce, Egypt hopes to make its wheat supply more self-sufficient.

After recently signing an agreement with Sudan to allow private Egyptian companies to grow various cereals there, the Egyptian authorities began eyeballing other Nile basin countries as potential sources of land and water for their agricultural pursuits. Meanwhile, fifty percent of the population living within the Nile basin live below the poverty line of $1 per day. Private Egyptian companies will grow food in the Al-Gezira Region south of Khartoum, while the Egyptian government’s role is limited to technical support, according to IRIN news.

The deal signed between Egypt and Sudan in September is part of what IRIN (the United Nations news source) calls “the land-grab phenomenon” that began to take shape in 2008 (and Green Prophet’s editor Karin wrote about it here – Africa Up For Sale?). This refers to various foreign countries that are cultivating crops in African countries to support their own populations.

Egypt’s population consumes approximately 14 million tons of wheat each year but is only capable of producing roughly 60% of that amount, according to the paper, but hopes to expand its self-sufficiency to 70% by 2017. In order to produce the requisite quantities to feed its population, Egypt will need 2.1 million hectares, compared to its current 1.26 million hectares.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Preparing For A Water-Limited World

Last modified on 2010-10-14 16:50:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The data and statistical tools used to plan $500 billion worth of annual global investments in dams, flood-control structures, diversion projects, and other big pieces of water infrastructure are no longer trustworthy,” she writes. “In other words, when it comes to water, the past is no longer a reliable guide to the future.”

The uncertainty of future water supplies and flow patterns is not limited to concerns over dams and diversions. Food security, public health, and life as we know it are also at risk.

Postel describes a “day of reckoning on the horizon” in the U.S. Southwest, for instance. Some scientists predict there is a 50 percent chance that Lake Mead, which stores Colorado River water for tens of millions of people and one million acres of irrigated land, will dry up by 2021.

And she notes that as much as 10 percent of the world’s food is produced through tapping too deep into residual and unreplenished groundwater resources. “This creates a bubble in the food economy far more serious than the recent housing, credit, or dot-com bubbles, for we are meeting some of today’s food needs with tomorrow’s water.”

The Solutions

“The water challenges confronting us locally, regionally, and globally are unprecedented,” Postel writes. The good news, she says, is that we have the economic and technological capacity to make sure global water needs are met. We just have to start using it.

The smarter path to water sustainability also requires us to work with nature and assign it a value for flood protection, water filtration, and other beneficial services it provides, according to Postel. And smarter water users-individuals, cities, utilities, businesses, and farmers-will be more aware of their water footprints and how to reduce them.”

Read more: National Geographic

Hungary Detains Executive Over Toxic Sludge

Last modified on 2010-10-11 20:43:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Hungarian police have detained the director of the aluminum company responsible for a flood of caustic red sludge that killed eight people when it burst from its reservoir last week, the prime minister said Monday.

Police said they were questioning managing director Zoltan Bakonyi on suspicion of public endangerment causing multiple deaths and environmental damage.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban told parliament that the government wanted to take over MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, because the safe restart of production at the alumina plant was needed to save the jobs of thousands of workers.

Orban said his administration was also freezing the company’s assets to ensure that funds were available to compensate for the damages caused by the disaster.

“Since this is not a natural catastrophe but the damage was brought about by people, the damages must be paid first and foremost not by taxpayers but by those who caused the damage,” Orban told lawmakers.”

Read more: NPR

World’s Rivers in Crisis: U.S. And Europe Face Highest Threat Levels

Last modified on 2010-10-08 16:54:29 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Rivers are the arteries of the planet, linking continents through coastal zones to the ocean. More than 120,000 species of plants and animals make up the world’s riverine ecosystems that provide the multi-trillion dollar services humanity relies upon – however up to 20,000 are at risk of extinction Vörösmarty says.

An international team examined data sets on 23 factors that impact rivers around the world and created state-of-the-art computer models to integrate all of the information to paint the first ever global picture of the health of river systems. More than 65 percent of the world’s rivers are in trouble and this finding is very “conservative” since there was not enough data to assess impacts of climate change, pharmaceutical compounds, mining wastes and massive inter-basin water transfers like the Colorado River in the western U.S.

Where rivers are least at risk are where human populations are smallest. Rivers in arctic regions and relatively inaccessible areas of the tropics appear to be in the best health, according to the findings.

In an unrelated study more than 80 percent of male bass fish exhibited female traits such as egg production because of a “toxic stew” of pollutants in the Potomac River that flows through Washington, DC scientists reported last week. Similar findings have been made in many U.S. rivers.”

Read more: AlterNet

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Leaving Water Wars In The Past, Five Middle Eastern Countries Tackle Sandstorms

Last modified on 2010-10-07 17:57:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Soil erosion, poor water management, overgrazing, and deforestation, as well as drought, another natural but worsening phenomena, all contribute to fiercer sandstorms.

Last summer, one particularly bad week-long sandstorm sent hundreds to the hospital with breathing difficulties, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty wrote at the time, according to Treehugger:

Iraq has long suffered blinding sandstorms, but several years of drought have aggravated the situation this year. The inadequate flow of water down its once-mighty rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, which are choked by dams in upstream countries like Turkey, has made things worse. Water shortages make the land dry out and become more dusty.

And despite “disputes over water from the Tigris and Euphrates [that] have long been a point of contention,” Iran, Iraq, Syria, Qatar, and Turkey have all pledged to improve vegetation and stabilize soil resources, Treehugger reported.

They will also establish a series of meteorological stations.

Hurriyet Daily News reports that “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meeting with some of the officials, hailed the agreement on Wednesday.”

“Surely, in the near future we will witness other regional nations joining this cooperation to tackle soil erosion, air pollution and desertification,” he was quoted by the presidency website as saying.

As human survival becomes increasingly endangered by environmental instability, particularly in the Middle East where weather patterns are already extreme, we can only hope that our leaders will set aside their political hubris and embrace constructive, borderless cooperation instead.”

Read more: Green Prophet

Hungarian Chemical Sludge Spill Reaches Danube

Last modified on 2010-10-07 17:39:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The sludge itself is a hazardous mixture of water and mining waste containing heavy metals.

The victims are believed to have drowned, with the depth of the fast-moving flood reaching 2m (6.5ft) in places, but many of those injured suffered chemical burns.

On Thursday Mr Orban visited the village of Kolontar, the worst-affected settlement, and said some areas would have to be abandoned.

“Hungary is strong enough to be able to combat the effects of such a catastrophe. But we’re still open to any expertise which will help us combat the pollution effects,” he added.

Angry villagers confronted a company official in Kolontar on Wednesday evening. They say they plan to sue the firm for damages.

Herwit Schuster, a spokesman for Greenpeace International, described the spill as “one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years”.

Land had been “polluted and destroyed for a long time”, he told AP.

“If there are substances like arsenic and mercury, that would affect river systems and ground water on long-term basis,” he added.”

Read more: BBC

Desastre en Hungría: Carrera Para Salvar Al Danubio

Last modified on 2010-10-06 15:58:17 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Cerca de 600 mil metros cúbicos de desechos se derramaron el lunes al romperse una reserva de contención en una fábrica de alúmina, un derivado del aluminio, en el oeste del país. El fango ya arrasó varios poblados, causando al menos cuatro muertos, y ha ingresado a varios afluentes del Danubio.

A medida que avanzan, los desechos dispersan un cóctel altamente tóxico. El lodo –de color rojo debido a la presencia de dióxido de hierro- contiene una mezcla de metales pesados, como plomo, además de grandes cantidades de soda cáustica, una sustancia utilizada para extraer el aluminio.

“El impacto ecológico puede ser muy amplio y tardar mucho tiempo en neutralizarse, porque los metales pesados y la soda cáustica forma un mezcla tóxica muy peligrosa”, dijo a Reuters Katerina Ventusova, de Greenpeace.

La soda hace que el fango sea extremadamente alcalino. “Esto significa que causa quemaduras al contacto con la piel y si es ingerido puede ser mortal”, explica Julian Siddle, de la Unidad de Ciencia de la BBC.

Video: Desastre en Hungría

Para aminorar el impacto destructivo del lodo en el río Danubio, se está vertiendo yeso en uno de sus afluentes, el río Marcal. El yeso reacciona con la soda cáustica disminuyendo su alcalinidad.”

Leér más: BBC Mundo

Indian Farmers Fight Billionaire Mittal, Posco For Water Rights

Last modified on 2010-10-06 15:42:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“ArcelorMittal and Posco are leading $80 billion in planned spending in India that would vault the country ahead of Japan as the second-biggest steelmaker. Standing in the way are farmers and their water supply.

The farmers refuse to move from irrigated land in three states that hold more than half of India’s reserves of iron ore, a key material to make steel. That’s stymied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ambitions to more than triple India’s steel capacity to 232 million metric tons.

“We’re not going to allow the government to take the land and water and give them to Posco,” said Prasanth Paikare, a spokesman for opposition group Posco Prathirodh Sangram Samiti that says it represents 25,000 farmers. “The government has promised us land at a new location but there is no good land available in the state now and there won’t be enough water for agriculture,” he said in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa state.

The farmers’ concern about water for crops has delayed plans by ArcelorMittal, Posco and at least five rivals to benefit from a steel market that has expanded more than 55 percent since 2005 as Indian imports of the metal tripled in the same period. Posco’s proposal to build a $12 billion steel plant in Orissa has stalled for five years as the South Korean company failed to persuade farmers to move.”

Read more: SF Gate

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Toxic Mud Spill Kills 4 In Hungary

Last modified on 2010-10-05 18:52:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Hungary declared a state of emergency in three counties Tuesday after a flood of toxic red sludge from an alumina plant engulfed several towns and burned people through their clothes. One official called it “an ecological disaster” that may threaten the Danube and other key rivers.

The toll rose to four dead, six missing and at least 120 people injured after a reservoir failed Monday at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles  southwest of Budapest, the capital.

Several hundred tons of plaster were being poured into the Marcal River to bind the toxic sludge and prevent it from flowing on, the National Disaster Management Directorate said.

So far, about 35.3 million cubic feet of sludge has leaked from the reservoir, affecting an estimated 15.4 square miles, Environmental Affairs State Secretary Zoltan Illes told the state news wire MTI.

Illes called the flood an “ecological catastrophe” and said the sludge could reach the Raba and Danube rivers. He suspended activity at the plant and ordered the company to repair the damaged reservoir.”

Read more: NPR

Ethiopia Claims High Ground In Right-To-Nile Debate

Last modified on 2010-09-28 16:48:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Nile River is almost always associated with Egypt. Think back to Herodotus, who called Egypt the “gift of the Nile.” Or to baby Moses, whose river-borne bassinet made it all the way to Pharaoh’s inner circle.

Egypt still draws more water from the Nile than any other country. But it doesn’t contribute any water to the Nile.

Egypt is mostly desert, so rivers and rain from eight or nine other countries make the Nile flow. And those other countries want some of their water back.

Ethiopians say they could use some of the Nile’s headwaters to become a hydropower superpower in Africa. And they’re claiming the geographical and moral high ground.

Ethiopia is home to the Blue Nile, a major tributary of the river. But Ethiopians have had little access to the Nile.

From its humble beginnings in the western highlands, the Blue Nile, known locally as theAbay, (pronounced ah-BYE) quickly cuts through deep gorges — too deep for most people to reach. Then, it’s off to Sudan, where it merges with the White Nile and proceeds northward to the Mediterranean Sea.”

Read more: NPR

China: Desplazados Por El Agua

Last modified on 2010-09-25 15:21:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A pesar de las inundaciones recientes, el norte del país sufre una falta crónica del recurso hídrico, por lo que las autoridades están recurriendo a planes ambiciosos para abastecer a la población. Alrededor de 500.000 personas serán desplazadas como resultado del Proyecto de Desviación de agua Sur-Norte, que apunta a redireccionar miles de millones de toneladas de agua desde las regiones centrales, sur y oeste de China, hacia Beijing y sus ciudades aledañas. El plan implica un movimiento interno muy importante que ya generó el apoyo y la desaprobación de gran parte de los habitantes.

Más de medio millón de personas se está reubicando a medida que China construye un nuevo y enorme sistema de agua y tres canales son construidos en la campiña del sur. Chen Xuefei, una anciana de 87 años que sufre de enfermedades del corazón, está a punto de someterse a una de las cosas más estresantes en la vida: una mudanza.”

Leér más: Observador

More Than 3 Million Affected By Indian Floods

Last modified on 2010-09-22 16:05:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The waters have ravaged 500,000 hectares of farmland in Uttar Pradesh, the top cane growing state, prompting the government to cut by around a tenth its sugar output projections for the harvest season beginning in October.

People waded through chest deep water, travelled on bullock carts or on boats to reach safer areas, carrying children and household belongings in their hands and on their heads. In relief camps, they complained of a lack of food and medicines.

(For a graphic on rains distribution, click link.reuters.com/xex59n)

In Uttarakhand, where the army was called in after the Hindu holy river Ganges rose to near the danger level by the sacred town of Haridwar, 500,000 people were affected by the floods, said Mahendra Negi, a disaster management centre official.

“They (army) are actively providing medicines, shifting people to safer grounds and conducting repairs of small stretches of roads,” said Colonel S. Om Singh, the army spokesman.”

Read more: Reuters

Activists Stop Chevron Deepwater Drilling Ship Off The Shetland Islands

Last modified on 2010-09-21 18:30:17 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The area west of Shetland is believed to hold 2bn-4bn barrels of ‘oil equivalent’ in oil and gas. BP already operates three oil and gas fields in the area, in water no deeper than 1,800ft. In July 2010, BP confirmed that it plans to drill at much deeper depths at a potential field called Cardhu, a few miles south of the Chevron site.

This occupation comes just two days before environment ministers from countries bordering the North Sea meet in Norway to discuss a proposal to ban new deep water oil drilling in the area at the OSPAR Convention. The UK government is sending two ministers to the meeting to block the proposal.

Listen to Victor talking on the phone about what it’s like hanging off the anchor chain.

We saw what happened in the Gulf of Mexico only a few months ago.The world’s biggest oil spill a direct consequence of reckless deepwater drilling. It’s time we go beyond oil and stop gambling with our environment and the climate.”

Read more: Earth First

Landslides, Monsoon Flooding Kill 47 In Northern India Over The Weekend, Officials Say

Last modified on 2010-09-20 17:00:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Heavy monsoon rains and landslides swept the hilly areas of northern India over the weekend, killing at least 47 people, officials said Monday.

Twenty-four people died Sunday as falling boulders crushed their homes in three villages in Almorah district in Uttrakhand state, said Prashant Kumar Tamta, a state government spokesman.

Another 23 people were either swept away by floodwaters or died when homes collapsed in landslides in Pitthoragarh, Champawat and Uttarkashi regions of state Saturday and Sunday, Tamta told The Associated Press.

Rains continued to lash the region on Monday, threatening dozens of villages near Tehri Dam whose water level was nearing the danger level.”

Read more: Los Angeles Times

Government urged to pass Citarum River basin area bill

Last modified on 2010-09-18 00:46:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Padjadjaran University Community Service Research Institute secretary Chay Asdak said that a regulation was drafted in 2005 but it had not been approved.

“He blamed the rivalry between the Forestry and Public Works Ministries for stalling the passing of the regulation, saying both ministries had special interests in the area.

“The Public Works Ministry has interests in water distribution and consumption, while the Forestry Ministry has interests in production,” said Chay, who in 2005 was involved in drafting the regulation.

“He criticized the government’s “indecision”, saying the regulation was crucial to curbing the worsening condition of the upstream areas of the Citarum River.

“The government bylaw would regulate the presence of stakeholders with similar concerns, such as NGOs and the business sector,” he said.

“Chay added that the degradation of the river basin now meant that 20 percent of the Citarum river basin area alone (142,150 hectares, the largest compared to other rivers in West Java) could be considered critical upstream areas.”

read more: The Jakarta Post

All The Way From Dubai, Clean Water For Victims Of The Flood

Last modified on 2010-09-16 15:48:14 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“A Dubai-based company is taking part in efforts to provide clean water to millions of people in flood-stricken areas of Pakistan.

The company, So Safe Water Technologies, has helped to install more than 100 water purification units in affected areas including Jacobabad in northern Pakistan within the past three weeks, said Sultan Mahmood, the company’s chief executive.

“Each unit can provide water for up to 10,000 people a day,” he said.

The flooding, the worst in 80 years, has destroyed roads, buildings and communications connections, and left millions homeless. It has also left millions without a supply of clean water. The United Nations warned last month that 3.5 million children were at risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

The water purification systems, each weighing around 200kg and measuring one metre by 1.5 metres, can make water taken from Pakistan’s flooded rivers safe for human consumption.”

Read more: The National

Kuwait Running Out Of Water: Desalination Capabilities Not Keeping Up With Consumption

Last modified on 2010-09-12 02:05:20 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Kuwaitis are consuming almost more water than the country can produce. An estimated 1.5 million cubic meters of water was being consumed daily in Kuwait, dangerously close to country’s maximum production capacity, the business news site Arabian Business reported.

According to the report Kuwait, which produces nearly all of its water from desalination plants, produces just 1.51 million cubic meters of water a year. The Gulf state, like its neighbors in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, has all but depleted their fresh waters supplies and depend heavily on desalinated seawater to meet the demands of their growing populations.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity and Water has plans to add an additional 150,000 cubic meters daily this coming year, about a 10 percent increase in daily production. Even this was not expected to be enough to keep up with the population growth and higher water demands. More capabilities were needed to meet demands in 2012 and 2013.

Kuwaitis say that the government has been encouraging people to cut back on their consumption in commercial on TV and in newspapers.

€œThe rate in the increase in urban water consumption in Kuwait, as well as in most of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, is relatively high if compared to other parts of the world. And it is rather escalating in some of the GCC, professor Waleed Al-Zubari of the Department of Water Resources Management, Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain, told The Media Line.”

Read more: Emirates Tribune

Why ‘Gandhi of Water’ Rajendra Singh Is Walking the Length of the Ganges River

Last modified on 2010-09-12 01:42:38 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Considered the Gandhi of water issues, Rajendra Singh is an activist about to begin an incredible walk in order to bring attention to India’s water problems. Starting on October 1st at the threatened Goumouk glacier in the Himalayas, the head of the Ganges River, he will walk along the river’s length to its mouth at the Bay of Bengal. Singh is embarking on this 37-day journey for a singular purpose — to illustrate how the health of our fresh water systems determines the health of human populations. He wants to save the Ganges river from pollution, misuse, damming and climate change, and thus save the 600 million people who depend on the river for their water needs.

We’ve discussed the Ganges river many times, from saving its dolphins to saving the river itself from salinity and the impacts of climate change. But the Ganges is one of many major rivers worldwide that is under dire threat from human impacts. Singh’s walk is a important one to bring focus on this river and its issues. But even more importantly, his walk will bring attention to our freshwater systems everywhere, and how all of humankind is dependent on healthy river systems for not just fresh water, but also food, healthy ecosystems, clean air, energy, and more.”

Read more: AlterNet

Legionnaires’ Fear As Woman Dies In South Wales

Last modified on 2010-09-07 16:25:10 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“All 11 cases required hospital treatment, said Public Health Wales, with a further three possible cases, including that of the dead woman, under investigation.

The organisation said investigations into the possible source of the outbreak were ongoing.

Information had been circulated advising GPs of the steps to be taken if patients report symptoms.

Dr Gwen Lowe, Public Health Wales consultant in communicable disease control, said Legionnaires’ disease was a rare but potentially life-threatening illness.

‘Flu-like symptoms’

“Most cases are isolated but outbreaks can occur,” she said.

“People become infected when they inhale bacteria spread through the air in the form of a fine mist or droplets from a contaminated water source.

“The disease cannot be passed from person to person.”

Legionnaires’ disease begins with flu-like symptoms and can lead to pneumonia, usually in adults, she added.”

Read more: BBC News

Can China Save the Beleaguered Yangtze River?

Last modified on 2010-09-05 23:26:06 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Overfishing, pollution, and habitat fragmentation from dams — including the massive Three Gorges Dam — have brought the Yangtze to its current state. With more dams planned and Chinese officials intoxicated with unbridled economic growth, the future looks just as grim for the Yangtze’s vanishing species. Much of the river basin “will soon be a mere semblance of its natural state, offering few prospects for persistence of what remains of the river’s unique biodiversity,” says David Dudgeon, an aquatic ecologist at the University of Hong Kong.

“All is not yet lost, however. Seasonal fishing bans have given some species a breather. “We can save the remaining ecology of the Yangtze,” argues Xie Songguang, an ecologist at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan. The potential savior that he and others are counting on is a 10-year fishing moratorium. Such a ban may seem drastic, but it would have a tiny effect on fish markets, as the Yangtze supplies less than 1 percent of China’s freshwater fish production, including aquaculture. A ban is feasible — if the political willpower can be summoned to implement it. With the Yangtze’s ecological health in obvious decline and the economic toll of a ban manageable, the prospects for a moratorium are looking better and better, experts say.”

read more: AlterNet

Pakistan’s Future Problem: ‘Too Little Water’

Last modified on 2010-09-02 16:27:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Looking beyond the bad monsoon weather responsible for current disastrous flooding, he says glacial melting will dry up rivers crossing Indian-controlled Kashmir on their way to Pakistan, governed by an old treaty that now seems to the great advantage of Pakistan’s giant rival:

… Roll the tape forward 20 years: the glacial melt-water is coming to an end, and the total flow of the Indus system is down by half. But almost all of the loss is in Pakistan’s three rivers, since the smaller Indian three do not depend heavily on glaciers.

So India is still getting as much water as ever from the eastern three rivers, and it is still taking its full treaty allocation of water from two of Pakistan’s rivers, although they do depend on glacial melt-water and now have far less water in them. As a result, India’s total share of the Indus waters rises sharply (and quite legally) just as Pakistanis start to starve.”

Read more: New York Times

Water Supplied In Gaza Unfit For Drinking

Last modified on 2010-08-31 22:42:41 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“They estimate it will take at least 20 years to rehabilitate Gaza’s underground water system, and any delay in dealing with the problem will lead to additional deterioration in the situation and thus might extend the rehabilitation process for hundreds of years. Since it began its siege on the Gaza Strip, in June 2007, Israel has forbidden the entry of equipment and materials needed to rehabilitate the water and wastewater-treatment systems there. The prohibition has remained despite the recent easing of the siege.

B’Tselem said the water crisis in the Gaza Strip arose following over-pumping of the underground water of the Coast Aquifer. It is estimated that the amount of water annually pumped from the aquifer is roughly twice the amount of water that replenishes it. As a result of the over-pumping, which has been going on for several decades, salt water has penetrated the aquifer. In addition, the poor maintenance of the wastewater-treatment facilities in Gaza, which increased following the siege, and the damage done to the wastewater-treatment facility in Gaza City during Operation Cast Lead, led to further pollution of the underground water by wastewater, and to greater salinity. Another factor for the pollution is the waste-disposal sites in Gaza, which are not properly handled. Following Operation Cast Lead, these sites received enormous amounts of waste – more than 600,000 tons – including asbestos, medial waste, oils, and fuels.

The daily per capita water consumption in the Gaza Strip is 91 liters, slightly higher than in the West Bank, where the figure is 73 liters, yet lower than the minimum of 100 liters recommended by the World Health Organization. By comparison, daily per capita consumption in Israel is 242 liters in urban areas and 211 liters in rural areas.”

Read more: Aljazeera

Why Israel, Palestine And Jordan Are Rallying Around A Single Cause

Last modified on 2010-08-31 01:33:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Fathi Huweimel leans carefully over the edge of a jagged slab of broken asphalt, peering down into a 60-foot-deep crater that was level ground just yesterday. All around him sprawl the ruins of Ghawr al Hadithah, once a farming village in central Jordan but now a jigsaw of broken houses, shattered roads and abandoned tomato fields growing wild amid the massive holes pocking the earth. To the east, the village gives way to desert fringed by stark, sere mountains. To the west, a few hundred yards away, lie the glimmering waters of theDead Sea.

“We’ve had about 75 holes open up in the last two years,” says Huweimel, a thickset man with a broad mouth and deep brown eyes who has lived all of his 45 years in the area. He works as a field researcher with Friends of the Earth-Middle East, an environmental organization. “Everyone is leaving,” he continues. “Those who stay are staying because they have no choice.”

The holes first started appearing in the 1980s, but the pace at which new ones open up has increased dramatically in recent years. Miraculously, no one has been killed by a cave-in yet, though there have been some close calls. A group of seven women — including Huweimel’s aunt — were harvesting tomatoes together one day when the ground collapsed with a roar just 2 meters in front of them. A small salt factory that employed about 100 people was evacuated before it collapsed.

The cause of all this destruction is water — or, rather, the lack of it. The ground is collapsing into sinkholes because the water beneath it is retreating. And the water is retreating because the Dead Sea, a storied feature of the landscape since at least biblical times, is drying up.”

Read more: Alternet

Crece Demanda De Agua En EAU Mientras Se Agota El Recurso

Last modified on 2010-08-26 22:10:43 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Los ingresos del petróleo de la nación del Golfo de Arabia le han permitido subsidiar su extravagante uso de agua, ya sea para aquellos que viven en barrios privados con inmaculadas piscinas y extensos campos de golf o para agricultores aferrados a antiguas prácticas de irrigación.

Ambientalistas advierten que el país, que ya depende de costosas plantas de desalinización que funcionan con sus lucrativos combustibles fósiles, debe reducir el consumo de sus 8,2 millones de habitantes o corre el riesgo de vaciar sus recursos de agua subterránea en 50 años.

“Necesitamos convencerlos de que el agua que hay aquí no es un recurso gratuito. Ni siquiera es un recurso natural, es artificial. Es costoso, y tiene un enorme impacto ambiental”, dijo Mohamed Daoud, de la Agencia Ambiental estatal en Abu Dhabi.

Pero eso no es tarea fácil en un país donde las marquesinas que alientan la conservación compiten por el espacio y la atención con las promociones de parques acuáticos, una montaña cubierta para hacer ski y una famosa fuente.

Abu Dhabi, la sede la federación de EAU de siete miembros y el más adinerado de sus emiratos, consume 550 litros de agua por persona al día, dijo Daoud, dos a tres veces el promedio mundial de entre 180 y 200 litros. Analistas dicen que el uso de agua per capita es aproximadamente cuatro veces mayor que el de Europa.

Para aliviar el uso de agua subterránea, aproximadamente un 60 por ciento del consumo en el desierto país, los EAU han invertido mucho en desalinización, produciendo nueve millones de metros cúbicos de agua a diario a un costo de 18 millones de dólares al día.

La dependencia de la desalinización es un lujo que sólo los países del Golfo ricos en petróleo pueden costear: requiere de enormes cantidades de combustible y agua de mar. Dubái es completamente dependiente, mientras que el uso de Abu Dhabi aumentó más del triple para el 2007, dijo la Sociedad de Vida Silvestre de los Emiratos.

“Los EAU eran exportadores de gas neto antes de; 2008, pero ahora se han convertido en importadores”, dijo Ayesha Sabavala, de la Unidad de Inteligencia Económica de Londres, citando el incremento en la desalinización y la producción de electricidad como causa principal.

DESPERDICIO DE ENERGIA

La desalinización funciona mayormente a gas y, en menos casos, a petróleo, recursos que en medio siglo transformaron a los EAU de un pequeño centro de buceo de perlas y pesca a un polo financiero.”

Leer mas: Terra

Libya’s Qaddafi Taps ‘fossil water’ To Irrigate Desert Farms

Last modified on 2010-08-24 18:47:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In the Middle East and North Africa, the quest to turn thousands of miles of desert into arable land has taken a backseat to containing an impending water shortage. While many countries in the region bicker over water rights, Libya has taken it upon itself to change its topography – turning sand into soil.

The Great Man-Made River, which is leader Muammar Qaddafi‘s ambitious answer to the country’s water problems, irrigates Libya’s large desert farms. The 2,333-mile network of pipes ferry water from four major underground aquifers in southern Libya to the northern population centers. Wells punctuate the water’s path, allowing farmers to utilize the water network in their fields.

The Libyan government says the 26-year project has cost $19.58 billion. Nearing completion, the Great Man-Made River is the largest irrigation project in the world and the government says it intends to use it to develop 160,000 hectares (395,000 acres) of farmland. It is also the cheapest available option to irrigate fields in the water-scarce country, which has an average annual rainfall of about one inch.”

Read more: The Christian Science Monitor

Pakistan Flooding Because of Farms?

Last modified on 2010-08-24 00:30:48 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The major river engineering is basically a Faustian bargain,” says Daanish Mustafa of King’s College London, recalling the fable in which a man sells his soul to the devil in exchange for a life of luxury. Mustafa is a geographer who has studied the history of Pakistan’s river management.

“Until a few decades ago, there were typically mild floods each summer–the time when the monsoon rainfall hits, and the melt from the snowpack in the Himalaya and Karakoram Mountains is at its peak.

“But now, because humans have sculpted the river and the surrounding natural floodplain and wetlands for farming and other needs, there are fewer floods, but when they hit, they are far worse, said Mustafa.

“There’s not very much space [in the river channel] to absorb all the rainfall,” says Asad Sarwar Qureshi, a water resources expert at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) branch in Lahore, Pakistan. “We need to get it back into shape, so that it can carry its original capacity.”

“Wetlands along the river’s course used to take up some floodwaters, and the government also used to divert excess water into “no man’s land” during the monsoon season, he says. But those areas have been converted to farmland, he says . . .

“Allowing the river to flood more regularly, and naturally, could help temper the floods and make them more tolerable, say Mustafa and other experts . . .

“Managing Pakistan’s floods is a delicate balance between giving the river more room, and building barriers to protect people and their land.”

read more: National Geographic

Pakistan floods leave millions stranded with no food or water

Last modified on 2010-08-17 01:03:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Pakistan authorities forecast on Monday a brief respite in rains that sparked the country’s
worst floods in decades, but aid agencies warned help was too slow to arrive for millions without clean water, food and homes.

“Water levels in the Indus River feeding Pakistan’s plains have fallen in Punjab, the country’s most populous and worst hit province, although flooding would stay high where
embankments were breached. In Sindh province, flooding could get worse.

“The speed with which the situation is deteriorating is frightening,” said Neva Khan, Oxfam’s country director in Pakistan.

“Communities desperately need clean water, latrines and hygiene supplies, but the resources currently available cover only a fraction of what is required.”

read more: Haaretz.com

Biggest relocation in China since Three Gorges

Last modified on 2010-08-14 01:59:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China’s growing thirst for water is driving one of the world’s biggest mass relocations, with 440,000 people leaving their homes to make way for a huge man-made canal project to channel water to drought-prone Beijing.

“An advance party of 499 villagers were moved yesterday from their homes near Wuhan in Hubei province, China’s heartland, in preparation for one of the biggest irrigation schemes in history.

“By the end of September, 60,000 people will have left the area. The remainder will be relocated by 2014, giving up their homes to make way for the South-North Water Diversion Project (SNWD) which will divert water from China’s largest river, the Yangtze.”

Read more: The Independent

City may get 3 desalination plants to solve water woes

Last modified on 2010-08-10 02:47:12 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The city and suburbs might get three desalination plants if the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has its way. There are plans afoot for a plant each at Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar and in the city.

“MMRDA commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said they are aiming for 500 million litres a day and detailed project reports would be ready in a few months. The state government started pushing the desalination plant idea after plans for one were announced in Chennai. There, the plant is expected to help the city tide over a water shortage, which assumes serious proportions every year.”

Read more: The Times of India

In Pakistan, Water Everywhere–and Not a Drop to Drink

Last modified on 2010-08-10 02:37:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“”I was offered a glass of the brown river water yesterday,” says Lisa Beyl, a Catholic Relief Services program manager in flood-stricken northern Pakistan. “It literally looks like mud. It is the dirtiest water I have ever seen in my life. I can’t believe that people are drinking it, but they are, out of necessity.”

“As rains continue to pour down on the flooded country, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have been left homeless. Worse, they have no access to drinkable water.

“”We have to drink water from the river but it is so dirty. But we have no other options because the floodwaters damaged our water source and washed away our pipes,” says a man in the northern town of Besham whose home and land were swept away. “My family is getting sick. Today, I took my 15-month-old son to the hospital because he has diarrhea and a high fever. If the water problem is not solved, I do not know what I will do.”"

Read more: The Huffington Post

Clean water bottle wins UK leg of James Dyson Award

Last modified on 2010-08-09 04:08:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The water bottle contains two chambers. Dirty water is put in an outer chamber and the inner chamber is plunged through it, filtering water particles as small as four microns.

“Once filtered, the water is sterilised by a wind-up ultraviolet bulb in a process lasting 90 seconds.

“A prototype was effective in killing 99.9% of bacteria and viruses.

“Professor Matthew Harrison, who is one of the judges and also director of education programmes at the Royal Academy of Engineering, commented: “Pure provides a practical solution to a real problem – how to get clean drinking water in the most hostile of conditions.

“It has the potential to make a real difference to people’s lives.”

read more: BBC

Palestinians Denied Access to Water

Last modified on 2010-08-08 22:45:07 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“According to OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), Palestinians face a serious water crisis, being denied access to their own resources.

“Cara Flowers with the Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Group (EWASH – a coalition of almost 30 water and sanitation sector organizations in Occupied Palestine) said many vulnerable communities in Israeli-controlled Area C (covering 60% of the West Bank) are hardest hit, the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) having limited say over its own resources, ones Israel uses itself, an international water expert saying:

“It’s “easy (making) the desert bloom by using someone else’s water (and) denying them access to their fair share….” In some areas, it’s easier denying them none except what they can obtain by other means or illegally.

“In 2009, Amnesty International (AI) addressed the problem in its report titled, “Troubled Waters – Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water,” explaining that water is life, stealing it a crime, without it “we can’t live; not us, not the animals, or the plants,” said Fatima al-Nawajah, a South Hebron Hills area resident.

“Throughout the Occupied Territories, the problem is longstanding, exacerbated by Israeli water policies, denying Palestinians for themselves, preventing their right to their own resources.

“”The inequality in access….between Israelis and Palestinians is striking,” especially in summer when needs are greatest. Palestinians consume about 70 liters per capita a day (the lowest amount in the region), well below the WHO-recommended 100 liter minimum, and in some rural areas much less, as little as 20 liters.

“In contrast, Israelis use about 300 liters, denying Palestinians an equitable share, including from the underground Mountain Aquifer and Jordan River surface water, reserved solely for Jews.”

Read More: Atlantic Free Press

Trash Threatens To Block Three Gorges Gates In China

Last modified on 2010-08-04 01:56:31 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“BEIJING — Intense flooding has swept thick layers of garbage down the Yangtze River that are threatening to block the gates of the Three Gorges Dam, state media reported Monday.

“The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the miter gate of the Three Gorges Dam,” dam official Chen Lei told the official China Daily in an interview, referring to the dam’s huge shipping locks.

“Chen said heavy downpours have pushed unusually large amounts of garbage downstream, including tree branches, plastic bottles and other domestic waste. Nearly 3,000 tons (6 million pounds) of garbage are collected from the dam daily, but there is not enough manpower and equipment to clear it all, he said.

“A layer of garbage about 60 centimeters deep (nearly 2 feet) covering an area of more than 50,000 square meters (about a half million square feet) began to form in front of the dam when the rainy season began in early July, the China Daily reported, citing the Hubei Daily newspaper. In some areas, the trash is so thick that people can walk on it, it said.”

read more: Huffington Post

Environmentalists say pollution makes baptism at sacred spot in Jordan River unsafe

Last modified on 2010-08-01 21:05:09 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Environmentalists claim that the hallowed spot along the Jordan River where Christians believe John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ has become too filthy for human use.

Death toll rises in Pakistan floods

Last modified on 2010-08-01 19:30:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The death toll from Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory has exceeded 1,100 and rescue workers are struggling to save more than 27,000 people trapped.

“Officials on Sunday said that more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the floods, as bloated rivers washed away villages and triggered devastating landslides throughout the northwest of the country.

“They warned the death toll could go even higher as rescuers have been unable to access certain areas.

“Aerial monitoring is being conducted, and it has shown that whole villages have washed away, animals have drowned and grain storages have washed away,” Latifur Rehman, a spokesman for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said.

“The destruction is massive.”

read more: Al Jazerra

3,000 chemical barrels washed into Chinese river

Last modified on 2010-07-29 21:18:44 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water supplies were cut for a time to part of the north-eastern Chinese city of Jilin, after a flood washed thousands of barrels of a dangerous chemical from a factory into the area’s main river, state media said today.

“A “small quantity” of two pollutants produced by the plant were found in the Songhua river, and a reporter smelt a strange odour as he watched dozens of the metal containers float through downtown Jilin, the official Xinhua agency said.

“It was not clear how well the barrels were sealed. But the environmental protection ministry said yesterday that tests showed nothing abnormal about the water quality. It would monitor the river closely, it said.

“The latest spill was triggered when flood waters rushed through a chemical plant yesterday morning, carrying off barrels, including some of trimethyl chloro silicane, a colourless, flammable liquid with a pungent smell, Xinhua said.

“Around 3,000 barrels contained 170kg (375lb) of chemicals, and another 4,000 were empty, Xinhua said, citing a government official speaking at a news conference in Jilin. That suggested as much as 500 tonnes could potentially contaminate the river.”

Read more: The Guardian

Pollution makes quarter of China water unusable: ministry

Last modified on 2010-07-28 14:11:27 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Almost a quarter of China’s surface water remains so polluted that it is unfit even for industrial use, while less than half of total supplies are drinkable, data from the environment watchdog showed on Monday.

“Inspectors from China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection tested water samples from the country’s major rivers and lakes in the first half of the year and declared just 49.3 percent to be safe for drinking, up from 48 percent last year, the ministry said in a notice posted on its website (www.mep.gov.cn).

“China classifies its water supplies using six grades, with the first three grades considered safe for drinking and bathing.

“Another 26.4 percent was said to be categories IV and V — fit only for use in industry and agriculture — leaving a total of 24.3 percent in category VI and unfit for any purpose.”

read more: Reuters

Flooding tests China giant dam

Last modified on 2010-07-25 03:18:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China’s most severe floods in a decade are threatening to get worse as the landmark Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river is close to overflowing, with its reservoir almost full.

The water level reached 158 metres on Saturday morning, just 17 metres from the reservoir’s maximum capacity, flood control headquarters in the central province of Hubei told The Associated Press.

Two typhoons – Conson and Chantu – and weeks of heavy rain have caused widespread flooding across several of China’s southern provinces, affecting 110 million people.

Weather conditions are likely to worsen further with China’s national weather centre issuing a warning on Saturday of more torrential rains for the region.

The floods have left 273 dead and 218 missing since July 1, Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan, reporting down river from the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province, said. The direct economic losses are estimated to be around $20bn, she said.”

Read More: Aljazeera

Ask The U.S. Ambassador to Support the Human Right to Water

Last modified on 2010-07-22 17:26:41 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“For the first time since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted 60 years ago, the UN General Assembly is finally poised to recognize the Human Right to Water and Sanitation. Billions of people are suffering because the world is not focused on providing water and sanitation for all. A strong UN General Assembly resolution will signal that water and sanitation is a key priority for the international community.”

Take action by signing the UN General Assembly resolution recognizing the Human Right to Water and Sanitation at: Food and Water Watch

Water Dispute Increases India-Pakistan Tension

Last modified on 2010-07-21 15:32:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“BANDIPORE, Kashmir — In this high Himalayan valley on the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir, the latest battle line between Indiaand Pakistan has been drawn.

“This time it is not the ground underfoot, which has been disputed since the bloody partition of British India in 1947, but the water hurtling from mountain glaciers to parched farmers’ fields in Pakistan’s agricultural heartland.

“Indian workers here are racing to build an expensive hydroelectric dam in a remote valley near here, one of several India plans to build over the next decade to feed its rapidly growing but power-starved economy.

“In Pakistan, the project raises fears that India, its archrival and the upriver nation, would have the power to manipulate the water flowing to its agriculture industry — a quarter of its economy and employer of half its population. In May it filed a case with the international arbitration court to stop it.

“Water has become a growing source of tension in many parts of the world between nations striving for growth. Several African countries are arguing over water rights to the Nile. Israel and Jordan have competing claims to the Jordan River. Across the Himalayas, China’s own dam projects have piqued India, a rival for regional, and even global, power.”

read more: NY Times

Metro water woes traced to dry Angat

Last modified on 2010-07-19 01:34:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“If only rains pour in Bulacan instead of Metro Manila.

“Water concessionaires Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. are facing dwindling shares of water from Angat Dam, which is hardly getting enough replenishment from the recent rains after a long dry spell.

“Maynilad has resorted to water rationing. Water disruptions in its network started on July 16 and were expected to continue till July 23.

“Manila Water said there was no reduction yet on the supply and pressure in the Ayala-led company’s area.

“Angat Dam, which supplies more than 90 percent of Metro Manila’s domestic water supply, had an elevation of 157.59 meters as of 4 p.m. on Sunday, way below the critical level of 180 meters and lower than the dam’s lowest level of 158.15 meters in September in 1998, an El Niño year.”

Read more: The Inquirer

Rains continue in flood-hit China

Last modified on 2010-07-14 16:46:21 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The official Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday that the floods have forced the evaculation of more than 10,000 people.

“It also said that four landslides triggered by heavy rains left 37 people dead earlier this week.

“The landslides swept through villages in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan and in the central province of Hunan.

“Since the beginning of July, flooding across China resulted in nearly a million people evacuated from their homes, according to Xinhua.

“Parts of China experience annual flooding but this year’s rains have been especially devastating.”

read more: Al Jazeera

Alaska Company Plans to Ship Small Town’s Extra Water to India

Last modified on 2010-07-14 03:37:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Dammed if they do: China’s hydropower plans are a test of its avowed good neighbourliness

Last modified on 2010-07-14 02:15:20 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“To the engineers who dominate China’s leadership, the rivers’ wildness must seem an impertinence. On the Mekong alone China has planned or built eight dams. In Xishuangbanna the new Jinghong dam has just started operating. Further up, Xiaowan dam will be finished by 2013. It will be the highest arch dam in the world, and China’s biggest hydropower project after the Three Gorges on the middle Yangzi. The reservoir behind it is already filling up.

“In general, scrutiny of China’s water projects is scant, and the government is in a hurry. It wants to add electricity-generating capacity, lest China’s breakneck growth be impeded. Giant hydropower companies, with impeccable political connections, add their own layer of secrecy. Risks attend those who question the lack of transparency. Perhaps 500,000 locals, mainly ethnic minorities, are being displaced and forcibly resettled. Those who protest are threatened with less compensation, if not jail.

“The Chinese press steers clear of dams with a barge-pole. Academics and NGO representatives who oppose the dam-building on social or environmental grounds do not want their names published. In private even academics in favour of hydropower development complain that nearly all relevant information, even the amount of rain that reaches them, is treated as a state secret. (Though, they add, at China’s meteorological and rivers bureaus, even state secrets can be imparted if the price is right.)”

“Until recently China was no less communicative towards downstream neighbours, who have seen a sharp drop in Mekong levels in recent years. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam complain that China neither consults nor informs them about what it is up to. For all that it preaches harmony and good neighbourliness, China comes across as a regional bully, with its foot on the Mekong’s throat. The Mekong basin is the greatest inland fishing region in the world. Distraught Thai, Laotian and Cambodian fisherman and farmers blame Chinese dams for killing off fish stocks, cutting irrigation and disrupting livelihoods. Recently a Bangkok Post editorial accused China of “Killing the Mekong”.

read more: The Economist

Everything You Need to Know About Groundwater

Last modified on 2010-07-13 15:22:56 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Groundwater is fresh water located underground in porous soil or fractures in rock formations. Collections of groundwater are called aquifers, and we draw from aquifers for drinking water and water for use in everything form irrigation to agriculture to manufacturing.

“Groundwater pumping is when we pull water from the aquifer for our own use. When we pull more water than is naturally replenished, this is called groundwater mining because we have to drill deeper and deeper into the earth to get at the remaining water.

“Groundwater is a very important source of water for civilizations worldwide, making up about 20% of the world’s fresh water supply. Many cities have gotten used to mining groundwater to sustain its residents. However, as we overuse the resource, pull water faster than aquifers can naturally refill, and continue to pollute groundwater supplies, we’re beginning to face a whole new set of serious problems with this vital resource.

“The more we pump from aquifers, the farther the available water is from the surface of the earth. That means more energy has to go in to mining the water, and the costs begin to outweigh benefits, and our capabilities. When aquifers are mismanaged and too much water is extracted, it can mean the aquifer is no longer a viable source of water and a new source needs to be found. Depending on the available options, it can mean anything from a city moving to energy intensive and environmentally problematic solutions, such as desalination plants, to the community being unable to survive.”

read more: AlterNet

World Rivers Review: Focus on Dam Standards

Last modified on 2010-07-10 03:50:01 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Since the World Commission on Dams (WCD) issued its groundbreaking report in 2000, governments, institutions and civil society around the world have taken up the challenge of adapting its recommendations to their local context. This issue on dam standards examines where these efforts have been successful, and where more work needs to be done. As our senior policy analyst, Shannon Lawrence, notes in the commentary, “We know how to do it: the WCD framework provides the road map. What we’re lacking are the political will and the long-term vision to make it happen.”Read the full commentary on what the road towards better dams, healthier environments, and stronger communities looks like.

This special issue also looks at China’s budding efforts to adhere to standards, the dam industry’s proposed scorecard system for rating dams, and specific cases where the WCD recommendations are being put into practice.

Read More:  International Rivers

Protecting Rivers and Rights: The World Commission on Dams Recommendations in Action

Last modified on 2010-07-02 15:40:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The most comprehensive guidelines for large dams that protect the rights of river-dependent communities were outlined by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) in 2000.

“Ten years later, International Rivers is happy to announce a new briefing kit for activists and allies, “Protecting Rivers and Rights: The World Commission on Dams Recommendations in Action,” as part of our WCD+10 activities to move the dams debate forward. The purpose of this publication is to provide activists with concrete examples of where and how the WCD principles have been (or in some cases, failed to be) applied.

• Download the briefing kit (ENG)
  

“The briefing kit explores six broad principles covered by the WCD, which encompass basic values of human rights and sustainable development that are essential to minimizing the negative impacts of large dams on people and the planet.”

read more: International Rivers

Report from South Asia: Is Universal WASH Access in Reach?

Last modified on 2010-07-01 15:32:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Five to ten years ago many villagers did not have safe drinking water or a sanitary latrine — the situation on the ground has improved. In Bangladesh, deaths caused by diarrhea have decreased significantly in the past several years.

“Many folks I spoke with attribute the substantial drop in death rates to the increase in the amount of safe drinking water. In most villages I visited families had their own tube well, though some did share a well with a few other families. Before this rapid expansion of a water source close to the home, many families collected water from the ubiquitous unprotected ponds of Bangladesh and West Bengal. According to Water For People country coordinator Rajashi Mukherjee, “The ponds are absolute death traps; hygiene is the last thing you can associate with them.” Fortunately, with the proliferation of tube wells, most people can now avoid collecting water from unsanitary ponds.

“One of the unfortunate and unforeseen side effects of the installation of the millions of tube wells is that a fair proportion of the wells are infected with naturally-occurring arsenic. Many programs have emerged to test and mark the wells, but large-scale solutions to rectify the problem are not yet in place. I did see several arsenic removal technologies of varying cost, but the very expensive options would be hard to bring to scale without large donor support. There were also other less expensive arsenic removal technologies that are still being tested that might hold promise in the future.”

read more: Huffington Post

Report lists top ten countries at risk of water shortages

Last modified on 2010-06-29 15:18:34 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“Depleting water supplies are increasing the risk of both internal and cross-border conflict as competition between industry, agriculture and consumers increases, according to an assessment of world most vulnerable countries.

“The report from the analysts at Maplecroft, says that the ten countries most at risk are: Somalia (1), Mauritania (2), Sudan (3), Niger (4), Iraq (5), Uzbekistan (6), Pakistan (7), Egypt (8), Turkmenistan (9) and Syria (10).
“The ranking was based on an assessment of access to water, water demands and the reliance on external supplies with countries like Mauritania and Niger more than 90 per cent reliant on external water supplies.

“In addition to natural depletion, the report also pointed out the increasing scarcity of water resources due to pollution. The Yellow River Conservancy Committee estimates 34 per cent of the river is unfit for drinking, aquaculture, and agriculture. An estimated 30 per cent of the tributaries of Yangtze River are extremely polluted and in India, 50 per cent of the Yamuna River, the main tributary of the Ganges is extremely polluted.”

read more: TheEcologist

Arsenic water killing 1 in 5 exposed in Bangladesh

Last modified on 2010-06-27 17:59:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Hanufa Bibi stoops in a worn sari and mismatched flip-flops to work the hand pump on her backyard well. Spurts of clear water wash grains of rice from her hands, but she can never get them clean.

“Thick black warts tattoo her palms and fingers, the result of drinking arsenic-laced well water for years. It’s a legacy that new research has linked to one in five deaths among those exposed in Bangladesh — an impoverished country where up to half of its 150 million people have guzzled tainted groundwater.

“The World Health Organization has called it “the largest mass poisoning of a population in history,” as countless new wells continue to be dug here daily without testing the water for toxins.

“The magnitude of the arsenic problem is 50 times worse than Chernobyl,” said Richard Wilson, president of the nonprofit Arsenic Foundation and a physics professor emeritus at Harvard University who was not involved in the study. “But it doesn’t have 50 times the attention paid to it.”

“The issue surfaced about two decades ago, after some 10 million shallow hand-pump wells like Bibi’s were sunk across the country in the 1970s with money from international donors.

“The wells were meant to provide clean drinking water to help prevent deadly waterborne diseases, such as cholera. But they unintentionally tapped into arsenic deposits in the ground, releasing the odorless, colorless and tasteless toxin into water used for drinking and cooking. Arsenic has been linked to cancers, liver ailments, skin diseases, heart problems and other health issues.”

Special Report- All The Facts Behind The World’s Water Crisis

Last modified on 2010-06-28 19:16:26 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“1. By 2025, more than 2.8 billion people will live in 48 countries facing water stress or water scarcity, a recently revised United Nations medium population projected. Of these 48 countries, 40 are either in the Near East and North Africa or in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the next two decades population increase alone—not to mention growing demand per capita—is projected to push all of the Near East into water scarcity. By 2050 the number of countries facing water stress or scarcity will rise to 54, and their combined population to 4 billion people—40% of the projected global population of 9.4 billion

“2. The 20 countries of the Near East and North Africa face the worst prospects. The Near East is the most water-short region in the world. In fact, the entire Near East “ran out of water” in 1972, when the region’s total population was 122 million, according to Tony Allan, a University of London expert on water resources. Since then, the region has withdrawn more water from its rivers and aquifers every year than is being replenished. Currently, for example, Jordan and Yemen withdraw 30% more water from groundwater aquifers every year than is replenished. Also, Israel’s annual water use already exceeds its renewable supply by 15%.

“3. Saudi Arabia presents one of the worst cases of unsustainable water use in the world. This extremely arid country now must mine fossil groundwater for three-quarters of its water needs. Fossil groundwater depletion in Saudi Arabia has been averaging around 5.2 billion cubic meters a year

“4. Of 14 countries in the Near East, 11 are already facing water scarcity. In five of these countries the populations are projected to double within the next two decades. Water is one of the major political issues confronting the region’s leaders. Since virtually all rivers in the Near East are shared by several nations, current tensions over water rights could escalate into outright conflicts, driven by population growth and rising demand for an increasingly scarce resource.

“5. In many countries, the water problem is the primary reason people are unable to rise out of poverty. Women and children bear the burdens disproportionately, often spending six hours or more each day fetching water for their families and communities.

“6. 1.1 billion people in the world…

100…”

read more: BeforeItsNews.com

Chlorine’s importance in water treatment set to grow

Last modified on 2010-06-24 14:55:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“AS THE world becomes more populous, water is becoming more scarce. There is strong growth potential for all types of water treatment technologies, but some could do better as countries bid to quench their thirst in a cheap and environmentally friendly way.

“The UN’s estimates (see map below, which shows projected global water withdrawal as a percentage of total water available) are based on its medium-population projections made in 1998. According to these, more than 2.8bn people in 48 countries will face water stress, or scarce conditions, by 2025. Of these, 40 are in West Asia (also known as the Middle East), North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa.

“Over the next two decades, population increases and growing demands are projected to push all the West Asian countries into water scarcity conditions.

“By 2050, the number of countries facing water stress or scarcity could rise to 54, with a combined population of 4bn – about 40% of the projected global population of 9.4bn. It is striking to note that even some developed nations, such as the US and many European countries will see more serious water scarcity by 2025. This could be one reason that some are already calling water the “new oil.”

“In order to arrive at the different qualities of water required for its various applications, and for the world to meet its goals, it must be treated. There are several different ways to do this, which are either combined or taken in isolation, according to each instance. Essentially, the aim is to remove, or in some cases reduce, the contaminants present in the water to bring it to an acceptable level for its required end use.”

read more: icis.com

The Burmese villagers who face a flood of discontent and displacement

Last modified on 2010-06-23 00:33:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In northern Burma up to 15,000 subsistence farmers and fishermen will be displaced from their homes when the Myitsone Dam, being built by China to provide electricity to China, is flooded. A special correspondent reports from a village that is to be wiped out

“IN A REMOTE part of Kachin state in northern Burma, or Myanmar, lies the village of Tang Hpre, one of a series of villages that will be underwater in a few years’ time. Nestled between the mountainous Chinese border and the banks of the mighty Irrawaddy River, it is home to

“Fr Jing Paw and his congregation of ethnic Kachin hill people. His redbrick church, built by Irish missionaries in 1952, towers above the shallow banks of the Irrawaddy, a stone monument in a jungle of the wicker-walled thatched houses that radiate from the church compound.

“The nearest big town, Myitkyina, is 45km away, almost two hours via dust roads with sharp bends cut into thick jungle.

“As Fr Jing Paw watches the heavy rain clouds of the wet season gather over hills across the river, he describes the Kachin people’s history, disturbed only by the distant laughter of children. Tang Hpre is a unique village, as the centre for the Roman Catholic mission to the isolated Kachin tribes, and also lying beside the confluence of the N’Mai and Mali – the “brother” and “sister” rivers that are the birthplace of the Irrawaddy. But Tang Hpre is disappearing. Families are being moved to a new settlement that has been built downstream, and in a few years the church, its boarding houses, school and village will be flooded in the name of progress.

“Life is becoming more difficult, in little ways, Fr Jing Paw confides. Do they plant crops for the coming season? Do they build that new school? There is a lot of confusion here, about relocation plans, and also information, compensation and rights. There is fear, too: fear of resisting, of trucks coming in the middle of the night, of labour camps, of speaking out, of the future, of how will they survive in the resettlements, of where they will find food, of how they will earn money. “Our people have been here for years,” explains the elderly Kachin priest. “These are our farms, our mountains. Here we know how to survive, but what will we do in a new place?”

read more: IrishTimes

Afghanistan’s Kabul Basin Faces Dry and Thirsty Future

Last modified on 2010-06-22 14:20:09 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In Afghanistan’s Kabul Basin, at least half the shallow drinking water wells supplied by groundwater are likely to become dry or inoperative within 50 years as a result of climate change, according to new research by U.S. and Afghan scientists.

“A combination of higher temperatures due to global warming and the increasing demands of a larger population is predicted to stress the basin’s water.

“These are the findings of a new study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the Afghanistan Geological Survey, a division of the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines, and the Afghanistan Ministry of Energy and Water.

“Training with USGS scientists has helped our engineers to modernize their skills and improve their capabilities,” said Afghanistan Geological Survey Director Mohammed Omar. “Our engineers are using these improvements as they monitor groundwater levels and water quality in the Kabul Basin.”

read more: Environment News Service

China flood chaos persists

Last modified on 2010-06-22 13:36:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Torrential rains that hit southern China more than a week ago have triggered destructive floods and landslides that have killed at least 175 people.

“An estimated 10 million people have been affected by the disaster that has devastated the region and forced the evacuation of more than a million residents.

“Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett reports from the southern Chinese province of Fujian on how people are struggling to get basic aid and relief after rains destroyed key roads and bridges.”

retrieved from: Al Jazeera

The Forgotten Downstream Victims of Large Dams

Last modified on 2010-06-19 15:05:49 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“An estimated 472 million people have likely been negatively impacted by the downstream impacts of large dams. This is the main finding of a scientific study which was just published by a group of eminent global freshwater experts. The study documents the impacts which dams have had on some of the world’s most productive ecosystems, and recommend measures which can prevent the further loss of floodplains that sustain unique ecosystems and millions of people.

“In the 1970s, Kharochan was a bustling town in Pakistan’s Indus Delta. The local farmers grew rice, peas, coconuts, mango and guava on their rich soils. From the nearby harbor Sokhi Bandar — the “Port of the Prosperous” — traders exported silk, rice and wood. When I visited in 2006, no traces of prosperity were left in Kharochan. The port had been swallowed by the sea, and the groundwater had become saline in large parts of the delta. A white crust of salt covered the earth, and turned Kharochan’s fertile fields into parched land. More than half the region’s population lived below the poverty line, and thousands had left their homes for the sprawling city of Karachi.

“The Indus Delta has not been struck by a natural disaster. Its plight is human-made. The Indus — the world’s tenth-largest river in terms of the water it carries — has been plugged by 19 dams and is being sucked dry by 43 large canals. The Indus no longer reaches the sea in most years, and its sediments no longer replenish the delta. As a consequence, Pakistani experts told me, 8,800 square kilometers of agricultural land have been lost to the sea since dam building began.”

read more: Huffington Post

Sustainable wastewater treatment plant planned in Netherlands

Last modified on 2010-06-19 03:28:51 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“EPE, Netherlands, June 18, 2010 — Water Board Veluwe and engineering consultancy DHV have signed a Design & Build contract with a value of approximately 15 million euro for the replacement of the existing wastewater treatment plant at Epe with a new plant utilizing DHV’s Nereda® technology.

“Water Board Veluwe is the first water management authority to make full use of the highly innovative and sustainable Nereda® technology.

“The new treatment plant will be exceptionally sustainable and cost-effective. DHV intends to replace the existing system with a Nereda® plant, which will treat all wastewater produced in and around the town of Epe (in the east of the Netherlands). This will result in a doubling of the plant’s treatment capacity without increasing its footprint. The new plant will be taken into operation in mid-2011.

“The planned construction of the Nereda® plant in Epe is considered being a milestone in wastewater treatment. International interest in the technology is on the rise, with many experts viewing Nereda® as a major breakthrough in wastewater treatment. The technology is suitable for newly build as well as retrofit projects and for both domestic and industrial wastewater treatment systems; it achieved several national and international awards.”

read more: Water World

Thirsty Pakistan gasps for water solutions

Last modified on 2010-06-18 15:44:17 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Pakistan is facing a “raging“ water crisis that if managed poorly could mean Pakistan would run out of water in several decades, experts say, leading to mass starvation and possibly war.

“The reliance on a single river basin, one of the most inefficient agricultural systems in world, climate change and a lack of a coherent water policy means that as Pakistan’s population expands, its ability to feed it is shrinking.

“Pakistan faces a raging water crisis,” said Michael Kugelman, program associate for South and Southeast Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

“It has some of the lowest per capita water availability in Asia, and in the world as a whole.”

read more: Reuters

“Venice of Asia” Canals Disappearing

Last modified on 2010-06-15 18:48:40 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“You take a look at my flowers,” said a middle-aged Kashmiri man, pointing to the bright bouquets of gladiolas, carnations, and lilacs bursting from their clay pots on his shikara, a type of small boat. “My name is Marvelous.”

“He  was called Mr. Marvelous by his father, who was also a flower seller on Nigeen Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir (see map). Known for its many waterways, the region is often called the “Venice of Asia” and is home to a vibrant tourism-oriented community that lives on the lakes, many of them in houseboats. In 1958, two National Geographic magazine journalists, Brian Brake and Nigel Cameron, visited the fabled houseboats moored along the lake, where they met Mr. Marvelous—then a four-year-old clutching a marigold—and his father.

“At the time, the rugged disputed territory between India and Pakistan was just over a decade into its independence from Britain. “Business was good in those days,” Mr. Marvelous recalls. But between 1989 and 2002, bloody conflict over Kashmir’s status brought the steady stream of lake tourists to a standstill.

“Now, just as some tourists are trickling back to the region’s lakes, there’s a new enemy to contend with: Water pollution. Poor sanitation systems, shortsighted city planning, and the encroachment of thousands of people like Mr. Marvelous—who have literally turned the lake into land for their gardens and homes—are destroying the region’s waters, according to scientist Majeed Kak, of Srinagar’sIslamic University of Science and Technology.

“Dal Lake, for instance, has shrunk to less than half its original size in just 30 years, Kak said.

(Related: “‘Goddess’ Glacier Melting in War-Torn Kashmir.“)

“Kak has been studying the water chemistry of the two major lakes, Dal and Nigeen, over the past three decades. He says that if steps are not taken to curb the pollution, the lakes will literally shrivel up and disappear.”

read more: National Geographic

Vital River Is Withering, and Iraq Has No Answer

Last modified on 2010-06-14 15:28:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Shatt al-Arab, the river that flows from the biblical site of the Garden of Eden to the Persian Gulf, has turned into an environmental and economic disaster that Iraq’s newly democratic government is almost powerless to fix.

“Withered by decades of dictatorial mismanagement and then neglect, by drought and the thirst of Iraq’s neighbours, the river formed by the convergence of the Tigris and the Euphrates no longer has the strength to keep the sea at bay.

“Last year, for the first time in memory, saltwater extended beyond Basra, Iraq’s biggest port city, and even Qurna, where the two rivers meet. It has ravaged freshwater fisheries, livestock, crops and groves of date palms that once made the area famous, forcing the migration of tens of thousands of farmers.”

read more: New York Times

Tibet’s watershed challenge

Last modified on 2010-06-14 15:06:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“While Tibet raises a number of controversial questions, one dimension will assume increasing political significance: its water resources. The Tibetan Plateau, known to many as the “Third Pole,” is an enormous storehouse of freshwater, believed by some to be the world’s largest. It is the headwaters of many of Asia’s mighty rivers, including the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej. These vast water resources are of course vulnerable to environmental challenges, including climate change, but they are subject to an array of political issues as well.

“Should China be the lone stakeholder to the fate of the waters in Tibet? What happens in the downstream nations that depend heavily on these rivers? China has exploited all but two rivers from the Tibetan Plateau; an exception is the Nujiang River, which flows through Yunnan province and enters Burma, where it is known as the Salween. China’s north-south diversion plans on the Yarlung Zangbo (known in India as Brahamaputra), the other untouched river, are bound to worry India, a downstream state.

“China’s rise in recent years has been displayed in military capability, economic pace and, now, water diversions. By 2030, China is expected to fall short of its water demands by 25 percent. Its increasingly aggressive hydrobehavior is intended to secure its massive water requirements in its northern and western regions. But control over such a valuable natural resource gives Beijing enormous strategic latitude with its neighbors; when one of those countries is a rival, such as India, it becomes an effective bargaining tool and potential weapon.”

read more: Washington Post

Water Pressure

Last modified on 2010-06-14 01:57:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Among the environmental specters confronting humanity in the 21st century—global warming, the destruction of rain forests, overfishing of the oceans—a shortage of fresh water is at the top of the list, particularly in the developing world. Hardly a month passes without a new study making another alarming prediction, further deepening concern over what a World Bank expert calls the “grim arithmetic of water.” Recently the United Nations said that 2.7 billion people would face severe water shortages by 2025 if consumption continues at current rates. Fears about a parched future arise from a projected growth of world population from more than six billion today to an estimated nine billion in 2050. Yet the amount of fresh water on Earth is not increasing. Nearly 97 percent of the planet’s water is salt water in seas and oceans. Close to 2 percent of Earth’s water is frozen in polar ice sheets and glaciers, and a fraction of one percent is available for drinking, irrigation, and industrial use.”

“Gloomy water news, however, is not just a thing of the future: Today an estimated 1.2 billion people drink unclean water, and about 2.5 billion lack proper toilets or sewerage systems. More than five million people die each year from water-related diseases such as cholera and dysentery. All over the globe farmers and municipalities are pumping water out of the ground faster than it can be replenished.”

“Still, as I discovered on a two-month trip to Africa, India, and Spain, a host of individuals, organizations, and businesses are working to solve water’s dismal arithmetic. Some are reviving ancient techniques such as rainwater harvesting, and others are using 21st-century technology. But all have two things in common: a desire to obtain maximum efficiency from every drop of water and a belief in using local solutions and free market incentives in their conservation campaigns.”

Read More: National Geographic

Jats cut water supply from Ganga canal to Delhi

Last modified on 2010-06-14 01:31:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Protesting the denial of reservations in recruitment for central services, members of the Jat community Sunday stopped the water supply to Delhi from the Upper Ganga canal. The Delhi government said talks were on to resolve the issue and there was no need to panic.

“Angered over not being granted reservation in central services, the community leaders decided to stopwater supply to Delhi from the Upper Ganga canal in Muradnagar town of Ghaziabad,” said Satya Pal Chaudhary, one of the 10,000-strong crowd of volunteers.

“The Upper Ganga Canal is one of the sources for water for Delhi, which also draws on the Yamuna river, the Bhakra Nangal dam on the Sutlej river in Himachal Pradesh (through the West Yamuna canal) and underground reservoirs and wells.

“Earlier, leaders of the Jat Arakshhan Sangharsh Samiti (Reservation Struggle Committee) organised a public meeting at Muradnagar in which a resolution was presented to stop the water supplies.

“After it was passed, the leaders proceeded towards the treatment plant at Abupur and downed the shutters from where the water was being sent to the treatment plant prior to being pumped to Sonia Vihar in Delhi.”

read more: IBNLive

China hit by heavy flooding

Last modified on 2010-06-13 15:25:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“At least 155 people have died in seasonal flooding in China that has also forced more than one million to flee, government officials say.

“Large stretches of the country’s southeast have been hit especially hard, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on Saturday.

“About 140,000 homes have collapsed, many of them in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, and more than 1.3 million people have been moved to temporary shelter.

“Virtually all of the country’s major rivers are swollen, while water levels in lakes along the Yangtze river are higher than in 1998, when flooding killed about 4,000 people.”

read more: Al Jazeera

Baghdad Urged to Tackle Water Crisis

Last modified on 2010-06-11 16:05:11 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Iraqis are calling on their incoming government to devote more energy to resolving the country’s chronic water problems, with some experts stating that water will be more important than oil in the long-term development of the country.

“Even as recent rains have brought some relief to drought-stricken Iraq, the historic problem of water scarcity has forced tens of thousands of rural Iraqis from their homes.

“The government estimates that nearly two million people face severe drinking water shortages and extremely limited electricity due to hydropower shortage.

“Meanwhile, diplomatic tensions are running high as promises from upriver counties such as Turkey, Syria and Iran to allow more water into Iraq appear not to have been met.

“This week, Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zebari denounced a plan by Syria to divert water from the Tigris River to irrigate some 200,000 acres of land as detrimental to Iraq’s future water supply.

“A UNESCO report found that 100,000 Iraqis have fled their native communities since 2005 due to water shortages.

“Another United Nations report claims the water levels in the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, Iraq’s primary sources of water, have fallen by more than two-thirds. The report cautioned that the vital lifelines could completely dry up by 2040.

“At the current rates, Iraq’s water supply will fall an estimated 43 billion cubic metres by 2015, far short of the 77 cubic metres that the country will need to avert a widespread humanitarian disaster,” the UN report states.

“According to UN research, “Inefficient irrigation, lack of government coordination and weak capacity to manage the resource has compounded the current shortage of water.”

read more: ENS

Water lessons from Singapore

Last modified on 2010-06-09 15:17:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Today, Singapore depends on four different sources of water: about 35% of their water comes from rainfall captured on its own limited territory, about 15% is high-quality recycled water produced by its NEWater treatment plants, 10% comes from desalinated water, and around 40% is water imported from Malaysia.

“As a result of the heavy dependence on Malaysia, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) of Singapore has been working for years to do two key things: reduce the demand for water by improving efficiency and cutting waste; and expanding alternative sources of supply. California could take a lesson from these two approaches. I know that water agencies (state, federal, local, and agricultural) argue the state is already doing these things, but compared to Singapore, California’s efforts are half-hearted.”

Read more: SF Gate

Salt water plant opened in London

Last modified on 2010-06-04 22:57:16 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The Duke of Edinburgh has opened what is thought to be the first water desalination plant on the UK mainland.

“The facility in Beckton, east London, is part of Thames Water’s plan to tackle water shortages in the capital.

“It said the £270m centre would deliver up to 140 million litres of water to 400,000 homes in a drought.

“The plant will be run by using renewable biofuels such as cooking oil and waste fat in an effort to reduce its impact on the environment.

“Drinking water will be produced by treating a mixture of sea and river water from the River Thames.

“Thames Water said it built the facility to avoid a repeat of water shortages which hit the South East in 2005 and 2006.

“However the plant’s opponents, which include former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, have accused the company of wasting money.”

Read More: BBC News

China-India Water Shortage Means Coca-Cola Joins Intel in Fight

Last modified on 2010-06-03 01:02:59 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A fight breaks out as student Vikas Dagar jostles with dozens of men, women and children to fill buckets from a truck that brings water twice a week to the village of Jharoda Kalan on the outskirts of New Delhi.

“Three thousand kilometers (1,900 miles) away, near Xi’an in central China, power-plant worker Zhou Jie stands on the mostly dry bed of the Wei River, remembering when he used to fish there before pollution made the catch inedible.

“Dagar and Zhou show the daily struggle with tainted or inadequate water in India and China, a growing shortage that the World Bank says will hamper growth in the world’s fastest- growing major economies. It also is pitting water-intensive businesses such as Intel Corp.’s China unit and bottling plants of Coca-Cola Co.against growing urban use and the 1.6 billion people in China and India who rely on farming for a living.

“Water will become the next big power, not only in China but the whole world,” Li Haifeng, vice president at sewage- treatment company Beijing Enterprises Water Group Ltd., said in a telephone interview. “Wars may start over the scarcity of water.”

read more: Bloomberg

Poisoned Wells: In Asia, Cutting Arsenic Risk in Water Through Well-Drilling Techniques

Last modified on 2010-06-02 20:42:06 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Arsenic is so common in groundwater in Bangladesh, Nepal, westernIndia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam — all heavily populated countries in the flood plains draining the Himalayas — that their drinking water has been called “the largest poisoning of a population in history.”

“But a recent study in Science magazine suggests simple well-drilling techniques that could lower the risk. The arsenic comes from eroding Himalayan coal seams and rocks containing sulfides; it is released into the groundwater only under certain chemical conditions deep underground. Some of those are affected by human activities, including pumping out huge volumes of water for irrigation. Different-colored sands may indicate how likely an aquifer is to be dangerous: rusty orange sands full of iron oxides often have less dissolved arsenic in the water around them than gray-colored sands do. Any village may have many orange and gray layers at different depths underneath it, and villagers may unknowingly live near both safe and dangerous wells. But testing is usually inadequate.”

read more: New York Times

Scottish national park chief raises prospect of water exports

Last modified on 2010-06-01 19:15:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Chairman of Scottish tourism agency says abundant water resources could be sold to England if climate change pushes up cost and supply.

“Scotland could export millions of gallons of water to drought-stricken parts of England if climate change pushes up the cost and scarcity of water, the head of a national park has predicted.

“The country’s abundant water resources would become crucial if supplies in England come under intense pressure in future decades, said Mike Cantlay, the convenor of Loch Lomond national park and chairman of the tourism agency VisitScotland. It could then be sold, he added.

“I think that Scotland’s water has enormous potential, and the point is approaching where we will have to have a really good look at Scotland’s inland waters and its total potential,” Cantlay said.

“Proposals for the mass transport of water across the UK using a national “water grid” have been studied closely by bodies such as the Environment Agency and engineering organisations but ruled out on the grounds of cost and practicality.”

Read More: The Guardian

Passing the Point of “Peak Water” Means Paying More for H2O

Last modified on 2010-06-02 00:17:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“We have passed the point of “peak water”–or the end of cheap, easy-to-access water–in several places around the globe, experts say.

“Those places include the Great Plains in the southern and central U.S., California’s Central Valley, northern China, the Nile River Basin in northern Africa, the Jordan River Basin in the Middle East, India, and more.

“The term “peak water” has been sprinkled throughout recent media accounts of droughts and groundwater depletion, but a May 20 article in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science finally provides a clear definition.

“It means that every new sources we tap is going to be farther afield, harder to access, and more expensive. We are at the end of the era of cheap, easy-to-access water,” said study co-author Meena Palaniappan, director of the International Water and Communities Initiative at the Pacific Institute.”

read more: National Geographic

India assures Pakistan of addressing ‘legitimate’ water concerns

Last modified on 2010-05-31 05:19:37 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Retrieved from: architecture.mit.edu

“Indian minister says New Delhi has no intention of taking away Pakistan’s water.

“India on Sunday assured Pakistan of taking care of the country’s “legitimate” concerns on water, as both countries began a four-day joint meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC). India’s Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told reporters on the eve of deliberations that New Delhi had no intention to deprive Pakistan of its share of water.

“We never deprived them of water, not even during wars and have no intention to do so ever,” he said.

“A nine-member Pakistan delegation led by Indus Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah began talks on Sunday with the Indian Commission headed by G Aringanathan.

“The annual Indus Commission talks will exchange technical data on river flow, besides devising mechanism to exchange advance flood information during the monsoon season.”

Read More: Daily Times

Saving Water, the (Really) Old-Fashioned Way

Last modified on 2010-05-30 07:27:22 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Drawing on indigenous Indian knowledge of geology, hydrology and ecology, Rajendra Singh helped to save a watershed.

“Rajendra Singh, founder of Tarun Bharat Sangh, (TBS, or Young India Association), always wanted to be a farmer. Bowing to family pressure, he studied to be a doctor of traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine and after school moved to the Alwyn district in the arid state of Rajasthan. Singh was not simply practicing medicine, he wanted to test some ideas about healing ecosystems.

“The local Arvari River had dried up during the 1940s when the surrounding hills were stripped of trees. It flowed only during the monsoon season. Since that time most people fled local villages to seek a livelihood elsewhere. When Singh arrived in 1985, he noticed that only the oldest and poorest people were left in the area.”

Read More: AlterNet

Thames boaters face Environment Agency pollution drive

Last modified on 2010-05-30 05:25:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Boaters along the River Thames in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey are being targeted by the Environment Agency in a bid to tackle pollution.

“The agency says boat pollutants, such as oil leaks and the discharge of phosphate-based cleaning products, harm wildlife and water quality.

“Staff will be stationed at 14 locks to hand out pollution packs, including phosphate-free detergent.

“They will also hand out a quiz and tips on ways to prevent pollution.

“The pollution packs also contain “bilge socks”, which are placed in a boat engine to soak up any possible oil present in boat waste water.”

Read More: BBC News

Lake in Pakistan begins to overflow

Last modified on 2010-05-30 04:36:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“A lake in northern Pakistan formed when landslides blocked a river four months ago has begun to overflow, Al Jazeera’s correspondent says.

“Levels are now critical and it is feared that the spillage on Saturday could weaken the wall of rocks and earth preventing it from engulfing dozens of villages.

“Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from the town of Gilgit, 100km downstream from Hunza lake, said thousands of villagers from the area have been forced to move to higher ground.

“The armed forces started an emergency helicopter service on Thursday to evacuate some villages amid fears a potential burst could affect about 50,000 people downstream and sever a road serving as an important trade link with China.”

Read More: Al Jazeera

Scientists Offer Solutions to Arsenic Groundwater Poisoning in Southern Asia

Last modified on 2010-05-30 02:46:34 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“An estimated 60 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic in their drinking water, dramatically raising their risk for cancer and other serious diseases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Because most of the contaminated water is near the surface, many people in Bangladesh have installed deep wells to tap into groundwater that’s relatively free of arsenic.

“In recent years, farmers have begun using the deep, uncontaminated aquifers for irrigation — a practice that could compromise access to clean drinking water across the country, according to a report in the May 27 issue of journal Science.

“The report is co-authored by groundwater experts Scott Fendorf (Stanford University), Holly A. Michael (University of Delaware) and Alexander van Geen (Columbia University).”

Read More: Science Daily

Underground “Fossil Water” Running Out

Last modified on 2010-05-08 18:21:29 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“This story is part of a special series that explores the global water crisis. For more clean water news, photos, and information, visit National Geographic’s Freshwater website.

“In the world’s driest places, “fossil water” is becoming as valuable as fossil fuel, experts say.

“This ancient freshwater was created eons ago and trapped underground in huge reservoirs, or aquifers. And like oil, no one knows how much there is—but experts do know that when it’s gone, it’s gone. (See a map of the world’s freshwater in National Geographic magazine.)

“You can apply the economics of mining because you are depleting a finite resource,” said Mike Edmunds, a hydrogeologist at Oxford University in the Great Britain.

“In the meantime, though, paleowater is the only option in many water-strapped nations. For instance, Libya is habitable because of aquifers—some of them 75,000 years old—discovered under the Sahara’s sands during 1950s oil explorations.

“The North African country receives little rain, and its population is concentrated on the coasts, where groundwater reserves are becoming increasingly brackish and nearing depletion.

“Since Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi launched his Great Man-Made River Project in the 1980s, an epic system of pipes, reservoirs, and engineering infrastructure is being built. It will be able to pump from some 1,300 paleowater wells and move 230 million cubic feet (6.5 million cubic meters) of H2O every day.

“But while fossil water can fill critical needs, experts warn, it’s ultimately just a temporary measure until conservation measures and technologies become status quo.

[...]

Radioactive Worries

“But the project has encountered an unexpected stumbling block. The Disi’s fossil water was recently found to contain 20 times the radiation levels considered safe for drinking. The water is contaminated naturally by sandstone, which has slowly leached radioactive contaminants over the eons.

“Geochemist and water-quality expert Avner Vengosh of Duke University, one of the scientists who first discovered the problem, said the Disi’s situation is not unusual.

“Radiation contamination has been found in Israel, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, and Libya, Vengosh said.

“Fortunately, radiation contamination can be fixed through a simple water-softening process, though it does cost money and creates radioactive waste that must be disposed of properly, he noted.”

read more: National Geographic

Jordan River could die by 2011: report

Last modified on 2010-05-04 00:13:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists said on Monday.

“More than 98 percent of the river’s flow has been diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan over the years.

“The remaining flow consists primarily of sewage, fish pond water, agricultural run-off and saline water,” the environmentalists from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank said in the report to be presented in Amman on Monday.

“Without concrete action, the LJR (lower Jordan River) is expected to run dry at the end of 2011.”

read more: PhysOrg

Water pollution expert derides UN sanitation claims

Last modified on 2010-04-25 19:47:45 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In its latest report on the progress of the UN Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of people lacking access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, the World Health Organisation said that since 1990 1.3 billion people had gained access to improved drinking water and 500 million better sanitation. The world was on course to “meet or exceed” the water target, it said, but was likely to miss the sanitation goal by nearly 1 billion people.

“However, Prof Asit Biswas, who has advised national governments, six UN agencies and Nato, said official figures showing that many cities and countries had met their targets were “baloney”, and predicted that by the UN deadline of 2015 more people in the world would suffer from these problems than when the goals were first adopted.

“If somebody has a well in a town or village in the developing world and we put concrete around the well – nothing else – it becomes an ‘improved source of water’; the quality is the same but you have ‘improved’ the physical structure, which has no impact,” said Biswas. “They are not only underestimating the problem, they are giving the impression the problem is being solved. What I’m trying to say is that’s a bunch of baloney.”

“Barbara Frost, chief executive of the UK-based global charity WaterAid, said: “Here is a global catastrophe which kills more children than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined and which is holding back all development efforts including health and education.”

read more: The Guardian

Coca-Cola’s response disappoints Plachimada activists

Last modified on 2010-04-25 19:00:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Activists who raised the issues of unethical groundwater use and pollution by Coca-Cola plants in India during the soft drinks giant’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Atlanta this week have expressed disappointment with the response of Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, accusing him of misleading investors about the problems the company had run into with regulators.

“Speaking to The Hindu, Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Centre — which campaigns for the rights of communities in the affected areas — said that he had brought up the recommendations made on March 22 by an High Power Committee (HPC) set up by the Kerala government, according to which Coca-Cola should be held liable for $48 million (Rs.216.26 crore) in “damages to the community and the environment around its bottling plant in Plachimada”.

“The company has also been involved in a controversy in Kala Dera in Rajasthan, where groundwater resources had been declared as “over-exploited” by the government in 1998. Yet, Coca-Cola built a new plant there in 2000, leading to severe water shortages in at least 40 villages in the vicinity of the plant, according to reports.”

read more: The Hindu

UK relies on ‘virtual’ water from drought-prone countries, says report

Last modified on 2010-04-25 00:30:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“We must recognise how the UK’s water footprint is impacting on global water scarcity. We should ask whether it is right to import green beans – or even roses – from water-stressed countries like Kenya,” said professor Peter Guthrie, chair of the group of engineers who compiled the report. “The burgeoning demand for water from developed countries is putting severe pressure on areas that are already short of water. Our water footprint is critical”, he said.

“The report backs analysis by the UK chief scientist, John Beddington, the World Bank and others who say that water shortages are worsening, especially in developing countries. More than 700 million people in 43 countries are now regularly affected by water scarcity and this is expected to grow as a result of climate change, population growth, the switch to meat-based diets in countries such as China, rapid urbanisation in Asia and the pollution of rivers and lakes in many developing countries.”

read more: The Guardian

PAKISTAN: Harvesting rain, restoring dignity

Last modified on 2010-04-25 00:21:22 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Tharparker District in Sindh Province, southern Pakistan, is among the most arid regions in the country. Limited rainfall, brackish underground water and the private ownership of wells by an elite minority have made access to potable water very difficult for much of the district’s 900,000 mostly rural inhabitants.

“However, an innovative project by local NGO Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) in conjunction with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Sindh is helping alleviate Tharparker’s drought problems.”

read more: AlterNet

Dow cannot run from the legacy of Bhopal by sponsoring ‘Run For Water’ events

Last modified on 2010-04-20 03:02:20 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Desperate battle to shore up quake dam

Last modified on 2010-04-15 04:51:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The quake, with a magnitude of 6.9, left a large crack in a dam in the area. Workers planned to release water from a reservoir to try to stop it from bursting and flooding the region.

“Emergency officials said the dam could burst at any time, putting 100,000 people in danger. According to the US environmental group International Rivers, China’s old dams have a poor safety record with more than 3,000 collapsing since the 1950s.”

read more: The Independent

Aral Sea Almost DRIED UP: UN Chief Calls It ‘Shocking Disaster’

Last modified on 2010-04-10 01:53:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the planet’s most shocking disasters, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday, as he urged Central Asian leaders to step up efforts to solve the problem.

“Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the sea has shrunk by 90 percent since the rivers that feed it were largely diverted in a Soviet project to boost cotton production in the arid region.

“The shrunken sea has ruined the once-robust fishing economy and left fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wastelands, leaning over as if they dropped from the air. The sea’s evaporation has left layers of highly salted sand, which winds can carry as far away as Scandinavia and Japan, and which plague local people with health troubles.”

read more: Huffington Post

Ground water extraction blamed for huge rise in soil salinity

Last modified on 2010-04-08 21:40:20 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The amount of salt content in the Maltese soil has increased by a staggering 30% between 2002 and 2006, due to uncontrolled ground water extraction, MEPA’ State of the Environment Report reveals.
“The accumulation of salts on or near the soil surface results in unproductive soils and the degradation of agricultural land. Maltese soils are already vulnerable to soil salinisation, due to the proximity to the sea. But the State of the Environment Report concludes that “the main cause of salinisation is the use, for irrigation, of groundwater that is rich in salts.”

read more: Malta Today

Arab Company Agrobics Cleans Industrial Wastewater, Inspired By Olive Waste

Last modified on 2010-04-06 20:11:21 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Sabbah explains the problems of the agriculture business: Even with good intentions, the most “organic” of farms produces waste – of the organic variety. Whether it’s a citrus fruit facility, olive press, or meat packing plant, any producer in the agro-industry must be mindful of plant and animal waste that’s flushed down the drain.

“If agricultural wastewater went straight to the wastewater treatment plant, the facility would just collapse.” In his search for ways to increase the effectiveness of biological reactors that digest organic materials in wastewater, Sabbah developed an idea for a system that could be a standalone or add-on to treat agricultural wastewater.”

read more: Green Prophet

China rejects Mekong drying blame

Last modified on 2010-04-03 16:46:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“While nations around the Mekong meet in Thailand to discuss the drying up of the river, China insists the current problems emanate from an act of nature.

“Millions of dollars worth of Chinese cargo are stranded in barges along the Mekong, due to the low water levels.

“Chinese dams along the Mekong have been blamed for disrupting the water supply, but the Chinese foreign ministry blames drought for water scarcity in the Mekong region.

“China has built, or is planning to build, eight dams along the river. The Southeast Asian countries that blame Chinese construction have eleven dams of their own.

“Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports from Yunnan province in China.”

Cambodians hit as Mekong dries up

Last modified on 2010-04-03 03:21:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Nations around the Mekong are meeting in Thailand to discuss the vital river’s low water levels. The once mighty Mekong is at a 50-year low in parts of Thailand and Laos.

“Chinese companies have started construction on two hydroelectric dams in Cambodia, one on a tributary of the river.

“However, the Cambodia government has much to lose by being too critical of China, which continues to pump billions of dollars into the country’s infrastructure.

“Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay reports from northern Cambodia, where the lack of water is affecting people’s livelihoods.”

Last modified on GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Resilient Bangladesh: Mapping local solutions

Last modified on 2010-04-01 03:51:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The changing climate is making it difficult for peasants in Bangladesh to harvest enough food from their land. Based on traditional knowledge, Bangladeshis used to be able to accurately predict when the rains would fall. They could then sow seeds in accordance to these patterns in order to yield the crops upon which they relied for survival. But rains are no longer following such a predictable schedule and the people must do their best to adjust to this new climate reality.

“United Nations University Institute for Sustainability and Peace Researcher Chun Knee Tan has been working with the International Union on the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to address the growing challenges the region faces and empower local people to deal with the changes in their environment.

“In partnership the two organizations have created a project designed to involve the people affected into the machinations of Multilateral Environmental Agreements, such as the Convention of Biological Diversity and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This Community-based Implementation and Compliance of Multilateral Environment Agreements project aims to better communicate to communities on the issues surrounding such agreements and get their input and help in implementing relevant national strategies and action plans.”

read more: Our World

U.N. report: Let’s turn foul water from mass killer into global treasure

Last modified on 2010-03-30 19:32:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Contaminated and polluted water now kills more people than all forms of violence including wars, according to a United Nations report released Monday that calls for turning unsanitary wastewater into an environmentally safe economic resource.

“As a result, “it is essential that wastewater management is considered as part of integrated, ecosystem-based management that operates across sectors and borders, freshwater and marine.”

read more: CNN

World Water Day – The Big Picture

Last modified on 2010-03-23 22:02:21 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Today, March 22nd, is recognized by the United Nations Water Group as “World Water Day”, this year’s theme being “Clean Water for a Healthy World”. Although we live on a water-covered planet, only 1% of the world’s water is available for human use, the rest locked away in oceans, ice, and the atmosphere. The National Geographic Society feels so strongly about the issues around fresh water that they are distributing an interactive version of their April, 2010 magazine for download – free until April 2nd – and will be exhibiting images from the series at theAnnenberg Space for photography. National Geographic was also kind enough to share 15 of their images below, in a collection with other photos from news agencies and NASA – all of water, here at home – Earth. (43 photos total)”

read more: boston.com

Reflecting on World Water Day

Last modified on 2010-03-22 16:03:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“World Water Day provides an opportunity to celebrate how far we’ve come and reflect upon how much we have still to do. Today is a reminder of how we should treat this valuable, precious resource. As we reach for the handle to adjust the temperature for our morning shower, or flush the toilet, or water the lawn, or turn on the tap to get a glass of clean water, we should all consider the millions of people everywhere who are walking miles to get to untreated water to sustain life in communities and villages off the proverbial grid. Our shared challenge on World Water Day, and every day, is to identify and implement solutions to the many challenges associated with water quality, access and availability.”

read more: Huffington Post

Threat to dam keeps Pakistanis on edge

Last modified on 2010-03-18 23:57:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“If the dam goes, it could wash away over a dozen major bridges that form the crucial chain in the country’s only road to China, known by many as the Karakorum Highway, or the KKH.

“People in high-risk downstream villages under immediate threat have been asked to vacate the area and move in with host families in safe zones.”

read more: Al Jazeera

Dam burst destroys Kazakh village

Last modified on 2010-03-15 00:50:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“At least 35 people have been killed after a dam broke in southern Kazakhstan, unleashing a flood that destroyed a village, officials said.

“Torrential rains and rising temperatures triggered the reservoir’s burst that left hundreds of homes in ruins on Friday in the village of Kyzyl-Agash near Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city.”

read more: Al Jazeera

Movement against Indian water aggression

Last modified on 2010-03-10 14:59:16 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Speaking on the occasion, Saeed said that by constructing illegal dams and diverting water of Pakistani rivers, India has virtually imposed war on Pakistan. He demanded of the government to prepare the nation to counter this aggression. “The government must take practical steps to secure Pakistani water,” he stressed. He said that due to water shortage, not only cultivation of crops would be impossible but drinking water would not be available to Pakistanis. “It is a matter of life and death for Pakistan”, he said.”

read more: The News

Drought in Philippines Forces Blackouts

Last modified on 2010-03-10 00:21:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Low reservoir levels have caused several hydroelectric plants to shut down or cut operations in the Southeast Asian country.

“Such risks occur when countries rely heavily on hydroelectric power without adequate backup generating capacity.”

read more: Circle of Blue

Mekong waters hit record low

Last modified on 2010-03-09 05:50:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Thailand’s prime minister has said he will seek urgent talks with China after the water level in the Mekong River plunged to its lowest level in 20 years.

“The river, which has its source in China, underpins the livelihoods of more than 60 million people in Southeast Asia.”

read more: Al Jazeera

Food, Water, and… Permaculture? Rethinking Disaster Relief for Haiti and Beyond

Last modified on 2010-03-09 17:56:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In Port-au-Prince, there are many solutions that can emerge, including the restructuring of built infrastructure in a way that creates hard-surface water runoff aimed at productive urban gardens; creating a microclimate through the recycling and redesign of the landscape; and implementing biological cleaning of urban grey- and blackwater waste.”

read more: Treehugger

India’s ‘water theft’

Last modified on 2010-03-08 16:56:23 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Jamaat-ud-Dawaa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed on Sunday declared that India had “imposed war on Pakistan” by constructing “illegal dams” and diverting water of Pakistani rivers and said the government must prepare the nation to counter this aggression.”

read more: The News

China declares drought emergency

Last modified on 2010-03-07 23:44:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“China has declared an emergency in eight northern and central drought-hit regions, where nearly four million people are suffering water shortages.

“China’s drought relief office called it an event “rarely seen in history”.”

read more: BBC News

‘Jordan does not owe Israel a drop of water’

Last modified on 2010-03-06 15:19:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Jordan receives its allocated water shares in full under the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty’s second annex and does not owe Israel a drop of water, Minister of Water and Irrigation Mohammad Najjar said on Thursday.”

“The minister described as false recent reports in the local media claiming that Jordan is not receiving its fair share of water as guaranteed under the treaty or that the Kingdom has a water debt to Israel.”

read more: the jordan times

Lords of Water; Finding Our Way Out of the World’s Water Crisis

Last modified on 2010-03-05 18:33:46 GMT. 8 comments. Top.

“The WWC knows about big money: It is led by two of the world’s largest private water corporations, Suez Environnement and Veolia Water. Fauchon, president of the Council, is also the president of Groupe des Eaux de Marseille, a company owned jointly by Veolia and a subsidiary of Suez. Critics such as Maude Barlow, director of Canada’s Blue Planet Project and recent appointee as senior advisor on water to the U.N. General Assembly, contend that the Council’s links to private water operators and to AquaFed, the industry lobby group strategically headquartered across from the European Union Parliament in Brussels, compromise its legitimacy.“I call them the Lords of Water,” says Barlow.”

“The next World Water Forum is planned for South Africa in 2012, and it can be expected that that nation’s social movements led by the militant South African Anti-privatization Forum, will be ready for a fight.”

read more: emagazine

“Systematic failure” leads to fine for over 300 waste breaches

Last modified on 2010-03-05 16:43:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies (VWS) has pleaded guilty to ten environmental breaches at Selby Magistrates’ Court. The breaches occurred in 2008 and 2009 and related to its running of a Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) in Tadcaster. The WTP served two breweries on different sites, with one run by Scottish and Newcastle Breweries and the other by Molson Coors Brewing Company.”

read more: WLN

China villagers moved to quench the urban thirst

Last modified on 2010-03-05 02:09:41 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Tens of thousands of people are currently being moved from around the reservoir because their homes and land will soon be under water. Ding Guangyan and his family – six people in all – are just one group of people affected by the scheme.”

read more: BBC News

Return to the Center of the World; Following two storied rivers through Central Asia

Last modified on 2010-03-04 23:38:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“EARLY ISLAMIC WRITINGS call the Amu Darya and Syr Darya two of the four rivers of Paradise. Now perceived as being on the extreme fringes of the world, these rivers were once its center. Their water has sustained human life for forty thousand years, providing pastures for nomadic herders, irrigation for farmers, and enabling the development of culture, trade, language, literature, and, in parallel, an enduring succession of wars and imperial conquests over the centuries.

When the Soviet government officially incorporated the region into its empire in 1917, it began transforming the rivers into a web of irrigation canals that brought cotton production to the area on a massive scale. Such large quantities of water were diverted that the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth largest inland sea, began to disappear, leaving salt and dust storms in its place.”

read more: Orion

Lalkurti residents facing acute water shortage

Last modified on 2010-03-04 20:37:45 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Muhammad Ishaq, a resident of Indus Road-III, said that they regularly pay water taxes but the concerned authorities have failed to provide water to them. “There is no water supply for last 10 days and we are in a state of helplessness,” he said. He said that they have to buy water through tankers but it is not fit for human consumption. He said that several residents, particularly children, are suffering from various diseases because of drinking water supplied through tankers.”

read more: the news

Drought Threatens Syria Economy as Refugees Flee Parched Farms

Last modified on 2010-03-04 19:26:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“The lack of water has caused more than 800,000 people in eastern Syria to lose “almost all of their livelihoods and face extreme hardship,” according to an Aug. 11 report by the UN humanitarian office. About 80 percent of the hardest hit “live on a diet consisting of bread and sugared tea,” the report said.”

“I’m used to this, water is as hard to get for us as gold.”

read more: businessweek

Water and the War on Terror

Last modified on 2010-03-04 16:56:32 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Pakistan is also highly suspicious of India’s increased aid to Afghanistan for dams on rivers that flow into Pakistan; it fears it is an Indian subterfuge to put Pakistan in an east-west hydrological vise once America leaves Afghanistan. For their part, the Pakistanis have awarded their dam contract to China, India’s adversary with whom it has its own water disputes and testy political relations.”

read more: grist.org

Water crisis triggers violent protest in Mumbai

Last modified on 2010-03-04 06:43:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“We want the common man’s water woes should end. Today BMC is saying that there is less water but when there was enough water what did they do? where was the water stored and why was water harvesting not done?”

read more: One India

Pakistan ready to fight India on water conflict

Last modified on 2010-03-04 06:40:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“LAHORE: Federal Food Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal says that Pakistan is ready to fight a war against India if it does not stop violations and obstruction of water flow.”

read more: TheNews.com

Sanaa, Yemen to Become World’s First Capital City to Run Out of Water

Last modified on 2010-03-04 02:57:16 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Andrew Sahooly, a German water expert interviewed by Reuters, says that “If we continue like this, Sanaa will be a ghost city in 20 years.” Sahooly and other experts predict that millions of “water refugees” may eventually have to abandon Sanaa and the highland cities for the coast, and many will be forced into neighboring gulf states or into Europe. In other words, Yemen is facing a full blown water crisis.”

read more: AlterNet

Massive withdrawal of groundwater may cause earthquake in capital

Last modified on 2010-03-02 23:43:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina forewarned that earthquake could strike the capital city as the groundwater table here is going down 2-3 meters gradually due to massive withdrawal of the water.

In reply to a question from Nasimul Alam Chowdhury (Comilla-8), she said the subsiding of the underground water level is causing serious damage to geological environment and its balance. Prime Minister’s questions and answers were tabled to facilitate discussion on the President’s New Year address to the parliament. “If water level continues to go down, there is apprehension about natural calamity like earthquake,” she said, apparently referring to the presentiment coming from experts.”

read more: The Daily Star

New Signs the Tide May Be Shifting Against Water Privatization

Last modified on 2010-03-02 23:26:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“In the first hours of 2010, the city of Paris, whose water system has been under various forms of mixed public and private management for much of the last century, took back public control of its water utility. The decision is emblematic of changes occurring throughout the world, with the wave of utility privatizations ebbing in the face of mismanagement, dismal community relations and a rising tide of concern, in the developing world especially, about whether denial of affordable, safe water constitutes an abuse of human rights.”

“Veolia and Suez, founding members of the World Water Council, have successfully influenced World Bank policies of privatizing water management, giving rise to privatization’s moniker as “the French model.” In order to better impact international policy, the two companies created the World Water Council in 1996. Uniting hundreds of actors in the water sector, the World Water Council counts among its members global agencies like the World Bank, local NGOs and municipalities, as well as municipal water systems such as the Société des Eaux de Marseille (whose shareholders include Veolia, Suez, and la Saur).”

read more: AlterNet

Water is a Key Issue in Iraqi Election, US General Odierno Says

Last modified on 2010-03-01 14:55:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“Water supply problems because of war, under-investment, poor management and drought are evident throughout Iraq. In Baghdad, where nearly 15 percent of its 8 million residents do not have access to potable water, officials are trying to gain control over the distribution system.”

read more: Circle of Blue

Time for Europe to Tackle Looming Water Crisis

Last modified on 2010-03-01 15:06:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

“We in Europe need to get our act together on adaptation (to climate change) in the same way that we are leading on mitigation”

read more: Terra Daily

A Link Between Dams and Earthquakes?

Last modified on 2010-03-01 00:32:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Klose is one of several scientists who are pondering the possibility that last May’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province, which left 80,000 dead, could also have had a man-made trigger, this time in the form of the Zipingpu Dam.

read more: Earthquakes

Rain Water Harvesting PSA

Last modified on 2010-02-22 18:13:20 GMT. 0 comments. Top.