Archive for the 'agriculture' Category

Hundreds of dead pigs fished from Shanghai river

Published on 03/20/2013 in agriculture, contaminated water, rivers, tap water and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.globaltoronto.com

“At least 2,800 dead pigs have been fished from a Shanghai river since Friday, but authorities insist that tap water in the city is still safe to drink.

State news agency Xinhua said labels tagged to the pigs’ ears indicated they came from the upper waters of the Huangpu River, which flows through the center of Shanghai and is a source of the city’s drinking water.

It’s not clear why the pigs had been dumped in the river, though local media reported earlier this month that a disease had killed thousands of pigs in a village south of Shanghai.

“We will continue to trace the source, investigate the cause, co-operate with neighboring areas and take measures to stop the dumping of pigs into rivers,” the Shanghai Municipal Agricultural Commission said in a statement posted on their website on Monday.

As of Sunday, water quality on the Songjiang section of the river, where most of the pigs were found, remained normal and the incident has had “no significant effect on tap water supply,” the commission added.”

Read more: CNN

 

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Will Plans for Massive Tunnels to Pipe Northern California Water South Mean a Boon for Fracking?

Published on 03/02/2013 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, fracking, oil, policy, rivers and water diversions. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.alternet.org

“The oil industry, represented by Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and former Chair of the Marine Life Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Task Force for the South Coast, is pushing for increased “fracking” in California.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the controversial, environmentally destructive process of injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals underground at high pressure in order to release and extract oil or gas, according to Food and Water Watch.

The question is: Where will the industry get the water for fracking on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and coastal areas, including Monterey County where large Monterey Shale deposits are located?

Burt Wilson, Editor and Publisher of Public Water News Service, believes he has the answer. He contends that the “hidden agenda” of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build twin tunnels is to provide water for the environmentally destructive process of fracking in California.

Wilson definitely knows what he is talking about. He was was on the media staff of the “No on 9″ campaign against the peripheral canal in 1982. They won by a 2/3 vote statewide and stopped the canal.

Unfortunately, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the urging of corporate agribusiness interests, began his campaign build the peripheral canal in 2007. Brown has continued and fast-tracked the Republican governor’s plan, opting to go for twin tunnels under the Delta than a single peripheral canal.

“As the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) nears completion, some unusual elements of the project have been revealed piecemeal and when they are all put together the total effect is that there is a hidden agenda going on that is far from what has been revealed on the surface,” said Wilson.”

Read more: AlterNet

 

lily victoria

Nigeria: UN Unveils Platform for Global Water Management

Published on 02/14/2013 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, climate change, contaminated water, displacement of people, drought, groundwater, hydrology, management, peak water, policy, privatization, rivers, tap water, water conservation, water wars and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.asme.org

“Each year brings new pressures on water. One-third of the world’s people already live in countries with moderate to high water stress. Competition is growing between farmers and herders; industry and agriculture; town and country. Upstream and downstream, and across borders, we need to cooperate for the benefit of all – now and in the future,” “he added.

The General Assembly proclaimed 2013 International Year for Water Cooperation in 2010, following a proposal from Tajikistan. The Year will serve to raise awareness and prompt action on the multiple dimensions of water cooperation, such as sustainable and economic development, climate change and food security.

“Over-exploitation, management, financing of water resources, all of these aspects are incredibly important and cooperation at different levels is therefore critical,” UNESCO Science Specialist Ms. Ana Persic, said during a media briefing to mark the start of the Year at UN Headquarters in New York, USA.

Persic added that the benefits of intensifying cooperation include poverty reduction, equity, economic growth, and the protection of the environment.” “We know water is critical for human life, but it is also critical for life on Earth if we want to protect and sustainably manage the planet we have.”

Read more: All Africa

 

lily victoria

In California, Reading the Snow to Tell the Future for the Water Supply

Published on 02/14/2013 in agriculture, climate change, lakes, rivers, tap water, water diversions and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.nytimes.com

“In California’s water system, one of the world’s most sophisticated and complex, the snowpack plays a leading role by supplying water to more than 25 million people and almost one million acres of farmland. Snow that accumulates on the Sierra Nevada’s 400-mile range starts to melt in the spring, draining into rivers that feed reservoirs below.

As Mr. Gehrke and his team gauge the depth and water content of the snowpack, other department officials begin forecasting how much water the snowpack will be able to deliver this year.

Those who depend on the snowpack for water adjust their plans accordingly. Water districts may start looking for water elsewhere or carry out conservation measures. Farmers consider the forecasts in deciding what crops to plant or whether to take bank loans to buy more seed and equipment for the year.

Ryan Jacobsen, who is executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau and also sits on the board of the Fresno Irrigation District, said that the snow surveys are the” “bible for what decisions irrigation districts are going to make for the rest of the year.”

“Fresno County is the No. 1 agricultural county in the nation, but we also happen to be situated climatically in the middle of a desert,” he said. “It really is the Sierra Nevada snowpack that makes this desert bloom.”

Read more: The New York Times

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Evaporation from California Irrigation Adds Enough Water to Colorado River to Supply 3 Million People

Published on 02/01/2013 in agriculture, hydrology and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

California Central Valley Project delta irrigation colorado river water supply

Retrieved from: Circle of blue

“California’s Central Valley is an agricultural machine. The valley, which accounts for one-sixth of irrigated lands in the United States, produced crops worth $US 21 billion in 2007, according to the most recent U.S. Census of Agriculture, a comprehensive analysis of U.S. agricultural production.

“Irrigation in the Central Valley also generates an important, less visible export: water vapor. Through evaporation, that water vapor, once aloft, is a significant source of summer precipitation and streamflow hundreds of kilometers away in one of the nation’s most water-scarce river basins, adding enough water each year to the Colorado River to cover the daily needs of 3 million people, according to startling and intriguing climate-modeling research from scientists at the University of California, Irvine, and National Taiwan University.

“The study sheds light on a vital but poorly understood component of the water cycle, providing a first estimate for how irrigation in one region can still affect the water balance of a distant, geographically disconnected river system. According to the study, evaporation from Central Valley irrigation increases the summer flow of the Colorado River by 28 percent — or 400 million cubic meters (325,000 acre-feet) — compared to having no irrigation at all. In the Four Corners region, the effect is even more pronounced, increasing summer flows by 56 percent.”

Read more: Circle of Blue

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‘Green’ Approaches to Water Gaining Ground Around World

Published on 01/24/2013 in agriculture, peak water, policy, rivers, water shortage and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.ipsnews.net

“After Hurricane Sandy swept through the northeast of the United States late October 2012, millions of New Yorkers were left for days without electricity.  But they still had access to drinking water, thanks to New York City’s reliance on protected watershed areas for potable water.

Instead of using electric-powered water treatment plans, New York City brings its high-quality drinking water through aqueducts connected to protected areas in the nearby Catskill/Delaware forests and wetlands – just one example of how protecting watersheds can provide residential areas with drinking water and flood and pollution protection at bargain basement prices.

New York saved between four and six billion dollars on the cost of water treatment plants by protecting forests and compensating farmers in the Catskills for reducing pollution in lakes and streams.

In 2011, countries around the world invested more than eight billion dollars in similar watershed projects around the world, according to the State of Watershed Payments 2012 report released Thursday. That year, China led the way, accounting for 91 percent of watershed investment.”

Read more: IPS

 

lily victoria

Drought Fuels Water War Between Texas and New Mexico

Published on 01/20/2013 in agriculture, climate change, dams, drought, rivers, water shortage and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“As climate change alters rainfall patterns and river flows, tensions are bound to rise between states and countries that share rivers that cross their borders.

In the Rio Grande Basin of the American Southwest, that future inevitability has arrived.

Last week Texas, suffering through a devastating drought, filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court alleging that New Mexico is failing to live up to its water delivery commitments under the 1938 Rio Grande Compact.

The Rio Grande rises in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado and flows 1,900 miles before entering the Gulf of Mexico.

Texas charges that New Mexico’s pumping of groundwater in the region below Elephant Butte Dam to the New Mexico-Texas border is reducing Rio Grande flows into Texas, thereby depriving the state’s farms and cities of water they are legally entitled to under the Compact.

Texas v. New Mexico is likely to be but one of a string of disputes that erupt as drought causes water supplies to dwindle and water-sharing pacts devised in wetter and less-populated times can no longer hold the peace.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

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Chinese loans could fuel regional conflict in East Africa

Published on 01/15/2013 in agriculture, dams, policy, rivers, water diversions and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.chinadialogue.net

“China has made great efforts to support poverty reduction in Africa, and likes to present itself as a friend of the African people. But loans for contentious dam and irrigation projects now threaten to pull China into an explosive regional conflict between well-armed groups in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

The Lower Omo Valley in south-west Ethiopia and Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya are marked by a harsh climate and unique, fragile ecosystems. They are home to 12 indigenous peoples, one of the largest remaining wildlife migrations, and some of the earliest remains of the human species.

The region is currently being transformed by one of Africa’s biggest and most controversial infrastructure ventures. Once completed, the Gibe III hydropower project will dam the Omo River to generate electricity with a capacity of 1,870 megawatts. It will also allow the irrigation of 2,450 square kilometres of sugar plantations, which are currently being developed on indigenous lands and in national parks.”

Read more: China Dialogue

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Saudi Arabia Stakes a Claim on the Nile

Published on 01/12/2013 in agriculture, aquifer overdraft, groundwater, hydrology, peak water, policy and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“Forty years ago, when the farming started, there was a staggering 120 cubic miles (500 cubic kilometers) of water beneath the Saudi desert, enough to fill Lake Erie. But in recent years, up to five cubic miles (20 cubic kilometers) has been pumped to the surface annually for use on the farms. Virtually none of it is replaced by rainwater, because there is no appreciable rain.

Based on extraction rates detailed in a 2004 paper from the University of London, the Saudis were on track to use up at least 400 cubic kilometers of their aquifers by 2008. And so experts estimate that four-fifths of the Saudis’ “fossil” water is now gone. One of the planet’s greatest and oldest freshwater resources, in one of its hottest and most parched places, has been all but emptied in little more than a generation.

Parallel to the groundwater pumping for agriculture, Saudi Arabia has long used desalination of seawater to provide drinking water. But, even for the cash-rich Saudis, at about a dollar per 35 cubic feet (one cubic meter), the energy-intensive process is too expensive to be used for irrigation water.”

Read more: National Geographic

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Saudi Takes a Chunk of Nile Water to Feed its Cows

Published on 01/07/2013 in agriculture, groundwater, hydropower, land grabs, peak water, policy and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

“The cows raised at the Al Safi and Almarai farms live better than some humans in air-conditioned sheds and water misters that keep them cool. But feeding them with grain grown nearby has depleted 4/5th of the Kingdom’s ancient aquifer in the last 30 years. For milk. The farms are facing closure as a result of water shortages, but instead of giving up altogether, the Saudis are buying up land and water elsewhere – including the already vulnerable Nile.

The Nile was apportioned in 1929 by colonial powers, an issue that has created great tension among Nile River Basin countries in the last few years. Egypt relies almost entirely on this river for its population’s survival, but upstream countries feel that they have been shortchanged by that country’s monopoly.

Ethiopia has been particularly vociferous, though the main instigator of a slew of new dams and hydroelectricity projects, former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, died in August, 2012. But not before allowing Saudi Star, owned by Sheikh Mohammed Ali Al Amoudi, to purchase large tracts of land near the headwaters of the Nile in Gambela.

Member of the local Anuak Tribe talked to National Geographic about the firm’s usurpation of land and water. At the time of writing, the company was digging a canal to drain nearby wetlands and their 24,711 acre relies on a reservoir built in the 1980s by Soviet engineers.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

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