Archive for the 'climate change' Category

Egypt Must Ratify Nile Water Agreement

Published on 02/22/2012 in climate change, peak water, policy, riparian zone, rivers and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Nile river. Retrieved from: www.businessdailyafrica.com

“The impact of climate change is likely to exacerbate the water scarcity in Nile Basin in which most of its members have already been identified as water deficient countries. If such phenomena is not addressed it might lead to a regional conflict over water.

Without an agreeable water allocation mechanism and with realisation that the status quo on the Nile water usage is unsustainable, the ten riparian states: Burundi, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eriteria, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda established the Nile Basin Initiative in February 1999.

They agreed on shared vision” “to achieve sustainable socio-economic development through equitable utilisation of and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources”.

Read more: Business Daily

 

lily victoria

Demand Presents Risks To Water Supplies

Published on 02/22/2012 in climate change, groundwater, hydrology, policy, tap water and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.ehow.com

“Drinking water from coastal groundwater is more at threat from human activity than from rising sea levels due to climate change, Canadian scientists say.

Geoscientists from Canadian universities examined data from more than 1,400 coastal watersheds and said they found most are relatively unaffected by rising sea levels.

The aquifers are seeing more impacts from humans pumping water from wells for drinking, domestic use and irrigation, a release from the University of Saskatchewan said Tuesday.”

Read more: UPI

lily victoria

Will Ancient Mega Lake Bring Peace To Sudan?

Published on 02/09/2012 in climate change, displacement of people, drought, groundwater, hydrology, peak water, policy, tap water, water technology and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

“At least 300,000 people died and almost three million were displaced by the Darfur conflict in Sudan. Egyptian-American geologist Farouk El-Baz believes that limited access to water is one of the root causes of this conflict. Doctor El-Baz is director of Boston University’s center for remote sensing. He is known for his use of satellite images to search for water in the Mideast and North Africa. His work led to the discovery of a large underground water source in Egypt’s East Uweinat region near the borders with Libya, Chad and Sudan. This Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) contains over five million cubic feet of groundwater and is already bringing life and prosperity to a desolate part of the Eastern Sahara.

In 2007, Dr. El-Baz (left) used satellite-based ground penetrating radar to discover an ancient lake in the northern Darfur region of Sudan. At over 19,000 square miles this “Northern Darfur Mega-Lake” is vast– approximately the size of Lake Erie in North America.

Some time in recent geological history the lake slipped hundreds of meters beneath the desert sands and vanished from sight. Doctor El-Baz believes this underground lake can help restore peace to the Sudanese people so he proposed a 1000 wells project for Darfur.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

lily victoria

Drought Ravages Farms Across Wide Swath Of Mexico

Published on 02/08/2012 in agriculture, boreholes, climate change, drought, peak water, rivers, tap water and water shortage. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.npr.org

“Rodarte says that for the past two years, the crops that he’s planted here have failed. Normally, he plants beans and corn to feed his family, and oats to sell. He says he hasn’t harvested anything because the land is too dry and there’s no water.

This is an arid part of Mexico, but normally there’s a rainy season between June and September, allowing farmers to grow crops during the summer. They also tend cattle on the scrubby rolling hills dotted with cactuses.

Rodarte has lived here all his life and says this is the worst drought he’s ever seen.

“Now most people are leaving,” he says, “to the cities, the coasts where it rains, or to the United States. That’s where the people are going to work. And those who are abroad in the U.S. are the ones who are sustaining the families here. They send us a little bit of money.”

The drought is extending across a broad swath of central, northwestern and northern Mexico.

Sugar exports are expected to drop 40 percent, and one top military official says the lack of rain is even hurting marijuana production in Durango. Many farmers have been forced to sell off their livestock as pastures and watering holes run dry.

Government To Provide Aid

President Felipe Calderon has pledged billions of dollars in assistance to the hardest hit states, and vowed that no one is going to starve because of the crisis.”

Read more: NPR

 

lily victoria

Super models – using maths to mitigate natural disasters

Published on 02/03/2012 in climate change, dams, floods, management and peak water. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

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Photo retrieved from: theConversation.edu.au

“Last year will go on record as one of significant natural disasters both in Australia and overseas. Indeed, the flooding of the Brisbane River in January is still making news as the Queensland floods inquiry investigates whether water released from Wivenhoe Dam was responsible. Water modelling is being used to answer the question: could modelling have avoided the problem in the first place?

This natural disaster – as well as the Japanese tsunami in Marchand the flooding in Bangkok in October – involved the movement of fluids: water, mud or both. And all had a human cost – displaced persons, the spread of disease, disrupted transport, disrupted businesses, broken infrastructure and damaged or destroyed homes. With the planet now housing 7 billion people, the potential for adverse humanitarian effects from natural disasters is greater than ever.

Here in CSIRO’s division of Mathematical and Information Sciences, we’ve been working with various government agencies (in Australia and China) to model the flow of flood waters and the debris they carry. Governments are starting to realise just how powerful computational modelling is for understanding and analysing natural disasters and how to plan for them.

“So how does it work?

Well, fluids such as sea water can be represented as billions of particles moving around, filling spaces, flowing downwards, interacting with objects and in turn being interacted upon. Or they can be visualised as a mesh of the fluids’ shape.”

Read more: The Conversation

Sami Oueida

Remedies for water famine for 2020

Published on 01/30/2012 in climate change, contaminated water, displacement of people and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Makanaka

“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

sammykayed

Flooding and water scarcity ranked as top threat for UK

Published on 01/27/2012 in climate change, drought, floods and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: edieWater

“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

Sami Oueida

Thawing Permafrost Reduces River Runoff

Published on 01/14/2012 in climate change, glaciers, hydrology, peak water and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.nature.com

“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

 

lily victoria

8 Mighty Rivers Run Dry From Overuse

Published on 01/12/2012 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, climate change, contaminated water, drought, greenwashing, groundwater, hydrology, hydropower, management, peak water, policy, rivers, species extinction, wastewater, water diversions and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Rio Grande. Retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“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

 

 

lily victoria

Weather story — or water story?

Published on 01/06/2012 in climate change, drought, groundwater, hydrology, lakes, peak water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.tragerwaterreport.com

“Santa Cruz- Last month was the county’s second driest December since 1893, according to the National Weather Service. December saw just 0.13 inches of rain — a figure about as dry as a desert compared to the nearly 10 inches that fell in December 2010.

And we’re now six days into the new year and January has yet to produce a drop of rain. Weather forecasters see no rain on the horizon.

This is a problem, since January and December historically rank one-two in the months that produce enough rainfall to fill the main local reservoir, replenish wells and underground water tables, and make everything green by February.

It’s a developing story affecting most of Central-Northern California and other parts of the west as well. San Francisco, which has the most extensive weather records of any city in the region, recorded its third driest December since 1849 — a span of 163 years. For San Jose, it was the third driest December in the past 137 years.

Ski resorts in the Sierra Nevada can’t lay off seasonal workers fast enough, because the dry, snow-less conditions are setting records there too. Ski season’s busiest week — the days between Christmas and New Year’s — just passed with meager turnouts despite resorts’ best efforts at covering bare slopes with man-made snow. The dry conditions also meant adjacent restaurants and lodging facilities are hurting.”

Read more: Santa Cruz Sentinel

 

lily victoria