Archive for the 'desertification' Category

Between the glacier and the dam: life on the Tibetan plateau

Published on 01/20/2013 in aquatic ecosystems, climate change, dams, desertification, glaciers, peak water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.chinadialogue.net

“The Tibetan Plateau covers approximately a quarter of China’s land area, spreading out over 2.5 million square kilometres in the west of the country. Home to the largest store of freshwater outside of the poles, it feeds water into Asia’s major rivers which supply water to over a billion people. As a result of anthropogenic climate change, temperatures are rising on the Tibetan Plateau faster than anywhere else in Asia. The effects of these changes are becoming more evident in the form of melting glaciers, intensified weather events, increasing desertification and degraded grasslands.

In the town of Heishui, in northern Sichuan province, the effects of climate change are being felt firsthand by the people who reside in this south-eastern corner of the plateau. The Dagu glacier which sits above the town lies at over 5,000 metres. But it’s quickly retreating due to rising temperatures in the region. Just 50 kilometres downstream, the water run-off from the glacier slows and stagnates behind one of the country’s largest and newest hydropower constructions, the 147-metre high Maoergai Dam.”

Read more: China Dialogue

lily victoria

A 12 Step Program to Stopping Drought and Desertification

Published on 08/03/2012 in agriculture, desertification, drought, erosion, groundwater, management, peak water, solutions and outreach, water conservation, water shortage and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

“Soaring temperatures and low precipitation could not occur at a worse time for many farmers in the United States, and around the world. Intensifying drought conditions are affecting corn and soybean crops throughout the Midwest, raising grain prices as well as concerns about future food prices.

The US Drought Monitor reports that 88 percent of this year’s corn crop and 77 percent of the soybean crop are now affected by the most severe drought since 1988. In response the Worldwatch Institutelaunched a 12 step guide to combatting drought and desertification. These tips can be used by policy makers around the world and in dry climates in the Middle East. Read on for the list.

1. Agroforestry: Planting trees in and around farms reduces soil erosion by providing a natural barrier against strong winds and rainfall. Tree roots also stabilize and nourish soils. The 1990 Farm Bill established the USDA National Agroforestry Center with the expressed aim of encouraging farmers to grow trees as windbreaks or as part of combined forage and livestock production, among other uses. See Green Prophet’s feature on the Nabateans to see how this idea can be applied in the Middle East.

2. Soil management: Alternating crop species allows soil periods of rest, restores nutrients, and also controls pests. Soil amendments, such as biochar, help soils retain moisture near the surface by providing a direct source of water and nutrients to plant roots, even in times of drought.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

lily victoria

Water mismanagement threatens Moroccan oasis

Published on 06/21/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, desertification and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

For centuries the sharing out of water in the oasis was managed in the "khattara" tradition

Retrieved from: Phys

“Tucked away in Morocco’s high Atlas mountains the vast oasis of Errachidia, among the most beautiful in the south of the country, is today threatened by bad management.

“I dug four wells before finding water. Around me, the neighbours have no water. Before, there was water everywhere. That’s the will of God,” M’barek added, staring down at the stream carrying well water to the fields.

“For centuries the sharing out of water in the oasis, now threatened with drying out, was managed in the “khattara” tradition, whereby water towers were used and distribution took place according to need, in line with ancestral Berber rites.

“This system made it possible to maintain a regular flow of water all year round.

“From the 1970s, farmers have introduced , leading to the progressive depletion of the . Fields, once steadily cultivated and green, are now wasteland abandoned by the oasis dwellers.

“The outlines of the fields, you can see how big they are. Look, one, two, three, four meters (13 yards) wide. They are big, so that means there was lots of water,” said Lahcen Kabiri, professor of environmental geosciences at the University of Errachidia.

“Kabiri said the situation “could turn into a real catastrophe in light of the role of oases in the struggle against desertification.

“If the water runs out, then everything that depends on it will be in a dramatic situation. We will be up against an unprecedented ecological disaster.”

Read more: Phys

sammykayed

Iraq’s PM warns Arab states may face ‘water war’

Published on 05/30/2012 in desertification, management, peak water, policy, rivers and water wars. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.bbc.co.uk

“At a conference in Baghdad, he urged countries to work together in order to prevent conflict in the arid region.

Issues include desertification, poor water management, and the need for most Arab countries to rely on the goodwill of upstream states for river water.

Arab countries are seeking to address the water crisis with a unified plan.

The BBC’s Rami Ruhayem in Baghdad says Arab leaders have in the past failed to tackle common crises because of infighting and inefficiency.

And with popular uprisings tearing through the region, their differences seem to be getting even worse, our correspondent adds.

At the conference, the head of the Palestinian Water Authority accused Yemen of wasting a substantial amount of its water on irrigating qat plants, whose leaves are a popular stimulant.”

Read more: BBC

 

lily victoria

Encroaching Deserts Threaten Life Along Tibet’s Longest River

Published on 03/02/2012 in agriculture, climate change, desertification, drought, glaciers, hydrology, hydropower, peak water, rivers and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.trust.org

“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

 

lily victoria

Africa’s great ‘water grab’

Published on 12/03/2011 in agriculture, deforestation, desertification, displacement of people, drought, erosion, hydrology, policy, rivers, water rights, water shortage, water wars and world water supply. 0 Comments

The banks of the Niger river, in southern Mali, have been flooded by a steady stream of foreigners. Coveted by foreign investors eager to snap up large tracts of fertile farmland, the river basin has been at the centre of a race to get hold of African land at rock-bottom prices. Meanwhile, last week, hundreds of smallholder farmers and civil society activists flocked to the same river basin for the first international conference to tackle the global rush for land.

West Africa‘s largest river, the Niger is thought to sustain over 100 million people as it snakes 4,180km through Guinea, Mali and Niger before emptying into Nigeria’s colossal Niger Delta. In Mali, the Office du Niger is home to the vast majority of the country’s largescale land deals, seen by campaigners as emblematic of the “land grabs” taking place in developing countries. Recent estimates suggest that foreign investment in Mali’s limited arable land jumped by 60% between 2009 and 2010. But the potential knock-on effects of these land deals on local communities’ access to water has rarely made it centre-stage.

Ongoing research from the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development seeks to redress this blindspot, honing in on how such land deals might affect water access for fishing, farming and pastoralist communities. In a policy paper out on Thursday, the IIED’s Jamie Skinner and Lorenzo Cotula warn that an alarming number of African governments seem to be signing away water rights for decades, with major implications for local communities.

Read More: The Guardian

 

jenna cavelle

Critics blast Las Vegas pipeline proposal

Published on 11/20/2011 in desertification, management, uncategorized and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Retrieved from: blog spot

“An attorney for the LDS Church called a proposal for tapping ground water in the dry regions of Nevada and pumping it to Las Vegas a disaster with good intentions.

“It’s the cotton candy of good intentions with nothing good at its core,” attorney Paul Hermonskie said Friday. “It does not provide the protection my client must have.”

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is just one of hundreds of protestors who have lined up against the proposal for tapping groundwater aquifers in eastern Nevada. Hermonskie was among several who testified Friday’s closing hearing convened by the Nevada State Engineer’s Office. Hearings first began in September in which hundreds of documents were submitted and more than 80 people have testified.

“At issue is the divisive proposal by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to take ground water so it can supply the future needs of customers in the Las Vegas area. As many as 126,000 acre-feet of groundwater would be tapped to fill the proposed 300-mile, $3.5 billion pipeline that proponents say is necessary to keep the tourism industry — and the economy — of Las Vegas and Nevada afloat.

“The authority is seeking water right applications for a pipeline delivery system that has been the target of controversy because of concerns it would deplete ground water supplies in the arid region.”

Read more: Desert News

sammykayed

Holy Water: A precious commodity in a region of conflict

Published on 11/09/2011 in agriculture, desertification, groundwater, hydrology, policy, rivers, wastewater, water diversions, water shortage and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.aljazeera.net

“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

 

lily victoria

Vegas tries to kick its water addiction

Published on 09/05/2011 in desertification, hydrology, lakes, solutions and outreach, water conservation and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

“At first glance, it’s pretty easy to say Las Vegas has an unhealthy water fetish. There’s the 22-million-gallon Bellagio fountain, which rockets dancing cylinders of well water 500 feet into the air to the tune of “God Bless the USA.” There’s the liquid volcano at The Mirage, where water seems to bubble like lava. And, finally, the blue canals inside (inside!) the Venetian hotel, where water buoys gondolas for the amusement of gamblers and tourists.

“Keep in mind that this city is in the middle of the Mojave Desert, one of the hottest and driest places in the world.

“Step off reality-defiant Las Vegas Boulevard with its neon-soaked casinos and lavish “water features” and you’ll find a place that gets only 4 inches of rain in an average year — where the air is so dry that tourists keep lip balm and eye drops close at hand to avoid getting “lizard lips” and, generally, having all life-giving moisture vacuum-sucked right out of them. It’s a place where workers plant rocks instead of vegetation beside the roads, because you don’t have to water rocks, and water is one resource this manufactured oasis certainly doesn’t have in spades.

“Throw in a population boom, record drought, and climate change that scientists say will make such droughts more common in the future, and you’ve got the recipe for a water obsession that threatens Vegas’ very existence.”

Read more: CNN

jenna cavelle

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

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

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

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

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

Dried up Mecca

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

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

Read more: Green Prophet

 

 

lily victoria