Archive for the 'floods' Category

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Regional tensions limit Bhutan climate summit aims

Published on 11/18/2011 in displacement of people, floods, peak water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: Bhutan Climate Summit, Himalayan flood, himalayan water shortage, peakwater, Water.

Retrieved from: Iceagenow

“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.”

Government’s Citarum River dredging project kicks off

Published on 11/09/2011 in floods, hydrology, management, policy, rivers and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: Citarum River, citarum river normalization project.

Photo retrieved from: www.cempakanature.com

“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.”

Residents Tear Down Bangkok Flood Barrier

Published on 11/02/2011 in contaminated water, floods, management, policy, rivers, wastewater and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments Tags: Bangkok floods, Chao Phraya river.

Photo retrieved from: www.aljazeera.net

“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.”

Bangkok braces for flooding from high tides

Published on 10/28/2011 in displacement of people and floods. 0 Comments Tags: Bangkok floods, flooding in Asia, peak water, water news.

Chinatown residents make their way through a flooded street on Wednesday. The water has caused problems for small vehicles and led to traffic congestion.

Retrieved from: CNN

“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.”

Bangkok Becomes Medieval-Style Fortress Against Deadly Flood

Published on 10/21/2011 in contaminated water, floods, management, policy, rivers, wastewater and water diversions. 0 Comments

Retrieved from: www.bangkokpost.com

“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.”

Kuyiloor barrage in urgent need of repair

Published on 09/18/2011 in agriculture and floods. 0 Comments Tags: Kuyiloor barrage, peak water, Valapattanam river, Water, water storage.

Retrieved from: The Hindu

“The 16-shutter barrage built across the Valapattanam river at Kuyiloor near Mattannur as part of the Pazhassi Irrigation Project (PIP) stands as a physical testimony to the state of extreme disrepair the project has fallen into. PIP is now on its deathbed, 32 years after its partial commissioning by the then Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, with the State government winding it up. The barrage is also a reminder of the urgent need to protect and maintain the project’s storage reservoir which is now a major source of water for the entire district and neighbouring Mahe.

“The old radial shutters of the barrage and its operating mechanism are so corroded that one of them was damaged in 2009 and another, earlier this year. The mechanical wing of the Irrigation Department, entrusted to reconstruct the two radial shutters to replace the damaged ones at an estimated cost of Rs.1 crore, has nearly completed the work. With no further allocation of funds, the work is now stalled, leaving the entire project in limbo.

“According to project officials here, five shutters are not in operative condition due to heavy damage and the remaining 11 shutters are also in a dilapidated condition. Their replacement with new shutters is required for proper storage of water in the reservoir. The timing for the work to get stalled could not be worse.

“The shutters can be opened only during monsoon season and the repairs can only be conducted before November each year. The supply of drinking water by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) will be adversely affected if the repair work is not done before November. After November, the water should be stored in the reservoir. Already, the storage capacity of the reservoir is reduced by about 30 per cent due to heavy leakage through the radial shutters.”

Most Pennsylvania evacuees return as river recedes

Published on 09/11/2011 in displacement of people, floods, rivers and uncategorized. 0 Comments

Retrieved from: blogs.democratandchronicle.com

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Tens of thousands of people forced from their homes in Pennsylvania were allowed to return Saturday as the Susquehanna River receded from some of the highest floodwaters ever seen in the area, swollen by remnants of Tropical Storm Lee.

Other residents evacuated from river towns in New York and Maryland were waiting for permission to return as officials surveyed flood damage.

Toxic Floods Hit US Northeast Coast

Published on 09/09/2011 in contaminated water, floods, groundwater, levees, rivers and wastewater. 0 Comments Tags: hurricanes, Susquehanna River.

Photo retrieved from: www.aljazeera.net

“Relentless rain has caused catastrophic flooding in the eastern United States, killing at least five people and forcing the evacuation of more than 130,000 in three states.

Remnants of Tropical Storm Lee swamped homes and businesses from Maryland to New England on Thursday and dropped up to 30cm of rain outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which declared a state of emergency.

Floodwaters are now polluted with sewage and other toxins and officials warn that public health in parts of the northeastern US could be at risk from direct exposure or contaminated private water wells.

Flood warnings were in effect in northern Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and upstate New York, and flood watches were under way in other areas from Massachusetts to Washington DC, according to the National Weather Service.

In Vermont, a dozen towns flooded by Irene are still on boil-water orders 12 days later, though no waterborne illness has been reported. Similar precautions have been taken in other storm-damaged states.

Vermont’s state health department is giving away free test kits so residents can check their wells for bacteria.

Al Jazeera’s senior meteorologist, Steff Gaulter says that despite the intense activity the hurricane season is not over yet.

“The Atlantic hurricane season lasts until the end of November, so there’s plenty of time for yet more storms to strike the US and cause yet more flooding.”

Nigeria floods: Ibadan reflects on Eleyele Dam tragedy

Published on 09/05/2011 in dams and floods. 0 Comments Tags: eleyele dam, nigeria floods.

Photo retrieved from: www.bbc.co.uk

“After six hours of torrential rain the Eleyele Dam, which provided drinking water to the Nigerian city of Ibadan, could hold back the flow no longer.

Water poured over the top, flooding everything in its path.

It was nearly midnight last weekend and many people were asleep in their homes. More than 120 people – many of them children – perished.

“It was like an ocean wave making a loud noise as it came. It was very terrible,” Aleton Adejoke told the BBC.

“We managed to close our gate to stop the water rushing in. But thank God we didn’t go fishing.”

But just 30m (100 ft) from her house a tragedy was unfolding.

Floating cars

In a corrugated metal shack, eight children were trapped alone while their father was away working a night shift. Theirs was the closest house to the river and the speed of the water gave them no chance to escape.”

Los Angeles Learns To Love Its River

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

Photo retrieved from: www.bbc.co.uk

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

Much of the river is used as a giant storm drain

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

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

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

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