Archive for the 'peak water' Category

Texas Agency Likely to Cut Water to Rice Farms

Published on 02/22/2012 in agriculture, drought, hydrology, management, peak water, policy and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.claimsjournal.com

“Thousands of farmers in Texas’ rice-producing region are likely to be affected by action taken in response to one of the most severe droughts in state history. With water management agencies implementing emergency plans never used before, the Lower Colorado River Authority is widely expected to announce March 1 that it will not release water to rice farmers in three counties.

“Texas usually produces about 5 percent of the nation’s rice. Production also is dropping this year in the other five major rice-growing states, including No. 1 Arkansas, as farmers are pressed by rising production costs and dropping prices.

“Many farmers in the region alternate between growing rice and ranching, but those with cattle sold off much of their livestock last year as the drought parched rangeland and pushed up hay prices. That leaves them with few alternatives now.

“To turn the tide in Texas, Mother Nature needs to dump 5 to 8 inches of rain in the Hill Country to produce about 32.6 billion gallons of runoff into the region’s lakes, LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose said. It’s possible, but Rose “wasn’t very optimistic” about it happening soon.”

Read more: Claims Journal

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Study: No Evidence Hydraulic Fracturing Pollutes Water

Published on 02/22/2012 in contaminated water, fracking, groundwater, hydrology, natural gas drilling and peak water. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Citizens march against fracking at the "Shale Gas Outrage Rally" in Philadelphia.

Photo retrieved from: www.voanews.com

“A new study finds no evidence that the controversial practice to extract natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing is contaminating ground water.
The report, “Separating Fact from Fiction in Shale Gas Development,” published by the University of Texas Energy Institute, attempts to allay fears that fracking poses a threat to public health and the environment.

According to Charles Groat, associate director of the institute, fracking, which injects water and chemicals into a well at high pressure to shatter the gas-bearing rock deep underground, is not to blame for polluted wells.

“University of Texas environmental engineer Danny Reible believes natural sources of gas leaks must also be considered.

“There are certainly examples of natural gas wells that have casing leaks and have led to natural gas moving into drinking water wells,” Reible says. “There are certainly examples of natural sources of gas both in the deep or subsurface as well as in the near subsurface that have also contaminated water supplies.”

Read more: Voice of America

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Farmers warn food prices could go up because of drought

Published on 02/22/2012 in agriculture, drought, hydrology, management, peak water, policy, water shortage, water technology and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

A combine harvester making it's way along a field of wheat in East Norton in Leicestershire. Farm, agriculture, farming, drought, British farming

Photo retrieved from: The Telegraph

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Peter Kendall, President of the National Farmers Union, said ongoing drought in the South East and Anglia, the “bread basket of Britain”, will cut yields and force up prices.

“As sure as night follows day if it doesn’t rain, food prices will go up. I can guarantee you that,” he said. “If there is less water across bigger areas of northern Europe food will cost more money.”

Drought-afflicted areas need 120 per cent of normal rainfall between now and March to avoid drought but the Met Office is forecasting a dry period.

“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

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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

 

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

Published on 02/20/2012 in management, peak water, rivers, tap water, water rights, water shortage and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: .

"Every year, we lose 70 million cubic metres of water due to water theft”. Retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

“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

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Ethiopia’s tribes cry for help

Published on 02/18/2012 in agriculture, dams, displacement of people, lakes, peak water, policy, privatization, rivers and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.aljazeera.com

“Violent clashes between the Ethiopian army and tribes from the region are on the rise. A local human rights worker told me of their fears of an escalation in the crisis to civil war. “Many tribes are saying they will fight back rather than be moved off their traditional lands to make way for these plantations. They are living in fear but feel they have nothing to lose by fighting back.”

Roadblocks are now in place in many parts of the Lower Omo Valley, limiting accessibility and ensuring the relocations remain out of the spotlight. Tribal rights NGO Survival International is leading calls for a freeze on plantation building and for a halt to the evictions. They have been campaigning to draw more attention to the deteriorating situation in the region since the Ethiopian government announced plans for the Gib III Dam [PDF] – Africa’s tallest, and one that is scheduled for completion later this year.

When completed, it threatens to destroy a fragile environment and the livelihoods of the tribes, which are closely linked to the river and its annual flood. Up to 500,000 people – including tribes in neighbouring Kenya – rely on the waters and adjacent lands of the Omo River and Lake Turkana, most of which lies in Kenya. The Karo people, now estimated to number just 1,500 along the eastern banks of the Omo River, face extinction. Already suffering from dwindling fish stocks as a result of the dam, the reduced river levels have also harmed their crop yields.”

Read more: Aljazeera

 

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Texas Water District Acts to Slow Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer

Published on 02/14/2012 in agriculture, drought, groundwater, peak water, policy, tap water, water conservation and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“The new rule issued by the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District, based in Lubbock, declares that water pumped in excess of the “allowable production rate” is illegal.

In Texas, a bastion of the free-market Tea Party, such a rule is hard to fathom.  Most of the state abides by the “rule of capture,” which basically allows farmers to pump as much water as they want from beneath their own land.  But irrigators in northwest Texas rely on the Ogallala aquifer, an underground water reserve that is all-too-rapidly disappearing.  If the region is to have any future at all, water users must find a way to curb the pumping.

The Ogallala is one of the nation’s largest and most productive underground water sources.   It makes up more than three-quarters of the High Plains aquifer, which spans 175,000 square miles and underlies parts of eight U.S. states — Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.  Water drawn from it irrigates 15.4 million acres of cropland, 27 percent of the nation’s total irrigated area.

Initially farmers settling in the High Plains relied on windmills to help them lift groundwater from beneath the surface.  But in the 1940s and 1950s, with the introduction of powerful pumps, large sprinkler systems and abundant supplies of natural gas and electricity, irrigation in the High Plains took off.  Since 1949, the area under irrigation has risen more than five-fold.  Groundwater withdrawals rose in tandem, resulting in a large-scale and ongoing depletion of this critical water reserve.”

Read more: National Geographic

 

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

Published on 02/11/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, greenwashing, hydrology, peak water, policy and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.africanwater.org

“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

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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

 

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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

 

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