tagged w/ Global Water Crisis
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FACT: More than 3,500,000 people die every year from water-related diseases.
FACT: Every 15 seconds, a child dies from PREVENTABLE water-borne related illness.
FACT: Nearly a billion people are without SAFE DRINKING WATER.
UNEP, Kenyan government launch fund to save Mau (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) - The government of Kenya in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a multi million dollar appeal to save the Mau Forests Complex.
The appeal aims at mobilizing resources for the rehabilitation of the Mau, the largest closed-canopy forest ecosystem in Kenya covering over 400,000 hectares - the size of Mount Kenya and the Aberdares combined.
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: “The Mau Complex is of critical importance for sustaining current and future ecological, social and economic development in Kenya. The rehabilitation of the ecosystem will require substantial resources and political goodwill. UNEP is privileged to work in partnership with the Government of Kenya towards the implementation of this vital project.”
The strategic importance of the Mau Forest lies in the ecosystem services it provides to Kenya and the region, including river flow regulation, flood mitigation, water storage, reduced soil erosion, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, carbon reservoir and micro-climate regulation.
Speaking during the launch Prime Minister lauded Steiner and UNEP for the support provided in the recovery of the water catchment area.
{please follow link for more - http://water.org/2009/09/un-and-kenya-launch-an-appeal-to-save-mau/}FACT: More than 3,500,000 people die every year from water-related diseases.
FACT:... more
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Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous.Just because a bunch of people use certain words to express themselves in fora(forums) doesn't mean that they're in some way foretelling the future,but...,but fact is that Cliff High was able to predict a number of specific and major events.Well, you'll be the judge of it! No wait, let time be the judge of it!Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous.Just because a bunch of people use certain words to... more
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Is it the final curtain for the Fertile Crescent? This summer, as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle, farmers abandon their desiccated fields across Iraq and Syria, and efforts to revive the Mesopotamian marshes appear to be abandoned, climate modellers are warning that the current drought is likely to become permanent. The Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation seems to be returning to desert.
Last week, Iraqi ministers called for urgent talks with upstream neighbours Turkey and Syria, after the combination of a second year of drought and dams in those countries cut flow on the Euphrates as it enters Iraq to below 250 cubic metres a second. That is less than a quarter the flow needed to maintain Iraqi agriculture.
Tensions have been growing since May, when the Iraqi parliament refused to approve a new much-needed trade deal with Turkey unless it contained binding clauses on river flows. But Turkey appears in no mood to compromise. In July, it announced the final go-ahead for yet another dam, the Ilisu on the Tigris.Is it the final curtain for the Fertile Crescent? This summer, as Turkish dams reduce... more
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Hopes that the 10 Nile Basin countries would sign a water-sharing agreement at a meeting in Alexandria to settle one of the planet's most contentious water issues have been dashed — for now at least — after Egypt and Sudan rejected any cuts in their traditional quotas.
But the prospects of a long-term accord on an equitable share-out of the waters of the 3,470-mile Nile, the world's longest river, remain dim, largely because Egypt, the largest user, refuses to surrender its veto powers and its historic rights over the river that has been its lifeblood since time immemorial.
The Nile and its tributaries flow through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
The water ministers of these states put off finalizing a treaty for six months when they wrapped up their four-day Alexandria meeting on Tuesday.
In May, the riparian states had drafted a Cooperative Framework Agreement at a summit in the Congo, but Egypt and Sudan refused to sign because it made no mention of their historic claims on Nile water that date back to the colonial era.
Cairo and Khartoum, which do not see eye-to-eye on most things, hailed Tuesday's postponement. "It's a big victory," a senior Sudanese official declared. "They were going to sign the agreement beginning Aug. 1 regardless of Egypt and Sudan."
The dispute over the Nile's life-giving waters has stirred resentment and tension for years now. But now the feuding over water appears to be intensifying.
Some international law experts have gone so far as to suggest that if political and diplomatic efforts fail to settle the issue, the use of military force would be the only option.
Others say it is unlikely that any of these states would resort to such extreme action. But the U.N. Development Program recently voiced concern that conflict over shrinking water resources could trigger "water wars" — as has happened before in the arid Middle East.
Climate change in recent years has reduced rainfall, leading to lower water flows in the Nile and jeopardizing hydraulic projects in several states.
Egypt and neighboring Sudan are the Nile's largest consumers. Egypt, which lies at the end of the river as it flows into the Mediterranean, does not contribute any water to the Nile system.Hopes that the 10 Nile Basin countries would sign a water-sharing agreement at a... more
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Even after all that has happened and is happening globally regarding environmental factors and climate change, Americans are still under the impression that we are not vulnerable to that which now effects the developing world. I think this ignorance is what fuels much of the inaction regarding water issues and climate change in America. It needs to change. Now.Even after all that has happened and is happening globally regarding environmental... more
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St. Thomas which was a city covered by Lake Mead due to Hoover Dam construction is now exposed due to recession of water levels. To some that may seem like justice because of what was done to St. Thomas originally because of the dam construction, but now this lake which is one of the largest has millions of people dependent on it for water. So now, those in this area who once lost all due to the water coming in may well see that again because of the opposite effect. This is a stark example of what population increases and climate change combined with waste can lead to. It should be a lesson to us all.
From article:
All reservoirs along the Colorado River might dry up by mid-century as the West warms, a new study finds. The probability of such a severe shortage by then runs as high as one-in-two, unless current water-management practices change, the researchers report.
The study's coauthors looked at the effects of a range of reductions in Colorado River stream flow on future reservoir levels and at the implications of different management strategies.
Even under the harshest drying caused by climate change, the large storage capacity of reservoirs on the Colorado might help sustain water supply for a few decades. However, new water management approaches are critical to minimize the chances of fully depleting reservoir storage by mid-century.
"This study, along with others that predict future flow reductions in the Colorado River Basin, suggests that water managers should begin to re-think current water management practices during the next few years, before the more serious effects of climate change appear," says lead study author Balaji Rajagopalan of the University of Colorado in Boulder (CU-Boulder).
The findings by Rajagopalan and his colleagues have been accepted by the journal Water Resources Research, published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
The Colorado River system is enduring its 10th year of a drought. Fortunately, the river system entered the drought in 2000, with the reservoirs at approximately 95 percent of capacity. The reservoir system is currently at 59 percent of capacity, about the same as this time last year, says Rajagopalan. Roughly 30 million people depend on the Colorado River for drinking and irrigation water.
The research team examined the future vulnerability of the system to water supply variability coupled with projected changes in water demand. They found that through 2026, the risk of fully depleting reservoir storage in any given year remains below 10 percent under any scenario of climate fluctuation or management alternative. During this period, the reservoir storage could even recover from its current low level, according to the researchers.
But if climate change results in a 10 percent reduction in the Colorado River's average stream flow as some recent studies predict, the chances of fully depleting reservoir storage will exceed 25 percent by 2057, according to the study. If climate change results in a 20 percent flow reduction, the chances of fully depleting reservoir storage will exceed one in two by 2057, Rajagopalan says.
"On average, drying caused by climate change would increase the risk of fully depleting reservoir storage by nearly ten times more than the risk we expect from population pressures alone," Rajagopalan says.
"By mid-century this risk translates into a 50 percent chance in any given year of empty reservoirs, an enormous risk and huge water management challenge," he says.
The river hosts more than a dozen dams along its 2,330-kilometer (1,450-mile) journey from Colorado's Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California.
end of excerpt.St. Thomas which was a city covered by Lake Mead due to Hoover Dam construction is now... more
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There is no more stark a depiction of man's footprint on Earth than the rapid decline of the Aral Sea.
Excerpt:
These Envisat images highlight the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea’s shoreline from 2006 to 2009. The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water, but it has been steadily shrinking over the past 50 years since the rivers that fed it were diverted for irrigation projects.
By the end of the 1980s, it had split into the Small Aral Sea (north), located in Kazakhstan, and the horse-shoe shaped Large Aral Sea (south), shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
By 2000, the Large Aral Sea had split into two – an eastern and western lobe. As visible in the images, the eastern lobe retreated substantially between 2006 and 2009. It appears to have lost about 80% of its water since the 2006 acquisition, at which time the eastern lobe had a length of about 150 km and a width of about 70 km.
The sea’s entire southern section is expected to dry out completely by 2020, but efforts are underway to save the northern part.
The Kok-Aral dike, a joint project of the World Bank and the Kazakhstan government, was constructed between the northern and southern sections of the sea to prevent water flowing into the southern section. Since its completion in 2005, the water level has risen in the northern section by an average of 4 m.
As the Aral Sea evaporated, it left behind a 40 000 sq km zone of dry, white salt terrain now called the Aral Karakum Desert. Each year violent sandstorms pick up at least 150 000 tonnes of salt and sand from the Aral Karakum and transport it across hundreds of km, causing severe health problems for the local population and making regional winters colder and summers hotter. In an attempt to mitigate these effects, vegetation that thrives in dry, saline conditions is being planted in the former seabed.
In 2007, the Kazakhstan government secured another loan from the World Bank to implement the second stage, which includes the building of a second dam, of the project aimed at reversing this man-made environmental disaster.There is no more stark a depiction of man's footprint on Earth than the rapid decline... more
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This is truly a moral issue.
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Evian Natural Spring Water is looking to break-dancing babies to energize its brand. The upscale water brand this week is launching its new “Live young” global advertising campaign. The ads, which will appear online in the U.S. and on TV in some overseas markets, look to project the brand's values of health, youth and purity in a more playful way than in the past.
Evian has been struggling during the recession in the U.S. Its sales volume sank 17 percent in 2008, per Beverage Digest. Evian holds only 0.6 percent of the bottled water market. With its high price, premium brands of bottled water like Evian are showing dwindling returns, said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest. “Evian has been flattish to down in recent years mainly because the category has moved more towards mid- to low-price brands.”
Evian is hoping for a viral hit on the Web to launch the campaign in the U.S. It is posting the ad on YouTube as well as initiating a new Web site www.evianliveyoung.com dedicated to the campaign. Visitors can view two videos, digital teasers of break-dancing babies and “making-of” clips. “Interviews” with a few of the 96 babies filmed will be available, as well as links to Facebook pages created for the infants.
In the ad, the message “Let’s observe the effect of Evian on your body” appears, followed by lively and happy babies break-dancing on roller skates to a remix of the classic track “Rapper’s Delight” by hip-hop producer Dan the Automater. Euro RSCG is the agency.
“The Web today has changed the way we communicate and in launching this campaign virally it allows Evian, a global brand, to reach consumers worldwide in a way that traditional media cannot,” said Jerome Goure, vice president of marketing for Danone Waters of America, the importer and marketer of Evian in North America.Evian Natural Spring Water is looking to break-dancing babies to energize its brand.... more
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel must address the vital issue of water in the West Bank if meaningful peace talks are to take place.
Israel's leaders said nothing, but Abbas had touched on one of the most sensitive issues in the seemingly endless negotiations, which have been in abeyance for the last few years, and one on which any expectation of a comprehensive settlement will probably ultimately rest.
Israel's unilateral control over rivers and aquifers meant scarce water resources were not being shared equitably "as required by international law," he declared.
"It is with dismay that I see 9,000 Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley utilize one-quarter of the water that the entire Palestinian population in the West Bank utilizes," he told the World War Forum in Istanbul.
In the largely arid Middle East, water is more valuable than oil and has been a source of conflict since time immemorial.
As the world's resources, from oil to timber and minerals, dwindle, the prospect of more water wars in the Middle East in the decades ahead increase with each passing day.
The crisis is deepened by rapidly expanding populations across the Arab world. This, coupled with industrial growth and a relentless drive for food self-sufficiency, is draining water supplies faster than they can be replenished.
Global warming accelerates the damage. Climate experts warn that one-third of the Earth's surface may be at risk of extreme drought by the end of the century, triggering mass migrations of "environmental refugees." Many of those will be in the Middle East and North Africa.
The region has been hit by a severe drought for the last five years, making the water issue all that more critical, aggravating a dispute between the Israelis, whose own water resources are dwindling, and the Palestinians, who sit on a major aquifer under the West Bank that Israel covets as much as its ever-expanding archipelago of settlements.
Israel views the water from the West Bank -- as it did the water it siphoned off from the Litani River in Lebanon during its 1978-2000 occupation of that country's southern zone -- as vital to its national security. The Palestinians will not be able to sustain a viable independent state without water.
end of excerptPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel must address the vital issue of water... more
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Eli Raz was peering into a narrow hole in the Dead Sea shore when the earth opened up and swallowed him. Fearing he would never be found alive in the 30-foot- deep pit, he scribbled his will on an old postcard.
After 14 hours a search party pulled him from the hole unhurt, and five years later the 69-year-old geologist is working to save others from a similar fate, leading an effort to map the sinkholes that are spreading on the banks of the fabled saltwater lake.
These underground craters can open up in an instant, sucking in whatever lies above and leaving the surrounding area looking like an earthquake zone.
The phenomenon, Raz said, stems from a dire water shortage, compounded in recent years by tourism and chemical industries as well as a growing population. "This is the most remarkable evidence of the brutal interference of humans in the Dead Sea," he said.
The parched moonscape, famous as the site of biblical Sodom and Gomorra, is the lowest point on earth and runs more than 60 miles through Israel and the West Bank.
Large sections of the coast are fenced off and signposted in Hebrew and English: "danger, open pits" and "sinkhole area ahead." But it's too expensive to inspect every place for danger. Just two months ago an Israeli hiker wandered into an area that had no warning signs and was critically injured when he fell into a sinkhole.
While such accidents are rare, Raz says there are up to 3,000 open sinkholes along the coast and likely just as many that haven't burst open yet. And they're having a big impact on Israeli development plans.
The collapsing terrain has forced authorities to close a campground, date groves and a small naval base, and to scrap plans for 5,000 new hotel rooms, said Galit Cohen, director of environmental planning at the Ministry of the Environment.
The holes, also found on the Jordanian side of the sea, are the result of the Dead Sea having shrunk by a third since the 1960s when Israel and Jordan built plants to divert water flowing through its main tributary, the Jordan River.
end of excerptEli Raz was peering into a narrow hole in the Dead Sea shore when the earth opened up... more
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Even though three quarters of our planet is considered water, there is still a demand for it in almost every community, and a scarcity in many. That’s because we can actually only use one to two percent of it, which is why we’ve written a slew of articles over the years about conserving water. And with so many items that are now more available, like low-flow showerheads, faucet aerators, rain barrels, and efficient washing machines and dishwashers, there really isn’t an excuse to not be more conscious. Unless, of course, it means spending money.
There are some surprising ways to cut down on water that you might not often think of so we’ve taken the simple things we do in our daily lives to conserve water, and wrote them down along the way. Below is a list of creative steps you can take to conserve water and we know there are a ton more - just put the thinking cap on!
1. Only order water in a restaurant if you are going to actually drink it. How many times have you seen full water glasses left on tables from customers who have ordered an iced tea or soda instead? Next time you sit down think twice about whether you are going to drink your glass of water or ask your server to fill you halfway. You can always get a refill.
2. Reuse your dehumidifier water. For those of us that have dehumidifiers we know this is an excellent source of water. Since it usually comes from damp basements, reusing it to water your plants and lawn is a perfect alternative rather than wasting it by dumping it down the drain or toilet.
3. Wash your fruits and vegetables in a pot of water. Instead of washing your delicious delectables from the farmer’s market under a running faucet, fill a pot instead. Not only will you save a good amount of water, but the water in the pot can also be reused to water your plants.
4. Check outdoor hoses, faucets, and sprinklers. While many of us are very diligent about staying on top of leaky faucets and toilets, another source of wasted water could be coming from outdoors as well. Make sure to check all hoses, faucets, and sprinklers for any leaks that might occur, and check their connections as well. Many times these can often be fixed with electrical tape or duct tape.
5. Use the same glass for water. Throughout the day we drink several glasses of water. But instead of putting it directly into the dishwasher after each use, simply refill the one that you already have. This will cut down on the many glasses used throughout the day, which means there are fewer glasses to wash.
6. Know the water footprint of your food. A significant way to decrease your water footprint is to know how many gallons of water the food you eat consumes. While this might seem a bit difficult at first, you'll get the hang of it and can put it to good use when you're at the grocery store or eating in a restaurant. For example, beef consumes way more water than chicken and mangos consume more water than nectarines.
7. Reuse your cooking water. How many times a week do you steam or boil vegetables? Often that leftover water ends up down the drain. Next time, save the water and use it to start vegetable stock for a soup.Even though three quarters of our planet is considered water, there is still a demand... more
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The latest research expedition to the Southern Patagonia Ice Field revealed that alpine glaciers in the Chilean and Argentine Andes are disappearing at much faster rates than previously anticipated by the scientific community.
A preliminary analysis by a team of scientists from NASA and Chile’s Valdivia-based Center of Scientific Studies (CECS), which commenced an expedition to the Ice Field in October 2008, sheds light on the alarming speed at which the glaciers are depleting.
The scientists discovered that the masses of ice in the Patagonia are melting in larger proportions and in much higher alpine zones than in any other part of the world, including Alaska and the Himalayas. Glacier ice accounts for around 75 percent of the world’s fresh water.
“The loss of ice mass in the higher zones is the really new phenomenon,” said Gino Casassa, a CECS glaciologist. “At least this is what we are seeing with the preliminary results which we have just received.”
Until recently, it was believed that glacial loss occurred from lower areas, and that snowfall on the higher sections of glaciers would compensate for loss of ice at lower altitudes.
“One hypothesis we put forward was that there could be a positive balance of ice in the high zones because of higher rates of snowfall in these areas,” said Casassa.
But with ice thinning high up and down low, too, loss in glacial mass in Patagonia is likely to be much greater than what has previously been calculated by scientists.
The new findings are also curious because they contradict some former studies.
For example, a previous study found that the Chilean glaciers Trinidad and Pio XI (the biggest glacier in the southern hemisphere outside of Antarctica) had advanced instead of receded, while the Perito Moreno glacier in the Los Glaciares National Park in southern Argentina had maintained a volume balance.
Between 1944 and 1986 glacial ice in the Southern Patagonia Ice Field was recorded as retreating at an average of 57 meters per year.
end of excerptThe latest research expedition to the Southern Patagonia Ice Field revealed that... more
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Rising temperature and deforestation have intensified drought and desertification in Tibet, China's state media said.
Drought conditions have hit 33 counties in five of the six prefectures in Tibet, affecting 15.3 percent of the Tibetan plateau, Xinhua said, quoting the regional drought relief and flood control headquarters.
According to the report, the drought has also killed 13,601 head of cattle.
Nine meteorological centers in Tibet have not seen substantial rain for 226 consecutive days, Zhao Yiping, head of the Tibet Regional Meteorological Bureau said.
The drought has also been worsened by higher than normal temperatures. Tibet has experienced temperatures 0.4 to 2.3 celsius degrees higher than normal years, Zhao said.
The report by Xinhua news agency follows a warning by China's top weather official last month that Tibet faced a growing threat of drought and floods as global warming melts its glaciers.
The head of the China Meteorological Bureau, Zheng Guogang, last month was quoted by Xinhua as warning that global warming was accelerating glacial shrinkage, causing Tibet's lakes to swell.
"If the warming continues, millions of people in western China will face floods in the short term and drought in the long run.
Moreover, desertification is spreading by 39,600 hectares (98,000 acres) annually in Tibet, an official at the regional forestry bureau was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency."
end of excerpt.
http://www.tibetcustom.com/article.php/2009062015494691
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Reported by Chinese media. Yes China, but keep building those dams.
More at the link.Rising temperature and deforestation have intensified drought and desertification in... more
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Whoever thought that our heart-healthy, low-cal, doctor-approved trips to the supermarket fish counter would become fraught with moral choices?
That's exactly the case being made by "The End of the Line," the disturbing new documentary on what overfishing is doing to the world's oceans. (It opens in Los Angeles next Friday.) The film from director Rupert Murray and investigative journalist Charles Clover was screened Monday at UCLA to mark World Oceans Day. Producer Lawrence Bender and longtime environmental activist Kelly Meyer (wife of Universal Pictures President RonMeyer) hosted a crowd that included Rosario Dawson, Saffron Burrows and Kimberly Estrada.
Later this summer, the campaign will include broadcast and online public service announcements featuring Martin Sheen, Alyssa Milano, Rosanna Arquette, Ellen Page, Kelly Preston, Anthony LaPaglia, Gia Carides, Brenda Strong, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Shawn Pyfrom, Keisha Whitaker, Ken Baumann, Kelli Williams, Dave Lieberman, Rene Auberjonois and former NBA player John Salley.
There's a new optimism stirring among activists in this community because after eight years of outright hostility emanating from the Bush White House toward environmental issues, the Obama administration is more willing to engage questions that involve complex international questions.
"The End of the Line," based on Clover's groundbreaking book of the same title, is the first feature-length documentary to take on the overfishing crisis.
According to the filmmakers, failure to take quick action will mean the end of most commercial fishing within less than half a century with dire consequences both in terms of depleting the food supply and the loss of jobs.
To make their case, Murray and Clover not only traveled to fishing grounds all over the world, but also confronted politicians and celebrity restaurateurs on camera.
As examples of what's in store for other popularly consumed species, Murray and Clover examine in detail the near extinction of commercial cod stocks and the impending collapse of bluefin tuna populations around the world, much of the latter caused by the West's newly aroused appetite for sushi and sashimi.
(Add that happy thought to your deliberations the next time you're trying to decide whether to spring for the toro at the local sushi bar.)Whoever thought that our heart-healthy, low-cal, doctor-approved trips to the... more
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The water spouts from a broken pipe, forming a perfect circle before it is dispersed by the wind and falls on the breaking waves of the Mediterranean sea.
It looks like a fountain, but the pipe that runs from the town of Rafah to the sea by Gaza's border with Egypt contains raw sewage. It enters the sea by the Swedish Village, so-called because it was built by Swedish UN soldiers in the 1960s. In the overcrowded village it is impossible to escape the smell of sewage.
The discharge is one of at least a dozen which pollutes the sea off Gaza. The worst is Wadi Gaza, where a steady flow of raw sewage blackens the sea for kilometres. The currents in the eastern Mediterranean move northwards, bringing sand from the Nile delta and sewage traces from Gaza to the beaches of Israel.
Gaza's sewage problem is just one of several environmental issues which affect both Palestinians and Israelis. Friday 5 June was World Environment Day, and it is appropriate to take a moment to survey the environmental damage around us and ask what can be done to prevent it.
The river Jordan, which once nourished the Jordan valley and some of the world's oldest towns is a salty and polluted trickle. Before it was dammed, the river's flow was 20 times greater. Downstream, the Dead Sea recedes by a metre every year. In 20 years, it has lost a third of its surface area. One of the major sources of water flowing into the Dead Sea is the Kidron river or Wadi Nara, which brings raw sewage from Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Some Israeli beaches are regularly closed by environmental officials, mainly because of deficiencies in Israel's sewage network. However, one cannot discount the human waste which travels from the West Bank via rivers such as the Soreq, Lakhish, Hadera and Alexander. According to Israel's Ministry of Environment, 58 million cubic metres of untreated sewage is dumped in the West Bank by Palestinians and settlers each year. This goes into the ground, where it pollutes aquifers, and into streams which ultimately reach the sea.
The effect of global climate change on the Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory is not yet clear. The region has suffered five years of drought and some forecasters estimate that temperatures will rise and rainfall will decrease. It will become much harder to make the desert bloom in such conditions.
Environmental issues affect everyone, yet here they are an unnecessary hostage of the conflict. It would take a small mental shift to remove environmental issues from the "pending peace process" tray and upgrade them to urgent. These problems will not go away or wait until the resumption of serious peace talks.
There are environmentalists on both sides of the Green Line who are committed to solving these problems but are frustrated by their colleagues in government who see environmental issues as minor in the grand scheme of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Expensive plans to avert disaster are being investigated and implemented. Israel is building a further three desalination plants in addition to the two it already has. A feasibility study is underway into transporting water from the Red Sea into the Dead Sea, via pumps, desalination plants and electricity-generating turbines. Both schemes rely on using huge amounts of energy to achieve their aims, which may affect global warming.
But it is the simple solutions that appear to be the most difficult, such as supplying water to communities and providing basic sewage treatment. In 1995 the Joint Water Committee was set up to manage water resources in the occupied Palestinian territory as part of the Oslo accords. It was an interim committee which was meant to operate by consensus. Fourteen years later, the committee does not seem temporary and consensus appears to have broken down. As a result, water networks and sewage treatment plants in the West Bank have not been built.
end of excerptThe water spouts from a broken pipe, forming a perfect circle before it is dispersed... more
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Some 160 villages in northern Syria were deserted by their residents in 2007 and 2008 because of climate change, according to a study released on Tuesday.
The report drawn up by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) warns of potential armed conflict for control of water resources in the Middle East.
"The 2007/8 drought caused significant hardship in rural areas of Syria. In the northeast of the country, a reported 160 villages have been entirely abandoned and the inhabitants have had to move to urban areas," it said.
In Syria and also in Jordan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, "climate change threatens to reduce the availability of scarce water resources, increase food insecurity, hinder economic growth and lead to large-scale population movements," the report said.
"This could hold serious implications for peace in the region," the Canada-based institute said.
The study, financed by Denmark, predicts a hotter, drier and less predictable climate in the Middle East, "already considered the world's most water-scarce and where, in many places, demand for water already outstrips supply."
Oli Brown, who co-wrote the report with Alec Crawford, said: "Climate change itself poses real security concerns to the region. It could lead to increased militarisation of strategic natural resources, complicating peace agreements."
"Israel is already using climate change as an excuse to increase their control over the water resources in the region," he said.
In the study's conclusions, Brown and Crawford said: "As a region, the Levant produces a tiny fraction of global emissions -- less than one percent of the world total.
The exception among Levant countries is Israel, "whose emissions -- 11.8 metric tonnes per capita -- exceed the European average of 10.05 tonnes," they said.
"This may exacerbate the existing deep mistrust of the West, including Israel, which would be seen as causing a problem that it is unable or unwilling to resolve," they said.
The study also revealed the challenge posed by population growth.
"The combined population of the Levant will grow to 71 million by 2050 from 42 million in 2008" with major implications for water demand, food supply, housing and jobs, it said.
snip
"Some 13 percent of agricultural land was downgraded between 1980 and 2006 because of... urban expansion and agricultural, industrial and tourism activities," Fayez Asrafy, a desertification expert, told AFP.
"Rainfall shrank by 10 millimetres (a year) between 1956 and 2006 while temperatures rose by (an average) 0.5 degrees Celsius, though below the worldwide average of 0.6 degrees," Syrian meteorologist Khales Mawed said.
The IISD predicts even modest global warming would lead to a 30-percent drop in water in the Euphrates, which runs through Turkey, Syria and Iraq, while the Dead Sea would shrink in volume by 80 percent by the end of the century.Some 160 villages in northern Syria were deserted by their residents in 2007 and 2008... more
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About 330,000 people in central China are to be evicted from their homes to make way for a reservoir that will form part of a massive water diversion project, state media said Sunday.
More than two-thirds of the people in Hubei and Henan provinces would be relocated to about 50 nearby counties and cities, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Jiyao, head of the project, as saying.
Zhang did not say where the remaining 100,000 would be placed to make way for the Danjiangkou Reservoir, part of the multi-billion-dollar North-South Water Diversion Project. The project aims to bring water from the nation's longest river, the Yangtze, to the parched north of the country, which is plagued by droughts.
Xinhua has previously said that by 2010, when part of the project will have been completed, up to one billion cubic metres of water will be diverted to Beijing annually.
According to the project's website, the relocation of the 330,000 people is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.
end of excerpt from article.
Also see:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE51Q02E20090227?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
There is great discontent amongst the people over this water scheme.
I am really exasperated in continuing to read about the proliferation of dams not only in Asia but also in Africa. As we have seen from every example of a dam being built in these areas, it does nothing but displace people, cause environmental devastation, and threaten agriculture thus exacerbating the very conditions already plaguing farmers in China now. I sometimes really do find myself speechless.
My previous entry on Three Gorges Dam with comment:
Three Gorges Dam-Hydropower At A Huge Human Cost
http://water-is-life.blogspot.com/2007/11/three-gorges-dam-hydropower-at-huge.html
I have to honestly state that I am sad regarding human behavior today. We see the crisis and yet we continue to shield our eyes from it thinking business as usual is going to solve it when it is really a paradigm moral shift that must occur in our consciousness that will bring us the answers. In short, we have forgotten what it is to be human (if we even know what that means) and instead only care on the whole about survival at any cost (which is really not survival) instead of survival in balance with peace and ecological consciousness.
Water is our lifeblood not a commodity to be used carelessly without regard for the consequences. I think China is learning that lesson the hard way.About 330,000 people in central China are to be evicted from their homes to make way... more
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Scientists from major countries including India have come out with a declaration demanding a region-by-region response to increased water scarcity and heightened hazards.
An international group of scientists from the US, India, China and Britain, in a declaration, have said that melting glaciers, weakening monsoon rains, less mountain snowpack and other effects of a warmer climate will lead to significant disruptions in the supply of water to highly populated regions of the world.
The group convened by University of California San Diego and the University of Cambridge added that this will especially be the case near the Himalayas in Asia and the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the western United States.
More than two dozen international water experts participated in the "Ice, Snow, and Water: Impacts of Climate Change on California and Himalayan Asia" workshop held at UC San Diego recently.
Workshop experts represented the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the UN World Climate Research Programme, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the British Antarctic Survey, and the California Department of Water Resources as well as several American universities.
They noted heavy rains in Indian deserts, a recent drought in what is typically one of the wettest place on earth along the foot of the Himalayas, and other extreme weather events in recent decades.
Major rivers in both regions, like China's Yellow River and the Colorado River in the southwestern United States, routinely fail to reach the ocean now.
These extremes are signs of the climate and societally induced stresses that will be exacerbated in the future under continuing climate changes, threatening massive and progressive disruptions in the availability of drinking water to more than a billion people in the two regions.
"Solutions to immense problems have small beginnings and we began here," said Sustainability Solutions Institute Senior Strategist Charles Kennel. "I continue to be impressed by what a small group of dedicated people can achieve."
Workshop leaders plan to present the declaration at the 2009 Forum on Science and Technology in Society in Kyoto, Japan, taking place in October.
Research conducted at Scripps and at other research centers around the world have indicated that global warming and particulate air pollution, especially in the form of black carbon, are already disrupting natural supplies of water by raising air temperatures and by increasing the light absorption of snow and ice as pollutants darken the frozen surfaces.Scientists from major countries including India have come out with a declaration... more
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When the desert winds tear up the sands outside his front door, Huang Cuikun, pictured below in a dried- up riverbed near his home, says he is choked by dust, visibility falls to a few metres and the crops are ruined.
Dust storms hit his village in Gansu province more often than in the past. The water table is falling. Temperatures rise year by year. Yet Huang says this is an improvement. Three years ago the government relocated him from an area where the river ran dry and the well became so salinated that people who drank from it fell sick.
"Life is easier now," he says, puffing on a cigarette in the new brick home that the authorities have given him. "When we lived in Donghuzhen, we had little water and the crops couldn't grow. Our income was tiny and we were very poor."
Huang is one of millions of Chinese eco-refugees who have been resettled because their home environments degraded to the point where they were no longer fit for human habitation. The government says more than 150 million people will have to be moved. Water shortages exacerbated by over-irrigation and climate change are the main cause.
The problem is most severe in the north-west, where desert sands are swallowing up farmland, homes and towns. Huang lives in Mingqin, a shrinking oasis area that government advisers privately describe as an "ecological disaster area".
The Yellow river is diverted more than 62 miles (100km) to replenish dried-up reservoirs and aquifers in Minqin, where the population has swollen from 860,000 to 2.3 million over the last 60 years, even as water supplies have declined.
It is not enough. The Tengger desert is encroaching from the south-east and the Badain Jaran desert from the north-west. Since 1950 the oasis has shrunk by 111 square miles (288 sq km), while the number of annual superdust storms has increased more than fourfold. In Liangzhou district, 240 of the 291 springs have dried up.
Global warming is adding to the problem. Evaporation rates are rising, along with temperatures. According to a study by the Centre for Agricultural Water Research in China, 64% of the reduced stream-flow in the area is attributable to climate variation.
end of excerpt.When the desert winds tear up the sands outside his front door, Huang Cuikun, pictured... more
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