-
-
related tags:
- Drought
- Water Waste
- Water Conservation
- Water is a Human Right
- Global Water Crisis
- Water Is Life
- Glacier Melt
- drip irrigation
- Colorado River
- Water Wars
- Privitization
- Irrigation
- Population
- Water
- Climate Refugees
- water stress
- Climate Change
- Water Privitization
- water access
- desertification
- biodistress
- Water Pollution
- Overconsumption
- melting glaciers
- Agriculture
- Dams
- Environment
- water policy
- water is a public trust
- Sea Level Rise
- water evaporation
- Water Crisis
- Moral Imperative
- Black carbon
- Humanity
- Sanitation
- potable water
- Mediterranean
- Moral Will
- World Water Day
- Water Justice Movement
- Dead Sea
- Fertile Crescent
- water conflict
- Euphrates River
- snowpack
- Tigris River
- Heat Waves
- water usage
- water is not a commodity
tagged w/ Water Scarcity
-
Water privitization to skyrocket water prices worldwide
The year is 2050, and Sydney is dry. Climate change has ravaged the city and battles are fought around one of the only functioning water filtration plants.
This is the premise of laser skirmish - a paintball-style shooting game - being played inside a building next to a bowling alley in Moore Park.
Back in the real world, concerns about the ''creeping privatisation'' of Australia's water supply network are again being voiced, as the national water report card shows consumption is again on the rise.
Advertisement: Story continues belowHousehold water bills are spiralling upwards as states struggle to expand desalination and recycling. Further rises are predicted.
Of the 59 main water utilities in urban Australia, 53 increased residential water bills in the 2008-09 financial year, according to the National Water Commission's performance audit.
In Sydney, average household bills went up from $678 to $739 in the 12 months to June last year, and households used 9 per cent more water, the highest year-on-year increase of any capital city. Melbourne had a 4 per cent drop in water use, reflecting changes in water restrictions in both cities.
In NSW, water consumption has only dropped 3 per cent since 2005, compared with 20 per cent in Queensland and the ACT, 18 per cent in Victoria and 15 per cent in South Australia. However, Sydney households do consume 12 per cent less water than they did in 2003.
The changes in water use increasingly reflect the rainfall projections produced by climate change modelling, with people in Melbourne and Adelaide - fed by the ailing Murray River - adapting by using less.
''I don't see Australia ever going back to the days of kids playing under the sprinklers or using hoses as recreational devices,'' said Tom Mollenkopf, the chief executive of the Australian Water Association.
''I think we all understand now just what a fine line we are on with our water resources.''
The association welcomed the national water figures, released yesterday, because it showed growing investment in more diverse sources of supply, such as desalination plants and recycling.
But a new report produced for the Australian Council of Trade Unions said investment in water infrastructure is being dominated by two French water companies - Veolia and Suez - and the public should be wary of a growing push towards privatisation.
''This report points to numerous examples in Australia and overseas where water privatisation has been bad for workers and … the community,'' a spokeswoman for the Australian Services Union, Sally McManus, said.
The union pointed to a case being heard by the Supreme Court in South Australia, where a Veolia subsidiary won the right to operate Adelaide's urban water system in 1995 and has been accused of overcharging taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
The union said it believed a process of gradual privatisation was under way, and said a privatisation of Sydney Water was possible after the next NSW election. The NSW government and opposition both said they have no plans to privatise.
The report comes as the World Bank and the OECD, representing major developed countries, warned that the price of water must go up as supply dwindles and populations multiply.
Higher global water prices were on the agenda of a World Bank meeting in New York last Friday, and last week the OECD issued three reports saying that global prices should rise to recognise water's increasing value.
cont.The year is 2050, and Sydney is dry. Climate change has ravaged the city and battles... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 12 comments
-
-
Mediterranean water conference ends in failure due to Israel-Arab row
Talks aimed at adopting a water management strategy for the Mediterranean failed Tuesday due to a row between Israel and Arab countries over a reference to the Palestinian territories, participants said.
The stalemate was seen as a strong blow against the nascent 43-nation Mediterranean Union, which was set up two years ago to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions.
"Unfortunately we can not reach an agreement," French secretary of state for European affairs Pierre Lellouche said at the end of the 4th Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water in Barcelona where the body is based.
The conference aimed to reach an agreement on a strategy for managing fresh water in the Mediterranean to ensure equal access to the non-renewable resource and prevent the issue from becoming a source of conflict in the future.
But a reference to "occupied territories" in a proposed draft text prevented the approval of a final accord event though delegates were in agreement on 99 percent of the technical issues related to water management", said Lellouche.
Israel disagreed with this wording while Arab nations opposed to the alternative formulation of "territories under occupation" proposed by European participants, he added.
The head of the body, Jordan's Ahmad Masa'deh, said he was saddened by the failure to reach an agreement at the conference because it "casts doubt on the future of the Mediterranean Union."
The union groups all 27 EU member states with countries in North Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world as well as Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in the region.
It was established in 2008 in Paris by France and Egypt but was temporarily mothballed in early 2009 because of tensions caused by Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"My disappointment is matched only by my hope, this structure is irreversible," said Lellouche, adding the body is a "fundamental project for peace in this region and it has not lost any validity".
Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau rejected responsibility for the failure of the talks and blamed Arab nations instead.
"We wanted to concentrate solely on the problems of water and avoid entering into political themes. But Arab League nations lapsed into pure propaganda and made political declarations against the state of Israel," he said.
snip
Some 290 million people in the region could lack water by 2025 due to the combined effects of population growth, rising needs of agriculture, industry and tourism and global warming, according to the United Nations.
Over 180 million people in the region already lack water and over 60 million people face chronic shortages, according to Mediterranean Union experts.
Water management is a major source of tension between Israelis and Palestinians.
Israel largely controls joint water resources and supplies most of the water consumed in the West Bank.
International organisations say Israel's water supplies fall short of Palestinian needs, but also that the Palestinians have failed to set up the infrastructure and institutions needed in the water sector.Talks aimed at adopting a water management strategy for the Mediterranean failed... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 3 comments
-
-
Mars radar could help find water in Middle East: NASA
A probe launched by the US space agency NASA discovered in 2007 that the desert which covers Mars sat on enough frozen water to submerge the Red Planet.
The same radar technology should be used in the vast deserts of the Middle East and North Africa, scientist Essam Heggy told a UN-sponsored water conference in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.
"We (in the region) are best placed to use this technology," Heggy told participants at the United Nations Development Programme-sponsored conference.
The equipment, dubbed Marsis, consists of a radar sounder with a 40 metre (131 foot) antenna fitted to an orbiter that is able to bounce radio waves 3.7 kilometres (2.3 miles) beneath the surface of Mars.
Heggy said the technology could detect water up to one kilometre (0.6 mile) beneath the dense deserts that cover much of the Middle East and North Africa and which experts say threaten to consume more land in the next century.
snip
Middle East countries, which include the world's largest oil exporters, spend more on oil discovery than any other region in the world but devote the least amount of funds to water exploration, Heggy said.
"Water has no substitute. But still, we're not looking for it," he said, adding that its scarcity could trigger potential water-related conflicts in the region.
"Water is a resource, like any other resource. And we have seen conflicts over resources," he said.A probe launched by the US space agency NASA discovered in 2007 that the desert which... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Guest Blog Post: Biopiracy in the age of climate change and food shortages
Today's guest blogger is JanForGore, who heads up the sustainable agriculture group. Keep an eye out for her regular guest blog posts on Current Green and providing updates on news as it relates to her channel.
Biopiracy is the patenting of indigenous bio-diversity related knowledge. For purposes of this writing, the patenting of natural traits found in plants, which is now described as epidemic. While the rewarding of patents should be based on inventiveness and original creativity, it has become a license for corporations to steal such indigenous traits endemic to nature already naturally cultivated by indigenous farmers for centuries. This is done to make fast cash and to take advantage of the climate crisis and food shortages which ironically are also exacerbated through monoculture industrial methods of what I like to call ‘strip farming.’ Such methods have stripped soil nutrients and carbon essential for sustainability of the land and our climate balance.
Companies such as Monsanto are notorious for using such tactics. One case as an example was recently reported by the Andhra Pradesh Biodiversity Board which sought royalty payments from Monsanto India Ltd. for genetic information it alleges was stolen from Bt bacteria that they then used in the development of Bt cotton, which has now led to much debt, despair, and suicide among farmers in India. This was primarily brought about by TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property) that has been the catalyst for corporate conglomerate takeover regarding biopiracy and GM seed manipulation and monopolization that is threatening the very culture of India by marginalizing their access to seeds and natural traits.
Biopiracy is a threat to biodiversity and the livelihoods and agriculture of indigenous farmers around the world. While some groups have joined together to stop the patenting of indigenous traits they have cultivated for centuries it is hard as corporations have the economic and political upper hand and have warped patent laws in their favor. And for these groups to then seek such patents would be expensive and raise questions regarding equally sharing the benefits of their designs and resources. However, some countries are trying unique ways to stand up for nature and the rich traditions that have preserved the many seed varieties and traits working with nature to sustain our planet and species.
In a world where climate change, food shortages, and water scarcity are already effecting the lives of the poor in much of the developing world and their environment, we must be ever mindful and vigilant of those seeking to cash in on nature by claiming false ownership. Such ownership of natural properties is illegal and unethical and sets the stage for further environmental degradation, the destruction of a natural way of life and sustainable agriculture, and the continued enslavement of farmers to multinational corporations.
Make no mistake about it, this is a war for the very soul of our planet and without farmers being able to save and cultivate the thousands of varieties of seeds that will feed an ever growing population, we will continue towards a monoculture over saturated pesticide laden environment that will not feed us, but poison us. We must be aware of these tactics and fight them.
For more recent information on this topic please reference:
Stop the Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops
Biopiracy, GM Seeds and Rural India
Peru's patent win strikes blow against biopiracy
Ecuador Constitution Grants Rights to Nature
Related Content:
Allow American Farmers to Grow Industrial Hemp
Food Matters - The Trailer (VIDEO)
Researchers: Farmers' rights to adapt to climate change ignored Today's guest blogger is JanForGore, who heads up the sustainable agriculture... more-
- leahl
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 3 comments
-
-
Infographic: Of All The Water in the World, We Only Get Just 0.08%
What an appalling picture!
When things are put in perspective...
"Check out the incredible statistics that whittle our available water supply down to next to nothing, and the surprising reasons why so little works its way to our taps. Click on the graphic to enlarge.
And click through for more interesting - and appalling - water statistics.
2.5 gallons: The sustainable amount of water per person much of the world is allocated per day.
80-100 gallons: The amount of water per day used by the average American citizen
$11.3 billion: The amount of money required to provide basic levels of service for drinking and waste water in Africa and Asia.
88 percent: Number of deaths from diarrhea are caused from unsafe drinking water, inadequate availability of water for hygiene, and lack of access to sanitation; this translates to more than 1.5 million of the 1.9 million children under five who perish from diarrhea each year. This amounts to 18% of all under-five deaths and means that more than 4,000 children are dying every day as a result of diarrhoeal diseases.
$35 billion: The amount of money spent on bottled water in the most developed countries in the world.
2.7 tons: The amount of plastic used to bottle water. 86% become garbage or litter.
It's time to start better appreciating, and conserving, this very finite and very necessary resource."
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/infographic-all-the-water-in-the-world-doesnt-amount-to-much.php
Join the Organic Movement:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/What an appalling picture! When things are put in perspective... "Check out... more-
- lookatmypix
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Taking the Pulse of Global Freshwater Issues
By 2030 people worldwide will withdraw more water than the planet can replenish.
March 22, 2010 marks World Water Day, a 24-hour observance held annually since 1993 to draw attention to the role that freshwater plays in the world. In recent years it has focused global concern on the dwindling supply of clean water.
With governments from Australia to India feeling the heat of dryness like never before, multinational corporations pledging to become better global water citizens, and a multitude of nonprofit organizations gaining position in the councils of influence worldwide, the global freshwater crisis is steadily becoming a top public priority.
In January, global business and elected leaders assembled in Davos at the World Economic Forum learned one more striking fact that underlies international concern. By 2030, WEF experts said, people will withdraw 30 percent more water than nature can replenish. Unless practices for using and conserving water shift dramatically, shortages will hit communities and businesses, especially agriculture, which uses 70 percent of the world’s fresh water.
Here is some of what we expect in what promises to be a busy year in the world of water:
Contents
■Awareness and action
■Business of water
■Bottled Battles
■GE: One company’s approach, inside and out
■Water Disclosure Project
■United Nations CEO Water Mandate
■Water and Global Health
Awareness and Action
A team of researchers and advocates that includes the Global Water Partnership, Global Public Policy Network on Water Management, Stockholm International Water Institute and the Stakeholder Forum, have been working with hundreds of smaller groups to rally support for water’s role in international climate change negotiations this year.
The work was prompted by the disappointing outcome of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December, when water was left out of the Copenhagen Accord. The non-binding agreement calls for modest action on global warming.
If the international climate treaty doesn’t better emphasize the water-climate intersection, people living in vulnerable coastal nations, such as the island of Maldives, and farmers facing volatile rainfall, such as those in Australia, will be unprepared to face major catastrophes, Stakeholder Forum Policy Coordinator Hannah Stoddart told Circle of Blue.
At the international level, Stoddart and her team work directly with UN officials, and also are coordinating an unofficial international water day in Bonn, Germany in June. They are arranging high-level round table discussions that will rally more support for water issues in the months leading up to the next climate change summit in December, in Mexico.
“The eventual goal is for a recognition on an international level that there are currently no operational international treaties addressing water issues specifically,” Stoddart said. “We’re at the beginning of quite a long journey.”
Garnering local support is an important component of making sure the issue gains global prominence, according to marketing experts who work on environmental issues.
“It’s so hard to make people realize that they have a connection to the issue, to the sources of the problem,” said Joel Finkelstein a senior vice president and head of the environment team for Fenton Communications, a U.S.-based firm.
Water offers an even bigger challenge in some ways, he added. It’s still extremely difficult to illustrate the consequences of our current water consumption in countries like the U.S., where citizens can turn on the tap without thinking twice.
But the consequences of water scarcity are more powerfully conveyed through emotional stories than statistical reports. And Finkelstein believes that social media promises new ways to humanize water and environmental issues.
continued.By 2030 people worldwide will withdraw more water than the planet can replenish.... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 6 comments
-
-
Earth Care Group Blog: Climate Change Impacts: Part 2
This is Part 2 of the Earth Care Group's posting of Tommic's essay on Climate Change Impacts. The first part was posted Sunday and regarded glaciers. This part and conclusion regards the Gulf Stream (the great ocean conveyor belt) slowing, water scarcity, and ocean temperatures and their effect on climate. These are all very important factors taken into account when determining the impacts of climate change trends and the human role in them. Trends and climate change involve more than just watching a weather report or having one winter with abnormal snowfall. Remember, snowfall is also precipitation.
Our hope in presenting these essays on our blog (which is open to anyone in our group who wishes to write an environmental essay and tag it Earth Care Group Blog) is that by presenting this information more people will become aware of the processes of our Earth and how those natural processes are now being effected by human behavior. We have a moral obligation to do all we can to preserve the climate balance of our only truly remarkable home.
Again, thank you to Tommic for contributing this entry.This is Part 2 of the Earth Care Group's posting of Tommic's essay on... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 7 comments
-
-
World Water Day Is March 22nd
What will your contribution be?
Excerpt from link:
Water affects every aspect of our lives, yet nearly one billion people around the world don't have clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion still lack basic sanitation. World Water Day, celebrated annually on March 22, was established by the United Nations in 1992 and focuses attention on the world's water crisis, as well as the solutions to address it.
This year, a collaborative of US-based organizations have joined to raise awareness and call for stronger commitments from governments, the private sector, and US citizens for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) initiatives in low-income countries.
By deploying the solutions that already exist, we can save the lives of thousands of children each day, advance education and employment - especially among women and girls - and fuel economic growth around the world.
Learn more about the events planned in Washington DC and around the country for World Water Day 2010 and find out how you can take action to help make clean water and sanitation a reality for people around the globe.What will your contribution be? Excerpt from link: Water affects every aspect of... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 18 comments
-
-
Peak water drying out Cyprus
I am here to cover a war - but not the one that has seen shabby oil drums erected in higgledy-piggledy piles as barriers dividing the city.
Water stocks have been hit by a series of droughts in recent years
The war I'm interested in is the water war - not an armed conflict, but a struggle nonetheless, between people and a rapidly disappearing resource.
The alarming thing, for those working to ease this new conflict, is that Cypriots don't even seem to realise that hostilities between them and nature have begun.
Charalampos Theopemptou is the Greek Cypriot side's Environment Commissioner, and it was he who told me the story about the old man in the classroom. He explains its meaning: that within living memory Cyprus was wet - there were plenty of rivers and lakes to swim in. Now, they are all gone.
The island has reached what geographers call Peak Water - when demand meets and then outstrips supply.
Peak Oil is already a familiar concept, and commands international attention. However, water, despite being central to life, is having a much harder time getting on to the political radar.
Dying land
Dig into the details of the current war and it seems to have less to do with fighting than it does with land.
The irony is that the Cypriots, all of them, are fighting over land, which is slowly dying
The issue that stalls peace talks is the question of houses and farms that were seized in the 1974 conflict. On both sides, people would like their houses back, or a cheque in compensation.
The gradual effect of increasing wealth, EU membership for the south, and the opening of the borders, has defused tension, and means that the eternal subject of property prices is now at the heart of the issue.
The irony is that the Cypriots, all of them, are fighting over land, which is slowly dying.
The famous trees of Cyprus are rotting on their waterless roots, turning to dry kindling as they stand in the blazing sun.
Ever since the 1970s, rainfall has been scarcer, meaning far less water reaching the reservoirs.
For the past four decades, getting enough water to the farms and the people has been a struggle.
The general dampness of nature is drying up, like a rag that is being wrung ever tighter.
This is why the European Commission believes Cyprus is the canary in the coalmine: what happens on this island is threatened to happen all across the drier parts of the continent.
Experts agree that this crisis can be tackled, but first you have to recognise it's there - and that's part of the problem.
cont.I am here to cover a war - but not the one that has seen shabby oil drums erected in... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 2 comments
-
-
Quenching the Thirst: Seattle Brings the Most Precious Liquid Abroad
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – It's early morning and a dozen westerners, mostly Seattleites, were getting ready to leave the capital for a three-day visit to water development projects in Oromia, one of this country's largest, rural states.
As they set out – a caravan of five land rovers moving through the dense traffic – many of them were still quietly coming to terms with the parting words of Adane Kassa, Executive Director of Water Action, the Ethiopian NGO that coordinates the projects they'll be visiting.
"As you know, the coming third world war is anticipated to be fought over water," Kassa said.
To those from water-rich regions like the Pacific Northwest, Kassa's words may have seemed hard to understand. But for the estimated seven million people worldwide who die annually from waterborne diseases or for the parents of the child under five that dies every fourteen seconds due to lack of water access and sanitation, no issue is more critical. Like Kassa, many who study this fundamental resource predict water could become the next precious liquid to destabilize the world.
Audio slideshow produced by Sarah Stuteville, Alex Stonehill, and Jessica Partnow of CLPMag.org with support from the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting for Seattlepi.com.ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – It's early morning and a dozen westerners, mostly... more-
- CLP
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Sudan drought brings mass migration, clashes over water
While politicians bicker over global warming its effects continue to be felt globally.-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Water-intensive Companies Fail to Disclose Water Risks, Report Says
Large companies in water-intensive industries are poorly managing and reporting water-related risks, according to a study from a coalition of investment funds and environmental groups.
The Ceres report criticizes companies for using vague, non-quantified language about water risk and recommends water risk information be included in mandatory financial filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The combination of rising global populations, rapid economic growth in developing countries, and climate change is triggering enormous water availability challenges around the world. Electric power generators, food producers, and other water-intensive industries are especially vulnerable, both in their operations and their extensive supply chains,” the report states.
Data from regulated financial filings and voluntary corporate reports from the 2008 fiscal year were used to rank 100 of the largest publicly-traded companies in eight industrial sectors, based on their water-risk disclosure and management.
Sectors evaluated include beverage, chemicals, electric power, food, home building, mining, oil & gas, and semiconductors.
The report found that companies are neglecting two important pieces of information: site-specific water use and supply chain risk.
The report recommends that companies
■1) Include water risk and performance data in regulated financial filings
■2) Include facility-level water use information for water-stressed areas
■3) Set quantifiable targets for reducing water use
■4) Disclose water-related risks in their supply chains
■5) Make products suitable for a water-constrained worldLarge companies in water-intensive industries are poorly managing and reporting... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
'Avatar' a reality for Indian tribe fighting mining company
" 'Like the Na'vi of 'Avatar', the Dongria Kondh(s) are also at risk, as their lands are set to be mined by Vedanta Resources who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims,' said Survival director Stephen Corry in a statement. 'The mine will destroy the forests on which the Dongria Kondh(s) depend and wreck the lives of thousands of other Kondh tribal people living in the area.' "
One more excerpt:
" 'If Vedanta mines the mountain, the water will dry up. In the Niyamgiri forests, there are tigers, bears, monkeys and wild boar. All kinds of other animals. We all live together. Where will the animals go to drink? Where will we go to drink?' asked a young man in a video posted on Survival International's Web site.
'We won't allow Vedanta to take over our hills. We won't allow them to mine any part of our mountain. We won't allow Vedanta to touch our water,' he said."
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/india.avatar.tribe/?hpt=C1
Great news!
The church of England has dropped its investments in the company and with more awareness and public pressure, hopefully these people will win." 'Like the Na'vi of 'Avatar', the Dongria Kondh(s) are also... more-
- lookatmypix
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Kibera: Not a Drop to Drink
NAIROBI, Kenya--The long rainy season in Kenya has begun and sudden storms regularly burst over Nairobi. Many welcome the downpours, which signal the end of another dry summer and wash the steamy crowded capital clean each morning.
In Kibera, a massive slum of rusty tin roofs and makeshift homes spreading out from the southwest of the city, the rain is turning the twisting dirt roads and alleyways to thick red mud.
Here in one of largest slums in the world--a flashpoint for violence stemming from Kenya's parliamentary elections in December--the rain is causing open sewers to swell and uncollected garbage to rush in rivers of tattered plastic and human waste through backyards.
Audio slideshow by Alex Stonehill, produced in association with the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting for 1h2o.org.NAIROBI, Kenya--The long rainy season in Kenya has begun and sudden storms regularly... more-
- CLP
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Video: Following the Hidden Waters of Southwest China’s Karst Region
http//www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/video-china-karst/
The vast yet inaccessible underground waters in southwest Yunnan Province represent the front lines of China’s freshwater crisis. Two openings in the earth, Shi Dong and Nan Dong caves, where the Yang Liu River slips into and out of the shadows, mark the point where a fluvial region rich with surface streams meets an unusual geologic formation of soluble rock layers known as a karst landscape. It is also a fateful human dividing line, a place where China’s challenges with water scarcity, land use, and pollution come into clear focus.http//www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/video-china-karst/ The vast yet... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 3 comments
-
-
Hidden Waters, Dragons in the Deep: The Freshwater Crisis in China’s Karst Regions
Yunnan Province is a microcosm of the challenges facing China’s vulnerable freshwater supply. Severe water pollution and shortages stand in the way of ongoing economic growth.
In the southwest corner of China, a land of towering mountains and deep gorges not far from the border of Vietnam, is Shi Dong, the Rock Cave. It is here, 800 miles west of the Pacific Ocean, in an area so remote that people often settle in villages with no more than a few dozen homes, where the Yang Liu River disappears underground.
For more than 20 miles, the river flows beneath the surface of the earth, coursing through dark caverns and crevices in rocks, unseen and unknown to those who live above, its precise path a mystery. It emerges again through the mouth of a second cave, Nan Dong, the South Cave.
These two openings in the earth, where the Yang Liu River slips into and out of the shadows, mark the point where a fluvial region rich with surface streams meets an unusual geologic formation of soluble rock layers known as a karst landscape. It is also a fateful human dividing line, a place where China’s desperate confrontation with water scarcity, industrial modernization and pollution come into clear focus.
China’s vision of assuming a greater place on the world stage and prospering in the 21st century — goals it impressively displayed at the 2008 Summer Olympics and at other global events since — depends in large measure on its capacity to fit thriving human settlements into a severely damaged landscape where water is scarce, inaccessible, or often too dirty to use. More than 400 of China’s 600 largest cities experience water shortages, according to United Nations assessments. Three-quarters of China’s rivers and lakes are dangerously contaminated by municipal waste, as well as industrial and agricultural pollutants. The World Bank estimates that by 2020 water stresses in China could create up to 30 million environmental refugees, people who must move from their homes in search of one of the most basic necessities for life.
Just like the polluted waters of the Yangtze River, the eroded hills of the Loess Plateau and sandstorms whipped up in the deserts of Inner Mongolia that pummel Beijing every spring, the Shi Dong and Nan Dong caves of Yunnan Province represent the front lines of China’s fresh water crisis. Studies of China’s southwest karst region indicate the water beneath the surface is contaminated with bacteria, chemicals and sediments that drain off the land. Moreover, the region’s porous landscape makes securing a steady supply of water for agriculture and household use an often daily challenge.
The question that confronts the nearly 100 million people in Southwest China’s karst region, and 1.2 billion other Chinese citizens is this: Can the economic miracle that has lifted 450 million people out of poverty in a generation continue to advance when so much of the country’s natural treasury, especially its storehouse of fresh water, is so depleted?
East Mountain Plateau
At least a portion of the answer can be found in places like the East Mountain Plateau of Yunnan Province. On one side of the plateau, where the Yang Liu River rushes above ground in a narrow valley, people who live nearby can walk to its banks to get water. They can also dig wells, which at a certain depth will hit the water table. The land here is lush, with rice paddies tucked into mountain valleys.
But on the other side, the karst side, the water runs beneath their feet through a honeycomb of porous rock, in places more than a thousand feet below ground. People living on the surface of the karst formation have almost no way to reach the river. They cannot see it or discern its course. In some places the water is close enough to the surface for rudimentary wells to be drilled, though few would be successful because the shafts usually fail to strike the precise place where the water flows. In most other instances the water is too deep beneath the surface for wells to be drilled with the simple tools and resources available in this isolated region.
The consequences are clear. The people who live here, where the water runs beneath the earth, are among the poorest in China, earning an average of $80 annually, according to several studies. For much of the year, their fields are parched, their gardens dusty, and their hopes for a better life run dry.
cont.Yunnan Province is a microcosm of the challenges facing China’s vulnerable... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 1 comment
-
-
Mumbai succumbs to a new underworld – the water mafia
MUMBAI // As night envelops Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, in the Indian city of Mumbai, two dozen dwellers sidle out of their shanties clutching steel ewers and plastic cans. They hurriedly clamber over a wrought iron railing fence, race across a tangle of railway tracks, braving speeding local trains, and crowd around a spigot in a desolate patch on the other side.
Soon the place is burbling with a feverish scramble for water. Amid fist fights and verbal blows, they take turns to fill their containers from the gushing spigot. Then they run back to empty them with relatives waiting on the other side of the railing, and sprint back for a refill.
Sitting on a concrete platform a short distance away, chewing tobacco, is Ravi Anna, recognised as a local goon who controls the spigot. He offers slum dwellers without water connections a chance to collect drinking water between 7pm and 10pm every day – for a fee.
To an outsider, the arrangement might sound entrepreneurial, except that this water is not his to sell. The spigot draws from a water tank belonging to the Indian Railways.
Such pilfering of water, rampant across this coastal metropolis which dreams of transforming itself into the “Shanghai of India”, has gone on for decades. But it is particularly menacing now as Mumbai struggles to slake the thirst of its ever-growing population.
The demand for water from Mumbai’s 12.5 million people is estimated at 4,550 million litres a day, but the city is only able to provide 2,900m litres.
Mumbai has received 30 per cent less rainfall compared to the previous year, depleting its water resources. Grim days lie ahead as civic authorities warn that the city’s major water reservoirs have only 71 billion litres of water, barely enough to last 200 days.
Water supply to homes has been cut by 15 per cent and across commercial establishments by 30 per cent. And the city is bracing itself for more cuts.
In its do-or-die bid to conserve water, the federal government announced last month that no water connection would be provided to new high-rise buildings until 2012, fuelling concerns among real estate developers over the future of upcoming construction projects worth US$250 billion (Dh918bn). It is also promoting water rationing across the city’s teeming slums, through water meters that make a fixed quota available for a fee.
Mumbai’s water deficit is evoking angry reactions from its citizens. Last month, more than 5,000 protesters gathered outside the offices of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the civic authority responsible for water supply, but were beaten back with batons by the police. One protester died in the clashes and a dozen others were injured.
Experts say such conflict over water is expected to rise around the world, emblematic of how climate change makes water supply less predictable as droughts and flash flooding become increasingly common.
“With the government blaming the rain gods, people are nearing the end of their patience and it won’t be long before they take the law into their own hands,” said N Raghuram, the editor of DNA, a daily newspaper.
To contain its water woes, the government is in the process of setting up three new water reservoirs to augment supply. It is also mulling over setting up a desalination plant to convert seawater into drinking water.
But these measures do not address the widespread pilfering, which claims one-fifth of the city’s water supply.
A water mafia operating commercial water tankers are believed to be creating an artificial scarcity in some suburbs to boost their business in connivance with some BMC officials.
In a recent sting operation conducted by a private news channel, journalists posing as potential buyers of water from a wedding party discovered private tankers queuing at a BMC pumping station to fill water that should have been pumped to the city’s denizens.
“It’s uncertain if the world would end as in Roland Emmerich’s 2012, but that water supply in Mumbai will come to naught if random pilferage isn’t stemmed, is a certainty,” said Mr Raghuram. “By simple arithmetic, if pilferage were to be checked, there would be no need for a water cut.”MUMBAI // As night envelops Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, in the Indian city of... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 1 comment
-
-
Mumbai to run out of water in 200 days
There have been bad seasons before but poor monsoon has left the city facing its worst water crisis. As tempers rise and protests grow, Mumbai has enough to last just another 200 days.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and these are desperate times for Mumbai. Delayed monsoon and poor rainfall have pushed India’s commercial capital to the brink of its worst water crisis. According to officials, at present rates, there is enough water to last the city just another 200 days.
With the supply down by about 3 lakh million litres of water per day, options from desalinating the Arabian sea water to recycling sewage water, digging wells/borewells, cutting supply for one day per week and the drastic move of not providing water connection to new high-rises are being considered.
Civic officials are also grappling with the fear of an impending public backlash — the protests for increasing the supply of water have already seen one death, vandalisation of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) offices, hunger strikes, in addition with morchas practically everyday.
While the city’s demand for water is 4,200 million litres per day (mld), only 3,450 mld can be supplied. The present availability of water is around 7 lakh million litres as against 10 lakh million litres last year. Even with the water cut in place since June (imposed just before the monsoon as the rains were delayed), the situation hasn’t improved due to poor rainfall, which failed to fill the lakes, leaving many areas without adequate water.There have been bad seasons before but poor monsoon has left the city facing its worst... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 69 comments
-
-
Women in Indian villages bring sanitation and hope
The villages of Ranmala, Nandagane, Shirgaon and Mengdewadi, in Pune, Sangli and Satara districts, western India, have one thing in common.
They are all headed by female sarpanches (village chiefs), and what a difference it has made.
Changuna Raoji Sinalkar, 43 and single, was unanimously elected head of Ranmala when the post of sarpanch here fell vacant after it was declared a seat reserved for women. On Aug. 27, the Indian government upped the reservation of seats for women in panchayats (village councils) from 33 to 50 percent.
Villagers in Ranmala said it made no difference to anyone that Changuna was a Dalit (previously untouchables, and outside the rigid caste system) and crippled by polio in her childhood, which meant that no one was willing to marry her. They went by her track record of working in the government-run kindergarten called 'anganwadi'.
Confident of meeting the challenge, Changuna accepted the responsibility, and turned her attention to putting in place basic amenities like toilets.
Every house in Borane village in Maharashtra's Satara District, 375 km from the state capital Mumbai, is jointly owned by the wife and husband.
Sunita Lohar, 35, the woman sarpanch, said she used the simple technique of "persuasion"- and the backing of an NGO, Mahila Rajsatta Andolan - to work this miracle. In 1994, the state government had passed a resolution for joint ownership of homes in its 'Women's Policy'. It remained on paper until 2003 when the Andolan began pushing its implementation.
The Andolan's district organiser in Satara, Nilima Kadam, 31, has fought tooth and nail for the success of the programme. "It is imperative that women are given the right of co-ownership of houses, as they (unlike men) will never sell property and put the future (of their children) at risk," she told IPS.
Borane is very proud also of its 'Ek Gaon, Ek Ganapati' (one village, one Ganapati) initiative. Every year in Maharashtra, the elephant-headed Hindu god is worshipped during a 10-day long festival that culminates with the immersion of thousands of big and small Ganapati statues in every river and stream, and the sea.
Sunita persuaded the village to pool together their resources and celebrate with one idol so they do not pollute the environment and jeopardise their children's future.
Celebrations like this are "futile", said Sunita. "The Ganapati idols are painted with colours that are not environment friendly. The chemicals are hazardous and are known to harm marine life."
In rural India, people usually defecate in the open fields. For women, this has meant waking up before the village to avoid being seen. Often, they go in groups for personal safety as well as protection from wild animals.
"It was tough going at odd hours in the fields to relieve ourselves. The need was there for long but nobody not even the village male folk ever thought of doing something for us," Changuna told IPS. Ranmala is in Maharashtra state, roughly 200 kms from Mumbai.
Changuna set out to implement government programmes to ensure total sanitation. Through persuasion, she managed to convince the villagers to construct toilets. In just three years, every house in the village has a toilet; their women owners so proud that most of them have their names and addresses written on the doors and walls of the toilet along with a slogan!
The village of Nandagane, Satara District, has overcome years and years of water scarcity through the efforts of its woman sarpanch, Sunita Rajaram Dalvi, 33, at a cost of roughly 30,000 dollars.
Sunita was chosen as part of a seven-member village committee to look into the water crisis before she became the sarpanch. Under the 'Jal Swarajya Prakalp', a government aided project, she worked closely with officials from the district and water supply department and undertook projects including conservation, laying of water pipelines and desilting water bodies that was implemented by the villagers who worked for free.
Sunita told IPS, "For 18 years after my marriage, I used to carry water on my head from wherever it was available and trudge uphill daily. This was the story of all the village women. We could never rest even for a day, as water was needed for cooking, washing, bathing etc. The menfolk never helped but sometimes the children lent a hand."
Under her care, the village has uninterrupted water supply. "We now have running water through the day," she said happily.
Forty five-year-old Anjanabai Amrutsagar was elected sarpanch of Shirgaon (Sangli district) after the seat, like Ranmala, was reserved for women - a decision that forced the ouster of the male sarpanch who had remained unchallenged for 40 years.
end of excerpt.The villages of Ranmala, Nandagane, Shirgaon and Mengdewadi, in Pune, Sangli and... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 1 comment
-
-
Copenhagen climate negotiations must consider water and energy together
Water policy and energy policy must be integrated, according to a message from the International Water Association to delegates at the Copenhagen climate summit.
Adaptation to climate change from the water and energy sectors must come from more efficient use of resources, technological innovation and policies that create incentives for this to happen, according to a declaration from the International Water Association.
“The IWA calls upon decision makers and the international community to recognize the relationship between water and energy and to create a policy environment that supports joint efforts in addressing global climate change,” the declaration states.
Water is used to produce hydroelectric power and cool thermoelectric plants, while energy is used to extract, treat and transport water. Meanwhile urbanization, population growth and climate change will put pressure on water and energy infrastructure in the coming decades, according to the statement.
The declaration is directed at policymakers both in Copenhagen and in governments around the world. The IWA argues that “legislators must adopt the right regulatory and economic incentives to stimulate efficiency and innovation and drive change.”
Though the declaration doesn’t recommend specific policies or regulations, the IWA cautions that climate change negotiations that address only a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions are insufficient. Negotiations must consider water and energy demands because low-carbon energy sources such as solar thermal plants will require substantial amounts of water.
The IWA statement is another call for climate negotiators to address water resources in Copenhagen. At a preparatory climate conference in Barcelona in November, all references to water were taken out of the draft negotiating text, causing an outcry from people in the water sector.
In response, the United Nations’ water division organized a ‘water day’ in Barcelona and issued a statement on the importance of connecting water and climate.
The Copenhagen summit begins on December 7.
Source: International Water Association
Circle of Blue will be on the ground in Copenhagen with multimedia coverage of the negotiations.Water policy and energy policy must be integrated, according to a message from the... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 2 comments
-
