Water Scarcity // Current

'Avatar' a reality for Indian tribe fighting mining company

" 'Like the Na'vi of 'Avatar', the Dongria Kondh(s) are also... more

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Kibera: Not a Drop to Drink

NAIROBI, Kenya--The long rainy season in Kenya has begun and sudden storms regularly... more

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The case of Gaza: water scarcity and conflict

This case study is a few years old but unfortunately it is still relevant in regards to the current socio-economic and political conflict we see playing out in this region. The Middle East is traditionally a water scarce area with the Palestinian people in Gaza sharing the brunt of that scarcity. This is due to pollution, agriculture, overpopulation, and salinity of the the limited water supply due to seawater encroachments and other chemicals into the Mediterranean Coastal Acquifer and other water sources up the Mediterranean coast. It is also due to the inequitable distribution of this resource by the Israeli government in this area, which I believe is one of the catalysts for this ongoing conflict.

In all of the back and forth rancor of both sides regarding this it appears that this socio-economic and humanitarian reason has been overlooked. What the people of Gaza need is WATER. Water they can use to farm again. Water to sustain their lives and those of their children. This is why I believe that in order to see any kind of peace in this region Palestinians and Israelis along with other countries in this region (Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan) must come to an agreement to truly share the limited water resources of this area equitably, especially in light of the effects of climate change (drought) added to this mix. Look at any area of the world in any country that is water deprived for any long period of time and you will see war. You will see terrorism. You will see protest.

I do not think it is as simple or black and white to see this only as a battle against Islamic extremism. It would be naive to think that Israel and other countries in this region do not know how precious water is and will be in the coming years. It is even more precious than oil. This then goes beyond the politics and religion of it to the humanitarian core of who we are and our ability to see people as human beings despite our differences. And where water is concerned that is imperative.

Water is a complex issue here and one I actually believed could bring peace to this region as it has traditionally brought people together in a common cause rather than tearing them apart. However, in this case water appears to be the precipitator of conflict as the Palestinians need it and the Israelis want it as they look to a growing population as well. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank both lie on two of the largest acquifers in this region, so again, that does not bode well for peace with parties unwilling to see water as a human right beyond just a commodity.

I will be posting more information on water scarcity in Gaza/Israel and this region as I come upon it. I wanted to address this because to me this is important in understanding some of the root causes for conflict in this region. And to also state that without water, food, land, or freedom, you could blow every member of Hamas off the face of the Earth and terrorism will remain. It is the root causes that we must address now in order to have any chance of salvaging any sort of peaceful existence for the people of Gaza and Israel.This case study is a few years old but unfortunately it is still relevant in regards... more

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Dead Sea perils: sinkholes due to water scarcity swallow the unwary

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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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

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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

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Video: Following the Hidden Waters of Southwest China’s Karst Region

http//www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/video-china-karst/ The vast yet... more

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Drought brings struggle for survival in Kenya

You are watching one of many news stories to come on the effects of global warming as... more

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Kashmir glaciers shrinking at alarming speed

Rising winter temperatures are shrinking Himalayan glaciers in Indian Kashmir at... more

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Drought to make land worldwide uninhabitable

Parts of the world may have to be abandoned because severe water shortages will leave them uninhabitable, the United Nations environment chief has warned.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said water shortages caused by over-use of rivers and aquifers were already leading to serious problems, even in rich nations. With climate change expected to reduce rainfall in some places and cause droughts in others, some regions could become 'economic deserts', unviable for people or agriculture, he said.

Steiner argued that only urgent action to combat global warming and poverty could prevent the creation of thousands of 'environmental refugees'. Previous UN agreements to reduce global warming emissions and the Millennium Development Goals on poverty had not been met. His warning echoes those of other environment leaders, who have said that water shortages could be the greatest threat posed by climate change.

'In many ways [water] is the most dramatic expression of mismanagement of natural or nature-based assets,' Steiner said. 'The day a person or a community is bereft of water is the day that your chance of even the most basic life or livelihood is gone and economic activity seeps away.

'Unchecked climate change will mean that some parts of the world will simply not have enough water to sustain settlements both small and large, because agriculture becomes untenable and industries relying on water can no longer compete or function effectively. This will trigger structural changes in economies right through to the displacement of people as environmental refugees.'

Steiner said it was not possible to identify specific places at risk, but said vulnerable areas were those which were already considered to be 'water scarce' because of dry weather and a lack of infrastructure to store and transport water. Last week a study of the water footprints of 200 nations led by conservation group WWF warned that 50 countries were already experiencing 'moderate to severe water stress on a year-round basis'.

This week experts from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification meeting in Turkey will warn that high food prices and endemic droughts are jeopardising the lives of hundreds of millions of people, particularly in Africa.

Some of the most dramatic examples of water shortages this year include conflict-stricken Sudan, the dramatic drying of Lake Faguibine in Mali on which 200,000 mostly nomadic people depend, fatal clashes over drying boreholes in northern Kenya, and economic and social crisis on the sparsely populated border between Bolivia and Argentina, according to Unep. Oxfam has estimated that 25 million people have been affected by the most recent drought in Ethiopia.

Rich nations are not immune. California has declared a state of emergency over water shortages, Australia has committed billions of dollars to cope with drought, and governments in Europe have been forced to ship in water to stop communities running dry.

'A plant, never mind a human being, simply cannot live without water,' said Steiner. 'It's not a matter of how we can live for three years without some water; these are not the kind of things we can do for a while and recover.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/02/climate-change-desertification-water-drought
Parts of the world may have to be abandoned because severe water shortages will leave... more

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Mumbai succumbs to a new underworld – the water mafia

MUMBAI // As night envelops Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, in the Indian city of... more

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Canadian advocacy groups demand government declare water a human right

Now why has Canada and the U.S. refused to do so to this point? Any guesses?

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Acute water scarcity at wettest place on Earth

Meghalaya India, the wettest place on Earth is now known as a wet desert due to water scarcity. Has climate change also now even reached the most hidden pristine parts of our world?

From the article:

Nothing can be more ironical: despite being the wettest place on earth Cherrapunjee is suffering from acute water scarcity, earning for itself the epithet wet desert.
And now the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is assisting the Meghalaya government to go into the causes of the scarcity, especially during the lean period. The study will include technical assessments on the status of river catchments in Meghalaya and social and institutional analysis of the forces that have led to the shortage of water, says Jevon Harding of TERI.

TERI will assist the Rain Water Harvesting Mission, formed by the state government, to combat the shortage of surface water. One of the components of the study will be to come up with a strategy of rainwater harvesting.

Cherrapunjee receives about 12000 mm rainfall annually, but the residents face severe crisis of surface water specially during the lean season when rainfall is sometimes nil.

Women and children trudging uphill with water-filled clay-pots on their backs from deep gorges is a common sight in Cherrapunjee today. The perennial springs gushing out abundant water are also now on the verge of drying up due to random large-scale destruction of forests.

Environmentalist Naba Bhattacharjee said, It-s a false notion that high rainfall will ensure perennial water supply for infinity. Only 0.0007 per cent of the world-s total water is potable and which is on decline due to change in rainfall pattern and inadequate precipitation due to global warming and climate change.

He, however, emphasized on revival of traditional rain water storage systems supplemented by improved modern technology suitable for hilly the terrain.

Emphasizing on equitable distribution of water among people, anthropologist Nitish Jha of the TERI said, There is no physical crisis of water in Meghalaya, but there is an economic scarcity of water only in Cherrapunjee (now called Sohra), which receives the highest rainfall in the world.

Jha said that the TERI would venture into an extensive survey over a period of one year to ascertain the cause of water crisis in Shillong and Sohra and subsequently come out with a detailed project report on tackling the situation through effective management and conservation measures.

snip

Jha pointed out that the peculiar land tenure system prevalent in the State coupled with the menace of unscientific coal mining and stone quarrying have depleted water levels in the perennial catchments of the state.Meghalaya India, the wettest place on Earth is now known as a wet desert due to water... more

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India water demand set to double by 2030

Just in time for the Himalayas to melt away... And yet, people don't think this... more

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Women in Indian villages bring sanitation and hope

The villages of Ranmala, Nandagane, Shirgaon and Mengdewadi, in Pune, Sangli and... more

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The other inconvenient truth: the crisis in global land use

It’s taken a long time, but the issue of global climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves. While enormous technical, policy, and economic issues remain to be solved, there is now widespread acceptance of the need to confront the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Collectively, we are beginning to acknowledge that our long addiction to fossil fuels — which has been harming our national security, our economy and our environment for decades — must end. The question today is no longer why, but how. The die is cast, and our relationship to energy will never be the same.

Unfortunately, this positive shift in the national zeitgeist has had an unintended downside. In the rush to portray the perils of climate change, many other serious issues have been largely ignored. Climate change has become the poster child of environmental crises, complete with its own celebrities and campaigners. But is it so serious that we can afford to overlook the rise of infectious disease, the collapse of fisheries, the ongoing loss of forests and biodiversity, and the depletion of global water supplies?

Although I’m a climate scientist by training, I worry about this collective fixation on global warming as the mother of all environmental problems. Learning from the research my colleagues and I have done over the past decade, I fear we are neglecting another, equally inconvenient truth: that we now face a global crisis in land use and agriculture that could undermine the health, security, and sustainability of our civilization.

Our use of land, particularly for agriculture, is absolutely essential to the success of the human race. We depend on agriculture to supply us with food, feed, fiber, and, increasingly, biofuels. Without a highly efficient, productive, and resilient agricultural system, our society would collapse almost overnight.

But we are demanding more and more from our global agricultural systems, pushing them to their very limits.

Continued population growth.The massive environmental impacts of our agricultural practices rival the impacts of climate change.(adding more than 70 million people to the world every year), changing dietary preferences (including more meat and dairy consumption), rising energy prices, and increasing needs for bioenergy sources are putting tremendous pressure on the world’s resources. And, if we want any hope of keeping up with these demands, we’ll need to double, perhaps triple, the agricultural production of the planet in the next 30 to 40 years.

Meeting these huge new agricultural demands will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. At present, it is completely unclear how (and if) we can do it.

If this wasn’t enough, we must also address the massive environmental impacts of our current agricultural practices, which new evidence indicates rival the impacts of climate change. Consider the following:

Ecosystem degradation. Already, we have cleared or converted more than 35 percent of the earth’s ice-free land surface for agriculture, whether for croplands, pastures or rangelands. In fact, the area used for agriculture is nearly 60 times larger than the area of all of the world’s cities and suburbs. Since the last ice age, nothing has been more disruptive to the planet’s ecosystems than agriculture. What will happen to our remaining ecosystems, including tropical rainforests, if we need to double or triple world agricultural production, while simultaneously coping with climate change?

end of excerptIt’s taken a long time, but the issue of global climate change is finally... more

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Fleeing drought in the Horn of Africa

Reporting from Dadaab, Kenya - For centuries, Adam Abdi Ibrahim's ancestors... more

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Mapping future water stress

"Having forecast the availability of water and the demand from industry, it was... more

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Kenyan farmers watch their livelihoods-and their food supply disappear

This is a human and human induced tragedy. These are the climate refugees we were told... more

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Bolivia: Lake Titicaca at dangerously low levels

Water evaporation due to climate change is responsible for Lake Titicaca dropping an... more

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TAGS

tagged w/ Water Scarcity

'Avatar' a reality for Indian tribe fighting mining company

Kibera: Not a Drop to Drink

The case of Gaza: water scarcity and conflict

Dead Sea perils: sinkholes due to water scarcity swallow the unwary

Copenhagen climate negotiations must consider water and energy together

Hidden Waters, Dragons in the Deep: The Freshwater Crisis in China’s Karst Regions

Video: Following the Hidden Waters of Southwest China’s Karst Region

Drought brings struggle for survival in Kenya

Kashmir glaciers shrinking at alarming speed

Drought to make land worldwide uninhabitable

Mumbai succumbs to a new underworld – the water mafia

Canadian advocacy groups demand government declare water a human right

Acute water scarcity at wettest place on Earth

India water demand set to double by 2030

Women in Indian villages bring sanitation and hope

The other inconvenient truth: the crisis in global land use

Fleeing drought in the Horn of Africa

Mapping future water stress

Kenyan farmers watch their livelihoods-and their food supply disappear

Bolivia: Lake Titicaca at dangerously low levels

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