Water tables all over the world are falling, as "world
water demand has tripled over the last" 50 years. When these aquifers are depleted, food production worldwide will fall.
March 2003
Earth Policy Institute
World Creating Food Bubble Economy Based on Unsustainable Use of Water.
The World Water Forum begins in mid-March in Japan. Although the main interest of the 10,000 participants is water scarcity, they will indirectly be discussing food scarcity, since 70% of the world's fresh water is used for irrigation. Water tables all over the world are falling, as "world water demand has tripled over the last" 50 years. When these aquifers are depleted, food production worldwide will fall. These aquifers are inexorably being depleted in ways that are "largely invisible, historically recent, and growing fast", and "the near-simultaneous depletion of aquifers means that cutbacks in grain harvests will ... [occur]... in many countries at more or less the same time". The aquifers of China, India and the US, which together produce one half of the world's grain, are rapidly being depleted. The water tables of China, India, Pakistan, Mexico and Yemen are dropping by 1 to 3 meters per year, as are those of the US, especially in the southern Great Plains where "thousands of farms ... have gone dry". Since one ton of grain requires 1000 tons of water, this water deficit will cross international borders in the form of increasing grain prices worldwide. "Importing grain is the most efficient way to import water". Grain shortages are likely to occur soon in China, where the grain harvest is shrinking as a combined result of "aquifer depletion, the diversion of irrigation water to cities and lower grain support prices". This could "destabilize world grain markets." There are 4 potential solutions to the problem of increasing water deficits. Raising irrigation efficiency and recycling urban wastewater is being practiced with some success in some countries. More permanent solutions require raising water productivity and, most importantly, stabilizing the world's population.
March 2003
Earth Policy Institute
Water: Local Action For Global Challenge.
Providing potable water to communities, especially among developing nations is a major problem. Even where there is availability of water, conveying it to communities that need it becomes an issue. Provision of drinking water is expensive and difficult. Unsafe water sources have accounted for preventable diseases in rural communities. In many countries water is shared with cattle, which has serious implications on human health. The World Water Commission reported to that an estimated investment of US$100 billion a year was needed for the water sector, in addition to the current expenditure of US$80 billion over the next 25 years. Already there are about 450 million people in 29 countries, who are facing water shortages, and chasing fewer sources of fresh water. Approximately 1.2 billion people don’t have access to potable water and 2.4 billion people lack access to sanitation services. The water crisis has also affected health matters of many people and at the moment, it is estimated that half the hospital beds in the world are being occupied by patients who are suffering from water related illnesses. About 200 million people are infected with dysentery, 20 million of whom are seriously ill. A study has shown that it is possible to reduce the number of incidents by 77%, through water and sanitation interventions. The average distance undertaken by African and Asian women and children to gain access to water is approximately six kilometres. Agriculture also has effect on water since intensive cultivation of crops causes chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides to trickle down into the groundwater. The routine application of fertilizers and pesticides are being recognized as water pollution. Waste water from manufacturing as well as chemical processes in industries have also contributed to water pollution. In 2000, the WHO estimated that of the world’s six billion people, at least 1.1 billion do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion live without access to sanitation systems. An estimated 14,000 to 30,000, most being children, die everyday from avoidable water related diseases. It is important that governments develop cost effective methods to ensure safe drinking water for everyone. In order to move towards sustainability, industries must be assured of having adequate water supply but must see that water use in industrial processes is handled efficiently. Policy makers need to allocate water to satisfy environmental demands. Water managers could improve the sustainability and productivity of irrigated systems, by considering groundwater availability when allocating surface water for irrigation.
January 19, 2006
Graphic Ghana
The Drought: Ecologically, Perpetual Growth is Impossible Thing.
Georgia's water supply is finite, it always will be. The quantity of water varies depending on rainfall, but there is data to have an excellent idea of averages and extremes.
Georgia's population represents a constantly growing demand on water supply and quality. During extreme droughts, the conflict between an ever-growing population and a finite water supply becomes obvious.
It should be obvious, at least to those caught up in the belief that a viable economy demands constant growth, even though rational thought, should logically lead to a contrary opinion.
Ecologists use the term "carrying capacity" to describe how many plants or animals a given piece of real estate might support. Farmers recognize the concept, knowing that the number of cows their pastures will support depends on the type and quality of the forage, availability of water, the acceptable growth rate and other factors.
The concept of carrying capacity is just as applicable to humans as to cows. In the US, mankind has artificially extended human carrying capacity while maintaining a high living standard by using stored energy reserves from eons past and perpetual growth and improved living standards have become basic expectations.
Georgia has long used state resources to promote economic growth, fueled by population growth, without considering the ultimate outcome.
Even while announcing a lawsuit aimed at forcing the more of a finite regional water supply to Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue was on a mission to attract more industry to the state.
The sole reason when we already have full employment is to attract more people. More people equal a larger GDP, for which groupthink demands a favorable view, regardless of the effect on quality of life.
Georgia's population is about 9.5 million. If growth rates of the past dozen years are maintained, population will double to about 19 million in just 26 years (2033) and double again to 38 million by 2059.
From an ecological perspective, it is imperative that we stop and determine what an optimum population might be. Instead, we continually ask ourselves to use less water, go further into debt, sit in longer traffic snarls and lower our living standard in various other ways so we can accommodate more people.
The ultimate irony was when Gov. Perdue asked everyone to pray for rain. Does he expect God to increase our water supply while the Governor does his best to increase demand?
November 15, 2008
Journal-Constitution
Malawi: Water Utility Over-Stretched and Under-Maintained.
Blantyre is losing its reputation for tranquility.
Residents find themselves waking up to the hustle and bustle of women as they move around the city in search of water. Water cuts sometimes last up to three days, And the Blantyre Water Board (BWB), the city's sole water supplier, has warned that the cuts are likely to persist until 2013 as it replaces dilapidated equipment.
Businesses have resorted to installing on-site water tanks. The 2007 Malawi MDG Report indicates that the country is making progress towards reaching the target which calls for the reduction by half of the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water. The access to water has improved from slightly over 47% in 1992 to 75% in 2006. But Superintendent Clive Bismarck explained that transformers have been breaking down at the point where the water is pumped from river to pipeline.
BWB's ability to cope with demand is being outpaced by the growth of Blantyre. The utility can pump 75,000 cubic metres of water daily against a demand for 95,000 cubic metres.
Malawi is one of the fastest urbanising countries in the world with an urban population growth rate of 6.3%. Water shortages cause city residents to flush their toilets less frequently and to compromise on household hygiene. As a result, the risk of water-borne diseases has become a problem.
There are instances of cholera throughout the year, as poor hygiene is conducive to the spread of the bacterium.
Since the beginning of this year at least eight people have died in a cholera outbreak in areas around Blantyre. Up to 291 cases of cholera were reported within a three-week period.
The BWB Chief Executive Officer had been suspended ahead of investigations into the causes of the water shortages.
He had said that the shortages were a result of the water system being inadequately maintained and over-utilised. He has been reinstated.
Many residents have now resorted to using rain water from ditches.
Those who have cars drive to BWB headquarters where they draw water from taps at the utility's offices.
March 29, 2008
Africa News Service
Water Will Be Source of War Unless World Acts Now, Warns Minister.
The world faces "water wars" unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts. The warning came as 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. Two-thirds of the world's population will live in water-stressed countries by 2025.
The coalition of charities has appealed for a global effort to bring running water to the developing world and supply sanitation to a further 2.6 billion people. Each year 443 million school days are lost globally to diarrhoea and 1.8 million children die unnecessarily from these diseases.
Rising temperatures together with extreme weather will increase pressures on water supplies. A growing and urbanised global population will increase demand for food and water. Over 1 billion people suffer from water shortages and 30 countries get more than a third of their water from outside their borders. With climate change, those figures are likely to grow, increasing the possibility of disputes.
The whole of sub-Saharan Africa and most of south Asia and western South America are at risk of water shortages if global warming continues.
If average global temperatures go more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels you are looking at 2 to 3 billion people potentially suffering water shortages. It's a serious business.
March 22, 2008
Independent
China: World Water Day.
Beijing has always been a dry landscape but has never had to cope with 17 million people, comparable to the total of Australia's population. Civic officials have a "to do" list and among the multitude of tasks are, demands for clean air, improving traffic flows, constructing subways, bettering air transportation and implementing waste water management systems. At the same time higher learning institutions are bursting at the seams with students. Water supply has first place on the list.
Complicating matters, the last 9 years has seen rainfall below average levels. Local Miyun reservoir is down to one third the volume a decade ago. The local rivers and reservoirs are exhausted so the city has turned to Hebei Province for its supply.
As the city went up, the groundwater went down, 76 feet in the last half-century! Parks, lakes, golf courses and modern high-rise apartment buildings are all adding to the consumption.
For the short term a canal will bring water from the Yangtze and its tributaries. For the mid- to long-term plans to channel water from the south appear problematic, recalling the record droughts that took place there last year. Making matters grimmer is the revelation of climate change and forecasting concern for the future of major rivers flowing out of Tibet and the three major rivers running down into southern China and beyond.
Hong Kong, which drains most of its supply from nearby Dongjiang in Guangdong, may also soon feel the pinch. Water management becomes a national and global priority. UN Secretary General mentioned that the international community needed to start conceiving strategies for using water more efficiently and sharing it more equitably. He said population growth and climate change would only worsen.
Appreciating this necessity for urban regions to become more water self-reliant the example of Singapore offers some hope. This week the Minister for Water Resources Dr Yaacob Ibrahim opened the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute, while speaking about the constraints of climate change and long-term sustainability. He recognized the economic opportunities such issues present, and how his government had identified the environment and water technology as areas deserving of strategic research and development dollars. The vision is for Singapore to solve world water woes like those now and soon to be faced in China.
Singapore has developed renewable sources in the form of "Newwater" a product arising from public utilities which can now meet 15% of the nation's water needs; desalination plants, which meets 10%, in addition to vigorous water conservation.
The eighth Forum for Asia will question how to secure Asia's future through renewable energy sources, and how the private sector can contribute towards this.
March 21, 2008
China Daily
Canadians Over-confident in Country's Supply of Fresh Water New Poll Reveals .
A new poll by Unilever, RBC and the Canadian Partnership Initiative of the UN Water for Life Decade shows that 80% of Canadians are confident that the country has enough fresh water to meet the country's long-term needs. Two-thirds disagree that Canada has a fresh water shortage problem at all.
Canadian NGOs and a report from Environment Canada asserts Canada faces threats to its fresh water resources.
Water scarcity has constrained economic growth in parts of Western Canada and low lake levels have caused a reduction in shipping loads and reduced water availability for clean hydro-electric power on the Great Lakes. With climate change, water quality and availability will deteriorate. The health of the economy is linked to the availability of fresh water. Environment Canada estimates that water contributes $7.5 to $23 billion annually to Canada's economy.
We need to change our attitude toward water and implement conservation techniques in our everyday lives. When it comes to water sustainability, everyone has an important role to play. Although water is a renewable resource, it is not limitless. Canada possesses only 6.5% of the world's renewable fresh water. Canadians are the second largest wasters of water, second to only the Americans.
Almost all (97%) of Canadians agree that an abundant supply of fresh water is important to Canada's national economy. Twenty-eight per cent of Canadians identified removal of water to the United States as the number one threat to Canada's supply of fresh water. This belief is incorrect. The greatest threat to Canada's supply of fresh water is our belief in its absolute abundance which is being challenged by heavy use, rapid growth and by climate change and global warming-induced drought. be 'confident' that Canada in general has enough fresh water to meet our long-term needs.
March 19, 2008
Trading Markets
Nigeria: Good Water, Sanitation Crucial to Poverty Eradication.
A good agenda on water and sanitation is crucial to eradicating poverty and achieving development goals.
All 17 local governments, communities and all stakeholders are asked to ensuring the availability of clean and safe water.
Today, about 700 million people in 43 countries have inadequate sanitation, and by 2025, this could increase to more than three billion.
The global water situation remains fragile and there is a need for a sustainable approach to resource management.
Available supplies are under duress from a high population growth, unsustainable service patterns, poor management practices, pollution, investment in infrastructure and inefficiency in water and sanitation use.
They would need more water to grow food, provide potable water and sanitation services, operate industries and support expanding cities. The water demand gap is likely to grow wider, threatening development and environmental sustainability. All are charged with promoting echnology transfer, mobilisation of resources and scaling up good practices and lessons learned.
The UN declared March 22 of every year as World Water Day.
February 29, 2008
Africa News Service
China: Olympics Threat to Water Supply.
A Qiyuan from Shaanxi province, told the UK's Financial Times that people in north-western provinces may see social upheaval and environmental harm because of the strain on local water supplies.
China is building a network to divert water to the north that will divert water from rivers in the south via tunnels, dams and canals to cities in the north. Part of the project was brought forward to provide water for the Olympics.
In order to preserve the quality of Beijing's water we have to close all our factories, he said, and the government needs to compensate Shaanxi.
The project is blamed for the Yellow River silting up and causing flooding. It is unusual for a leading communist official to be so openly critical of government policy.
Shaanxi and Hebei province are required to pump clean water to Beijing in time for the Olympics.
They are on the northern stretch of a larger water transfer project designed to bring supplies from the Yangtze River in the south to northern industrial areas, including Beijing.
The project, costing tens of billions of dollars, is due for completion by 2010, but the authorities are hoping the northern leg of the network will be ready for the Olympics.
Water demand could rise to 30% above average as thousands of visitors arrive for the games.
Hebei province, which lies next to Beijing and supplies most of its water, is suffering from severe drought, caused by a lack of rain and snow.
Hebei province is being asked to provide an extra 300m cubic metres of back-up supplies to Beijing's 16 million residents. Several hundred kilometres of pipe and channels are being constructed to supply the capital, but farmers complain that lack of water is undermining agricultural land.
About 33,000 sq km (12,740 sq miles) of farmland was now affected by drought, while a quarter of a million residents were facing problems with drinking water.
Two western routes move water from the upper Yangtze to the Yellow river, the central route will divert water from the Danjiangkou reservoir underneath the Yellow river to Beijing and Tianjin. The Eastern route will pump water from the Yangtze to supply Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. The project is expected to cost at least $60bn and the estimated completion date is 2010 but Beijing hopes some northern sections will alleviate water shortages in time for the Olympics.
Critics say the diversions will drain farmland, forcibly relocate tens of thousands of people and impair water quality.
February 28, 2008
BBC News
Water Fears Lead Saudis to End Grain Output.
Saudi Arabia plans to halt wheat production by 2016 because of concerns about scarce water resources. The Saudi government has not publicly given details, which comes as global cereal prices surge. Saudi Arabia will begin reducing production annually by 12.5% and will use imports to bridge the gap. The US estimates that Saudi Arabia's wheat imports will reach 3.4m tons by 2016, which could be in the top 15 largest importers of the cereal. The country at present produces about 2.5m tons annually.
The increase in demand would tighten global wheat supplies even further. The US report said that "the main reason for change in wheat production was concern over the depletion of fossil water since the crop is grown on 100% central pivot irrigation. The Saudi administration launched an agricultural development programme in the 1970s, including the establishment of irrigation networks, to become self-sufficient for some food supplies. Saudi Arabia became a net exporter and by 1991 production had reached 3.8m tons.
Demand for water is increasing rapidly as the population has swelled from 7m in 1974 to about 24m, with the government seeking to boost industry. The country has no permanent rivers or lakes and very little rainfall. The government has relied on dams to trap seasonal floods, tens of thousands of deep wells and 27 desalination plants. It is so expensive to produce water in Saudi Arabia.
Karen Gaia says: I believe this makes the case against desalination as a cure-all for the world water crisis. Saudi Arabia is a fuel-rich country, and if desalination were feasible for agriculture, the Saudis could do it.
February 27, 2008
unknown
Multi-Million Dollar Initiative to Tackle World Water Crisis.
Seven organisations including the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) have announced a partnership to address the lack of access to clean water.
The Initiative will work in Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Mali, Nicaragua, Niger, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. It will spend US$15 million in its first year, with a similar sum for each of the following nine years.
This partnership comes at a time when climate change threatens to reduce water availability. The organisations involved have different strengths which, when employed in partnership with local organisations and government agencies, will help to improve the management of water resources and sanitation for millions of people.
Projects will deliver water and sanitation in rural communities. In addition, strengthen institutions, build capacity to sustain long term projects, increase community participation, improve local governance, facilitate inter-governmental coordination and cooperation, raise awareness, emphasize innovation and support the development of responsible water policies.
February 12, 2008
International Institute for Environment and Development
U.S.: People Blamed for Water Woes in West.
Human activity is responsible for up to 60% of changes contributing to dwindling water supplies in the arid and growing West and those changes are likely to accelerate. This will add to calls for action from Western states competing for the precious resource to irrigate farms and quench the thirst of growing populations. Researchers studied climate changes in the West between 1950-1999 and noted that winter precipitation falls increasingly as rain rather than snow, and river flows decrease in summer, and warming is exacerbating dry summer conditions. They found that most changes in river flow, temperature and snow pack between 1950 and 1999 can be attributed to human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The changes differed significantly from trends due to natural fluctuations between wet and dry periods. The picture is quite grim and suggests the need for conservation, more water storage, and a slowdown on development in the desert Southwest.
The research "foretells of water shortages, lack of storage capability, transfers of water from agricultural to urban uses and other critical impacts."
February 09, 2008
Associated Press
Atlanta's Role in Drought is Scrutinized.
With officials projecting that Atlanta could run out of water within three months, Georgia politicians have pleaded with the Army Corps of Engineers not to release more water from the reservoir as part of an effort to save two species of mussels 200 miles downriver.
Yet there is a growing sense that the metropolis itself is the problem. Atlanta's rapid growth, and its disregard for conservation, is straining the region's ecosystem.
The governors of Florida, Alabama and Georgia agreed to reduce by 16% the amount of water released from Lake Lanier, which would give some relief. But experts say the Southeast's struggles over water resources are far from over.
What has got to be on the table is Atlanta's unrestricted growth and cavalier attitude to water use. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wrote in a letter to President Bush that Florida's $134 million commercial seafood industry depended on the water and added that his state had acted responsibly in enacting water legislation. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley argued that downstream communities and a nuclear-power plant in his state required water, too.
Within Georgia the drought has brought to the fore long-simmering resentment against the booming capital of the New South. There is concern that Atlanta could slake its thirst on Augusta's water supplies. Atlanta is a greedy, poorly designed behemoth of a city incapable of hearing the word 'no' and dealing with it. They cannot bring themselves to tell their constituents that perhaps if they didn't have six bathrooms, it might ease the situation a bit.
While other cities have water-conservation measures, Atlanta, one of the country's fastest-growing metropolitan regions, has been particularly shortsighted.
Atlanta's population climbed to 4.1 million from 2.9 million. Its draw on the water increased to 420 million gallons a day from 320 million. For its drinking water, Atlanta relies almost entirely on Lake Lanier, a 38,000-acre man-made reservoir in northern Georgia built in the 1950s.
Not surprisingly, developers and members of the business community rankle at suggestion that the state should introduce legislation to prohibit developers from building if no water is available.
Karen Gaia says: several states do have legislation to prohibit developers from building if no water is available. However, counties often play a shell game with the water to make developers happy. If states where water is a problem were take a careful look at their water supply and were to act responsibly, there would be litttle or no more development allowed.
February 07, 2008
Los Angeles Times
Much of U.S. Could See a Water Shortage.
The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.
Water managers will take bold steps including conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development.
The last century was the century of water engineering. The next century is going to have to be the century of water efficiency.
Experts estimate that upgrading pipes to handle new supplies could cost the nation $300 billion over 30 years.
There's not going to be any more cheap water.
Australia is in the midst of a 30-year dry spell, and population growth in urban centers of sub-Saharan Africa is straining resources. Asia has 60% of the world's population, but only about 30% of its freshwater.
By 2050 up to 2 billion people could be facing major water shortages.
The U.S. used more than 148 trillion gallons of water in 2000 for residential, commercial, agriculture, manufacturing and every other use - almost 500,000 gallons per person.
Coastal states like Florida and California face a water crisis from rising temperatures that are causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise. More water lost to evaporation and rising seas could push saltwater into underground sources of freshwater.
Florida biggest problem was it has too much water. But decades of dikes, dams and water diversions have turned swamps into cities.
Little land is left to store water, and so much of the landscape has been paved over that water can no longer penetrate the ground to recharge aquifers.
Florida's environmental chief is seeking legislative action to get municipalities to reuse the wastewater.
Florida reclaims 240 billion gallons annually, but it is not nearly enough. The state projects that by 2025, the population will have increased 34% from about 18 million to more than 24 million people, pushing annual demand for water to nearly 3.3 trillion gallons.
There are more than 1,000 desalination plants in the U.S., many in the Sunbelt. The Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant is producing about 25 million gallons a day of fresh drinking water, about 10% of that area's demand. The $158 million facility is North America's largest plant of its kind.
Californians use nearly 23 trillion gallons of water a year, much of it coming from Sierra Nevada snowmelt. But climate change is producing less snowpack and causing it to melt prematurely, jeopardizing future supplies.
Experts also say the Colorado River will provide less water in coming years as global warming shrinks its flow.
California, like many other states, is pushing conservation as the cheapest alternative. Water efficiency is the wave of the future.
Karen Gaia says: desalinazation often depends on fossil fuels, whose supply is shrinking.
February 05, 2008
Associated Press
Are Our Current Growth and Water Use Sustainable?.
The use of water is constantly changing as our population continues to expand, and we respond to any number of external events, including new technologies, global climate, and energy availability. Arizona initially developed through exploiting its natural resources, often at rates that would deplete the region over time. We will need the ability to make adjustments in a timely manner and avoid crossing critical thresholds that could result in irreversible shortages.
Groundwater overuse could dewater an aquifer and compact its underground structure. This could lead to permanent loss of water storage capacity, increased vulnerability to drought, drying up of streams, or land subsidence. All of which have occurred in Arizona.
To meet demand, we must increase our investments in new water resources. Many of our leaders miss this fundamental relationship. They want to allow continued growth, but do not want to invest in the tools needed to manage and serve our complex communities.
Arizona has made significant advances in linking water and growth including requiring Arizona's larger or faster-growing local governments to consider water adequacy in their long-range plans. They require a 100-year renewable water supply before land can be subdivided, and last year's legislation allowing cities and towns to require new subdivisions to have a 100-year water supply.
Arizona's leaders will be considering transportation and water-management initiatives. It is hoped that we will, envision and plan for strong and healthy communities and be willing to invest to make it happen.
Priority goals for assuring a sustainable Arizona water supply include:
Develop long-range water-demand projections.
Forge regional partnerships.
Secure future supplies.
Understand and prepare for climate change.
Modify the state's regulatory and water-management organizations to require water adequacy in urban and rural areas, and to facilitate water transfers.
Address environmental quality, related to water management.
February 01, 2008
AZ Central.com
Clean Water Goal on Course to Fail.
The international community must review its goal to improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
The target, one of eight goals includes the aim of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
To meet the target, an additional 1.6 billion people need access to improved sanitation by 2015, but the world is likely to miss this by almost 600 million people.
Parts of Asia, northern African and Latin American are on track, but in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people without access to sanitation has increased from 335 million to 440 million.
The whole approach to meeting the target has to change and it is imperative that we see the scale of the challenge.
A UN report found there were problems in meeting environmental sustainability, including improved water supplies.
One of the reasons was the failure of international governments to live up to their financing commitments.
One sixth of the world's population get their water from sources contaminated by human and animal feces and half of all people in developing countries are estimated to have an illness related to sanitation and water quality.
January 30, 2008
EDIE
What it Means Yemen's Water Crisis.
Yemen suffers an imbalance between annual rainfall and water demand. Average renewable water resources are 125 cubic meters per capita, approximately 10% of the amount consumed by a Middle Easterner. Yemen is among the 10 water-poorest countries in the world.
The water volume in Yemen is about 5.1 billion cubic meters. Rainwater is 93% of the total water resources, while surface water, ground water and unconventional source waters (seawater distillation, reuse of sewer water, etc.) represent 4.86%, 2.08%, and 00.01% respectively.
The total water demand is increasing from 4.5 billion cubic meters in 1990 to an estimated 13 billion cubic meters in 2020. The current demand has three main areas: agriculture (95%), households (3.2%) and industries (1.8%).
Water shortage is expected to reach 15 billion cubic meters in 2020. The problem is getting worse due to pollution from human activity which negatively impacts water quality. There is a possibility for increased untreated sewer water to make its way down to the water-bearing layer. The problem is going to exacerbate in the future, given the quick-paced population growth. Water pollution primarily affects the the poor and marginalized who are more vulnerable. They are mainly herders and small farmers whose livelihood depends on water. The shortage and low quality of water affect the poor urban centers where it is difficult to find any source of water.
The importance of water is not limited to drinking and irrigation to produce crops and food but it is important for sustainable development because water availability is linked to public health, poverty, education and development in general. Water scarcity and competition for it may be a cause for economic and social instability, especially as 53% of Yemen's workforce is employed in the agricultural sector.
Consecutive Yemeni governments have adopted improper measures for managing water affairs. Usually focused on cost management, which implies that the government provided fresh water at the lowest cost possible. It gave little attention to fair distribution of water.
Estimates indicate that the cost of facilities reached $113 million, an average of $1.20 per cubic meter, which is high by all means.
Qat, which covers some 40% of the irrigated area, consumes 60% of the usable water in Yemen and is around double the volume of water consumed by the city of Sana'a.
To maintain water resources and optimize their use could be achieved through water demand management (WDM), a package of measures to urge individuals to regulate the quantity and price of water, the way they access it and the way they dispose of it. It is necessary to adopt a comprehensive view of water as an essential component of any good governance strategy. Water issues must be incorporated into school curricula and become a subject of scientific research and knowledge transfer activities.
January 21, 2008
Yemen Times
US North Carolina: When Short Showers Aren't Enough.
Gov. Easley's request to turn down the taps has resulted in a 11% drop in water use in the City of Durham. Old habits die hard.
The scrambling to tap new sources of water has dominated, but we're failing.
That failure has some saying Easley and the legislature should do more to coordinate a statewide effort. The governor and his office have repeatedly said that, short of declaring a state of emergency and launching public relations campaigns calling for conservation, his office has relatively little power. Local leaders say the state needs to spend more money on a regional approach. No long-term solutions are being considered within Durham County.
Water experts say a carefully calibrated tiered water system promotes year-round conservation and is one of the best ways to reduce water usage. Greensboro put one in place in 2001 and average household use has dropped by 25%.
But leaky pipes account for 14% loss of water in Durham. The city would identify and triage the hemorrhaging offenders. Getting municipalities up to speed depends on better coordination among municipalities, rewriting statewide building and plumbing codes, tracking and regulating well water use, and storm water management and gray water laws. Important information is lacking. An obvious step would be to throw more money and celebrity power behind a statewide education campaign. Durham grows closer to sucking muddy water from below the intake on its reservoirs.
January 02, 2008
The Independent Weekly
As Australian Agriculture Adjusts To Economic, Climate Changes, Is Its Future In Jeopardy?.
In the mid-90s, a two-year drought triggered more than $630 million (AUS) in federal farm support. With the current drought, spanning five growing seasons, the Australian government has spent $2.4 billion on relief measures. Some analysts are projecting a decline in that country's agricultural productivity.
Climate change is a driver in the downsizing of the farm sectors, although shrinking rural populations, global competition for commodity crop market share and perhaps most importantly, land-use issues. But there is no underestimating the impact of sustained drought which is linked to global warming. Since 2002
Annual grain harvest harvests have dropped from 37 million metric tons (MT) to less than 25 million MT
The national sheep herd has declined by 21%
Cattle have dropped from 27.7 million to 25.4 million
Milk production has fallen from 1.4 billion liters to 9.23 billion liters
Wool production has dropped from 645,000 MT to less than 438,000 MT
The decline has been dramatic when coupled with a surge in the financial fortunes of much of Australia's interior and western regions due to China's demand for coal and metals. Some are projecting that farming would become a mere afterthought in the 21st century.
On the measures of population and national income, farming matters less to Australia's make-up today than truck driving. It's hard to argue with the numbers. More than 50,000 ag-related jobs have been lost in the last decade and the total workforce of 360,000 people in ag, forestry and fishing sectors is now less than 3.5% of the nation's workforce from more than 5.2% in 1997.
Prime Minister Rudd was cautioning that big challenges lay ahead for the Australian farm economy.
Adapting to climate change is about tackling a major economic and agricultural reform necessary to underpin the future of Australia's food supply.
Drought is crippling our regional and rural communities, crops are failing. Feed-grain and water prices are rising. Farm debt is higher than at any other point in history and there are warnings about the impact of declining food exports and rising food prices on the Australian and global economies.
It is clear that agriculture was not at the top of the new government's “To-Do” list. Among Labor's top priorities were educational reform, action on climate change, new measures for national security, economic reforms in non-farm sectors to benefit workers and new national health-care reforms.
Even the climate change initiatives centered mostly on funding “green” power sources, implementing “clean coal” technology and increasing the country's investment in solar power generation.
Typical of the lobbying was the Victoria Farmers Federation, which called for “continued development of the Australian farm industry” and demanded increased spending to fund a review of the nation's quarantine system. New climate change initiatives; and upgrading Australia's irrigation and transport.
The New South Wales Farmers Association launched an effort to secure aid for farmers in eastern and central Australia who have been forced out by drought.
A brief “state of the industry” review reveals the impact of four consecutive seasons of below-average rainfall on the country's key ag sectors. The 2008 forecast is 5.9 million MT, down from 8.3 million MT in 2002. Australian feed and malting barley prices are forecast to remain high as a result of EU deficiencies and increased world demand.
» Grain production has dropped the 2008 sorghum forecast is 1.92 million MT, versus 2.12 MT in 2002, and the 2008 oats forecast is 10.3 million MT, versus 14.32 million MT in 2002.
Wheat estimates are for 15.5 million MT. Growers who find themselves with positions above what they will eventually deliver are exiting, which in turn is pushing prices up further.
The outlook Australian lamb industry remains reliant on an improvement in seasonal conditions. The drought has had a significant impact on the nation's sheep flock, with sheep slaughterings increasing by 12% in 2006 and 2007. Lamb numbers are down by 9%.
Dry seasons have caused reluctance among growers to sow canola.
The federal government has pledged more than $714 million (AUS) to help stricken farmers.
More than a century ago, Australia's Surveyor General, drew a line across the map dividing the country's southern region into farming lands, or grazing lands. But climate change, some say, has shifted the line south, and the region where much of the country's produce, wine grapes and cereal crops are now produced may no longer have a future in farming.
More than 40% of the farmers in South Australia receive government assistance. Many rural towns and regions have lost as much as 90% of their former farm populations.
For many farm families, seeking greener pastures has meant moving away to take jobs in cities and the mining industries farther north.
December 28, 2007
CattleNetwork.com
US Oklahoma;: State Supply Brings Woes.
A hand-dug water well has served Crenshaw's rural Pawnee County home for more than a century, but last year, it ran dry. The Crenshaws spent $1,200 to drill another well. It was dry, but then rains came and their old well came back to life.
This past spring and summer, record rains caused widespread flooding. The state's water wealth, experts warn, could become a mirage. Growing population and increased demand could bring more water problems and dry wells in the future.
"We are beginning to see the limits of the water resources that the state has," said Miles Tolbert, state secretary of the environment. Oklahoma's problem is complex. Sustainability is a concern, especially for those who draw water from depleted underground aquifers. However, some parts of the state rely upon abundant lakes and reservoirs.
All of these factors add up to an estimated $5.4 billion in water improvement projects needed throughout the state.
Demand for water is soaring. Supplies are limited and shrinking. Prices are rising. Last year the Legislature voted a new Comprehensive Water Plan that will address water needs, competing water interests, vulnerability to drought and flooding, environmental protection and economic development through 2016.
The state predicts that Oklahoma will add 17% more residents during the next 20 years, with a population of 4.2 million by 2030.
The state will use more than 744 million gallons of water in the year 2030.
The effects of growing demand and limited supplies were sped up during last year's drought. In one instance, Lone Chimney Lake ran out of potable water. That left the towns of Glencoe, Morrison, Yale, Blackburn, Skedee, Marimec, Terlton, Pawnee and Cleveland high and dry.
That reality is apparent in areas that draw water from wells.
Drought-breaking rains helped refill the state's 34 major reservoirs, most of which are now into their flood-control pools. These reservoirs store more than 4.2 trillion gallons of water.
But underground aquifers are depleted.
These aquifers will hold more than 24 times the amount of water pooled in the reservoirs. But pressure on their stores is growing.
The state reports a tenfold increase in the number of wells drilled into these aquifers since 1972. The Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer in south central Oklahoma has declined more than any other bedrock aquifer since 2000. It dropped more than 21 feet. The Blaine aquifer in southwestern Oklahoma dropped more than 9 feet. The Garber-Wellington, in central Oklahoma, fell more than 6 feet.
Disparities in the state's water reserves beg questions about pooling resources. While Oklahoma looks inward to settle these issues, it also must handle outsiders' claims to its water.
Two Texas Tarrant Regional district that serves Fort Worth and Arlington, and the Upper Trinity district in Denton County have applied to buy the state's water.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board has a moratorium on out-of-state sales. But the Tarrant district has sued, challenging the ban as unconstitutional.
Authors of the state's water plan set out to have 42 meetings to discuss local and regional water supplies with the public. They plan to inventory the state's water supplies and size up the needs of local and regional water districts.
It is a process that will affect the way water flows throughout the state.
November 27, 2007
Edmond Sun
We Face Worldwide Drought with No Contingency Plan.
What happens when there is not enough water to go around? Atlanta is a city in trouble in a region in trouble. Sonny Perdue, Georgia's Baptist governor, led a crowd of hundreds in prayers for rain.
It seems, however, that the Almighty was otherwise occupied and the regional drought continued. Water rationing has hit the capital. Car washing and lawn watering are prohibited. Harvests in the region have dropped by 15 to 30%. By the end of summer, local reservoirs and dams were holding 5% of their capacity.
But that compares Ankara, Turkey, hit by a fierce drought and high temperatures. Over the last decade, 15 to 20% decreases in precipitation have been recorded, accompanied by record temperatures and increasing wildfires in areas where populations have been growing rapidly. Or the drought that has swept huge parts of Australia, the worst in a century. Morocco has 50% less rainfall than normal. In Mexico's Tehuacán Valley, the drought conditions have made subsistence farming next to impossible. Four cities in Southern California, top the national drought ratings: Los Angeles, San Diego, Oxnard, and Riverside.
We don't think of our country as water poor. But acording to the National Climate Data Center, federal officials have declared 43% of the contiguous US to be in "moderate to extreme drought." The Southwest is in the grips of a 'mega-drought,' even the 'worst in 500 years.' Such conditions may represent the region's new "normal weather."
The water level of Lake Superior, has fallen to the lowest point on record for this time of year. In the Southeast, 26% of which, according to the National Weather Service, is in a state of "exceptional" drought, tt has been the driest year on record for North Carolina and Tennessee, while eighteen months of blue skies have led Georgia to break every historical record, whether measured by the percentage of moisture in the soil, the flow rate of rivers, inches of rain.
Rock Spring, South Carolina, has been without water for a month. Farmers are hauling water by pickup truck to keep their cattle alive. Atlanta, its metropolitan area "watered" mainly by a 1950s man-made reservoir, Lake Lanier, which, is turning into baked mud. With a population of five million and known for its uncontrolled growth (as well as lack of water planning), the city is expected to house another two million inhabitants by 2030. And yet, Atlanta will essentially run out of water.
The worst outcome would be mass migrations with bitter interstate court battles over the dwindling water supplies. But before that, if too much water is siphoned from agriculture, farm towns and ranch towns will wither. If drought becomes more widespread, more common in heavily populated parts of the globe already bursting at the seams (and with more people arriving daily), if whole regions no longer have the necessary water, How much burning and suffering and misery are we likely to experience?
November 26, 2007
Alternet
Australians Concerned with Population.
Mr. Beattie said Australia's ageing population of 21 million was too small to meet future needs. The credentials of the Queensland government to make any statement on this issue are very poor. It has failed to plan for the large numbers of Australians attracted to SE Queensland when climate change data suggested that they could not be sustained. In South Australia there are targets for a large increase in population in the face of continuing water shortage. Governments worry about the increasing numbers of elderly Australians and reason that we need more young people to pay for them. How naive, population growth in perpetuity!
No-one likes to talk about it, but population is the common denominator of climate change. Climate change cannot be arrested with an expanding population.
2 billion airline journeys each year are the fastest increasing cause of green house emissions, but the world's population creates 4 times as much carbon dioxide each year as the airlines. Add energy usage and consumption and even if the world managed to achieve a 52% cut in its 1990 emission levels it would be cancelled out by population growth. The most effective global climate change strategy is to limit the size of the population.
Now Mr. Beattie wants skilled immigrants. We support necessary immigration of refugees but not immigration that purloins skilled workers from developing countries.
Procreation is a sensitive issue. This is why it's not on the climate change agenda. But liberty is a matter of degree and in this crisis there is no right to a liberty that affects the future of the entire community. Perhaps the ultimate deterrent to procreation is whether you want to create offspring to compete for space when everywhere else is uninhabitable.
November 22, 2007
Doctors for the Environment Australia
India;: Are We Destroying the Himalayas?.
India needs 5.6 times its current installed capacity; to 'electrify' everyone in Indian. To reach world level of consumption might result in environmental disaster if coal technological options take primacy over sustainable ones. The plan for milking Himalayan waters is showing devastation that is being documented with the hope that our concerns result in saner voices prevailing in Delhi.
The Himalayan potential for hydro-power is 'reassessed' at 248,871 MW. The estimated country-wise potential is: Pakistan: 41,722 MW, India 108,143 MW; Nepal 83,000 MW; and Bhutan 16,000 MW. In Himachal Pradesh about 286 micro hydel projects of below 10 MW have been approved, many under execution. True data are not available; much is under wraps.
At least one major dam has been constructed without environmental clearance; rivers are being diverted, debris from construction work is destroying forests, shrubs, creating water channels that were never there. This is eroding ecosystems that have supported thousands of livelihoods in the mountain areas and millions in the basins that are served in the plains. Those who oppose this destruction are called 'anti-development.'
Himachal Pradesh state, accounts for about 20% of hydro-electric potential of India. The state of affairs is documented with examples from several project areas and villages where ecosystem destruction has threatened livelihoods. This paper explores impact on ecosystems at three Chamba and one Kangra village with photographic evidences. The response of the government is discussed and the responses of the civil society are briefly documented.
Given the scale of hydro-electric projects in this ecologically sensitive state, and the Himalayan region in general, the paper raises questions of long term sustainability and survival of millions of South Asians.
Follow the link to the entire article.
November 13, 2007
The People's Voice
UA Involved in 9 of 12 Projects Awarded Funding by Water Institute.
The Arizona Water Institute announced that 12 projects will receive a total of $555,000 in AWI funds.
Chris Scott, an assistant professor in the UA Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, is studying how the rapid population growth in the Arizona-Sonora border region will impact energy and water sustainability.
George Frizvold is developing agriculture scenarios and their implications for water supplies. Other projects involving UA scientists range from the impacts of forest thinning on water balance, improving water management on the Navajo Nation, enhanced drought sensitivity and monitoring, and habitat protection along the Verde River.
The Arizona Water Institute was formed in 2006, and is a collaboration of Arizona's three universities. Its charge is to develop solutions to the state's water challenges, including enhancing educational opportunities related to water and providing better access to information. Capitalizing on technology transfer and water management expertise, it is expected to help develop sustainable water supply solutions that can be used throughout the world.
November 03, 2007
University of Arizona News
Development-India: Lack of Water, Lack of Education.
While social taboos hinder the education of girls in India's poor communities, in Bangalore access to water could be just as responsible.
Women used to travel two to three miles to fetch water. We were not able to send our children to school because they had to come with us to fetch water. They had to wait all night to get a bowl of water. Some young girls get molested. In some areas, slums have given way to high-tech companies employing thousands of graduates from India's elite technological institutions. Nearby are the slums housing the untouchables shunned by the rest of the community. Bangalore has about 365 slums, home to a fifth of the city's 6.5 million population and most lack water and sanitation.
The contrast between the two reinforces the difficulties faced by the urban poor and the need for new initiatives. Public service utilities could not give water and sanitation connections to the settlements because the latter do not have land titles. Years of lobbying finally persuaded public authorities to find a way around this requirement.
At Sundamnagar, a community of around 300 households, AVAS was able to buy land and work out a land title. AVAS also gave collateral so each family could borrow up to 20,000 rupees (500 US dollars) to build a house.
AVAS gave emphasis to educating women, by setting up a water and sanitation (WATSAN) committee in each community. Most committee members are women.
It is the women who maintain the system. If the water doesn't come and leakages happen, they immediately take it up. Most of the men watch TV at home all day, and those who work spend most of their money on alcohol.
Sundamnagar was supposed to be the pilot project but water is not coming to the homes and people are refusing to pay.
The women took the case to the chairman of the Bangalore water board. They said water was being diverted to other communities and pressure was not enough to bring water into their homes. Monthly meter readings are not being made, and they refuse to pay for a service we are not receiving, but water is essential so they are trying to work out a solution.
In Palya, the residents get two hours of water a day, more than enough for each family: they have time to sleep, take a bath and do all the housework.
The community is clean because there are toilets inside the houses and they have adequate water supply.
Today, the children go to school regularly and they are doing well.
Many of the children are going to pre-university college, technical education. All the residents are happy.
There is no pollution in the slums. By organising and motivating the community, informing them about the norms, rules and regulations, they will not only pay but will also help maintain the systems properly.
October 16, 2007
InterPress Service
Population and California's Political Minefields.
The politicians and the press are reluctant to use the word "crisis" in reporting the drought in the Southeast U.S. and Atlanta potentially running out of water within a year. We are going to see more and more water crises in the coming years, especially in the overpopulated Southwestern U.S. Population growth, fueled immigration, is putting tremendous pressure on the ability of many areas to sustain vast numbers of people.
The Atlanta area ignored a potential water crisis and invited it by not putting limits on population growth. The Atlanta region has a very limited water source, limited by an interstate pact with Florida and Alabama from taking more than a certain percent of the water from the Chattahoochee River, because it is crucial that the river maintain a certain flow level all the way into the Gulf of Mexico. More people mean more businesses, schools, etc. No one has put restrictions on keeping Atlanta's lawns, including golf courses, as green as ever.
The drought-impacted area stretches from mid-Alabama across a swath of Georgia and South Carolina and into North Carolina. The lack rain has set the clock ticking on what could result in a major disaster. Population planning must be long term and permanent.
In California, the recent action by a federal judge to reduce pumping water from the North to the South has created a dilemma that cannot be solved overnight. The water squeeze reflects decades of political gridlock and also an ever-growing population. Rearranging the water allocations for the state will mean rushing a water bond issue through the legislature. This isn't an issue you can vote against. Indeed, if they want to keep the water running, California voters are going to have to pay billions more tax dollars until they finally unite and resoundingly say "NO" to more population growth.
October 15, 2007
NPG
Egypt Plan to Green Sahara Desert Stirs Controversy.
The lush fields of cauliflower, apricot trees and melon is proof of Egypt's determination to turn its deserts green.
Egypt is slowly greening the sand that covers almost all of its territory as it seeks to create more space for its growing population.
With only 5% of the country is habitable; almost all of Egypt's 74-million people live along the Nile River and the Mediterranean Sea. Crowded living conditions will likely get worse as Egypt's population is expected to double by 2050.
The government is keen to encourage people to move to the desert with an estimated $70-billion plan to reclaim 1,2-million hectacres of desert over the next 10 years. The government will need to tap into scarce water resources of the Nile River as rainfall is almost non-existent in Egypt.
The plan has raised controversy among some who say turning the desert green is neither practical nor sustainable.
The director of the Stockholm International Water Institute in Sweden questions the wisdom of using precious water resources to grow in desert areas unsuited to cultivation and where water will evaporate quickly.
The scope of the reclamations could add to regional tension over Nile water sharing arrangements. Egypt's project called "Toshka", would expand Egypt's farmland by about 40% by 2017, using about five billion cubic metres of water a year.
That worries neighbours to the south who are already unhappy about Nile water sharing arrangements.
Ethiopia, where the Blue Nile begins, receives no formal allocation of Nile water, but it is heavily dependent on the water for its own agricultural development.
The Toshka project will complicate the challenge of achieving a more equitable allocation of the Nile River. But other experts suggest that it may be more imperative for Egypt's government to mollify its own population rather than heed its neighbours concerns.
Overcrowding is straining infrastructure in the cities and the government is worried that opposition groups such as the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which has a fifth of the seats in Parliament, might capitalise on discontent.
A desert reclamation project last decade, south of Cairo, destroyed much of the Wadi Raiyan oasis and its population of slender horned gazelles.
A lodge, which costs $400 per night and has attracted guests such as Britain's Prince Charles and Belgium's Queen Paola, shows that the desert would be better used for ecotourism than farming.
At the Desert Development Centre, irrigation water comes through a canal connected to the Nile, about 15km away, where it is used to keep crops flourishing and grass green for hardy hybrid cows to graze.
Experts believe greening the Sahara might be Egypt's best hope of bringing prosperity to its people.
Proximity to markets in Europe and a lack of pests, which usually thrive in humid environments, make desert farming economically viable. Water supply, Tutwiler said, shouldn't be an issue at least for the next ten years. It makes sense, he says, to expand agriculture onto land that was once useless.
October 08, 2007
Reuters
Georgia Governor, Corps Differ Over Extent of Water Emergency.
Georgia Gov. declared a water emergency in north Georgia on Saturday as its water resources dwindled to a dangerously low level. But an Army Corps of Engineers official denied there is a crisis.
The Gov asked for President Bush's help in easing regulations that require the state to send water to Alabama and Florida and to declare 85 counties as federal disaster areas.
He blasted rules governing the water supplies, noting that if the state got rains, it could not by law conserve those, but must release 3.2 billion gallons a day downstream.
The Army Corps of Engineers said if there were nine months without rain, water supplies still would be adequate. The corps, releases 5,000 feet of water per second from the dam between Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River.
The figure was based on a Florida hydroelectric power plant's needs, as well as concern for endangered species in the river. Georgia filed a motion to require the Army Corps of Engineers to restrict water flows from the lake and other Georgia reservoirs. The corps said it needs 120 days to review its water policies, according to Perdue.
Rainfall is far below normal for this time of year.
Lake Lanier levels have dropped to a historically low and is hurting businesses and scaring away tourists.
A new biological review of endangered species needs will end in November to see if water requirements can be reduced. Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been wrangling over how to allocate water from the Chattahoochee watershed as metro Atlanta's population has doubled since 1980. Georgia has imposed a ban on outdoor water use by homeowners in the region.
October 2007
CNN.com
UN Warns Water Will Become the Dominant Global Issue This Century.
Water will become the dominant global issue this century, and its availability could threaten the world's social stability. Rapid urbanization is placing enormous pressure on the availability of clean water and other natural resources. There is a need for "a fundamental change" in the way the world approaches water and sanitation. For the first time, more people live in cities than in rural areas, by 2030 the urban population will reach 60%. Urbanization is a reality that we must turn to our advantage as cities are the centres of economic and social development.
The urban poor pay exorbitant prices for water to private vendors. Policymakers must work together to ensure realistic pricing policies for water "that will allow its conservation, discourage waste, and ensure that the poor will be able to meet their basic needs. The current level of investment in water and sanitation in developing countries remains woefully inadequate. The private sector can bring efficiency gains and investment funds to the water sector.
Climate change, and its threat of extreme weather, jeopardized the urban poor's access to safe, drinkable water and reliable sanitation,
September 18, 2007
MaximsNews.com
Lack of Water in Northern Sudan Refugee Camps Threaten Tens of Thousands.
The demand for bricks has been a bonanza for many of the 54,000 people who've settled in Sudan after fleeing the war in Darfur. But making bricks requires water, and that's placed a huge strain on a region parched by years of drought. Nine of the boreholes that refugees rely on for water have run dry near Abu one of the largest camps in northern Darfur. The refugee crisis has badly overtaxed water supplies in parts of Darfur, and shortages could imperil the health of tens of thousands of people.
"Livelihoods that are thriving are placing unsustainable demands on natural resources.
As the population of camps continues to rise to 2.2 million, aid workers are scrambling to find new sources of water and urging refugees to conserve supplies.
UN officials in Sudan say the shortages could complicate the deployment of 20,000 peacekeeping troops seen as the best chance yet to end the conflict.
U.N. planners aren't sure how to provide enough water in such an inhospitable environment. By agreement, the current 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission shares water with the relief effort. The water needs are going to increase. The arrival of several thousand peacekeepers only adds to that.
A Texas-sized region of mostly arid scrubland at the southern edge of the Sahara, Darfur has suffered for decades from a lack of water and a near-total absence of infrastructure.
Experts trace the origins of the current conflict to competition between farmers and nomadic livestock-herders over water and arable land, both of which have been disappearing.
Since 2003, hundreds of thousands of villagers have fled their homes and clustered near large towns.
Meanwhile, the area is getting drier. Average annual rainfall has declined by one-third over the past 80 years. Much of Darfur lies on a formation of igneous rock that doesn't hold water well, so the store of water in bore wells, doesn't get replenished.
American geologists who rediscovered a large, ancient lake deep underground in the far north of El Fasher last month said tapping into it could help solve the region's water shortage. But scientists think the lake has dried up.
Relief agencies are exploring other ways to supply water. Tanker trucks have been bringing water to one large camp in southern Darfur for two months, an expensive and risky alternative. But the water supply is a highly sensitive issue for Darfurians, who see it as a source not only of sustenance but also of commerce.
Making one brick can require up to a quart of water, but relief workers say they can't force people to stop the practice.
It's an ongoing crisis with no end in sight.
August 28, 2007
McClatchy Newspapers
Too Much Water Or Too Little? Coping with the Inevitable.
If climate change initiates different conditions, communities may face problems from coastal inundation to drought to flash floods.
Discussions about how to adapt are being fueled by a changing political climate and a convergence of immediate problems. Coastal planners and property owners face erosion damage. Hurricanes have reminded U.S. coastal communities of their vulnerability.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sea levels could continue to rise for centuries. Scientists concluded this year the planet is likely to see more heat waves, hurricane intensity, and forest fires. Coastal communities may face a choice: Do they try to keep waters at bay, or just let the sea advance? Communities are likely to mount a defense of heavily developed areas, but retreat as an option for undeveloped lands.
Sea walls may not have to go up until they're needed. But communities that decide on retreat may want to set rules ahead of time.
In the U.S., about 5,000 square miles of dry land lies within two feet of high tide, including development and critical infrastructure. A three-foot sea rise in San Francisco Options for protecting the city include elevating buildings and freeways, erecting levees, and replenishing beaches.
Florida is the state most vulnerable to natural disasters. A sea-level rise would inundate large areas. Hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 led to soaring home owner insurance rates. Miami-Dade County as a low-lying coastal community, probably has less time than people living in other parts of the country. South Florida gets most of its water from the porous Biscayne Aquifer.
Use of the aquifer is being curtailed to protect the Everglades, so managers have been looking elsewhere to meet the needs of rapid growth. But the aquifer is vulnerable to contamination. With rising seas, it may also be vulnerable to saltwater intrusion. Miami-Dade County expects to have desalinization process in production by 2012.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are considering climate change. Officials in New Orleans are building in extra capacity under the assumption that the walls will still function 50 years from now. The agency chartered to coordinate coastal restoration is calling for wetlands restoration. More than 1.2 million acres of coastal Louisiana have disappeared since the 1930s. Katrina and Rita alone removed 200 square miles of marsh.
In addition to absorbing the force of storms, wetlands slow erosion and filter pollution. Wetlands have shown a natural resiliency but if development blocks their path, wetlands may have no room to move.
Sea walls keep waters at bay but can cause the adjacent beaches to erode entirely.
On the Chesapeake Bay the thousands of miles of shoreline include swamps, marshes, and other wetlands with different levels of salinity. The bay is fed by fresh water from rivers such as the Susquehanna River, closer to the Atlantic, the water turns brackish. The changing waters provide habitats for 2,700 plant and animal species.
Subsidence has combined with rising waters to drive the Chesapeake's level up about one foot over the last century, nearly twice the global average. Residents abandoned a number of shrinking islands throughout the 20th century.
Also at risk are the tidal wetlands of the Eastern Shore, one of the Mid-Atlantic's largest expanses of coastal wetlands. On the Maine coast, state restrictions include a ban on seawalls along the sand dune system, to allow the system to function in a natural way, Just as coasts may get too wet, some inland areas may get too dry. The Great Lakes, could see a drop in water levels due to evaporation.
Such a decline could affect global shipping and the communities on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. Evaporation and a drop in precipitation could strain water supplies, especially in the West. The snowmelt replenishes rivers through spring and into summer. But the water is melting earlier in the year, reducing flows during the hot months when communities need it most.
The 2005 version of the California Water Plan, issued every five years, includes a range of options, including desalinization and water banking.
A 2005 salmon recovery plan outlines a 50-year restoration effort. But a NOAA study noted that higher Snohomish River water temperatures and the altered flows caused by climate change will make recovery targets harder to reach.
King County calls for the county's $1.7 billion Brightwater Treatment Plant, now under construction, to produce seven million gallons of reclaimed water a day by 2010. Changed conditions will be worked into designs of roads, bridges, landscaping, and efforts to protect water quality in Puget Sound and its tributaries.
August 28, 2007
Insurance News Net
Water Crisis May Threaten the Social Stability.
UN Under-Secretary-General Anna Tibaijuka, says that whenever she goes home on vacation, she is deprived water in herhousing compound in Dar-es-Salaam.
She told IPS she has to buy water in her own home town, growing at 4% per annum with its population doubling every 15 years.
She said the growth of urban centres over the last 30 years is rapidly depleting once plentiful water resources. Mexico City has sunk some eleven metres over the past 70 years due to withdrawal of water from the city's groundwater sources. The UN says more than one billion people do not have access to drinking water and more than two billion have no sanitation facilities.
Tibaijuka told a meeting of more than 2,000 water professionals, technicians, scientists and policy makers, that water is going to be the dominant world issue. We need to better utilise our abundant human and natural resources and scarce financial resources.
A minimum investment of 8.0 billion dollars annually would assure that every country in that region could halve the proportion of people without access to water and sanitation.
The author of the study says that the 8.0 billion dollar annual investment will yield a 54 billion annual return.
Every dollar invested in access to water and sanitation returns six dollars in health, livelihood and educational benefits.
Despite such clear justifications Asian governments have not stepped up investments.
ADBS will establish a Water Financing Partnership Facility to mobilise 100 million dollars in co-financing from development partners in the North.
Pakistan's Minister for Environment said last month that climate change poses serious risks and challenges, particularly to developing countries.
He added that to enable developing countries to pursue sustainable development and to address the challenges posed by climate change, rich nations should provide adequate, new and additional financing. Also he called for the transfer of technology to developing countries, through financial instruments and mechanisms.
Industrial nations should implement their commitments relating to economic and social development and environmental sustainability.
Ralph says: Perhaps we should tie increased aid to reduced population growth. Karen Gaia says: yes, instead of investing in a very limited resource where returns will be small.
August 28, 2007
Terraviva Europe
Water: Where Does Africa Stand?.
There are the developed countries who are using more water, wastefully, than they should, and there are developing countries, where over a billion people do not have clean drinking water. Africa is the most vulnerable.
Africa has the lowest water supply and sanitation coverage in the world and is said to be the most vulnerable to climate change, which will result in more sufferings and devastation on the continent. The main cause is a lack of clean, safe drinking water.
The African Union should make the provision of safe drinking water a priority. Otherwise, the future for Africa is bleak.
August 22, 2007
Agoravox
Massive Water Shortage to Hit Turkey After 2050.
According to the World Wide Fund Turkey (WWF Turkey), Turkey will be faced with grave water shortages after 2050, if it continues managing its water in an inefficient fashion. Turkey is not a water-rich country. Water resources will be used at full capacity in 2030. Turkey is set to suffer from a water shortage crisis after 2050. WWF Turkey suggests a set of precautions from improving water management to using the country's dams more efficiently. Dam investments should be made from risk and cost-benefit analyses. WWF Turkey points out that new dam-building and irrigation projects should be in accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive.
The condition of the wetlands in Turkey is not promising, owing to the management of these areas. The wetlands have been spoiled due to dams being built on rivers without sufficient planning, half of which have dried over the last five decades owing to pollution, illegal fishing and hunting. Lake Kestel in Burdur, Lake Gavur in Kahramanmaras, Lake Sugla and Lake Samsam in Konya have been dried up to transform these areas into agricultural land, while Lake Aksehir of Konya has, shrunk to from 350 square kilometers to just 30.
Lake Tuz occupied 260,000 hectares of land in 1997, it has shrunk to 160,000 hectares. Unfiltered wastewaters coming from agricultural land and Konya's lack of proper facilities for the disposal of sewage have aggravated the situation. The Hotamis Wetland has almost completely dried up as a result of irrigation channels. The Esmekaya wetland bordering Aksaray has been damaged by the unfinished project to transform it into a dam lake and has completely dried out.
WWF Turkey says that problems stem from poor management of water resources. Monitoring water resources is the DSI's responsibility, while protecting them from pollution and carrying out inspections are the responsibility of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The result is the lack of coordination and cooperation between institutions, incompatibility of the legal regulations and conflict of authority.
August 09, 2007
Today's Zaman
Venezuela Fulfills Millennium Drinking Water Supply Goals 10 Years Ahead of Time.
Venezuela has fulfilled millennium goals regarding drinking water. 94% of the urban population and more than 82% of rural communities have guaranteed drinking water supplies.
This is 10 years ahead of the United Nations goal. Achieving the goal relied on community participation via civilian organizations to analyze water problems in each region and then to present projects to resolve the situation.
August 06, 2007
VHeadline.com
Venezuela Achieves Water Millennium Goal.
Venezuela fulfilled millennium goals regarding drinking water assured the Vice Minister of Water Resources. Currently, 94% of the urban population and more than 82% in the rural region have drinking water supply guaranteed.
Achieving this goal counted on the participation of the communities through civilian organizations that analyses water problems in their region.
Projects are presented to government entities to solve the problem. It is set down in the nation's Constitution, that water is a public right.
The UN Objectives of Development call for the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, reduction of infant mortality and universal right to primary education.
These goals should be reached before the end of 2015.
Objective number seven calls for a reduction by half of the percentage of persons lacking access to drinking water.
August 04, 2007
Prensa Latina
Africa;: Unequal Water Resources Present a Challenge.
Water resources are unevenly distributed throughout the countries of Southern Africa. The Congo River, flowing through the rainforests of Central Africa, is second only to the Amazon. Lake Tanganyika contains the second largest volume of freshwater in the world, and Lake Victoria has the second largest surface area of any freshwater lake.
Five river basins carry more than enough water to ensure that all inhabitants of the region are well supplied. The region is also home to two deserts - the Kalahari the Namib Desert. Long dry periods have proved disastrous for farmers in marginal areas and left urban slums vulnerable to diseases.
This uneven distribution has motivated engineers to devise plans to improve the management of Southern Africa's water resources. However, in spite of the overall regional availability of water and substantial international aid, there are still many rural and urban poor who do not have access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
In Mozambique, 43% of people have access to potable water, and in Angola, 53%, Zambia, 58%.
The U.N. committed to stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources. Eight Goals aimed at reducing poverty and improving living conditions for the poorest people by 2015.
Goal seven includes a target to halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
While the international community as a whole appears to be on track to meet this target, sub-Saharan Africa is falling short.
Authorities in Southern Africa are slow in piping water to rural areas that experience water shortages because in some cases dams have not been built, while in others existing facilities have not been properly maintained.
Poor farming methods have exacerbated water shortages, and instead of water being stored in the soil, it gushes through erosion channels into the nearest river. Rapid population growth and urbanisation are putting strain on the water authorities in urban areas. Effluent remains exposed among the shacks, and creates a breeding ground for bacteria.
Most countries in the region have devoted resources to their national water authorities, and are working with donor agencies to improve water provision. Most of the rivers and lakes are relatively clean when compared to the industrialised world, and other emerging countries. However, much remains to be done.
Ralph says: The only true solution is to halt the population growth. The basic source of so many of our problems.
July 25, 2007
Interpress Service
Earth Policy Release - Water Tables Falling and Rivers Running Dry.
The world's demand for water has tripled over the last half-century and the demand for hydroelectric power has grown even faster.
Scores of countries are overpumping aquifers, including each of the big three grain producers--China, India, and the United States. There are two types of aquifers: replenishable and nonreplenishable aquifers. Most of the aquifers in India and the shallow aquifer under the North China Plain are replenishable. When these are depleted, the maximum rate of pumping is automatically reduced to the rate of recharge.
For fossil aquifers, such as the U.S. Ogallala aquifer, the deep aquifer under the North China Plain, or the Saudi aquifer, depletion brings pumping to an end. In more arid regions, such as in the southwestern United States or the Middle East, the loss of irrigation water means the end of agriculture.
Chinese wheat farmers in some areas are now pumping from nearly 1,000 feet. Pumping water from this far down raises pumping costs so high that farmers are forced to abandon irrigation and return to less productive dryland farming. China is overpumping three river basins in the north including the Huai. Since it takes 1,000 tons of water to produce one ton of grain, the shortfall in the Hai basin of nearly 40 billion tons of water per year means that when the aquifer is depleted, the grain harvest will drop by 40 million tons. In India, water shortages are serious because the margin between food consumption and survival is so precarious. In India the 21 million wells drilled are lowering water tables in most of the country. In North Gujarat, the water table is falling by 20 feet per year. In Tamil Nadu, a state with more than 62 million people, wells are going dry and falling water tables have dried up 95% of the wells owned by small farmers, reducing the irrigated area by half over the last decade.
Well drillers are going as deep as 1,000 meters in some locations. In communities where underground water sources have dried up entirely, all agriculture is rain-fed and drinking water is trucked in.
In the U.S. parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas the underground water table has dropped by more than 100 feet and wells have gone dry on thousands of farms. Irrigated land accounts for only one fifth of the U.S. grain harvest, compared with three fifths of the harvest in India and four fifths in China.
In the Pakistani part of the fertile Punjab plain, the drop in water tables appears similar to that in India. Wells show a fall in the water table between 1982 and 2000 that ranges from 1 to nearly 2 meters a year.
In Quetta, water tables are falling by 3.5 meters per year. Within 15 years Quetta will run out of water.
Iran is overpumping its aquifers by 5 billion tons of water per year, equivalent to one third of its annual grain harvest. Under the Chenaran Plain in northeastern Iran, the water table was falling by 2.8 meters a year in the late 1990s. New wells being drilled both for irrigation and to supply the nearby city of Mashad are responsible. Villages in eastern Iran are being abandoned as wells go dry.
Saudi Arabia developed an extensive irrigated agriculture based largely on its deep fossil aquifer. After several years the government was forced to face fiscal reality and cut the subsidies. Its wheat harvest dropped from 4 million tons in 1992 to 2 million tons in 2005. Saudi farmers are now pumping water from wells that are 1,200 meters deep (nearly four fifths of a mile).
In Yemen, a nation of 21 million, the water table under most of the country is falling by 2 meters a year as water use outstrips the sustainable yield of aquifers. World Bank projections indicate the Sana'a Basin, site of the national capital, Sana'a, and home to 2 million people, will be pumped dry by 2010.
The Yemeni government has drilled test wells 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) deep, but have failed to find water. Yemen must soon decide whether to bring water by pipeline from coastal desalting plants, or to relocate the capital. Israel is depleting both of its principal aquifers. Israel's population, whose growth is fueled by both natural increase and immigration, is outgrowing its water supply. Conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians over the allocation of water are ongoing. Because of severe water shortages, Israel has banned the irrigation of wheat.
In Mexico, the demand for water is outstripping supply. In the agricultural state of Guanajuato, the water table is falling by 2 meters or more a year. About 51% of all the water extracted from underground is from aquifers that are being overpumped.
Depletion of aquifers means creating potentially unmanageable food scarcity.
Two rivers are dry before they reach the sea. The Colorado, and the Yellow, the largest river in northern China. Other large rivers that are reduced to a mere trickle during the dry season are the Nile, the Indus, which supplies most of Pakistan's irrigation water; and the Ganges in India's densely populated Gangetic basin. Since 1950, the number of large dams has increased from 5,000 to 45,000. Each dam deprives a river of some of its flow.
Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and, most important, California depend heavily on the Colorado's water and the river is drained dry before it reaches the Gulf of California. This excessive demand for water is destroying the river's ecosystem. A similar situation exists in Central Asia. China's Yellow River has been under mounting pressure for several decades. Since 1985 it has often failed to reach the sea, although better management and greater reservoir capacity have facilitated year-round flow in recent years. The Nile now barely makes it to the sea. Pakistan is heavily dependent on the Indus. This river not only provides surface water, it also recharges aquifers that supply the irrigation wells dotting the Pakistani countryside. In the face of growing water demand, it too is starting to run dry in its lower reaches. Pakistan is in trouble.
In Southeast Asia, the flow of the Mekong is being reduced by the dams on its upper reaches. The downstream countries, including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Viet Nam complain about the reduced flow but this has done little to curb China's efforts to exploit the power and the water in the river.
The same problem exists with the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Virtually all the water in the basin is being used. If people upstream use more water, those downstream will get less. Balancing water demand and supply is imperative. Failure to do so means that water tables will continue to fall, more rivers will run dry, and more lakes and wetlands will disappear.
July 24, 2007
Earth Policy Institute Plan B 2.0
Could Climate Change Herald Mass Migration.
In the Southwest and parts of the Southeast there is drought, and water supply depletion, and with climate change; things can only get worse.
In Cleveland, over the past four decades, the population has bled to less than half, as it has in Buffalo and Detroit. And the loss continues.
The crises of the rust belt and the Southwest are, inexorably linked. Each has what the other does not. In Phoenix, affluence; in Cleveland, and in Detroit, near-endless water in the Great Lakes alone, as much as 25% of the world's supply.
It's time to stop spending money to build carrying capacity in places that don't have it by nature, and start investing in places that do.
The population of the US is expected to reach 450 million by 2050. The predicted pattern of settlement for these new citizens will take them to the seven most built-out regions of the country Arizona, Texas, Florida and California among them. You're going to have 150 million people living in at least seven of the major regions that don't have water. It's an ecological disaster waiting to happen.
In 1922, seven states signed the Colorado River Compact, which divvied up the waterway's seemingly abundant flow. But recent observation show only 2% of the water makes it beyond the U.S. border. With climate change, river flow has been dwindling. It is the main water source for more than 30 million people from Colorado to the Mexico border. Climate change projections show temperatures in the most parched regions of the Southwest increasing between five and seven degrees.
In Arizona, the Greater Phoenix region continues to bust at the seams. Greater Phoenix will likely crest at 4 million people some time this year. It is a city that shouldn't be there, so distant is the water supply.
Technology may well make such things as desalination possible, but at a destructive energy cost that simply exacerbates the problem.
July 22, 2007
The Star
When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--the Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century.
Temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau have risen about 0.42 degrees C each decade since the 1980's. China is also likely to experience the effects of severe drought.
Along the Cordillera Blanca, glaciers are retreating about 200ft per year. China's population constitutes about one fifth of the world's total Andes Amazon provides about one fifth of the world's fresh water.
The world's largest population and the world's largest river basin are, at the mercy of glacial ablation. The result will undoubtedly provide obstacles, but it will also provide opportunities for investors.
A typical Westerner consumes a hundred times their own weight in water every day, because it takes between 2,000 and 5,000 litres of water to grow one kilogram of rice, 11,000 litres to grow the feed for a quarter-pound hamburger, 50 cups of water for a teaspoon of sugar and 140 litres of water to produce just one cup of coffee. Two-thirds of all the water taken from the environment goes to irrigate crops. Every T-shirt takes 25 bathtubs of water to produce. Every small car uses 450,000 litres. The global virtual-water trade is estimated at around a thousand cubic kilometres a year, or 20 river Niles. Two-thirds of this is in crops, a quarter in meat and dairy products, and a tenth in industrial products. Jordan, for example, imports 80%-90% of its water in the form of food.
London's long-term average rainfall has now dropped below that of Istanbul, Dallas and Nairobi. Australia is suffering severe droughts, India's water table is at an all-time low and dropping fast, China is suffering from annual droughts, with Peking besieged by sand storms from the ever-expanding Gobi Desert.
Rivers are running dry across the world. Governments who concentrate on draining subterranean aquifers need to look for other solutions. We could grow crops with a quarter of the water we currently use. People don't pay an economic price for water because Government subsidies keep prices artificially low. So where can investors make profits from an industry that is the third-largest in the world? Invest in companies that provide solutions to the problems caused by decades of water mismanagement.
Desalinization is set for growth. The city of Almeria collects and recycles all of its water, using it for agriculture. The Programa Agua will supply desalinization facilities along the Mediterranean coast.
Huge volumes of power are needed to drive the pumps, but so many people are investing that the unit costs are coming down.
Malta and the Canaries have been using desalination for four to five decades. Big cities are beginning to take it seriously. New water-quality standards are being put in place in China and India, which will drive major new investments in water treatment and purification. There are countries with an over-abundance of water, with opportunities for sale to other countries. Canada, has the same amount of water as China, but just 2.3% of its population. As the value of water rises, countries like these will start to export their spare reserves to those more in need and willing to pay. Turkey exports water to Israel and Cyprus in large balloons that can hold up to five million gallons of water. Singapore buys 10% of its water from private-sector suppliers who have built desalinization plants. One South Korean firm makes desalination plants and is the world's largest maker of plants that purify seawater. The global water industry is valued at $300bn a year and it can't be long until investors finally catch on.
Karen Gaia says: Many of the solutions are so energy-intensive that, as the price of a smaller and smaller supply of oil goes up with an increasing demand driven by population, no one will be able to afford water coming from a desalinazation plant. There is only a limited supply of water at any one time, and throwing more money at it will only succeed in securing the water supply for the rich.
July 20, 2007
Population Media
Development of 50-Year State Water Plan Discussed.
The Oklahoma Legislature was motivated to update the state's 1995 water plan because of dwindling reservoirs and aquifers.
The goal is to provide a safe and dependable water supply for all Oklahomans, while improving the economy and protecting the environment.
The water plan is expected to consider population growth, future water needs, competing water interests, vulnerability to drought and flooding, environmental protection and economic development.
Surface water is considered to be publicly owned and subject to appropriation by the OWRB for “beneficial use.”
Groundwater is considered private property that belongs to the overlying surface owner.
Since 1973, water wells have increased tenfold. Laws were written to encourage Oklahoma to use water to thrive and grow.
Public water supplies are the primary user of surface water or reservoirs, with irrigation for agricultural uses the biggest user of groundwater.
All of Oklahoma's aquifers dropped several feet from 2001 to 2006, as a result of drought.
The Arbuckle-Simpson and Blaine aquifers dropped more than 21 feet and almost 10 feet, respectively, during that period, but respond very quickly to drought or to rain. Oklahoma had a population of about 3.5 million in 2000. That's projected by to increase by 38% by 2060.
Current Oklahoma law allows the OWRB to issue groundwater use permits based on an assumed 20-year lifetime for the aquifer, which is unsustainable. It was recommended to transfer water from the Kiamichi River in southeastern Oklahoma.
Mayor Cindy Rosenthal said the state water plan has to emphasize conservation. Destructive competition will happen if there is not funding assistance.
Norman environmental specialist Debbie Smith said she would like the state to require communities that receive financial assistance to develop a water conservation plan. Everybody knows that water conservation is the cheapest way to get more water.
But if there is no sustainability, it's not going to work, There should be no ownership of water.
Americans as a whole do not have any idea of the value of water.
July 20, 2007
Norman Transcript website
Sudan;: Darfur Conflict Hurting Environment.
Decades of drought triggered Darfur's violence as rival groups fought over scarce water and arable land.
Now, the war is making the environment even worse.
Darfur could be repeated in much of North Africa and the Middle East, because growing populations are straining a very limited water supply. Darfur's ethnic African farmers and tribes of Arab nomads had long been competing for the region's meager resources, But the droughts of the 1980s sharpened the conflict.
When African tribes took up arms against Sudan's Arab-dominated government in 2003, the Arabs in Darfur were willing allies of the government because they were competing with the farmers for water.
The world must learn from the Darfur conflict, the effects that global warming have on hopes for peace.
Annual rainfall in North Darfur has dropped by nearly half since 1917.
In 2003, 7.48 inches of rain fell while Darfur's population increased sixfold over the past four decades, to 6.5 million.
Arab nomads drifted south, bringing their cattle to lands that African villagers were farming.
The herds destroyed fields and worsened soil erosion so the Africans rebelled when the central government seemed indifferent to their plight.
On a recent morning, camels grazed on what used to be fertile fields. Village after village destroyed and abandoned, with houses plundered and water pumps knocked down. Nomads have cut down many of the trees that are crucial because they help stabilize the soil and provide shade for crops. Even steps to reduce human suffering are causing environmental problems.
International relief organizations set up vast camps to care for and protect those at risk. Aid groups dug bore holes to provide water. Darfur's land is largely hard rock, so most of the scant rain that does fall washes away, and the underground reserves are the only reliable water source. But the wells are depleting that water.
The problem has become so severe that some camps in neighboring Chad may have to be moved. In El Fasher's Abu Shouk camp, seven bore holes have already dried up. Refugees are rapidly destroying forests around the camps by cutting trees for firewood and to reinforce the mud walls of their homes.
Many earn money by producing mud bricks, which requires lots of water along with more wood to fire the kilns. It takes the equivalent of 35 trees to bake bricks in just one kiln. Once the war is over, families will require more wood to rebuild their homes. A traditional family compound requires the wood from 30 to 40 trees,which means 12 to 16 million trees for the 2.5 million refugees. A U.S. aid group has introduced a stove that uses up to 80% less wood and three-quarters of the camp's families now use the stoves. In Southern Darfur, groups are seeking to reconcile farmers and nomads to protect what has not yet been destroyed.
There used to be forests here, antelopes, even sometimes elephants. The Arabs agreed to pay for damage done to crops by their cattle because they realize they must live in harmony with the African farmers.
Sudan's government says it has plans for a pilot project to spend $10 million to replant trees and build dams.
We need the richer countries to realize desertification is the emergency and help us.
July 18, 2007
USA Today
U.S.;: Mayors Want More Help on Water Conservation.
Mayors of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River cities want a greater focus on water conservation. Although the lakes are full of water, only 1% is renewable. Water treatment and distribution is energy-intensive, consuming less water means reducing greenhouse gases. And municipalities save money through water conservation.
But cities facing aging infrastructures need help upgrading them. 29 municipalities have joined the challenge of reducing water use by 15% over year 2000 by 2015. About half have conservation plans running, and those cities have saved 58 billion gallons of water since 2000.
In Wisconsin conservation has been emphasized for cities using wells. This fall the utility will bring in a company to help detect leaks. As to whether pumping less water will save money, that's harder to determine. Pumps have to run all the time to maintain water pressure so savings would probably be negligible.
July 13, 2007
Journal Times
WWF Says Desalination No Answer to Water Crisis.
Desalination is very energy-intensive and involves emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say are a factor in the shrinking supplies of freshwater.
Arid countries should rely more on water conservation and recycling. Desalination projects have been linked to pollution and ecosystem damage.
The lure of widespread water availability from desalination has the potential to drive a major misdirection of public attention, policy and funds.
Concerns about global warming, which could erode the world's icecaps and glaciers, which provide 69% of freshwater, are expected to spur investments in the technology.
Some farmers have used desalination to grow thirsty crops in dry areas, an unsustainable trend given its high energy costs. Regions have ways to supply water that are less risky to the environment.
The WWF estimated there were more than 10,000 desalination plants around the world. Half of the desalination capacity is in the Gulf area, where wealthy oil-producing nations use it for about 60% of their water needs.
Australian cities have also relied heavily on the technology and Spain has used it extensively.
Large-scale desalination could also endanger sea life, and demands research into the tolerance of marine organisms and ecosystems. Desalination could have important uses in cases such as environments with brackish water, the WWF said that big plants ought to be approved only in where they meet a real need and must be built and operated to minimize environmental damage.
June 20, 2007
Scotsman.com
Australia;: Search for Coast Site Begins.
The search is for land to build Victoria's $3.1 billion desalination plant. A 20-hectare site on the Bass Coast is needed for what will be one of the world's biggest desalination plants.
The project is to boost drinking water supplies to Melbourne, Geelong, Western Port and Wonthaggi by 150 billion litres a year by 2011.
Obstacles include environmental concerns and mounting pressure in the Bass Coast Shire.
But the plant will provide water supplies for the drought-stricken region, including Phillip Island, where storages are down to 7%.
In 2003, Bass Coast was regional Victoria's fastest-growing municipality. The permanent population of 30,000 is expected to double in 30 years.
Staff had started approaching landowners about sites.
Under acquisition laws, people can be forced to sell their properties.
A letter was circulated in Wonthaggi after the proposal to pump a third of Melbourne's water from the ocean was made public.
The impact of a desalination plant on the coastal landscape could be an issue. South Gippsland Conservation Society expressed concern about the project impact. Melbourne Water's own feasibility study also highlighted water quality risks because of the plant's proximity to Wonthaggi's sewage treatment outfall, and economic risks from past coal mining activity that could restrict tunnelling and construction.
Noise and vibration would have to be managed with large buffer zones around the plant. The plan won support from the Australian Industry Group and the Property Council.
Environment in Victoria was also upbeat. "There are potential benefits from desalination. It can take pressure off our stressed rivers during drought."
But international conservation group WWF released a report condemning reliance on desalination because of its high energy use and possible risk to marine life.
The proposal includes an 85-kilometre pipeline to pump water into Melbourne's Cardinia Reservoir.
The feasibility study estimated the carbon dioxide emissions from the plant would be 1 million tonnes a year if it was powered by coal, but the Government promised to add 90 megawatts of renewable energy to Victoria's grid equal to the plant's power needs.
Ralph says: A perfect example of how the ever growing population exceeds nature's resources.
June 19, 2007
Age
US Louisina;: Louisiana Plan to Reclaim Land Would Divert the Mississippi.
To save the state from washing into the ocean at 24 square miles per year, Louisiana officials are developing a $50 billion plan to provide flood protection and reclaim land-building sediment from the Missisippi river.
This will be one of the great engineering challenges of the 21st century, but something has to be done.
The plan allows the Mississippi to flow out of its levees, creating seven or more new waterways that would carry a volume of water similar to that of the Potomac River. Those diversions would carry the Mississippi and its land-enhancing sediment into the eroding coastal areas. Other elements in the plan call pumping sediment to rebuild marshes and barrier islands. Hundreds of miles of new or reconstructed levees would add flood protection.
The plan faces two political hurdles. First, the state legislature, must approve it on a straight up-or-down vote. Shipping and fishing interests have been quiet so far.
Winning federal approval and money, is expected to be more difficult.
Washington has been unwilling to commit such large sums of money. A $14 billion Louisiana coastal restoration program was shrunk to about $1 billion in 2004 after the Office of Management and Budget called it too expensive.
But that was before the wetland loss was making the state far more vulnerable to storm surge. We didn't want to take risks before, but now we're ready.
For decades, the steady loss of Louisiana's coastal wetlands was considered a slow-motion disaster, but not an emergency.
Most of southeastern Louisiana was built over the past 6,000 years by the sediment of the Mississippi River, which naturally changed course and flooded over the millennia. Since the settlement of New Orleans, the levees built to prevent flooding have contributed to a loss of land.
The river could no longer occasionally change course and overflow to spread its sediment and build up the land. At the same time, the wetland vegetation that had helped hold the existing land together was crisscrossed with navigation canals, paths for oil rigs and gas pipelines.
Since the 1930s, an estimated 1,900 square miles of land have been lost. Entire communities have shrunk over the decades to narrow strips. After each storm, more families relocate to higher ground.
The most prominent argument over the plan concerns the extent and location of the new levees, which could extend protection for much of southern Louisiana.
Some communities, are facing the prospect of being left out.
On the other side environmentalists and scientists say the vast earthen walls will damage any wetlands they cross. In the long run, building the levees could be self-defeating.
Healthy tidal wetlands are not compatible with levee construction, and without healthy wetlands the land loss will continue.
"We are not embarrassed to say we want to provide hurricane protection to as many communities as we can," said Jon Porthouse of the state's Department of Natural Resources. "But there is a lot of planning to be done before we say, 'The levees will go here.' "
River diversions may pose larger challenges. River diversions will not rescue threatened communities. It could be hundreds or thousands of years before we see a spot of land. By removing the flow from the Mississippi River's main channel, the more than 6,000 ships that travel through New Orleans to the ocean each year may have to find an alternate route nearby, possibly through a system of locks and canals, that would increase travel time and add to costs. The diversions would also dilute salt water in estuaries, altering the region's shrimp and oyster harvest.
If we solve this problem, it's going to hurt some people, but if we don't solve it, it's going to hurt all the people."
Some global-warming scenarios lead scientists to say it is just a po
