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Water Wars of the West: Is History Repeating Itself with The Next Owens Valley / Aral Sea?
August 10th, 2008
Many commentators are convinced that the major conflicts of the future will be over water rather than oil. There is a grim aptness in the fact that shrinking the word “water” produces “war”. This is becoming ever more common in the U.S. Southwest – where rapidly growing cities looking to obtain & secure alternative sources […]
Read more »A Boon(e) for Water Pipelines?
August 7th, 2008
As recently featured in Popular Mechanics, legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is in the planning stages of a $1.5 billion initiative to pump billions of gallons of water from an ancient aquifer beneath the Texas Panhandle and build pipelines to ship them to thirsty cities such as Dallas.  As the article notes: “…So far, […]
Read more »Water Scarcity in Asia
August 7th, 2008
Via The Jakarta Post, an interesting discussion of water scarcity in Asia. While the focus is on China (as we have discussed previously in this blog), it offers some dramatic insight into recharge vs. depletion rates in other Asian nations: “…Although the Olympics have swung the focus of international attention to China’s many achievements and […]
Read more »Conflict, Cooperation, and the New ‘Great Game’ in the Kura-Araks Basin of the South Caucasus
August 7th, 2008
As recently highlighted by the Water SISWEB, the Kura-Araks Basin of the South Caucasus may be the scene of conflict, cooperation, and a new ‘Great Game’ over water in Central Asia. As the article notes: The Kura-Araks river basin, the largest in the South Caucasus, is an international catchment with five countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, […]
Read more »Water – Energy Links in Central Asia
August 1st, 2008
A second excellent piece from the Brookings Insitution details Central Asia’s opportunities and challenges to make better and more efficient use of it water resources, both by investing in large water storage and hydropower capacity and by more efficient utilization of water, especially in irrigation use. As the article notes: “…A visit to the site […]
Read more »Serious Regional Water Crisis Looming: Central Asia
August 1st, 2008
A highly informative piece recently published by Brookings examines the current and coming water ‘crisis’ facing Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as Afghanistan, Mongolia and the Western most province of China, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The article details the complicated dance between the region’s countries, with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan upstream […]
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