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Water Fight: How South Asia’s Unquenchable Thirst May Threaten The Region’s Peace
November 23rd, 2011
Courtesy of The Economist, an excellent article reviewing how a growing rivalry between India, Pakistan, and China over the region’s great rivers may threaten South Asia’s peace: SONAULLAH PHAPHO has spent half a century picking a living from Wular lake high in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Today he is lucky if he scoops a fish or two […]
Read more »Drier and Hotter: Egypt’s Climate Future
November 23rd, 2011
Via The Guardian, a look at Egypt’s climate future which seems to be characterized by rising temperatures, coastal erosion, storms and water scarcity: “…Just a few miles north of where I am now standing, the Mediterranean Sea is remorselessly battering the Egyptian coastline. Salt is leaching into the rich soils and invading the drinking water […]
Read more »Sudan – Battling The Twin Forces Of Civil War And Climate Change
November 23rd, 2011
Courtesy of The Guardian, a report on Sudan – where millions of hectares of semi-desert has turned into desert and a battle against water stress and a looming food security crisis looms: A thousand miles south of Cairo, Sudan is having another rotten year. To the east, Somalia, much of Ethiopia and the Horn of […]
Read more »Laos to Wait for ‘Positive Signals’ Before Building Mekong Dam
November 23rd, 2011
Via Bloomberg, a report that Laos will wait for “positive signals†from its neighbors before it builds the $3.7 billion Thai-financed Xayaburi hydropower plant on the Mekong River. As the article notes: “…Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia share the common position that any construction activity will take place only if positive signals are given by the […]
Read more »The Nubian Aquifer: A Rare Isotope Helps Track an Ancient Water Source
November 23rd, 2011
Via The New York Times, an interesting article on the challenges of measuring and managing the Nubian Aquifer, shared by Egypt, Libya, Chad and Sudan. As the report notes: The Nubian Aquifer, the font of fabled oases in Egypt and Libya, stretches languidly across 770,000 square miles of northern Africa, a pointillist collection of underground […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China Plans Tibetan Conservation Zone To Protect Source Of Great rivers
November 19th, 2011
Via the Shanghai Daily, a report that China is planning to set up an ecological conservation zone on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the country’s major rivers originate. As the article notes: “…The planned national conservation zone covers a 395,000 square kilometer region known as Sanjiangyuan, which is the source of China’s three major rivers – […]
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