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The Thirsty Dragon: Are China’s Plans To Tackle Water Pollution Sufficient?
March 18th, 2014
Via Future Directions International, a look at China’s pollution reduction scheme and the continued need for clearly defined and legally enforceable obligations for water users in order to promote long-term conservation: As China continues to develop, water scarcity and pollution pose increasingly urgent challenges. Plans to tackle these issues are currently high on the agenda, […]
Read more »Crimea Vote Won’t End Reliance On Ukraine For Water
March 18th, 2014
Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, a look at the potential water politics surrounding Russia’s decision to annex Crimea: Crimeans voted on Sunday to break away from Ukraine and join Russia, but the bonds of a Soviet-era infrastructure will be harder to break. The dry, windswept peninsula has few of the resources to support the […]
Read more »American West’s Drought And Growth Intensify Conflict Over Water Rights
March 18th, 2014
Via the New York Times, a report on increasing water tensions in the arid western region of the United States: Across the parched American West, the long drought has set off a series of fierce legal and political battles over who controls an increasingly dear treasure — water. Just outside this minuscule farm town, Frank […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon and Parched Tiger: Tensions Over The Yarlung Tsangpo River
March 11th, 2014
Courtesy of China Dialogue, a close three-part look at the Yarlung Tsangpo river – one of the world’s great transboundary rivers – which starts on the Tibetan Plateau before passing through India and Bangladesh. As background, the Yarlung Tsangpo Brahmaputra-Jamuna river, begins in the high glaciers of the Tibetan Himalaya. Its most dramatic passages come […]
Read more »Egypt Turns To Saudi For Help Over Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam
March 11th, 2014
Via Green Prophet, an update on tensions arising around the Grand Renaissance Dam: When all else fails, run to wealthy Saudi Arabia. That seems to be the prevailing thought among Egyptian officials at a loss to resolve the ongoing dispute with Ethiopia over Nile water rights. At one point it seemed that the two countries might […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China Falling Behind On 2020 Hydro Goals
March 11th, 2014
Via China Digital Times, a report that China is falling behind on its hydro generation targets: Due to increasingly stringent hydro project approval rules, and despite warnings of a “Faustian bargain” with a runaway “hydro-industrial complex,” China is falling behind on its target to raise the country’s hydro generation capacity by half before 2020. David Stanway at Reuters […]
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