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Is Water Scarcity Destablizing Iraq?
June 30th, 2014
Via Slate, commentary on the impact that water scarcity may have had upon the emerging conflict in Iraq: This winter was not a good one for farmers in the Fertile Crescent. A punishing drought hit most of Syria and northern Iraq during what’s normally the wettest time of the year. In the mountains of eastern […]
Read more »The Parched Tiger: New Delhi’s Water Crisis
June 19th, 2014
Via the Financial Times, a report on New Delhi’s water crisis: Hunting for one of the necessities of life was not how Lakhvinder Singh, a former civil servant from India’s Telecommunications Department, imagined he would spend his otherwise comfortable retirement. But as the summer temperature tops 45 degrees, Mr Singh and many of the other […]
Read more »Irrigation Practices And Potential For Water Conflict In The Tibetan Plateau
June 19th, 2014
Via Future Directions, a report on the potential for conflict over water rights in the Tibetan Plateau, especially in light of existing irrigation practices. The full report is below but here is the key section re: areas for possible tension: As water becomes scarcer, conflicting claims over shared water resources pose a major regional security […]
Read more »Conflicts in Kyrgyzstan: Foreshadowing Water Wars to Come?
June 17th, 2014
Via Creative Time Reports, a look at the water stress of Central Asia where the region is divided into water-rich upstream states, and water-poor downstream ones, and the division leads to conflict and tit-for-tat exchanges, in which water is used for leverage. This article places a particular focus on Kyrgyzstan where the convergence of a […]
Read more »Where Will The World’s Water Conflicts Erupt?
June 15th, 2014
Courtesy of Popular Science, an interesting graphic of where will the world’s water conflicts may erupt: Where will the world’s water conflicts erupt? The map displays nearly 2,000 incidents, involving conflict and collaboration alike, over shared river basins from 1990 to 2008. The circles in the sidebar compare about 2,200 events—including another 200 disputes over […]
Read more »Last Straw: How The Fortunes Of Las Vegas Will Rise Or Fall With Lake Mead
June 15th, 2014
Via Popular Science, a detailed look at the massive, expensive, and politically fraught project to build a new tunnel under Lake Mead to deliver water to Las Vegas: The bathtub ring can be seen for miles. The 120-foot-high band of rock, bleached nearly white by mineral-rich water, circles the shoreline of Lake Mead. Water levels […]
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