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How To Solve The Global Water Crisis
July 12th, 2020
Courtesy of Foreign Affairs, commentary on how the real water challenges Are Not technical, but political: Few people would argue with the idea that the world has a serious problem with water. For the past several years, water has consistently been named as a leading risk in the World Economic Forum’s annual survey of global leaders, and newspapers […]
Read more »The Bitter Dispute Over Africa’s Largest Dam
July 11th, 2020
Courtesy of The Economist, a look at Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan’s struggle to share water: For Biruk Negafh, as for millions of Ethiopians, the summer rains may bring the climax of a decade’s work. As a high-school student in 2011 he bought 100-birr bonds (then worth $6 each) to help finance the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: What If Water Shortages Destabilize China?
July 11th, 2020
Via The Economist, an imagined scenario from 2050 in which the painfully unequal distribution of water in China reawakens intra-regional resentments not seen in decades: The deadly heatwave that has gripped Asia for five months has had many unexpected consequences. One of the more surprising has been Chinese political and business leaders feuding, semi-publicly, about […]
Read more »In Parched US Southwest, Warm Spring Renews Threat of ‘Megadrought’
July 11th, 2020
Via The New York Times, an article on the US Southwest’s drought concerns: Here at 12,000 feet on the Continental Divide, only vestiges of the winter snowpack remain, scattered white patches that have yet to melt and feed the upper Colorado River, 50 miles away. That’s normal for mid-June in the Rockies. What’s unusual this […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon and Parched Tiger: Tensions with China-Pakistan Can Derail India’s Fragile Water Treaties
July 11th, 2020
Via The Print, commentary on how the recent tension with Nepal, misunderstanding with Bhutan and border clash with China show that India can no longer create policy of long-term water security in isolation: As India’s neighbourhood goes through a turmoil, with underlying fault lines exposed by the coronavirus pandemic and a deepening economic crisis, there is […]
Read more »Drought Lays Bare Morocco’s Vulnerabilities
July 8th, 2020
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), a look at how drought impacts Morocco: While declining rainfall is a problem across the Maghreb region of northwest Africa, this year’s ongoing spring and summer drought is hitting Morocco’s agricultural sector particularly hard. The drought will weaken the strategic objectives of the Moroccan government’s agricultural investment plan, which prioritizes […]
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