BLOG
Why the Nile Constitutes a New Kind of Water Dispute – and Why That’s Dangerous
July 16th, 2020
Via The Center for Climate & Security, an article on the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Ever since workers first broke ground on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in 2011, international commenters have fixated on the Nile as a possible harbinger of future ‘water wars’ to come. And almost since then, water experts have […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Is the Mekong River The Next South China Sea?
July 16th, 2020
Via Future Directions International, a report on Chinese intentions towards the Mekong River and mainland southeast Asia: Key Points The Mekong River is one of the most threatened rivers in the world, largely due to the rapid increase in the number of large operational hydropower dams. Most of those dams are located within China and could […]
Read more »Who Owns Groundwater In Water-Stressed Pakistan?
July 14th, 2020
Via Third Pole, a look at two laws recently passed in Pakistan that could radically change how water is managed: Pakistan ranks fourth in the world in terms of annual groundwater abstraction – the amount of water taken from an underground source. This puts it in close competition with larger countries such as India, China and the United […]
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 […]
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