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The Thirsty Dragon: China Reduces Wheat Irrigation As Farming Depletes Groundwater
September 16th, 2014
As reported by Bloomberg, China is adopting measures that place water security over grain production for the first time: China is reducing crop irrigation in regions with water shortages as the world’s biggest grain consumer seeks to ease pressure on declining aquifers. Hebei province, the nation’s third-biggest wheat grower, will cut wheat irrigation by 760,000 […]
Read more »Growing Water Tensions In Central Asia
September 16th, 2014
Two recent reports on growing water tensions in Central Asia. The first is a summary via Eurasia Review: Growing tensions in the Ferghana Valley are exacerbated by disputes over shared water resources. To address this, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan urgently need to step back from using water or energy as a coercive tool and focus […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Quenching Beijing’s Thirst May Stunt Regional Growth
September 10th, 2014
Via Reuters, an article on the progress of China’s South-North water transfer project: Workers install a pipeline at a construction site as part of China’s South-North Water Diversion Project, which aims to relieve the country’s drought-ridden north by diverting water from the southern and central part of the country, in Cangzhou, Hebei province, May 4, […]
Read more »Nile Basin Tension Mounts As Waters Decline
August 28th, 2014
Via AllAfrica, a report on rising tensions in Africa over limited water supplies: Today, nearly a billion people in the developing world don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. In sub-Saharan Africa, people’s true potential is restricted by time lost trying to gather water and energy spent suffering from water-borne diseases. Education is lost […]
Read more »Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Tripartite Talks Resume
August 27th, 2014
Via Future Directions International, an update on the recently restarted discussions over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Talks about the GERD froze in January this year, after Sudan publicly expressed support for the construction of the dam. Egypt and Ethiopia agreed to meet again in Khartoum on 25 August, to discuss issues and concerns about […]
Read more »Mideast Water Wars: In Iraq, A Battle For Control Of Water
August 26th, 2014
Courtesy of Yale’s Environment360, a look at how conflicts over water have long haunted the Middle East but, in the current fighting in Iraq, the major dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are seen not just as strategic targets but as powerful weapons of war: There is a water war going on in the […]
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