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The Limited Promise of Kenya’s Aquifer Discoveries
October 17th, 2013
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), analysis of Kenya’s recent discovery of several new aquifers: The recent discovery of several new aquifers in northern Kenya is welcome news for a region where much of the population does not have reliable access to drinking water and where resource scarcity has hampered economic growth. However, initial claims that […]
Read more »The Parched Tiger: Indus Waters Treaty – An Unjustified Resentment Or Time To Bridge A River Divide?
October 12th, 2013
Two very interesting articles on the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty which – while not perfect – represents the best that was possible in the circumstances that prevailed then and likely cannot be changed until India-Pakistan relations improve. The first, via The Hindu, suggests: The Indus Water Treaty must move beyond its logic of compensation and […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Mining In Tibet Threatens Asia’s Rivers
October 12th, 2013
Via the Third Pole, a look at the impact of mining in Tibet: In his new book, Spoiling Tibet: China and Resource Nationalism on the Roof of the World, Gabriel Lafitte analyses the extent and scale of China’s mineral exploitation in Tibet. Here he talks to The Third Pole about the global environmental significance of […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: All Dried Up
October 11th, 2013
Via The Economist, an interesting article on how northern China is running out of water, but the government’s remedies may potentially be disastrous: CHINA endures choking smog, mass destruction of habitats and food poisoned with heavy metals. But ask an environmentalist what is the country’s biggest problem, and the answer is always the same. “Water […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon And Parched Tiger: India ‘Pressuring’ China On Brahmaputra
October 10th, 2013
Via The Hindu, an interesting look at India / China water tensions: Li Zhifei, a scholar at the National Institute of International Strategy of the influential Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in a commentary on Tuesday in the Global Times, a tabloid published by the People’s Daily known for its hawkish views, that India […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Disappearing Rivers Lead To Desperate Measures
October 10th, 2013
Courtesy of The Economist, an interesting report on China’s water scarcity issues and the fact that building canals is not a ready solution: CHINA’S emperors regarded control over water as one of the principal ways of controlling the country. They poured their kingdom’s resources into vast projects such as the Grand Canal between Beijing […]
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