BLOG
High & Dry: United States High Plains Endure Low Water
May 23rd, 2013
Courtesy of The New York Times, a detailed look at the challenges faced by the High Plains region in the United States: IPortions of the High Plains Aquifer are rapidly being depleted by farmers who are pumping too much water to irrigate their crops, particularly in the southern half in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Levels […]
Read more »The Parched Tiger And Thirsty Dragon: India And China Ink Agreements On Water Resources
May 22nd, 2013
Via The Times of India, an article on some new agreements aimed at enhancing cooperation between India and China over water: Weeks after the flare-up on the border issue, India and China on Monday sought to further improve their bilateral relations and firmed up eight agreements to enhance cooperation in a range of areas including […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Water-Trading Could China’s Exacerbate Water Shortages
May 20th, 2013
Via China Dialogue, a report on how China’s approaches to water trading grapple with the twin problems of ensuring equity of supply and avoiding ecological damage: Poor smallholders are likely to lose out to manufacturing in a water trading system, warn skeptics Large-scale engineering projects and rigorous state control are hallmarks of the Chinese developmental […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: High And Dry – Water Shortages Put A Brake On China’s Economic Growth
May 20th, 2013
Via The Financial Times, a look at the impact of water scarcity on China’s economic growth: Holed beneath the waterline: China’s droughts and water shortages are pushing people to leave their homes and join an exodus to the cities Wang Fuguo, a 63-year-old cotton farmer, does not know when his ancestors began tilling the land […]
Read more »Syria: Without Water, Revolution
May 19th, 2013
Courtesy of The New York Times, an interesting Op-Ed by Thomas Friedman examining the link between drought and revolution in Syria: I just spent a day in this northeast Syrian town. It was terrifying — much more so than I anticipated — but not because we were threatened in any way by the Free Syrian […]
Read more »IMU, Taliban Threaten Turkmen, Uzbek Water Resource
May 18th, 2013
Via Central Asia Online, an interesting report on Central Asian water tension: Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) militants are menacing an Afghan water resource valuable to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the Faryab Province police chief told Deutsche Welle (DW) in an interview published May 9. The militants in late April attacked three districts in Faryab Province, […]
Read more »