Water Security is National Security

Water resources and how they are managed impact almost all aspects of society and the economy, in particular health, food production and security, domestic water supply and sanitation, energy, industry, and the functioning of ecosystems. Under present climate variability, water stress is already high, particularly in many developing countries, and climate change adds even more urgency for action. Without improved water resources management, the progress towards poverty reduction targets, the Millennium Development Goals, and sustainable development in all its economic, social and environ- mental dimensions, will be jeopardized. UN Water.Org

Thursday, December 22, 2011

What if India and China Collaborate?

1. The Melting Water towers:

Yellow River
The Himalayas, home and birth place of Ganga, Indus and Brahmaputra
For China, it is the mother of Mekong, Yellow 
and Yangtze rivers. Amazingly these high altitude glaciers take care of nearly 3 billion people or half of world's population. The Earth Policy Institute has declared that the melting of these glaciers would be a massive threat to food security. China and India are co-victims of a life-threatening ecological crisis. "In 2050 we will have 9 billion people and average income will be four times what it is today," he said. "India and China have been able to feed their populations because they use water in an unsustainable way. That is no longer possible," according to Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN's Millennium Project. Since Asia's agricultural revolution, the amount of land under irrigation has tripled. But many parts of the continent have reached the limits of water supplies. "The Ganges [in India] and the Yellow river [in China] no longer flow. There is so much silting up and water extraction upstream they are pretty stagnant," as quoted by The Guardian. So will they co-operate to solve the problem, or go to war over food and water? More