Melting Glaciers: What You Need To Know

 If you haven’t already, take a look at this eye-opening blog post about an expedition into the mountains of Nepal. For people in the region, climate change isn’t just an abstract worry; they live with a real and everyday concern about dangerous flash floods that can result from melting glaciers.

Sadly, this is a danger that won’t go away soon. Glaciers all over the world areshrinking. This sustained ice loss is both a natural indicator that the world is warmingand a warning that local communities are at risk. For people inland, melting glaciers can mean flash floods, landslides and reduced drinking water. For people on the coast, melting glaciers mean rising seas.

We’re learning more about glacial retreat all the time. Recently, a new study was released that received a great deal of media attention. It found that mountain glaciers and polar ice 

sheets lost more than 530 gigatons of ice per year from 2003 to 2010, raising average global sea levels more than 1 centimeter. This study is consistent with other estimates of the contribution of land ice to sea level rise. In other words, not that surprising. More

 

EU launches €1.5m project to improve water availability in West Bank

JERUSALEM, December 14, 2011 (WAFA) - The European Union (EU) launched a €1.5 million project to improve the livelihoods and food security levels of poor rural families through improving the availability and management of water for agricultural purposes, an EU press release said Wednesday.

The project is implemented by Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and is expected to be finalized at the end of 2012. 

Availability of and access to water is one of the biggest problems Palestinian farmers and herders face, said the statement.

Since 2007, the region has suffered from severe weather conditions and rainwater scarcity affecting agricultural productivity. In addition, constraints in accessing land and restrictions imposed on Palestinians for establishing or rehabilitating water wells have severely impaired farmers from realizing their potential.

The project will construct and rehabilitate 450 rain feed water cisterns, which will secure access to water for irrigation of crops, home gardens and livestock to 450 farming families in the West Bank and will offer them a feasible and affordable way to improve their livelihood.

'There is an unquestionable need for a comprehensive response to water scarcity and difficulties in accessing water for Palestinian farmers. This project comes in addition to the EU food security program which has focused exactly on improving the management of water and wastewater in rural areas of the occupied territories to tackle these problems,' said the acting EU representative, John Gatt-Rutter. More

This initiative needs to also incorporate stopping of illegal extraction of water from Palestinian aquifers. Editor