Thirsty Chinese reroute nature

A chronic drought is ravaging farmland. The Gobi Desert is inching south.


The Yellow River, the so-called birthplace of Chinese civilization, is so polluted it can no longer supply drinking water. The rapid growth of mega-cities — 22 million people in Beijing and 12 million in Tianjin alone — has drained underground aquifers that took thousands of years to fill.

Not atypically, the Chinese government has a grand and expensive solution: Divert at least 23 billion cubic meters, or 6 trillion gallons, of water each year hundreds of kilometers from the other great Chinese river, the Yangtze, to slake the thirst of the North China plain and its 440 million people.

The engineering feat, called the South-North Water Diversion Project, is China’s most ambitious attempt to subjugate nature. It would be like channeling water from the Mississippi River to meet the drinking needs of Boston, New York and Washington. Its $62 billion price tag is twice that of the Three Gorges Dam. And not unlike that project, which Chinese officials last month admitted had ‘‘urgent problems,’’ the water diversion plan is increasingly mired in concerns about its cost, its environmental impact and the sacrifices poor people in the provinces are told to make for those in richer cities.

Three artificial channels from the Yangtze would transport precious water from the south, which itself is increasingly afflicted by droughts: The region is now suffering its worst one in 50 years. The project’s human cost is staggering — along the middle route, which starts in Hubei Province at a gigantic reservoir and snakes 1,300 kilometers, or 800 miles, to Beijing, about 350,000 villagers are being relocated to make way for the canal. Many are being resettled far from their homes and given low-grade farmland. In Hubei, thousands of people have been moved to the grounds of a former prison. More >>>

Location: Cayman Islands

Libya: Water Emerges as a Hidden Weapon

CAIRO, May 27, 2011 (IPS) - Libya’s enormous aquatic reserves could potentially become a new weapon of choice if government forces opt to starve coastal cities that heavily rely on free flowing freshwater.



With only five percent of the country getting at least 100 millimetres of rainfall per year, Libya is one of the driest countries in the world.

Historically, coastal aquifers or desalination plants located in Tripoli were of poor quality due to contamination with salt water, resulting in undrinkable water in many cities including Benghazi.

Oil exploration in the southern Libyan desert in the mid-1950s revealed vast quantities of fresh, clean groundwater - this could meet growing national demand and development goals.

Scientists estimate that nearly 40,000 years ago when the North African climate was temperate, rainwater in Libya seeped underground forming reservoirs of freshwater.

In 1983, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi initiated a huge civil water works project known as the Great Man-Made River (GMMR) - a massive irrigation project that drew upon the underground basin reserves of the Kufra, Sirte, Morzuk, Hamada and the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer - to deliver more than five million cubic metres of water per day to cities along Libya’s coastal belt.

"The Colonel’s GMMR project was discounted when first unveiled as an uneconomic flight of fancy and a wasteful exploitation of un-renewable freshwater reserves," Middle East-based journalist Iason Athanasiadis told IPS. "But subsequently it was hailed as a masterful work of engineering, tapping into underground aquifers so vast that they could keep the 2007 rate of dispersal going for the next 1,000 years." More >>>

Location: Cayman Islands

Rain for the Sahara

The nomads of Niger – the poorest country in the world -- have thrived in the desert for over a thousand years but today live a marginal existence.



These unique cultures are threatened by drought and climate change. The nomads’ fertile pastureland has been taken for farming; they are forced to live in the ever more arid desert regions. In a region where little aid is available, Rain for the Sahel and Sahara (RAIN) is a consistent presence. Our staff is all local people, our programs are the result of community brainstorming sessions – we are revitalizing communities assailed by poverty. They are ready to attain new skills, improve their lives. We all have much to learn, much to share – please join us.

RAIN’s mission is to work with nomadic peoples of West Africa to improve their lives through education, water security, agriculture, and income-producing activities. These locally rooted programs promote literacy and empowerment while sustaining nomadic traditions throughout the Sahel and Sahara. More >>>

Location: Cayman Islands

FoDP to mull Pakistan water sector investment in Dec

ISLAMABAD: The Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) will consider investing in the country’s water sector after reviewing the recommendations


of its task force in December this year, official sources said on Saturday.

The task force on water sector has been funded by ADB with $225,000 under technical assistance special fund. It will take into account all aspects of water resources and its critical relevance to agriculture, development and disaster prevention.

According to the sources, the FoDP task force on water will guide the Ministry of Water and Power to address water security concerns, but it would not ensure multibillion dollar investment the sector requires.

The FoDP, a group of 17 states and multilateral donors, since April 2009, has released $1.5 billion of the initially pledged $6.2 billion, which was to be given by June, 2011.

Besides the financial assistance of $1.5 billion, the FoDP - with the cooperation of ADB - has released a draft report on energy, which says that strengthening energy sector governance and regulation, rationalising prices and energy subsidies will eliminate the load shedding in the country over the next three years. More >>>

Location: Islamabad

China drought affects more than 34 million people

BEIJING — A debilitating drought along China's Yangtze river has affected more than 34 million people, leaving farmers and livestock without


water and parching a major grain belt, the government said Saturday.

More than 4.23 million people are having difficulty finding adequate drinking supplies, while more than five million are in need of assistance to overcome the drought, the Civil Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
"The special characteristics of this drought disaster is that it has persisted a long time," the ministry said.
"Secondly the losses to the agricultural and breeding industries have been severe... while drinking water for people and livestock have been seriously impacted."
Rainfall levels from January to April in the drainage basin of the Yangtze, China's longest and most economically important river, have been up to 60 percent lower than average levels of the past 50 years, it said. More >>>

Location: Cayman Islands

Water conflict and water cooperation in the Mideast

An ultra-upbeat view of water issues in the Mideast, from the Peninsula (Qatar):

Water could be a source of conflict but could also be a source of cooperation, speakers at the 11th Doha Forum on Democracy, Development


and Free Trade said during a session on ‘Water Security in the Middle East’ yesterday at Doha Sheraton.

A major report on water security, ‘The Blue Peace: Rethinking Middle East Water’, which was prepared with input from almost 100 leaders, ministers, senior officials and experts from Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories was discussed during the session. More >>>

Water Shortages Threaten Food Future in the Arab Middle East

May 3 2011 - Long after the political uprisings in the Middle East have subsided, many underlying challenges that are not now in the news will remain. Prominent among these are rapid  population growth, spreading water shortages, and ever growing food insecurity.

In some countries, grain production is now falling as aquifers are depleted. After the Arab oil-export embargo of the 1970s, the Saudis realized that since they were heavily dependent on imported grain, they were vulnerable to a grain counter-embargo. Using oil-drilling technology, they tapped into an aquifer far below the desert to produce irrigated wheat. In a matter of years, Saudi Arabia was self-sufficient in wheat, its principal food staple.

But after more than 20 years of wheat self-sufficiency, the Saudis announced in January 2008 that this aquifer was largely depleted and they would be phasing out wheat production. Between 2007 and 2010, the wheat harvest of nearly 3 million tons dropped by more than two thirds. At this rate the Saudis likely will harvest their last wheat crop in 2012 and then be totally dependent on imported grain to feed their Canada-sized population of nearly 30 million people. More >>>