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The latest issue of the UNESCO journal, A World of Science, is focused on the human face of water politics. Researchers have found that conflict is no more likely in arid nations than in humid nations, and that water conflicts, when they do arise, are not more or less frequent in a nation based on their wealth or political structure. The report is released in anticipation of the beginning of the 2013 UN International Year of Water Cooperation.
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At least 283 people have died in the Philippines following the landfall of Typhoon Bohpa, which triggered floods and landslides across the southern islands, AlertNet reported. Rescuers are struggling to find survivors, but efforts are being hampered by destroyed roads and downed communication systems. In Papua New Guinea, the large Ok Tedi copper mine may [...]
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U.S. Drought Continues The drought has literally hit home in the rural Midwestern United States, where some citizens are turning on their faucets to find their wells have dried up, The Associated Press reported. The Missouri government will subsidize the drilling of new wells for more than 3,700 farmers and ranchers hit by extreme drought, [...]
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Tensions have heightened between Israeli and Lebanese troops near the site of a tourist center being built on Lebanon’s side of the Hatzbani River, which Israel fears will be used to divert water,The Jerusalem Post reported. 9.5 billion metric tons of sewage, approximately 76 percent of the total amount generated in China’s Guangdong province in [...]
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Following devastating news of poisoned children in Afghanistan, reporter Codi Yeager look at water security and conflicts around the globe.
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Irrigators in Texas and New Mexico are unhappy with a decision by the International Boundary and Water Commission to release reservoir water to Mexico, the Associated Press reported. The U.S. farmers wanted to delay the annual water release in order to cope with drought later in the growing season, but Mexican farmers, who are dealing [...]
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Asia Twelve tons of radioactive water leaked from a pipeline and may have reached the sea at Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said, Bloomberg News reported. The site has suffered repeated leaks, and 100,000 tons of wastewater are still being stored in basements. The World Bank is handing over $US 8 [...]
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Water scarcity will likely create conflict in regions around the world within the next decade, according to a report from the United States Director of National Intelligence, launched March 22 in Washington. The report, available here, predicts that water-linked instability is most likely to occur in South Asia and the Middle East. Providing enough water [...]
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Environmental security is becoming a top priority in international relations, as showcased by disputes over natural resources and pollution in Latin America, The Guardian reported. Access to water is the most likely to create conflicts, policy experts say. North America Five Great Lakes states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to speed up federal efforts [...]
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The Shabab Islamist insurgent group in Somalia is blocking starving people from fleeing the country and forcing out many Western aid organizations amid a famine that has already killed thousands of Somalis and left more than 500,000 children on the brink of starvation, The New York Times reported. The world’s food assistance pact is desperately [...]
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Human rights group Survival International has accused the Ethiopian government of leasing some of its most productive farmland in the Omo River region to foreign companies, Voice of America reported. Meanwhile, the Oakland Institute said last week that land-grabbing in Ethiopia risks adding to the millions of people already in need of food aid in [...]
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The shale gas boom in the United States has weakened Russia’s role in the European energy market and could contain Iran’s influence for years to come, according to a new study by the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. Read more about the shale gas development in Europe on Circle of Blue. Asia [...]
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San Francisco is the greenest city in North America, according to a recent survey that looked at 31 green indicators, ranging from consumption of water and electricity to efficiency standards, Reuters reported. An influential member of the European parliament is proposing a new directive that would penalize or even ban the development of shale gas, [...]
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Severe droughts have added stress to an ongoing dispute between two neighboring ethnic groups near Lake Turkana — the border between the two nations — which has culminated in a series of violent attacks.
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Tensions over illegal farmland seizures are turning into violent clashes in China’s Hebei Province, where villagers are driven off land to open up space for new factories and residential housing, the Guardian reports. Are land requisitions, industrialization and desertification signaling a threat for China’s food security, and who’s going to win the competition for land [...]
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Southern California, Arizona and Nevada are in discussions with the Mexican government about sharing a desalination plant across the border in Mexico, Reuters reports. But some conservation groups say that the controversial plan may be taking advantage of Mexico’s lower costs and weaker regulations. Emergencies A violent tornado swept across the American South on Wednesday [...]
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Despite international pressure to freeze the development of the controversial Xayaburi Dam on the Lower Mekong, energy-hungry Laos is determined to forge ahead with the construction of the $3.5 billion hydropower project, which is expected to generate 8 percent of Southeast Asia’s power by 2025, Reuters reports. Chinadialogue gives more background information. Damming the Rivers [...]
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The United Nations should promote cooperation in the regions most at risk of water conflicts such as the Middle East and North Africa, where scarce supplies and rising populations might spark future tensions, according to experts at a water and security meeting in Toronto, Canada. Japan The Guardian‘s datablog lists and ranks the world’s nuclear [...]
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Some 50 million environmental refugees will flood the global north by 2020, as they escape from food shortages and other climate-induced disasters, according to experts at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Southern Europe might see a strong wave of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, where food [...]
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