The Zanskar River joins the Indus River near Leh in Jammu and Kashmir. Though the Indus flows through India before reaching Pakistan, the 1960 Indus Water Treaty allocates the basin’s three eastern rivers to India and its three western rivers to Pakistan. Photo courtesy Pradeep Kumbhashi via Flickr Creative Commons

Global Rundown

  • India has pledged to break a decades-old water-sharing treaty with Pakistan, promising to cut off Indus River flows into the latter nation in the coming months. 
  • Lead mining in Myanmar has boomed since the country’s 2021 coup, with rivers and streams enduring harsh pollution as a result. 
  • In the high plateaus of Bolivia, where both drought and deluges have discouraged many from taking up farming, two ancient crops have shown they can withstand harsh weather.
  • A global study suggests that between 900 million and 1.4 billion people live in close proximity to soils contaminated with toxic metals.

The Lead

With tensions rising between India and Pakistan, freshwater access is caught in the middle. 

Indian leaders accused Pakistan last week of being connected to the deadly militant attack that killed 26 people in the country’s Kashmir region. In the days since, the two nations have exchanged retaliatory political measures — including diplomatic expulsions, airspace closures, and tariffs. Among the objects of retaliation is a decades-old water-sharing treaty. 

Since 1960, the Indus Water Treaty has ensured that Pakistani farmers would receive 80 percent of their water needs from rivers which flow across the border from India, Reuters reports. But for the first time in the treaty’s history, until “Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism,” India has pledged to halt all flows in several months’ time.

“We will ensure no drop of the Indus River’s water reaches Pakistan,” Chandrakant Raghunath Paatil, India’s water resources minister, said on X.

India has said it will also cease the sharing of hydrological data and flood warnings, and skip annual river-related meetings. Pakistani farmers along the Indus River have expressed fears that a shutoff will cause their crops to dry up, resulting in regional famine. The potential for electricity shortages has instilled concerns for wider economic losses across Pakistan.

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

65

Number of active mining sites, as of this month, in Myanmar’s southern region of Tanintharyi — a major increase from the 30 mines that were operating prior to the country’s 2021 coup, Mongabay reports. Lead mining has boomed since the leadership change, with armed groups and junta officials profiting off bribes and taxes collected from the operations. With the increase in extraction has come environmental degradation. Local waterways have become polluted, environmental activists say. Sediment buildup is changing the natural flow of rivers and raising their beds, including in the Dawei River, putting them at higher risk of flooding. Farmers who depend on these streams for water-intensive farming — growing betel nut, rubber, and durian trees — have lost their crops. Since the coup, the number of mined acres in the region has more than tripled.

17

Percent of the world’s farmland that contains “excessive levels” of at least one metal or metalloid, according to a new study published earlier this month in the journal Science, El Pais reports. The researchers analyzed 82,000 papers from around the world referencing soil health, and gathered data from 800,000 populated global locations. Seven specific metals stood out for their prevalence: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, nickel, and lead. They found that “between 14 percent and 17 percent of the global cropland contains dangerously high concentrations of at least one of these metals.” This accounts for 242 million hectares. Between 900 million and 1.4 billion people live in proximity to these contaminated soils.

On the Radar

In 2015, Lake Poopó, then Bolivia’s second-largest lake, “was officially declared evaporated,” the Guardian reports. That event stands as one example among many of the Altiplano (high-plateau) region’s increasingly variable relationship with rainfall. Both drought and extreme storms have made growing in the Bolivian highlands challenging, and young people are opting to migrate from the countryside, leaving a shortage of farmers. “At least 1.8 million Bolivians live abroad,” according to the Guardian, “about 16 percent of the country’s population.” As a potential solution to the climate challenge, the region’s growers are returning their attention to the ancient crops – cañahua and quinoa – that sustained communities for generations prior to colonization. Their resiliency has so far proven advantageous during times of erratic precipitation, and the grains have taken hold in domestic and foreign markets.

49th State Focus: Diesel Spill Near Yukon River Renews Drilling Fears

Yukon River Camp Spill: Earlier this month, some 1,000 gallons of diesel spilled from a tanker trunk in a parking lot north of Fairbanks, near the Yukon River, Northern Journal reports. The truck belonged to Brice Inc., a Native-owned construction company that frequently partners with Hilcorp, a private oil enterprise. Though the truck was not actively being used for a job, and post-spill reports indicate the spilled fuel didn’t quite reach Alaska’s longest waterway, the event serves as yet another reminder of the risks of oil exploration soon coming to the region. This summer, Hilcorp will lead drilling efforts in the Yukon Flats region. The operation’s equipment will be staged along Birch Creek, a tributary roughly 100 miles away from the Yukon’s main stem.

Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region

Michigan’s Aging Dams: Last June, a 110-acre lake on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula disappeared. The dam that had held the Black River, into which the lake flowed, failed and collapsed. Over several days, the lake “slipped away,” Michigan Live reports. The dam had been slated for repairs for two consecutive summers prior to the incident, but staffing issues meant it received no substantial work. The average age of an American dam is 61 years, and more than 200 dams managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources are “old and failing,” according to Michigan Live. 

Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.

  • What Carney’s win means for environment and climate issues in Canada – The Narwhal
  • More Fire, More Water – Great Lakes Now
  • Study: Washing machines send ‘toxic stew’ of microfibers into Great Lakes – Bridge Michigan
  • Great Lakes research at risk as Trump administration proposes major cuts to NOAA – Michigan Public

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.