Water Spouts will speak volubly and endlessly about all the issues concerning water. The ongoing degradation, and growing scarcity, of the water supply here in the US, and the rest of the world. The continued absence of potable water in so many parts of the world. The work being done by NGOs, and charities, in the third world, to help alleviate the situation. The emphasis on WASH ( Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene ) so health and healthy water are maintained. "Water Spouts" will spout it all out.
India's Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam It’s often said that people are a nation’s greatest resource. That can be true, especially with their knowledge and creativity, which can supplement physical resources. But one basic must is hard to think your way around: water.
So it is that the great emerging nations of Asia–China, India, Indonesia–face a wall in their development. All are confronted with either a scarcity of moisture in key regions, or an inability to contain the water that sometimes pours and deliver it in potable form to millions for daily life. The results can be barren fields, destructive floods or sickened populations from exposure to contamination.
Usually the water problem is a natural one of scant rainfall or the absence of topographical means of collection and retention, such as mountains for snowpack or lakes and flowing rivers. Thus you can have monsoons and still be dried out. (Some challenge the notion that this is any longer “natural” by contending that man-made climate change is involved.)
However, even tropical states can be water-constrained when the public infrastructure is so poor that inundation causes bacteria to run off from sewage and other sources and spoil the vital supply. This is the case in booming Indonesia, according to a currently featured article in the country’s fine Strategic Review quarterly.
India has both natural and man-made problems. A recent feature in the licensed edition Forbes India said the country has only 4% of the “total world resource” of water but 18% of the population. It noted: “Deficient monsoons often lead to shortage of drinking and irrigation water. Groundwater is polluted due to poor land practices, atmospheric deposition of pollutants and direct discharge of sewage into water bodies.” Quite a bill of particulars. And then there is controversy when dams have ultimately been attempted.
Forbes India cited a similar predicament in China, with 7% of “resource share” and 19% of global population. The Chinese government, of course, is more proactive on this front, at least in terms of damming and other diversions intended to route precious fluid from the mountainous south to the populous north. What this is doing or will do to areas like the Tibetan Plateau is debated, and it is now difficult for many foreigners to enter that sensitive zone to investigate. China has stumbled on an attempt to dam northern Burma.
(Dams are also a growing issue in the strategic battleground of Central Asia, where the major powers are plying for mineral wealth, whose extraction also takes water.)
So, mere expenditure for mass public works–even if done honestly and efficiently, and not riddled by graft–is not necessarily an easy response to water scarcity. (Few would object to basic water containmentl and purification projects.) There is also, for most nations, the option of the vast sea, if desalination can be afforded. Countries in North Africa and the Middle East have chosen this course as a palliative. It takes a well-stocked Treasury.
A supremely logical approach is to curb waste and misallocation by pricing water. Yet, failure to do so is common, nowhere more egregiously than in India. But this is understandable: where democracy is most rampant, the interests favored by currently free or cheap common water, if numerous, will be most able to keep their booty. Moreover, some who grasp the environmental aspects of water misuse nonetheless have a mental block on invoking the market as a remedy.
So we have a fundamental problem amid rising affluence, one that software code largely cannot solve, especially if politics blocks better allocation. Indonesia should be able to marshal its abundance, given honest government. But unless science somehow can muster rain clouds, much of Asia cannot affordably get “more” of something it needs to grow–and live. At some point, if the policy riddle of unpopular allocation is not solved, this becomes a Malthusian knot. That could trump the wisdom of the “people resource” and sidetrack a very promising growth story.
A woman carries firewood in Gujarat on Aug. 6, 2012, as others rest under a tree after they migrated because of a water shortage. Reuters photo: Ahmad Masood
Since India’s independence, the mammoth task of feeding its hundreds of millions, most of whom are extremely poor, has been a major challenge to policymakers. In the coming decades, the issue of food insecurity is likely to affect almost all Indians. However, for the poorest amongst us, it could be catastrophic. India ranks 65 of 79 countries in the Global Hunger Index. This is extremely alarming.
In the past few years, uneven weather patterns combined with over exploited and depleting water resources in various parts of India have wreaked havoc on food security, particularly for small and marginal farmers, as well as the rural poor.
The recently launched Global Food Security Index (GFSI) estimates that in 2012, there are 224 million Indians, around 19 percent of the total population, who are undernourished. The same report also estimates that while the Indian government has various institutions designed to deal with the impact of inflation on food prices, it only spends 1 percent of agricultural GDP on research to build food security for the poorest. Overall, India ranked 66th on the GFSI. It is estimated that one in four of the world’s malnourished children is in India, more even than in sub-Saharan Africa.
Water insecurity, further exacerbated by climate change, is arguably the most important factor for India’s food security. India’s total water availability per capita is expected to decline to 1,240 cubic metres per person per year by 2030, perilously close to the 1,000 cubic metre benchmark set by the World Bank as ‘water scarce’.
Factors such as increasing usage, poor infrastructure, and pollution have led to a decline of water quantity and quality in India. Climate change, meanwhile, is expected to cause a two-fold impact.
One, increasing temperatures have hastened the rate of melt of the Himalayan glaciers, upon which major Indian rivers like the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra depend.
Second, the effect of climate change on monsoons in India will cause them to become more erratic, arriving earlier or later and lasting for shorter, more intense periods of time. India’s farming communities depend overwhelmingly on the monsoon, as their cropping patterns are built around it. The combined effect of climate change and over exploitation is violating the water cycle, degrading aquifers and eroding ground water resources.
Over 50 percent of agricultural land in India depends entirely on groundwater. In North and Northeast India, where perennial rivers (rivers that have water year round, i.e. glacier fed rivers in India, such as the Ganges) sustain the agricultural land, have to deal with issues such as flooding caused by climate change impacts such as speedier glacier melt and erratic monsoons.
Meanwhile, farmers in states in West and South India, where rivers are seasonal, have to depend heavily on rapidly depleting groundwater resources.
The worst affected by this type of water-fuelled food insecurity are the small farmers of India. Estimates suggest that between 1995 and 2010, over 2,50,000 farmers in India, mostly from states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, killed themselves. Most of these farmers were drowning in vicious cycles of debt caused by failed monsoons and increasing droughts.
Responses to this crisis, including the National Action Plan on Climate Change, lay out various solutions and intended interventions, but most focus on the long term. To secure the future of India’s water resources vis-à-vis its agriculture in the future, it is important that certain steps be taken immediately. First and foremost, authorities will have to remove the mindset that water is an endless resource and the solution to water woes is simply a further development of India’s fast depleting groundwater.
Indeed, Dr. Mihir Shah, co-Founder, Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) and member of the Planning Commission of India has stated that the ‘era of further water development may be over’ and emphasized that we have to urgently introduce more efficient water management. In this regard, promotion of irrigation efficiency will be crucial in the future.
Systems such as drip irrigation and System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to farmers across India will be essential. It will also be necessary to promote water conservation methods such as rain water harvesting, which has been successful in urban India, in villages as well.
At the same time, reducing inefficiencies and water wastage through conveyance losses will require governmental and NGO support in actions such as replacing faulty pipes and pumps. Hence, India needs to invest on improving its water productivity, and any capacity to produce more food like rice with less water will be an important contribution to sustainable water and food security.
In short, India is facing a bleak future of becoming water scarce and painfully food insecure. How exactly are the country’s hundreds of millions, who depend entirely on agriculture for their livelihoods, as well as those that depend on agriculture for their food needs, to make ends meet?
Delaying this issue is simply not an option for India as this could lead to increased instability, poor human development and enhance inter-generational poverty. India needs to ensure food security through sustainable development and create resilience amongst the most vulnerable in the country: the poor. reuters.com
Few people in the world are more water-conscious than California farmers.
The state leads the nation in farm revenue and produces nearly half of the domestic supply of fruits, nuts and vegetables. It also boasts nine of the top 10 producing counties in the nation, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Yet California is one of the driest states in the U.S., getting an average of just 22 inches of precipitation annually compared with more than 40 inches for states like Missouri and New York. And, with nearly 40 million people, California is also the most populous state—meaning there's a lot of competition for that precious rain and snow.
How do the farmers make do with so little water? They use technology and the state's topography to stretch existing supplies as far as they can. "If you have limited water supplies, you have to be as careful and efficient as you can with it," says Larry Schwankl, an irrigation expert with the University of California Cooperative Extension.
The efficiencies start at the northern end of the Central Valley, the 400-mile corridor that's home to most of the state's farmland. There, farmers along the Sacramento River use a system called flow-through, which means that the water they take but don't use flows back into the river by a network of valves and drains.
As water flows to the driest southern reaches of the valley via the California Aqueduct, many farmers use drip irrigation, microsprinklers and extensively plumbed groundwater caverns—filled with runoff from the Sierra Nevada—to maximize their water usage.
Daniel Errotabere, for instance, says his 5,200-acre farm's conversion to drip irrigation over the past five years has helped yield water savings as high as 50%—helping to cushion the blow during the most recent drought. "You can't deliver water much more efficiently than what we are doing today," Mr. Errotabere said on a recent tour of the farm near Riverdale, Calif.
The accompanying images outline how irrigation and water conservation work in California's Central valley.
Although it covers 70 percent of the earth's surface, there is a very real possibility that in the near future, there won't be enough water to sustain life on the planet. This documentary illuminates the vital role water plays in our lives, exposes the defects in the current system and shows communities already struggling with its ill-effects and individuals championing revolutionary solutions. Firmly establishing the urgency of the global water crisis as the central issue facing our world this century, the film posits that we can manage this problem if we are willing to act now.
Inspired by the book "The Ripple Effect" by Alex Prud'homme, "Last Call at the Oasis," is from Participant Media, the company that brought you "Page One," "An Inconvenient Truth," "Food, Inc.," and "Waiting for Superman."
Engineers and scientists are expected to use Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology to merge the Dead and the Red seas under the “Two Seas Canal Project” worth 10 billion dollars.
RO, occurs when water is moved across a membrane against a concentration gradient from lower to higher concentration, under pressure to force ions, molecules and bacteria to be filtered, which is used purposely for the commercial desalination of seawater.
The project, to run in three-phases would be financed through international and multi-national institutions with counterpart funding from beneficiary countries, namely, Palestine, Jordan and Israel, would haul in 700,000 cubic metres of water into the Dead Sea from the Red Sea, a distance of 180 kilometres.
Results of feasibility studies and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) supported by the World Bank and other donors are yet to be released for concrete works to commence.
The region is witnessing water scarcity with its main freshwater source, the River Jordan, which has kept shrinking in size and posing declines in its annual flow from more than 1.3 billion cubic meters per year to less than 30 million cubic meters annually.
With Israel, Jordan and Syria, each grabbing as much clean water as they could, it is ironically the sewage that is keeping the river alive today.
In fact, water scarcity is a disincentive to many in the agriculture and industrial sectors as well as for domestic consumption, largely due to urbanization, pollution and global warming.
Mr Batir Wardam, environment expert and researcher, said the project, though ambitious, is expected to revive the biodiversity and water scarcity in the region.
He called for use of science to distinguish between myths and reality while urging the media to lead the crusade by setting the right agenda.
General Secretary of the Ministry of Water, Mr Bassem Talfah, said the situation is scary, which demands prompt action hence the invitation to the private sector to strike partnership with to government to diversify funding and implementation of the project.
He said the sector needs higher investment portfolios resulting from higher financial outlays in production cost stating that this manifests in a financial gap of One Billion Jordanian Dinar.
Mr Khaled Irani, President of Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, said the problem of water scarcity is not only a humanitarian issue but economic as well.
“Sixty-six percent of water is imported into Jordan of which 15 percent goes into agricultural activities. We cannot wait for the commencement of this project as its prospects are overwhelming.”
He entreated stakeholders to avoid knee-jerk reactions even as the recommendations are released and positive that the project would provide an alternative means for water in the country and beyond.
Contrarily, Dr Samir Mahmoud, media expert, said double-political commitment was needed to actualize the Two-Seas canal project as it is “haunted by political inactivity.”
“With the pace of development and disregard for timelines, the canal project will not see the light of day now, not within the next two decades,” he suggested.
He said merging the two seas would have an environmental catastrophe for Jordan, especially for occupying the lowest bit of the project.
Dr Mahmoud explained that Jordan’s location with increased salinity could be a bouquet for destabilization of the ecology in relation to marine life and culture of the Dead Sea.
The village elders are quick to tell me that Boodhlay, the name of this village, means dusty. A quick glance around shows that this name is very apt indeed.
There is hardly any vegetation here at all. No grass, just pockets of dry scrub, spiky acacia trees and dust as far as the eye can see. Unusually for this part of Somaliland, I can't see a single camel.
Almost everyone in the village is a pastoralist. This means that they are largely reliant on their herds of camels, goats and sheep to provide food, milk and income for their families. When there is not enough rain, the pasture soon disappears and people are forced to move in search of food and water for their animals.
"It is affecting every aspect of life"
Yusuf, one of the village elders tells me: "There have been droughts here for a long time now. The situation is very difficult. It is affecting the food and water supply, our incomes and the children's education. It is affecting every aspect of life."
When the drought came last year many people lost animals. In a place where your livestock are your livelihood, some families lost everything.
Recently, the humanitarian situation in Somaliland has modestly improved. The rainy season – known in the region as the Gu rains – was not as meagre as predicted this year. But there are many pockets of land, like Boodhlay, where the rains have been both late and insufficient. In these areas pasture remains extremely limited and water – both for livestock and human consumption – is scarce.
As Yusuf told me: "People think that because we have had some rains recently everything is OK. But they are wrong. Ten days ago it rained for two days. We've had nothing since. These two days of rain will not fix things. It takes a long time to recover. Nothing has changed."
Our response
Unless assistance is provided, these factors could lead to destitution for many of the pastoral communities that call eastern Somaliland home. We're calling for urgent funding to contribute towards sustainable early recovery in these areas.
We have also have launched an emergency intervention to address the lack of water in villages where we are already working, such as Boodhlay.
The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) component of our response is already underway, and we're aiming to provide immediate access to safe water for more than 7,000 families. This is being achieved via emergency water trucking, the restoration of water sources (berkads), or a combination of both.
In total we're targeting 21 villages in eastern Somaliland. To date, we've reached 13,557 people, including 6,110 children in the area through our WASH intervention.
In response to 2011's famine in parts of southern Somalia, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) more than doubled its support to Somali farmers, especially in the cereal producing parts in the country's south.
To restore the crop production capacity, FAO distributed appropriate agricultural inputs (cereal seeds and fertilizers) and provided technical assistance in conservation agriculture. In the cropping season that followed 2011's famine declaration, FAO procured and distributed 3750 tons of Urea and 1300 tons of DAP fertilizer to Somali farmers. Other farm inputs included 135 tonnes of maize seeds, 935 tonnes of sorghum seeds and 120 tonnes of sesame seeds.
Distribution of these inputs is aimed at restoring the productive capacity (and improving food security) of some 150, 000 farming households (equivalent to 900 000 people) in Somalia.
However, 2012 has seen the introduction of tractor hours per beneficiary, through which farmers access tractors to cultivate their land resulted in cultivation of over 1,533hectares of land. Through a creating irrigation scheme, farmers pay money to access water pumps to irrigate their fields. As a result, some 8496 hectares has been irrigated to date.
FAO's agricultural activitiesEuropean Commission, United Kingdom, United States, Australia Aid, The World Bank Belgium, Spain and Italy.
Water, water, every where/Nor any drop to drink. This is verse from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner seems like a prelude to the water sharing problems dogging the world. The long poem’s reflection, particularly ebbing in the Cauvery issue is now at its peak, like it does every summer.
The Cauvery water sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is one of the many water disputes in India and the world. The other two parties in this dispute are Kerala and Pondicherry. Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka are caught in a triangle over the sharing of Krishna waters.
The same states along with Madhya Pradesh and Orissa dispute over the Godavari waters. The Ravi-Beas dispute is between Punjab and Haryana, two agricultural surplus states that provide large quantities of grains to the rest of India.
Narmada River is the bone of contention between Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Similar water sharing issues bubble at the Mahadayi and Vasandhara rivers too. Dispute settling mechanisms like Acts and Tribunals, methods of resolution including political interference and constitutional provisions applied during negotiations have so far yielded partial or no results in resolving water disputes.
Declaration of water as a national property might settle inter-state water squabbles. What about the same issue of water sharing between countries?
Water systems usually arise in one country and pass through others before reaching the sea or oceans. Rivers and lakes that come off these larger water systems are typically shared by more than one country. The states where these systems originated tend to try and gain the most control over the water, like the Nile and the Jordan River.
Chinese efforts to divert water resources of the Brahmaputra away from India, has worsened situations that have remained tense since the 1962 Indo-China war.
Israel and Palestine have a traditional history of fighting over water — conflicts over the Tigris and Euphrates. Some experts believe the only documented case of a ‘water war’ happened about 4,500 years ago, when the city-states of Lagash and Umma went to war in the Tigris-Euphrates basin.
There is tension between India and Pakistan over hydroelectric projects in Leh and Kargil, which will affect the flow of water from the Indus and Suru rivers.
India and Bangladesh share 54 rivers. Despite setting up a Joint River Commission for water management in 1972, tension between the two countries on how to share resources recently came to a head in a dispute over the Teetsa River.Whether in South Asian countries or between Middle East provinces, water issues hold up peace talks and pose graver conflicts.
In March 2012, a classified US report listed India’s three major river basins — Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra — among the top 10 world water conflict zones in ten years from now. “Beyond 2022, use of water as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism will become more likely, particularly in South Asia (India), the Middle East and North Africa,” the report based on National Intelligence Estimate on Water Security stated.
A new of genre of water journalists address the delicate issue of corruption in the water sector and sustainable practices for water conservation, particularly in countries like West Africa.
“Water too often is treated as a commodity, as an instrument with which one population group can suppress another,” according to Ignacio Saiz, Centre for Economic and
Social Rights.
Solution to water conflict and ultimate co-operation between warring segments is required as water is projected to become scarce and amicable trans-boundary water distribution will also address issues of global warming and climate change at the higher level.
Otherwise, water will remain a powerful weapon of mass conflict to settle other bubbly episodes, outside the purview of environmental issues and the natural resource will never be considered as the world’s water!
Mark Twain’s quote of “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over,” does not seem to be exaggerated, despite Twain’s biographer debating the authenticity of this scholarly certitude.
The deficit of water resources that may in the future be in greater demand than petroleum and natural gas has already become a reality for many districts of the inner Eurasia. Central Asia has not enjoyed the surplus of water for quite some time. The water problem is getting more and more charged with geopolitical meanings, directly affecting Russian interests.
At the start of 2009, when on the one hand there was in Russia a growth of interest in old Soviet projects of building big hydro power stations in Tajikistan and Kirghizia, on the other activities of Uzbekistan that essentially began forming in the region a sort of the “water bloc” were also evident. Russian diplomacy made attempts to have a balance between the interests of “the water source countries” (Tajikistan, Kirghizia) that control the heads of the biggest water arteries, the Amu Darya and Syr-Darya, and the “downstream” countries (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenia) with their critical dependence on the water flow from the sources, but these attempts were almost futile.
Should the “bloc”-type geopolitical constellation be established in Central Asia, the standoff between the “upstream” and the “downstream” countries in their debate on the expediency of building big hydro power facilities on the trans-border rivers Amu Darya and Syr-Darya will be inevitable.
On April 13 Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry posted a press release, whose gist can be summed up by the following two points:
1) Construction of new hydro power stations is a matter of concern for all the states in the region and it would aggravate the already difficult water supply situation to “the downstream regions” resulting in violations of the fragile ecological situation;
2) The problems relating to water and energy supply in Central Asia should be solved without interference of “third” countries (read: the Russian Federation). According to Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry developers of large-scale hydro power projects should take into account the interests of all the states in the region and be thoroughly investigated by international experts to assess their technological and environmental safety as well as guarantee maintenance of water balance. Violation of these principles could have “unpredictable environmental, economic, social and political consequences.” In the last several years the problems of water supply faced by “the downstream countries” was aggravated by shortage of water whose level in the Amu Darya and the Syr-Darya is, according to Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry, about 70% of the average annual standard.
Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry views the Kambaratinsk hydro power station (HPS) currently under construction in Kirghizia and the planned construction of the Rogunsk HPS in Tajikistan, as the Central Asian environment least friendly. The construction of both power stations was launched in the USSR and is still unfinished. The rated capacity of the Kambaratinsk-1 HPS in the mid-stream Naryn, a tributary of the Syr-Darya, is 1,900 MWt and a rated annual output of electricity at 5.1bln KWt/h. Uzbekistan’s government plans to have the capacity of the Rogunsk HPS in the Vakhsh basin almost twice as high, up to 3,600 MWt with an annual electricity output at up to 13.4bln KWt/h.
Russia is expected to play a decisive role in the construction of both power stations, becoming the principal investor in both projects. In October 2008 during the visit to Bishkek of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev agreements on the participation of Russian companies in the construction of the Kambaratinsk power stations in Kirghizia were signed. In November, the head of the RF Presidential Administration S.Naryshkin pledged assistance in the construction of the Rogunsk power station in Tajikistan.
Uzbekistan has the biggest population among Central Asian countries, about two-thirds of whom reside in rural agricultural areas; it depends more than others on water supply from the “upstream” countries. The Tashkent authorities are concerned over potential usage of water as a tool of political and economic pressure upon its neighbours. The statement president Medvedev made during his visit to Uzbekistan’s capital in January to the effect that implementation of major hydro power projects should meet the interests of all the countries in the region did not allay their fears.
In turn, erection of hydro power stations is essential for the Central Asian “upstream” countries. Unlike Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenia, Kirghizia and Tajikistan do not have significant oil and natural gas resources to provide heating and electricity to its population and economy. The principal suppliers of electricity in Kirghizia and Uzbekistan are hydro power stations. Water in their reservoirs is needed for watering the fields in summer in the “downstream” states, and for the production of electricity in winter – in the “upstream” ones. These contradictions were aggravated after the dismembering of the Soviet Union, when its former republics that were oil- and gas-rich began selling them at market prices, whereas the new independent states that were unable to purchase energy carriers in adequate amounts, had to dramatically increase, electricity production in winter, whose output, nevertheless, is critically inadequate. The only way out for Kirghizia and Tajikistan is erection of new power stations to both overcome the deficit of electricity and sell it to the neighbouring countries.
The interests of “the downstream” countries in the area of water usage coincide and objectively contradict the interests of their “upstream” neighbours to build new hydro power stations. During a telephone conversation in April 2009 the presidents I.Karimov of Uzbekistan and G.Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenia they “noted the significance of joint efforts in working out new approaches to finding solutions to the water problem, common to the countries of the region, as well as that of the Aral Sea.” Earlier I.Karimov discussed the water problem with Kazakhstan’s president N.Nazarbayev. And then Kazakhstan’s prime-minister paid a visit to Tashkent. Analysts say that these negotiations aim at working out a common position of both the “downstream” countries with an eye to construction of new hydro power stations in Kirghizia and Tajikistan.
The difference of interests of the “upstream” and “downstream” Central Asian countries that poses a threat of ending in an inter-state conflict is both a diplomatic and geopolitical challenge to Russia. Refusing to build power stations in Kirghizia and Tajikistan and ignoring their interests would be tantamount to inviting other state s, primarily China and Iran that have energy-related interests in Central Asia. However, it is not less significant for Russia to maintain close ties with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the oil-and-gas area. In a word, the Central Asian “water problem” has questions for the Russian diplomacy that need to be addressed without delay.
Despite the prevailing calm along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh since the end of India-China war in 1962, anxiety still prevails among the people of Arunachal. However, the apprehension is not about another impending war, but this time it is about the dam-building spree on both sides of the LAC. While over 100 large and small hydroelectric projects were being planned in almost all the tributaries of Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh, it is believed that China also has similar plans on the river which originates from Jima Yangzong glacier of Mount Kailash in Tibet. Brahmaputra in Tibet is called Yarlung Tsangpo. China had earlier announced construction of a 1.2 billion dollar run-of-the-river hydroelectric power project known as Zangmu dam on Yarlung Tsangpo. Strategic analysts here said that as China has plan to exploit the water resources of Yarlung Tsangpo in a big way, India needs to be well-prepared to assert its rights over Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh. "Water of Brahmaputra remains a major concern for India and China. To my view the future dispute between the two countries will be on water. Both the countries should sort out the differences on exploiting water resources amicably before the dispute reaches a flashpoint," said Ashokanand Singhal, president of Jana Jagriti, a Guwahati-based NGO spearheading against China's hydro-projects on Yarlung Tsangpo. Last year Jana Jagriti came out with coordinates and maps of China's purported plan to construct hydroelectric projects and water reservoirs on the river. Singhal is a votary of India's plan to tap water resources of Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh, saying that the country needs to establish user rights over the river before China goes full steam ahead. Of the 100-odd projects in Arunachal Pradesh, 13 are planned in Tawang alone, the birthplace of VIth Dalai Lama. China claims Tawang as southern extension of Tibet. People of Tawang, who predominantly belong to Monpa tribe, have opposed the hydroelectric project as they claimed many of the projects were located in Buddhist sacred sites. Save Mon Region Federation (SMRF), a Tawang-based NGO, said that the discontent caused by the proposed projects would only benefit China which has not yet given up its claim over Tawang. Even as China denied any plan to divert water from Yarlung Tsangpo last year, strategic analysts here are of the view that India should go ahead with hydroelectric project constructions in Brahmaputra's major tributaries to counter China's similar move. They said that the hydroelectric dams on Brahmaputra tributaries should be looked as strategic projects. In 2010, during a public consultation on dams here, the former environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that construction of dams in major tributaries of Brahmaputra is necessary for India to have a "negotiating position" with China. timesofindia.com
In the 2008 book,Dry Spring – the Coming Water Crisis of North America, Chris Wood detailed the scope of impacts we could anticipate as more volatile and extreme weather patterns become the norm. Wood, who continues to track climate change as a research collaborator, author and journalist, revisited the book in a recent interview, and noted that climate change impacts projected at the time of publication have largely proven true.
Some geographic areas continue to receive more water than they need, and it’s easy to imagine transferring surplus water to drought regions, especially north to south. Wood cautions that this is largely fiction – the scale and cost of infrastructure to make these connections, as well as the political ramifications are apt to be insurmountable. In particular, Wood cited the common misperception in the US that Canada has a uniform over-abundance of water that could potentially be shared in a worst-case scenario; in fact, precipitation is greatest in the northern provinces, further from the US.
If the water can’t be transferred, population and jobs will naturally migrate over time from areas of water scarcity to areas of relatively greater abundance.
Wood asserted that a key to water management will be to think more broadly about landscapes – urban and non-urban – as potential hydrologic resources that warrant protection.
While some communities already incentivize low-impact development and other stormwater management practices, the capacity for water retention, runoff, and groundwater recharge associated with all kinds of land uses and land covers (including rooftops) warrant scrutiny. In other words, water management will need to become a stronger driver in land-use planning.
Considering that roughly 70 percent of all water use is agricultural, current efforts to achieve water savings through urban conservation may be misguided. The need for more efficient irrigation has created a market opportunity for green tech companies. The Cleantech Group, a market research firm, tracks 53 companies globally that are identified as “smart irrigation” providers.
However, a decrease in irrigation and agricultural runoff can also have the unintended consequence of reducing groundwater recharge, creating challenges for adjacent landowners.
Wood anticipates that farmers will ultimately need to rethink their crop choices to maximize food production using the least water.
Research is currently underway at the University of British Columbia to evaluate the food value per unit of water input for globally traded commodities. As drought affects more and more of the countries that currently provide the bulk of the global food supply, careful crop selection will be imperative to meet the growing demand of an expanding population.
"Ratepayers took full advantage of the opportunity provided by Monday's meeting to express their views on the question of Salisbury water supply and members of the City Council who attended heard some outspoken criticism. The public was told that the present position was caused 'by the failure of the Cleveland Dam', the 30 million gallons of water in which was unuseable, and further that lack of rainfall was the sole reason for the failure of Cleveland Dam.
"These explanations are all very well, but what the average ratepayer would consider more valuable would be an assurance that the present position will not arise again and a statement of what steps are to be taken to prevent its recurrence.
"The City Council seems to be pinning its faith to the Prince Edward Dam which, with its daily average reserve of 500 million gallons, could more than satisfy Salisbury's present hot weather consumption over one million gallons a day if all the filters were in operation," read part of a story published in The Herald of October 9, 1937.
Water problems dogged Salisbury residents back then with the then council officials facing criticism from angry residents left, right and centre.
Each council that came into office made many promises on how they would put an end to the water challenges.
Seventy-five years later, serious water problems still stalk Harare and similar challenges haunt residents raising the question of what it will take to bring an end to the crisis.
The solution seems elusive; it is like looking for the legendary Lochness monster.
Town planner Mr Percy Toriro says there are three key issues regarding Harare's water shortages and what can be done.
"Firstly, in the short term it is about managing the inadequate resource well. This should be two-pronged -- water demand management by residents on one hand, and attending to water loss by city authorities on the other part," said Mr Toriro.
He said residents of Harare should be conscious of the fact that their water is inadequate and the only way it can be enough is by using less of the resource.
"This is the opposite of water cuts by authorities, which does not work because for as long as the residents do not co-operate, once the water service is restored, they will still waste the water," he added.
He said water loss caused by old leaking pipes and burst unattended pipes is also too high, at about 50 percent of the treated water.
"We need an accelerated pipe replacement programme complemented by swift reaction teams to repair burst pipes," he pointed out. Mr Toriro added that in the long term, the sewer reticulation network should be upgraded as well as building new water supply dams away from the Manyame catchment that has become highly polluted.
"We also need a medium- to long-term plan to reclaim the Manyame catchment by dealing with the sources of pollution," he added. While measures that include the sinking of boreholes have been put in place through funding by organisations like Unicef to at least manage the water challenges and curb the spread of diseases like cholera, Mr Toriro says this is not the solution.
"Boreholes are not a sustainable source of water for millions of residents.
"In the long run the water table falls and many of them become dry. They are also difficult to manage because they must be regularly tested and so on," he said.
He added that even with a fully functional Morton Jaffray waterworks, the water will still be insufficient.
"At the moment Harare can only at best supply half the 1400 megalitres required per day, and of this half, 50 percent is lost along the reticulation network. More can certainly be done and we hope with the recently talked-about Chinese loans, the infrastructure issues will be addressed soon," he added.
Kunzvi Dam, according to Mr Toriro, would go a long way in solving Harare's water problems, but will not constitute the full solution.
"It will also address the geographical challenge where suburbs in the north and east that are at the end of the current network tend to suffer the worst shortages by having sources at both ends of the city. In the long run, a sustainable solution is a combination of water demand management, technical solutions to attend to lost water, increased treatment capacity, and new dams," he pointed out.
Unicef chief of water, sanitation and hygiene Mr Kiwe Sebunya said Zimbabwe's urban water system was a complex one. "We are always in a dilemma, most sewage systems are waterborne. Raw sewage is flowing into dams that provide drinking water.
"If sewer rehabilitation is to be tackled, it needs enough water to have it flowing hence availability of water receive first priority," Mr Sebunya said during a media workshop on women and children reporting in Nyanga recently.
He, however, said channelling more resources towards water supply first before sewage reticulation would expose residents to diseases as raw sewage continued to flow along streets. "The situation is a complex one. There is a need for at least some little water to have the sewage flowing.
"Tackling the sewage when there is no water may result in blockages as the sewage fails to flow along the pipes," Sebunya added. Mr Sebunya urged authorities to rehabilitate the sewer reticulation as the water situation improves. "The reticulation systems in most urban areas are very old and require replacement at very huge costs," he said.
Mr Sebunya, however, said Unicef had not abandoned urban water programmes after launching the rural water programmes. "There is hope that we can get more resources for water and sanitation programmes in small towns. We are in the process of mobilising resources with some donors," he said. Mr Sebunya also said boreholes were not an appropriate long-term solution for water problems.
"Boreholes for urban areas were never an option as a source of clean water, but were only an emergency option during the 2008 and 2009 cholera outbreak," he said.
Instead, he revealed, there is need to push for the completion of the Kunzvi Dam project, which is a long term solution. Kunzvi Development Corporation recently secured US$375 million to build Kunzvi Dam and the construction of the dam is expected to begin late this year ending in 2015.
University of Zimbabwe senior lecturer in the Rural and Urban Planning department Mr Innocent Chirisa also described the water situation in Harare as complex.
"There are more problems underlying the issue than meets the eye. City of Harare is one out of many stakeholders in the water issue. Water is a politicised good. As long as the local authority is not in a position to out-manoeuvre the politics then it is in deep problem," he pointed out.
He said the technical solutions to Harare's water problems are very clear and have worked in many parts of the world.
"These should simply be adhered to. I don't have to expound on them given that textbooks on the subject have adequately dealt with such. I will deliberately be dodgy on the subject," he added.
Mr Chirisa also argued that what is needed in Harare is reticulated water.
"Boreholes were sunk as a stopgap measure because there was a crisis. Crises teach us to be innovative but not all innovation is meant to be a permanent solution.
"As long as there is little investment in the maintenance methodologies of the existing and proposed infrastructure, there will ever be challenges. Infrastructure, like babies, is easy to produce, but difficult to maintain," he said.
A Marlborough resident, Mr Tapiwa Mubonderi, said council should set up more purification plants, replace the water pipes and create new sources of raw water for the metropolitan.
"The sewer system should also be repaired and capacity of treating sewage increased so that we can dispose of the waste we produce," he said.
He added that council could consider looking for money by entering into agreements with financiers in countries that do not have a financial embargo such as South Africa, India, China, Russia or Brazil.
"There are also funds available within the city that if pooled appropriately could be used to improve infrastructure.
"In the past few years how much money has been spent by individuals and entities in making alternative water supply arrangements either as boreholes, bulk water tanks and water purification equipment? What is the quantum of all these funds? What could we have achieved if they had pooled those funds and used them to fix and upgrade Harare's ability to supply treated water? This illustrates that there is potential for use to get a good proportion of the funds required from within the city," he pointed out.
He added: "However, most people do not want to contribute to collective purses because there are reservations on the capability of the city to effectively manage those funds.
"It requires that the citizens of Harare at the next election should choose fit and proper councillors and not vote blindly or the council will not have the capacity to execute its mandate."
Mr Mubonderi also suggested that the City of Harare could approach banks and the financial community and get them involved in a finance vehicle that would be used to find long-term financing for parts of the water project.
"Bankers who live and work in Harare would want to use their expertise to make it possible to have a safe and consistent water supply. This is will only come about and play ball with a competent council at the helm of the city.
"The work to replace the pipes must be given to local companies, so we construct and install the required infrastructure. This is pertinent for Zimbabwe as we face a perennial unemployment problem. We can make products on our own," he proposed.
He also said most of the materials required for water systems are available locally while foreign partners could be involved in terms of technology transfer and capital injections or as equity partners for the creation of local capacity.
"There is the controversial issue of water subsidies being pushed by central government, at best it's a noble gesture but could be the escalation of electioneering for next year. Until there is a significant change in the macroeconomic conditions, our population is severely compromised in its ability to pay for water services. If a pay as you go system is adopted it will risk public health, as it will expose vulnerable members of the community to unsafe water.
"Our Government cannot afford to pay for the water for its citizens, imagine what the old, disabled, ill and redundant members of our community can afford. "The idea of everyone paying for services is good and sounds profitable but it is only possible in an economy with higher per capita incomes," said Mr Mubonderi.
