Six Million Face Water Shortages Due To Drought In China

Six Million Face Water Shortages In China
Long term drought in Guangdong Province, a symptom of global warming.

March 1, 2007


BEIJING - A severe drought in southwestern China is threatening the water supplies of six million people in the crowded metropolis of Chongqing, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

The city faces an acute water shortage in early March due to a continuing drought along the Yangtze River, the agency said citing a local meteorological expert.


"The city will be lacking at least 500 million cubic metres of drinking and irrigation water and about six million people will be thirsty," Xinhua quoted the local meteorologist as saying.

Official figures show that the amount of water stored in Chongqing's reservoirs is around 1.17 billion cubic meters, less than half the normal storage, it said.

The southern province of Guangdong said it was considering rationing water to industry, farms and residents to ease a drought there.

Last summer's drought was the worst to hit southwest China in more than a century, when temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104F) and about 18 million people faced water shortages.

Some parts of Chongqing -- home to some 30 million people -- had started limiting water supplies to residents and were drilling new wells to find underground sources, Xinhua reported earlier.

Also see:

Climate Change In Asia

World Water Day Is March 22

World Water Day

News from Water Partners International regarding World Water Day for 2007 and the efforts you can join to commemorate this day and build a lifetime of commitment to solving the global water crisis.

The international observance of World Water Day (March 22) is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. It's goal is to raise awareness of the global water crisis that affects more than a billion people and claims the life of one child every 15 seconds, with water scarcity becoming a more prevalent crisis every year.

I encourage you to wear blue that day and to also pledge to conserve the amount of water you currently use, or you can offset water as you do carbon. Everytime you wash dishes, take a shower, wash your car, etc., fill a jar with a dollar. You will be amazed at how much money you can accumulate in even two weeks time that could be sent as a donation to a good organization like Water Partners International that provides potable water to millions who would otherwise do without this human right.

We take so much for granted in this country, especially our water. This is one day we can put aside to not only think about what we use but to also reflect on just what a miraculous life saving liquid water is. No one should die for lack of clean water to drink and sustain them. Doing all in our power with what we have to help see all have it should be a primary goal for all of us.

I will also personally be donating as a sustaining donor to WPI, and taking it upon myself to hand out flyers about the global water crisis that I will design. I am also just in the beginning stages of trying to lay out a slideshow on this crisis. The preservation of freshwater resources is a moral imperative and any small thing you can do at least on this one day to show your support makes a difference to the whole.

Water Is Life.

World Water Day

Recycled Water-Would You Drink It?

Recycled water Rejected Out Of Fear, Say Critics

In the video I will link below, the people in it claim they wouldn't mind drinking recycled water... well, that is because they can still go in a store and buy a bottle of Evian if they so desire. They can say they would drink it only because they really don't have to drink it. And also notice in this video that not one person stated that they would work on conserving the water they use now for showers, etc. Just give them the quick fix so they don't have to bother about changing the way they live their lives. I don't know, perhaps they will change their tunes when their new water bills come in and they see how much those recycling plants are going to cost them, especially when they waste as much of that now as they are wasting the water they already have. The Howard government sure will be making out on this drought, won't they?

In my view, recycled water is a good proposal for industrial/commercial use, but for agriculture and drinking no way. However, if the people in Australia really do wish to have it, then how about shipping all of the Evian that is making corporations billions in profits to the people in Africa and other under developed countries who could really use it because all they have to drink is feces infected toxic water that is not treated? Let's see how many people change their minds about putting their lips to a glass of it when they have no other choice.

Video/Recycled Drinking Water, Anyone?

About Reclaimed Water

The reason this type of water is now going to be pumped into faucets is clear: It is cheaper and in the case of Australia in an election year, it makes Howard look good. However, the longterm health effects of drinking recycled water must be taken into account as well as viruses and organisms that can get into the water even with a filtration process. As always, conservation is the best answer now as is addressing the burning of fossil fuels that is in part causing the conditions for drought. However again, it doesn't seem as though human nature is yet ready to admit that it has any responsibility in what it is reaping by its own actions.

Montana Sues Wyoming Over Water Rights

Montana Sues Wyoming Over Water Rights

Montana sues Wyoming over water rights By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 1, 1:18 PM ET

BILLINGS, Mont. - Montana sued Wyoming in the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday over water rights in two shared rivers, which Montana claims are running dry due to Wyoming's overuse.

The lawsuit over the Tongue and Powder rivers, which flow from northeastern Wyoming into southeastern Montana, marks a sharp escalation in an acrimonious water fight between the states.

The lawsuit alleges Wyoming is ignoring Montana's "senior" water rights by taking more water from the rivers than allowed under the 1950 Yellowstone River Compact. That includes water diverted and stored for irrigation and groundwater pumped from beneath the surface during coal-bed methane production.

"We're running out of water," said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. "It's getting worse every year as Wyoming is using more and more water. ... Our farmers and ranchers who depend on this water for irrigation are having difficulty raising their crops."

Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank rejected claims his state is taking too much water. "We believe Wyoming has correctly allocated water pursuant to the compact and will continue to do so into the future," he said.

The 1950 compact calls for disagreements to go straight to the Supreme Court for resolution.

Both states have suffered from a prolonged drought dating to 1999. Wyoming State Engineer Patrick Tyrell said that in recent years due to the drought, only a "small fraction" of Wyoming's water users in the Powder and Tongue river basins received the water they needed.

But Montana officials say their state is bearing the greater burden. Montana Natural Resources and Conservation Director Mary Sexton said anyone flying over the border region last summer would have seen a sharp contrast: green on the Wyoming side, brown in Montana.

Montana officials could not quantify how much water they believe the state is owed.
The lawsuit also names North Dakota as a defendant, but only because that state also is part of the water compact. Montana officials said the lawsuit seeks no relief from North Dakota.

Montana officials said they were forced into Thursday's legal action by Wyoming's refusal to answer prior requests for more water from the rivers in 2004 and 2006.In December, Montana took its case to the three-member Yellowstone River Compact Commission. But Wyoming blocked Montana's resolution on the issue, prompting the state to sue.
end.
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Reference:

Yellowstone River Compact 1950

These compacts made between states 50 plus years ago did not account for the affects of global climate change in regards to the economy and population growth. If a consensus cannot be agreed to, it might just be more amicable to rescind the compact and write a new one that meets the needs of the states more fairly taking into account 21st Century circumstances. However, looking at this from a moral standpoint, for Wyoming to have refused to give Montana more water when they are suffering through a drought just because of a piece of paper is in my view meanspirited. But then, that is what fighting over water does to people.

Water Wars: Climate Change May Spark Conflict

Water Wars: Climate Change May Spark Conflict

The Independent & The Independent on Sunday
9 February 2007 20:52 Home > News > Environment

Water Wars: Climate change may spark conflict
John Reid warns climate change may spark conflict between nations - and says British armed forces must be ready to tackle the violence

Published: 28 February 2006

Israel, Jordan and Palestine

Five per cent of the world's population survives on 1 per cent of its water in the Middle East and this contributed to the 1967 Arab -Israeli war. It could fuel further military crises as global warming continues. Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan rely on the River Jordan but Israel controls it and has cut supplies during times of scarcity. Palestinian consumption is severely restricted by Israel.

Turkey and Syria

Turkish plans to build dams on the Euphrates River brought the country to the brink of war with Syria in 1998. Damascus accused Ankara of deliberately meddling with their water supply as the country lies downstream of Turkey, who accused Syria of sheltering key Kurdish separatist leaders. Water shortages driven by global warming will pile on the pressure in this volatile region.

China and India

The Brahmaputra River has caused tension between India and China and could be a flashpoint for two of the world's biggest armies. In 2000, India accused China of not sharing information of the river's status in the run up to landslides in Tibet which caused floods in northeastern India and Bangladesh. Chinese proposals to divert the river have concerned Delhi.

Angola and Namibia

Tensions have flared between Botswana, Namibia and Angola around the vast Okavango basin. And droughts have seen Namibia revive plans for a 250-mile water pipeline to supply the capital. Draining the delta would be lethal for locals and tourism. Without the annual flood from the north, the swamps will shrink and water will bleed way into the Kalahari Desert

Ethiopia and Egypt

Population growth in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia is threatening conflict along the world's longest river, The Nile. Ethiopia is pressing for a greater share of the Blue Nile's water but that would leave downstream Egypt as a loser. Egypt is worried the White Nile running through Uganda and Sudan, could be depleted as well before it reaches the parched Sinai desert.

Bangladesh and India

Floods in the Ganges caused by melting glaciers in the Himalayas are wreaking havoc in Bangladesh leading to a rise in illegal migration to India. This has prompted India to build an immense border fence in attempt to block newcomers. Some 6,000 people illegally cross the border to India every day.
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Some statistics about real people worth repeating:
And these statistics were gleaned from the World Water International site. The comments are mine:

*Over 1 BILLION people worldwide currently do not have access to clean safe drinking water. They cannot just walk into a corner store and buy a bottle of Evian. They are politically oppressed, poor, sick, weak, and many times in need of proper sanitation facilities, pumps, wells, and water enough even for one day to sustain themselves ane their children. No one should have to live this way.

*Unsafe drinking water (or TOXIC water) will kill over 14,000 people today, tomorrow, and every other day this problem is ignored. Those who believe corporations should "police" themselves regarding the crap they dump into our water, should then also have to be the ones who drink it! I don't think I need to tell anyone reading this the amount of disease in untreated feces ladden toxic water. And people around the world daily HAVE NOTHING ELSE, or NOTHING AT ALL.

*11,000 of them children, will die because of lack clean safe water, and inadeqaute access to proper sanitation. Can you picture a village with improper sanitation and what it looks and smells like? Can you picture streams of feces ladden water running through your own town knowing that is all you have? Would you want your children playing in it?

*Women and girls (and that is an issue in and of itself regarding the gender that is required to do this work) will spend more than 200 million hours walking just to get enough of the polluted water that is available for one more day's survival. And in many instances, purified water (or what they say is purified water) is available, but you have to be able to afford to pay the company master to get it. And in many places such as Kenya, they take their own lives into their hands just by walking to get water for their families. Children and women have been raped, beaten, and killed just to take the water they worked so hard to get.

Again, NO ONE should have to live this way, and with climate change becoming a very important factor in the recession and evaporation of water in bodies of water like Lake Chad, Lake Victoria, and other bodies of water around the world due to glacier melt and drought, conditions will not get much better should the current scenario not change.
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Some of my other entries on this warning of what we are heading for if we do not pay closer attention to water scarcity in this world follow. We WILL fight for water and are already doing so. Would you kill for water? Perhaps the WTO and World Bank are banking on that as they work to privatize the world's water in the wake of these events and predictions.

Water Wars Are Here-We Were Warned

Killing For Water

War Over Kalabagh Dam?

Destroying A Himalayan Paradise

Israeli-Lebanon War Over Water?

These are but a few examples of tensions around the world regarding water rights, scarcity, and control and there are many more stretching from Montana, to California, to Texas, to Maine in this country, to South America, Canada, Mexico, Asia, to the Middle East(particularly Turkey and Iraq,) and now Australia, where PM Howard is determined to now use the worst drought Australia has had in 1000 years to puff up his political campaign by having the government take over the water supply with the people having no choice now that it has been allowed to reach dangerous levels.

And although there are areas of the world where accords are trying to be worked out such as in an attempt to share the Nile, the future predictions and scenarios do not bode well for a planet bent on wasteful consumption in ignorance of the fact that our global water supply is finite with an ever expanding population and increasing repercussions from our inability to truly reign in our selfish use of this most precious lifeblood while continuing our rapacious use of fossil fuels, with private corporations raking in BILLIONS exploiting this resource for profit while those in poorer countries literally die for a drink of waer.

That is why I absolutely believe that global water policy must be a part of any climate change talks to go beyond Kyoto, with the World Bank being told to keep its hands OFF our water which is a human right and which must remain a public trust.

I truly do hope for the future while dreading it as well. We surely are living in times where our moral will is being put to the test. How we react to that test will either bring about the world we can have if we truly want it, or plunge us into a scenario that until now was unthinkable. The choice is ours.