Water As The Source Of Life And Strife

Water As The Source Of Life And Strife

WATER WORLD
Water As The Source Of Life And Strife
by Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Amman (UPI) Jordan, May 21, 2007

The next major Middle East war could well be fought not over land, oil or religion --the traditional causes of conflict to date -- but over water, a precious commodity becoming rarer by the day. Addressing top leaders in industry, business, banking and the media in his speech at the opening session of the World Economic Forum held on the shores of the Dead Sea last week, King Abdullah II of Jordan raised the alarm over the scarcity of water in the region and warned of the dire consequences for not only the developing nations, but the havoc water scarcity would have on the developed world as a whole.

Indeed, much of the Israeli-Palestinian land dispute is in fact centered on water rights, as both communities are battling for control of extremely limited water resources.

Additionally, Israel has long envied Lebanon's Litani and Zahrani rivers that flow through the south of the country. During the last three decades Israel has launched repeated military operations in southern Lebanon in which Israeli troops found themselves in control of the rivers, albeit temporarily, following international pressures on Israel to withdraw.

In previous years Egypt had threatened to go to war with Sudan to prevent Khartoum from trying to mess with the natural course of the Nile River -- the lifeline of Egypt without which the tiny strip of arable land on either bank of the river and its loamy delta would become engulfed by the desert sands.

Similarly, tension between Syria and Turkey rose to near danger levels a few years ago over the distribution of the water of the Euphrates River, which flows through Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

"One critical challenge is water," said the Jordanian monarch. "From the snowy peaks of the Atlas Mountains to the Empty Quarter of the Arab Peninsula, most of our region's countries cannot meet the current water demands.

"As a region, if we do not plan how we will meet this most basic need, if we do not commit the necessary investments to resolve this problem, we will not be fighting for peace, we will be fighting for our lives," said Abdullah. "We need to rise to this challenge."

A witness to the king's testimony over water shortages was only a stone's throw from the convention center and easily visible to anyone who took a few minutes to venture onto the terrace facing the Dead Sea.

The sinking levels of the Dead Sea waters have authorities both in Jordan as well as in Israel seriously worried. The current rate at which the waters are receding is about 1 meter a year. During the 20th century the level of the Dead Sea dropped from about 390 meters below sea level in 1930 to 414 meters below sea level in 1999, with the average rate of fall accelerating in recent years. Today it stands at 418 meters below sea level.

End of excerpt

To be continued.

My last entry regarding this conflict:

http://water-is-life.blogspot.com/2006/08/is-israelilebanon-war-over-water.html

Desalination Not The Solution/WWF

Desalination Not The Solution

Desalination 'not the solution'

Untapped resource: oceans contain 97% of the planet's water

Turning salt water into drinking water is not a solution to tackle global water scarcity, the WWF has said.

A report by the environmental group said a growth in the energy intensive technology would increase emissions and damage coastal and river habitats.

More attention should instead be paid to conserving supplies, it suggested.

The study was published as Australia announced plans to build one of the world's biggest desalination plants to supply drinking water to Melbourne.

"Desalinating the sea is an expensive, energy intensive and greenhouse gas emitting way to get water," said Jamie Pittock, director of WWF's global freshwater programme.

"It may have a place in the world's future freshwater supplies but regions still have cheaper, better and complementary ways to supply water that are less risky to the environment."

The report called for greater emphasis on managing existing supplies before the go-ahead was given to major water projects.

It added that new desalination plants, which were primarily located in coastal areas, should also be subject to tighter impact assessments to minimise damage to the marine environment.

Advances in technology meant that it was also possible to develop alternative "manufactured water" systems, such as treating waste water, the authors wrote.

end of excerpt.

As I have written here before, I too believe that desalination (reverse osmosis process) is an expensive GHG emitting procedure that is simply a bandaid on a crisis that will not be solved by looking to methods that actually exacerbate the problem of emitting GHGs, particularly the Co2 that causes drought, wildfires, and water shortages.

In many cases it is only through the wasteful practices of humans that water becomes scarce. Seventy percent of the water that is wasted in this world is lost through wasteful irrigation practices. Why then is it easier for man to expend countless hours and dollars in building these huge desalination plants that do nothing to replace the water lost and threaten the habitat of other marine animals, instead of simply looking to their moral compasses and conserving what we have?

Is it because we simply do not wish to admit that we are the cause of this crisis?















However, that is not to say that I am against desalination as a process when it is absolutely necessary to provide water to people, as in the case of the Middle East where water scarcity makes it necessary to emply such methods. I personally prefer geothermal desalination as the best method to protect marine life and cut down on carbon emissions.

This report from the Pacific Institute dated last year is a totally comprehensive and expert analysis of desalination globally and in the United States with both pros and cons explained in detail. There is no doubt that as we head further into the 21st Century in a world where water will be in greater demand desalination can be a part of a water management plan if absolutely needed (especially regarding using it in agriculture to conserve fresh water for human use,) but certainly not as the solution to this crisis and at the expense of other species and our environment especially regarding the clean up process. Only moral courage to conserve and to devise ways to use irrigation water more effectively and funds more effectively to shore up substandard water systems can we find the balance necessary to preserve all life.

India's Rivers Dying Due to Sewerage, Say Activists

This is a classic example of overpopulation and poverty and the effects it brings to our natural resources. As Himalayan glaciers continue to recede at an alarming rate with predictions that they could be gone within the next forty to fifty years, India cannot afford to continue polluting the water they have left. And this begs the question when rightfully blaming it on poor management: why are people not crying out for changing it? What has happened to our moral will to stand up for what is right? To stand up for our planet and for ourselves? To respect the lifeblood of our planet that is sacred?


India's Rivers Dying Due to Sewage, Say Activists

INDIA: June 15, 2007

NEW DELHI - The daily dumping of millions of tonnes of sewage is killing India's rivers and threatening the lives of thousands of poor people, an environmental think-tank said on Thursday.

New Delhi alone produces 3.6 billion litres of sewage every day but due to poor management less than half is effectively treated. The remaining untreated waste is dumped into the Yamuna river. "We talk a lot about industrial pollution of our rivers, but sewage pollution is a big problem," Sunita Narain, director of the Centre for Science and Environment, told reporters.

"What is happening to the Yamuna is reflective of what is happening in almost every river in India," she added. "The Yamuna is dead, we just haven't officially cremated it yet."

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, around 70 percent of the pollution in the Yamuna is human excrement.

This results in water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea -- one of the biggest killers of children in India -- and affects thousands of poor people living near the river who drink the water and bathe in it.

Environmentalists say while India has over 300 sewage treatment plants, most are underutilised and poorly positioned. Treated waste is often mixed with untreated sewage and thrown back into rivers.

India's drainage system is also decrepit and in serious need of repair, with more than half of the country's drains virtually redundant.

Narain said India's sewage management and treatment system needed to be revamped and rivers kept clean, rapid industrialisation and urbanisation leading to greater demand for water.

Climate change is also another threat to India's water supplies with Himalayan glaciers -- the source of many of India's rivers -- rapidly receding, and erratic rainfall predicted due to global warming.

Skirmishes are beginning to occur in parts of India where farmers have been protesting over rights to more water, Narain added.

"We should first look at effectively treating our waste water," said Narain. "And then using it for drinking or as irrigation rather than just throwing it back into the rivers."


Story by Nita Bhalla

About The Yamuna River

Global Warming Is Shrinking The Great Lakes

Global Warming Is Shrinking The Great Lakes

Global warming is shrinking the Great Lakes
30 May 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Jessica Marshall Duluth

Tom Mackay reckons his backyard in Duluth shows what is happening in Lake Superior as well as any place. In November 2005, the metre-tall wooden "Bay Ness Monster" statue he installed in the water just off his home dock was submerged up to its gaping mouth. Today, his would-be water serpent is high and dry.

For residents of this lakeside Minnesota city, located more than 3000 kilometres by boat from the open Atlantic, the transformation is disturbing. Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world by surface area, is experiencing its lowest water levels since the record set in 1926. The lake is down by 34 centimetres from a year ago, and more than half a metre below its long-term mean. At least part of the drop can be attributed to a multi-year drought that has been particularly severe since 2006. More troubling, however, is evidence that global warming is driving a long-term shrinkage of this massive natural reservoir.

A rapidly warming lake is the key to understanding the change, says Jay Austin, a limnologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory. Earlier this year he reported that Superior's surface waters had warmed by about 2.5 °C since 1979 - far more than average air temperatures in the region during the same period (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 34, p L06604). Austin's findings link the warming to a reduction in winter ice cover on the lake. The less ice is present to reflect sunlight, the more solar energy the lake can absorb. On average, the onset of summer warming of the lake is happening half a day earlier each year. The reduced ice cover also contributes to shrinkage by allowing more evaporation. "Most of the evaporation goes on in winter," Austin says, as cold, dry air swoops over the warmer lake. Without the ice cap to block evaporation, water losses increase.

"Lake Superior's surface temperature has warmed by 2.5 °C since 1979 - far more than average local air temperatures"Cynthia Sellinger of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan, agrees. While the lake's level has dropped precipitously since last year, Sellinger has tracked a longer-term decline of an average of 10 millimetres per year since 1978. Evaporation has increased by an average of 4.6 millimetres per year over the same period, she says, while precipitation has decreased by 4.1 millimetres per year. These drops are consistent with climate change models, Austin says, which predict a decline in Great Lakes levels of 0.5 to 2.5 metres with a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The falling water level is already affecting Lake Superior's shipping industry. Freighters carry less cargo now for fear of running aground. Natural beds of wild rice growing in the lake's shoreside wetlands and harvested by Native Americans are also threatened. The long-term effects of prolonged warming on Lake Superior's aquatic ecosystems are not yet known.

end of excerpt

I wrote about this last August here:

Great Lakes Going Down?

Drought In Minnesota

News About The Great Lakes

I'm thinking of writing a book

I'll be starting the preface this weekend and already have a title, so I will see where it takes me. It will be on the global water crisis with a list of solutions and recommendations included with facts and my own personal comments.

I have been thinking of doing this for a long time but my own insecurities kept me from doing it. I can't let that stop me any longer. This is an issue dear to my heart that is so important for our future, so I doubt I will have any problems expressing myself and hopefully I can convey this in a way to move people to action as well.

So if I am not here as much as usual in the next few months it will because I am working on this project, although I am not going to stop posting here completely because this is an important issue and I want people to know what is happening regarding it.

Wish me luck.