Chennai in crisis as authorities blamed for dire water shortage

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Admin

Four reservoirs supplying India’s sixth largest city dry up as state accused of inaction

Authorities in Chennai have been criticised for failing to deal with a crippling water shortage that has brought the Indian city to crisis point, leaving taps dry in homes and forcing schools, offices and restaurants to close as temperatures soar.

The four reservoirs supplying the bulk of the city’s drinking water have completely dried up, leading the Chennai Metro Water to cut the water it provides by about 40%.

Indian villages lie empty as drought forces thousands to flee

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Admin

Sick and elderly left to fend for themselves with no end in sight to water crisis

Hundreds of Indian villages have been evacuated as a historic drought forces families to abandon their homes in search of water.

The country has seen extremely high temperatures in recent weeks. On Monday the capital, Delhi, saw its highest ever June temperature of 48C. In Rajasthan, the city of Churu recently experienced highs of 50.8C, making it the hottest place on the planet.

Holy and unholy waters: a tale of two Indian rivers

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Admin

While the Ganges is sacred but heavily polluted, the Chambal’s ‘cursed’ but pristine waters have proved a blessing for locals

Cold-blooded gharials, a crocodile-like species unique to south Asia, catch the last of the day’s warmth as a setting sun paints the sky crimson above the Chambal river.

Two jackals and a jungle cat scuttle up thorny ravines that box in the expansive blue water, while the orange-beaked Indian skimmer bird glides overhead.

‘Decades of denial’: major report finds New Zealand’s environment is in serious trouble

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Admin

Nation known for its natural beauty is under pressure with extinctions, polluted rivers and blighted lakes

A report on the state of New Zealand’s environment has painted a bleak picture of catastrophic biodiversity loss, polluted waterways and the destructive rise of the dairy industry and urban sprawl.

Environment Aotearoa is the first major environmental report in four years, and was compiled using data from Statistics New Zealand and the environment ministry.

In the land of El Dorado, clean water has become ‘blue gold’

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Admin

The misty páramos in the Andes that supply water to tens of millions of people are under threat. Now their mystery could be solved

In the land where the legend of El Dorado began, the race is on to solve the mystery of a vital 21st-century treasure – the water that tens of millions of people rely upon across northern South America. “It’s blue gold, and we are looking for it,” says Mauricio Diazgranados, a Colombian botanist.

The misty and marshy páramo landscapes that sit above the tree line and below the snow caps of the soaring Andes peaks are known as the living factories that ensure a steady flow of clean water to the region’s growing population.

Dirty water 20 times deadlier to children in conflict zones than bullets – Unicef

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Admin

World Water Day study highlights lethal nature of unsafe sanitation and hygiene for children, especially under-fives

Children under five who live in conflict zones are 20 times more likely to die from diarrhoeal diseases linked to unsafe water than from direct violence as a result of war, Unicef has found.

Analysing mortality data from 16 countries beset by long-term conflict – including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen – the UN children’s agency also found that unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene kills nearly three times more children under 15 than war.

England could run short of water within 25 years

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Admin

Exclusive: Environment Agency chief calls for use to be cut by a third

England is set to run short of water within 25 years, the chief executive of the Environment Agency has warned.

The country is facing the ‘‘jaws of death”, Sir James Bevan said, at the point where water demand from the country’s rising population surpasses the falling supply resulting from climate change.

‘Chilling reality’: Afghanistan suffers worst floods in seven years

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Admin

Thousands of homes swept away as rains follow devastating drought, with UN ‘shocked’ by lack of crisis funding support

Afghanistan has been hit with the worst flooding in seven years, with 20 dead, thousands of homes swept away and many families, already displaced by drought, forced to leave their homes for the second time.

The latest climate shock, which affected eight provinces including Kandahar, came as the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan criticised the European Commission for its “wholly insufficient” response to hunger and suffering in a country already in the grip of what analysts describe as the world’s deadliest conflict.

Murray-Darling Basin’s outlook is grim unless it rains, authority’s report warns

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Admin

Focus for year ahead will be on ‘providing drought refuges and avoiding irreversible loss of species’

The outlook for the environment in the Murray-Darling Basin, particularly in the north, is extremely challenging and there will be almost no scope for environmental flows for the remainder of the 2018-19 year unless it rains, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority has warned.

It says the focus will be “on providing drought refuges and avoiding irreversible loss of species”.

Murray Darling Basin Plan breaches Water Act, royal commission to find

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Admin

Commissioner to find $13bn plan to restore river took into account factors other than the environment’s needs when it set the amount of water needed to be bought back from irrigators

The Murray Darling Basin Plan is likely in breach of the commonwealth act that underpins it – the Water Act 2007, the South Australian royal commission into the plan is expected to find.

The report of the royal commission into the Murray Darling Basin Plan is being handed to the state governor on Tuesday but it is up to the SA government when it is released.

Sydney’s desalination plant likely to start up to ease water shortages

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Admin

Low dam levels and the drought lead New South Wales government to act

Sydney’s desalination plant was likely to be switched on this weekend because of falling dam levels and the drought, the New South Wales resources minister said.

The plant is turned on when water storages drop below 60%.

Water crisis: western NSW mayors travel to Sydney to demand help

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Admin

Five mayors warn their towns could run out of water within weeks and call for their needs to be prioritised over irrigators

The mayors of several western New South Wales councils have warned their townships face major water crises within weeks and have urged the state government to impose a one-month embargo on irrigators pumping from the upper part of the Darling River system.

Roundup Newswires

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Category Archives: Water

Chennai in crisis as authorities blamed for dire water shortage

Indian villages lie empty as drought forces thousands to flee

Holy and unholy waters: a tale of two Indian rivers

‘Decades of denial’: major report finds New Zealand’s environment is in serious trouble

In the land of El Dorado, clean water has become ‘blue gold’

Dirty water 20 times deadlier to children in conflict zones than bullets – Unicef

England could run short of water within 25 years

‘Chilling reality’: Afghanistan suffers worst floods in seven years

Murray-Darling Basin’s outlook is grim unless it rains, authority’s report warns

Murray Darling Basin Plan breaches Water Act, royal commission to find

Sydney’s desalination plant likely to start up to ease water shortages

Water crisis: western NSW mayors travel to Sydney to demand help