Assam Tribune: Ignoring the crucial linkages of a river’s upstream, midstream, and downstream flows can endanger not just the river, but human communities and ecology sustained by it. A disregard of ‘environmental flows,’ by construction of dams, has already harmed many rivers in the Western Ghats, giving rise to political as well as environmental issues. [...]
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Jagaran Post: Members belonging to various parties on Monday demanded immediate intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to save the river Ganga and make it pollution free at the earliest. “I demand that the Prime Minister should intervene to save the Ganga which is not just a river but our lifeline and part of our [...]
Environment News Service: India is considering integrating Israeli water technologies into a national initiative to clean up the polluted Ganges River, which provides water for 40 percent of India’s population in 11 states through which it flows. Indian engineers, scientists and officials from water technology companies visited Israel late last month to explore the possibilities. [...]
The News Pakistan: A Bangladeshi disaster management expert, Khurshid Alam, on Friday emphasised the need for training the local community in playing an effective role in recovering from natural calamities and minimising the adverse effects of an emergency. Local knowledge should be incorporated in designing a disaster management plan. It is very important to learn [...]
Daily Mail: When it comes to conservation of river Ganga, the government seems to be moving at snail’s pace. Even 10 months after issuing a notification to declare 135 km stretch of the river from its origin at Gaumukh as eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), the ministry of environment and forests has failed to finalise it. The [...]
ABC Science (Anna Salleh ): The greenhouse effect is accelerating the global water cycle almost twice the rate predicted by climate change models, say researchers. Oceanographer Dr Susan Wijffels of the CSIRO and colleagues report their findings today in the journal Science. “The models predict a 4 to 5 per cent amplification of the global [...]
UNECE: The Third workshop on water and climate change in transboundary basins: Making adaptation work will bring together more than 140 participants from all over the world on 25 and 26 April 2012 in Geneva to discuss how to prevent conflict in transboundary basins over dwindling water resources by cooperating at the transboundary level in [...]
Time: India’s Wular Lake, a popular picnic and tourist spot nestled in the Kashmir Valley, is an unlikely site for conflict. But India’s plan to build a structure on the Jhelum River at the mouth of the lake that will allow it to release water during the river’s lean winter months has outraged neighboring Pakistan, [...]
BBC News: By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News Some glaciers on Asia’s Karakoram mountains are defying the global trend and getting thicker, say researchers. A French team used satellite data to show that glaciers in part of the Karakoram range, to the west of the Himalayan region, are putting on mass. The reason is [...]
SANDRP Delhi: On World Water Day 2012, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People (SANDRP) is happy to publish its new report: Water Sector Options for India in a Changing Climate. The report highlights that for the poorest sections, also most vulnerable in the climate change context, the water, food, livelihood and energy [...]
BBC (Navin Singh Khadka Environment reporter): A supreme court order in India asking the government to link more than 30 rivers and divert waters to parched areas has sparked concerns in neighbouring countries. Bangladesh says it would be hardest hit because it is a downstream country to two major rivers that flow from India. New [...]
The News, Islamabad: While the United Nations announced this March 6 that the international target to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water has been met five years before the 2015 deadline, in Pakistan water worries are rapidly growing. While the UN estimates that more than one in six people worldwide [...]
A freshwater ecologist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Smol studies lake sediments to understand climatic and environmental change. Nature Outlook asks him to share his experience. What can we learn from lake sediments? One of the biggest challenges in environmental science is the lack of long-term data, so we have to use indirect [...]
Nature: China’s Yangtze River is receiving less water as climate warms. Chinese researchers have revealed that the amount of water entering the Yangtze River near its source on the Tibetan plateau has fallen by 15% over the past four decades, despite a 15% increase in glacial melt and increased rainfall over the same period. Wang [...]
The Nation: Climate change is one thing and the lack of cooperation between affected countries quite another. Pakistan points the finger of blame at India, while others in the region are also suffering on account of no clear-cut policy on how Himalayan waters are to be shared and conserved. Accords and treaties may have been [...]
The Earth Institute: In many ways, the tiny, landlocked eastern Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan sits apart from the modern world; its rugged landscapes cradle swift-flowing rivers, expansive old-growth forests and hundreds of glaciers. Combining selective modernization with ancient traditions, it is the only country that uses Gross National Happiness as a metric for success. But [...]
Kuenselonline: Environment Most of the Bhutanese rivers flow down to the south from the glacierized headwaters. These glacierized areas consist of rocky peaks, streams, lakes, snow and ice, which are breathtakingly beautiful scenery and sometimes hazardous. However, it is difficult to see such landscapes from the foot of the mountain except a few of local [...]
Dawn: This month’s prospective meeting of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Group comprising seven states sharing the rivers rising in the Greater Himalayas would be a watershed event as the group is expected to adopt a joint initiative to minimise the impact of glacial melt. The group comprises Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. [...]
The Dawn: The Abu Dhabi Dialogue Group comprising seven states sharing the rivers rising in the Greater Himalayas is expected to meet early next month to adopt a joint initiative to minimise the impact of melting of glaciers. The group comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal was set up in 2006 in [...]
OneWorld SA: A recent report For a Living Ganga: Working with people and aquatic speciesby World Wildlife Fund emphasises on locally developed climate adaptation strategies to improve the Ganga ecosystem. The report focuses on improving the status of Ganga river ecosystem in India. It highlights the adaptation strategies by WWF-India, like river bank restoration, alternate [...]
The Earth Institute Columbia University: Bhutan’s Melting Glaciers May Affect Farming, Hydropower, Floods In many ways, the tiny, landlocked eastern Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan sits apart from the modern world; its rugged landscapes cradle swift-flowing rivers, expansive old-growth forests and hundreds of glaciers. Combining selective modernization with ancient traditions, it is the only country that [...]
Financial Express: The ambitious plans of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) of Government of India to conserve lakes and rivers in the country have failed to deliver, with more than 80% of the projects not being completed on time and others not being utilised despite being constructed. These are the findings of a [...]
Scientific American: Interior lakes drain and refill with melting ice in mere days. Himalayan glaciers are melting and retreating at their edges because of global warming. But they also conceal a more ominous effect of climate change: they are deflating. They are losing internal ice mass to melting, which can substantially hasten their disappearance. Scientists [...]
UNSE-Water Community: The discussion on water augmentation to hilly terrains brought out very interesting contributions apprising the community on water conservation measures to improve food production and ensure nutrition security of local communities. Members dealt with indigenous technical knowledge, modern technologies and suggested food crops to suit the geographic and climatic conditions. Rainfall patterns in [...]
Hydropower dams in Himalayas, marketed as clean energy that will earn developers cash credits under carbon-offsetting Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme, appear to fall well short of their goals in Himachal Pradesh where global climate change mitigation goals conflicts with local sustainable development, as a study by German researchers has found out. Recently published in [...]
The WeekEnd Leader: He made the glaciers move from the Himalayas and come closer home. By bringing glaciers to his village, Norphel Chewang helped Ladakh farmers till the land in summer – a privilege nature denied them. While Mahesh Bhatt captures the fabulous images in his camera, Anita Pratap catches up with the engineer. Chewang [...]
Good Environment: This graph from the Energy Information Administration communicates the reality of renewable energy in America better than any other single source. Renewable energy covers only a small slice, 8 percent, of the country’s needs. And despite the focus on biofuels and solar power, the chart shows that more than a third of that slice [...]
National Geographic: Google Earth Shows How Dams Could Worsen Climate Change. A project of two NGOs highlights far-ranging effects of damming rivers which is a new interactive Google Earth video tour aims to teach people how damming rivers around the world can exacerbate climate change. The video, created by the nonprofit conservation groups International Rivers [...]
SciDevNet: This policy brief, published by the International Project Office of the Global Water System Project and produced to inform the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), outlines how scientists and policymakers can advance water security by focusing on interdisciplinary research, and ensuring that all stakeholders are involved in developing sustainable solutions to water problems. [...]
NDTV India (Video): The video not only raises important questions about one of the Indian Himalayan States, its few Tributaries (Rivers) or about saving the lives of a few Mountain Dwellers, but, it is about status of Himalayas and Hindustan (India) itself. This very interesting video was released by NDTV India on 18 November 2011 [...]
Eurasia Review: Time has come to become serious about the future of the river. There is a growing perception that the Ganga might completely dry in next fifty years if no effective action is taken to purify the river, keep the flow of its water intact and control the global warming. There cannot be a [...]
Radio Netherlands Worldwide: The Climate Change Risk Atlas ranked Nepal as the fourth most vulnerable country in the world last year. Given the vulnerability of the Himalayan country, USAID donated $30mn for the Hariyo Ban project last week. The programme hopes to build mechanisms that will help Nepal cope with climate change risks. Along Nepal’s [...]
TIME: The Kingdom of Bhutan, tucked between India and China in the foothills of the Himalaya mountain range, is paying the price for global industrialization. Climate change is causing many Himalayan glaciers to melt in increasingly unstable ways, and there are concerns about the long term viability of the ice in a warmer world. Water [...]
UNDP Regional Centre: As a matter of national urgency, the Bhutanese Government – with assistance from an international climate change adaptation fund that was established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and partner organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the Global Environment Facility, the World Wildlife Fund and the Government [...]
Kuenselonline: While world over livestock population is experiencing an alarming increase to cater to as alarming an increase in demand for meat and diary products, Bhutan is headed the other way. That is quite befitting of the country’s emphasis and priority for environmental protection that draws its essence from its guiding philosophy of Gross National [...]
Deccan Herald: The government has earmarked Rs 15,000 crore more to make the river pollution free. Thousands of people took a holy dip in the Ganga river at Patna on the occasion of one of the most auspicious festival Chhath this year, but an equal number avoided the sacred river in the wake of reports [...]
Kuenselonline: The Wangchu river that runs through Thimphu city, Bhutan’s biggest and fastest growing urban centre, is more polluted as it passes through the main town and flows downstream, a report prepared by the National Environment Commission concludes. The report collected data between March last year and April this year, from monitoring sites set up [...]
MRD Journal: The Indus River Basin is characterized by downstream areas with the world’s largest irrigation system, providing food and energy security to more than 215 million people. The arid to semiarid basin is classified as a net water deficit area, but it also suffers from devastating floods. Among the four basin countries, Pakistan is [...]
Environmental News Network: The soils and sediments at the bottom of rivers are rich in organic material. They can store carbon for thousands of years according to a study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Despite often high rates of erosion and sediment transport, the riverbed can hold organic carbon for 500 to 17,000 [...]
Pak Observer: The International Energy Agency (IEA) in its annual World Energy Outlook Report has warned that the world has just five years to avoid being trapped in a scenario of perilous climate change and extreme weather events. It warned that the current trends of rising fossil energy use will lead to irreversible and potentially [...]
Business Recorder: The humanitarian emergency caused by the few last months’ devastating floods in Asia is a warning that the situation could get worse, The people affected by this crisis have lost everything, and their difficulties are only just beginning. Two countries Pakistan and Thailand have been badly hit by the disaster. Hundreds of thousands [...]
Assam Tribune: The Planning Commission has accorded investment clearance to implement anti-erosion works to protect Brahmaputra dykes. This project is estimated to cost Rs 8.35 crore. The dyke works relate to 69 km (Uluberi) and 78 km (Borigaon). The proposed scheme envisages anti-erosion measures for a 9000-m long reach on the south bank of the [...]
World Crunch: Melting glaciers in the Himalayas put the small Kingdom of Bhutan at risk. Not only are the “frozen reservoirs” a fundamental water source, but the melting can also cause GLOFS – aka: ‘mountain tsunamis’ – killer flash floods that occur when glacial lakes suddenly burst. The Kingdom of Bhutan, tucked between India and [...]
CNN: Bhutan is the last of the Himalayan kingdoms. The small country is situated in the nooks and crannies of the highest mountain range on earth. It’s a special place that didn’t have paved roads until the 1960s, was off-limits to foreign tourists until the 1970′s, and didn’t have television until 1999, the last country [...]
Economic Times: India is paying a high price for its lack of disaster management practices — Rs.86,000 crore ($17.5 billion) every year to be precise, says a UN expert. “India is vulnerable, in varying degrees, to a large number of natural as well as manmade disasters,” J. Radhakrishnan, head of UNDP India’s Disaster Management wing, [...]
Brisbane Times: Time is running out for Kashmir’s premier tourist attraction, writes Ben Doherty, in Srinagar. Through the dawn mist, Dal Lake is beautiful. As the first shafts of sunlight break over the Himalayan foothills that hug the lake’s perimeter, the still waters are slowly brought alive by the silent ferrying of the shikaras back [...]
DAWN: A safe environment is prerequisite for healthy life. Major environmental issues currently confronting Pakistan include water, energy, pollution and waste management, salinity and water logging, irrigated agriculture, biodiversity and climate change. Pakistan being one of the most urbanized countries of the region is facing overall deterioration in all these areas. Environmental hazards have become [...]
Mega dams have the multipurpose applications and considered as the greener energy source than most alternatives. But as compensation to this development it may result a wide range of environmental degradation. This study aims to search the fact of environmental impacts due to the existing and proposed mega dams of the Himalayas and also to [...]
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay: The pristine water quality of the mountains is under question despite bottled water manufacturers campaign to the contrary. This issue attempts to examine the dogma and the policy responses in India to protect environmental water quality of the mountains. Bottled water manufactures do a great job of enticing thirsty buyers to pick up [...]
Noreen Haider: On the night of eighth September 2011 unusual amount rain started lashing the districts of southern Sindh including Badin, Mithi, Mirpur Khas and Saanghar and continued unrelentingly for the next two days before it took a break. Its immediate effect was that large areas became inundated and communication was broken down. The rain [...]
Sudhirendar Sharma: Writes about the potential of mountain states in India in terms of their natural wealth and kind of benchmark for the services provided by them. By taking examples from developed countries his doubts are about insignificant valuation of tangible ecosystem services, therefore the unlikely transaction of such payments in near future. His discourse [...]
Reuters: Like oil in the 20th century, water could well be the essential commodity on which the 21st century will turn. Human beings have depended on access to water since the earliest days of civilization, but with 7 billion people on the planet as of Oct. 31, exponentially expanding urbanization and development are driving demand [...]
Mail Online: These striking images are part of a collection that have gone on display revealing the impact of climate change in the Himalayan mountains. US photographer, filmmaker and mountaineer David Breashears has put together a collection of works to compare his contemporary images with historical photographs taken over the past century. His aim is [...]
BBC: Stunning images from high in the Himalayas – showing the extent by which many glaciers have shrunk in the past 80 years or so – have gone on display at the Royal Geographical Society in central London. Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya can be seen at the RGS in London [...]
Kuensel Online: Is accelerated development of the hydropower sector in conflict with the environment? Mega Projects 8 October, 2011 – Bhutan ambitious plan to tap 10,000MW of hydropower by 2020 (eight years and two months from now) may be following a clean and green path, but what has not been talked about is how it [...]
Vancouversun: India’s Yamuna River, one of the world’s most heavily polluted waterways, is to be transformed from an “open sewer” to a multi-million-dollar ecoholiday destination. Officials have released ambitious plans to turn the rank riverbanks into a playground for New Delhi’s increasingly affluent middle classes by 2015. For Hindus, the Yamuna is considered to be [...]
UNNC: The head of the United Nations disaster risk reduction agency arrives tomorrow (6 Oct) in Pakistan to discuss possible measures to reduce the impact and recurrence of major floods, which have inundated much of the Asian country in the past two years. Margareta Wahlström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, is scheduled [...]
WRI: The World Resources Institute and the Coca-Cola Company recently announced a partnership that made industry-leading global water risk maps publicly available for the first time. Coca-Cola has donated maps and data that they developed to help them towards the goal of understanding and managing their exposure to water risks in their facilities around the [...]
Prakash Kumar: The impending crisis in India for water is very much foreseeable in next 5-10 years. The crisis is not going to happen because of shortage of water but its poor management. The same is true for the Himalayan region the “water kingdom” of the world. Slowly we are robbing this once mighty water [...]
