Kabul faces severe water crisis

Report says Afghan city and region will need six times more water by 2050, as Oxfam warns of violence over scarce resource By John Vidal, environment editor, www.guardian.co.uk   Monday 19 July 2010 09.25 BST Kabul and its surrounding region are perilously short of water and may not be able to supply a fast-growing, more affluent […]

Massive fish kill caused by leak from China copper mine

By Wei Tian, Hu Meidong and Zhu Xingxin in Fujian, and He Na in Beijing (China Daily)Updated: 2010-07-16 07:57 Qiu Yonglu knew something was wrong when his fish refused to eat and kept circling their pool. Ten days later, they began dying. On July 12, almost a month later, he finally discovered what had poisoned […]

Salty water, parched earth: Vietnam’s Mekong paddies dry up

By Staff WritersQue Dien, Vietnam (AFP) July 14, 2010 The rivers that should nourish his thirsty rice paddies are too salty, and the rains are late this year. Dang Roi does not know if he will be able to salvage anything from this spring’s crop. Vietnam is the world’s second-biggest rice exporter and the Mekong […]

China gold mine severely contaminates river, causes massive fish kill

Beijing (AFP) July 12, 2010 – Pollution from a mine owned by a top gold producer has severely contaminated a river in southeastern China, leading to a massive fish kill, the government and state media said Monday. Seepage from a mining waste pond owned by the Zijinshan Copper Mine has contaminated the Ding River and […]

UN warns biodiversity loss poses greater business risk than climate change

PricewaterhouseCoopers claims UK firms are “biting the hand that feeds” through negligent approach to ecosystem services By James Murray, BusinessGreen, 13 Jul 2010 The threat to businesses arising from unchecked biodiversity loss is larger and more immediate than that presented by climate change. That is the stark conclusion of a long-anticipated UN-backed report to be […]

Ethiopia seeks to reassure Egypt over Nile waters

  Addis Ababa (AFP) July 8, 2010 – Ethiopia has reassured Egypt that a new pact it signed with four other countries on the sharing of water from the River Nile will not harm Egypt. Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda in May signed the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework meant to replace a 1959 accord […]

Millions face starvation as Niger prays in vain for rain

Urgent aid is needed to avert a catastrophe in West Africa  By Alastair Stewart To the north of Niger, the creeping Sahara; to the south, oil rich and agriculturally lush Nigeria – this nation straddles the Sahel – dry, hot and cruel. It has suffered catastrophic droughts – 1974, 1984 and 2005. And now, another. […]

Oil spills blight Nigeria creeks

Bodo, Nigeria (AFP) July 2, 2010 – The waters around the Niger Delta swamps of Bodo are covered in a thick film of oil that has left the once lush mangroves looking like burnt twigs covered in grease. The air reeks of crude. “I struggle everyday,” said fisherman Gaagaa Giadom, 60, paddling his blackened canoe […]

Asia in the grip of water crisis: Asian Development Bank

Singapore (AFP) June 30, 2010 – Asia is in the grip of a water crisis that could set back the region’s robust economic growth if left unresolved, according to a top Asian Development Bank (ADB) official. Arjun Thapan, special adviser to ADB president Harukiko Kuroda on water and infrastructure issues, said governments must start managing […]

China to move tens of thousands for huge water scheme

  Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Paul Tait (Reuters) – China will move 345,000 people, mostly poor villagers, within about two years to make way for a vast scheme to draw on rivers in the south to supply the increasingly dry north, an official newspaper said on Tuesday. The forced resettlement for the South-to-North […]

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