In Bangladesh, climate change refugees flee to cities; India refugee wall nears completion

Posted: Monday, December 07, 2009 1:17 PMFiled Under: On AssignmentBy Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent DHAKA, Bangladesh — When I first met Kohinoor Shelim she was trying to feed rice to her young daughter, but the child just screamed and kept turning her face away.  Instead, the girl demanding lentils – wanting anything else except […]

Melting Himalayan glaciers threaten 1.3 billion Asians

  By Staff WritersKathmandu (AFP) Dec 6, 2009 More than a billion people in Asia depend on Himalayan glaciers for water, but experts say they are melting at an alarming rate, threatening to bring drought to large swathes of the continent. Glaciers in the Himalayas, a 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile) range that sweeps through Pakistan, India, China, […]

India: Amid droughts and failed crops, a cycle of poverty worsens

India has long been plagued by unscrupulous moneylenders who exploit impoverished farmers. But with crops failing more frequently, farmers are left even more desperate and vulnerable. By Mark Magnier, 1 December  2009 … Here in the Bundelkhand region in central India that is among the nation’s more impoverished areas, the problem is exacerbated by climate […]

Poisoned water haunts Bhopal 25 years after deadly accident

By SARA GOODMAN of GreenwirePublished: December 1, 2009 Twenty-five years after a toxic gas cloud from a pesticide factory killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, groundwater at the accident site — a drinking water supply for 15 communities — remains contaminated, according to a report [pdf] released today by an advocacy group and a […]

One killed in Mumbai water shortage protests

Reporting by Rina Chandran; Editing by Paul de Bendern and David Fox MUMBAI (Reuters) – One man was killed and about a dozen injured in a violent protest on Thursday against water cuts in India’s largest city after the worst monsoon in nearly four decades left Mumbai authorities scrambling to ration supplies. Mumbai is facing […]

Bhopal marks 25th anniversary of world's worst industrial disaster

By Altaf Qadri Bhopal, India — Associated Press Published on Thursday, Dec. 03, 2009 2:22AM EST Hundreds of people marched through Bhopal with torches before dawn Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst industrial disaster and demand the cleanup of toxic chemicals they say still contaminate the Indian city’s soil and water. […]

Graph of the Day: Increase in Annual Water Demand, 2005-2030

By 2030, demand in India will grow to almost 1.5 trillion m3, driven by domestic demand for rice, wheat, and sugar for a growing population, a large proportion of which is moving toward a middle-class diet. Against this demand, India’s current water supply is approximately 740 billion m3. As a result, most of India’s river […]

Global fresh water demand by 2030 will be 40 per cent higher than current supplies

NEW DELHI – INDIA’S water needs are set to double by 2030, which could dry up its river basins, according to new research released on Tuesday that paints a grim picture for supplies across the emerging world. Global fresh water demand by 2030 will be 40 per cent higher than current supplies and agriculture is […]

India farmers create artificial glaciers to forestall crop failure

By Ben Arnoldy | The Christian Science Monitor, Oct 22, 2009 Stakmo, India — Chhewang Norphel makes artificial glaciers. The reason: The real ones have rapidly receded up the Himalayan slopes in his home district of Ladakh in northernmost India. Himalayan communities like Ladakh rely on glacial runoff to grow food, making them – along […]

World rice stockpiles hit as yields drop

Rome (UPI) Oct 9, 2009 – Global rice stockpiles have plummeted because of poor crop yields, raising fears of upheaval in international grain markets ahead of the World Food Summit in the Italian capital next month. Sharp increases in rice prices since last year have hit consumers across the world, especially in Asia and the […]

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