By Jennifer Hattam 19 December 2010 Istanbul, Turkey — About 100 years ago, my grandfather emigrated to the United States from a village near Lake Urmia, in what is now northwestern Iran. He died long before I was born, leaving me with little connection to my ancestors in the region, but a strong desire to […]
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis; editing by Alistair Lyon and Janet LawrenceMon Nov 15, 2010 9:32am EST JUB SHAEER, Syria (Reuters) – The ancient Inezi tribe of Syria reared camels in the sandswept lands north of the Euphrates river from the time of the Prophet Mohammad. Now water shortages have consigned that way of life to […]
By Dina ZayedALEXANDRIA, Egypt | Sun Nov 14, 2010 9:33am EST (Reuters) – Twenty years ago, Taher Ibrahim raced his friends across Alexandria’s beaches, now rising seas have swept over his favorite childhood playground. Alexandria, with 4 million people, is Egypt’s second-largest city, an industrial center and a port that handles four-fifths of national trade. […]
Flooding that caused destruction elsewhere, brings joy and hope to those at the bottom of the Indus river By Declan Walsh in Keti Bunder, www.guardian.co.uk Tuesday 5 October 2010 09.43 BST Ali Hussain’s sun-beaten face cracked into a broad smile, revealing a set of ferociously rotten, red-stained teeth corroded by years of chewing tobacco and […]
AGU Release No. 10–3023 September 2010For Immediate Release WASHINGTON—In recent decades, the rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled, say scientists who have conducted an unusual, global assessment of groundwater use. These fast-shrinking subterranean reservoirs are essential to daily life […]
By Will Lorimer1 September 2010 Rising sea levels are forcing the migration of indigenous peoples and threatening the freshwater ecosystem of catfish and piranha found in the Orinoco Delta near the coast of Venezuela The Warao are a river people. Found in the Orinoco Delta, they live between the expansive ranches ringing the upper delta […]
Many locations in the United States are already undergoing water stress. The Great Lakes states are establishing an interstate compact to protect against reductions in lake levels and potential water exports. Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are in a dispute over water for drinking, recreation, farming, environmental purposes, and hydropower in the Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint River system. The […]
By BEN CUBBY, ENVIRONMENT EDITORAugust 4, 2010 CONTAMINATED water from a coalmine is flowing into the Georges River, south of Sydney, at levels that are toxic to aquatic life, an independent water quality report has shown. A plume of saline water stretched along the river for 15 kilometres from the discharge point of an underground […]
Jerusalem (AFP) July 21, 2010 – An environmental group on Wednesday called for a halt to baptisms in the Jordan River where tradition holds that Jesus was baptised, saying the waters there were dangerously polluted. “Friends of the Earth Middle East call on regional authorities to halt baptism in the lower Jordan River until water […]
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 […]