We have rationing here in southern California, even though we steal water from the Colorado River, Owens Valley and northern California. Interestingly enough with all the rain we have had recently much of it simply goes to waste. Army Corp of Engineers have made sure that the water is channeled into rivers that have concrete bottoms where the water falls into the ocean. It seems that we should have water recovery systems in place, cisterns like on islands dependent on rainfall for their water. We don't, it is cheaper to waste water here and buy it from elsewhere.
--- In
Politics_CurrentEvents_Group@yahoogroups.com, "Walt L" <muleshet@...> wrote:
>
>
> As those of us who live in the Pacific
> Northwest well know, dams are between a rock, and hard place. They DO
> provide us with cheap power, land irrigation, and help in flood control.
> They also play HELL with natural eco-systems. Spawning fish suffer the
> most. I've no answrs. Walt
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In
Politics_CurrentEvents_Group@yahoogroups.com, elaine mckay
> <glyndon47@> wrote:
> >
> > If environmentalists had let (evil) dams be build in the state of
> Queensland in Australia, we would not have had the tragety and loss of
> life that is currently being experienced here. I live in New South
> Wales, below Queensland. The climate of Queensland is one of long
> drought and then flood. In the future, there will be long
> droughts in Queensland, dams would have captured some of this deluge. I
> know sometimes it is better to leave nature alone. I don't think this is
> one of those cases.
> >
> > --- On Thu, 13/1/11, Gary garyrumor2@ wrote:
> >
> >
> > From: Gary garyrumor2@
> > Subject: [Politics_CurrentEvents_Group] Himalayan Water Problems
> > To:
Politics_CurrentEvents_Group@yahoogroups.com> > Received: Thursday, 13 January, 2011, 5:02 AM
> >
> >
> > Â
> >
> >
> >
> > Himalayan Water Resource Problems
> > Himalayan water sources are under assault from climate change,
> population pressure, pollution and Chinese dams according to Indian
> experts. The climate change factor is more important than the Chinese
> dams, although they have an impact in the dry months of winter. The
> research on the watershed has been piecemeal and needs to be
> systematically organized and completed to develop a clear international
> water policy for the region according to experts in India.
> >
> > Something like half the population of the world depends on water from
> the Himalayas. There are almost no treaties regulating the water flows
> and China is aggressively building dams to facilitate the needs of their
> growing economy. The other nations in the region, mostly all down river
> from the sources mainly in Chinese ruled Tibet are now becoming aware of
> a need to regulate the water flows before they run dry.
> >
> > Tibet it turns out truly is the mother of all nations, at least in
> eastern Asia. Development of Tibet means disrupting the source of most
> of the water for south and central China, northern India, Southeast
> Asia, Pakistan, the Central Asian countries, Bhutan and Nepal. Without
> some mechanism for monitoring and allocating the water flow, the region
> is in danger of drying up. Some work, such as fighting climate change is
> a world wide endeavor, but dealing with pollution, population, and
> regional development of dams is something that can be taken care of by
> the affected nations.
> >
> > Why should we care? With half the population of the world and the
> fastest growing economies, India and China are critical players in the
> new world economy and will have decisive say in dealing with global
> warming. If they fail to take care of the water situation, then the
> subsequent instability could destroy the current world economic
> development. That may not seem to be a problem from the vantage point of
> workers in the USA and Europe who have lost jobs due to outsourcing to
> Asia, but now that most manufacturing is done in Asia, it would be a
> shock to the system if that region became unstable due to a lack of
> water. It could deteriorate into open warfare. India, Pakistan and China
> are nuclear armed powers and that cannot be forgotten. It would be
> better for us all if those nations developed treaties and methodologies
> to properly manage their water resources.
> >
> > I have not even mentioned the needs of the wild life of the region.
> Tibet should be left in as primitive a state as possible in my view. I
> think the Chinese development of that region is going to have grave
> consequences. The evidence that dam building may have led to the big
> earthquake in Sichuan is noteworthy. Progress and development are not
> always good.
> >
> > From Terraviva
> >
> > CLIMATE CHANGE: `Water Towers of Asia' Show Cracks
> > By Keya Acharya
> >
> > GUWAHATI, INDIA, Jan 12, 2011 (IPS) - A concerted effort to formally
> document the magnitude and directions of climate trends in the Eastern
> Himalayas and thereby decide regional adaptation strategies is critical
> to ensure the region's water security, according to water experts.
> >
> > In Nepal, the Imja glacier is retreating almost 70 metres per year. In
> Bhutan, where glacial melt is the least perceptible currently, 25 of 677
> glaciers are categorised potentially dangerous, with an `alarming'
> glacial retreat rate of 20-30 metres per year, says G. Karma Chhopel of
> Bhutan's National Environment Commission.
> >
> > It is more important to gather statistics on the effects of climate
> change than to get preoccupied with China building dams in the region,
> says Professor Jayanta Bandyopadhyay of the Centre for Development and
> Environment Policy at the Kolkata branch of the Indian Institute of
> Management.
> >
> > "Building more dams when waters are anyway threatened due to climate
> change is accelerating the issue of water loss. It's a bit like `cutting
> off your nose to spite your face'," Himanshu Thakkar, of the New
> Delhi-based South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, told IPS.
> >
> > Sharing of water is an important issue, says Thakkar. "India needs to
> leverage its huge trade dealings with China to form a water-sharing
> accord."
> >
> > Bandyopadhayay says a conflict-resolution system is a `good idea',
> "But we still don't know the nature of changes in the region. What will
> the treaty be based on?" he asks. "I must again stress on the need for
> developing indigenous climate models for the region. Adaptation
> strategies will be very difficult without this," Bandyopadhyay told IPS.
> "The whole issue of Asian Development depends on this."
> >
> > The Eastern Himalayan mountains - stretching 1,500 miles across Nepal,
> Bhutan, northern Myanmar, south-eastern Tibet and northeast India - and
> referred to as the `water towers of Asia' are also known as the Third
> Pole due to their having the largest glaciated area outside of the two
> poles.
> >
> > The region is home to three massive river basins, the Indus in the
> west, Ganges in the centre and the Brahmaputra in the east, featuring
> major rivers including the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong,
> Salween, Xingjian, Chao Phraya, Irrawaddy, Amu Darya, Syr Darya and
> Tarim, flowing through central, south and south-eastern Asia.
> >
> > The mountains directly impact water resources in Bangladesh, Bhutan,
> China, India and Nepal - and supply more than 1.3 billion people.
> >
> > In its efforts to bring together Himalayan nations to act on the
> impacts of climate change in the region, Bhutan has initiated a series
> of high-level consultations between Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan
> and will be holding a Ministerial summit, `Climate Summit for a Living
> Himalayas' in Oct. 2011 to prepare a joint accord.
> >
> > Bandyopadhyay suggests a major eastern Himalayan adaptation strategy
> could include payment for ecosystem services, which would entail
> judicious use and conservation.
> >
> > For more of this
> >
http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=54095> >
> > From the Times of India
> >
> > Water wars: India, China & the Great Thirst
> > Saira Kurup, TNN, Jul 25,
> > Countries might wage wars over oil but the most valuable resource in
> the world is water. It's the new oil, the colourless gold that's at a
> premium because it is becoming scarce.
> >
> > Today's nightmare is that tomorrow the glass will be empty because
> water supplies are fast evaporating on account of population pressures,
> urbanization and now, climate change. No country is likely to be left
> untouched, but the great thirst will be felt the most in the region that
> has the world's two most populous countries â€" India and China.
> >
> > A new study says the situation will be the bleakest in the basins of
> major Himalayan rivers, ie our own backyards. The study by the Strategic
> Foresight Group (SFG), Mumbai is titled `The Himalayan Challenge' and
> frighteningly predicts that "in the next 20 years, the four countries in
> the Himalayan sub-region (India, Nepal, China, Bangladesh) will face the
> depletion of almost 275 billion cubic metres of annual renewable water.
> For comparison, this is more than the total amount of water available
> in…Nepal at present."
> >
> > But why must this region run dry? It is fed by major rivers such as
> the Yangtze, Indus, Ganges and the Brahmaputra. But the problem is all
> of them originate in the Tibetan Plateau and will be badly affected by
> melting glaciers. The report says it may all end very badly because a
> water deficit will have a cumulative, destructive effect on agricultural
> production, power generation, food availability and livelihood, forcing
> all four countries in the sub-region to try and secure water resources.
> They may even look beyond their borders, leading to geo-political
> tension.
> >
> > The point here is interesting. There are global forums that deliberate
> on oil prices and availability, but disputes over water are generally
> handled regionally or bilaterally. Sundeep Waslekar, executive director
> of the SFG laments the basic truth that "there are no global treaties on
> water. Only 17 nations (which don't include the four aforementioned)
> have signed the UN convention on non-navigational uses of international
> water courses, 1997 (which provides a mechanism to deal with
> trans-border waters)."
> >
> > Read more: Water wars: India, China & the Great Thirst - The Times of
> India
>
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Water-\
> wars-India-China-the-Great-Thirst/articleshow/6212014.cms#ixzz1AqGE9rtE
> >
> > From New Left Review
> >
> > KENNETH POMERANZ
> > THE GREAT HIMALAYAN WATERSHED
> > Agrarian Crisis, Mega-Dams and the Environment
> > Since we tend to take water for granted, it is almost always a bad
> sign when it is in the news; and lately there has been all too much
> water-related news from some of Asia's most populous nations. The
> stories have ranged from the distressingly familiarâ€"suicides of
> drought-hit Indian farmersâ€"to the surprising: evidence that
> pressure from water in the reservoir behind the new Zipingpu dam may
> have triggered the massive Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, for example.
> Meanwhile glaciers, which almost never used to make the news, are now
> generating plenty of worrisome headlines.
> >
> > This is a long article for more of this see this link
> >
http://www.newleftreview.org/?view=2788> >
> > From The Telegraph
> >
> > Chinese earthquake may have been man-made, say scientists
> > An earthquake that killed at least 80,000 people in Sichuan last year
> may have been triggered by an enormous dam just miles from the epicentre
> >
> > By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai 12:53PM GMT 02 Feb 2009
> >
> > The 511ft-high Zipingpu dam holds 315 million tonnes of water and lies
> just 550 yards from the fault line, and three miles from the epicentre,
> of the Sichuan earthquake.
> >
> > Now scientists in China and the United States believe the weight of
> water, and the effect of it penetrating into the rock, could have
> affected the pressure on the fault line underneath, possibly unleashing
> a chain of ruptures that led to the quake.
> >
> > Fan Xiao, the chief engineer of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau
> in Chengdu, said it was "very likely" that the construction and filling
> of the reservoir in 2004 had led to the disaster.
> >
> > "There have been many cases in which a water reservoir has triggered
> an earthquake," said Mr Fan. "This earthquake was very unusual for this
> area.
> >
> > There have been no seismic activities greater than a magnitude seven
> quake along this particular seismic belt before."
> >
> >
>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4434400/Chinese-ear\
> thquake-may-have-been-man-made-say-scientists.html
> >
>
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