Search

26 Jul 2021 Zhengzhou, China

China Floods: Death Toll Rises, Hundreds Of Thousands Flee

The severe rainstorms have now moved north impacting neighbouring cities and regions, with collapsed roads and damaged dams and reservoirs cutting off power leaving thousands trapped without electricity and water supplies. In one incident, 12 drowned in a Zhengzhou train.

Locals were unprepared for the downpours as weather forecasters had issued a warning for extreme rain for the wrong place and time.

Farmers in the Henan region have lost livelihoods with at least 200,000 chickens and up to 6,000 pigs lost in the floods

4 Mar 2021 VIENTIANE, Laos

"Drastic Cut": What Is China Doing With Mekong Dams?

Mekong River water levels between Jinghong hydropower station in China’s Yunnan province and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam fell in recent weeks to worrying levels, says the Mekong River Commission (MRC). The MRC has observed a 25 percent drop in average rainfall since last November, while outflow from Jinghong has been fluctuating wildly, falling to half its normal levels on several days in January...

4 Feb 2021 DELHI, India

India Concern Over China's Upstream Brahmaputra Intentions

Any attempt by China to build a mega dam upstream of the Brahmaputra River would be an “encroachment on the entitled rights of lower riparian states like India and Bangladesh,” the government of India has said. A 20 January statement released by the Jal Shakti Ministry (India’s ministry for water) and widely reported in the Indian media following a meeting of the nation’s Central Water Commission added that such a move would “adversely affect the availability of water in the Brahmaputra basin during the lean season”...

12 Jan 2021 MADRID, Spain

Human Depletion Of Groundwater Resources Exacerbates Climate Change Impacts

Large swathes of land in densely populated parts of the world are subsiding rapidly as a result of groundwater depletion. Paired with rising sea levels caused by global warming, this could place many coastal cities at risk of severe flooding by 2040. A UNESCO-funded report published on the Policy Forum of Science Journal deploys a large-scale review of subsidence over the past century and predictions of subsidence susceptibility modelled using a combination of spatial and statistical analyses...

9 Jan 2021 LONDON, United Kingdom

Counting The Cost Of Climate Change To The World's Economy

Christian Aid's annual assessment of weather disasters reports an estimated $150 Billion USD in damages in 2020, reflecting long-term impact of global warming.An estimated 4 Percent of the economic losses from climate-related extreme events occurred in low-income countries were insured, compared to 60 Percent in high-income countries...

17 Dec 2020 GENEVA, Switzerland

Disastrous Climate Damage Continued In 2020

The World Meterological Organization (WMO) assesses that 2020 is on track to be the second warmest year in the most recent decade, with the warmest six years being since 2015.Preliminary information, based on data collected from January to October 2020, shows how high-impact events such as floods, extreme heat and wildfires affected millions of people...

8 Dec 2020 NEW DELHI, India

China Mega Dam Plan Sparks Alarm In Downstream India, Bangladesh

PowerChina has announced plans to construct up to 60 gigawatts (GW) of hydropower capacity on the Yarlung Tsangpo River (known in downstream India as the Brahmaputra River) in The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), prompting concern from downstream riparian countries.The plans for the project, described as being three times the capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, are viewed in China as a “historic opportunity” to increase China’s clean energy plan and to support the country’s water supply security...

9 Nov 2020 JIAMUSI

New Irrigation Methodology Benefits Heilongjiang Rice Farmers

Heilongjiang province, a major rice producer, has adopted irrigation methods in more than half of its rice planting areas in a bid to curb over use of water. The new irrigation approach is being used in 2 million hectares of the province's 3.8 million hectares of rice fields, said the Heilongjiang Department of Water Resources...

3 Nov 2020 GENEVA, Switzerland

Urban Water Risk Scenarios: How Climate Change Will Hit Where You Live

Environmental organisation WWF has released analysis of new water risk scenarios for 100 cities around the world.The city risk analysis, released on World Cities Day (31 October), includes scenarios in Beijing, Jakarta, Jaipur, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Mecca and Rio de Janeiro, with almost half of the cities at risk being in China...

15 Sep 2020 WASHINGTON DC, United States

US Official Accuses China Of Manipulating Mekong River Flow, Harming Tens Of Millions

A senior United States official has said that Chinese control of dams along the upper Mekong River has “harmed the livelihood of tens of millions of people in Southeast Asian communities up and down the Mekong region basin,” and encouraged the downstream countries to hold China accountable.The comments from David Stilwell, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific were made in an online news conference 15 September the week after the annual meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)...

15 Sep 2020 SYDNEY, Australia

Climate Change May Displace Over 1.2 Billion People By 2050

More than 1.2 billion people are at threat of being displaced by 2050, due to environmental change, conflict and civil unrest, warns a new report by think tank the Institute of Economics & Peace.Predictions include that by 2040, 5.4 billion people – more than half of the world's projected population – will live in the 59 countries experiencing high or extreme water stress, including India and China...

10 Sep 2020 GENEVA, Switzerland

Catastrophic Decline In Freshwater Biodiversity Requires Urgent Global Action

Humanity’s destruction of nature is having catastrophic impacts on wildlife populations, human health and all aspects of our lives, reveals WWF’s Living Planet Report 2020. This loss of biodiversity is not only an environmental issue but a development, economic, global security, ethical and moral one too...