Investing in land restoration could not only help keep our planet healthy, but also be the starting point for resolving some of the biggest issues of our time, according to Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
In an interview with the People’s Daily’s Xiakedao program last week, Zheng Yongnian, former director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, joked about cutting off Hong Kong’s water supply to end protests in the city.
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Ursula Mueller today called for urgent additional funding to meet the humanitarian needs of 2.9 million people in the Central African Republic (CAR). “The humanitarian situation in this country continues to deteriorate.
Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro’s climate plan, released Tuesday, calls for the US to create a new category of refugees to welcome people displaced by the warming planet. The US only accepts refugees who have been targeted based on their race, religion, nationality, politics or affiliation with certain social groups.
A new World Bank report “Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis” shows how a combination of bacteria, sewage, chemicals, and plastics is able to deplete oxygen from water supplies and transform water into poison for people and ecosystems.
In preparation for hosting the 9th World Water Forum in 2021, the city of Dakar, Senegal has formally launched the Pôle Eau Dakar (Dakar Water Hub). This organisation, which is attached to the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, will serve as a hub in order to mobilise various networks and to promote hydrodiplomatic issues in the region. It will also take a leading role regarding the follow-up of recommendations stemming from the Forum whose theme is “water security for sustainable development and peace”.
Pakistan authorities August 19 warned that release of water from an upstream dam may cause flooding in Pakistan’s Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
This OOSKAnewscast was recorded on the occasion of the release of SFG’s seventh "Blue Peace Bulletin", "Water and Violence: The Euphrates", which can be DOWNLOADED HERE. This Bulletin examines the region around the Euphrates River and the possible role that it could play in finding a future solution in Syria.
Further Reading: Other SFG “Blue Peace Bulletins” can be DOWNLOADED HERE
A statement of the Pacific Islands Forum on the climate crisis and global warming, issued August 16, fell short of being the compelling global call to action that many island nations desired.
Efforts by leadership of the Russia-occupied Crimea region of Ukraine to access waters of the Dnieper River have been met with short shrift by the government of Ukraine.
Biswas is founder of the Third World Centre for Water Management in Mexico, and currently is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University at the Lee Kuan Yew School for Public Policy in Singapore, University of Wuhan, China, and Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, India, as well as his position at Glasgow University.
He has been a senior advisor to 19 governments, six Heads of the United Nations Agencies, the Secretary General of OECD, and many other international and national organisations.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new special report on climate change and land use August 8, part of a series of such examinations authorized by the United Nations designed to assist governments in understanding the effects of climate change and necessary policy decisions.
The report, prepared by international experts from 52 countries, examines land use and its degradation. The panel identifies increased desertification and emphasizes that climate change is creating additional stress on land use.
Widely reported new findings from the World Resources Institute (WRI) paints a disturbing picture of global water stress and concomitant risks.
The European Commission is mobilizing a further $56 Million USD in emergency humanitarian funding to help people in the Horn of Africa, where prolonged drought is having devastating consequences on food availability and livelihoods.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized China's dam-building programme on the Mekong River, saying that construction has left the crucial waterway at its lowest level in a decade in Southeast Asian countries downstream, warning of "troubling trends".
The Mekong River Commission has said that river levels in June and July had dropped to “among the lowest on record”.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Copernicus Climate Change Programme data indicates that July 2019 equalled, if not surpassed, the hottest month on record. June was also the hottest June on record. This is particularly significant insofar as there was an absence of an El Niño effect this year, that normally raises global temperatures.
The data, issued August 1, suggests 2015 through 2019 will be the five hottest years on record.
The government of India's lower parliamentary house has passed a bill to amend the country's Inter-State River Water Disputes Act. The purpose of the amendment to 1956 legislation is to address shortcomings that have led to lengthy proceedings and, often, no resolution of ongoing disputes.
A former senior analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the United States State Department has defended his decision to resign last month from his job examining impacts of climate change on national security.
In June, Dr Rod Schoonover's written testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was blocked by the White House on the basis that the scientific evidence in the analysis was at “odds” with the “administration’s position on climate change".
US President Donald Trump's statements about climate change have been remarkably skeptical about accepted science regarding climate change causes and impacts.
Meeting Turkish envoy Veysel Eroglu July 31 in Baghdad, Iraq President Barham Salih confirmed that the two countries’ water issues are shared priorities, and that a long-term solution that guaranteed the rights of both parties was required.
Severe drought in Somalia and continued violence in South Sudan are threatening more than 8.5 million people with severe food insecurity according to humanitarian agencies.
The Water Diplomat is produced by OOSKAnews, Inc in a collaboration with The Geneva Water Hub. Content is produced by, and copyright held by OOSKAnews, Inc and do not represent any official position of The Geneva Water Hub.