Aid workers in Angola are appealing for help in the country’s south, where they say climate change is causing a crisis for up to 2.3 million people. Paolo Balladelli of the United Nations said that’s how many people were affected at the height of this year’s drought.
In South Sudan, massive flooding has affected nearly a million people, leaving many stranded in their villages and cut off from essential health services. Here, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) logistics coordinator Kim Phillips describes the situation on the ground in the northeast of the country.
Morocco’s National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) and German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) signed financing agreements to the tune of €55.5 million on Thursday, December 5, in Rabat. The agreements cover several projects related to drinking water supply and sanitation.
Environmental organisation Germanwatch released its 15th annual Global Climate Risk Index report 4 December, analysing impacts of weather-related events (storms, floods, heatwaves etc.) and associated socio-economic data. Its aim is to contextualise ongoing climate policy debates, with an important focus on international climate negotiations, by examining real-world impacts over the last year and the prior 20 year period.
New research from Colorado State University (CSU) in the United States has matched large public datasets of water quality observations with satellite imagery to enable more efficient, cost-effective measurement of water quality.
The European Parliament and Council announced a provisional agreement December 3 to harmonize minimum water quality requirements for the safe reuse of treated urban wastewater in agricultural irrigation.
The degradation of livelihoods, droughts and floods, among other consequences of climate change, are factors that exacerbate conflicts in Africa, according to several experts. The degradation of natural resources, due to extreme weather conditions, is also a factor that contributes to the spread of terrorism.
OOSKAnews produced the second panel discussion in this year’s series of aquaNOW Audiences 11 November at The Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, Scotland. and the topic this time was "The Future Of Water Stewardship”.
FULL VIDEO FOOTAGE OF THE AQUANOW AUDIENCE CAN BE FOUND HERE
During the thousands of years that humans have utilised freshwater in surface water bodies and groundwater aquifers, laws and customary practices have developed for its utilization and protection.
Renee Martin-Nagle examines governance of our planet’s atmospheric water.
Nature-based solutions for water security (Nbs-WS) can help protect freshwater resources and safeguard nature’s integrity. They can make a significant contribution to reversing the rapid decline in freshwater biodiversity in Europe, adapt to climate change and mitigate its impacts, according to a new report from The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
These solutions are increasingly seen as cost-efficient strategies that need to be mainstreamed in water resource management strategies.
This newscast was recorded on the occasion of the release of SFG’s ninth "Blue Peace Bulletin", "Water and Violence: Attacks on Water Infrastructure", authored by Kutty and Menon, which can be DOWNLOADED HERE.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) are concerned about a possible humanitarian crisis in northern Syria arising from a lack of access to clean drinking water.
An attack by Turkey on Northern Syria in October followed United States’ troops withdrawal from the region which effectively opened the door for Turkey’s offensive.
A new guidance and planning document for integrating water into climate responses. “Watering the NDCs” offers guiding principles and recommendations for national climate planners and decision-makers to help ensure they meet their goals set out in National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Climate Agreement.
Leading international climate scientists have warned that the world is at the point of crossing a series of climate “tipping points" and the this risk creates a “state of planetary emergency” and “existential threat to civilization”.
In an article in Nature, the authors (Timothy M. Lenton, Johan Rockström, Owen Gaffney, Stefan Rahmstorf, Katherine Richardson, Will Steffen, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber) describe Arctic sea-ice loss as amplifying regional warming, and that Arctic warming and Greenland melting are driving an influx of fresh water into the North Atlantic. This could have contributed to a 15 percent slowdown since the mid-twentieth century of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) , a key part of global heat and salt transport by the ocean. Rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet and further slowdown of the AMOC could destabilize the West African monsoon, triggering drought in Africa’s Sahel region. A slowdown in the AMOC could also dry the Amazon, disrupt the East Asian monsoon and cause heat to build up in the Southern Ocean, which could accelerate Antarctic ice loss.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released its annual Emissions Gap Report, in advance of the annual United Nations climate conference in Madrid.
According to scientific models, predicted temperature rises increase the likelihood of extreme weather events: accelerated glacier melt, rising sea levels, more severe monsoons, protracted drought and heat waves.
The Supreme Court of India has ruled that the country’s citizens have a constitutional right to clean water and air, giving state governments six weeks to explain why they should not be held accountable for "failing to discharge their basic duties" and why "liability should not be imposed for such a tort".
The government of Japan government has sought to reassure neighboring countries that contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant will be dealt with “appropriately”. There has been critisism of Japan, however, for lack of specific detail about treatment and release after an information session for foreign diplomats on November 21 that included representatives from 17 countries including nearby Taiwan, China and South Korea.
A new WWF report calls on financial institutions to start valuing water and taking steps to mitigate worsening water risks to their investments.
"Freshwater risks & opportunities: an overview and call to action for the financial sector", launched in November, also highlights the opportunities for financial institutions to rapidly scale up investments in tackling water challenges, which can generate strong returns, while simultaneously benefitting both people and planet.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi submitted his resignation to the country’s parliament 1 December, as protests continued across the country about unemployment, provision of clean water and corruption.
More than 50 anti-government demonstrators were killed by security forces on 28 November alone, with more than 400 deaths attributed to unrest which accelerated in early October.
In particular, there have been weeks of unrest in Basra province, in the south of the country, with demonstrators demanding improvement in public services including the severe shortage of clean water and power outages.
Iraq is ranked the 12th most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International, and has an unemployment rate of 25 percent.
A report from international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) earlier this year described 2018’s hospitalization of 118,000 and associated violent protests in Basra as attributable to corruption and mismanagement of access to safe drinking water.
A second meeting of experts in the series of four tripartite talks brokered by the US government on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will convene in Cairo, Egypt, 2 December. The two-day meeting will be chaired by the Ministers of Irrigation and Water Resources in Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia.
Further OOSKAnews coverage of GERD (40 articles)
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.