Ceremony Marks "Death" of Australia's Greatest River

Ceremony Marks "Death" of Australia's Greatest River

Thousands of people rallied in southern Australia Sunday to protest the dwindling water levels in one of the country's greatest rivers, claiming the loss was causing an environmental disaster.
The 5,000-strong crowd gathered near the mouth of the 2,530 kilometre (1,569 mile) Murray to hold two minute's silence to mark the 'death' of the river, which forms part of Australia's most important agricultural region.

Kym McHugh, mayor of the local Alexandrina Council, said the ceremony near the South Australian town of Goolwa was to "underscore this eleventh hour bid to save the nation's greatest river." "It sent a very clear message by saying we've had a lot of talk about the river system, a lot of science, we all know what the problem is -- we just want politicians to have the will to fix it up," he told national news agency AAP.

"They need to secure water upstream and send it down."

Water levels are so low in the Murray River, due to drought and irrigation, that the freshwater lakes the river feeds into are turning to acid.

The federal government last week said there was not enough water in the system to save the freshwater lakes, leading to suggestions that ocean water could be used to prevent the lakes from drying out.

But the council wants the government to release water held in storage in upstream states into the river so it can flow down and prevent an environmental, economic and social disaster in the region.

"We need to give these lakes another chance," McHugh said.

The Murray, along with the 2,740-kilometre Darling River and 1,690-kilometre Murrumbidgee River, form the Murray Darling Basin, which accounts for some 40 percent of the nation's agricultural production.
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This is a tragedy. All it would take is the political will to save the Murray-Darling basin and yet it is left to die? The Australian government must act now to save this great river. Anything less is immoral. I thought Kevin Rudd would do the right thing. I am disappointed to see it come to this. What are people thinking? This river basin supplies 40% of their agricultural production. Just how do they expect their people to live?

Australia's Epic Drought-The Situaiton is Grim

I posted this in April of last year... and this is where we are today. Anyone who does not believe that climate change is now upon us is simply living in denial. This is why I am disappointed in Kevin Rudd. The first order of business for him after being elected to replace John Howard was to have Australia sign the Kyoto Treaty. So why is the great Murray Darling basin being left to die?

We really better start getting serious now about connecting the dots between the climate crisis and the global water crisis. This tragedy is just a foretaste of what will come should we continue to sit and wait for "political will" to lead us. It must be MORAL will that now takes over for the sake of our planet and ourselves.

Will I be sitting here in another year reading and writing about another tragedy like this in Africa, Asia, South America or even in America? I surely hope not.


UPDATE:

Outrage Over Paroo River Diversions

Excerpt:

The Queensland Government is facing accusations that it has allowed a large dam and diversion channels along the Paroo River.

Satellite images reveal a dam and more than 10 kilometres of channels have been built along the river on the Queensland-New South Wales border, despite a moratorium stopping any development.

The moratorium was imposed by the Queensland Government in the middle of 2001, to stop the building of dams, levees and channels on the Paroo River.

But satellite images taken in July 2002 and June 2008 reveal that storage dams and water diversions have been built since.

Richard Kingsford from the University of New South Wales says the moratorium has failed.

"This essentially does breach that agreement because it does allow for water to be diverted out of the flood plain for irrigation," he said.

end of excerpt

It appears the Queensland govt has allowed the building of dams and diverting water from this region in spite of a moratorium placed on such construction. I suppose the Aral Sea doesn't ring a bell to these people?

UPDATE:

Rudd Government Looking To Buy Back Water Rights to Send Water Downstream

Is it too late? It may just be, and this is truly sad.

Central Africa's Lake Chad Is Disappearing

Central Africa's Lake Chad Is Disappearing

By SHASHANK BENGALI
McClatchy Newspapers

Sinyaka Island in Lake Chad formed less than five years ago as lake waters receded to unprecedented levels. The lake that once covered some 9,000 square miles — roughly the area of New Jersey — has shrunk to less than 2 percent of its original size. SINYAKA ISLAND, Chad There’s nothing remarkable about this lump of hot sand, tangled weeds and tree-branch huts except that, until a few years ago, it didn’t exist.

More precisely, the island was underwater, hidden beneath the vast surface of central Africa’s Lake Chad. The emergence of the island, whose sweltering shores have been settled by dozens of families, is evidence of an unsettling ecological trend: The lake is drying up.

Once among the largest lakes in the world — at some 9,000 square miles, roughly the size of New Jersey — Lake Chad has been decimated over the past four decades by rising temperatures, diminishing rainfall and a growing population that’s using more water than ever before. Today, estimated at less than 2 percent of its original size, the lake’s surface would barely cover Brooklyn and Manhattan.

End of excerpt

Lake Chad Is Dying

My entry on this from last year... and it still gets worse. We need hope here, not to continue to allow this to go on. Where is the education? Where is the real aid? Where is the plan on the part of the western world to really curb carbon emissions that are contributing to what we see in Africa and in other places where emissions are not as great? Why is the world abandoning Africa?

Bacteria and Nanofilters: The Future Of Clean Water Technology

Bacteria and Nanofilters:The Future of Clean Water Technology

Bacteria often get bad press, with those found in water often linked to illness and disease. But researchers at The University of Nottingham are using these tiny organisms alongside the very latest membrane filtration techniques to improve and refine water cleaning technology.

These one-celled organisms eat the contaminants present in water — whether it is being treated prior to industrial use or even for drinking — in a process called bioremediation.

The water is then filtered through porous membranes, which function like a sieve. However, the holes in these sieves are microscopic, and some are so small they can only be seen at the nanoscale. Pore size in these filters can range from ten microns — ten thousandths of a millimetre — to one nanometre — a millionth of a millimetre.

These technologies can be developed into processes which optimise the use of water — whether in an industrial system or to provide drinking water in areas where it is a scarce resource.
The research is led by Nidal Hilal, Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering in the Centre for Clean Water Technologies — a world-leading research centre developing advanced technologies in water treatment.

Current membrane technology used in water treatment processes can decrease in efficiency over time, as the membranes become fouled with contaminants. By using bioremediation the membranes can be cleaned within the closed system, without removing the membranes. Researchers at the centre have developed the technology in partnership with Cardev International, an oil filtration company based in Harrogate.

As well as being highly effective in the water treatment process, transforming industrial liquid waste contaminated with metals and oils into clean water, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes have a useful side effect. The waste products have a very high calorific value, and can be used as fuel.
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More on bioremediation from the USGS:

Why bioremediation works

This sounds like a good technology, though I admit I do not know all there is to know about it. As with anything of this nature the carbon footprint of it is something that needs to be considered. However, the fact that this process has the ability to provide clean water to those who would otherwise have to drink contaminated water is one I am certainly interested in, and one that may be viable in places experiencing drought.

Himalayan Glaciers Shrinking Every Year

Himalayan Glaciers Shrinking Every Year

Glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating at an alarming rate of 15-20 metre every year, says the study jointly done by Himachal Pradesh Science and Technology Council and Space Research Station, Ahmedabad.

With rising global temperature, glaciers in Himalayas are retreating at an alarming rate of 15-20 metre every year, which could adversly impact agriculture in the region.

Mapping of 400 glaciers done jointly by the Himachal Pradesh Science and Technology Council and Space Research Station Ahmedabad since 1994 on rivers Chandra, Beas, Ravi, Satluj, Spiti and Baspa has shown that the glaciers are retreating.

"There had been a retreat of 10-15 m per year in 400 glaciers," A B Kulkarni, head of Glaciology wing of Space Research Station, Ahmedabad, said.

A Report of Geological Survey of India (GSI) says that prominent glaciers like Chota Sigri in Lahaul-Spiti district showed a retreat of 6.81 m per year, Bara Sigri 29.78 m per year, Trilokinath 17.86 m per year, Beas kund 18.8 m per year and Manimahesh 29.1 metre per year.

The mapping of glaciers through satellite picture suggests that there are in total 334 glaciers in the entire Satluj and Beas basins covering an area of 1515 sq km. Out of this 202 glaciers fall in Himachal Pradesh.

Syed Iqbal Hussnain of TERI, who is studying retreat of glaciers in Himalayas, said the situation is serious.

Hussnain, who is a member of National Action plan on climatology, suggested Himachal Pradesh government to set up a glacier commission on the pattern of one existing in Sikkim to carry field-based scientific study of glacier retreat and draw future plans to tackle the problem. Hussnain, who heads Glacier Commission of Sikkim which was set up in January this year, said the commission is making a scientific study of actual retreat and also regularly monitoring water discharge in the rivers to assess speed of retreat.

A comprehensive report will be submitted to the Sikkim government in December this year for drawing future plans, he added.

He stressed on similar field based study in Himachal Pradesh to collect true statistics which would help in drawing plans accordingly.

The temperature of Shimla has risen by one degree Celsius in last 100 years reflecting impact of global warming in the hill state, Met office sources said.

HP government is pressing the Centre to set up an institute at Lahual for study and research on glaciers in the state.

end of excerpt
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I am very saddened when reading these reports because it appears that glacier melt has reached a tipping point. I am also angry because in the US people are still bickering over whether climate change exists and what is causing it while millions of people around the world suffer the effects of it. Just what is wrong with Americans on the whole? I am one too, but at this point I am embarrassed at the way many people in the US continue their petty politically partisan bickering about this as people suffer. Is this truly a result of the atmosphere that exists regarding the undemocratic media coverage we get in this country? Or are people basically on the whole just selfish to the point that they don't care what happens to anyone else in the world as long as it isn't them? Do they simply not understand that what we do to planet Earth and to others we do to ourselves?

I have been wracking my brain trying to understand how after all of the evidence presented why people still feel it necessary to be in the 'debate' stage when we should be in the 'planning and action' stages. Just what has to happen to bring us to that point in the US and around the world? A true catastrophe?

Well, here's one for you: Billions of people depend on the water provided by the Himalayas and without it there will be no water for those people. No water, no food. No food, people will move and forage for it and that means millions to hundreds of millions of climate refugees looking to other lands for the food and water they need to survive. How many other countries in this world would be willing to take in hundreds of millions of climate refugees, or for that matter, physically be able to do it?

This is where the 'planning and action' stages usually come in handy. However, as we have seen from the G-8 summit to the current one in Rome, governments of this world are still twiddling their thumbs on this. It is as if they wish to get to that point of no return to have an excuse to institute the 'One World Order' they wish to have. Now, that may sound a little 'conspiracy theory' to some. However, consider the current 'global food crisis' we keep hearing the World Bank go on about suddenly all in line with pushing genetically modified foods on us. Up to this point, Europe and most of the world besides the US, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina have spurned this unneccessary technology in favor of natural foods as it should be, which of course does not leave them beholding to multinationals like Monsanto, ADM, Cargill, and other companies looking to monopolize the food and seed markets of the world (along with water.)

Therefore, heightening the fear of a worse food crisis along with higher prices is only serving to make countries think twice now about a technology they up to this point were against for a very valid reason: the science proving it is safe is simply not in.

The same kind of panic is being fanned regarding the 'global water crisis.' Now, mind you, I do believe we are in a crisis stage regarding water in many countries in Africa right now and aproaching it elsewhere, but we still have time to work on having water declared a human right and to bring effective conservation methods to these countries along with the infrastructure necessary to conserve enough water to live, along with more efficient irrigation practices. However, Dow Chemical is pushing it now because they want to buy up desalination plants to make money, and I have no doubt that will be pushed more and more over the next few years as this crisis gets progressively worse if we do not act accordingly. So, it isn't hard to understand why governments are not really dealing with this crisis regarding our climate with any real urgency and basically dragging their feet. They serve to make much money from it.

Look already at the countries flocking to the Arctic to claim the oil reserves and other minerals under it. Is there any real urgency on their part to slow down the melting in the first place by calling for more stringent limits on greenhouse gases in order to preserve our fragile climate balance? No. It all comes to this: greed has taken over the core of humanity and it will be our downfall if we do not see the true moral importance of what is now being reaped from what we have sown.

In the case of the Himalayas, the Arctic, Antarctica, and glaciers around the world... these are our harbingers... our missives of the future telling us that we have gone astray and the only way to save ourselves is to see the damage we are doing to this planet and have the moral courage to correct it provided we do it now before it is truly too late. In the case of the Himalayas, that may already be true and it is a sad reflection on the human species. That is simply not the legacy we must leave to future generations.

Facing The Freshwater Crisis

Facing The Freshwater Crisis
By Peter Rogers


Key points:

Global freshwater resources are threatened by rising demands from many quarters.

Growing populations need ever more water for drinking, hygiene, sanitation, food production and industry.

Climate change, meanwhile, is expected to contribute to droughts.

Policymakers need to figure out how to supply water without degrading the natural ecosystems that provide it.

Existing low-tech approaches can help prevent scarcity, as can ways to boost supplies, such as improved methods to desalinate water.
But governments at all levels need to start setting policies and making investments in infrastructure for water conservation now.

A friend of mine lives in a middle-class neighborhood of New Delhi, one of the richest cities in India. Although the area gets a fair amount of rain every year, he wakes in the morning to the blare of a megaphone announcing that freshwater will be available only for the next hour. He rushes to fill the bathtub and other receptacles to last the day. New Delhi’s endemic shortfalls occur largely because water managers decided some years back to divert large amounts from upstream rivers and reservoirs to irrigate crops.

My son, who lives in arid Phoenix, arises to the low, schussing sounds of sprinklers watering verdant suburban lawns and golf courses. Although Phoenix sits amid the Sonoran Desert, he enjoys a virtually unlimited water supply. Politicians there have allowed irrigation water to be shifted away from farming operations to cities and suburbs, while permitting recycled wastewater to be employed for landscaping and other nonpotable applications.

As in New Delhi and Phoenix, policymakers worldwide wield great power over how water resources are managed. Wise use of such power will become increasingly important as the years go by because the world’s demand for freshwater is currently overtaking its ready supply in many places, and this situation shows no sign of abating. That the problem is well-known makes it no less disturbing: today one out of six people, more than a billion, suffer inadequate access to safe freshwater. By 2025, according to data released by the United Nations, the freshwater resources of more than half the countries across the globe will undergo either stress—for example, when people increasingly demand more water than is available or safe for use—or outright shortages. By midcentury as much as three quarters of the earth’s population could face scarcities of freshwater.

Scientists expect water scarcity to become more common in large part because the world’s population is rising and many people are getting richer (thus expanding demand) and because global climate change is exacerbating aridity and reducing supply in many regions. What is more, many water sources are threatened by faulty waste disposal, releases of industrial pollutants, fertilizer runoff and coastal influxes of saltwater into aquifers as groundwater is depleted. Because lack of access to water can lead to starvation, disease, political instability and even armed conflict, failure to take action can have broad and grave consequences.

end of excerpt.

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As with the climate crisis, we are seeing denial on the part of some people to believe that we are approaching a global water crisis. Some contend that we merely "move" water and therefore there is nothing to be concerned about. However, those who state that are those who live where water is abundant. Tell that to the farmers and fishermen in Kenya and in other countries in Africa where the land becomes more arid as the amount of water to be "moved" lessens due to their water sources continuing to evaporate through lack of infrastructure, wasteful irrigation, and climate change which is perpetuating severe droughts in Ethiopia, Niger, and many parts of the continent which is also contributing to the food crisis they also face.

There is no more time left to argue this point: Freshwater resources in our world are dwindling, and with population on the rise (which is the 400 lb gorilla in the room no one seems to want to recognize) water will be a resource that people have and will fight for and will increasingly be surrendering to multinationals to control it as they seek to control our food and other resources if we do not push governments and other agencies to:

1: Work to put more funds into fixing aging infrastructure that wastes water and funds to bring infrastructure to those places that need it.

2: Sign a global climate change treaty to limit CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change which contributes to droughts, floods, and glacier melt. That should also include more imput from poorer peoples of the world actually experiencing the effects of this crisis, and less control by the World Bank, IMF, and other "new world order" entitities only looking to profit from their tragedy.

3: Educate farmers on proper conservation/irrigation practices in line with the water resources available to them. Drip irrigation as mentioned in this article is the one method I support especially in Africa. Solar water pumps also go a long way in providing water for communities without other infrastructure in a way that is not carbon intensive.

4. Limit building of dams that threaten indigenous peoples and customs as well as diverting water from areas that need it most which also puts marinelife at risk.

5: Only using desalination in extreme circumstances after all other conservation methods have been exhausted. (Just as a point of reference, DOW Chemical is looking to also buy desalination plants so watch for this to be pitched even if it isn't needed, just like "clean coal.") It is simply too carbon intensive and expensive at this time to consider on a wide scale other than in areas that are experiencing severe drought conditions.

6: Have political and moral will to achieve success in conserving this most important resource of life. Water will be one of the defining issues of this century. It should be treated as the important issue it is and people will need to see the part we all play in conserving it.

7: Perhaps the most important step of all: With oil, food, and other resources being controlled by corporations seeking only to profit without truly caring about the consequences, water must be declared a human right so as to keep it a public trust which in turn keeps it available to all people equitably. And we must demand it.

We as a species are at a crossroads in history. How we act now determines the world for generations to come. If we continue to waste water at the pace we are now worldwide we will lead this world into a future of increased tensions, disease, and famine. The first step for many then is connecting the dots and seeing just how important water is to us in our everyday lives. We can live without oil. We cannot live without water.

20 Questions: Freshwater

Test your knowledge of freshwater

So many take water for granted in their everyday activities. Take this test to find out how much you know about freshwater usage.

To Neglect Water... Is To Give It To Multi nationals

Invest in water for farming or the world will go hungry

Super crops won't be enough — the planet will run short of food by 2030 unless we invest to avoid an imminent world water crisis, says Colin Chartres.

A long list of factors have been blamed for the global food crisis which along with the energy crisis has hit developing countries, and the poor in particular, hardest. Prices of staple foods have risen by up to 100 per cent.

A growing population, changes in trade patterns, urbanisation, dietary changes, biofuel production, climate change and regional droughts are all responsible, and commentators point to a classic pattern of price increases caused by high demand and low supply.

But few mention the declining supply of water that is needed to grow irrigated and rain-fed crops.

An often-mooted solution to the food crisis is to breed plants that produce the ultimate high-yielding, low water-consuming crops. While this is important, it will fail unless we also pay attention to where the water for all our food, fibre and energy crops is going to come from.

Essentially, every calorie of food requires a litre of water to produce it. So those of us on Western diets use about 2,500-3,000 litres per day. The expected addition of a further 2.5 billion people to the world by 2030 will mean that we have to find over 2,000 more cubic kilometres of fresh water per year to feed them. This is not any easy task, given that current water usage for food production is 7,500 cubic kilometres per year and supplies are already scarce.

Facing severe water scarcity

A few years ago, my organisation, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), demonstrated that many countries are facing severe water scarcity, either because insufficient fresh water is available or because they lack investment in water infrastructure, such as dams and reservoirs. What makes matters worse is that this scarcity predominantly affects developing countries where the majority of the world's 840 million under-nourished people live.

Serious and extremely worrying evidence indicates that water supplies are steadily being used up. And the causes of water scarcity are much the same as those of the food crisis: demand exceeds a finite supply.

The world's population is projected to grow from 6 billion to 8.5 billion by 2030 and unless we change the way we use water and increase water productivity — ie. produce more 'crop per drop' — we will not be able to feed them. That is the conclusion of the IWMI's recent Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture and its book, Water for Food, Water for Life, which drew on the work of 700 scientists.

end of excerpt.
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In all of the time I have been posting to this blog on the subject of water scarcity, this message has been the priority. Investing in water infrastructure and educating people in developing countries regarding irrigation methods that save water as well as planting conventional crop varieties that are not as water intensive. However, even though these are the main goals one of the priorities here as well that was also not mentioned in this article is stopping the commoditization and corporatization of water that keeps it from being used by the people as the human right it is.

I have been reporting recently on Current.com (linked here in the column) about Monsanto and its plan to spread GM foods across the globe. Foods which biotech makeup has been linked to possible health effects not only in humans but in cows through Posilac (Bovine growth hormones) in milk, and the environmental affects on waterways through the use of Roundup Herbicides. It is an insidious plan wherein they are buying up seed companies globally and binding farmers to only plant seeds in one season without permission to replant next season unless they continue to buy seed from Monsanto at a huge profit to the company. Monsanto has even gone so far as to 'patent' seed and pursue litigation against farmers they accuse of replanting seeds (as has been done in agriculture from its inception centuries ago) and even harrassing farmers who are innocent due to pollen from other fields landing on their crops. They are also lobbying state legislatures to not label foods that contain bovine hormones and GM ingredients.

But not only is Monsanto in the business of monopolizing seeds of the world and taking away the consumer's right to know, they are also involved in pursuing the privitization of water. Currently they have such projects in India and Mexico which will bring them millions in revenues.They are cornering the market on food and water in developing countries and in the US and by their methods putting farmers in great debt to the point that they are committing suicide in India due to BT cotton.

Therefore, while other explanations for food and water shortages certainly are relevant and deserving of our utmost attention, stopping multi nationals as well from patenting and stealing life is also one of the most important and crucial environmental and moral fights we will have in this century. For whoever controls the food and water controls the world.

So again, we do have enough food and water to feed and sustain the world if we start now to work on plans for the future that conserve these resources and address overpopulation. We don't need The World Bank to continue to scaremonger about this for profit. We don't need Monsantos to take advantage of us for profit. We need a plan that actually educates people about conservation and effective irrigation and infrastructure, and we need to give farming back to the farmers and water back to the people.

Look for videos and more information on this topic to follow.