Floodwaters surging through Himalayan foothills in western China have swept away bridges, houses and hillsides, leaving at least 25 people dead and dozens missing.
Flooding in the western province of Sichuan was the worst for 50 years in some areas, with more than 100,000 people forced to evacuate their homes.
Nationwide at least 44 people have died, around 66 are missing and at least 1.6 million have been otherwise affected since Sunday, according to figures from the civil affairs ministry and the official Xinhua news agency.
Thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged and transportation has been brought to a virtual standstill in hard-hit areas.
Many of the casualties in Sichuan were from a massive landslide that struck a scenic resort outside the city of Dujiangyan. An entire hillside collapsed on to clusters of holiday cottages where city dwellers go to escape summer heat, a survivor told Xinhua.
snip
Mudslides and flooding are common in China's mountainous areas, killing hundreds of people each year, but in some areas the current floods are the worst in half a century. Reports said the 94cms (37 inches) of rainfall that fell on Dujiangyan over 40 hours beginning on Monday was the most since records began in 1954.
The flooding caused the collapse of an almost 50-year-old bridge in a neighbouring county, sending six vehicles into the raging waters and leaving 12 people missing.
The region lies in the foothills of the Tibetan plateau, where mountains rise sharply from the densely populated Sichuan basin.
Haridwar - The ravages caused by monsoon tragedy in the state of Uttarakhand, India, could worsen with the death toll expected to cross 5,000.
Rescue workers in northern India are scrambling to save tens of thousands of lives left stranded by devastating floods that have estimated to have killed more than one thousand in the region.
Raging rivers swept away houses, buildings, roads, bridges and entire villages. Dozens of helicopters and thousands of soldiers have been deployed to help people stranded across the state. Kedarnath Valley, the temple town in the state of Uttarakhand which was the epicentre of cloudbursts, flash floods, and landslides was on Sunday cleared of all stranded pilgrims, according to reports.
Rescuers battled rains to evacuate more than 3,000 more people in the disaster. On his return from an aerial survey of the affected areas, Disaster Management Minister Yashpal Arya told reporters at the Jollygrant airport:
“At least 5,000 people must have been killed in the deluge that inflicted heavy damage on vast tracts of land especially in Kedarnath valley.”
Mr Arya did not specify an exact figure saying extrication of bodies from under debris in affected areas is yet to be taken up.
With the emphasis to rescue the stranded, little has been done to recover bodies buried under debris and mud. Officials fear that the number of dead may grow substantially.
“It is hard to come up with a definite death count until the forces can look through the debris and the slush,” said a police officer.
The official death toll until yesterday was put at 680 while Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said the death toll is likely to be around 1,000.
"Very heavy casualties are feared and I cannot give the exact number without a proper survey"
He described the severe flooding as a "Himalayan tsunami."
This is heartbreaking. All over the world we see this same pattern. These same extremes. Droughts, floods, storms, wildfires more extreme. And yet, the oil orcs and their minions still deny because money means more to them than a habitable planet.
If you're one of 142 million Americans heading to the outdoors this year, there's a good chance you'll run into one of at least 250,000 rivers in the country. Much of the nation's 3.5 million miles of rivers and streams provide drinking water, electric power, and critical habitat for fish and wildlife throughout. If you were to connect all the rivers in the United States into one long cord, it would wrap around the entire country 175 times. But as a recent assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency points out, we've done a pretty bad job of preserving the quality of these waters: In March, the EPA estimated that more than half of the nation's waterways are in "poor condition for aquatic life." (See them at the link.)
End of excerpt.
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For a country that touts having such riches we sure do not understand the meaning of that word. While our rivers and infrastructure are in dire need of attention members of Congress do nothing but debate wedge issues meant to pander for campaign dollars.
The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 designated free-flowing rivers that have "outstanding remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural and other similar values." The act states these rivers "shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations." However, by 1998 only 154 rivers had been designated covering only 10,000 miles of the 3.5 million total U.S. river miles. I find that to be sad and alarming.
I also find it ironic that the EPA would put out this report as if they are absolved from any blame at all. They are just now allowing the amount of Glyphosate sprayed on crops to be increased- Glyphosate which in tests has been found to be toxic which with nitrogen runoff and other pesticides used in great number is making the largest Gulf dead zone yet seen. The entire point of the legislation passed years ago was to protect our rivers, not subject them to the whims of corporate takeover.
I have little patience anymore for government agencies that continue to put out these reports while doing just the opposite regarding protecting our water. Let's see a bit more work on the EPA's part to then reign in corporate pollution of our waterways (and that includes fracking waste) and work to designate many more miles of rivers as part of this act.
Our rivers are our heritage and our lifelines. If they die so do we.
After watching Gasland II I am more convinced than ever that we must stand up as a people across political and economic divides to save this country from being turned into one giant toxic pock mark. Josh Fox takes you into the world of those Americans and those living in Australia, Europe and globally who are now being assaulted by the worst environmental devastation to ever hit us and the political cronyism and dark side of industry that would stop at nothing to secure profit at the expense of our very planet.
The disclosures regarding EPA tests that took three years to divulge reveal an industry steeped in corruption with willing accomplices at every level of government from both parties. Pennsylvania's story involving Governor Tom Corbett and Ed Rendell is particularly disarming as we see that politics is trumped by greed and that truth is the first casualty. These are real people experiencing real consequences from this rush to suck the very life out of this Earth as the last gasp of the fossil fuel industry blows hard and toxic over this planet. The first scenes showing the true damage done to the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 are sad and alarming. The stories of people in Wyoming, Texas, Pennsylvania should outrage you if you are an American with a pulse and a human being who knows how important water is to our lives.
What these companies are doing to the landscape of America in a concerted effort to spread it globally is nothing short of criminal and reveals a lack of regulation that sees them doing all in their power to toxify water supplies, exercise imminent domain and buy off the very people who have sworn an oath to uphold a constitution that to them is secondary to campaign contributions. Their huge budgets that stream misinformation and doubt, the secret memos, the spying on activists in an attempt to label them terrorists and the closed door Congressional sessions where journalists exercising their right to free speech are arrested paint a picture of an America which is in total antithesis to what America was meant to be.
There is no other way to phrase it: Fracking is killing America and it is the wrong choice for our country and is in no way a "bridge fuel." It was never intended to be used as such by the oil and gas industry. They never intended to see renewable energy sources that can power our world increase to a level that would see their profits decrease. Their plan is to addict us to natural gas as they did to conventional oil and keep us addicted for decades while prices rise due to peak oil and our environment is destroyed for all time for their short term gains. The here and now is all they care about and they have convinced the Obama administration that this is true as well. The immense amount of power and money possessed by the fossil fuel industry is now holding America hostage to a false choice that in the end will bring us over the climate and Democracy tipping point as well as toxifying our national water supply.
However, there is also a bright spot to this film: the huge amount of awareness and activism taking place in the US as well as globally gives us all hope that this fight is just beginning. We can and need to all be a part of it because this effects all of us. It effects our farmland, our animals, our ecology, our water, our health, our climate balance and our very lives.
Gasland II is currently being shown on HBO and is also available on HBO Demand and HBO GO. I highly recommend you going to wherever you can to watch this film and to share it with those you love, particularly your children and to then pledge you will fight for your water and your land. This is about the very soul of what humanity is and will become.
My thanks to Josh Fox for having the courage to stand up for all that is good about this Earth and to fight for the most precious resource we have that is a public trust- Our Water.
Ethiopia and Egypt have agreed to hold further talks to quell tensions over the building of a new dam on the Blue Nile, their foreign ministers say.
Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom said the two nations have chosen to swim rather than sink together, AFP news agency reports.
He met his Egyptian counterpart Kamel Amr after Egypt opposed Ethiopia's plans for a hydroelectric dam.
Egypt is worried that the dam will reduce the water supply vital for its 84 million people.
Last week, Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi said he did not want war but he would not allow Egypt's water supply to be endangered by the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Mr Morsi said he was keeping "all options open".
Previous statements about the dam had been made "in the heat of the moment", Mr Amr said, at a joint press conference with Mr Tedros in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, AFP reports.
snip
Ethiopia's parliament ratified a controversial treaty last week to replace colonial-era agreements that gave Egypt and Sudan the biggest share of the Nile's water.
The treaty had earlier been signed by five other Nile-basin countries - Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Burundi.
It is intended to replace the 1929 treaty written by Britain that awarded Egypt veto power over any project involving the Nile by upstream countries.
Ethiopia says the $4.7bn (£3.1bn) dam will eventually provide 6,000 megawatts of power.
Egypt was apparently caught by surprise when Ethiopia started diverting the Blue Nile - a tributary of the Nile - last month.
Addis Ababa says the river will be slightly diverted but will then be able to follow its natural course.
Mr Morsi said Egypt had no objection to projects in Nile basin states "on condition that those projects do not affect or damage Egypt's legal and historical rights".
Earlier this month Egyptian politicians were inadvertently heard on live TV proposing military action over the dam.
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The Nile River is regarded as the longest river on Earth (flowing for 4000 miles) with two main tributaries, the Blue Nile and the White Nile flowing apart until the meet near Khartoum in Sudan. The northern section of the river flows from Sudan into Egypt, which has depended on the waters of the Nile since ancient times when pharaohs flooded the river to provide fertile soil and in return would receive the crops grown. Nearly all of the historical sites of Ancient Egypt are also seen along the banks of the Nile River which ends in a delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
The source of the Nile is considered to be Lake Victoria, which also has rivers that feed into it from Rwanda and Tanzania. This is known as the White Nile. The Blue Nile flows over eight hundred miles to Khartoum where the Blue Nile and White Nile join to form the "Nile proper". 90% of the water of the Nile originates in Ethiopia, but only in summer, when the rains fall on the Ethiopian Plateau. Otherwise, the rivers feed it weakly. There has also been much heated debate throughout history as how to best maintain the waters of the Nile River in an equitable fashion.
Is there hope now? Well, as the article above makes clear, circumstances are such that those nations involved will have no choice, as populations in the river basin may double by mid-century and scenarios show global warming decreasing water flows in the Nile by up to 40 percent. From what I can see based on this too many dams are being built in this world on the whole! They for the most part do harm marine life, agriculture and force the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and are not as sustainable as many believe they are. The power generated which usually isn't that much is also sent outside the area to richer neighborhoods while the poor struggle to live. Water in this area of the world is already physically scarce due to pollution, population, drought and effects of climate change such as salt water intrusion. There must come about a better way to manage water and provide electricity in areas which share resources.
Solar is one way, as well as devising smaller turbines to generate electricity that do not require damming of rivers with safeguards for other life in waterways and to support the agricultural livelihoods of those people who live in those areas. I cannot understand why with all of the vision we supposedly have that we can't come up with a way to do this.
Nikola Tesla himself invented a bladeless turbine that could be used to provide electricity that would not require damming, changing the flow of rivers and would not harm other species or interfere with the lives of those living on the banks of these rivers. Truly renewable energy. This is the 21 st Century. What has happened to true innovation? Oh yes,that isn't lucrative enough for corrupt governments, construction companies and entities like the World Bank that all make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ from doing it the antiquated way while trying to sell us on it being "renewable."
There should absolutely never be a reason why any two nations would go to war over water. However, I do believe it is much more possible now as we see areas known to be arid becoming more so due to climate change which is effecting food prices and causing many people to move from areas they have spent many generations in. Also, the mindset of governments like Egypt that think they have dominion over the entire source because the British told them they did while not using it entirely for the good all people does not help. I wonder what the current protests in Egypt
will do regarding this dam. There is a higher law that requires humanity to take precedence. The Nile Basin Initiative shares a vision that those resources can be managed without conflict. Let us hope that is a reality.
In Gasland, film maker and resident of Pennsylvania Josh Fox brought us the truth about the effects of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on our land, water and health. He exposed the corporate deceptions that are poisoning our water and the government collusion involved in covering for them.
In Gasland II he takes it further...
Gasland II premieres on HBO July 8th at 9PM.
Tune in for the truth and share it with all you know.
Fracking must be banned in the US in order to save our water and our health. Oil companies are now using this as a "bridge fuel" to continue their profit gravy train because we have reached Peak Oil. They don't care if it poisons your water. They don't care if it kills your livestock or poisons your farmland.
They don't care if they take all the water in drought stricken areas to deny farmers water to grow food. They just want profit. They must not be allowed to continue this assault on our land, our water, our health and our climate balance for a false choice that is killing people, animals and our sustainability.
Fracking is a national disgrace. Time to see the truth and say ENOUGH.
Four people may have died during Alberta's worst flooding in decades, according to the RCMP.
As Albertans faced more rain Friday, the downpour has left hundreds of homes semi-submerged, lifted railroad tracks and inundated the Calgary Stampede grounds.
At least 75,000 Calgarians have been forced out of their homes and large areas of the city's downtown core were set to be evacuated Thursday afternoon.
Two men were seen floating apparently lifeless in Highwood River, but their bodies have not been found
A woman and her camper were swept away in the Longview area of Highwood River. She has not been seen since.
A third man was seen falling from a canoe on the Highwood River, and it is unclear if he was able to get back into his canoe or make it to shore.
High River is about 60 kilometres south of Calgary.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi is urging Calgarians to stay away from the downtown core, where about 350,000 people typically work. Only a small fraction of them were at work Friday, as employees were asked to take a family day and offices were closed ahead of the expected flooding.
Sections of the main north-south link through Calgary, the Deerfoot Trail, are expected to be shut down Friday afternoon, adding to the city's transportation troubles.
Officials have asked people in downtown Calgary buildings without power to consider leaving, said emergency management director Bruce Burrell. Most buildings in the downtown core appear to be without power, said CBC's Terry Reith from Calgary.
A central Calgary emergency family shelter was forced to relocate its 85 residents, including 45 children. The Inn from the Cold shelter lost electricity during the flooding.
"In all the years I've been down here, I've never seen the water this high," said Sunnyside resident John Doherty.
"I've got two antique pianos in the garage that I was going to rebuild and they're probably underwater," he said. "We're shell-shocked."
Most animals at the Calgary Zoo have been moved to higher ground to temporarily escape the city's rising floodwaters.
The flooding has resulted in mass evacuations throughout Calgary and southern areas of the province.
Banff issued evacuation orders for the Rocky Mountain Housing Co-operative Phase 2 after deeming it unsafe. Organizers of the inaugural Banff Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, cancelled the event.
Lethbridge and Medicine Hat declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon, with the flooding expected to move in their direction.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford warned today that people downstream of Calgary still "have not yet felt the full force" of flooding as swollen rivers overrun their banks.
End of excerpt.
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There is also information about helping people here.
And yet, the Alberta tarsands were cranking today as they have been everyday, adding more and more moisture and energy to the atmosphere.
This is the world we are making because we are addicted to oil.
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Early monsoon rains 48% above normal have also hit India killing scores.
DHARAMSALA — Early monsoon rains have swollen the Ganges, India's longest river, swept away houses, killed at least 60 people and left tens of thousands stranded, officials said on Tuesday.
The rains are at least twice as heavy as usual in northwest and central India as the June-September monsoon spreads north, covering the whole country a month faster than normal.
The National Disaster Management Authority said a response force of 12 teams of 45 people each had been in action since Sunday, in addition to the army and border police.
In the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, where officials say at least 60 people had been killed, air force helicopters airdropped commandos to help rescue some of the tens of thousands of people unable to move because of the floods.
"We are on a war footing, we are working day and night," said R. Rajesh Kumar, a district official in Uttarkashi, where two national highways have been blocked.
The district has set up 32 camps to provide food and water for about 5,000 pilgrims and tourists caught by the floods while visiting local holy sites. The Ganges is sacred to Hindus.
Rains, which were 48 percent above normal across India up until June 16, are expected to ease up in the next week, according to weather department officials.
In the eastern state of Orissa, flash floods destroyed at least 678 houses and damaged crops in storage, the state's deputy relief commissioner, P.R. Mohapatra, said.
So far, the rains have not hit the summer sowing season in India, as planting of rice, sugar, cotton and other agricultural produce is not yet in full swing.
India is one of the world's biggest producers and consumers of grains and about 55 percent of its farmland relies on the monsoon for water.
Heavy rain early in the June-September season makes planting easier, but if flooding persists, stagnant water can delay sowing or damage early rice shoots.
Pilgrimages were canceled and hotels evacuated. Officials of the Sanctuary of Notre Dame de Lourdes, a complex of soaring basilicas and chapels on and within the hillside above the grotto, partly closed the site on Tuesday, estimating that the flooding had caused several million dollars’ worth of damages.
And so Lourdes, visited by nearly six million pilgrims every year, many of them looking to be healed of pain and disease, turned to the faithful for financial relief.
“The sanctuary will not recover from the consequences of this natural disaster without the generosity of everyone!” read a mailing released by the sanctuary on Wednesday. The appeal included a mailing address for checks and a link to an online giving portal, as well as the sanctuary’s bank codes, for payment by wire transfer. Insurance is expected to cover much, but not all, of the damages.
“This leaves us quite traumatized,” Mayor Jean-Pierre Artiganave told Agence France-Presse.
The flooding could hardly have come at a less opportune time for Lourdes, whose economy depends heavily on the summer tourist season, when pilgrims — mostly Roman Catholic — from France, the rest of Europe and across the world flock to the holy site. Lourdes, a city of just 15,000, counts nearly 200 hotels, a concentration per square kilometer said to be second in France only to Paris.
Pilgrimages by several thousand faithful were canceled Wednesday and for the coming days, sanctuary and city officials said, though Masses were still being celebrated in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception above the cave. At least 1,000 other pilgrims were evacuated from hotels in the city center, according to Mr. Artiganave; floodwaters had swelled to “centennial” levels and reached the second story of some hotels along the banks of the Gave de Pau, Mr. Artiganave told the Paris newspaper Le Figaro.
Floodwaters in the region have killed two people in their 70s, destroyed roads and forced the evacuation of nearly 3,000 from their homes, according to Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who traveled to Lourdes on Wednesday. About 7,000 residents remained without electricity on Wednesday evening, French news media reported.>br>
The grotto, which reportedly filled with as much as five feet of water this week, is among the most visited pilgrimage sites in the Roman Catholic faith. It became known as a place of miracles after several reports of apparitions of the Virgin Mary there in 1858.
End of excerpt
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Also in reference to where I live, we have seen close to a foot of rain here in only three weeks time in the month of June alone. When you see half the Arctic melted you have to also then understand that energy created is going to come back down. More frequent, extreme and unpredictable floods and droughts are now predominant on this planet. India has also been suffering through an extreme heatwave with parts of Northern India in drought stage just last year. If you care about eating and feeding your family at the very least, all of these extreme events including the extreme flooding in Central Europe should be moving you beyond just reading this.
"Last week, indigenous groups that occupied the Belo Monte dam site and who traveled to Brasilia to meet with top representatives from the Brazilian government attempted to enter the Presidential Palace to deliver a letter to President Rousseff and were met by a blockade of police. The group remained in the capital after their first encounter with ministers to demand further dialogue and express frustrations with the government's unresponsiveness.
After receiving no feedback whatsoever from government representatives, the group occupied the headquarters Brazilian indigenous agency FUNAI on June 10th. They waited an entire day to deliver a letter to FUNAI President Maria Augusta Assirati, who avoided meeting with them, instead sending a note claiming she was "too busy" in another meeting.
Last Tuesday marked one week that the group had remained in Brasilia attempting to dialogue with the government concerning a respectful approach toward indigenous peoples' constitutional right to consultation over dam projects that threaten their lands. The only response they received stipulated that indigenous peoples have no right to veto the government's infrastructure plans.
Indigenous leader Josias Munduruku stated, "What kind of consultation is this when they have already made a decision that we cannot change? What then could come out of this so-called consultation?"
In a 10th letter from a series of statements of indigenous opposition and resistance to dams in the Amazon, the groups described violence they have suffered in Brasilia, from verbal abuse to a series of inaccurate press releases and articles, as well as the use of police force to prohibit them from delivering statements to government representatives. The indigenous group concluded their stay in Brasilia stating, "We understand what the government is saying – that they will build dams on our lands without caring about what we think...even if they consult us our opinion will not matter."
The letter goes on, "The fight doesn't end here...It seems, unfortunately, that we will need to return to our homes without an answer [from the government]. We came to ask for peace and the government is declaring war."
Belo Monte is just one of many dam projects globally being used to exploit land, water, agriculture, forests, cultures and displacement of indigenous people and destroy our environment for profit for the rich.
ENOUGH!!
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More tomorrow on Ethiopia/Egypt... War Over Water?
