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Friday, 27 March 2009
Thirst refusal | Environment | The Guardian
The destruction of nearly 182,000 hectares (450,000 acres) and the displacement of a million people by the worst Californian fire-storms in decades are focusing attention on what may, over the next 50 years, become the most pressing environmental issue in the US - the south-western states are drying up.
Diary: Colorado River drought
The south-western US is suffering its eighth consecutive year of drought. There are concerns that the Colorado River, which has sustained life in the area for thousands of years, can no longer meet the needs of the tens of millions of people living in major cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The BBC's Matthew Price is travelling along the river to investigate the scale of the problem and is sending a series of diary items from there.
BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Ethiopia dam: Background
The Gibe III dam is under construction on the Omo River, approximately 300km southwest of Addis Ababa. It is the third in a series of cascading hydroelectric projects in the region.The first, the Gilgel Gibe dam (also called Gibe I), was completed north of the Gibe III dam site in 2004. The Gibe II project is a power plant associated with the Gibe I dam that is still under construction. The new Gibe III dam is expected to produce 6500 GWh of energy a year, and surplus energy is expected to create 300 million euros (£282m; $407m) in revenue, according to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), the sole provider of power in Ethiopia. Ethiopia's neighbours, such as Djibouti, Yemen, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Egypt, would all be in a position to purchase the excess energy.
Acute Water Shortage May Cause Beijing Exodus
Chinese officials may be forced to resettle some of Beijing’s new arrivals over the next 5 to 10 years due to a population boom that accompanied both a rapid economic expansion and a decade-long stretch of yearly droughts. Probe International, an independent environmental advocacy group, advised Chinese officials that Beijing faces economic collapse as the capital begins to run out of water during that period.
The official Xinhua news agency reports that Beijing and the surrounding region have suffered drought every year since 1999. To deal with the changing climate, the country is building a multibillion-dollar scheme known as the North-South Water Diversion Project. Xinhua says that once completed, the project will divert one billion cubic yards of water to Beijing annually, mostly from the Yangtze River.
About 40 prcent of the water Beijing uses each year is normally extracted from the Miyun reservoir, an hour and half drive north of the capital. But the water stored behind its dam is now clearly depleated by a decade of drought.
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