REPOST (With additions) : Water Crisis Will Make Gaza Strip "Unliveable" -Water Used As A Weapon

Additions 7-22-14:

Gaza: Israel's 4 Billion Dollar Gas Grab

Palestinians Need Israeli Know-how On Water Desalination

Can Palestinian Gas Field Save Gaza Economy?

Well, based on the carnage we see in Gaza, IT WOULD APPEAR THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT IS RENEGING ON ANY AGREEMENT WITH THE PALESTINIANS REGARDING DESALINATION OR NATURAL GAS because they want it all...and thinking about it is that what Hamas really wants? To control it to also keep Palestinians poor and under their thumb? Of course, you won't see that in the US media either...

Where we could actually see REAL PEACE all we see is hate and GREED.

Shades of the Ukraine and Iraq and the US where fracking is an obsession killing our water and planet. In the end when realizing one of the main reasons for all of the mayhem and death in this entire area of the Middle East is because of the addiction to fossil fuels and $$$$$$ as well control of water it blows the mind.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Israel's Water Miracle That Wasn't

The Israeli 'Watergate' Scandal: The Facts About Palestinian Water

Palestinian Human Rights Lawyer Raji Sourani Likens Netanyahu to Bin Laden for Killing Civilians

War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields

Israel Demolishes Wells In Hebron
How is destroying this well defending Israelis?



Bethlehem:'No matter how many olive trees they destroy, will will plant more!'


"The destruction of these ancient trees is the destruction of both the history and future of the Palestinian people."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How convenient that terrorist organization Hamas is in the position it is in to facilitate this latest slaughter by the Israeli government against the weaker civilians including children of the Gaza Strip. Terrorists uniting on both sides for a common goal as those in the middle continue to be deprived of water, food, dignity and life. Yet, all we see from the international community is the same feigned outrage, platitudes and political posturing as the predictable Senate of the United States votes unanimously to declare its undying loyalty to the slaughterers. I as a citizen of the world condemn this bloody and barbaric assault upon the Palestinian people as well as the betrayal of all good humanitarian Israeli people.

Make no mistake about it as well. Hamas cares nothing for the Palestinian people. They are merely pawns in a bigger game. As we look deeper into this morass we see many interests that do not benefit the people of this land- only those at the top waging this geopolitical battle for control of natural gas, water and other resources. It is akin to the war in the Ukraine as well as the takeover by ISIS in Iraq that is an offshoot of Syria. Does not the timing of all of it happening simultaneously make you wonder? All of the players lining up for a piece of the resource pie as we see global resource depletion in the face of population increases and climate change. Of course, among all of these reasons we still see the same mindless religious hatreds and grudges coming to the surface.

Again, reiterating as in the previous entry from 2012 I have posted below- there will never be peace here until the Palestinian people are allowed their fair share of clean water, land and dignity free of Israeli rule and rule under thumb of terrorist organizations using their anger for their own purposes. Any government organization using water as a weapon should be roundly condemned by the international community including the United States. Of course, what do I know... I'm just a human being untouched by political and religious hatred who believes that we are all equal when it comes to basic human rights!



Also see:

Is The Israeli/Lebanon War Over Water?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Previous entry- 2012:

Water Crisis Will Make Gaza Strip "Unliveable"/Water Is Life Blog

Water Crisis Will Make Gaza Strip "Unliveable"

The Gaza strip faces a water crisis that will soon make it "unliveable" unless plans for a $500m desalination plant are approved by banks, delegates at a water conference in Stockholm were told this week.

Water for the 1.6 million people – half of them children and two-thirds refugees – who live in just 365 sq km of land bordering the Mediterranean comes entirely from the shallow coastal aquifer shared between Gaza, Israel and Egypt, which is only partly replenished each year by rainfall. Decades of overpumping and heavy pollution from salts and waste water has left the aquifer highly degraded and in danger of irreparable damage.

UN hydrologists say no more than 55 million cubic metres (mcm) of water should be abstracted a year, but present exploitation rates run at around 160mcm. If this continues, says the UN, it could result in the water table dropping to a point where massive sea water intrusion permanently destroys the source within a few years.

In addition, the little water available is heavily polluted by nitrates from uncontrolled sewage, and fertilisers from farmlands, making 90% of the water unfit for human consumption. With the Gaza population expected to increase by 500,000 within eight years, and nearly 25% of all illnesses in Gaza water-related, the urgency for countries to put aside differences and address the issue is growing.

"The aquifer could become unusable as early as 2016, with the damage irreversible by 2020. UNEP [the UN Environment Programme] recommends ceasing abstraction immediately as it would otherwise take centuries for the aquifer to recover. Even with remedial action now to cease abstraction, the aquifer will take decades to recover," said a UN Relief and Works Agency report published this week.

The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) expects demand for fresh water to grow to 260mcm per year by 2020, a 60% increase on current levels of abstraction from the aquifer, the UN report says.

"We are facing a crisis. If we do not address it now, then Gaza will become unliveable," said Shaddad Attili, minister and head of the Palestinian water authority in Stockholm to lobby the Swedish and other Nordic governments during World Water week.

End of excerpt.

My comment:

________

ADDENDUM:

I have to comment due to the continued genocide unfolding in the Gaza Strip because I do not condone it! For decades the Palestinian people have been subjugated through brutalization, bombardment, lack of water, lack of land, lack of food and stripped of being able to live a life of dignity and health. For years they have strived to survive in this land beside Israel that has been using their might, power and Western connections to continue to also use water as a weapon. I find that to be unconscienable and immoral. While I do not condone deaths on any side and see the firing of rockets and the dropping of bombs to be wrong in the search for true peace I also understand why a people would be pushed to the extreme after being denied the basic necessities of life for decades and in also seeing their children suffering because of it.

The response of Israel to this is ten fold regarding the death and destruction it is reaping. It is wrong and it does nothing to bring the region any closer to peace. The way to peace is to allow the Palestinian people their own rights to the land they live on with adequate clean water, sewerage systems, schools, land, seeds and the ability to build a life of health and dignity. This is not now the case and it is an abomination that the world sits watching in their distractionary stupor while this bloodshed continues. If the Israeli government really wanted peace they would stop the bombing and start giving back the water and land they have stolen over so many decades. I firmly believe that all we want as humans here is to be able to live our lives with dignity! For them to not even want that and to actually work to push these people into the sea shows nothing but a bare naked hatred that is the worst ugliness of humanity. My hope is that Israeli and Palestinian people understand this and will work together to rid both their lands of those hateful ones who now have control of this situation and use it only for their own profit.

Beyond the envoys and countless "meetings" on this, the one chance for peace and the real root cause is always overlooked: Let humans live human lives! Water, land, food, a chance to see their children grow up happy. Humanity is the real way to peace. Are we really even beyond that now?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Comment on article: The global water crisis is the most urgent crisis along with the climate crisis that we as humans and other species are now facing. These crises are the turning point in our present and continued existence upon this our only home. However, our ability to look beyond the prejudice, the greed, the waste and the corruption to a world where the global water crisis is considered more important than a political convention still seems to elude us on the whole.

According to current statistics 70 percent of our water is used in agriculture with much of it wasted, 20 percent in industry (and dirty water intensive energy sources) with much of it wasted and 10 percent domestically with much of it wasted. Notice the key word here? Wasted, wasted and wasted. We as a species on the whole are Water Wasters. And because of it we are making a world where the Gaza Strip will assuredly be "unliveable" along with many other areas of the world.

The impacts of human induced climate change are not helping either. Flood catastrophes were twice as great per decade between 1996 and 2005 as they were between 1950 and 1980 with great economic losses sustained. In the last decade of the 20th Century two billion people were affected by the natural disasters brought on primarily due to floods and droughts. It is predicted that within only two decades approximately half this world will be living in water stress, this also due to depletion of aquifers along with extreme effects of soil evaporation and sea level rise. And the deeper you dig, the longer it takes to replenish. This would then bring about millions of climate refugees looking for water and arable land. Where will they go? Certainly not the Gaza Strip. At present rate it will be a barren wasteland. And we will have politics to blame for it. The politics of hatred that has ruled this area of the world for milennia will finally culminate in the extinction of its people and the desertification of a once beautiful land. Is that really where you wish to see it end?

"We are facing a crisis. If we do not address it now, then Gaza will become unliveable," said Shaddad Attili, minister and head of the Palestinian water authority in Stockholm to lobby the Swedish and other Nordic governments during World Water week.

Addressing this crisis in the Gaza Strip requires more than desalination plants that would then suck water out of the Mediterranean Sea. It requires all sides to leave behind their politics and look to humanity. Water has not been evenly allocated in this region for many years also contributing to the shortages. The people of the Gaza Strip have limited resources under the thumb of their oppressors and the effects of a changing world. This must change if they are ever to see real peace.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

UPDATE: Lake Mead Reservoir At Lowest Level/California Drought Worsens

7-20- 14:Additions below.

UPDATE: 7-19-14:



California Halts Injection of Fracking Waste, Warning it May Be Contaminating Aquifers

State’s drought has forced farmers to rely on groundwater, even as California aquifers have been intentionally polluted due to exemptions for oil industry.

by Abrahm Lustgarten

This is part of an ongoing investigation:

The Story So Far

The country’s push to find clean domestic energy has zeroed in on natural gas, but cases of water contamination have raised serious questions about the primary drilling method being used. Vast deposits of natural gas, large enough to supply the country for decades, have brought a drilling boom stretching across 31 states. The drilling technique being used, called hydraulic fracturing, shoots water, sand and toxic chemicals into the ground to break up rock and release the gas.

Poisoning the Well: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation’s Underground Water Supply - ProPub

The potential impact of waste from oil and gas drilling — including hydraulic fracturing — on drinking water has been an issue in Texas, Wyoming and, with great urgency, in California this month. Here, a jar of fracking water waste is displayed at a recycling site in Midland, Texas. (Pat Sullivan/AP Photo) California officials have ordered an emergency shut-down of 11 oil and gas waste injection sites and a review more than 100 others in the state's drought-wracked Central Valley out of fear that companies may have been pumping fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking water aquifers there.

The state's Division of Oil and Gas and Geothermal Resources on July 7 issued cease and desist orders to seven energy companies warning that they may be injecting their waste into aquifers that could be a source of drinking water, and stating that their waste disposal "poses danger to life, health, property, and natural resources." The orders were first reported by the Bakersfield Californian, and the state has confirmed with ProPublica that its investigation is expanding to look at additional wells.

The action comes as California's agriculture industry copes with a drought crisis that has emptied reservoirs and cost the state $2.2 billion this year alone. The lack of water has forced farmers across the state to supplement their water supply from underground aquifers, according to a study released this week by the University of California Davis.

The problem is that at least 100 of the state's aquifers were presumed to be useless for drinking and farming because the water was either of poor quality, or too deep underground to easily access. Years ago, the state exempted them from environmental protection and allowed the oil and gas industry to intentionally pollute them. But not all aquifers are exempted, and the system amounts to a patchwork of protected and unprotected water resources deep underground. Now, according to the cease and desist orders issued by the state, it appears that at least seven injection wells are likely pumping waste into fresh water aquifers protected by the law, and not other aquifers sacrificed by the state long ago.

"The aquifers in question with respect to the orders that have been issued are not exempt," said Ed Wilson, a spokesperson for the California Department of Conservation in an email.

A 2012 ProPublica investigation of more than 700,000 injection wells across the country found that wells were often poorly regulated and experienced high rates of failure, outcomes that were likely polluting underground water supplies that are supposed to be protected by federal law. That investigation also disclosed a little-known program overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that exempted more than 1,000 other drinking water aquifers from any sort of pollution protection at all, many of them in California.

Those are the aquifers at issue today. The exempted aquifers, according to documents the state filed with the U.S. EPA in 1981 and obtained by ProPublica, were poorly defined and ambiguously outlined. They were often identified by hand-drawn lines on a map, making it difficult to know today exactly which bodies of water were supposed to be protected, and by which aspects of the governing laws. Those exemptions and documents were signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown, who also was governor in 1981.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How much more evidence do we need to know that the EPA is also in the pockets of the oil/gas industry as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle? The blatant leniency given to the fracking industry from exempting it from the Safe Drinking Water Act all the way down to how they dispose of their toxic waste is criminal. Now people in this region not only have less water (due to their own wastefulness, fracking, industrial farms and also to the effects of climate change) but the chance of it being toxic is increased by the exemptions given to the oil/gas industry regarding safeguarding it! This is also not good since farmers have been digging deeper to tap aquifers. Honestly, I am now not purchasing produce that comes from California because of possible effects of Fukushima. This only seals it. Governor Brown has the authority to ban fracking by executive order but chooses not to even in the face of this drought. He is just as responsible as Governor Rick Perry was in Texas for the results of his allegiance to the oil and gas industry over the health and safety of the residents of California.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A buoy warning 'no boats' stands on dirt at the abandoned Echo Bay Marina on July 13, 2014, in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada. (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Dry as a Bone: Lake Mead's H2O Situation Just Got a Whole Lot Worse

By Liz Dwyer

The days of millions of Sin City residents and visitors who love swimming in, boating on, and drinking water siphoned from Lake Mead could be numbered. After 14 years of drought in the Southwest, the water reservoir created by the Hoover Dam has officially dipped to its lowest water level since it began filling up with water from the Colorado River in the 1930s.

On Sunday, the lake’s water level dropped to 1,081.7 feet above sea level, leaving the reservoir only 39 percent full. The body of water hasn’t been full since 1998, when it was about 1,296 feet above sea level. As the hot, dry summer months continue, the water level is expected to recede even more.

"It's time for us to wake up. If this drought continues, we're going to be in a terrible situation within the next 12–24 months," Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told The Desert Sun.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regional chief Terry Fulp said, however, that there's enough water to meet the needs of the 40 million people who call the region home, including folks who live in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As has been warned about many times this is what happens when you build cities in the desert with the nexus of climate change. Many continue to trivialize the effects of climate change on water by saying the same water that has always been here is still here... When you however, take into account that only 1% of the water on this planet is usable by humans (with population increasing) and all other species and that we are now fracking, damming and polluting it and causing more evaporation, shifting rainfall patterns leading to less rainfall in places that need it leading to less snowpack due to our addiction to fossil fuels you either have water that is unusable or less water in places you once had it (as well as much more which also kills agriculture) due to shifts in the hydrologic cycle.



I truly wonder at this point what has to happen to make people understand that we are not only altering the cycles of our Earth but making sure that what we have is POISON. Does that look like a species that LOVES THIS PLANET?



California drought: New water restrictions carry penalty of up to $500

SACRAMENTO -- As California on Tuesday imposed its first-ever statewide rules to punish water wasters, a new survey showed why state officials say the drastic measures are needed: Californians actually increased their water use amid the worst drought in decades.

The new rules, approved by the State Water Resources Control Board on a 4-0 vote, impose new restrictions on outdoor water use starting Aug. 1 that could result in fines of up to $500 per violation.

Gov. Jerry Brown in January asked Californians to slash their water use by 20 percent. But a new state survey released Tuesday showed that water use in May rose by 1 percent this year, compared with a 2011-2013 May average.

The survey of 267 water providers by the water board found that water consumption in the Bay Area dropped 5 percent. But in coastal California, south of Santa Barbara, consumption rose 8 percent.

"California is in the worst drought we've seen in our grandparents' generation or beyond," said Felicia Marcus, the water board's chairwoman. "Fields are going fallow. Thousands of people are going to be out of work. There are communities that are out of water -- they're bathing out of buckets and water trucks are coming in to help them.

"But many parts of California don't seem to realize how bad it is," she said, "because they are so far away from their source of water. We are all in this together, and this is not a time to waste water."

The new rules ban washing cars without a nozzle on a hose; watering driveways or sidewalks; using potable water in ornamental fountains; and over-watering landscaping so that water runs off into roads and adjacent properties. Recycled water is exempt.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While I agree everyone in California needs to conserve water I am curious as to why Nestle is being allowed to circumvent the law and am disappointed in those giving them the chance. If all who consume water in the state are not included I don't see how it is considered fair or will make a discernible difference. Oh but gee, you can't expect INDUSTRY to give a damn about that dirty "C" word... After all MONEY IS EVERYTHING...

Little oversight as Nestle taps Morongo reservation water

Even with the "big one" potentially on the horizon due to deeper digging and fracking which has already been linked to earthquakes? Just how much are you really willing to sacrifice for a few hours of electricity when you could also have it without all of these negative effects?

Water extraction boosts California quake risk: study

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also see:

Southwest Turns Anxious Eye to Shrinking Lake Mead

California Drought: San Joaquin Valley Sinking As Farmers Race To Tap Aquifer

The Greatest Water Crisis In The History Of Civilization: Coming To The American West?

Lake Mead Is Drying Up

This entry from 2007. This is not new. This has been coming for years its warning falling on deaf ears.
Southwest Water Woes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As explained previously the jet stream due to climate change is also amplifying the effects of drought and wildfires throughout this entire area:

(Weak and wavy polar jet stream on July 17, 2014 shows fixed ridges over the Northwest Territory, Central and Eastern Siberia, Northern Europe and the adjacent North Atlantic and Arctic. Image source: Earth Nullschool. Data Source: NOAA GFS and various.)

This year, the warm air invasion started early. A high amplitude ridge in the Jet Stream stretching for thousands of miles over the temperate Pacific and on up into Alaska and the Chukchi Sea slowly drifted eastward. Reinforced by a powerful bank of blocking high pressure systems over the northeastern Pacific, this ridge settled over Canada’s Northwest Territory in a zone from the Mackenzie Delta and over a broad region east and south. From mid June onward, temperatures in the 70s, 80s and even low 90s dominated sections of this Arctic region.

The heat built and built, drying the shallow soil zone over the thawing permafrost creating a tinder-dry bed layer waiting for the lightning strikes that were bound to follow in the abnormal Arctic heat.

By late June, major fire complexes had erupted over the region. Through early and mid July, these massive systems expanded even as the anomalous heat dome tightened its grip. Today, the fires in Northwestern Canada have reached a horrific intensity and one, the Birch Complex fire, alone has now consumed more than a quarter of a million acres.

According to reports from Canada’s Interagency Fire Center, total acres burned to date are more than six times that of a typical year. A rate of burning that, according to a recent scientific study, is unprecedented not just for this century, but for any period in Canada’s basement forest record over the last 10,000 years.

End of excerpt.

More at this link

Polar Jet Stream Wrecked By Climate Change Fuels Unprecedented Wildfires Over Canada and Siberia

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also see:

California Drought Getting Worse- Linked to Global Warming

All of these variables put together proving that when we humans *&^%$ up we do it all the way...

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

"Energy Duck" Could Provide Solar and Water Power

Energy Duck Could Provide Solar and Hydro Power

The Energy Duck is a submission to the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) 2014, this year held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by the London-based team of Hareth Pochee, Adam Khan, Louis Leger, and Patrick Fryer, the iconic and engaging public artwork proposal is a renewable energy generator and storehouse, an interactive and educative tourist destination, and a celebration of local wildlife.

The Energy Duck is modeled on the common eider duck, which is found in the waters of Copenhagen. Unfortunately, the eider’s breeding habitat is at risk from the effects of climate change, so the team decided to use its form to raise awareness of the local impacts of a global issue. The appealing, 12-storey high sculpture is proposed to float in the waters of the city’s harbor. It would be constructed from a lightweight steel frame, with very lightweight steel supporting a skin of photovoltaic panels and dummy panels.

Some of the electricity generated by the low-cost, off-the-shelf PV panels would be stored in the form of gravitational potential energy via water pressure. That is, energy is stored by virtue of the difference in water heights inside and outside the duck. The team states: “At night, when there is no solar radiation, the water pressure can be released through hydro turbines within the duck’s belly providing renewable electricity at all times. The floating height of the duck is an indicator of the amount of city-wide energy use relative to the renewable generation.” Both the solar- and hydro-generated power produced would be fed to the city grid, as per the requirements of the competition, and the energy yield would be 75 percent of that of a fully optimized solar farm on the same site. At night the duck would be lit with very low power LED lamps that change color, with the color pattern undulating in a rhythm proportional to the output of the hydro turbines.

Visitors to the sculpture would be able to move around inside the duck through an enormous honeycomb mesh of lightweight steel. Above would be the pattern of a mesh of PV panels in silhouette, backlit by light streaming in through the gaps. Below, visitors would be able to see the sea water rising and falling within the pressure storage tanks. Of their submission the team states: “Often the prospective negative environmental effects of climate change, brought about by excessive CO2 emissions can seem a removed and distant issue. Energy Duck frames the issue of climate change, ecology and the importance of renewable energy in a local context.”

+ Land Art Generator Initiative 2014

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wanted to post this on the blog because I found it to be inventive, aestheticlly beautiful and functional with the use of water to make energy not doing harm to ecosystems as we see with dams. We need visionary ideas like this to provide local energy to communities in a way that is cost effective and let's face it pleasing to the eye. For many aesthetics plays a big part in acceptance of something new. We hear so many times about people complaining about the aesthetics of wind turbines and solar panels while of course not seeing the effects of tarsands excavation, mountain top removal, etc. because in many cases it happens far from their homes (unless of course you now have a fracking well in your backyard which is not aesthetically beautiful in any way) so they do not understand the true scope of the damage being done to our water/planet by it. This is a great way of integrating features of renewable energy that are functional, have a positive effect on the planet and are pleasing to the eye. We need more of this and fast.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

DRC-Water Everywhere But Not A Drop To Drink

Water Everywhere But Not A Drop To Drink

Goma, a city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, sits by one of the world's largest freshwater reservoirs and has some of Africa's heaviest annual rainfall, yet it is a thirsty place.

Most of the city's one million residents, living close to the shores of Lake Kivu, have to struggle every day to fetch water home.

From daybreak, an endless stream of cyclists heads to the lake and back, filling battered containers with as much water as they can carry.

In a makeshift shelter, health worker Fedeline Kabuhu tries to ensure that no container leaves without a dose of chlorine, which she injects with a syringe to make sure the water residents collect is potable.

"The people drink this water. They do everything with it," the 46-year-old French charity worker said.

A single cyclist can transport up to 120 litres (about 250 pints) to be sold on to private water stores. At a rate of 10 trips to the lake each day, the carriers can expect to earn up to $10 (seven euros) between dawn and dusk.

But by the end of one morning it started to rain and water collector Lambert Biriko decided to call it a day.

"Today is ruined," he said, adding that residents would gather run-off rain water instead and "won't buy anything from us".

Located on the border with Rwanda, Goma is the capital of DR Congo's North Kivu province, which has been wracked by bloody unrest for more than 20 years, displacing scores of thousands of people.

In those two decades, the city's population has exploded, swelled by an influx of refugees from neighboring Rwanda and Burundi as well as local Congolese seeking shelter from marauding armed bands.

As in many other parts of DR Congo -- the world's least developed country according to the United Nations -- the people of Goma have learned to fend for themselves after decades of government neglect.

snip

The lack of basic infrastructure has given rise to the Lucha (Fight for Change) protest movement. A shortage of water, electricity and opportunities for work shows "a problem of governance" and "a lack of seriousness", according to Micheline Mwendike, a member of the apolitical body.

Alongside other organizations, she said, Lucha gathered 3,500 signatures at the end of May for a petition demanding that provincial governor Julien Paluku commit to connecting Goma to the water supply and publish "a plan to bring water to the entire city".

Backed by regional segments of the political opposition, Lucha is gaining momentum as it accuses authorities of using the insecurity as an excuse for inaction.

'Not normal'

The movement stages regular protests and has harnessed the power of social media, using Facebook and the Twitter hashtag #GomaNeedsWater.

Paluku did not respond to repeated requests for comment from AFP.

Deogratias Kizibisha, the North Kivu director of public water distribution firm Regideso, said that 45 percent of Goma residents are connected to the central supply. Lucha claims the real rate is closer to 20 percent.

Jean-Pierre Kambere is a nurse in Birere, Goma's poorest slum.

"Adding chlorine is not enough" to make water gathered from Lake Kivu safe to drink, he said.

"Every week patients come to us with diarrhoea or fever" caused by drinking polluted water, Kambere added.

Not far from the health centre, Joelle, a frail woman of 20, crouched at a public tap, bent double under the weight of the container strapped to her back with a scarf.

"It's not normal to live like this," she said. "The authorities need to provide water to every home."

[AFP]

end of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes words escape me in reading articles and papers regarding the reality of the humanitarian crises we face in the 21st Century. We claim to be so progressed, so advanced, so technologically savvy with our shiny cell phones, tablets and other "gadgets." Yet, look how people are still living in our world. NO basic sanitation. NO running water. Disease, poverty, war, corruption. This is no way for any human to have to live in a world where we claim to be so "progressed." Is progress merely something that has a dollar amount attached to it? What is humanity worth anymore?

It is said that the Governor here has a palace on the lake and the rich have restricted access to it. How much do you want to bet he has clean running water? Of course, the rich can have anything they wish in our "progressed" society. The best water, the best food, the best housing, the best education... Sorry, but this is not civilization to me. Incivility to humans is not part of any civilization that is advanced and you are not worth more because you possess more gold. It was not too long ago that cities like London did not even have water and sanitation systems. Much of the industrialized world does today. So, if we could do it in those places why can't it be done here? Even Ancient Rome Had aqueducts!

The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is dire. Noted as the least developed country in the world with an ongoing war that has killed millions once again ignored by Western media for the most part, people live daily with diseased water and a lack of access. Political corruption that diverts billions in aid money with NGO efforts not nearly enough. What to do? This is the question of the century with an answer so obvious yet so elusive.

Therefore, putting this technology to good use: #GomaNeedsWater. This may not do as much as we would hope but I'm using this hashtag on Twitter. If you are on Twitter, please use it as well. Speak out for humans on this planet who are not afforded the common decency of clean running water. Speak up. Care. Get angry. Just do something! I truly weep for a world where progress is determined by the amount of palaces you own on the lake. If WE do not care all is lost. The people of the DRC deserve better. They deserve a functioning government that WORKS. They deserve like all of us CLEAN RUNNING WATER. #GOMANEEDSWATER. Need I say more?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


NGOs are all the people have and they cannot do it alone.

Also see:

To understand the suffering you must understand the history. This is an excellent article.

DR Congo: The Politics Of Suffering

"Risk averse" aid system fails those most in need - MSF

Another excellent assessment and article by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) regarding aid. For all of the talk the UN does where are they in the truly needy parts of our world? Why do so many millions as in the DRC still suffer?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Detroit: TURN ON THE TAPS

UPDATE 7-21-14:

Detroit Stops Water Shutoffs For 15 Days

Though officials say they aren’t backing down to pressure from protesters and other activists, Detroit announced Monday morning that it will suspend its water shutoffs for 15 days.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) turned off water service on about 17,000 customers since March, according to The Detroit News.

“This is a pause. This is not a moratorium,” department spokesman Bill Johnson told the publication. “We are pausing to give an opportunity to customers who have trouble paying their bills to come in and make arrangements with us. We want to make sure we haven’t missed any truly needy people.”

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A mini victory... However, saying they are allowing this time for people to pay and to make arrangements as to not miss any "truly needy people" is a PR move. If they really cared about truly needy people they wouldn't have turned it off in the first place. If people now do not go to them and try to work this out it will make them look good and give them credence in saying people just do not want to pay. It also does not address the obvious plan to privatize the water in Detroit and the poverty/unemployment there nor the increases in rates and in two weeks they will be back at it again more than likely regarding any who can't pay again. What assurance will there be going forward? This action is only meant (for them) to shut people up for two weeks so people will forget, though I do think they did not expect the response they got and that in and of itself is great. However, if they bowed to pressure they would turn it back on and then seek to work with the truly needy for payment and give assurance that would be their procedure from this point on stating they had no intention of privatizing Detroit's water supply. And what of the higher end customers like the stadiums that owe thousands? Are they giving them time or are they just special and don't have to pay at all? Good to see people get their water back if true, but be wary...and keep the pressure on.





All water needs to be back on soon. Plastic waste is also not good. I'm sure the bottled water companies are also loving this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Detroit Water Protests

As Americans we need to stand with the people who are having their water shut off in a blatant human rights violation by the City of Detroit, the state of Michigan and the US government. How can the US claim to care about human rights when we do not even respect them in our own country?

There are other videos at the link above.

I stand with the people of Detroit Michigan.

TURN ON THE TAPS.

Going Without Water in Detroit



By ANNA CLARK JULY 3, 2014

DETROIT — A FAMILY of five with no water for two weeks who were embarrassed to ask friends if they could bathe at their house. A woman excited about purchasing a home who learned she would be held responsible for the previous owner’s delinquent water bill: all $8,000 of it. A 90-year-old woman with bedsores and no water available to clean them.

These are the stories that keep Mia Cupp up at night.

Ms. Cupp is the director of development and communication for the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, a nonprofit contracted by the state of Michigan to work as a human-services agency for Detroit. In August 2013, with a $1 million allocation, Wayne Metro became the only program to assist residents with water bills. Ms. Cupp quickly learned that this was “by far the greatest need.”

In January alone, Wayne Metro received 10,000 calls for water assistance, many of them referred directly by the Detroit Department of Water and Sewerage. It supported 904 water customers over 10 months before exhausting its funding in June. Ms. Cupp said Wayne Metro still gets hundreds of calls a day from residents. But it has no way to help them, and nowhere to refer them.

Detroit borders the Great Lakes system, containing 21 percent of the world’s surface freshwater. The lakes are the source of the city’s water supply, but a growing number of residents can’t turn on the tap. Over the past three months, the water department has conducted an aggressive shut-off campaign to get more than 90,000 customers to pay $90.3 million in past-due bills. Between March 25 and June 14, 12,500 Detroit customers had their water shut off.

The average monthly water bill in Detroit is $75 for a family of four — nearly twice the United States average — and the department is increasing rates this month by 8.7 percent. Over the past decade, sales have decreased by 20 to 30 percent, while the water department’s fixed costs and debt have remained high. Nonpayment of bills is also common. The increasing strain on the department’s resources is then passed on to customers.

But residents aren’t the only ones with delinquent accounts. Darryl Latimer, the department’s deputy director, told me that the State of Michigan holds its biggest bill: $5 million for water at state fairgrounds. (The state disputes the bill, arguing that it’s not responsible for the costs of infrastructure leaks.)

A local news investigation revealed that Joe Louis Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings, owed $82,255 as of April. Ford Field, where the Detroit Lions play, owed more than $55,000. City-owned golf courses owed more than $400,000. As of July 2, none had paid. Mr. Latimer said the Department of Water and Sewerage would post notice, giving these commercial customers 10 days to pay before cutting service. But he did not say when.

And in the meantime the city is going after any customers who are more than 60 days late and owe at least $150.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also see:

Detroit Water Wars: A Shut Off That Could Impact 300,000 People

It was six in the morning when city contractors showed up unannounced at Charity Hicks' house.

Since spring, up to 3000 Detroit households per week have been getting their water shut-off – for owing as little as $150 or two months in bills. Now it was the turn of Charity's block – and the contractor wouldn't stand to wait an hour for her pregnant neighbour to fill up some jugs.

"Where's your water termination notice?" Charity demanded, after staggering to the contractor's truck. A widely-respected African-American community leader, she has been at the forefront of campaigns to ensure Detroiters' right to public, accessible water.

The contractor's answer was to drive away, knocking Charity over and injuring her leg. Two white policemen soon arrived – not to take her report, but to arrest her. Mocking Charity for questioning the water shut-offs, they brought her to jail, where she spent two days before being released without charge.

Welcome to Detroit's water war – in which upward of 150,000 customers, late on bills that have increased 119 percent in the last decade, are now threatened with shut-offs. Local activists estimate this could impact nearly half of Detroit's mostly poor and black population – between 200,000 and 300,000 people.

"There are people who can't cook, can't clean, people coming off surgery who can't wash. This is an affront to human dignity," Charity said in an interview with Kate Levy. To make matters worse, children risk being taken by welfare authorities from any home without running water.

Denying water to thousands, as a sweltering summer approaches, might be bad enough in itself. But these shut-offs are no mere exercise in cost-recovery.

The official rationale for the water shut-downs – the Detroit Water Department's need to recoup millions – collapses on inspection. Detroit's high-end golf club, the Red Wing's hockey arena, the Ford football stadium, and more than half of the city's commercial and industrial users are also owing – a sum totalling $30 million. But no contractors have showed up on their doorstep.

The targetting of Detroit families is about something else. It is a ruthless case of the shock doctrine – the exploitation of natural or unnatural shocks of crisis to push through pro-corporate policies that couldn't happen in any other circumstance.

The first shock was the slow disaster that struck Detroit over the last four decades: the flight of corporations toward cheaper, overseas labour; the movement of white, wealthier Detroiters to the suburbs, draining the city's tax base; a Wall Street-driven financial crisis that left many homeless or jobless; and the deliberate starving of the city of funds owed them by the Republican state legislature.

On its heels has come a round of economic shock therapy. Taking advantage of the severe decline in revenue from Detroit's first shock, the media, corporations and right-wing politicians drummed up a crisis of fear about financial debt. This has become the pretext for a swift assault on Detroit's public resources: an attempt to dismantle its schools, to slash its pensions, and to transfer its parks and art and land into the hands of private corporations.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now you know damn well that these rich people who owe hundreds of THOUSANDS in water bills (which considering their huge profits and bank accounts is more questionable than the situation of a poor person who is UNEMPLOYED) will not have the water shut off to their stadiums because they will claim it will lose them PROFITS. However, there are no qualms about shutting off the water of a 90 year old woman with bed sores who may only owe 150.00?! Where is the justice here? And this is happening in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Make no mistake as well, this is just the beginning of the ASSAULT on Americans to privatize this entire country and its resources. My city sold us out last year with the same percentage in increases over a TWENTY YEAR period.

I also think it is obvious in Detroit that this is not only a water war but a race war for some. Did you really think Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would eliminate racism in this country? This is their way of clandestinely showing that they have neither morality nor humanity, which unfortunately for all of the bills on paper that can be signed cannot legislate either. Yet, the president and once again the AMERICAN MEDIA are silent. SHAME.



What if these two girls were your daughters, President Obama? Would you want them to have water then? Well, they are SOMEONE'S daughters and they deserve it just as much as your children do.

Detroit Water Brigade

We can help at this link.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also see:

Tepid Progress on Detroit Water Crisis, But Where Are the Big Nonprofit Players?

In the wake of both the water turnoffs and the notice from the City of Detroit that it is cancelling every possible nonprofit human service and safety net program delivered by nonprofits on city contracts, the state government’s Department of Human Services announced that it is trying to help families who might be losing running water, in part because state law includes a family’s inability to provide running water as potentially indicative of child neglect.

Give credit to Representative Conyers and an array of nonprofits including Food & Water Watch, the Detroit People’s Water Board, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, and the Canadian-based Blue Planet Project for bringing this human rights crisis to the attention of the public.

Treading lightly, however, we do have to wonder what happened to the voices of major nonprofits in Detroit or the big foundations that have been so industrious in saving the Detroit Institute of Arts. Maybe they figure that their plates are more than full with continuing their ongoing roles in Detroit’s revitalization plus putting in over $370 million for the DIA/pensions Grand Bargain. Maybe they view the public sector as responsible for the water issue, though the Grand Bargain itself, while using the conversion of the DIA from city-owned to nonprofit, is really a mechanism for helping and capitalizing the pension funds, a public sector role that is unprecedented for a foundation collaborative anywhere.

There’s plenty of room for further action by foundations and nonprofits that may have been sitting on the sidelines so far in the water crisis. Fully half of Detroit Water’s 323,000 accounts are delinquent. The notices to Detroit Water’s industrial and commercial customers are just that—notices, not actions. The $1 million fund to help lower income residential customers, paid for by customers who are paying their bills, is far below the level of residential delinquency. This crisis is hardly over.

The backdrop behind the get-tough position of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department toward delinquent customers has been the talk of privatizing—meaning selling—the city’s water system. Suddenly enforcing bills on residential customers while letting commercial and industrial customers slide looks like a strategy of making the department more attractive to potential private purchasers, who might see latent profitability in the department’s market of water services to Detroit and 127 other Southeastern Michigan communities and wastewater services to Detroit and 76 other communities in the region. The campaign of Rep. Conyers and the advocacy nonprofits could well use a boost from the region’s and the nation’s foundations and nonprofits.—Rick Cohen

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I agree. However, we need to face a reality: the prejudices and selfishness of some will always take precedence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Windsor To Carry Water Across The Border

Derek Spalding

Jul 09, 2014 - 8:35 PM EDT

Last Updated: Jul 10, 2014 - 7:04 AM EDT

Bringing water from Canada to Detroit may be a largely symbolic gesture, but volunteers in Detroit are doing similar work every day to help their fellow residents.

Members of the Detroit Water Brigade have been collecting and delivering water to residents in several city districts. Sixteen volunteers have brought more than 8,000 bottles of potable water to 55 homes so far. Co-ordinator Demeeko Williams says the group is getting “more and more calls every day from residents in new areas who no longer have water.

“We’re just covering a fraction of what we need to,” he said. “That’s why we’re calling for more volunteers, we’re calling for more water. People need help.”

———————————–

About 1,000 litres of Windsor tap water will be shipped to Detroit later this month in a bid to raise awareness for what one Canadian group calls a blatant contravention of international human rights.

Members of the Council of Canadians are rounding up a posse and heading across the border on July 24 to protest the Motor City’s bold cost-saving measure that has disconnected water services to thousands of impoverished residents in the past few months.

To recoup massive overdue water bills, the bankrupt U.S. city announced in March that staff would aggressively target delinquent accounts and shut off water to anyone who did not pay. Activists have pushed back by drawing international attention to the issue, including public scrutiny from the United Nations.

Canadian protestors will take a convoy of about 12 cars to Detroit, carrying 50 five-gallon containers of water, which is the equivalent of about 2,800 personal water bottles. Bringing potable water on July 24 is not a solution to the problem, but by joining the scheduled rally that day, activists hope to send a strong message, said Doug Hayes, chairman of the Windsor-Essex chapter of the Council of Canadians.

“We’re hoping it will sort of embarrass the City of Detroit into realizing this is not the right thing to do,” he said.

Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, has been leading the charge against Detroit’s disconnection strategy, which is an issue she raised with the UN earlier this year. Since then, three UN experts produced a report that found the city’s plan violates people’s right to water and sewer services.

Their report states Detroit ramped up water shut-offs in early June with an estimated 3,000 customers losing services each week. But city officials argue far fewer people are actually disconnected. Spokesman Gregory Eno said up to 60 per cent of residents who received notices, or had their water turned off, paid their bills within 24 to 48 hours and have had their water restored.

End of excerpt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shaming people into doing the moral thing is sometimes the only thing that works.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Okinawa On Alert For ‘Once In Decades Storm’ Super Typhoon Neoguri

UPDATE 7-10-14: Neoguri Super-Typhoon In Japan Is El Niño Harbinger

An unusually early Pacific super-typhoon with a wrinkle has led to more than half a million people in Japan being advised to evacuate their homes this week.

The category 4 super-typhoon Neoguri spun up winds of more than 200 kilometres per hour before it dropped to category 3 and passed Okinawa on Tuesday, where it caused substantial flooding. By the time it reaches mainland Japan, it is expected to drop to category 1. It was probably sparked by a developing El Niño.

Meteorologists around the world were intrigued by a wrinkle seen in the image above, like a tail coming out of the eye of the storm. These "cloud cliffs" are sometimes seen in strong cyclones but nobody knows what causes them. "It's a kind of odd feature that's got people talking," says Brian McNoldy from the University of Miami in Florida.

Although it looks like a scar where there are no clouds, McNoldy says it's really a sudden drop in their height, casting a shadow on the lower clouds. He says it might be caused by ice being thrown up particularly high in the atmosphere near the eye by intense thunderstorms, and then being spread in just one direction as the storm turns.

As it has come unusually early, McNoldy says we should expect similar typhoons this year. "This is just the first time that all the conditions were falling into place. There will probably be more," he says.

Typhoon Neoguri is probably the biggest storm in decades to hit Japan so early, says Hiroyuki Murakami from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. "Normally, the peak typhoon season for Japan is between September and October." He says the strength and the timing of the storm is likely to be a result of the likely El Niño later this year.

The warmer water in the eastern Pacific is pulling their genesis that way, Murakami says, giving them more time to grow in strength by the time they make landfall around Japan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE 7-9-14: A Scary Super Typhoon Is Bearing Down on Japan…and Its Nuclear Plants

UPDATE, 11:30 AM on July 8: Typhoon Neoguri has weakened, and is no longer a Super Typhoon. But it is still headed straight at Japan, and in particular, at the island of Kyushu, with landfall expected on Thursday. For the latest forecasts from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, see here.

Japanese forecasters are calling it a "once in decades storm." And at Kadena Air Base, a US military installation on the island of Okinawa, one commander dubbed the storm "the most powerful typhoon forecast to hit the island in 15 years."

Super Typhoon Neoguri, currently sporting maximum sustained winds of nearly 150 miles per hour and just shy of Category 5 strength, is heading straight at Japan's islands, and its outer bands are currently battering the island of Okinawa. Here's the forecast map from the Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. As you can see, the forecast for tomorrow brings the storm up to maximum sustained winds of 140 knots (161 miles per hour), or Category 5 strength (click for larger version):

The Western Pacific basin, home to typhoons (which are elsewhere called tropical cyclones or hurricanes), is known for having the strongest storms on Earth, such as last year's devastating Super Typhoon Haiyan. July is, generally, when the Western Pacific typhoon season really starts getting into gear, but August, September, and October are usually busier months.

Neoguri will weaken by the time it strikes Japan's main islands, but as meteorologist Jeff Masters observes, "the typhoon is so large and powerful that it will likely make landfall with at least Category 2 strength, causing major damage in Japan."

One pressing issue is the safety of Japan's nuclear plants. In the wake of the 2011 tsunami and the subsequent disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, it's important to consider whether a similar vulnerability arises here.

Fukushima is located north of Tokyo on Japan's largest island, Honshu. By the time the typhoon reaches that point, it is forecast to be considerably weaker. But there are a number of other reactors spread across the islands; perhaps most exposed will be the southwestern island of Kyushu, where the current forecast has the typhoon making its first major landfall.

According to reporting by Reuters, there are two nuclear plants on the island. A company spokeswoman for Kyushu Electric Power Co. told the news agency that it "has plans in place throughout the year to protect the plants from severe weather."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hopefully nuclear plants including Fukushima will be safe (of course Fukushima is already unsafe.) I wonder myself how the law of averages will play out as the area Fukushima is in is bound to experience another earthquake as Honshu experiences many. Aren't we humans supposed to be the most advanced species? If so, wouldn't that mean having the common sense to not build a nuclear plant on a fault line near the ocean where tsunamis can strike? Neoguri is strong and is actually striking before the busier season. Typhoon Wipha and Super Typhoon Francisco last year had Fukushima on alert. As climate destruction soups up the storms we see taking place in areas that are already at risk it is time for all of us to be on alert. It also isn't just the storm but the after effects regarding floods, landslides... It may well be that those in areas that experience these storms more regularly will be able to adapt to the times we are entering now. It will be those of us who have lived in virtual paradise compared to many other parts of the world who will have the hardest time adapting to the cruel world we have made thinking we were somehow insulated from our actions.

Parts of Kyushu and Shikoku could see 20 to 28 inches of rain by the end of Thursday.

Kyushu Hit By Record Rainfall

The heaviest rain in half a century fell on parts of Kyushu on Thursday, the Meteorological Agency said.

Mount Nagaura in the city of Nagasaki saw 205 mm of rainfall and Sakai city in Nagasaki Prefecture recorded 155.5 mm over the course of three hours, both topping record levels dating back 50 years.

The agency issued a heavy-rain warning for the three northern Kyushu prefectures of Fukuoka, Saga and Nagasaki.

In the prefectural capital of Nagasaki, some houses were inundated below and above floor level. Roads flooded and there were landslides in parts of the city.

The agency warned of another downpour on Friday in western Japan, urging residents to pay attention to possible river flooding, landslides, lightning strikes and tornadoes.

Incredible. It is frightening yet eerily beautiful at the same time... and demands respect. I have always seen these storms as Mother Nature's way of talking to us... if so, she is truly not happy with us and with good reason. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE 7-8-14: Typhoon Neoguri Targets Mainland Japan After Sweeping Through Okinawa; 1 Dead

Take notice of rainfall totals, winds and storm surge. All indicative of rising temperatures.

UPDATE: U-STREAM Coverage.

Japan Braces For Super Typhoon Neoguri

Super Typhoon Neoguri Lashing Okinawa, Headed for Japan

The outer spiral bands of Super Typhoon Neoguri are pounding the Japanese Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa, as the mighty storm heads north-northwest at 12 mph towards Japan. At 11:30 pm local time (13:30 UTC) Monday, Naha City in southern Okinawa was reporting heavy rain and wind gusts of 43 mph. At 8 pm local time Monday, Miyako-jima reported sustained winds of 33 mph, gusting to 53 mph. On Sunday, Neoguri strengthened to 155 mph winds, crossing the 150 mph threshold needed to be labeled a Super Typhoon. As of 8 am EDT on Monday, the typhoon had weaker slightly to 150 mph winds, and infrared satellite images showed a reduction in the intensity and areal coverage of Neoguri's heavy thunderstorms. Recent microwave satellite images showed that the weakening may be due to the onset of an eyewall replacement cycle, a common occurrence in intense tropical cyclones. In an eyewall replacement cycle, the inner eyewall shrinks to the point of instability, collapses, and is replaced by a larger-diameter outer eyewall that forms from a spiral band. This process can take several days, and typically reduces the peak winds by 10 - 20 mph. With wind shear light, 5 - 10 knots, sea surface temperatures a very warm 30 - 31°C, and very warm waters extending to great depth along the storm's path, the typhoon will have the opportunity to re-strengthen once the eyewall replacement cycle is done.

End of excerpt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okinawa on alert as ‘once in decades storm’ Super Typhoon Neoguri takes aim

Japan’s weather agency on Monday night issued emergency warnings to urge people in the country’s southern islands to take maximum precautions as a super typhoon described as a “once in decades storm” is set to rake the Okinawa island chain with heavy rain and powerful winds.

Typhoon Neoguri was already gusting at more than 250 kilometres an hour and may pick up still more power as it moves northwest, growing into an “extremely intense” storm by Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

But it was not expected to be as strong as Typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands in the Philippines last year.

The JMA issued emergency storm and high sea warnings for Japan’s small southern island of Miyakojima, some 300km southwest of Okinawa island, and for a smaller nearby islet.

The agency said on Monday evening it also planned to issue an emergency high sea warning for Okinawa island, host to three-quarters of US military facilities in Japan.

“In these regions, there is a chance of the kinds of storms, high seas, storm surges and heavy rains that you’ve never experienced before,” a JMA official told a news conference.

“This is an extraordinary situation, where a grave danger is approaching.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





My prayers to all in the path of this storm which could see record winds. Pray that Fukushima is not effected.

More information on this as it progresses.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

UPDATE: Extremists In Iraq Now Control the Country's Rivers

UPDATE 8-9-14

ISIS Seizes Mosul Dam

Saw this coming. Question is, why were they allowed to get this far? As a pretext to continue US bombing? People are suffering here and have been for weeks. Time to stop playing geopolitics with their lives.

Religious fervor and geopolitics don't mix and it is always the innocents who suffer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE 7-22-14:



Iraq, Syria Forced To Turn To Sea For Drinking Water

By Amotz Asa-El

The Euphrates and the Tigris, two of biblical Paradise’s four rivers, are under attack.

The civil wars in Iraq and Syria are now victimizing the rivers themselves. The consequences of the burgeoning water crisis will be an emblem of water’s economic future, regardless of its Middle Eastern travails.

With President Bashar Assad and the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) waging total war, Syria’s water infrastructure is fast cracking.

The Euphrates Dam, Syria’s largest, was taken over by ISIS, and the 85-kilometer-long Lake Assad to which it is attached is anarchically overpumped. The lake’s water level has plunged this year alone by six meters and is but one meter away from failing to supply 4 million people who rely on it for drinking water, according to a recent report by Chatham House.

In Aleppo thousands are waterless and are drinking from puddles after one or more of the warring sides knocked out a local pumping plant. South of there, in Homs, sewage is flowing in water pipes after a water-treatment plant suffered a direct hit, sending millions to boil water in the intermittent occasions when it drips from the faucet. Experts now fear a humanitarian catastrophe, regardless of the war’s political results, as contamination flows downstream, to Iraq.

Diplomacy has contaminated the river’s multinational course no less than physical pollution.

Turkey, the power upstream from Iraq, has reduced in the past the Euphrates’ flow by damming it for hydroelectricity. Now, as part of its hostility to both Syria and ISIS, Turkey is again squeezing the water pipe. Prewar coordination between Ankara and Damascus is now unthinkable, thus increasing water’s theft and mismanagement in Syria.

Finally, as if war and politics are not catastrophic enough, eight years of drought had brought Syria’s farming sector to its knees even before the civil war’s outbreak, as wheat output plunged to a fifth of its previous levels. The consequent emigration of jobless millions from farm to town is part of what ignited the anti-Assad revolt.

Where, then, does all this lead?

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Whether the current slaughter in Gaza perpetuated by hate and terrorism for profit is by design or not to get the focus off of ISIS in Iraq, it nevertheless is worthwhile to note that there is a connection... WATER. None of the horrors taking place in this entire area are without connection regarding water and natural gas. And where does it lead? Unfortunately to more war, destruction and death for control of vital resources. In the past I have tried to be hopeful. I am not so sure anymore of the outcome of this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Extremists in Iraq now control the country's rivers

Iraq has blazed its way back onto the world's front pages in the past 48 hours, with the seemingly sudden capture of the cities of Mosul and Tikrit by an extremist group. The group seems to be targeting the region's rivers: its main geostrategic vulnerability. It now controls the upper reaches of both the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) considers itself the true government of a region stretching from Israel to Iraq. It has been among the rebels fighting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and controls the territory in eastern Syria around Deir al-Zour.

Despite the apparent suddenness, ISIS's assault on Iraq has been brewing for six months. Last January, ISIS started fighting its way from Syria down the Euphrates river into Iraq. In May it captured the town of Fallujah, the scene of bloody fighting during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. This week, ISIS captured Iraq's second-largest city Mosul, on the Tigris river, then advanced down the Tigris to the town of Tikrit, and beyond it to the Shiite holy town of Samarra. Both Samarra and Fallujah are within striking distance of the capital Baghdad.

It is not clear at the time of writing whether ISIS will launch a military attack on Baghdad, or even if it could take the heavily armed city in a pitched battle.

Choke points

But it may not need to. Iraq is ancient Mesopotamia, the once-fertile floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates that cradled the first human civilisation. The rivers remain crucial to the farming on which most Iraqis depend, according to a report by the International Centre for Agricultural Research on the Dry Areas, which was once based in Aleppo, Syria, but has now decamped to Amman in Jordan to avoid fighting.

ISIS now controls several major dams on the rivers, for instance at Haditha and Samarra. It also holds one 30 kilometres north of Mosul that was built on fragile rock and poses a risk of collapse. It holds at least 8 billion cubic metres of water. In 2003, there were fears Iraqi troops might destroy the dam to wipe out invading forces. US military engineers calculated that the resulting wave would obliterate Mosul and even hit Baghdad.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There has been much media coverage of ISIS in the last week however, anyone recall water being made part of reports? The dynamics of water and control of it is crucial in any battle in this area of the world that has also increasingly been damned in more ways than one. To downplay the urgency of this news geopolitically and more importantly morally is a big mistake. Taking into account the religious war that has been going on for centuries we now see Iraq on the precipice of total ruination. It's people and culture destroyed. It's only source of life in the hands of an extremist element driven by religious hatred and emboldened by a foreign policy that has been a failure. There are no good sides in any of this, except the Iraqi people who are caught in the middle of this war of geopolitical and religious revenge for all of the players involved. Where is the govt of Iraq? It is to this point virtuallyineffective in stopping them, it's people now escaping the cities to camps war weary making it even easier for groups like this to invade. It is as if it had been planned long ago to play out this way...

To use water as a weapon is a war crime and human rights abuse. To see these rivers and dams now fall into the hands of ISIS should set off alarm bells and universal condemnation...but then, gaining control over the water and electrical resources was also the tactic used by the US in its first Gulf War in 1991. Questions now come to mind...would Iraq be in this state if Hussein were still in power? (and that is no defense of Hussein who did his part as well regarding water and revenge regarding the Marsh people of Iraq.) Would these divisions have festered to the point that they boiled over eventually whether or not the US had invaded in 2003? Also, with natural gas pipelines being built in this area what role geopolitically does that play and how will Turkey react regarding control of Tigris and Euphrates in light of its dam building plans? For some it is hard to conceive that water could be the catalyst for a world war. Consider however, the world we live in now also adding climate destruction to the mix and it becomes much more possible. This is not only alarming but also truly sad.





Also see:

Water supply key to outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn

The outcome of the Iraq and Syrian conflicts may rest on who controls the region’s dwindling water supplies, say security analysts in London and Baghdad.

Rivers, canals, dams, sewage and desalination plants are now all military targets in the semi-arid region that regularly experiences extreme water shortages, says Michael Stephen, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank in Qatar, speaking from Baghdad.

“Control of water supplies gives strategic control over both cities and countryside. We are seeing a battle for control of water. Water is now the major strategic objective of all groups in Iraq. It’s life or death. If you control water in Iraq you have a grip on Baghdad, and you can cause major problems. Water is essential in this conflict,” he said.

Isis Islamic rebels now control most of the key upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, the two great rivers that flow from Turkey in the north to the Gulf in the south and on which all Iraq and much of Syria depends for food, water and industry. “Rebel forces are targeting water installations to cut off supplies to the largely Shia south of Iraq,” says Matthew Machowski, a Middle East security researcher at the UK houses of parliament and Queen Mary University of London.

“It is already being used as an instrument of war by all sides. One could claim that controlling water resources in Iraq is even more important than controlling the oil refineries, especially in summer. Control of the water supply is fundamentally important. Cut it off and you create great sanitation and health crises,” he said.

Isis now controls the Samarra barrage west of Baghdad on the River Tigris and areas around the giant Mosul Dam, higher up on the same river. Because much of Kurdistan depends on the dam, it is strongly defended by Kurdish peshmerga forces and is unlikely to fall without a fierce fight, says Machowski.

Last week Iraqi troops were rushed to defend the massive 8km-long Haditha Dam and its hydroelectrical works on the Euphrates to stop it falling into the hands of Isis forces. Were the dam to fall, say analysts, Isis would control much of Iraq’s electricity and the rebels might fatally tighten their grip on Baghdad.

Mosul Dam

End of excerpt

ISIS Path of Destruction Drains Iraq/Syria's Water Supplies

ISIS supposedly began as Al Qaeda element that was an ally of the Syrian resistance against Assad in Syria...they allegedly received "back door" US help and have now shifted eastward into Iraq.

Water Wars directed against Syria and Iraq: Turkey’s Control of the Euphrates River

Water also being used as a weapon by Turkey.

Turkey’s decision to block the flow of the Euphrates also affects Iraq’s share, said Khaled Abu Al-Waled, a media activist from Raqqa City. “This is a flagrant violation of international water conventions,” he insisted. “No drop of the Euphrates now enters Syrian territory.”

Some villages have no safe drinking water, forcing locals to use water taken directly from the lake, despite the danger of disease.

The pro-opposition Violation Documentation Centre in Syria (VDC) also condemned Turkey’s behaviour, warning that the consequences will be negative. “This is a weird action,” said Bassam Al-Ahmad, the VDC spokesperson. He called on the Turkish government to reverse the decision. “Our demands are clear for the Turkish government to take immediate measures to stop this action.”

Historically, Turkey has been in conflict with Syria and Iraq over the control of the Euphrates. In the past, Turkey denied that the Euphrates is an international river and that Syria and Iraq had any rights over the control of the flow.

In 1994, an agreement between Syria and Turkey was registered at the United Nations to guarantee a minimum share of the water from the Euphrates to Iraq and Syria. “We can say that this measure is serving the interests of Turkey and embarrassing the Assad regime,” added Ali Amin Al-Suwaid.

Copyright Abdulrahman Al-Masri, Middle East Monitor, 2014

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also See:

The Decline of Glorious Babylon

The Root Causes Of Violence In Syria: Climate Change and Water

Iraq's Marshes Reborn

Water Shortage In Iraq Threatens Two Million People

Turkey Blamed For Looming Crop Disaster In Iraq

Iraq's Marshes, Corporate Control, And Water Scarcity

160 Syrian Villages Deserted Due To Climate Change

What Does The Arab World Do When Their Water Runs Out?

Without Water, Revolution

It's Great Lake Shriveled, Iran Faces Crisis Of Water Supply

Make no mistake, this does not just effect Iraq. What happens regarding control of its water sources and dams will reverberate throughout the Middle East and exacerbate a humanitarian crisis that is already beyond inhumane.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad