Water: The Dragon's Achilles Heel: How water insecurity will prevent the PRC from maintaining global preeminence

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-276
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Michael Mascarenhas

Three very different field sites—First Nations communities in Canada, water charities in the Global South, and the US cities of Flint and Detroit, Michigan—point to the increasing precariousness of water access for historically marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples, African Americans, and people of color around the globe. This multi-sited ethnography underscores a common theme: power and racism lie deep in the core of today’s global water crisis. These cases reveal the concrete mechanisms, strategies, and interconnections that are galvanized by the economic, political, and racial projects of neoliberalism. In this sense neoliberalism is not only downsizing democracy but also creating both the material and ideological forces for a new form of discrimination in the provision of drinking water around the globe. These cases suggest that contemporary notions of environmental and social justice will largely hinge on how we come to think about water in the twenty-first century.


Author(s):  
Carson Edgerton ◽  
Alex Estrada ◽  
Katya Fairchok ◽  
Michele T. Parker ◽  
Andrew Jezak ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1927328
Author(s):  
Carole Debora Nounkeu ◽  
Kenneth J. Gruber ◽  
Joseph Kamgno ◽  
Ismael Teta ◽  
Jigna Morarji Dharod

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1135
Author(s):  
Carolyn Payus ◽  
Lim Ann Huey ◽  
Farrah Adnan ◽  
Andi Besse Rimba ◽  
Geetha Mohan ◽  
...  

For countries in Southeast Asia that mainly rely on surface water as their water resource, changes in weather patterns and hydrological systems due to climate change will cause severely decreased water resource availability. Warm weather triggers more water use and exacerbates the extraction of water resources, which will change the operation patterns of water usage and increase demand, resulting in water scarcity. The occurrence of prolonged drought upsets the balance between water supply and demand, significantly increasing the vulnerability of regions to damaging impacts. The objectives of this study are to identify trends and determine the impacts of extreme drought events on water levels for the major important water dams in the northern part of Borneo, and to assess the risk of water insecurity for the dams. In this context, remote sensing images are used to determine the degree of risk of water insecurity in the regions. Statistical methods are used in the analysis of daily water levels and rainfall data. The findings show that water levels in dams on the North and Northeast Coasts of Borneo are greatly affected by the extreme drought climate caused by the Northeast Monsoon, with mild to the high risk recorded in terms of water insecurity, with only two of the water dams being water-secure. This study shows how climate change has affected water availability throughout the regions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1339-1354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Pederson ◽  
Andrew R. Bell ◽  
Edward R. Cook ◽  
Upmanu Lall ◽  
Naresh Devineni ◽  
...  

Abstract Six water emergencies have occurred since 1981 for the New York City (NYC) region despite the following: 1) its perhumid climate, 2) substantial conservation of water since 1979, and 3) meteorological data showing little severe or extreme drought since 1970. This study reconstructs 472 years of moisture availability for the NYC watershed to place these emergencies in long-term hydroclimatic context. Using nested reconstruction techniques, 32 tree-ring chronologies comprised of 12 species account for up to 66.2% of the average May–August Palmer drought severity index. Verification statistics indicate good statistical skill from 1531 to 2003. The use of multiple tree species, including rarely used species that can sometimes occur on mesic sites like Liriodendron tulipifera, Betula lenta, and Carya spp., seems to aid reconstruction skill. Importantly, the reconstruction captures pluvial events in the instrumental record nearly as well as drought events and is significantly correlated to precipitation over much of the northeastern United States. While the mid-1960s drought is a severe drought in the context of the new reconstruction, the region experienced repeated droughts of similar intensity, but greater duration during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The full record reveals a trend toward more pluvial conditions since ca. 1800 that is accentuated by an unprecedented 43-yr pluvial event that continues through 2011. In the context of the current pluvial, decreasing water usage, but increasing extra-urban pressures, it appears that the water supply system for the greater NYC region could be severely stressed if the current water boom shifts toward hydroclimatic regimes like the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atal Ahmadzai

Alerted by increasing water insecurity and energy demand, countries, mainly in the Global South, are building dams of unprecedented magnitude. Hundreds of large dams (≥ 100 metres) have been constructed since 2000, with hundreds more under construction. Analyses of the physical attributes of these dams present a concerning image. While they create expansive reservoirs with large surface areas, they have inefficient surface area-to-volume ratios ('S2VR'). Their unprecedented size and the reservoirs’ expansive surface area, indicate severe environmental costs, mainly through ecological disturbances to the (riverine) aquatic ecosystems; and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Other ecological costs due to the larger S2VR include a high evaporation rate and compromised biodiversity of a wider area, both up- and downstream. The safety and environmental aspects of these large dams should be robustly scrutinised.


Water SA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (4 October) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A Marcantonio

Recent reports from the UN find that 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources since 1990, but 663 million people still live without. Other recent work demonstrates that 4 billion people annually face severe water scarcity as a result of seasonal fluctuations in water availability and quality. How is it that, despite the significant development in water resource availability documented by the UN, literally billions of people are regularly experiencing water insecurity? To begin to understand how a lack of access to reliable water resources affects everyday life, I focus on a specific outcome of water insecurity: waterborne illness. Given the difficulty in linking illness to a particular source, this research focuses on perceptions of water safety. I ask participants about illness they perceive coming from their drinking water, conducting face-to-face surveys (N = 224) spatially distributed around Choma town, Southern Province, Zambia. In particular, I investigate how these perceptions affect everyday life and what intersecting factors are likely to increase or decrease the probability of a person perceiving drinking water as the source of their illness. Our findings demonstrate that individual perceptions of waterborne illness are tightly coupled with perceptions of water needs being met or not, water flexibility (water storage capacity and water resource type and number available), total water use, food security and distance to various services. My work identifies and qualifies intersecting relationships that are critical to the design of any policy or other means of intervention intended to reduce experienced and perceived waterborne illness and other everyday needs of subsistence farmers facing the challenges presented by climate change and other forms of environmental change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine E Cooper-Vince ◽  
Hawk Arachy ◽  
Bernard Kakuhikire ◽  
Dagmar Vořechovská ◽  
Rumbidzai C Mushavi ◽  
...  

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