Ethiopia has been building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River since 2011. During this period relations between Egypt and Ethiopia became strained with mutual threats and accusations. Moreover, there is a risk of water conflict in Africa, which would completely destabilize East Africa. After construction, GERD will be the largest […]
Picture from City of Cape Town. (Source: Alberton Record) Cape Town, South Africa (a city of four million people) is at a dangerous inflection point. National Public Radio (NPR) reports that South Africa’s second main economic driver and Africa’s third main economic hub city could be the first major city in the developed world to […]
China is plagued by a growing water security crisis and its current solutions are far from sufficient. Similar matters have already had global implications.
Water can be an economic win-win agent and a ‘lubricant of peace,’ especially when basins transcend jurisdictional boundaries
Issues like water governance and cross-border coordination of energy supply are likely to become much more thorny diplomatic exercises to deal with.
Clean Drinking Water: The Cure for Malnutrition? This week is World Water Week — which is timely, given the serious cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone and neighboring countries. The focus of this year’s conference is on food security, water scarcity, and their ties to food (and water) waste. As I’ve written before, up to 40 percent […]
Someone broke the embargo (shame on whomever it was) on a Congressional report detailing the substances used in hydraulic fracking to produce natural gas. So, we get the news a bit early. The press release on the report starts: “Today Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman, Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Edward […]
Today I want to focus on Water and Health (my fellow FPA blogger, Bill Hewitt, has something to say on the environmental front as well). The UN has dubbed March 22nd World Water Day, and in my reading I stumbled upon a pretty amazing statistic. According to the World Health Organization, each $1 that we invest in clean water access gets returned to us 3-34 times in time savings, productivity, improved education and reduced healthcare costs. Compared to the majority of social investments – which often achieve only a 1:1 return, and very frequently, less – this is phenomenal. In terms of “social return”, improved access to clean water is clearly a sound investment.
Overview 2009 was all about China. Early in the year, when energy prices crashed due to disappearing demand, oil sank to slightly more than $30 barrel from its mid-2008 high of $147 and natural gas from $14 to around $3 per thousand cubic feet. China, flush with cash, for all practical purposes stabilized the market […]
On Wednesday, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela urged his countrymen (and women) to make efforts to conserve water and electricity. The most likely reason that citizens will not use these resources, however, is not due to patriotism, goodwill or a penchant for conservation, but because they have no choice – there have been ongoing water […]
I have a very high regard for the reporting at the venerable “Economist.” (Somewhat less so for the editorial writers.) In a perfectly informative, relatively important article recently on water quality and quantity issues worldwide, I thought the writer overstepped the bounds of reason on one particular point. For the record, here is my letter […]
The Wall Street Journal last week highlighted the growing role that water shortages are playing in the decision about building power plants. A lack of water in 2001 reduced energy in Brazil, which relies on hyrdopower, questioning its reliance on water for such a high proportion of its energy needs. But its not just dams. […]