Water blog posts

New Snapshot Series: Partially treated sewage and industrial effluent is pumped into irrigation channels in Jajmau, a suburb of the Indian city of Kanpur. What isn’t used by farmers eventually flows into the Ganges, one of the country’s most polluted rivers.

They are the large overlooked agricultural potential: the extensive flood plains of Sub Saharan Africa. In Asian countries the flood plains are converted into food baskets and densely populated population hubs, in Africa the flood plains are largely unchartered terrain.

If tomorrow, all of East Africa’s wetlands disappeared, what costs would governments incur? While it is nearly impossible to place a quantitative value on wetlands, a new project is exploring methods of valuation of wetlands in the Nile Basin.

In the face of climate change managing water resources is becoming more difficult. In an effort to manage increased water variability, there is a competing discourse on the need for more built infrastructure (e.g. dams, canals and levees) to store and regulate water in order to support social and economic development and facilitate adaptation to climate change.

Something interesting is happening in Kenya – something that, if successful, could reverberate through Africa and transform the continent’s landscape management. Formerly all-powerful state agencies are handing over day-to-day control of key resources like forests, rivers and wildlife to local communities.

We’d like to present you with a summary of what’s been in scientific and popular literature this month on the theme of Ecosystem Services and Resilience.

Just one week before World Wetlands Day, at a meeting in Myanmar, Environment Ministers of the Greater Mekong Subregion reaffirmed their commitment to “green” economic growth. The challenge they recognized is ensuring not only sustainable growth but also inclusive and shared growth.

It seems obvious: if it’s called the Dry Zone it must be dry. Right? Located in a central plain, sandwiched by highlands to the east and west, the Dry Zone of Myanmar is the driest part of the country. But is lack of water really the problem?

I remember the cyclone in 1970s, this was before the polders were built. Thousands died in that storm. I am 100% sure that polders would have saved them.

For IWMI Director General, Jeremy Bird, the world's emerging water crisis in most places is one of management rather than of absolute water shortages -- of not making the most of clean water, and of profligate disregard for the value of waste water.

For many rural communities in Africa and Asia, collecting and managing water for home use and domestic gardening is “women’s work”. Yet women seldom have a say in how water is managed or how water infrastructure is planned.

Most people don’t realize there are two Noahs in the bible. There’s the man with the animals and the ark, and then there’s the woman who fought for equitable property ownership rights for men and for women. Noah and her sisters appealed to Moses for women’s inalienable and legal right to control their own land, with or without male co-ownership. This Noah is my namesake.