Water — 
Lack of clean water far deadlier than violence in war-torn countries, says UNICEF report
Attacks on water and sanitation facilities in conflict zones around the world are putting the lives of millions of children around the world in danger, and are a much greater threat than violence itself, warns the UN Children’s agency, UNICEF, in a report released on Tuesday.
The protection of secure, reliable water and sanitation services is shown to be a critical factor in ensuring the survival of millions of children. The study notes that, in fragile countries, children under the age of five are 20 times more likely to die due to diarrhoeal diseases than to violence.
“Access to water is a means of survival that must never be used as a tactic of war,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes. “Attacks on water and sanitation infrastructure are attacks on children.”
“Access to water is a means of survival that must never be used as a tactic of war,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes. “Attacks on water and sanitation infrastructure are attacks on children.”
“When the flow of water stops, diseases like cholera and diarrhoea can spread like wildfire, often with fatal consequences”, added Mr. Fontaine. “Hospitals cannot function, and rates of malnutrition and wasting increase. Children and families are often forced out in search of water, exposing them, particularly girls, to an increased risk of harm and violence.”
The report catalogues the devastating nature of attacks on water infrastructure: in Eastern Ukraine, for example, where some 3.2 million people needs water and sanitation services, 380 attacks have been recorded since 2017.
In the State of Palestine, there has been 95 attacks against 142 water and sanitation infrastructures since 2019, leaving more than 1.6 million people without access to these basic services.
And Yemen has seen 122 airstrikes on water infrastructure during the six-year-war. A cholera epidemic continues to make thousands of children ill every week, and around 15.4 million people urgently need safe water and sanitation.
In the State of Palestine, there has been 95 attacks against 142 water and sanitation infrastructures since 2019, leaving more than 1.6 million people without access to these basic services.
And Yemen has seen 122 airstrikes on water infrastructure during the six-year-war. A cholera epidemic continues to make thousands of children ill every week, and around 15.4 million people urgently need safe water and sanitation.
Stop attacks immediately
UNICEF outlines a number of steps that should be urgently taken, to ensure that children are protected in conflict zones, and are guaranteed access to safe and sufficient water.Parties to conflict, says the agency, must immediately ending attacks on water and sanitation services and personnel, and fulfilling their obligations to protect children in conflict.
The reports also calls for UN Member States, including Security Council members, to take firmer action to hold the perpetrators of these attacks to account; for donors to invest in water and sanitation in conflict situations; and for the public to add their voice to protect infrastructure, and water workers.
Westward H2O
The Southwest is struggling with drought. The Midwest is soaking under floodwaters. And there may be one solution to both problems: Shift the floodwaters of the Mississippi 1,000 miles west to the Navajo River, a tributary of the Colorado River.
The engineering firm Black & Veatch has developed a plan that would siphon off 1,000 cubic feet of water per second from the Mississippi and move it across the Great plains and over the Rockies to southwestern Colorado. The concept calls for transferring that gush of water ( twice as much as Nevada’s yearly allotment from the Colorado River, shown above ) through 775 miles of pipe, 110 miles of canals, 85 miles of tunnels, and seven pumping stations that would lift the water as high as 7,500 feet. Basin transfer projects are common in the western United States, but “there’s nothing in operation anywhere in the world on this scale,” says engineer Bruce Moore of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which has explored the idea. The price tag is an estimated $11.37 billion.
The engineering firm Black & Veatch has developed a plan that would siphon off 1,000 cubic feet of water per second from the Mississippi and move it across the Great plains and over the Rockies to southwestern Colorado. The concept calls for transferring that gush of water ( twice as much as Nevada’s yearly allotment from the Colorado River, shown above ) through 775 miles of pipe, 110 miles of canals, 85 miles of tunnels, and seven pumping stations that would lift the water as high as 7,500 feet. Basin transfer projects are common in the western United States, but “there’s nothing in operation anywhere in the world on this scale,” says engineer Bruce Moore of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which has explored the idea. The price tag is an estimated $11.37 billion.
Opponents say improved water efficiency and conversation are much cheaper ways to safeguard the Southwest’s water supply. Hydroclimatologist Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, calls the proposal “foolhardy and irresponsible economically. politically, and environmentally.” But the Southern Nevada Water Authority is still considering it, says spokesman J.C.Davis. The first big hurdle? “Getting people to stop laughing long enough to ask if it could work.”
North America's 2080 Water Forecast
Climate models predict that as global temperatures rise over the next seven decades, subtropical regions like the American Southwest will get drier, while more northern areas, including much of Canada, will get wetter. But for the rest of North America the 2080 water forecast is mixed. The Northeast and the Pacific Northwest may see only a slight increase in annual precipitation, maybe one or two percent, but storms are likely to become more intense. Seasonal variation is likely to increase as well, leading to wetter winters and drier summers that could disrupt local water supplies.
People living near the Cascades will be among the first to see a difference. They rely on melting mountain snowpack for their water in the parched summer months. “The snow acts like a water tower, storing water in the winter and then delivering it in the summer,” says University of Washington hydrologist Alan Hamlet. As the planet heats up, much of that snow may fall as rain instead. “The Cascades could see a 50 percent loss of snowpack, which could translate into a large reduction in summer water,” says Hamlet.
In the Northeast, too, the water supply may undergo drastic changes even as total precipitation stays about the same. A warmer atmosphere will hold more moisture, unleashing intense but less frequent rainstorms. Droughts could become more common, but so could storms like Hurricane Irene, which caused record flooding in the region this August. “Water suppliers should be thinking hard about managing these extremes,” says water resources engineer Casey Brown of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “It will only get worse.”
Engineering a Rainforest Rescue
The Daintree River ferry embarks from the southern bank, where spidery coral fingers of the Great Barrier Reef almost caress the shore. Across the way, a canopy of mist hovers over one of the world's most ancient rainforests, an expanse of some 465 square miles that is more than 100 million years old. An hour's drive farther north along the rocky coast, at the Australian Canopy Crane Research Station, which is part of the Daintree Rainforest Observatory. conservation biologists are studying the effects of changing climate on this primordial spot. Suspended high above the canopy, in a gondola hanging from a construction crane, they have unparalleled access to life at the top of the trees and a unique perspective on the forces that threaten this remote region.
In its rich biological diversity, the Daintree provides a living record of the evolutionary history of Australia's plants and animals during the past 100 million years, as well as a window on its future. But gaining that knowledge has become an urgent affair. Temperatures in the region are expected to rise by an average of up to 3 degrees Fahrenheit within the next 20 years, and up to 10° by 2070. Such warming could disrupt or destroy much of the Daintree. "Once you get up around 1,500 feet, it's almost exclusively ancient plants and animals that can't tolerate heat, and they've got nowhere to go," says Steve Turton, a climatology and rainforest ecology expert who helps manage the terrain.
Daintree is just one of the sites in Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network TERN), an information-sharing organization that collects, manages, and shares data on flora, fauna, and other environmental factors to capture snapshots of what key wilderness ecosystems look like now and measure the potential effects of climate change.
In its rich biological diversity, the Daintree provides a living record of the evolutionary history of Australia's plants and animals during the past 100 million years, as well as a window on its future. But gaining that knowledge has become an urgent affair. Temperatures in the region are expected to rise by an average of up to 3 degrees Fahrenheit within the next 20 years, and up to 10° by 2070. Such warming could disrupt or destroy much of the Daintree. "Once you get up around 1,500 feet, it's almost exclusively ancient plants and animals that can't tolerate heat, and they've got nowhere to go," says Steve Turton, a climatology and rainforest ecology expert who helps manage the terrain.
Daintree is just one of the sites in Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network TERN), an information-sharing organization that collects, manages, and shares data on flora, fauna, and other environmental factors to capture snapshots of what key wilderness ecosystems look like now and measure the potential effects of climate change.
Around the Great Barrier Reef, warming ocean waters are becoming more acidic, bleaching the coral and threatening the rich community of life drawn to the reefs. In 2005 the Australian government began setting up "green zones" in the reef areas and implementing new regulations to prevent overfishing, a strategy that has had some success. Alpine regions are under siege by weed and pest invasions, more fires, and reduced snowfall. As conditions get drier and hotter, plants and animals move to higher ground to stay cool but can quickly run out of mountain needed to survive. "We can't save them all, but we intervene to help some adjust," says Ary Hoffmann, who studies the effects of climate change on biodiversity at the University of Melbourne.
Here in the Daintree, keystone species play a critical role in maintaining ecological balance. Endangered cassowaries-colorful, turkey-size birds-eat many different kinds of fruits, the seeds of which travel through their guts before being excreted in fertilizing dung. Rescuing, the birds by creating cassowary habitats helps preserve the habitat for everything else. The question now, Hoffmann says, "is can we help them mount an evolutionary response, and can they adapt in time?" L.M.
Here in the Daintree, keystone species play a critical role in maintaining ecological balance. Endangered cassowaries-colorful, turkey-size birds-eat many different kinds of fruits, the seeds of which travel through their guts before being excreted in fertilizing dung. Rescuing, the birds by creating cassowary habitats helps preserve the habitat for everything else. The question now, Hoffmann says, "is can we help them mount an evolutionary response, and can they adapt in time?" L.M.
