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Geneva: The Global High-Level Panel of the Water and Peace, in which the Sultanate is a member, has launched World Water and Peace Report in Geneva, Switzerland.
The report highlighted the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for 2000 and 2015, seeking international cooperation to prevent and resolve water-related conflicts.
States should be encouraged to develop appropriate legislative frameworks for the protection of transboundary water infrastructures against terrorist acts.
It has been observed that countries which jointly manage their shared water resources do not go to war with each other, and hence Switzerland is very active in what it calls ‘blue diplomacy’. This kind of diplomacy encourages discussions between the countries which make up the Nile Basin, and between countries in Central Asia and the Middle East. Furthermore, according to a study published by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, by 2050 more than half of the world’s population (52 per cent) will be living in regions where water is extremely scarce.
Supported by the Geneva Water Hub, the Global Panel on Water and Peace has been working on the report for two years.

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In Doomar Para village people are forced to survive on a local river’s water due to government’s negligence. A local claimed that they have been facing this problem of water scarcity since last 20 years. The area is not only deprived of basic necessity like water but is also not under the ambit of government’s welfare schemes.
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PANAJI: In order to address the water scarcity problem in the state, more particularly in those North Goa areas, which are affected by the floating tourist population visiting the North Goa beach belt, the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday chaired a high-level meeting, and deliberated on measures to be taken up to overcome the same, including improving upon the available water resources.
Minister for Public Works Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar, Minister for Water Resources Vinod Palyekar, Minister for Rural Development Agency Jayesh Salgaonkar and Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo also participated.
Later, speaking to this daily, the Minister for Public Works said that the meeting was convened to address the water scarcity problem in Goa and finding a long-term solution for the same, say, for the next 25 to 50 years.
“We have found that there is a shortfall in the supply of potable water to North Goan areas such as Porvorim, Saligao, Calangute, Mapusa, Aldona and Tivim,” he observed, pointing out that setting up new water filtration plants to increase the necessary water supply is not the solution, as there is a need to upgrade the water resources. Speaking further, Dhavalikar said that if one considers the population of North Goa, the water supplied should have been adequate. “However, it is seen that throughout the year, floating population, especially the floating tourist population visits or resides in the North Goan beach belt, in turn utilising the water supplied to the local residents,” he maintained, noting that the floating population in the North Goa beach belt is ever increasing.
The Minister for Public Works also said that a beach village like Calangute has around 5,000 hotel rooms, where the average occupancy is between 60 per cent and 80 per cent. “Now, this inflates the population existing in Calangute four times,” he mentioned, observing that this is the exact reason why artificial water scarcity has been created.

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BALRAMPUR: On one side where Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh is hailing his 5,000 days in office, a village in Balrampur district in the state is battling with water crisis since last 20 years.
In Doomar Para, which is nearly eight kilometers from the central headquarters of the Balrampur district, people are forced to survive on a local river’s water due to government’s negligence.
A local of the region, talking to ANI, claimed that they have been facing this problem of water scarcity since last 20 years.
“We do not have facility of water over last 20 years. We use the river’s water, but it gets dried up in the summers. We face too many difficulties,” the villager said.
“Many people have fallen ill in the village after consuming water from the available water bodies,” he added.
The area is not only deprived of basic necessity like water but is also not under the ambit of government’s welfare schemes.

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On one side where Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh is hailing his 5,000 days in office, a village in Balrampur district in the state is battling with water crisis since last 20 years.
In Doomar Para, which is nearly eight kilometers from the central headquarters of the Balrampur district, people are forced to survive on a local river’s water due to government’s negligence.
A local of the region, talking to ANI, claimed that they have been facing this problem of water scarcity since last 20 years.
"We do not have facility of water over last 20 years. We use the river’s water, but it gets dried up in the summers. We face too many difficulties," the villager said.
"Many people have fallen ill in the village after consuming water from the available water bodies," he added.
The area is not only deprived of basic necessity like water but is also not under the ambit of government’s welfare schemes.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Evidence shows that growing climatic variability has impacts on water availability and quality, which in turn jeopardizes social stability and jobs for the younger generations. This is particularly true in arid and semi-arid regions, where often migration is both the result of and a way to adapt to climate-induced environmental stresses. This paper makes the case that medium- to long-term strategies to mitigate social unrest, improve livelihoods of communities and individuals, and reinforce resilience to environmental stresses should include a special focus on improving water supply, access and governance.
According to a recent study (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2016), two-thirds of the global population (or 4 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least one month per year, while another half a billion people face severe water scarcity year-round. The impacts of climate change, including water scarcity, are expected to lead to substantial employment cuts across the global economy, impacting in particular heavily water-dependent jobs – 95% of which are estimated to be agricultural jobs (WWAP, 2016) – in arid and semi-arid areas highly affected by climate change, where populations with low adaptive capacity may be led to migrate. Migration can hence represent a response to the consequence of failed adaptation to environmental stress.
Trends of increasing water scarcity show that this will impact heavily-dependent water jobs, threatening its sustainability. The increase of ‘water-scarce’ countries will affect income-generating opportunities, in particular for the youth (WWAP, 2016).

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Ongole: The Prakasam Zilla Parishad members demanded that the government release six tmc feet of water from the Nagarjunasagar canal to address the drinking water scarcity in the district. The members passed a resolution in the general body meeting at Old ZP Meeting Hall here on Thursday.

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Kurnool: Panchalingala village, situated on the banks of Tungabhadra River is facing an acute water crisis. Earlier, water scarcity was witnessed only during summer season, but the situation at Panchalingala is quite reverse.
They are going all the way to the river to fetch a pail of water. Despite making several complaints to the Panchyat Raj department officials, they were being indifferent. The local also said that water was being supplied only to the upper caste people. Why this discrimination, he questioned.

Water remains one of the greatest challenges for Central Asian nations due to the lack of cooperation and regional dialogue on resource management between the upstream and downstream countries.
It is forecasted that due to the melting of mountain glaciers, the river runoff in the Amu Darya river basin will be reduced by 30 percent, compared with the average annual runoff over the past 10 years.
Kyrgyzstan’s ambitions to control the flow of its rivers in order to generate more hydroelectric power are of particular concern to Uzbekistan as it relies on rivers that originate or pass through Kyrgyzstan and its mountainous neighbor, Tajikistan, to irrigate its cotton fields.
The Kambarata project is only the first of several projects planned along the Naryn River, which rises in the Tien Shan Mountains and is dammed at Toktogul, the largest reservoir in Kyrgyzstan, before running on to merge with another river to become the Syr Darya.
By implementing the project, Tajikistan will be able to generate about 13 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.
The Rogun HPP construction project was developed during the Soviet era.
Both sides stressed that one of the key factors of the Central Asia’s well-being is the integrated use of water and energy resources, taking into account the interests of all the states of the region.

KARACHI: Pakistan is a water-stressed country and is nearing the threshold of water scarcity, whereas industrial waste has been polluting the limited water resources in the country.
This was emphasised by speakers during a media briefing session conducted by the Worldwild Fund for Nature – Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) regarding a project titled ‘International Labour and Environmental Standards (ILES), Application in Pakistan’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)’.
The project primarily focuses on reducing the use of water and hazardous chemicals by 15% to 20% in SMEs. The project promotes sustainable production and plans to mobilise and build capacity of more than 500 textile and leather industries in Pakistan.
This has consequential impacts on natural resources, people’s health and eventually on overall economic conditions, he said.
He informed the media that WWF-Pakistan will initiate a study for the situational analysis of water resources in Karachi to establish a case for a citywide partnership for the responsible use of water.
WWF-Pakistan Technical Adviser Muhammad Moazzam Khan maintained that treatment plants (TP) in the city particularly TP-1, TP-2 and TP-3 located in SITE, Mehmoodabad and Mauripur respectively have not been functional since 2013. Due to this, untreated sewage of both the industrial and domestic sectors is dumped into the sea through nullahs. Moreover, the industrial waste from these industries contains toxic compounds of metals such as copper, chromium, and nickel, which are hazardous to human health, he said.
Responding to a question regarding One Planet City Challenge (OPCC), she said the WWF-Pakistan is working to introduce renewable energy in Karachi and through the OPCC carbon emissions estimates from different sectors in the city will be collected and green initiatives undertaken by the city government reported.