The global cost of disasters is growing: The economic burden of disasters is intensifying. While the direct costs of disasters averaged $70–80 billion a year between 1970 and 2000, between 2001 and 2020 these annual costs grew significantly to $180–200 billion. But the real cost is far higher. Disaster costs …
Ralph Unger had to sell 60 per cent of his cattle because fields typically used to feed the animals have turned to dust. Unger's predicament sums up the plight of us farmers and ranchers who are the worst sufferers of this year's devastating drought. At a meeting with lawmakers in …
Water is a critical issue in Afghanistan. The country receives less than 300 millimetres of rain each year and shares all its river basins with neighbouring countries. Twenty-three years of conflict have left its water infrastructure system shattered. And drought over the last five years aggravated the situation. Today, only …
Droughts, an integral part of India's geophysical profile, have registered a steep rise in frequency and ferocity during the past 50 years. To its credit, the scientific community has kept pace by conducting research that can minimise the impact of dry spells. But the government has done precious little to …
Vietnam is grappling with the elements. Different parts of the country are reeling under varying extremes of weather, with the central region in the grip of a deadly drought and northern areas deluged by floods. A two-month dry spell has hit paddy crop in central Vietnam severely. More than one-third …
from Tuscany to the tip of Sicily, Italy is in the grip of its worst drought in decades. It has wiped out crops, killed livestock and changed the lives of thousands of people. Experts say that rainfall in Sicily is at its lowest level in more than 70 years and …
In a last-ditch bid to save their dying crops, farmers of drought affected Namunda village in Haryana breached the Delhi-Rewari canal recently. They resorted to this extreme step to irrigate their paddy crop which had shrivelled due to the delayed monsoon. To prevent such untoward incidents, the Punjab police have …
the monsoon is late by a little more than a fortnight. And the alarm bells are already ringing furiously across the country. State governments, lulled into a false sense of security by the meteorological department's forecast of
tiny pollutant particles, known as sulphate aerosols, emitted by power stations and industries from the us and Europe have played an important role in causing catastrophic droughts in the Sahel region of Africa. These were the findings of a research conducted by Australia-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (csiro), …
Despite taking the initiative to propagate rainwater harvesting (rwh) as a household concept, Chennai has surprisingly been losing its capacity to hold water over the years. This incongruity could be attributed to the message not percolating down convincingly enough to the city's domestic consumers (a survey suggests that though 48 …
Bamboo flowering is considered a bad omen in several northeastern states of India, especially when accompanied by an increase in rodent population. It is believed to lead to famines and natural calamities. The next bamboo flowering is expected around year 2003-04. Should we prepare ourselves? On October 29, 1958 the …
Africa is reeling under a double whammy. As if the erratic weather pattern that has led to a widespread famine was not enough, corruption and mismanagement has compounded the people's misery. Two seasons of crops have been devastated, first by flood and then by drought. The continent is grappling with …
Taiwan's biggest security threat has brought it relief from a severe drought. For the first time in 50 years, a ship delivered 2,300 metric tonnes of water from China to a tiny Matsu island in Taiwan. The Chinese and Taiwanese officials attended the vessel's flagging off ceremony. To facilitate the …
After 20 years If the bombs didn't kill, the land will. Afghanistan's natural resources are all but dead survival is an impossible dream in Afghanistan. Last December, as Afghans looked up to the deceptively beautiful sky for rain, bombs rained from endless streams of b-52 bombers
We are not starting from scratch. Our institutions have been substantially weakened. But they still exist,' says Hedayat Amin-Arsala, minister of finance of Afghanistan Interim Authority. Hidayat's statement has more meaning now when the interim government is struggling hard to convene the Loya Jirga and to chart out his country's …
life ravaged by war and drought has one hope: resilience of a people. "A good monsoon and a bit of peace will bring Afghan's life to normal,' says J Gabriel Campbell of icimod. Take Kohistan district of Kapisa province for example. Just after usa bombarded and damaged water channels in …
Taiwan is facing its worst drought in two decades. To combat it, the authorities are considering rationing water island-wide. Water rationing has already begun in several cities and counties, where the opening of swimming pools has been delayed and irrigation has been suspended. The Central Weather Bureau's forecast centre said …
RIGHT now, it is politically correct to talk of water conservation. Yet ground realities have a different story to tell if one were to go by the spate of reports on water riots pouring in from across the country. It's a parched summer once again and water is suddenly precious. …
Thousands of children under five years of age are suffering from malnourishment after a drought devastated subsistence crops in Guatemala. This was recently revealed by Deborah Hines, un World Food Programme (wfp) senior regional programme advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean. The wfp has delivered several thousand tonnes of …
