The Stream, October 25: Flood Crisis in Southeast Asia

Climate change manifests itself most visibly through water. But is heat the more immediate threat to the world’s breadbaskets?

Floods in Southeast Asia
Areas of Bangkok are bracing for evacuation as floodwaters began spilling into the capital, boosting the levels in the Chao Phraya river, damaging infrastructure, and causing food and water shortages in a number of districts, Bloomberg reported.

Reuters looks at Thailand’s flood crisis in numbers.

The heavy floods in Southeast Asia may trigger “serious food shortages,” according to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization. Flooding has damaged about 12.5 percent of the rice farmland in Thailand, 6 percent in the Philippines, 12 percent in Cambodia, 7.5 percent in Laos and 0.4 percent in Vietnam, Bloomberg reported.

Asia
Iran’s parliament has backed a proposal to import water from Tajikistan in exchange for natural gas, PressTV reported.

Cities in Africa, Asia and South America are bursting at the seams from migrants seeking better jobs or as farmers flee droughts, floods and other natural disasters, according to Reuters. What are the water challenges in the world’s megacities, and what can Beijing tell us about urban planning?

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