The Stream, August 14: India Spending $US 1 Billion To Clean Waterways

India will spend $US 1 billion by 2017 to clean up waterways and make more water available for irrigation, Bloomberg News reported. Government officials say the plan will allow an additional 500,000 hectares of land to be irrigated.

Climate Change
Water supplies in some of Asia’s major rivers may be at risk as glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau shrink, Reuters reported, citing Science and Technology Daily. A new study by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research found that temperatures on the plateau have been increasing at double the global average rate in the past 50 years.

Coastal “megacities” around the world could face sea level rise as much as 37 centimeters by the end of the century, according to a new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Bloomberg News reported. The study acknowledged that there is a high level of uncertainty about these projections, and seas may rise just 1 centimeter in that time period.

Water Management
Tokyo has started work on the second of three underground reservoirs that are designed to capture heavy rainfall and prevent the city from flooding during strong storms, Bloomberg News reported. The reservoir, scheduled to be completed by 2016, will have the capacity to hold 135,000 cubic meters of water.

The United States Bureau of Reclamation will release 10 percent more water from Lake Powell to Lake Mead this year, the Associated Press reported. Lake Mead, a major reservoir in the Colorado River system, has reached record low levels this season and will still be low even after the additional water is released.

Codi Kozacek

A news correspondent for Circle of Blue based out of Hawaii. She writes The Stream, Circle of Blue’s daily digest of international water news trends. Her interests include food security, ecology and the Great Lakes.
Contact Codi Kozacek