The Stream, June 11: Groundwater Depletion Could Cost Pakistan Its Food Security

The Global Rundown

An attack on an oil pipeline has spilled several thousand barrels of crude into a Colombia river. Groundwater is declining fast in Pakistan‘s breadbasket region. The capital of Ghana is ill-equipped to handle heavy rain.

“It’s a social and environmental tragedy.” — Juan Carlos Echeverry, CEO of Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol, on a recent pipeline attack that sent thousands of barrels of crude down the Rosario River. (Reuters)

By The Numbers

4,000 barrels – Estimated amount of oil that has spilled into the Rosario River in Colombia after a bomb attack on an oil pipeline Monday. The oil slick was expected to reach the Pacific Ocean by Wednesday evening. This particular pipeline, owned by government-run oil company Ecopetrol, has been attacked six times this year. The culprits are as yet unknown, but the ‘Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’ (FARC) were in the area. Reuters

Science, Studies, And Reports

Groundwater supplies in Pakistan’s Punjab province and adjacent areas are declining at a rate of 16 to 55 centimeters per year, according to a study conducted by the Pakistani government’s International Waterlogging and Salinity Research Institute (IWASRI). 80 percent of Pakistan’s farming population live in Punjab and neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Desperate farmers that must drill ever deeper in search of water compound the problem. Reuters

On The Radar

Poor stormwater management in Ghana’s capital Accra causes yearly floods during the rainy season and covers the city of 4 million with filth. In the crowded metropolis which was designed for only half a million, roadside drains and gutters are clogged with plastic garbage and sand. Last year’s flooding resulted in the worst cholera outbreak in two decades. Attempts by donors to improve sanitation in the city have been repeatedly stalled. Bloomberg Business