By early September 2010, torrential monsoon rains had not only pushed the Indus River over its banks, but also raised water levels in a nearby lake. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the two water bodies on September 5, 2010.

Indus River and Manchhar Lake (ASTER)

In this false-color image, vegetation is red, and bare ground and settled areas vary in color from gray to beige. Water ranges in color from navy blue to teal. The greenish hue of the Indus River likely results from the flooded river’s heavy sediment load. Patches of red in the river hint at the scale of flooding; these areas are farmland submerged by the swollen Indus.

A network of canals connects the Indus to the nearby lake, which also appears flooded. Manchhar Lake (also spelled Manchar Lake) is Pakistan’s largest natural freshwater lake. Located immediately west of the city of Sehwan in the southern Pakistan province of Sindh, Manchhar Lake receives not only rainwater from a vast catchment area in western Sindh, but also fresh river water through the canals. Drainage water also feeds into Manchhar Lake through the Main Nara Valley Drain (not shown), which connects Manchhar to Hamal, another lake to the north.

Following a dam failure in August, the Indus River essentially split in two, sending some water downstream on the Indus, and some water over vast stretches of agricultural land west of the river. By early September, the floodwaters west of the Indus had formed a twin river that terminated in Manchhar Lake.

As of early September 2010, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that millions of Pakistanis were living without basic necessities, their homes and livelihoods destroyed. Waterborne diseases were spreading, and authorities worried about an outbreak of malaria. In Sindh Province alone, more than 27,000 square kilometers (10,500 square miles) remained submerged.

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See also Flooding in Pakistan which shows higher altitude imaging.

Rivers are the planet’s lifelines, but the double threat of human interventions combined with climate change is already seriously compromising their health – and, by extension, ours. A major study last year found an overall decline in total discharge of most of the world’s major rivers – changes that could affect up to a billion people. Here we interview Dr. Margaret Palmer, director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland and a leading expert on how climate change impacts rivers.

What are your biggest concerns for the world’s major rivers?

MP: Over the past 50 years, the amount of runoff has changed substantially for many rivers due to the combined effects of withdrawals, dams, and climate change. The impacts of human alteration of the land around rivers are harming rivers at a far higher rate now and over the next 50 years than is climate change. But if climate change is added as an additional stressor on top of immediate anthropogenic impacts, rivers may not be able to supply the ecosystem services – like clean drinking water – that people depend on.

The effects of climate change on rivers are manifest through increases in temperature and changes in river discharge. Some parts of the world will experience higher flows and others lower flows, but all will experience warming. The impacts will be dramatically worse in basins that are otherwise impacted either by flow modification (e.g., by excessive water withdrawals) or development. In particular, urbanized watersheds in regions that are expected to experience less precipitation may have more severe and longer droughts. Urban areas that have substantially higher rainfall or that will have more intense storms may have more flooding. The reason is that urban areas typically have less riparian wetland and in general less wildland along rivers, which act to store water that can be released later.

Your research shows that areas impacted by dams would require more management interventions to mitigate the impacts of climate change than free-flowing rivers. Why are free-flowing rivers more resilient to climate change? What kinds of interventions will be needed?

MP: Free-flowing streams in wild areas have tremendous capacity to adjust to changes in discharge and sediment inputs (both of which are expected to change in many areas under future climate scenarios). But they need room to do this. When a channel changes shape or migrates across the landscape, it’s because the river is adjusting to a new flow or sediment regime. When you try to lock it in place or cut off its supply of sediment (due to dams), the ability of the stream to adjust and reach a new equilibrium is lost. We need to “free” rivers so they can move across the landscape and have some degree of buffering capacity which intact riparian corridors and wetlands (and floodplains) provide.

On the other hand, streams can do little about an increase in air temperature. If river water warms too quickly – say 3-4 degrees C in the next 25 years – then the organisms living in the stream are unlikely to be able to adapt fast enough to cope with this. At first, we will see declines in reproductive output or survival of young and over time, populations of some species will decline, while those species able to withstand warmer water (often nonnative species) will increase. However, keep in mind that if deforestation has occurred in a watershed, temperature increases (above historic levels) will be far greater and more harmful ecologically

To sum up, to manage for global change, we need to manage in a way that makes streams more resilient. It will be far cheaper and save more lives if we act now to protect rivers and the people they support.

Your study looked at both dam-impacted and non-dam impacted basins. Which basins are key hotspots that will require extensive management? How many people do these basins approximately impact?

MP: Basins that require major management decisions include for example the Nile in Africa which is already experiencing significant reductions in flow by the time the river reaches Egypt. The Nile Basin supports more than 180 million people and poverty is high. Its water is critical to irrigation in Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, and Ethiopia, yet given growth in water extractions and hydropower needs in the upper portions of the basin, climate change poses a major concern for the river and the people it supports.

The water that feeds the Indus River is from glaciers in the Himalayas and with increasing temperatures, glacial melting with significant increases in river discharge will occur. But a rapid reduction in glaciers could mean future water supplies may become increasingly limited, yet millions of people in northwestern India and Pakistan depend on the river.

How should river basin management change to reflect a changing climate?

MP: Current practices in river basin management should move aggressively toward restoring or preserving those natural features that contribute to a river ecosystems resilience. Most of these also benefit humans. For example, riparian wetlands and floodplains help store water so they reduce flooding and also help recharge the groundwater, which means more water will be available in the river (and for people) during dry periods. To accomplish this, river management will have to include moving people and infrastructure out of floodplains, removing levees, and allowing vegetation to grow back.

This interview was published in: World Rivers Review: Focus on Rivers, Water and Climate – September 2010

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From Earth Observatory

The Indus had practically spawned a parallel river in Sindh Province by early September 2010. A dam breach upstream caused the Indus waters to diverge in August. While some water remained in the river channel and flowed toward the Arabian Sea, some water flooded agricultural lands and settlements to the west, ultimately pouring into Manchhar (also spelled Manchar) Lake, according to news reports.

Pakistan. Acquired July 19, 2010

Pakistan. Acquired August 11, 2010

Pakistan. Acquired September 7, 2010

Flooding had already ravaged several settlements, including Mehar. Authorities feared that floodwaters would breach embankments and inundate the town of Johi and the nearby city of Dadu.

These images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite show the bend in the Indus River where waters diverged in the 2010 monsoon season. The images span a 50-day period. The top image is from July 19, before flooding was apparent along the lower Indus. The middle image is from August 11, roughly midway through the 50-day period. The bottom image is from September 7, after a floodwaters extended to Manchhar Lake.

These images use a combination of infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water ranges in color from electric blue to navy. Vegetation appears bright green. Bare land ranges in color from pink-beige to brick red. Clouds appear pale blue-green.

In the image from July 19, the Indus River is confined to thin braided channels. A network of irrigation structures waters agricultural fields west of the river. Apparently dry land surrounds Manchhar Lake and the settlements in the region.

In the image from August 11, the swollen Indus River fills the entire river valley north of the city of Sukkur, where a barrage modifies water flow. Even south of Sukkur, the river is discernibly swollen. West of the Indus, a long, thin, north-south water channel almost reaches Mancchar Lake.

In the image from September 7, the new river rivals the width of the Indus. An unbroken water body extends from the Indus westward and southward all the way to Mancchar Lake, nearly rejoining the Indus in the south. The new river’s dark color, compared to that of the Indus, suggests depth, but this could result from the angle of the Sun, or from a greater sediment load in the Indus River.

On September 6, Agence France-Presse reported that flooding had destroyed 3.6 million hectares (8.9 million acres) of Pakistan’s productive farmland. In the wake of the floods, Pakistan faced a three-pronged threat to its food security because seeds, crops, and incomes had all been affected.

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ARMONK, N.Y., – 07 Sep 2010: World Community Grid, a worldwide network of PC owners helping scientists solve humanitarian challenges, today announced several computing projects aimed at developing techniques to produce cleaner and safer water, an increasingly scarce commodity eluding at least 1.2 billion people worldwide.

One initiative will simulate how human behaviors and ecosystem processes relate to one another in watersheds such as the Chesapeake Bay. Other projects will explore advanced water filtering techniques and seek cures for a water-borne disease.

To accelerate the pace, lower the expense, and increase the precision of these projects, scientists will harness the IBM-supported World Community Grid to perform online simulations, crunch numbers, and pose hypothetical scenarios. The processing power is provided by a grid of 1.5 million PCs from 600,000 volunteers around the world. These PCs perform computations for scientists when the machines would otherwise be underutilized. Scientists also use World Community Grid — equivalent to one of the world’s fastest supercomputers — to engineer cleaner energy, cure disease and produce healthier food staples.

The University of Virginia Watershed Sustainability Project will use World Community Grid to power its “UVa Bay Game/Analytics” project, which models the effects of agricultural, commercial and industrial decisions on the Chesapeake Bay. This waterway is a vital estuary on the East Coast of the United States stretching 64,000 square miles with 11,600 miles of tidal shoreline, and home to nearly 17 million people. It will simulate and analyze the results of choices made by the sometimes-competing interests of fishermen, farmers, real estate developers, power plant designers, conservationists, forestry experts and urban planners. Better understanding the potential outcomes of complex, intersecting decisions can help society manage the watershed more effectively.

“Through this collaboration, the University of Virginia and World Community Grid are bringing new resources to bear to improve the future of the Chesapeake Bay,” said Philippe Cousteau, co-founder of Azure Worldwide, which helped develop the UVa Bay Game. “Responsible and effective stewardship of complex watersheds is a huge undertaking that must balance the needs of each unique environment with the needs of the communities that depend on them for survival. I’m confident that this partnership will help provide the tools we need to meet this challenge head- on.”

Another new water-related project, called “Computing For Clean Water,” is looking to produce more efficient and effective water filtering, and is now getting underway at Tsinghua University’s newly launched Centre for Novel Multidisciplinary Mechanics in China. The idea is to develop ways to filter and scrub polluted water, as well as convert saltwater into drinkable freshwater, with less expense, complexity, and energy than current techniques.

The effort will seek to reduce the pressure and energy required to force water through microscopic, nanometer-sized pores in tubes made of carbon, whose tiny holes prevent harmful organic material from being transmitted. Scientists need to produce millions of computer simulations to model how water molecules interact with one another and against the walls of these carbon nanotubes.

Although led by China’s Tsignhua University, researchers are participating from all over the world, including Australia’s University of Sydney and Monash University; as well as the Citizen Cyberscience Centre, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The project is the result of an initiative launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to promote volunteer participation in science. It is called CAS@home, and is hosted by the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing.

A third initiative, to be run on World Community Grid out of Brazil’s Inforium Bioinformatics, in collaboration with FIOCRUZ-Minas, is seeking to cure schistosomiasis, a significant, parasite-based disease prevalent in tropical regions that is incubated and transmitted via foul water. The World Health Organization lists this disease as highly necessary to control. It kills from 11,000 to 200,000 people every year and infects about 210 million individuals in 76 countries. It takes a severe toll on undeveloped countries, causing about 1.7 million disability-adjusted life-years of burden annually. While the drug Praziquantel has been largely effective in treating the disease for more than 25 years, drug-resistant strains are of concern.

Researchers will now seek to identify human protein targets for possible new drug treatments. They will use the World Community Grid to screen up to 13 million compounds found in the zinc.docking.org database against 180 protein structures involved with the parasite. While this may not lead to new drugs immediately, it will greatly augment the study of this disease by scientists around the world.

IBM donated the server hardware, software, technical services and expertise to build the infrastructure for World Community Grid and provides free hosting, maintenance and support.

“I can think of few endeavors more important than making sure people across the globe have ready access to clean water,” said Stanley S. Litow, IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, and President of IBM’s Foundation. “I would even suggest that it’s a basic human right, and a hallmark of sophisticated and compassionate societies everywhere. That’s why IBM is so incredibly proud to help scientists harness the resources of World Community Grid to make strides in this vital arena.”

In the last 100 years, global water usage has increased at twice the rate of population growth. The United Nations predicts that nearly half the world’s population will experience critical water shortages by the year 2025.

Individuals can donate time on their computers for these and many other humanitarian projects by registering on www.worldcommunitygrid.org, and installing a free, unobtrusive and secure software program on their personal computers running either Linux, Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. When idle or between keystrokes on a lightweight task, the PCs request data from World Community Grid’s server, which runs Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) software, maintained at Berkeley University and supported by the National Science Foundation.

World Community Grid is also part of People for a Smarter Planet — a dynamic and intelligent network of activities, conversations and discussions in which anyone can participate to help build a sustainable and smarter world. At People for a Smarter Planet, people can share ideas, engage and discuss, or participate in one of the growing list of projects like World Community Grid.

Journalists and bloggers can also visit www.ibm.com/press/worldcommunitygrid for additional background information and supporting multimedia related to IBM’s role in World Community Grid. Or they may visit http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

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Drought has cut Peru’s Amazon River to its lowest level in 40 years and it is already below the minimum set in 2005, when a devastating dry spell damaged vast swaths of South American rainforest in the worst drought in decades.

Scientists in Peru and Brazil say the lack of rainfall, which is typical for this time of year, should continue for a few more weeks until the start of the rainy season.

But there is some concern that the dryness could persist as what is shaping up to be an intense hurricane season in the Atlantic sucks humidity away from the Amazon.

“The formation of hurricanes is very much related, more hurricanes means less rain for us,” said Marco Paredes, head of Peru’s meteorological service in Iquitos, some 500 miles from the capital of Lima. “It’s an inverse relationship.”

The headwaters of the river start in Peru and its meteorological service said on Friday the height of the river in the Amazon city of Iquitos has fallen to 347 feet above sea level, 19.6 inches less than where it was in the previous severe drought.

Officials worry the intensity and frequency of droughts could become more severe.

“This situation is critical,” Robert Falcon of Peru’s civil defense agency said of expected food shortages and outbreaks of illness. “The scientists are already saying that because of climate change these events will become more frequent.”

Falcon is bracing for a drought like the one that hit five years ago, when sinking water levels severed connections in the lattice of creeks, lakes and rivers that make up the Amazon’s motorboat transportation network.

Thousands of people, fish and boats were stranded as rivers ran dry to expose cracked dirt on their banks.

At the time of 2005 drought, scientists said it stemmed in part from a hurricane season that broke numerous records and caused the catastrophic Katrina storm that devastated New Orleans.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast 14 to 23 named storms this year, with 8 to 14 developing into hurricanes, nearly matching 2005′s record of 15. It expects the lack of rainfall to persist.

“Forecasts are indicating that this situation (of little rainfall) will continue for the next two or three weeks, so that the level of water will drop by about 20 to 30 centimeters (8-12 inches) from where it is now,” Paredes said.

Editing by Terry Wade and Sandra Maler

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Over 30 laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, known as the ‘alternative Nobel Prize’, have signed an open letter to President Khama of Botswana urging him to allow the Bushmen access to water.

The appeal comes as world experts arrive in Stockholm for World Water Week, and ahead of the Right Livelihood Award conference in Bonn, 14-19th September. It follows the UN’s adoption of water as a human right in July.

Describing the government’s actions as ‘inexcusable’, the laureates’ letter urges it to ‘allow the Bushmen access to water on their lands, and work with them to ensure a sustainable future for everyone’.

The laureates express concern for the welfare of the Bushmen of Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve, who have been banned from accessing a well which they rely on for water. ‘Without access to water, a fundamental human right’, the letter says, ‘they are struggling to sustain their way of live on their ancestral lands’.

In 2002, the Bushmen were evicted from their lands by the Botswana government and dumped in resettlement camps outside the reserve. With Survival’s help they took the government to court, and four years later won a landmark High Court ruling declaring their right to live in the reserve. In 2005, the Bushmen’s organization, First People of the Kalahari, was awarded an ‘alternative Nobel Prize’ for their struggle for their rights.

Despite the ruling, the government refuses to allow the Bushmen to recommission a well, which it sealed and capped during the 2002 evictions, forcing the Bushmen to make arduous journeys to fetch water from outside the reserve. At the same time, it has drilled new well for wildlife and allowed Wilderness Safaris to build a luxury tourist lodge with swimming pool on Bushman land. In the near future it is also likely to issue a licence for a diamond mine on Bushman land, for which new wells will be drilled, on condition that the mine will not provide water to the Bushmen.

In July, a High Court judge dismissed the Bushmen’s application for permission to use the well, expressing sympathy for the government’s argument that the Bushmen have ‘brought upon themselves any discomfort they may endure’.

Bushman spokesperson, Jumanda Gakelebone, said, ‘We are grateful to all the laureates for helping us. Khama should know that a lot of human rights activists all over the world are watching’.

The letter reads:

Dear President Khama,

We, the undersigned, all winners of the ‘alternative Nobel prize’, are greatly concerned for the welfare of our friends and fellow laureates, the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Without access to water, a fundamental human right, they are struggling to sustain their way of life on their ancestral lands.
All the Bushmen want is to be able to use a well which they used before they were illegally evicted from their lands. To deny them this is inexcusable.
We urge you to allow the Bushmen access to water on their lands, and work with them to ensure a sustainable future for everyone. In the words of Roy Sesana, ‘We aren’t here for ourselves. We are here for each other and for the children of our grandchildren’.

Yours sincerely,

Ibrahim Abouleish (Egypt)
Marcos Aran, International Baby Food Action Network (Mexico)
András Biró/Hungarian Foundation for Self-Reliance (Hungary)
Carmel Budiardjo (UK)
Tony Clarke (Canada)
Erik Dammann/The Future in Our Hands (Norway)
Hans-Peter Duerr (Germany)
Samuel Epstein (USA)
Anwar Fazal (Malaysia)
Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín (Colombia)
Johan Galtung (Norway)
Wes Jackson/The Land Institute (USA)
Katarina Kruhonja (Croatia)
Ida Kuklina/The Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia (Russia)
Manfred Max-Neef (Chile)
Pat Mooney (Canada)
Alice Tepper Marlin (USA)
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Nigeria)
Nicanor Perlas (Philippines)
Raúl Montenegro (Argentina)
Juan Pablo Orrego/ Grupo de Acción por el Biobío (Chile)
Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (India)
Right Livelihood Award Foundation (Sweden)
Mycle Schneider (France)
Suciwati, wife of late Munir (Indonesia)
Hannumappa Sudarshan, VGKK (India)
Vesna Terselic (Croatia)
Trident Ploughshares (UK)
John F. Charlewood Turner (UK)
Judit Vásárhelyi, on behalf of Duna Kör (Hungary)
Alla Yaroshinskaya (Russia)

Source and download the full letter here

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Twenty-one per cent of freshwater species in continental Africa are threatened with extinction, putting the livelihoods of millions of people at risk. With so much to lose, inland waters must be managed not just for their supply of freshwater but also to sustain the abundant life within.

In the most comprehensive assessment of its kind, 5,167 African freshwater species were evaluated by 200 scientists over a five-year period for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, including all known freshwater fish, molluscs, crabs, dragonflies and damselflies, and selected families of aquatic plants. Some of the biggest threats to African freshwater species come from agriculture, water abstraction, dams and invasive alien species.

This study highlights the perilous state of our natural environment and will provide vital information for decision-makers as they plan to greatly expand the use of Africa’s inland water resources. The results are particularly important for resource managers as, for the first time, species have been mapped to individual river basins.

“Freshwaters provide a home for a disproportionate level of the world’s biodiversity. Although they cover just one per cent of the planet’s surface, freshwater ecosystems are actually home to around seven per cent of all species,” says Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Head of IUCN’s Species Programme. “This latest IUCN Red List assessment clearly shows that lakes, rivers and wetlands haven’t escaped the grasp of the current extinction crisis.”

Even the loss of a single species can have a dramatic impact on livelihoods. In Lake Malawi, a group of fish, known as ‘chambo’ by locals, forms an extremely important source of food. Of these, Oreochromis karongae, an Endangered species, has been hugely overfished, with an estimated 70 per cent reduction in the population over the past ten years.

In Lake Victoria, a decline in water quality and the introduction of the Nile Perch (Lates niloticus) have caused a reduction in many native species over the past thirty years, threatening traditional fisheries. This IUCN Red List assessment studied 191 fish species in Lake Victoria and found that 45 per cent are threatened or thought to be extinct.

Around the great lakes of Africa, fish provide the main source of protein and livelihoods for many of the continent’s poorest people. The livelihoods of an estimated 7.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa depend on inland fisheries. These new data will be invaluable in helping to safeguard these fisheries, freshwater supplies and the many other associated resources.

“Africa is home to an astonishingly diverse range of freshwater species, many of which are found nowhere else on earth,” says William Darwall, leader of the project and Manager of IUCN’s Freshwater Biodiversity Unit. “If we don’t stem the loss of these species, not only will the richness of Africa’s biodiversity be reduced forever, but millions of people will lose a key source of income, food and materials.”

Priority areas of highly threatened and restricted range species can now be identified. For example, in the waters of the crater-lake Barombi Mbo, in Cameroon, 11 species of fish are highly threatened and live a precarious existence as deforestation increases the risk of lake ‘burping’, where large levels of carbon dioxide are released from deep within the lake, suffocating the fish. Without management intervention these species, some of which are important food sources, may be lost forever.

Fish are clearly important to people, both as a source of food and income. But other freshwater species such as molluscs, dragonflies, crabs and aquatic plants also play vital roles in maintaining functioning wetlands and these should not be ignored. In the rapids of the lower reaches of the Congo River 11 species of mollusc, found only within a 100km stretch of water, are highly threatened due to upstream pollution. Molluscs such as these provide important functions including water filtration.

“This new study gives us a unique opportunity to try to influence developers and governments when they’re planning freshwater infrastructure projects, which are still in the early stages in most of Africa,” says Anada Tiéga, Ramsar Secretary General. “Until now we’ve not had the information we need about species and the threats they face but, armed with these IUCN Red List assessments, we hope that decision-makers in Africa will now make the right choices to develop their water resources in a sustainable manner whilst protecting and valuing global biodiversity.”

The findings of this assessment are also being published in a series of regional reports. The Northern and Western Africa reports are published today.

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The Bushmen of Botswana have lodged an appeal against a High Court decision that denied them access to water on their ancestral lands.

In July, Justice Walia dismissed the Bushmen’s application for permission to use a well on their lands inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, expressing sympathy for the government’s position that ‘having chosen to settle at an uncomfortably distant location, [the Bushmen] have brought upon themselves any discomfort they may endure.’

The ruling came a week before the UN formally recognized water as a fundamental human right. It has also been condemned by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Africa’s key human rights body, for denying the ‘right to life’ enshrined in the African Charter.

In 2002, the Bushmen were evicted from their lands by the Botswana government; a move declared by the High Court as illegal and unconstitutional. However, despite the ruling, the government continues to prevent Bushmen from returning home by banning them from accessing a well which they rely on for water. Without it, they are forced to make arduous journeys to fetch water from outside their reserve.

The Bushmen launched legal proceedings in a bid to gain access to the well, which the government sealed and capped during the 2002 evictions. Even though the Bushmen have said they will raise the funds required to operate the well, the government claims that they need permission to do so and has refused to give it.

At the same time, the government has created new wells for wildlife in the reserve, allowed the opening of a Wilderness Safaris tourist lodge with swimming pool on Bushman land, and is due to “give the go ahead for a diamond mine” at one of the Bushman communities.

Botswana’s president, Ian Khama, who sits on the board of Conservation International, has described the Bushmen’s way of life as ‘an archaic fantasy’.

Bushman spokesman, Jumanda Gakelebone, said, ‘Like all human beings, we can’t live without water. We, the Bushmen, are appealing for our basic human right, and the world is watching’.

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Read also: Q&A: James G. Workman on the Bushmen’s Fight for Water Rights and 21st Century Hydro-Democracy at Circle of Blue

PABBI, Pakistan — Five-year-old Shahid Khan struggled to remain conscious in his hospital bed as severe diarrhea threatened to kill him. His father watched helplessly, stricken at the thought of losing his son — one of the only things the floods had not already taken.

The young boy is one of millions of children who survived the floods that ravaged Pakistan over the last month but are now vulnerable to a second wave of death caused by waterborne disease, according to the United Nations.

Khan’s father, Ikramullah, fled Pabbi just before floods devastated the northwestern town about a month ago, abandoning his two-room house and all his possessions to save his wife and four children.

“I saved my kids. That was everything for me,” said Ikramullah, whose 6-year-old son, Waqar, has also battled severe diarrhea in recent days. “Now I see I’m losing them. We’re devastated.”

Ten other children lay in beds near Khan at the diarrhea treatment center run by the World Health Organization in Pabbi, two of whom were in critical condition.

Access to clean water has always been a problem in Pakistan, but the floods have made the situation much worse by breaking open sewer lines, filling wells with dirty water and displacing millions of people who have been forced to use the contaminated water around them.

The environment is especially dangerous for children, who are more vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhea and dysentery because they are more easily dehydrated. Many children in Pakistan also suffered from malnutrition before the floods hit, leaving them with weakened immune systems.

The Pakistani government and international aid groups have worked to get clean water to millions of people affected by the floods and treat those suffering from waterborne diseases. But they have been overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster, which has displaced a million more people in recent days.

The floods started in the northwest in late July after extremely heavy monsoon rains and surged south along the Indus River, killing more than 1,600 people, damaging or destroying more than 1.2 million homes and inundating one-fifth of the country — an area larger than England.

Some 3.5 million children are at imminent risk of waterborne disease and 72,000 are at high risk of death, according to the United Nations.
The World Health Organization set up the diarrhea treatment center in Pabbi about a week ago with the help of several other aid groups.

Workers have already treated more than 500 patients, mostly children, said Asadullah Khan, one of the doctors.

Some of the patients have been treated multiple times because broken sewer lines have contaminated the water in the town’s wells and pipes, said the doctor. “It is circulating the disease again and again,” he said.

The aid groups set up a similar treatment facility several days ago in Nowshera, a city adjacent to Pabbi that was also engulfed by the floods. Residents who have begun to return in recent days have encountered a scene of total destruction: caved-in houses and streets covered with mud and debris.

Most of the population lacks access to clean water, and mosquitoes have proliferated in stagnant floodwater around the city, raising the risk of malaria. Government help is nowhere to be found.

“It is trash, dirt, germs and odd smells everywhere,” said Zahid Ullah, whose 3-year-old and 10-year-old sons were being treated for gastroenteritis at the facility in Nowshera. “It is a big danger.”

Even at the hospitals where the diarrhea treatment centers have been set up, mobs of flies hovered around the patients despite attempts by staff to kill them.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund appealed to the world on Saturday to provide water purification units, family hygiene kits and other items needed to increase access to clean water in Pakistan.

Guido Sabatinelli, the head of the World Health Organization in Pakistan, said the international community’s help was critical to help Pakistan avoid a second wave of death from waterborne disease.

“We are fearing the epidemic of disease,” said Sabatinelli. “Access to safer water, potable water” is critical, he said.

Asma Bibi couldn’t agree more. The young mother searched in vain for clean water on the outskirts of Nowshera as her feverish 2-month-old son, Ehtesham, sweltered in a tent set up for flood victims. They had run out of water the day before.

“My son is sick. He hasn’t breast-fed in two days,” she said. “He needs milk. He needs water.”

[Ed-Apols for full quote]

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Brazil’s President Lula has signed a contract allowing the construction of the hugely controversial Belo Monte mega-dam on the Amazonian Xingu River to go ahead.

Lula said, ‘I think this is a victory for Brazil’s energy sector’.

Belo Monte, if built, will be the third largest dam in the world. It will devastate the local environment and threaten the lives of the thousands of indigenous people living in the area, whose land and food sources will be seriously damaged.

Experts have warned that the project has serious design flaws. It was described by Walter Coronado Antunes, former Environment Secretary of São Paulo state, as ‘the worst engineering project in the history of hydroelectric dams in Brazil, and perhaps of any engineering project in the world’.

Indians, together with human rights and environmental organizations have traveled to Brazil’s capital, Brasília, to protest against Lula’s signing of the contract. They said, ‘The government has signed a death warrant for the Xingu river and condemned thousands of residents to expulsion’.

Brazilian and international organizations have published a Declaration against the Belo Monte dam, describing the signing of the contract as a ‘death sentence for the Xingu River’, and a ‘scandalous affront to international human rights conventions, Brazilian law and the Brazilian constitution’.

Marcos Apurinã of the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), said, ‘Our government is presenting itself as an example to the world. But here in Brazil, at least for indigenous peoples, it is not exemplary at all!’.

The Indians have warned that if the dam is constructed, a ‘war’ could start and the Xingu could become a ‘river of blood’.

They have organized several protests against the project. Hundreds of Indians are currently participating in a protest, alongside experts, human rights and environmental organizations, and Brazil’s Public Ministry, against the Belo Monte dam, as well as the dams on the Madeira, Teles Pires and Tapajós rivers.

Survival International recently published a report highlighting the devastating impacts that dams are bringing to tribal peoples worldwide.

Source…and many links

Visit Survival International

Survival Internationals – ‘Serious Damage’, can be download from this page…

Interactive map of Dams in Amazonia here…