The deepest freshwater lake in the world, the Baikal Lake has been spared from having an oil pipeline built next to it... for now (picture credit - Andrei Veretennikov).

 

 

   In late April when the first pipes of the mega-project were laid near Taishet in the Irkutsk region, Russian President Valdimir Putin said the pipeline would be built further north from the lake.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Asia Water Wire) – With environmentalists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) repeatedly calling for the conservation of rapidly depleting natural resources and for programmes targeting students to shed their complacency, the level of awareness among the youth about the conservation of at least one resource – water – holds promise for the future.

   Realising the need to promote this awareness and to infuse stronger consciousness about water savings, authorities have launched water conservation programs that target students – officials hope that the message of conservation will be passed on to other residents and thereby to the whole community.

Because Pakistan lacks good quality surface water, its scientists at the Nuclear Institute  of Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) are now using salty water for irrigation.

 

 

    Almost 11 million hectares of land in Pakistan has salt deposits, making the land unsuitable for normal agriculture.

   Roughly 16 million of Pakistan’s 160 million people live in regions with salty water or saline soils and scientists estimate that finding a way to cultivate on this land can contribute up to 2 billion U.S. dollars to the economy annually.

Uzbek scientist Galina Stulina, shown here sitting in the Golodnaya Steppe, said that the changing climate in Central Asia will cause both floods and droughts.

 

 

   Increasing temperatures resulting from global warming and climate change could result in long term water shortages in the entire region, an Uzbek scientist told Asia Water Wire.

BROOKLIN, Canada (IPS) - Agriculture poses the biggest threat to the world's freshwater resources, while over-fishing threatens the oceans, according to the first global assessment of fresh and salt water resources. 

   Human pressures on water are weakening aquatic ecosystems, which is having a negative impact on human health and sustainable development, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global International Waters Assessment warned on World Water Day, Mar. 22. 

Central Asian countries are worried that record snow this winter will bring devastating floods once the weather turns warmer.

 

 

   Kyrgyzstan had record snow in winter – the highest in 30 years – and experts are worried that increased water levels in the rivers that could cause extensive flooding in lower-riparian countries, especially in southern Kazakhstan.

   The rivers in Kyrgyzstan are expected to have up to 1,500 cubic metres per second or almost double the spring flows in previous years and also much higher than the “safe” level.

   Last year Vladimir Shkolnik, minister of power and mineral resources of Kazakhstan had asked Kyrgyzstan to reduce water released from the Naryn River reservoirs from 700 to 600 cubic metres per second as a measure to prevent flooding in southern Kazakhstan.

Brothers Pravin (left) and Manoj Gautam from Roots and Shoots Nepal with Dr Jane Goodall during Dr Goodall's recent Nepal visit.

 

 

   Around a thousand families here depend for their livelihood  either directly or indirectly on fishing.

   Traditionally, fishermen in Dang used nets to catch fish. Then  came fishing bombs that became very popular among the fishermen. But  as Nepal's Maoist insurgency gained ground, fishing bombs gradually  disappeared from the market since being in possession of them was risky.

This large dugout is being used to hold greasy leftovers from the Pakistan Railways Diesel Locomotive Workshop.

 

   The roughly 200 families living there travel to other locations in the city to fetch clean water because the supply in the entire community is contaminated by oil residue dumped by the Pakistan Railways Diesel Locomotive Workshop.

   The greasy leftovers – diesel and lubricants – extracted from ageing engines brought in for repairs and overhauls are held in a large dugout in the ground before it is pumped out, packed in drums and sent for auction. The time the waste remains in the dugout is what causes the contamination.