Maldives: Water Crisis

[Vikrant]

I am glad India came to Maldives aid.

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An Indian Navy vessel and an Air Force aircraft carrying nearly 1,000 tonnes of fresh water reached here on Sunday as India mounted a major effort to help the Maldivian capital that is reeling from an acute shortage of drinking water after its lone desalination plant caught fire.

INS Deepak, a large fleet tanker with 900 tonnes of water, which sailed from Mumbai, reached Male on Sunday evening.

Responding to Maldives' urgent request for assistance late on December 4 night, INS Sukanya, on patrol off Kochi, was diverted immediately and had reached Male the next day.

The ship carried 35 tonnes of fresh water and has the capability to produce 20 tonnes of water every day.

The ship has already transferred approximately 65 tonnes of fresh water till on Sunday evening.

Additionally, Indian Navy warships have the capability to produce drinking water using their onboard desalination plants (INS Deepak is capable of producing 100 tonnes of water every day).

The Indian Navy ships will continue to produce and supply potable water to Male even whilst at anchor. The responsiveness, unique capabilities, flexibility and versatility of warships in meeting various contingencies has yet again been demonstrated, a statement by the Navy said.

The Indian Air Force had also stepped in and has pressed fixed wing aircraft into service to meet the immediate requirement of the people in Male.

Five aircraft including two C-17 Globemaster-III and three IL-76 with 153 tones on December 5 and three aircraft including two C-17 and one IL-76 with 130 tones on Saturday were pressed into service.

One C-17 aircraft with 40 tones and another aircraft with about 40 tones have also reached Male on Sunday.



Read more at: India transports 1 000 tonnes of fresh water to Maldives Asia News - India Today

 

[waltky]

Water demand to rise 400% by 2050...

Study: Asia at Risk for Serious Water Shortages
March 30, 2016 - The numbers are disturbing and the situation potentially dire.

According to the United Nations, the global demand for water is expected to rise by 400 percent by 2050. And figures released earlier this year by the Twente Water Centre in the Netherlands concluded that 4 billion people live under conditions of what they call "severe water scarcity" at least 1 month out of every year.

More Trouble on the Way

But a new survey by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) says that a combination of changing climate and population growth will add a billion people to that total, in Asia alone, over the next 35 years. The new research is being published today in the journal PLOS One and the authors stress that it isn't just another scary story about the effects of climate change.

The Aral Sea in Central Asia has shrunken in size dramatically as demand for water grows.​

It's about growth, both in the industrial world and in the general population. "It's not just a climate change issue," says Adam Schlosser, a co-author of the study and a senior research scientist at MIT. "We simply cannot ignore that economic and population growth in society can have a very strong influence on our demand for resources and how we manage them." He also told VOA that these effects are worldwide. "Previous research over Africa" he said, "indicate much of the same trends in risks that we have underscored for eastern and southern Asia."

The researchers did some very cool modeling for their research, building models that took account, not only population growth, but also industrial growth, and climate change. What they discovered is that in China, industrial growth is putting the biggest stressors on the water supply. In India, it's rapid population growth that is going to lead to more water shortages.

Long Ranging Geographic Effects