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Showing posts from October, 2005

Water, Water Everywhere

It is urgent that water, which remains Nepal's strongest resource, not fall in the hands of decision-makers who will exclude the majority of users. Sushma Joshi explores the politics of water and development in rural Nepal. This piece originally appeared in Samar 21, published online October 30th, 2005, and Znet, the online portal of Z magazine, in November 2005. As a child growing up in Kathmandu, I became familiar with the splutter of a pipe trying to pull water and coming up with empty air. Kathmandu is a paradox—it is a Valley surrounded by the Himalayas, the mountain range which fulfills the water needs of an entire subcontinent, and yet it is unable to satisfy its own demands. Kathmandu used to be filled with rivers and ponds, until the eighties, when I was growing up. Today, tankers go through the city, selling people their quota of drinking water for the week. My childhood training in using minimal amounts of water led to spats with eco-concious but high consumption hippie

The Melting Glaciers of Manang

SIU's publication is here: www.siu.no/vev.nsf/o/ SIUs+publications-Global+Knowledge-The+Melting+Glaciers Original unedited article: Sushma Joshi The glaciers of the Himalayas are receding faster than any other glaciers in the world, including those in the Alps, Andes or Rockies. After the two polar caps, the Himalayan glaciers are third in line as fastest melting bodies of ice. So say researchers from a host of respected international organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Integrated Center for Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the International Commission for Snow and Ice. ICIMOD has predicted that glacial dams will burst, triggering wide-scale floods that will affect large populations. The Commission for Snow and Ice also that this will lead to severe water shortage in Northern part of the Indian subcontinent as early as in thirty years time. The melt is thought to be triggered by rising temperature