Headline news: Kabul, Afghanistan is running out of water.
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| From the perspective of topography and the monsoons, Kabul is the flea on the end of the dog's tail. Only high-level clouds vectoring at 330 +/- 15 degrees can put much snow on the mountains above Kabul |
Most of the water is pumped from bore-hole wells. Many of them are going dry as the water level drops.
The quality of the water is degrading due to pollutants.
Solving the problem is compounded by ethnic divisions. Roughly 50% of the city is Tajik, 25% is Hazara and the remainder is mostly Pashtun. Most of "up-stream" is dominated by the Pashtun who are also Afghanistan's majority ethnic-linguistic group. The rest of the "up-stream" is dominated by the Tajik.
Think of Kabul's water issues as the prequel for Tuscon, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
I can generate electricity without the grid. I can't generate water.
ReplyDeleteWe better start building nukes to power those desalination plants that don't yet exist.
Water wars have occurred, and the civil wars are the worst as tribal-religious passions and pride get involved.
ReplyDeleteIndia and Pakistan have had skirmishes about the Indus River water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Waters_Treaty
Wars are often fought over critical resources.
Nestle pumps an enormous, mind boggling amount of water to sell as bottled water.
ReplyDeleteThe sources for that water is the Colorado River, including that impounded by Hoover and down stream dams. Lake Mead is the largest man-made lake in the U.S.
Another source is the snowfall on the Sierra Nevada in CA, and various ranges in NV.
Nestle was/is illegally taking the water from within CA. The state determined it illegal, but allowed it to continue. Nestle has at least fifteen wells within NV. Each is a major, full time operation.
Of course, the rapid residential growth of Las Vegas, the tourist industry, and evermore golf courses all have major impacts.
Neither CA, NV, or AZ have state-wide water conservation policies.
The talk has grown louder in each state about cutting water rights to agriculture. It's always the producers!
Meanwhile, the unconstitutional sovereign nations with the U.S. aka Indian reservations, in AZ and NV have recently won control of massive water rights. The size of these rights exceed even future needs of the various tribes. Of course they're going to sell 'their' water.
What is given to one is taken from another. Agriculture - again, always the producers! - will bear the burnt through cuts in their water rights.
BTW: in CA, there exist 'senior' water rights. These rights extend back in time before any water policy existed. Currently, there increasing argument that these 'senior' rights should bare more of a burden than other water users. There is even a small, but growing chorus that the senior rights should be altogether abolished.
As the saying goes, In the west, whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting. How quaint that sounds given the new energetic brouhaha. I see the tenets of Marxism behind some of these new arguments.