Tiempo Climate Newswatch

World Water Week took place in Stockholm, Sweden, August 20-26th. The theme this year was "Beyond the River - Sharing Benefits and Responsibilities". A landmark report released during the event called for a radical new agenda for agricultural water management. Based on assessment of past water-management practices, the study was led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Sri Lanka. "The last 50 years of water management practices are no model for the future when it comes to dealing with water scarcity," said Frank Rijsberman, IWMI head. "We need radical change in the institutions and organizations responsible for managing our earth's water supplies and a vastly different way of thinking about water management."

David Molden at IWMI concludes that "to feed the growing population and reduce malnourishment, the world has three choices: expand irrigation by diverting more water to agriculture and building more dams, at a major cost to the environment; expand the area under rain-fed agriculture at the expense of natural areas through massive deforestation and other habitat destruction; or do more with the water we already use. We must grow more crop per drop, more meat and milk per drop, and more fish per drop." The report does identify areas of innovation that hold hope for the future, particularly low-cost technologies that facilitate access to, and use of, water by the rural poor. As long as health issues are addressed, people can effectively use urban wastewater as a productive resource. Irrigation could be reformed and transformed to reduce water wastage and increase productivity.

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Other news from World Water Week

• Greenbiz
• edie
• Press release, CGIAR

• Overview, ENS
• Overview, IPS
• Tree planting, SciDev.Net
• Fixing leaks, Reuters
• Water scenarios, WBCSD
• Fighting corruption, ENS

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is considering tougher environmental guidelines to regulate shrimp farming operations across Asia. Shrimp farming has been responsible for the destruction of extensive areas of mangrove forest, removing a valuable resource that provides natural coastal protection. According to Ben Brown of the Mangrove Action Project, as much as 90 per cent of Asia's mangrove has been destroyed by shrimp farming, which is rarely sustainable. "In Asia, the average intensive shrimp farm survives only two to five years before serious pollution and disease problems cause early closures" he said. The industry has a "get-in-quick, do-it-dirty approach, and it causes a lot of havoc."

The guidelines have been developed by a consortium that includes the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), whose 17 member-governments have already agreed to the regulations. FAO adoption will mean the guidelines will become part of national government policy. Regulation is considered necessary because the environmental costs of shrimp farming are borne by the broad community. "There is no incentive to take account of mangrove costs, because they are not felt as losses to the private producers, but to the wider economy," argues Lucy Emerton at the World Conservation Union.

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• Reuters

• International Principles for Responsible Shrimp Farming, NACA
• On the Web: The mangrove ecosystem

The latest report on the state of the global ozone layer in the stratosphere warns that recovery may be delayed by five to 15 years beyond earlier forecasts, but the atmosphere is responding to the effect of the Montreal Protocol in curbing the release of ozone-depleting chemicals. The report was prepared by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme. "While these latest projections of ozone recovery are disappointing, the good news is that the level of ozone-depleting substances continues to decline from its 1992-94 peak in the troposphere and 1990s peak in the stratosphere," commented Michel Jarraud, WMO Secretary-General.

The latest predictions indicate that the ozone over the Antarctic should recover by the year 2065. Over middle latitudes, recovery should occur by 2049. The fact that the decline in stratospheric ozone levels away from the polar regions observed during the 1990s has not continued is seen as a response to stable levels of ozone-depleting gases during the recent period. "The early signs that the atmosphere is healing demonstrate that the Montreal Protocol is working. But the delayed recovery is a warning that we cannot take the ozone layer for granted and must maintain and accelerate our efforts to phase out harmful chemicals", said Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director.

More information

• BBC
• Guardian Unlimited

• Press release, UNEP
• Executive Summary, Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2006, WMO/UNEP