NEW DELHI: The world could suffer a 40 percent shortfall in water in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource, a UN report warned Friday.
Many underground water reserves are already running low, while rainfall patterns are predicted to become more erratic with climate change. As the world’s population grows to an expected 9 billion by 2050, more groundwater will be needed for farming, industry and personal consumption.
The report predicts global water demand will increase 55 percent by 2050, while reserves dwindle. If current usage trends don’t change, the world will have only 60 percent of the water it needs in 2030, it said.
Having less available water risks catastrophe on many fronts: crops could fail, ecosystems could break down, industries could collapse, disease and poverty could worsen, and violent conflicts over access to water could become more frequent.
“Unless the balance between demand and finite supplies is restored, the world will face an increasingly severe global water deficit,” the annual World Water Development Report said, noting that more efficient use could guarantee enough supply in the future.
The report, released in New Delhi two days before World Water Day, calls on policymakers and communities to rethink water policies, urging more conservation as well as recycling of wastewater as is done in Singapore. Countries may also want to consider raising prices for water, as well as searching for ways to make water-intensive sectors more efficient and less polluting, it said.
In many countries including India, water use is largely unregulated and often wasteful. Pollution of water is often ignored and unpunished. At least 80 percent of India’s population relies on groundwater for drinking to avoid bacteria-infested surface waters.
In agriculture-intense India, where studies show some aquifers are being depleted at the world’s fastest rates, the shortfall has been forecast at 50 percent or even higher. Climate change is expected to make the situation worse, as higher temperatures and more erratic weather patterns could disrupt rainfall.
Currently, about 748 million people worldwide have poor access to clean drinking water, the report said, cautioning that economic growth alone is not the solution, and could make the situation worse unless reforms ensure more efficiency and less pollution.
“Unsustainable development pathways and governance failures have affected the quality and availability of water resources, compromising their capacity to generate social and economic benefits,” it said. “Economic growth itself is not a guarantee for wider social progress.”
UN warns world could have 40% water shortfall by 2030
UN warns world could have 40% water shortfall by 2030
Five suspected militants killed in Indian-administered Kashmir
- The disputed region is home to a 35-year insurgency in which tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and militants have been killed
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government canceled the territory’s partial autonomy in 2019, bringing the region under its direct rule
SRINAGAR: Security forces in India-administered Kashmir on Thursday killed at least five suspected militants in ongoing clashes, the army said, the latest outbreak of violence in the disputed Muslim-majority Himalayan region.
Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since their partition at the chaotic end of British rule in 1947, and both countries claim the territory in full.
“Five terrorists have been neutralized by the security forces in the ongoing operation,” the Indian army’s Chinar Corps said, adding that two soldiers had been wounded in the firefight.
Half a million Indian troops are deployed in the far northern region, battling a 35-year insurgency in which tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and militants have been killed, including at least 120 this year.
Separatist groups demand either independence or the region’s merger with Pakistan.
New Delhi regularly blames Pakistan for arming militants and helping them launch attacks, an allegation Islamabad denies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government canceled the territory’s partial autonomy in 2019, bringing the region under its direct rule.
The territory of about 12 million people has since been ruled by a New Delhi-appointed governor who oversees a local government that voters elected in October in opposition to Modi.
5 suspected militants killed in Kashmir fighting, Indian military says
- India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety
- Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989
SRINAGAR, India: Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed five suspected militants in a gunbattle on Thursday, the Indian military said.
Soldiers and police launched a joint operation after receiving a tip that rebels were hiding in a village in southern Kulgam district, the military said in a statement. The militants opened “indiscriminate and heavy volumes of fire” at the raiding troops, leading to a gunbattle, it said.
Five militants were killed in the fighting, the statement said, adding that two soldiers were also injured. Troops continued to search the area. There was no independent confirmation of the battle.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Wife of jailed former Malaysian PM Najib Razak acquitted in latest graft case
- Rosmah Mansor faced 12 charges of money laundering and five charges of failing to declare her income
- Rosmah was sentenced to 10 years in jail on separate graft charges in September 2022 but has appealed
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court threw out more than a dozen money laundering and tax evasion charges on Thursday lodged against the wife of jailed former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.
Rosmah Mansor, 73, faced 12 charges of money laundering involving 7.1 million ringgit ($1.6 million) and five charges of failing to declare her income between December 4, 2013, and June 8, 2017.
High Court judge K. Muniandy struck out all 17 charges, saying they lacked “probity, propriety and legality” and ordered a “discharge amounting to an acquittal,” according to a copy of the decision seen by AFP.
The Attorney-General’s office said it would appeal against the decision, Malaysian media reported.
Rosmah was sentenced to 10 years in jail on separate graft charges in September 2022 but has appealed against that conviction and remains free on bail.
She was charged in that case with seeking and receiving bribes for helping a company secure a solar power project for rural schools in the Malaysian section of Borneo island during her husband’s rule.
Rosmah has long been criticized by Malaysians for her reported vast collection of designer handbags, clothing and jewelry, acquired on overseas shopping trips.
Her collection of luxury items came under the spotlight after police raids on their family home in 2018 following her husband’s election defeat.
It drew unflattering comparisons with former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos and contributed to accusations that the ousted ruling establishment had lost touch with economically struggling and middle-class Malaysians.
Najib is serving a six-year jail term for corruption related to a massive financial scandal at sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
He has filed an appeal to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest and a hearing has been fixed for January 6.
The 1MDB scandal, allegedly involving billions of dollars siphoned from the now-defunct state company, sparked investigations in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.
France’s Macron in cyclone-hit Mayotte to assess devastation
- Officials have warned that the death toll from the most destructive cyclone in living memory could reach hundreds, possibly thousands
- Emmanuel Macron is expected to land in Mayotte around Monday morning, and will be traveling with ‘a very small delegation’
MAMOUDZOU: French President Emmanuel Macron is set to arrive in Mayotte Thursday to assess the devastation wrought by Cyclone Chido on the Indian Ocean archipelago, as rescuers race to search for survivors and supply desperately needed aid.
His visit to the French overseas territory comes after Paris declared “exceptional natural disaster” measures for Mayotte late Wednesday night to enable swifter and “more effective management of the crisis.”
Officials have warned that the death toll from the most destructive cyclone in living memory could reach hundreds – possibly thousands – as rescuers race to clear debris and comb through flattened shantytowns to search for survivors.
“The tragedy of Mayotte is probably the worst natural disaster in the past several centuries of French history,” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said.
Macron is expected to land in Mayotte around 10:30 a.m. local time (0730 GMT), and will be traveling with “a very small delegation” to minimize the use of law enforcement resources needed elsewhere on the archipelago.
He will spend part of the day there, and will come with “four tons of food and health aid, as well as rescue workers,” the French president said in a post on social media platform X early Thursday.
After an “aerial reconnaissance of the disaster area,” Macron will go to the Mamoudzou hospital center, according to an itinerary released Wednesday, to “meet with the health care staff and the patients being treated.”
He will also visit a neighborhood razed by the storm, meet with Mayotte officials, and is expected to outline a reconstruction plan.
A preliminary toll from France’s interior ministry shows that 31 people have been confirmed killed, 45 seriously hurt, and 1,373 suffering lighter injuries.
But officials say the toll could rise exponentially.
Located near Madagascar off the coast of southeastern Africa, Mayotte is France’s poorest region.
Besides declaring “exceptional natural disaster measures,” authorities have also imposed a nightly curfew to prevent looting.
Cyclone Chido – which hit Mayotte on Saturday – was the latest in a string of storms worldwide fueled by climate change, according to meteorologists.
Experts say seasonal storms are being super-charged by warmer Indian Ocean waters, fueling faster, more destructive winds.
An estimated one-third of Mayotte’s population lives in shantytowns whose flimsy, sheet metal-roofed homes offered scant protection from the storm.
At Mamoudzou hospital center, windows were blown out and doors ripped off from hinges, but most of the medics had taken to sleeping at their battered workplace on Wednesday as Chido had swept their homes away.
“It’s chaos,” said medical and administrative assistant Anrifia Ali Hamadi.
“The roof is collapsing. We’re not very safe. Even I don’t feel safe here.”
But staff soldiered on despite the hospital being out of action, with electricians racing to restore a maternity ward – France’s largest with around 10,000 births a year – to their proper state.
“The Mamoudzou hospital suffered major damage... Everything is still functioning, but in a degraded state,” said the hospital’s director Jean-Mathieu Defour.
In the small commune of Pamandzi, sheet metal and destroyed wooden structures were strewn as far as the eye could see.
“It was like a steamroller that crushed everything,” said Nasrine, a Mayotte teacher who declined to give her full name.
With health services in tatters, and power and mobile phone services knocked out, French Overseas Minister Francois-Noel Buffet on Wednesday night declared “exceptional natural disaster” measures for Mayotte.
Under a new emergency system for overseas territories, the measures will hold for a month, and can be renewed every two months after that.
It will “enable the local and national authorities to react more quickly while streamlining certain administrative procedures,” Buffet said.
Much of Mayotte’s population is Muslim, whose religious tradition dictates that bodies be buried rapidly, meaning some may never be identified.
Assessing the toll is further complicated by irregular immigration to Mayotte, especially from the Comoros islands to the north, meaning much of the population is unregistered.
Mayotte officially has 320,000 inhabitants, but authorities estimate the actual figure is 100,000 to 200,000 higher when taking into account undocumented migrants.
French military planes have been shuttling between Mayotte and the island of La Reunion – another French overseas territory to the east that was spared by the cyclone.
A “civilian maritime bridge” was launched between both island groups, said Patrice Latron, the prefect in La Reunion.
As of Wednesday, more than 100 tons of food was to be distributed.
“We’re moving to a phase of massive support for Mayotte,” he said, adding that around 200 shipping containers with supplies and water would arrive by Sunday.
South Korea’s acting president to veto opposition-sponsored bills, deepening political strife
- Prime Minister Han Duck-soo assumed since the National Assembly voted to suspend Yoon Suk Yeol’s presidential powers over his short-lived Dec. 3 martial law
SEOUL: South Korea’s acting leader said Thursday he would veto a spate of contentious bills sponsored by the main opposition party, deepening political strife in the wake of parliament’s impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The ruling and opposition parties have been bickering over how much authority Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s No. 2 official, has assumed since the opposition-controlled National Assembly last Saturday voted to suspend Yoon’s presidential powers over his short-lived Dec. 3 martial law. The Constitutional Court is to determine whether to formally dismiss the conservative Yoon as president or reinstate him.
Law enforcement authorities are also separately investigating whether Yoon’s martial law enforcement amounted to rebellion. Yoon’s defense minister, police chief and several other military commanders have already been arrested over the case. The main liberal opposition Democratic Party earlier considered impeaching Han as well for failing to stop Yoon’s martial law declaration, but shelved the idea after he became acting leader.
Four of the six bills to be vetoed by Han were meant to introduce greater state financial assistance programs for the country’s agriculture and fisheries industries.
The most contentious bill is the Grain Management Act, which would require the government to buy surplus rice if the price drops too sharply to protect the country’s farming industry and promote its food sovereignty. Han said the bill would cause “immense” financial burdens on the government and eventually lead to further drops in rice prices.
Another controversial bill is the National Assembly Testimony Appraisal Act, which would give lawmakers more power to request people to attend parliament hearings and submit documents. Under the proposed legislation, individuals could no longer decline such requests by citing the protection of trade secrets or personal information.
The Democratic Party said the bill is necessary to determine the full details of Yoon’s martial law decree. But Han said the bill would likely infringe upon people’s privacy and that there are concerns among business leaders that key technology and company secrets could be leaked.
“I’m heavy-hearted because I’ve asked the National Assembly to discuss and act on the six bills again at a time when we desperately need cooperation among the government and the ruling and opposition parties,” Han said in televised comments at the start of a Cabinet Council meeting on Thursday. “But the government should make a responsible decision that prioritizes the principles of the Constitution and the future of our country.”
Democratic lawmaker and spokesperson Noh Jongmyun quickly criticized Han, warning him “not to cross a line,” adding, “We’ll immediately drag him down if he’s found to have collaborated with the rebellion.”
Observers earlier speculated the Democratic Party would reconsider impeaching Han if he vetoed the bills.
Another source of contention between the rival parties is whether Han has the right to appoint three vacant justices’ seats at the Constitutional Court, as filling the vacancies could affect the court’s decision on Yoon.
The martial law enactment lasted only six hours, but it caused huge political turmoil in South Korea and set off alarms from its neighbors and diplomatic partners. Yoon sent hundreds of troops to the National Assembly to block its vote on his decree. But many lawmakers managed to enter a parliament hall and unanimously voted it down, forcing Yoon’s Cabinet to lift it.
