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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

We start today with some sobering new studies that show how global droughts from China and Bolivia to Argentina and Brazil’s Amazon highlight the need to mitigate severe weather impacts on agriculture and communities.

China and Southeast Asian countries through which the Mekong River flows should share water storage and hydropower operations data, a study said, with water levels in the river at historic lows due to climate change and human factors.

The Mekong River’s flow dropped to the lowest levels in more than six decades from 2019 to 2021, according to the inter-governmental Mekong River Commission (MRC), impacting agriculture, fishery and livelihoods for more than 60 million people in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

A new joint study between the MRC and the China-founded Lancang Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center (LMC Water Center) attributed natural factors such as rainfall patterns, evaporation rates and topography for the decline, but also cited human activities such as infrastructure development and water management as contributing to the dry conditions of the river.

The study recommended “real-time sharing of storage levels and hydropower operations” and enhanced notifications of sudden changes in the way water storage operates among Mekong countries, including China, which is crucial in improving management of the 4,350-km (2,700-mile) long river.

A farmer prepares a rice field in Mekong Delta’s Soc Trang province which was affected by the sediment, Vietnam. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Under a scorching sun, more than 300 Bolivians marched to a dusty plain near the Incachaca dam that overlooks the city of La Paz, gathering to pray for rain and an end to a severe drought that has threatened their water supply.

The 10 reservoirs that supply La Paz – one of the country’s largest cities with about 2.2 million inhabitants – only contain 135 days of water combined, Bolivia’s state-owned water company EPSAS has warned.

Once there, they knelt, praying in Aymara, Quechua as well as Spanish, their eyes tightly closed with hands extended to the heavens. “We have come to the summit to cry out for rain,” said Susana Laruta, a member of a local evangelical Christian church.

Over in Europe, a second consecutive year of drought in southern Spain will keep the country’s olive oil production below average in 2023/24, meaning the European Union faces another year of high prices, official data showed.

Spain, the world’s top olive oil producer, usually supplies about 40% of global output but heat waves when olive trees were flowering last spring and prolonged drought have reduced the olive harvest.

Meanwhile in South America, Argentina’s core agricultural farmland could suffer “massive losses” in wheat yields due to another drought, the Rosario Grains Exchange warned, even as the country reels from a drought in the last cycle deemed the worst in 60 years.

Argentina is a major global wheat exporter, in addition to processed soybeans and corn, but some of its most fertile farmlands are suffering from poor rainfall. Last season’s drought hammered harvests, halving the country’s wheat output from the 23 million tons produced the previous year.

And in Brazil, life has come to a standstill for a floating village now stranded on mud-flats left by severe drought in the Amazon rainforest.

Motor-boats lie tilting in the mud, no longer bringing in fish, fruit and vegetables or ferrying tourists to see the nearby confluence of the Rio Negro and Solimoes River, where they form the mighty Amazon River.

As Lake Puraquequara dried up, so too has business evaporated for the owners of boats and floating shops that are also stuck in the mud.

A drone view of damaged roads and houses that were washed away by flash floods in Naga-Namgor village, Sikkim, India. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

Nicole Horseherder, winner of the 2023 Heinz Award for the Environment and the executive director of non-profit Tó Nizhóní Ání “Sacred Water Speaks” (TNA), shares her thoughts about water preservation:

“Indigenous voices are vital to advancing the conversation on environmental sustainability and climate change. 

“The wisdom of our ancestors carry the solutions to many of our climate problems.  As the world struggles to overcome diminishing water supplies and searches for more cost-effective energy solutions, too often it turns to the natural resources of indigenous lands. 

“On the Navajo Nation, our community has suffered terribly at the hands of federal and state policies, which have allowed coal mining to deplete our natural water supplies. 

“Our clean, pristine water – 3-4 million gallons every day – was being used to extract coal to supply “inexpensive” electricity to three states. As a result, our fresh springs have disappeared and groundwater has been depleted.

“Fortunately, we were able to fight back and stop this environmental travesty. After years of campaigning and raising our voices, we were finally able to successfully shut down coal mining operations on the Navajo Nation. 

“Today, as Indigenous Peoples, we must continue to fight to ensure our voices are heard. We cannot allow outside corporations and government leaders to dictate policies that are detrimental to our native lands and our shared environment. 

“As the original caretakers of our planet, we must stand together to protect the health and sustainability of our communities for generations to come.” 

Afghan rescue workers scrambled to pull survivors and bodies from beneath the rubble on Monday, two days after the deadliest earthquakes in years hit the northwestern city of Herat and surrounding villages. Click here for a graphic feature on the impact of the earthquake.

The Taliban administration said at least 2,400 people had been killed and many more injured in the quakes, which were among the world’s deadliest this year after tremors in Turkey and Syria, in which an estimated 50,000 people were killed.

Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range. Kathmandu, Nepal REUTERS/Monika Deupala/

From a water monitoring tower in the Himalayas to a wind farm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), today’s spotlight focuses on the infrastructure designed to harness natural resources for sustainability and environmental monitoring.

China has set up weather stations on Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world on Tibet’s border with Nepal, expanding a series of high-altitude meteorological gauges in the Himalayas to monitor the impact of climate change on Asia’s “water tower”.

Scientists are increasingly watching how climate change is impacting the environmentally fragile Himalayas, home to the planet’s tallest peaks and the source of water for rivers that hundreds of millions of people depend on.

Since the end of September, a Chinese team has set up five automatic weather stations on Cho Oyu, at altitudes from 4,950 meters to its summit at 8,201 meters, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Snow and ice samples at the summit had been collected for the first time, Xinhua reported.

A wind farm is seen in this undated handout image in Sir Bani Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC – Masdar/Handout via REUTERS 

Elsewhere in the UAE, the nation has launched its first wind project of commercial size, making use of technology to exploit low wind speeds, as it pushes to boost renewables before hosting the COP 28 climate summit next month.

The 103.5-megawatt project run by renewable energy firm Masdar is set to power more than 23,000 homes a year, the firm said, spanning four locations.

“This project…will help displace around 120,000 tons of CO2 – carbon footprint – annually,” said Mohammad Abdelqader El-Ramahi, Masdar’s chief green hydrogen officer.

“Policymakers must prioritize heat mitigation and management year-round to address climate change’s impact on our nation’s water resources and food supply. Despite extreme heat’s growing impacts, our heat governance efforts lag far behind those of other climate hazards.”

Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and sustainable built environments at the University of Arizona

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