Ukraine pledges to sabotage Russian efforts to avert humanitarian crisis In Crimea amid water shortages

Chaos in Ukraine Making ‘Epic Comeback’ With Blessing of New Biden Administration

21st Century Wire,

5 March, 2021

New government crackdowns on opposition in Ukraine include banning of websites and television networks. Chaos is making an epic comeback with “the full backing of the bastion of Democracy – Washington.”

SouthFront reports…

In Ukraine, the situation is slowly, but surely, falling into even a deeper abyss, full of violence and corruption – in the name of democracy for sure.

Joe Biden entered the White House, a true Ukrainian friend, who is prepared to support Kiev to the ends of the Earth. Especially after the investigations into him and his son Hunter Biden over stealing billions faded into obscurity.

As such, the internal situation in Ukraine is worrisome for even the most disillusion observer.

It all started with the shutting down of opposition TV channels and immediately moved to attacks on the largest and most popular opposition party – “Opposition Platform – For Life!”. Opposition leaders were then sanctioned, for being “Putin agents”, and many of its members were openly censored and persecuted. Then it came down to censoring and persecuted another well-known opposition figure – Anatoly Shariy, and his party.

Websites were pulled down, accounts were banned, cases were opened against those against President Volodymyr Zelensky and his “Servant of the People” party.

Crumbling power is being consolidated by the small clique of Nazi apologists and foreign puppets, which in the current format appears to be represented by President-Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky. Any resistance is being snuffed out. This is how democracy works in Ukraine, and it has the full backing of the bastion of Democracy – Washington.

Continue this story at SouthFront

One of the reservoirs in the Crimean capital of Simferopol is almost running dry as the Black Sea peninsula's water crisis continues to worsen. As things stand, many parts of the region have introduced rationing.

Crimea has suffered from water shortages since 2014, when the Ukrainian government built a dam on a canal that had previously provided around 85 percent of the area's water. The infrastructure was constructed when Moscow and Kiev were both part of the Soviet Union.

Since the blockade, Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of human rights violations, and has criticized international organizations for remaining silent on the matter.

“The reserves of water in the Simferopol reservoir are almost depleted,” said Vladimir Bazhenov, the head of Crimean Water, calling the inflow “infinitesimal.”

ALSO ON RT.COMYalta restricts water to just six hours a day as Ukraine’s supply blockade takes its toll on Crimea

Read HERE

Russian officials have hit back at Ukraine after Kiev revealed plans to hinder Crimea’s attempts to avert a humanitarian crisis due to a lack of water. Many local residents have been affected by restrictions.

In many parts of the peninsula, water is issuing from taps for only six hours a day. Crimea has experienced water shortages since 2014, when the Ukrainian government built a dam on a canal that had previously provided around 85 percent of the area’s water. The canal was constructed by Moscow, when Russia and Ukraine were both part of a union state.

Since the blockade, Russia has repeatedly accused Kiev of human rights violations. However, Western nations have remained remarkably silent on the matter, as have non-governmental organizations concerned with human rights.

In order to tackle the water shortage, the Crimean authorities have committed to building a desalination plant from next month, with the possibility of constructing more in the future. On Thursday, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmitry Kuleba revealed Kiev would step in to prevent Russia from alleviating the problem.

“In Crimea, they said that they are trying to attract a large international company to implement desalination technology,” Kuleba said. “[After the announcement] we immediately started work … and we will prevent it from implementing this project."

Read HERE

Australian TV on water theft in Australia

As an indication of the insanity abroad I have been told TWICE that to point this out is “climate change denial”

Corporate investors making huge profits from water, while farmers go broke

Nine News Australia

As our farmers struggle through the worst drought in decades, water is the only thing that can save them.

But the government is questioning how big corporate investors are making huge profits from selling the precious resource at record prices, while the cost sends farmers broke.

Join Nine News for the latest in news and events that affect you in your local city, as well as news from across Australia and the world.

Max Igan weighs in on the Australian bushfires

In his radio show last night Hal Turner claimed that Australian navy had dropped off the refugees and is making its way to the Persian Gulf. I can find no confirmation of this.

An Australian holocaust

Max Igan

Update on the Australian bushfires - 28 December, 2019

The federal government has deployed additional Australian Defence Force resources to support authorities in fire-hit NSW.

Specialist defence personnel will be sent to advise NSW fire incident controllers at each of the 14 control centres around the state, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement on Friday.

Those personnel would be able to free up ADF resources such as bulldozers, bulk water carriers and troops for NSW firefighting use.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/extreme-heatwave-to-hit-victoria-nsw-and-south-australia-on-new-years-eve/news-story/da60a7ecb26ad1353cf913c767dc0a77

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2019/10/26/morrison-government-paid-empathy-consultant-190000/15720084008976

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7828941/Bringing-Army-Soldiers-deployed-help-fight-devastating-bushfires.html?ito=social-facebook

• David Elliott's office said the Minister would not cancel his trip to the UK and France
• In a statement, Mr Elliott said he would return home, "if the bushfire situation should demand it"
• Prisons Minister Anthony Roberts will take over Mr Elliott's responsibilities

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-27/nsw-emergency-services-david-elliott-holidays-amid-bushfires/11828744?pfmredir=sm

A Chinese-owned company has been granted approval to run a 96m litre a year commercial water mining operation in severely drought-hit southern Queensland, where locals are on water rations and communities at imminent risk of running dry.

Last week the Southern Downs regional council approved a development application for the company, Joyful View Garden Real Estate Development Resort Pty Ltd, to operate a water extraction and distribution facility at Cherrabah, a large property at Elbow Valley near the Queensland-New South Wales border.

The following day the council implemented extreme water restrictions for residents at the nearby towns of Warwick and Stanthorpe, limiting residents to 80L a day.

Stanthorpe is expected to run out of drinking water within weeks.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019

11 December, 2019

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7780983/Foreign-company-sells-89-billion-litres-Australian-water-rights-490m-drought.html

A business case for the controversial $500m Broken Hill pipeline, released after a three-year battle, reveals the New South Wales government made almost no effort to evaluate the impacts of the pipeline on the lower Darling and instead put weight on how the pipeline would help the cotton industry upstream and mining ventures along the pipeline route.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-11-08/wa-water-review-for-mid-west/11678890

The bushfires in New South Wales

Worse than Delhi: air quality 

lowest in world in part of 

NSW

Radio NZ,

16 November 2019 

Seven days of smoke and ash from the New South Wales bushfire emergency have taken a toll on Port Macquarie, which on Friday experienced the world's lowest air quality rating.

A file shot of fires around the Port Macquarie area earlier this week. Photo: Facebook / Live Traffic NSW

The State Government told parents to collect their children from schools in the Mid North Coast city as conditions deteriorated.

At 4pm, the Environment Department gave Port Macquarie an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 1739, warning that all residents should stay inside as much as possible.

Port Macquarie's deteriorating air quality meant it was rated significantly worse than pollution hotspots like New Delhi and Beijing.

At Nambucca, about 100 kilometres north of Port Macquarie, striking images of beaches covered in bushfire ash showed the toll the blazes had taken on the environment.

Senior lifeguard James Turnham saw the ash washing up on the beaches.

"The beaches have a dusting of ash and the high-tide lines have black ash and burnt leaves, but the water is mostly clear," he said.

An Environment Department spokesperson said smoke from bushfires and increased dust because of the drought were among the factors leading to the poor air quality.

Air pollution becomes "hazardous" when the rating is over 200. The AQI is a scale used by governments and organisations to inform the public how polluted their local area is.

Earlier this week, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a "state of emergency" due to the bushfires, which have so far killed four people and destroyed more than 300 homes.

Jason Koenig, who lives at Kew near Port Macquarie, and his wife were asked to pick up their three young children from school due to the air quality.

"The schools are doing their best to minimise the smoke but it is still very dark and hazy," he said.

"It's difficult to breathe, so a lot of the kids would be having breathing difficulties."

Further north there were widespread delays and cancellations at Coffs Harbour airport.

There have been increases in the number of hospital presentations for asthma and breathing problems in areas worst affected by the NSW bushfire emergency, prompting a renewed call for people to take precautions when there was smoke in the air.

Emergency Department data shows that hospitals on the Mid North Coast, where fires were at their worst, have had 68 presentations to hospital emergency departments for asthma or breathing problems over the past week - almost double the usual number.

Man arrested for lighting bushfire

A 51-year-old man suspected of lighting an out-of-control bushfire which has triggered an emergency warning in the NSW Northern Tablelands has been arrested.

The fast-moving blaze at Guyra Road in Ebor, northeast of Armidale was burning across more than 2000ha on Friday afternoon as it spreads towards the Ebor township.

The man was being held at Armidale Police Station.

Dozens of bushfires are continuing to burn across northern New South Wales and southeast Queensland following a week of destruction in which four people died.

A million hectares of land have been razed by the wildfires raging over eastern parts of both states.

The weather bureau is warning that the strong winds and lightning strikes forecast are increasing the threat to communities in the border region between Queensland and New South Wales.

- ABC

Since June, the greater Sydney area in New South Wales state has been under level 1 water restrictions, which limit water usage in filling pools or running hoses unattended. It is the first time the restrictions have been implemented since 2003, during a drought that lasted until 2009.

If dam levels drop just a few percentage points in greater Sydney, residents could face even harsher water restrictions.

Dams in greater Sydney are currently at 46.6% capacity. According to the NSW water authority, they are on track to hit 40% -- which means level 2 water restrictions would be imposed by next February or March.

Melinda Pavey, the state's water minister, told 7News she didn't want to "scare people unnecessarily," but said the government was considering level 2 restrictions.

Level 2 restrictions would further limit the use of water in daily operations -- for example, only allowing watering gardens a few days a week instead of every day.

"With the current rate of depletion we could be in a tricky situation in a couple of years," she said, adding that this was the worst drought in NSW on record.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/15/australia/australia-fires-sydney-water-intl-hnk-scli/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3XWYgXBytJuI4bw-83KiG0ItXwkCCUCQCKRCPTuL_A0oziitBMlcRHNgQ

More on the parlous state of the Hutt River

I am moved to write more on the state of the Hutt River – and there will be more after we have done a tour to where it all comes from next weekend.

One would think the authorities might have introduced water rationing. But they did last year when flows were TWICE what they are now but relaxed them quickly.

Are they operating according to a forecast for rain by NIWA like they did last year?

The Hutt River is at HALF of its flow compared with last year – also a very dry year

Still the water authorities, operating on a purely - commercial mandate, are allowed to extract water until it is running at half of what it is now

The Hutt River is flowing at only HALF of what it was this time last year, already a very dry year.

I have been talking about this until I'm blue in the face.

This DuckDuckGo search shows just who else has been talking about this - NO ONE!

I just have to mention the danger of Wellington having a major problem with drought and water supply in the context of abrupt climate change and people's eyes will glaze over and they will change the subject.

Do we really need to wait until things reach this state of affairs for people to sit up and notice?

“If a major fire were to break out in Gisborne there's not enough water in the district to put it out, officials are warning.


A total ban on outdoor water usage in the district is in place, which means no sprinklers, hoses, washing cars and dog or filling pools until reservoirs fill back up.

"The city is using over a million litres of water an hour. If the high use continues it will take days to refill our reservoirs," Gisborne District Council spokeswoman Jade Lister-Baty said in a statement.

But, no doubt, when (and not if) it happens it will be regarded as a one-off affair and dismissed and denied by the authorities and media!

***

Pam and I made our annual pilgrimage up the Hutt River to check on the increasingly dry conditions we are seeing and which has been so alarming us.

These photos reflect what we found.

The essence of our concern is reflected in these figures. The flow rate at Taita Gorge (where I always measure from) is only HALF of what it was on the same day in February last year which was, itself an extremely dry year.

You can see, from the photos that water quality is extremely low and yet, as I describe below the water authorities (who, with a purely commercial mandate have been separated off from the Regional Council and its wider mandate) are allowed to take water from the river to the level of 0.6 m3/sec which is slightly less than half of the extremely low level it is at Kaitoke Weir where they collect the water.

16/02/2018 .   6.960 m3/second

16/02/2019 .   3.588 m3/second

You can see from here just how dry things are getting.

A FUTILE SEARCH FOR WELLINGTON'S WATER SOURCE

We decided yesterday to go off and see the Kaitoke Weir where half of Wellington's water is collected.

According to this it should have been an easy matter - a quick walk on a track with wheelchair access - something that would have suited me fine.

Instead, we found ourselves at a locked gate, climbing a stile, and walking up a steep track. When I was forced to stop for a rest Pam continued on for another half hour but didn't find anything else apart from more steep track.

In fact, we ended up so defeated we did not even find the river!

So much for setting off without doing considerable homework!

Looking at this map from Google maps we could be forgiven perhaps for our confusion. What, we have to ask, has happened to the river?!

This basic map shows it a little more clearly.  Two rivers (the East Hutt River and the West Hutt River) combine to form  one and then are joined by the Akatarawa River and numerous other streams before its trip along the long Hutt Valley to the sea.

The following gives a sense of some of the topography.

RIVENDELL FROM "LORD OF THE RINGS"

Which brings me to this - we were very close to Rivendell which is where Peter Jackson filmed his scenes of Rivendell, home to the elves in the Lord of the Rings.

This is what it all looks like in reality...

And in the movie....

THE STATE OF THE RIVER

As already stated, the river in its mid-section is running at HALF of what it was on the same day last year.

16/02/2018 .   6.960 m3/second

16/02/2019 .   3.588 m3/second

See below - 

This is illustrated here:

I have listed the flow rates for the river at Taita Gorge on the same day (18 February - towards the end of summer) for the last ten years.

It should be noted that, with the exception OF 2017, which seemed to have been marked by a major rain event, and 2015, which seems to have been another exceptionally- dry year flow rates seem to be within a certain range -until this year.

YEAR	FLOW RATE M3/sec
2008	8.95
2009	8.9
2010	12.29
2011	5.15
2012	5.06
2013	5.34
2014	4.29
2015	2.87
2016	10.7
2017	40.53*
2018	6.39
2019	3.2

* This was marked by a major rain event. On either side of that levels were approximately an unremarkable flow rate of approximately 7 m3/second

THE AUTHORITIES CONTINUE TO TAKE INCREASING AMOUNTS OF WATER WHILE SUPPLIES ARE BECOMING LESS

The other bone of contention is the profligate use of water in the context where a commercial mandate combines with both an agenda of unchecked water use at a time when we have much less water.

I wrote about this last year. I was spot-on despite my arithmetic and misreading the flow rate.

Wellington Water mandated to seriously degrade the Hutt River to ensure water supplies

Wellington Water was set up in 2014 as part of the government's neoliberal playbook. It was separated off from the Greater Wellington Regional Council which has much broader concerns (including conservation) whereas the private company is only concerned with providing the increasing demands for water even if they destroy the river  in the process.

The only concern in local government (or elsewhere) is with planning for the 100-year flood - something I strongly suspect has more to do with councillors trying to stimulate the local economy with a major "development" project.

The Hutt River at Kaitoke (which, I believe is upstream from the weir where they collect the water) is currently at 1.071 m3 per second. Wellington Water has a consent to keep taking water until it reaches 0.6 m3/second (600 litres/second).

YEAR	FLOW RATE – m3/sec
2019	1.07
2018	2.87
2017	9.66*
2016	2.28
2015	1.03
2014	1.7
2013	1.4

* This was marked by a major rain event. On either side of that levels were approximately an unremarkable flow rate of approximately 7 m3/second

***

Meanwhile, I keep shouting about this and nobody seems to care in the slightest.

Do we have to reach the stage of the Gisborne or the Tasman crisis before anyone starts to take notice?