Newsletter No. 63;
IRBMS
prototype is due to be rolled out later this year. It Spain has suffered a severe drought that has
highlighted four of the worst-affected dams and contributed to a 60% shrinking of the surface area
the potential knock-on risks. of the Buendia dam over the last five years. This
has hit hydropower generation and pushed up
The water allocations for two reservoirs Indira
Sagar dam and Sardar Sarovar reservoir
connected by the Narmada River in India has
electricity prices, but the agricultural knock-on
effects are limited by the relatively small as
farming contributes only 3% of the nation’s GDP.
become a major source of tension. Last year poor
rains in the upstream left Indira Sagar dam a All four dams are in the mid-latitudes, the
third below its seasonal average. When some of geographic bands on either side of the tropics
this shortfall was passed on to the downstream where climate change is expected to make
Sardar Sarovar reservoir, it caused a water crisis droughts more frequent and protracted. As more
because it provides drinking supply for 30 million reservoirs are scanned in the coming months and
people. In March 18, the Gujarat government years, the WRI expects more cases to emerge.
stopped irrigation water and appealed to farmers
World’s Highest Village facing severe
not to sow crops.
water scarcity
The starkest decline is that of Morocco’s second-
largest reservoir, Al Massira, which has shrunk by World’s highest village Komik in Himachal
60% in three years due to recurring drought, Pradesh runs dry, as high temperature hits the
expanding irrigation and the increasing thirst of Himalayas. Komik in Himachal Pradesh is situated
neighbouring cities such as Casablanca. The last around over 15000 ft. above msl, at Spiti Valley,
time when water was depleted to such level, grain bears a great concern as their main sources of
production fell by half and more than 700,000 water; streams, rivers and ponds are gradually
people suffered. drying up, mainly due to erratic rainfall and rising
annual average temperature. This symptom o