The Watchers.com - 3/14/13, NIX

Maharashtra, an Indian state, is facing one of the worst droughts in the past 40 years. Reports say severe droughts have prompted people to migrate to Mumbai and neighboring states of Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh from 3,905 villages in 12 districts of the state.

Districts of Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed and Osmanabad are reported to have only enough drinking water reserves to sustain through March. Impending summer will only worsen the situation and the state will have to transport water from neighboring districts and even by trains from other states, a high-ranking bureaucrat told Times of India.

For more details on this story click: Droughts

Weather.com - 3/13/13, Associated Press

" This is not only an environmental issue but also a public moral problem. What's been polluted is not only Shanghai's river water but also the spirit of our country people."

The surge in dumping of dead pigs — believed to be from swine farms in the upstream Jiaxing area of neighboring Zhejiang province — has followed police campaigns against the sale of pork products made from diseased pigs.

For more info on this story click: Pollution Scare

The Watchers.com - 3/13/13,  CHILLYMANJARO




A large portion of the Middle East lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade. New data revealed already an arid region of Tigris-Euphrates Basin, which grows even drier due to human consumption of water for drinking and agriculture. 

Heraldsun.com - 3/10/13

A HUGE dust storm has hit Tokyo, blanketing the city with brown dust that darkened the skies and rapidly transformed what had been a clear and sunny day.

 Meteorologists said the phenomenon was caused by a sudden cold front, and was not linked with the suffocating pollution that hung over the Chinese capital Beijing last winter. 

For more sand storm details click: Tokyo