Latest news with #waterShortage
Malay Mail
4 days ago
- Climate
- Malay Mail
Water runs dry in French Alps as heatwave accelerates glacier melt
SAINT-CHRISTOPHE-EN-OISANS, July 17 — June's heatwave has caused French Alps snow and glaciers to melt faster, causing water shortages at mountain shelters just before the summer tourist hiking season gets into full swing. 'Everything has dried up,' said Noemie Dagan, who looks after the Selle refuge, located at an altitude of 2,673 meters (8,769 feet) in the Ecrins, a mountain range overtowered by two majestic peaks. The snowfield that usually supplies water to her 60-bed chalet already 'looks a bit like what we would expect at the end of July or early August', she said. 'We are nearly a month early in terms of the snow's melting.' The mountain refuge, lacking a water tank, relies on water streaming down from the mountain. If it runs out it, the shelter will have to close. This happened in mid-August 2023, and could happen again. Dagan's backup solutions to avoid such a scenario include plastic pipes a kilometre long (0.6 mile) — installed with difficulty — to collect water from a nearby glacier close to the Pic de la Grave. But the slopes along which the pipe was laid are steep, unstable and vulnerable to increasingly violent storms ravaging the range. In the 15 years that she has worked in the sector, Dagan has witnessed 'a metamorphosis' of the mountains and glaciers that are 'our watertowers', she said. 'We are basically the sentinels who have seen what is coming.' 'Never even crossed our minds' Thomas Boillot, a local mountain guide, said the possibility one day of seeing water supply issues affecting the mountain shelters had 'never even crossed our minds'. But such cases have increased 'and there will likely be more,' he added. Some snowfields once considered eternal now melt in the summer, precipitation has become scarcer, and glaciers change shape as they melt — factors that combine to disrupt the water supply for chalets. Water used to arrive 'through gravity' from snow and ice reserves higher up, but it is going to have to be pumped from below in the future, he said. Mountaineers walk along crevasses on the Glacier de la Selle in the Ecrins Massif in Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans, early in the morning on July 9, 2025. — AFP pic Scientists say that the impact of climate change is nearly twice as severe in the Alps as it is globally, warning that only remnants of today's glaciers are likely to exist by 2100 — if they haven't disappeared altogether by then. This year's weather is also dangerous for the 1,400 glaciers in neighbouring Switzerland, where the authorities report that accumulated snow and ice have melted five to six weeks before the usual time. 'Brutal' is the term Xavier Cailhol, an environmental science PhD student and mountain guide, used to describe the impact of the heatwave that he saw on a recent trip to the massif of the Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest mountain. 'I started ski-touring on Mont Blanc in June with 40 centimetres (16 inches) of powder snow. I ended up on glaciers that were completely bare, even as high up as the Midi Peak, at 3,700 meters altitude,' he said. A cover of snow helps to protect the ice underneath by reflecting sunlight, he noted. 'Above 3,200 meters, it's drier than anything we've seen before,' he said. 'It's quite concerning for the rest of the summer.' A case in point is the accelerated melting of the Bossons Glacier, a massive ice tongue overlooking the valley before Chamonix. It began with a 'patch of gravel' which became larger, and 'in fact is speeding up the melting at that location' because its dark colour absorbs more heat. The melting of the Bossons Glacier is clearly visible from Chamonix, making it a constant reminder of what is happening to glaciers everywhere. 'It's a symbol,' said Cailhol. — AFP
CNA
5 days ago
- Climate
- CNA
Heat melts Alps snow and glaciers, sparking water shortages
SAINT-CHRISTOPHE-EN-OISANS: An early summer heatwave has accelerated the melting of snow and glaciers in the French Alps, triggering water shortages at mountain shelters just as the hiking season begins (July 16). 'Everything has dried up,' said Noemie Dagan, caretaker of the Selle refuge, a 60-bed chalet perched at 2,673 metres in the Ecrins mountain range. The snowfield that typically feeds the shelter's water supply now 'looks a bit like what we would expect at the end of July or early August,' she said. 'We are nearly a month early in terms of the snow's melting,' she added. MOUNTAIN SHELTERS UNDER PRESSURE The Selle refuge lacks a water tank and depends entirely on snowmelt. If the flow stops, the shelter will have to close, as it did in mid-August last year. Dagan has tried to prevent another shutdown by installing a kilometre-long pipe to tap a nearby glacier near the Pic de la Grave. But the steep, unstable slopes make the setup vulnerable, especially as storms in the range grow stronger and more frequent. Over 15 years in the job, Dagan said she has witnessed a 'metamorphosis' of the glaciers and mountains that once acted as natural reservoirs. 'We are basically the sentinels who have seen what is coming,' she said. GLACIERS NO LONGER RELIABLE Thomas Boillot, a mountain guide, said the idea of water running out at alpine shelters had once 'never even crossed our minds.' That is no longer the case. Melting snowfields, reduced precipitation, and reshaped glaciers are combining to disrupt the natural flow of water. In some cases, future supply may need to be pumped from lower altitudes. Scientists warn that climate change is hitting the Alps nearly twice as hard as other regions. Many glaciers could vanish entirely by the end of the century, leaving only traces behind. In neighbouring Switzerland, authorities say snow and ice reserves have melted five to six weeks earlier than usual. Xavier Cailhol, an environmental science PhD student and guide, recently toured Mont Blanc and called the heatwave's effects 'brutal.' 'I started ski-touring in June with 40 centimetres of powder snow. I ended up on bare glaciers, even at 3,700 metres near the Midi Peak,' he said. A snow cover helps protect the glacier beneath by reflecting sunlight, he noted. But this year, 'above 3,200 metres, it's drier than anything we've seen before.' One stark example is the Bossons Glacier, which looms over the Chamonix valley. A patch of gravel that formed on the ice is now expanding, and absorbing more heat, accelerating the melt.
RNZ News
13-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Israeli missile hits Gaza children collecting water, IDF blames malfunction
By Crispian Balmer , Reuters Displaced Palestinians carry empty containers on their way to fetch water at a distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on 10 July 2025. Photo: AFP / Eyad Baba At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, local officials said, in an Israeli strike which the military said missed its target. The Israeli military said the missile had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of metres from the target". "The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review. The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital. Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centres where they can fill up their plastic containers. Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack. Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, but says over half of those killed are women and children. Negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend. Palestinians sit amid the rubble of a house in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike that hit Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on 13 July 2025. Photo: AFP / Eyad Baba Palestinians sit amid the rubble of a house in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike that hit Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on 13 July 2025. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene ministers late on Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the talks, an Israeli official said. The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence. Netanyahu in a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday said Israel would not back down from its core demands - releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel. The war began on 7 October2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive. Netanyahu and his ministers were also set to discuss a plan on Sunday to move hundreds of thousands of Gazans to the southern area of Rafah, in what Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has described as a new "humanitarian city" but which would be likely to draw international criticism for forced displacement. An Israeli source briefed on discussions in Israel said that the plan was to establish the complex in Rafah during the ceasefire, if it is reached. On Saturday, a Palestinian source familiar with the truce talks, said that Hamas rejected withdrawal maps which Israel proposed, because they would leave around 40% of the territory under Israeli control, including all of Rafah. Israel's campaign against Hamas has displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, but Gazans say nowhere is safe in the coastal enclave. Early on Sunday morning, a missile hit a house in Gaza City where a family had moved to after receiving an evacuation order from their home in the southern outskirts. "My aunt, her husband and the children, are gone. What is the fault of the children who died in an ugly bloody massacre at dawn?" said Anas Matar, standing in the rubble of the building. "They came here, and they were hit. There is no safe place in Gaza," he said. - Reuters
