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Laos' proposed hydropower plant threatens the habitat of giant Mekong catfish, such as this one weighing in at 292kg. Photograph: Suthep Kritsanavarin/AFP/Getty Images. Photo courtesy: guardian
Despite the risks to the world's biggest freshwater fish, Laos has rejected calls for a dam moratorium on the lower reaches of the Mekong because it wants cheap power to develop its economy.
The south-east Asian nation moved this week to secure regional approval for the first major hydropower plant on its stretch of the river in the face of protests from international conservation groups.
Catfish the length of cars and stingrays that weigh more than tigers are threatened by the proposed 800m barrier, but the government said the economic benefits outweigh the environmental risks.
"We don't want to be poor any more," said Viraphone Viravong, director general of the country's energy and mines department. "If we want to grow, we need this dam."
In a submission to the Mekong River Commission (MRC), Laos said it wants to build a 1.26GW-hydropower plant at Sayabouly in northern Laos to generate foreign exchange income.
If approved, about 90% of the electricity would be sold to neighbours Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
It is part of a major plan to expand the economy through the utilisation of natural resources. According to Viravong, 20% of Laos' GDP will come from hydropower and mining by 2020, up from about 4% today.
Sayabouly is the first of 11 proposed dams on the lower reaches of the Mekong, a river that is already heavily dammed upstream in China.
The MMRC – made up of representatives from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand – will now assess the environmental impact of the project, but conservation groups fear the procedure is flawed and have called for a 10-year moratorium on hydropower on the river.
"This dam is the greatest challenge the MRC has faced since it was formed. It is the most serious test of its usefulness and relevance," said Marc Goichot, of the WWF. "It is already very clear this dam would amplify and accelerate the negative impacts of Chinese dams to the Mekong delta. What are the other impacts?"
Concerns have been raised about sedimentation, fisheries and the migration patterns of endangered freshwater species.
Four of the world's 10 biggest freshwater fish migrate up the Mekong to spawn. Among them is the Mekong giant catfish, which is the size of a bull shark, and the Mekong stingray, which can weigh up to 600kg.
The dam – which is being designed by Swiss company Colencois and the Thai contractors Karnchang – is also likely to affect the flow of nutrients along a delta that sustains tens of millions of people.
The Laos authorities insist the dam will be designed to mitigate the impact on food security, ecosystems and wildlife, but officials acknowledge that no solution is ideal for the environment.
"It won't be 100% perfect, but we believe mitigation measures will be effective. We must balance out the costs and benefits," said Viravong.
He felt there was no alternative. "We have done studies on micro-energy and renewables, but they are expensive. I don't think the world can subsidise that. If we do it ourselves, only cheap energy from hydropower will do." Laos' proposed hydropower plant threatens the habitat of giant Mekong catfish, such as this one weighing in at 292kg. Photograph: Suthep Kritsanavarin/AFP/Getty Images
Despite the risks to the world's biggest freshwater fish, Laos has rejected calls for a dam moratorium on the lower reaches of the Mekong because it wants cheap power to develop its economy.
The south-east Asian nation moved this week to secure regional approval for the first major hydropower plant on its stretch of the river in the face of protests from international conservation groups.
Catfish the length of cars and stingrays that weigh more than tigers are threatened by the proposed 800m barrier, but the government said the economic benefits outweigh the environmental risks.
"We don't want to be poor any more," said Viraphone Viravong, director general of the country's energy and mines department. "If we want to grow, we need this dam."
In a submission to the Mekong river commission (MRC) on Wednesday, Laos said it wants to build a 1.26GW-hydropower plant at Sayabouly in northern Laos to generate foreign exchange income.
If approved, about 90% of the electricity would be sold to neighbours Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
It is part of a major plan to expand the economy through the utilisation of natural resources. According to Viravong, 20% of Laos' GDP will come from hydropower and mining by 2020, up from about 4% today.
Sayabouly is the first of 11 proposed dams on the lower reaches of the Mekong, a river that is already heavily dammed upstream in China.
The MMRC – made up of representatives from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand – will now assess the environmental impact of the project, but conservation groups fear the procedure is flawed and have called for a 10-year moratorium on hydropower on the river.
"This dam is the greatest challenge the MRC has faced since it was formed. It is the most serious test of its usefulness and relevance," said Marc Goichot, of the WWF. "It is already very clear this dam would amplify and accelerate the negative impacts of Chinese dams to the Mekong delta. What are the other impacts?"
Concerns have been raised about sedimentation, fisheries and the migration patterns of endangered freshwater species.
Four of the world's 10 biggest freshwater fish migrate up the Mekong to spawn. Among them is the Mekong giant catfish, which is the size of a bull shark, and the Mekong stingray, which can weigh up to 600kg.
The dam – which is being designed by Swiss company Colencois and the Thai contractors Karnchang – is also likely to affect the flow of nutrients along a delta that sustains tens of millions of people.
The Laos authorities insist the dam will be designed to mitigate the impact on food security, ecosystems and wildlife, but officials acknowledge that no solution is ideal for the environment.
"It won't be 100% perfect, but we believe mitigation measures will be effective. We must balance out the costs and benefits," said Viravong.
He felt there was no alternative. "We have done studies on micro-energy and renewables, but they are expensive. I don't think the world can subsidise that. If we do it ourselves, only cheap energy from hydropower will do."
Water pollution arising from the immersion of plaster-of-paris idols of the Hindu god Ganesh is a growing problem in India. Photograph: Ajit Solanki/AP. Photo courtesy: guardian
Last Saturday morning, Hindu devotees around the world flocked to bodies of water. Their hands were filled with some combination of coconuts, flowers, uncooked rice and coloured powder. After spending the last 10 days in prayer and celebration, it was now time to say goodbye to the beloved Lord Ganesh.
The annual Ganesh Chaturthi celebration is highly spirited, filled with days of dancing, dousing one other with colour and loudly chanting: "Ganpati bappa morya" (Hail Lord Ganesh). The celebration ends on the 11th day, when devotees formally bid farewell to the elephant-headed god by immersing physical idols into the sea. The idols, historically constructed of clay, are intended to dissolve in minutes and become part of the ongoing circle of life – a fitting choice, given how Ganesh himself was supposedly concocted out of sandalwood paste.
In theory, Ganesh Chaturthi is a beautiful festival. Like many Hindu festivals, its exact origins are unknown. We know that it has been celebrated in private homes for centuries, and that in 1893, freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak gave it an unprecedented public face. Tilak specifically began installing large images of Ganesh in various pavilions around Pune city, in an effort to subvert the British ruling that prevented Indians from freely gathering. Since then, the festival has grown phenomenally around western India and, to some extent, globally.
Unfortunately, the growth of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival has not necessarily been sustainable. Over time, public celebrations have become more lavish: neighbourhood temples have become grander, renditions of Marathi folk songs have become louder, and Ganesh idols have become larger. Statues that were once constructed of earthy clay are now built using the less expensive – and less biodegradable – plaster of paris. Harmless vegetable dyes have similarly given way to more vivid – and more toxic – chemical-based paints.
I doubt this is what Tilak had envisioned.
What is the result of this? Considering that Mumbaikars alone immersed almost 190,000 statues last year, some of which were over 10ft tall, one can imagine that Indian waters are crying for help. Unlike clay and sandalwood paste, plaster of paris is not a naturally occurring material; rather, it is a calcium sulfate hemihydrate, which can take years to fully dissolve. In addition, most chemical paint contains heavy metals like mercury and lead, which do not dissolve at all.
As a result, the Central Pollution Control Board reports that the annual immersion of Ganesh idols has significantly increased the content of iron, copper, mercury, chromium and acid in water surrounding Mumbai and other western Indian towns. Equally worrying is how Indian fishing communities often find pieces of once-revered Ganesh idols tangled in their nets, alongside dead mercury-laden fish.
The good news is that unlike industrial water pollution, this breed of water pollution can be addressed through effective and widespread grassroots action. It is not so much a question of changing written policies and laws, but more one of challenging individual attitudes and societal norms.
This has already begun in a small way: local NGOs regularly petition for devotees to immerse biodegradable Ganesh statues, to "symbolically" immerse reusable idols by sprinkling water on them, or to immerse idols in a tub at home.
But these steps are not enough. We need action on a much larger scale. On paper, the best solution would be to place an outright ban on plaster-of-paris Ganesh statues. Such a ban would, in theory, bring the festival back to its organic roots.
However, ornate celebrations in India are often seen as "better" or "more religious" than their austere counterparts, and banning toxic statues may inadvertently hurt some religious sentiments.
A more effective solution may be to marry legislation with well-crafted public awareness efforts. Local politicians, who often fund Ganesh statues to garner votes, can easily showcase their commitment to a greener India by only backing biodegradable statues. Respected religious leaders can also remind the public of the festival's humble origins and of the spirit of Lord Ganesh.
In cases such as these, public attitudes often need to be jolted before changing. For the collective sake of India's aquatic life, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the spirit of Lord Ganesh, let us hope these and other efforts form a piece of India's greener tomorrow.
COLD WORKS WELL: About 80 percent of the energy used in conventional laundry goes toward heating the water. (Photo: Loren Sztajer/Flickr) Photo courtesy: mnn
It's laundry day! Actually, if you have kids, you know there's no such thing as "laundry day." Every day is laundry day and will include several loads, depending on your lifestyle.
That's a lot of water and energy. And a lot of expense, too. Want to save some money, while being kinder to the Earth at the same time? Let's make our laundry eco-friendly!
Try washing in cold water: But doesn't hot water get clothes cleaner? Yes, if we're talking about clothes with greasy dirt. But these could just as easily be pre-treated before tossing them in with the rest of the wash.
Eighty percent of the energy used in conventional laundry goes toward heating the water. Most homes could save at least $60 a year just by switching to cold. You'll also stop putting over 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year by reducing your energy needs.
You don't even need one of those commercial cold-water cleaners. Most detergents will dissolve just fine in any temperature water. If yours doesn't, switch brands, move to liquid, or dissolve your regular detergent in two cups of hot water before adding it to your machine.
With cold water washing, your clothes will last longer, too. Most of the world washes in cold. It'll work fine for you.
Switch to a vegetable-based detergent: Most commercial laundry detergents are petroleum-based. Apart from the fact that petroleum is an increasingly precious resource, switching to a vegetable-derived cleaner is a quick way to reduce your family's output of things that aren't good for our land and water.
You're washing clothes in a chemical soup. Phosphates are linked to algal blooms which choke the oxygen out of water and kill aquatic life.
And you really don't need those dyes, optical whiteners and heavy perfumes — particularly if there are people in your household with sensitive skin.
There are lots of natural detergent options these days, including Seventh Generation's Free and Clear Laundry Liquid (it also comes in powder form). You can also try EnviroRite detergent. Neither product is tested on animals — something which can't be said for most commercial laundry products.
Wash early and late in the day: For most people, power costs the same, regardless what time of day it's used. But doing the laundry produces heat, and there's no point paying to cool your living space unnecessarily. Do the laundry before it warms up.
Revive the family clothesline: Humans have used the sun and wind to dry their clothes for thousands of years. While modern dryers are certainly fast and convenient, you can save money and energy by hanging a few loads a week.
A clothesline can be something as simple as a rope between two trees. But if you're going to be doing big loads, you'll appreciate the capacity of an umbrella-style dryer. These can usually be found for around $50 USD, and will quickly pay for themselves.
An added benefit to line drying — other than that great "fresh laundry" smell — is that the sun's UV rays do a great job disinfecting clothes. The clothesline is a great companion to cold water washing.
Consider more efficient washers and dryers: Hooray for the front-loading washer! Less water, and much less energy when it's time to dry thanks to their aggressive spin cycles. They're easier on fabrics, too.
Washers and dryers are big-ticket purchases. But when it's time to replace yours, look for one of the energy-efficient models. Standard washers use up to 40 gallons of water per load; the new resource-misers only require 18-25.
EnergyStar has developed a rating system for washing machines. You can get a rated model in either front- or top-loading styles. You'll find EnergyStar’s current list of recommended models here.
Archaeologist Michael Gibbons has discovered a complex series of weirs and dams that may date back to Mesolithic times on the Errislannan peninsula in Connemara. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy. Photo courtesy: irishtimes
A complex series of weirs and dams to trap rare fish on Connemara’s Errislannan peninsula may date back to the Mesolithic period, according to the archaeologist who made the discovery.
Significantly, one local resident is still making and using traps for the weir and dam system, modelled on pre-Christian design, archaeologist Michael Gibbons said. John Folan said he was unaware of the historical importance of the equipment, the coastal system, or the fish species, until contacted by Mr Gibbons. The National Museum of Ireland has now commissioned him to construct one of his traps for its folklife collection.
Mr Gibbons was walking on the north side of Errislannan, outside Clifden, when he came across the stone ponds, channels and dams linking Mannin Bay to several inner lagoons. He learned that the system was designed to enclose and trap a fish called “marin” or “mearachán”, which is similar to a smelt, and may be related to shad, which frequent the river Barrow.
Marine biologist Dr Cillian Roden said the fish type was “fascinating”, but its identity was uncertain. “It could be that these smelt do live in lagoons, and it would make the lagoons very important in environmental terms,” he said.
Mr Folan said he had learned from his father and grandfather how to make traps, known as “cochill”, which are placed in the upper end of the dam and weir system. He uses fencing or chicken wire and wood for a design that resembles an ice-cream cone. Formerly the traps were made of sally rods.
“It is going back generations,” he said. “People depended on the fish and you’d get hundreds of them sometimes, but only during early spring. You could boil them, fry them, cook them any way, and we’d often bring them into Clifden.” The arrival of Arctic terns close to the lagoons below Mr Folan’s house heralded the presence of the fish around St Patrick’s Day, at a time when food resources were low after winter.
Mr Gibbons said the system, dating back to Mesolithic times, had been adapted for contemporary use over centuries. “This is a very important part of the maritime history and archaeology, and shows how rich our coastline is in historical terms,” he said.
A letter discovered in northern Peru in 2008 showing a column of numbers written in Spanish and translated into a language that scholars say is now extinct, is seen in this undated photo released by archaeologists September 22, 2010. REUTERS/Handout. Photo courtesy: yahoonews
Archaeologists say scrawl on the back of a letter recovered from a 17th century dig site reveals a previously unknown language spoken by indigenous peoples in northern Peru.
A team of international archaeologists found the letter under a pile of adobe bricks in a collapsed church complex near Trujillo, 347 miles north of Lima. The complex had been inhabited by Dominican friars for two centuries.
"Our investigations determined that this piece of paper records a number system in a language that has been lost for hundreds of years," Jeffrey Quilter, an archaeologist at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, told Reuters.
A photograph of the letter recently released by archaeologists shows a column of numbers written in Spanish and translated into a language that scholars say is now extinct.
"We discovered a language no one has seen or heard since the 16th or 17th century," Quilter said, adding that the language appears to have been influenced by Quechua, an ancient tongue still spoken by millions of people across the Andes.
He said it could also be the written version of a language colonial-era Spaniards referred to in historical writings as pescadora, for the fishermen on Peru's northern coast who spoke it.
So far no record of the pescadora language has been found.
The letter, buried in the ruins of the Magdalena de Cao Viejo church at the El Brujo Archaeological Complex in northern Peru, was discovered in 2008.
But Quilter said archaeologists decided to keep their discovery secret until the research showing evidence of the lost language was published this month in the journal American Anthropologist.
"I think a lot of people don't realize how many languages were spoken in pre-contact times," Quilter said. "Linguistically, the relationship between the Spanish conquistadors and the indigenous was very complex."
Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska's northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice.
Alaska's walrus, especially breeding females, in summer and fall are usually found on the Arctic ice pack. But the lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich shelf of ocean bottom in the Bering and Chukchi seas.
Walrus feed on clams, snails and other bottom dwellers. Given the choice between an ice platform over water beyond their 630-foot diving range or gathering spots on shore, thousands of walrus picked Alaska's rocky beaches.
"It looks to me like animals are shifting their distribution to find prey," said Tim Ragen, executive director of the federal Marine Mammal Commission. "The big question is whether they will be able to find sufficient prey in areas where they are looking."
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, September sea ice was 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000. Sea ice cover is in a downward spiral and may have passed the point of no return, with a possible ice-free Arctic Ocean by summer 2030, senior scientist Mark Serreze said.
Starting in July, several thousand walrus abandoned the ice pack for gathering spots known as haulouts between Barrow and Cape Lisburne, a remote, 300-mile stretch of Alaska coastline.
The immediate concern of new, massive walrus groups for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is danger to the animals from stampedes. Panic caused by a low-flying airplane, a boat or an approaching polar bear can send a herd rushing to the sea. Young animals can be crushed by adults weighing 2,000 pounds or more.
Longer term, biologists fear walrus will suffer nutritional stress if they are concentrated on shoreline rather than spread over thousands of miles of sea ice.
Walrus need either ice or land to rest. Unlike seals, they cannot swim indefinitely and must pause after foraging.
Historically, Ragen said, walrus have used the edge of the ice pack like a conveyor belt. As the ice edge melts and moves north in spring and summer, sea ice gives calves a platform on which to rest while females dive to feed.
There's no conveyor belt for walrus on shore.
"If they've got to travel farther, it's going to cost more energy. That's less energy that's available for other functions," Ragen said.
Deborah Williams -- who was an Interior Department special assistant for Alaska under former President Bill Clinton, and who is now president of the nonprofit Alaska Conservation Solutions -- said melting of sea ice and its effects on wildlife were never even discussed during her federal service from 1995 to 2000.
"That's what so breathtaking about this," she said. "This has all happened faster than anyone could have predicted. That's why it's so urgent action must be taken."
Walrus observers on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea have also reported more walrus at haulouts and alerted Alaska wildlife officials to the problems with the animals being spooked and stampeded.
If lack of sea ice is at the heart of upcoming problems for walrus, Ragen said, there's no solution likely available other than prevention.
"The primary problem of maintaining ice habitat, that's something way, way, way beyond us," he said. "To reverse things will require an effort on virtually everyone's part."
Everyone wins when a problem is solved using co-operation between opposing forces and natural resources. That's why I love this project in Africa so much. Both sides win AND both sides have prospered.
In South Africa, there has been a war raging between cattle ranchers and herdsmen against cheetahs. Along the South African border with Botswana there have been confrontations between the cattle ranchers/herdsmen and the cheetah looking for an easy meal.
In the 1980s and 1990s, there wasn't much of a problem because few wild cheetahs were seen in those parts. In recent years, the numbers have increased; and, it is believed, these extra cheetah have moved from Botswana (which has had a great deal of success with conservation projects) to the South African side of the border.
The cheetahs' numbers have declined rapidly - down from 100,000 a century ago - to about 10,000 worldwide. Unfortunately, most cheetahs in southern Africa live outside of protected areas.
The cheetahs began killing the livestock, putting them at danger of retaliatory attacks from farmers. At Knipe’s ranch, some 50 to 70 young goats a season were perishing, almost all by cheetahs visiting his pastures for an easy meal. Some farmers in the area became so frustrated that they would illegally shoot the cheetahs, poison them or leave them to die in traps set for jackals.
“Cheetahs have been persecuted in this area,” says Peter Knipe.
On his 18,500-acre ranch, Knipe keeps cows and goats as well as wild game such as kudu, impala, gemsbok and giraffes, which he breeds and sells. Knipe says that while he would never kill a cheetah, he lamented the “huge losses” of his goats, which are like sitting ducks for predators. So he decided to get a dog.
Neeake is an Anatolian shepherd dog, a Turkish breed renowned for its ability to guard livestock, and was donated to Knipe under a program run by the conservation group Cheetah Outreach. The idea is that the dogs will help farmers protect their livestock, so the cheetahs will no longer be targeted by angry farmers, who are one of the biggest threats to their survival. It’s an innovative way to help an animal classified as “vulnerable” on the global list of endangered species.
Since Neeake came to the ranch at Molopo River a year and a half ago, Knipe hasn’t lost any goats under the dog’s watch. He has been able to increase the size of his herd from 250 to more than 400.
“We’ve got zero losses where we use the dogs,” says Knipe, who recently got another Anatolian puppy to help him with his growing herd of goats.
Anatolian shepherds are big, powerful dogs that were bred to protect livestock from bears and wolves in central Turkey. They do just as well against the cheetahs in Africa, in addition to the leopards, caracals, brown hyenas and jackals also in the area along the South Africa-Botswana border. The dogs are highly intelligent and independent and their short hair makes them well-suited for keeping cool on hot African days.
On Knipe’s farm, Neeake was placed with the goat kids when he was a puppy and grew up next to them, developing a strong and loyal bond. Now he stays with the goats all day, keeping watch for intruders as they graze and sleeping with them in their corral at night, although in a dog house.
“He stays out with the goats. That’s his place,” says Knipe.
Knipe also keeps Rottweiler dogs as pets, but says that Neeake is different. Like a protective mother goat he is constantly vigilant and on the lookout for predators, and not easily distracted. “He’s not like a normal house dog,” says Knipe.
The Cheetah Outreach program tells of the amazing feats of Anatolians in protecting their livestock from cheetahs and other predators.
A young dog named Crickey fought off a leopard to save his herd. He was badly injured, and after a visit to the vet, was taken into the farmhouse to recover. But Crickey had other ideas, and that night he escaped from the house and walked 9 miles to return to his herd. Another Anatolian shepherd, Uthaya, was seen gently dragging an old and sickly ewe in his herd into the shade on a hot day.
Cyril Stannard, coordinator for the Anatolian shepherd project, says that at first some farmers were skeptical of the program. “It was a new concept and so we had to prove it,” he says. “Luckily the dogs we have placed have proved themselves.”
The dogs have reduced livestock losses by 95 to 100 percent, according to Stannard. They mostly guard sheep and goats, but some have been trained to protect cattle. The farmers say that as long as they’re not losing livestock to cheetahs, they aren’t tempted to hunt the wild cats. “The farmers have become tolerant,” Stannard says.
Stannard says that 76 dogs have been placed since 2005 in the three areas where the program is active in South Africa, along the borders with Botswana and Zimbabwe. It’s an area he describes as “the last frontier for free-ranging cheetahs” in South Africa.
Cheetahs are the fastest animal in the world, hitting speeds of up to 70 miles per hour in explosive but short bursts of energy. Cheetah cub mortality is as high as 90 percent, largely due to attacks by predators such as lions.
Their habitat has been dramatically reduced in the past 100 years, as it has for all other wild animals in Africa. But unlike other animals, cheetahs don’t do very well on nature reserves.
While they are keen hunters, they are poor fighters because of their small jaws and teeth, and they lose much of their prey to more aggressive animals such as hyenas and lions. Cheetahs tend to run away rather than fight.
In Swaziland, which is bordered on three sides by South Africa, a man plead guilty in court recently for shooting and then eating a cheetah that had killed 10 of his 14 goats, according to the Times of Swaziland.
In Knipe’s area, the view towards cheetahs is changing. With the Anatolian shepherd dogs came education programs for farm staff, and awareness about cheetahs has spread out into the community. For example, people in the area who were once fearful of cheetahs are learning that the animals rarely attack humans.
Knipe concluded, “the farmers are becoming cheetah-friendly.”
A worker weighs asparagus at a processing plant in the Peruvian city of Ica. Photograph: Pilar Olivares/Reuters. Photo courtesy: guardian
Asparagus grown in Peru and sold in the UK is commonly held up as a symbol of unacceptable food miles, but a report has raised an even more urgent problem: its water footprint.
The study, by the development charity Progressio, has found that industrial production of asparagus in Peru's Ica valley is depleting the area's water resources so fast that smaller farmers and local families are finding wells running dry. Water to the main city in the valley is also under threat, it says. It warns that the export of the luxury vegetable, much of it to British supermarkets, is unsustainable in its current form.
The Ica Valley is a desert area in the Andes and one of the driest places on earth. The asparagus beds developed in the last decade require constant irrigation, with the result that the local water table has plummeted since 2002 when extraction overtook replenishment. In some places it has fallen by eight metres each year, one of the fastest rates of aquifer depletion in the world.
The UK is the world's sixth largest importer of "virtual water", that is water needed to produce the goods it buys from other countries, according to WWF. Much of the UK's thirst is directly related to the boom in high-value food imports in recent years. The market in fresh asparagus is typical; it barely existed before the end of the 1990s. Now the UK is the third largest importer of fresh Peruvian asparagus, consuming 6.5 million kilos a year.
Peru meanwhile has become the largest exporter of asparagus in the world, earning more than $450m a year from the trade. Around 95% of that asparagus comes from the Ica valley.
The expansion of the agricultural frontier in the region was made possible thanks to multimillion dollar investments by the World Bank from the late 1990s on. In just 10 years asparagus cultivation has exploded to cover nearly 100sq km of reclaimed desert. Some of the largest producers have received loans from the World Bank's commercial investment arm totalling $20m (£12m) or more over that period. The trade has created around 10,000 new jobs in a very poor area, contributing significantly to Peru's growth, but it has already provoked conflict. When a World Bank executive went to investigate complaints about the water shortages in April he was shot at.
"The water tragedy unfolding in this region of Peru should set alarms bells ringing for government, agribusiness and retailers involved in Ica's asparagus industry," said report author Nick Hepworth.
The report accuses supermarkets and investors, including the World Bank, of failing to take proper responsibility for the impact of their decisions on poorer countries' water resources. "We need action now to ensure water is used sustainably in Ica and beyond," said Hepworth .
Two wells serving up to 18,500 people in the valley have already dried up. Traditional small- and medium-scale farmers have also found their water supplies severely diminished.
Juan Alvarez's experience is typical. His family has farmed the Ica valley for four generations. He employs 10 people through the year, with up to 40 jobs for workers in peak asparagus season, but he says those livelihoods are under threat.
The wells on his farm used to hit water at 55 metres and he could pump 60 litres of water a second from them. Now some have dried out and where there is still water he has to drill down to 108 metres and can extract only 22 litres a second even at that depth.
Alvarez told researchers: "Agroexporters came with new government policies and tax exemptions. They bought water rights and started buying wells very far away. They have created jobs and that's important, but the reality is they are depleting the water resources and when the water is gone they will leave. But what future is there for us? We will never leave."
For smaller farmers the crisis is even more acute. Elisa Gomez and her family own a small farm next to one of the largest asparagus exporters and have to buy water for irrigation from the local canal, but the industrial production has made it hard to survive. "We pay for water for 15 days twice a year. But the soil is not as productive as before and dries out in just three days. Now the land is so dry the water drains away much faster."
The rights to the wells in their part of the valley have all been sold to the exporter. "Those of us who didn't sell land suffered water shortages, so many people were forced to sell anyway. The exporters just wait for people to get tired and sell them cheap dry land," she said.
The large-scale exporting companies are not immune from the crisis of overextraction either. They are facing rising costs for their water. They have been deepening existing wells, buying up old ones from neighbouring land and piping water across huge distances. Some are also alleged to have got round a ban on new wells by paying off officials.
One of the largest and most modern of Peru's fresh asparagus producers, which supplies 18% of exports to the UK, spoke to Progressio researchers anonymously. It has received loans from the World Bank's lending arm. Its chief executive said that the water levels in some wells were falling by as much as two metres a year. All its wells are licensed and legal but he said regulation was weak and there was no inspection of what people extracted.
"Peru provides the world with the best example of how to mismanage water. We desperately need to rationalise water use in the Ica. We are spending huge sums just to survive."
He argued that big businesses such as his were at the forefront of science to use water efficiently but traditional farmers used water carelessly.
Competition for diminishing global water resources is emerging as one of the most pressing concerns for business as well as development organisations. Leading retailers have told the Guardian privately water shortages in the areas where they source fresh fruit and vegetables out of season is top of their list of priorities when they check how sustainable their businesses are.
The water shortages on Peru's Pacific coast are expected to get worse as climate change shrinks the glaciers that feed the Ica river system.
Promoting food for export has been a key plank in World Bank policy for developing countries. Its investment arm, the International Finance Corporation, said in a statement that it aims to promote sustainable development through investment in private sector companies, which it requires to commit to minimising their water use: "We define sustainability as providing economic growth opportunities for the poor and protecting the environment and the rights of vulnerable communities."
How far the policy helps the poorest in those countries remains a subject of fierce debate among international development experts. Progressio is not calling for an end to the asparagus export business. "The area relies on asparagus for employment. We are not saying the trade itself is wrong but supermarkets and investors have to take responsibility for finding more of a balance," said Petra Kjell, an environmental policy officer.
We asked the leading UK retailers to comment but only two were able to do so in the time available. M&S said: "We have a range of responsible water use projects under way and have strengthened our farming standards to include greater focus on water efficiency."
Tesco said: "We are pleased that Progressio has highlighted Tesco's role in raising industry standards in water management in areas such as the Ica Valley.
"We have a strong record in this area and our Nurture standard is regularly reviewed and improved. We acknowledge there is more to do and so we are continually working with our suppliers to help them minimise their environmental impact, including water use."
The names of farmers in the above story have been changed. In the following true story, the family's names have all been changed.
Alicia Flores and her family live in the village of Callejón de los Espinos in Peru's Ica Valley. Each house in the village normally receives water for about one hour, three times a week.
They used to get two hours' water four times a week, but about four years ago the water pressure dropped off dramatically, as agricultural exporters extracted more and more groundwater. Then the 2007 earthquake exacerbated the problem by damaging infrastructure. Now, when the water is on, the family is only able to collect half the amount of water they used to, so they are reduced to 10 litres of water per person, per day. The World Health Organisation says a person needs five times that amount to maintain health.
Like most people in the village, Alicia's husband works for the asparagus exporters. They say the working conditions are good but pay and benefits have been cut since the global economic crisis.
"We have seen water pressure dropping in the past years since the agro-exporters came, but if the water runs out and they leave, we will have no work and no water. What will happen to our children then?" asked one villager.
"There must be progress, certainly. But we must ask ourselves what kind of progress we want, and what price we want to pay for it. If, in the name of progress, we want to destroy everything beautiful in our world, and contaminate the air we breathe, and the water we drink, then we are in trouble."
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas, American environmentalist.
I'm fortunate to have several passions in my life. I am absolutely an eco-nut. I am always trying to find new ways to reduce, reuse, recycle. We, as a species, have done more harm to this planet in the short time we have been here, than any other catastrophe or happening ever has. It's up to us to fix it.
I care about the environment whether it is as small as a single cell or as large as the universe.
I adore creativity and think we can all do more with much less. This earth has enough resources for us all to live comfortably if we all learn to share. Wasn't that a lesson we were supposed to learn in kindergarten?
I also love the bizarre, unusual, the weird and the strange. Be prepared for the odd "different" blog.
Laos' proposed hydropower plant threatens the habitat of giant Mekong catfish, such as this one weighing in at 292kg. Photograph: Suthep Kritsanavarin/AFP/Getty Images. Photo courtesy: guardian
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