Melting Himalayan glaciers and other climate change impacts pose a direct threat to the water and food security of more than 1.6 billion people in South Asia, according to preliminary findings of a new study financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Climate change threatens to bring food and water shortages to 1.6 billion people in South Asia, with the region's poorest likely to be worst hit, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said here Wednesday. New research commissioned by the ADB shows that if current climate trends persist until 2050, maize yields in South Asia will fall by 17 percent, wheat by 12 percent and rice by 10 percent.

With several parts of the country already reeling under drought, scientists in the United States have found that groundwater levels in North Indian cities, including Delhi, are declining by as much as a foot per year over the past decade.

Poor crop yields, water shortages and more extreme temperatures are pushing rural villagers in Nepal closer to the brink as a result of climate change, a new report launched Oxfam, an international aid agency, aid, describing the situation "deeply worrying".

The water supply project in Walapane which comes under the main water supply scheme in the Nuwara Eliya district is nearing completion and ready to serve more than 12,800 people in the area who suffered hardships due to the scarcity of drinking water during past few years.

Chamber

K Narasimhamurthy, Kolar, DH News Service:

The people of Kolar district are reeling under acute drinking water shortage.

A file picture of a farmer in drought-hit region. As it is, Kolar is infamous for its drinking water crisis, and also, for its drought. With failure of monsoon rains, this year too, thousands of farmers in the district are left in the lurch.

In order to temporarily solve the drinking water problem prevailing in Kolar city, the CMC has decided to send a Rs 25 lakh proposal to the Government.

A decision to this effect was taken at the special emergency meeting organised here on Thursday. The meeting was held to prepare the proposal, as per the instructions of the deputy commissioner.

A NET deficit of 5,234 cusecs of water is preventing J&K from irrigating vast swaths of the land that could grow paddy and wheat. Jammu is falling short by 23% of its irrigation water requirements while Kashmir is reeling with a shortage of 32%.

Water shortages present the greatest future threat to the viability of Pakistan as a state and a society, warns a new book on Pakistan.

Author Michael Kugelman argues that