Manzoor Qadir – författare

This book offers the first multidisciplinary overview of water resources issues and management in the Aral Sea Basin, covering both the Amu Darya and Syr Darya River Basins.

The two main rivers of Amu Darya and Syr Darya and their tributaries comprise the Aral Sea Basin area and are the lifeline for about 70 million inhabitants in Central Asia. Written by regional and international experts, this book critically examines the current state, trends and future of water resources management and development in this major part of the Central Asia region. It brings together insights on the history of water management in the region, surface and groundwater assessment, issues of transboundary water management and environmental degradation and restoration, and an overview of the importance of water for the key economic sectors and overall socio-economic development of Central Asian countries, as well as of hydro politics in the region. The book also focusses on the future of water sector development in the Basin, including a review of local and international actors, as well as an analysis of the current status and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by Basin countries.

The book will be essential reading for those interested in sea basin management, environmental policy in Central Asia and water resource management more widely. It will also act as a reference source for decision-makers in state agencies, as well as a background source of information for NGOs.

Chapter 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book offers the first multidisciplinary overview of water resources issues and management in the Aral Sea Basin, covering both the Amu Darya and Syr Darya River Basins.

The two main rivers of Amu Darya and Syr Darya and their tributaries comprise the Aral Sea Basin area and are the lifeline for about 70 million inhabitants in Central Asia. Written by regional and international experts, this book critically examines the current state, trends and future of water resources management and development in this major part of the Central Asia region. It brings together insights on the history of water management in the region, surface and groundwater assessment, issues of transboundary water management and environmental degradation and restoration, and an overview of the importance of water for the key economic sectors and overall socio-economic development of Central Asian countries, as well as of hydro politics in the region. The book also focusses on the future of water sector development in the Basin, including a review of local and international actors, as well as an analysis of the current status and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by Basin countries.

The book will be essential reading for those interested in sea basin management, environmental policy in Central Asia and water resource management more widely. It will also act as a reference source for decision-makers in state agencies, as well as a background source of information for NGOs.

Chapter 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

The world is faced with a growing number of complex and interconnected challenges. Water is among the top 5 global risks in terms of impacts, which would be far reaching beyond socio-economic challenges, impacting livelihoods and wellbeing of the people.

As freshwater resources and population densities are unevenly distributed across the world, some regions and countries are already water scarce. Water scarcity is expected to intensify in regions like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which has 6% of the global population, but only 1% of the world’s freshwater resources. Climate change adds to this complexity as it is leading to rainfall uncertainty and extended droughts periods, mostly in arid areas.

The stark fact is that conventional water provisioning approaches relying on snowfall, rainfall and river runoff are not enough to meet growing freshwater demand in water-scarce areas. Water-scarce countries need a radical re-think of water resource planning and management that includes the creative exploitation of a growing set of viable but unconventional water resources for food production, livelihoods, ecosystems, climate change adaption, and sustainable development. Unconventional water resources are generated as a by-product of specialized processes; need suitable pre-use treatment; require pertinent on-farm management when used for irrigation; or result from a special technology to collect/access water.

The book combines knowledge about salinity problems from soil science and plant science and presents an in-depth treatment of the current scientific findings to enable plant production on saline soils. It discusses soil parameters in the context of the development of plants with salt resistance as a multigenic trait. An integrated view helps to comprehend the complicated metabolic and biophysical aspects involved in salt resistance. Findings in recent years promise to promote salt resistance significantly. The possibility to cultivate plants on so far barren land is of utmost importance with regard to a fast-growing world population and an increasing need for food, feed, and regrowing resources under particular consideration of environmental protection.

The books provides a timely analysis in support of a paradigm shift in the field of wastewater management, from ‘treatment for disposal’ to ‘treatment for reuse’ by offering a variety of value propositions for water, nutrient and energy recovery which can support cost savings, cost recovery, and profits, in a sector that traditionally relies on public funding. The book provides new insights into the economics of wastewater use, applicable to developed and developing countries striving to transform wastewater from an unpleasant liability to a valuable asset and recasting urbanization from a daunting challenge into a resource recovery opportunity.

“It requires business thinking to transform septage and sewage into valuable products. A must read for water scholars, policy makers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs". Guy Hutton, Senior Economist, Water and Sanitation Program, Water Global Practice, World Bank 

“This book provides compelling evidence and real solutions for the new ‘resource from waste’ approach that is transforming sanitation, boosting livelihoods, and strengthening urban resilience”. Christopher Scott, Professor and Distinguished Scholar, University of Arizona 

“This book shows how innovative business thinking and partnerships around resource recovery and reuse fit well within an inclusive green economy and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies”. Akiça Bahri, Coordinator of the African Water Facility, Tunisia, and award-winning researcher

This book provides a practical guidance and a set of principles for improving management of saline and alkali waters and thus would be useful for different stakeholders, including agricultural students, researchers, environmentalists, and policy makers.

The worldwide aggregated area with occurrence of saline and brackish groundwater is about 24 million square kilometers causing annual food losses to the extent of food requirements of 170 million people. For fostering the safe and reliable use of these waters, researchers have innovated management techniques helping sustainable irrigation with waters otherwise rated earlier as unfit. Vast pool of information has been put together in this book covering groundwater irrigation scenario and need for non-conventional waters; extent, genesis, and global distribution of saline groundwater; impacts of saline and alkali irrigation waters on soils and crops; management approaches for sustaining irrigation with typical saline and alkali ground waters for agricultural and horticulture crops; steady and non-steady state models for salt and water dynamics vis-a-vis crop responses; alternate uses of highly saline waters; water quality guidelines for irrigation under different soil and agro-climatic conditions and ultimately some researchable and policy issues for promoting irrigation with these waters.