Rural demand for better water driving mobile water treatment growth in Asia Pacific

Space Daily via SPX: Rapid urbanization in the Asia Pacific [region] is prompting the rural population to intensify its demands for a better quality of life, which includes access to cleaner and purer water. This, coupled with demand for high quality water from water-intensive industries, makes a robust case for mobile water treatment in the region.

New analysis from Frost and Sullivan, Asia-Pacific Mobile Water Treatment Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $48.2 million in 2011 and is expected to reach $298.3 million by 2017. As the costs of addressing the water needs are high, mobile water treatment systems are fast emerging as the most viable option in countries with budgetary constraints.

Water quality and type varies from location to location, depending on the source and geography, and this has a direct impact on costs. To keep their systems affordable, the biggest players are leveraging their strengths in different technologies to put together the best combination of technologies, which can treat a vast variance of water influents.

"Mobile systems' ease of transport and quality of output are popularizing them at the consumer level; while the increase in investments and the number of water-intensive industries is driving the market at the commercial and industrial level," said Frost and Sullivan Research Associate Prashanth Kay....

An irrigation well in Bhaun, Pakistan, shot by Syed Usman Ali, public domain

Thousands flee floods as cyclone batters Solomon Islands

Terra Daily via AFP: Thousands of people were forced to flee rapidly rising rivers in the Solomon Islands, officials said Sunday as Cyclone Freda intensified into a "destructive" force storm and headed towards New Caledonia.

Wind gusts had strengthened to more than 231 kilometres per hour (144 miles per hour, 125 knots) as Freda developed into a powerful category four storm, said Sajay Prakesh at the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Centre in Fiji. "These winds are very destructive and can cause huge damage to infrastructure and buildings," he told AFP.

Freda is expected to reach New Caledonia on New Year's Day and "given its current form if it hits New Caledonia Freda will cause huge damage, as it will blow strong winds and heavy rain for six to seven hours".

As the cyclone moved across the Solomons it lashed the South Pacific archipelago, whipping roofs off houses, flattening trees and forcing people to flee rising rivers. Thousands of people from riverside villages had moved to the safety of higher ground, National Disaster Management Office director Loti Yates said….

Cyclone Freda on December 30, 2012, from NASA

Cyclone Freda tears roofs off houses in Solomon Islands

Terra Daily via AFP: Freshly formed Cyclone Freda whipped roofs off houses and flattened trees in the Solomon Islands as it gathered strength en route to New Caledonia, forecasters said Saturday.

There was also flooding from rising rivers as winds of up to 130 kilometres an hour (80 mph) blew in, but there were no reports of deaths or injuries, Solomon Islands Meteorological Service officer Manoah Tepa said.

"Cyclone Freda is now a category two cyclone and it is continuing to intensify. It will become category three by midnight tonight having very destructive winds," said Sajay Prakesh of the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Centre in Fiji.

Although the cyclone was moving away, parts of the Solomon Islands were being hit by "very strong winds and heavy rain," said Prakesh....

Cyclone Freda on December 28, 2012

Fresh cyclone brews in Pacific

Terra Daily via AFP: A fresh cyclone was brewing in the South Pacific Friday, forecasters said, just two weeks after destructive Cyclone Evan caused widespread devastation in Samoa and Fiji.

A cyclone warning has been issued for the Solomon Islands which are expected to bear the brunt of winds in excess of 100 kilometres an hour (60 mph) over the weekend before the storm swings towards New Caledonia.

Although it was in its formative stages Friday, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre said it had the potential to develop into a "significant tropical cyclone" over the next 24 hours. In the Solomon Islands, fishermen were urged not to go to sea and people living in coastal areas were advised to move to higher ground.

Chief forecaster Manoah Tepa told reporters "rough seas, heavy rain and strong winds" were expected. New Zealand-based meteorological service Weatherwatch said the storm, expected to be named Freda, was expected to be over New Caledonia on New Year's Day....

Tropical Cyclone Evan on December 19, 2012, in a NASA mug shot

Trail of destruction after Cyclone Evan hits Fiji

Terra Daily via AFP: Tropical Cyclone Evan left a swathe of destruction across Fiji Tuesday after battering the Pacific nation for more than 12 hours, destroying homes, flooding rivers and stranding thousands of tourists. Despite the damage, officials reported no fatalities as the storm headed out to sea early Tuesday and was downgraded a notch to category three.

Western parts of the main island Viti Levu bore the brunt of the cyclone's fury overnight, with the Fiji Times describing the township of Lautoka as a "war zone". Witnesses said entire houses were blown away by the ferocious winds, leaving stunned residents to clean up debris from empty lots after they returned from evacuation centres.

"The destruction this cyclone has caused is beyond words. Not one house has been spared here," Lautoka resident Melaia Waisele told AFP. The information ministry said bridges were submerged by swollen rivers, high winds toppled power lines and roads were closed by landslides and debris.

Almost 8,500 locals sheltered from the cyclone in evacuation centres, while thousands of international tourists, almost 3,000 of them relocated from outlying islands for their own safety, rode out the storm in Viti Levu's resorts....

Tropical Cyclone Evan on December 13, 2012. NASA

Fiji under curfew as cyclone arrives

Stuff (New Zealand): Much of Fiji is now under curfew as it awaits Cyclone Evan - which is threatening to become a devastating category five storm. Radar pictures show that Evan, which devastated Samoa on Thursday night, is about to hit Fiji tonight and into tomorrow.

It is not known what happened to the 15,000 people of the French islands of Wallis and Futuna, which Evan passed over today. The upgrade came as Evan was on top of Wallis Island, part of the French territory of Wallis and Futuna. The islands, the only kingdoms within the Republic of France, are now completely cut off. Authorities there usually take down satellite dishes as cyclones pass over.

The military commissioner for Fiji’s northern district, which includes Vanua Levu, Colonel Ilai Moceica, this afternoon imposed a curfew, saying it was necessary to save lives. Meanwhile the Fiji Navy has warned all seafarers that travelling during disasters not only threatens the lives of those at sea, but also the Fiji Navy.

The latest warning from the Fiji Meteorological Service has issued storm and gale warnings across a wide area of Fiji, including the Yasawa and Mamanuca areas, popular with tourists. All tourists at island resorts off the western coast of Viti Levu have been evacuated to the Nadi area. The service is warning that “destructive winds” may begin several hours before the cyclone centre arrives around midnight.

Weather forecasters are predicting that super cyclone Evan will hit New Zealand's Northland and Auckland area toward the end of the week....

Severe Tropical Cyclone Evan on December 16, 2012

Pacific islanders face major losses from climate change

Megan Rowling in AlertNet: The livelihoods of some 10 million people in Pacific island communities are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, which poses "unprecedented challenges" to the region's economies and environment, a U.N.-backed report said on Friday.

Incomes - in many cases already low - are at risk from sea-level rise, tropical cyclones, floods and drought, as well as pressures linked to over-fishing and coastal development, said the report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.

Low-lying islands in the Pacific Ocean could face projected losses of up to 18 percent of gross domestic product due to climate change, UNEP added. “This report presents concrete evidence that food, freshwater and the livelihoods of Pacific islanders are under threat," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said in a statement.

Other challenges include population increases, a reliance on imported food and commodities, a growing waste problem and invasive species - pressures that are being exacerbated by climate change and more frequent extreme weather events, said the report....

Enderbury Island, in Kiribati, shot by NASA