Environment

LONDON, May 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN environmental agency said it has received a request from host nation Britain to postpone this year’s global climate conference until November 2021 because of the coronavirus.

This year’s COP 26 summit had been due to take place in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November before the pandemic forced a rethink and the possibility of rescheduling for March 2021.

But it now appears it could take place much later.

MANILA, May 23 (NNN-PNA) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 shook Philippines’ main island of Luzon today (Saturday), the Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology (Phivolcs) said.

The institute said, the quake, which struck at 10:10 a.m. local time, hit about 16 km southwest of San Luis town, in Aurora Province, at a depth of seven km.

Phivolcs initially reported that the earthquake was magnitude 5.1, but later upgraded it to magnitude 5.4 in an updated bulletin.

22 May 2020; MEMO: Ethiopia’s Irrigation Minister Seleshi Bekele told resident African ambassadors in Addis Ababa that his country has so far completed 73 per cent of the Renaissance Dam, adding that Ethiopia intends to fill the dam’s reservoir with water in July, the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported.

KANPUR: Anyone coming out on the road during the middle of the day can easily perceive the hot dangerous heat of the summer's sun. The blaze appears to be striking upon us. 

The highest temperature stayed at 43° Celsius on Friday afternoon. It was quite difficult for us to bear the hot weather.

One said: It was too hot to endure the sun's heat. The weather conditions are not helping us. How can one make the courage to move? 

Another stated: The climatic conditions are becoming hotter and hotter every other day.

KOLKATA/DHAKA, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The most powerful cyclone to strike eastern India and Bangladesh in over a decade killed at least 82 people, officials said, as rescue teams scoured devastated coastal villages, hampered by torn down power lines and flooding over large tracts of land.

Mass evacuations organised by authorities before Cyclone Amphan made landfall undoubtedly saved countless lives, but the full extent of the casualties and damage to property would only be known once communications were restored, officials said.

NEW DELHI, May 21 (NNN-PTI) – Three people were killed Wednesday, after super cyclone Amphan battered India’s eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha.

According to local media, two women and a man were killed after gusty winds uprooted trees in Howrah and North 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal.

The super cyclone, triggering winds of up to 190 kph, entered West Bengal accompanied with heavy rains, leaving a trail of destruction.

Officials said, the cyclone entered into human habitations, blowing away makeshift houses, uprooting electric poles and trees.

Bhubaneswar, May 20 (PTI) Cyclone "Amphan" left a trail of destruction in Odisha as it triggered heavy downpour coupled with high-velocity winds while hurtling towards the West Bengal coast on Wednesday, uprooting trees and flattening fragile structures, officials said.

More than 1.41 lakh people living in low-lying areas and thatched and mud houses in the vulnerable coastal regions were evacuated and shifted to cyclone shelters, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), P K Jena said.

Kolkata, May 20 (PTI) The landfall process of cyclone 'Amphan' commenced at 2.30 pm on Wednesday between Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya island in Bangladesh, the Met department said.

The landfall process will continue for about four hours, it said.

"The forward sector of the wall cloud region is entering into land in West Bengal," the Met said.

The intensity of the cyclone near its centre as the landfall process started was recorded at 160-170 kmph, gusting to 190 kmph, it said.

NEW DELHI, May 18 (NNN-PTI) – The India Meteorological Department (IMD) today warned that cyclone Amphan was likely to intensify into an extremely severe cyclonic storm.

“It is very likely to intensify further during the next six hours. It is very likely to move north-northeastwards and move fast across the northwest Bay of Bengal and cross West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts between Digha (West Bengal) and Hatiya Islands (Bangladesh), during the afternoon or evening of May 20, as a very severe cyclonic storm,” reads a statement issued by IMD.

HARARE, May 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Zimbabwe’s second biggest city of Bulawayo limited access to tap water to just one day a week as reservoir levels fall to dangerously low levels amid the country’s worst drought in years.

After a devastating drought in 2019 and patchy rains this year, water shortages have worsened in Bulawayo, in the west of the country, forcing families to trek to unsafe wells as taps run dry.