Tag Archive for 'drought'

Emergency desalination units needed as Marshall Islands face acute water shortage

Published on 05/12/2013 in desalination, drought and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Glogster

“About 6,000 people who live on the remote Marshall Islands in the Pacific are facing an acute shortage of fresh water as a severe  drought worsens.

A state of disaster was declared in the north. Australia announced it would provide AU$100,000 (£65,335) for emergency desalination units. The US has also donated several reverse-osmosis machines, which convert salt water into fresh water.

There is no end in sight to the drought, with fine weather forecast for at least the next 10 days. The drought has also affected the food supply, hitting crops such as breadfruit, bananas and taro.

Casten Nemra, who chairs the national disaster committee, said many large families were surviving on as little as 4.5 litres of water a day.”It’s an increasingly desperate situation out there,” he said. “The dry season should have ended six weeks ago.”

He said there had been no deaths recorded but there has been an increase in diseases including conjunctivitis and diarrhoea. The government has deployed ships carrying food, water and medical supplies to the affected islands, he added.”

Read more: The Guardian

sammykayed

In Bad Sign for Water Supply, California Snowpack at Very Low Levels

Published on 05/02/2013 in drought and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: NBC

“The man in charge of surveying California’s snowpack to measure the amount of water that will flow into storage reservoirs over the next few months had bad news Thursday.

“I’m finding nothing. Seriously, there is no snow on the course at all,” said Frank Gehrke, chief surveyor for the Department of Water Resources.

“The survey showed the water content in the snowpack at 17 percent of normal, an ominous situation for a state that depends on a steady stream of snowmelt to replenish reservoirs throughout the summer.

“For nearly a century the state has been taking snow measurements at select areas across the Sierra Nevada in an attempt to gauge how much water will be available for farmers and city dwellers. Having a course bare of snow is not unusual in May — the last month it is measured — but it’s another stark reminder that water will be in short supply this summer.

“With the DWR projecting to supply just 35 percent of what 29 agencies providing water to 25 million Californians say they need, officials still are not ready to call it a drought.”

Read more: NBC

sammykayed

Water crisis grips Jordan as refugees strain skimpy supply

Published on 06/03/2012 in displacement of people, drought, peak water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

“Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled from carnage and violence at home to neighbouring Jordan are draining the desert kingdom’s meager water resources, officials and experts say.

“It is a new challenge for Jordan, one of the world’s 10 driest countries, where desert covers 92 percent of its territory and the population of 6.7 million is growing by 3.5 percent a year.

“The tiny Arab country has given refuge to waves of Palestinian and Iraqi refugees because of regional conflicts over the past decades, and now the kingdom is hosting up to 120,000 Syrians.

” ‘Each Syrian refugee needs at least 80 litres of fresh water a day, so 9,600 cubic metres per day for 120,000 people. The cost of this subsidised water supply is 13,000 dinar ($18,000) a day, not to mention other related expenses,’ said Adnan Zubi, assistant secretary general of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

” ‘It is not the first time that Jordan hosted forced migrants, but our water resources and infrastructure are already overburdened.’

Read More: middle-east-online

Chippie Kislik

Drought risks killing off British wildlife

Published on 03/19/2012 in drought and peak water. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Wildlife ranging from dragonflies to water voles will be severely hit if the drought gripping parts of England continues, the Environment Agency has warned

Retrieved from: The Telegraph

“Following the driest 18 months on record for some parts of the country, streams and rivers are drying up leaving insects, fish, mammals and amphibians fighting for survival.

Newly hatched tadpoles of frogs, toads and newts are under threat while wading birds such as snipe, curlew and lapwings will suffer from a lack of moist soils in which to find food such as worms for themselves and their young.

In drought-affected areas, some streams, ponds and shallow lakes are likely to dry up before aquatic insects such as dragonflies have taken wing, which will cause them to perish, experts claim.

“The Environment Agency warned that many species have declined in much of England in recent years and the drought could sound the death knell in some smaller breeding sites.

Forest fires will be of increasing concern in the English countryside, the agency said, while some trees including beech and birch could die off in the face of the drought.”

Read more: The Telegraph

Sami Oueida

Water firms banning hosepipes lose 300m gallons a day in leaks

Published on 03/19/2012 in drought, management, peak water, policy and water conservation. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Photo retrieved from: Daily Mail online

“The seven water firms due to impose hosepipe bans are losing almost 300million gallons a day through leaks.

The huge volume disappearing down the drain would be enough to supply the daily needs of 11million people.

Two of the biggest companies involved, Anglian and Southern, are introducing rationing despite the fact they have missed official leak reduction targets.

Consumers will be angry that companies are imposing restrictions backed by a £1,000 fine before they meet their own obligations to save water.

Between them, the seven companies are wasting 286million gallons or 1,299.2million litres of treated water every day, the equivalent to 520 Olympic-size swimming pools.”

Read more: Daily Mail

Sami Oueida

Texas Agency Likely to Cut Water to Rice Farms

Published on 02/22/2012 in agriculture, drought, hydrology, management, peak water, policy and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.claimsjournal.com

“Thousands of farmers in Texas’ rice-producing region are likely to be affected by action taken in response to one of the most severe droughts in state history. With water management agencies implementing emergency plans never used before, the Lower Colorado River Authority is widely expected to announce March 1 that it will not release water to rice farmers in three counties.

“Texas usually produces about 5 percent of the nation’s rice. Production also is dropping this year in the other five major rice-growing states, including No. 1 Arkansas, as farmers are pressed by rising production costs and dropping prices.

“Many farmers in the region alternate between growing rice and ranching, but those with cattle sold off much of their livestock last year as the drought parched rangeland and pushed up hay prices. That leaves them with few alternatives now.

“To turn the tide in Texas, Mother Nature needs to dump 5 to 8 inches of rain in the Hill Country to produce about 32.6 billion gallons of runoff into the region’s lakes, LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose said. It’s possible, but Rose “wasn’t very optimistic” about it happening soon.”

Read more: Claims Journal

Sami Oueida

Farmers warn food prices could go up because of drought

Published on 02/22/2012 in agriculture, drought, hydrology, management, peak water, policy, water shortage, water technology and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

A combine harvester making it's way along a field of wheat in East Norton in Leicestershire. Farm, agriculture, farming, drought, British farming

Photo retrieved from: The Telegraph

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Peter Kendall, President of the National Farmers Union, said ongoing drought in the South East and Anglia, the “bread basket of Britain”, will cut yields and force up prices.

“As sure as night follows day if it doesn’t rain, food prices will go up. I can guarantee you that,” he said. “If there is less water across bigger areas of northern Europe food will cost more money.”

Drought-afflicted areas need 120 per cent of normal rainfall between now and March to avoid drought but the Met Office is forecasting a dry period.

“Mr Kendall said in the past, when the UK relied on imported food, farmers were ignored during a drought. For example golf courses would continue to be watered – but farmers banned from irrigating crops.”

Read more: The Telegraph

Sami Oueida

Google Brings Water Data to Life

Published on 01/30/2012 in contaminated water, drought, peak water, tap water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Photo retrieved from: circleofblue.org

“Fusion Tables, which was developed by Google engineers using sample research data about the global fresh water crisis provided by the Pacific Institute and Circle of Blue, is specifically designed to unlock a treasure trove of facts, trends, and scientific findings that until now have been sequestered in databases and spreadsheets not easily shared.

“Users can also display their data through a variety of visualizations: as a timeline, a graph or a map. The “fusion” of the data sets can link dissimilar information from the far corners of the Web to reveal patterns and trends that might be impossible to spot otherwise. This makes Fusion Tables a central hub for data collaboration, as anyone can publish and access files, which were formerly locked away in Excel spreadsheets, PDF reports, and hard-cover textbooks.

“There is an enormous amount of water data out there, but data by itself doesn’t tell the story; data are only numbers,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. “If we can find innovative ways to convert data into action, then data is important.”

“Fusion Tables created a scatter plot that revealed a noticeable and predictable correlation of death by water-related illness, wealth and safe drinking water availability. As the gross domestic product per capita increased, the percentage of a country’s population connected to tap water increased, and child deaths related to diarrhea decreased.

“As Circle of Blue does with front-line reporting of water issues, we hope to provide new ways of looking at problems, collecting vast amounts of information and making it widely relevant, visual and accessible,” Halevy said.”

Read more: circle of blue

Sami Oueida

Flooding and water scarcity ranked as top threat for UK

Published on 01/27/2012 in climate change, drought, floods and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: edieWater

“Water scarcity and flooding is likely to become the main problem for the UK in the future, which will need to adapt to increase its reliance, was the stark warning from the first comprehensive climate change risk study.

“As part of the assessment, 700 potential climate change impacts were investigated, with flooding ranked as the worst risk for the UK, closely followed by water shortages, soil erosion and prolonged heatwaves.

Flood risk is projected to increase significantly across the UK, with analysis for England and Wales showing unless plans to adapt to changing risks are implemented, that by the 2080s climate change and population growth could see damages to buildings and property reach between £2.1bn – £12bn, compared to current costs of £1.2bn.

Water quality is also predicted to be affected, as it depends on water volume and river flows to dilute pollutants. This, states the report is likely to increase water treatment costs and damage the local ecosystem.

“The CCRA also predicts increasing pressure on the UK’s water resources and warns that without action to improve water resources there could be major supply shortages by the 2050s in parts of the north, south and east of England, with the Thames River basin predicted to take the brunt of the drought.”

Read more: edieWater

Sami Oueida

NZ, US join forces over Pacific water crisis

Published on 10/09/2011 in contaminated water, displacement of people, drought and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Tuvalu

Retrieved from: The Australian

“New Zealand is working with the United States to get supplies to drought-stricken Tokelau, which has less than a week’s supply of drinking water.

“The aid comes after the Pacific nation and its neighbour Tuvalu declared states of emergency over a lack of fresh water. New Zealand has already sent a Hercules with supplies to Tuvalu. Parts of Samoa are also starting to ration water.

“A Defence Force Hercules carrying water containers was due to fly to Pago Pago in American Samoa this morning, where it will meet up with a US Coastguard vessel. The ship, which has an on-board desalination plant to fill the containers, will then travel to Tokelau’s three main islands.

“Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the water tanks would provide about 136,000 litres of water, which would be sufficient in the short term.

“Supplies are precariously low after a severe lack of rain in a region where underground reserves have been fouled by salt water from rising seas that scientists have linked to climate change.”

Read more: NZ herald

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