Drought
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Attention

Cuba's drought has damaged agriculture and left a million people relying on trucked-in water

Marc Frank
Reuters
Mon, 17 Aug 2015 16:54 UTC
drought cuba
© Reuters/Enrique De La Osa/FilesA man carries buckets of water in Havana
Cuba put its civil defense system on alert on Monday due to a year-long drought that is forecast to worsen in the coming months and has already damaged agriculture and left more than a million people relying on trucked-in water.

From Cuba's famous cigars to sugar, vegetables, rice, coffee and beans, the drought is damaging crops. It has slowed planting and left one in 10 residents waiting for government tank trucks to survive in record summer heat.

The country's civil defense system said the drought, record heat and water leakage have led to "low levels of available water for the population, agriculture, industry and services."
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Bulb

Brilliant! 96 million 'shade balls' dumped into LA reservoirs to prevent evaporation in midst of drought

Hollie McKay
Fox News
Wed, 12 Aug 2015 17:15 UTC
black balls Los Angeles Resevoir
© Art Mochizuki, LADWPLos Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander, Mayor Eric Garcetti (wearing a yellow tie) and LADWP workers deposit the final installment of 96 million shade balls into the Los Angeles Reservoir.
Is a bevy of black balls - 96 million to be exact - a crucial solution in helping California manage its calamitous drought?

On Monday, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti deployed the final 20,000 of the 96 million "shade balls" onto the surface of the city's 175-acre, Sylmar-based reservoir, completing the final stage of the $34.5 million Los Angeles Department of Water (LADWP) attempt to protect the region's water quality.

"In the midst of California's historic drought, it takes bold ingenuity to maximize my goals for water conservation," Garcetti said, claiming that the initiative saves taxpayers millions. "This effort is emblematic of the kind of the creative thinking we need to meet those challenges."

Comment: Can't wait to see how this turns out.

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Bizarro Earth

Puerto Rico suffers from combined drought and debt disaster


RT
Wed, 12 Aug 2015 18:01 UTC
puerto rico drought
© Alvin Baez-Hernandez / Reuters A man and a boy try to fish on almost empty La Plata reservoir in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican residents are now receiving tap water just twice a week, because of severe rationing imposed due to a months-long drought and crumbling infrastructure. Tourist areas and resorts remain unaffected, drawing criticism of double standards.

Rationing measures in place since May are already affecting some 1.3 million of the island's 3.5 million residents. With less than 2 inches of rain recorded in July, normally one of the wettest months, households in San Juan and along the island's north coast will have water on tap just twice a week, Telesur reported.
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Sun

Severe drought causing Thailand's vital rice belt to dry up


The Straits Times
Thu, 09 Jul 2015 12:58 UTC
Image
Ms Ranong Rachasing would normally be in her fields at this time of the year, toiling in ankle-deep water to make her rice paddies bloom through knowledge honed by years of cultivating Thailand's most celebrated export.

Now the wizened 57-year-old's fields lie fallow, baking under a blazing summer sun.

"This year is worse than any other. There has been no rain, so there is no water. It is the most severe drought I've ever seen," she said while standing in a cracked field in Bang Pla Ma district, Suphanburi province, a two-hour drive north of Bangkok.

Thailand's vital rice belt is being battered by one of the worst droughts in living memory with the prospect of a dismal main harvest.
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Water

If no rain is forthcoming, Bangkok's tap water will run dry in 30 days

Alisa Tang
Reuters
Mon, 06 Jul 2015 21:29 UTC
Bangkok
© Reuters/Athit PerawongmethaThe skyline of central Bangkok and the Chao Phraya river are seen during sunrise in Bangkok April 22, 2015.
Bangkok's tap water supply may run out in a month, as the country waits for long overdue rains to replenish sources depleted by drought and threatened by seawater creep, the chief of the capital's water authority said.

Thailand is suffering its worst drought in more than a decade. In an effort to maintain water levels in the dams that supply water for agriculture in the provinces as well as taps in the capital Bangkok, the government has asked farmers to refrain from planting rice since last October.

Despite these measures, water levels are critically low in the three key reservoirs that flow into the Chao Phraya River, one of the two main sources of Bangkok's tap water.

The quantity of water collected in the three dams totaled 5 billion cubic meters last November, compared to the normal 8 billion cubic meters, said Thanasak Watanathana, governor of the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority. As of Monday, there was about 660 million cubic meters left, according to the Royal Irrigation Department.
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Bizarro Earth

Bangkok suffering worst drought in 10 years, may run out of tap water in a month

Alisa Tang
Reuters
Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:07 UTC
bangkok drought
© The Straits TimesHit by drought and seawater contamination, Bangkok's tap water may run out in a month
Bangkok's tap water supply may run out in a month, as the country waits for long overdue rains to replenish sources depleted by drought and threatened by seawater creep, the chief of the capital's water authority said.

Thailand is suffering its worst drought in more than a decade. In an effort to maintain water levels in the dams that supply water for agriculture in the provinces as well as taps in the capital Bangkok, the government has asked farmers to refrain from planting rice since last October.

Despite these measures, water levels are critically low in the three key reservoirs that flow into the Chao Phraya River, one of the two main sources of Bangkok's tap water.

The quantity of water collected in the three dams totaled 5 billion cubic meters last November, compared to the normal 8 billion cubic meters, said Thanasak Watanathana, governor of the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority. As of Monday, there was about 660 million cubic meters left, according to the Royal Irrigation Department.
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Sun

North Korea says it is suffering the worst drought in 100 years

Kim Tong-Hyung, David Mchugh
wtnh.com
Fri, 26 Jun 2015 18:41 UTC
Image
North Korea says it has been hit by its worst drought in a century, resulting in extensive damage to agriculture during its main planting season.

The official Korean Central News Agency said the drought has caused about 30 percent of its rice paddies to dry up. Young rice plants normally need to be partially submerged in water during the early summer.

"Recently in our country, there has been a severe drought with sudden extremely high temperatures and nearly no rain," Ri Yong Nam, a senior North Korean weather official, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "Now the drought is causing a water shortage and great damage to agriculture, and we foresee this drought will continue for a while."

He said temperatures in May were 5-7 degrees Celsius (9-12 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than normal.

Both North and South Korea have had unusually dry weather this year.
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Bizarro Earth

Citizens of Sao Paulo, Brazil struggling with one of nastiest water crises in decades

Leila Carvalh
The Conversation
Fri, 26 Jun 2015 10:07 UTC
reservoir sao paulo
© Nacho Doce / ReutersReally low: reservoir levels for dams and reservoirs that provide water in Sao Paulo state are at historic lows.
Exceptional drought, extreme temperatures, unprecedented drops in reservoir levels and threatening water shortages for millions of people have dominated headlines in California in recent years. Unfortunately, Californians are not the only people being stressed with the "water crisis."

Citizens of one of the most densely populated areas in South America - the Sao Paulo metropolitan area (SPMA) in southeastern Brazil - are struggling with one of the nastiest water crises in decades.

With over 20 million people and the main financial and economic center of Brazil, this region is under the influence of the South American monsoon system and receives the largest fraction of its precipitation during the Austral summer, from October to March. Yet in the last four years, rain gauge stations near the most important reservoirs supplying water to the city have been reporting growing deficits in precipitation. Last year saw the worst since at least 1961, which has been followed by another dry year.

To aggravate these conditions, daily records of high temperatures during these summers have increased evapotranspiration, accelerating drought conditions, similar to what has been observed in California.
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Arrow Down

Water level in reservoir formed by Hoover Dam drops to record low

David Schwartz
news.yahoo.com
Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:14 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Jim UrquhartLow water levels of Lake Mead is seen near the Hoover Dam on the Nevada and Arizona border in this April 11, 2015, file photo.
The largest capacity reservoir in the United States has hit its lowest water level in history following years of severe drought that have dramatically reduced flows from the Colorado River, water managers said on Wednesday.

Officials said Nevada's Lake Mead, the 79-year-old reservoir created by the massive Hoover Dam, registered 1,074.98 feet (327.7 meters) above sea level late on Tuesday, but was able to rise above a critical mark by early on Wednesday morning.

A water level of below 1,075 feet projected for January would translate to water cutbacks in 2016 for two U.S. western states, Arizona and Nevada. An announcement would be made this August.

But a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman said cutbacks are not expected to be implemented and that projections are for the water level to be 6 feet (1.8 meters) above the trigger point.

"We don't expect that to happen right now," spokeswoman Rose Davis said, referring to possible cutbacks. "Right now the probability of a shortage for 2016 is negligible."
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Bizarro Earth

Chile declares environmental emergency from smog due to driest weather in over 40 years

Anthony Esposito
Reuters
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 01:12 UTC
smog santiago
© AFPSantiago is covered by smog despite contingency measures taken by the authorities
Chilean authorities declared an environmental emergency for the Santiago metropolitan region for Monday, forcing more than 900 industries to temporarily shut down and about 40 percent of the capital's 1.7 million cars off the roads.

"We're currently facing unusual conditions, with one of the driest Junes in over 40 years as well as really bad air circulation conditions in the Santiago valley in recent days, which boosts the concentration of contamination," the Environment Ministry said in a statement.

The emergency, the first since 1999, will be in place for 24 hours and can be extended further if authorities deem conditions have not improved.

The Environment Ministry could not immediately provide Reuters with a list of what industries will be forced to suspend operations on Monday.
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