Latest projections indicates that state’s population will double to 46 million over the next half-century. It means that the days of cheap and abundant water are coming to an end, and where the additional supply will come from is not clear.Sixty years after the
The Suguta Valley is one of the driest places in Kenya, and may be one of the driest places near Earth’s Equator. The remote location limits field studies, but data indicate that annual precipitation is less than 300 millimeters (12 inches) a year, while evaporation
More than 2 million Afghans are at risk of hunger and many are bracing to be stranded for months without help as the country prepares for a harsh winter. Save the Children and Oxfam agencies called for a redoubling of the aid effort to reach people in need before the
Hongjianzhuo Lake in Yulin city, China’s biggest freshwater lake in desert areas, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province is rapidly shrinking. The fish output of the lake used to reach 360 tons a year. However, it is rare to see any fish in the lake now, as they are dying
Lake Orumiyeh (also Orumieh or Urmia) in northwestern Iran is one of the world’s largest landlocked salt lakes, but it is rapidly shrinking.Orumiyeh is fed by roughly 60 rivers and streams—some permanent and some ephemeral—that also deliver salts. Because the
Wintertime droughts are increasingly common in the Mediterranean region, and human-caused climate change is partly responsible, according to a new analysis by NOAA scientists and colleagues at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).
A state of emergency has been declared on the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu as stocks of drinking water dwindle following months of drought. Officials of the world’s fourth smallest nation have said that parts of the tropical atoll may have only a two-day supply of
A cholera epidemic is spreading in famine-hit Somalia, with alarming numbers of cases among people driven to the capital Mogadishu by a lack of food and water, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports. Cholera outbreaks have now been confirmed in several regions,…
Ongoing drought in northern, northeastern and western Afghanistan is likely to push 1.5-2 million more people into food insecurity this autumn, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). This is in addition to the seven million country-wide already facing food
More of the United States was in exceptional drought in July 2011 than in any other month in the past 12 years, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The worst of the drought is spread across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Colorado,
