Watershed

Spanish Drought and Water Restrictions

Ah, the farmers.  The farmers!

Drought-Hit Spain Looks to Penalise Heavy Water Use

SPAIN: October 31, 2006

MADRID - Spaniards who use "excessive" amounts of water may have to pay more for it in future, the government said on Monday, seeking ways to curb water use after two years of drought.

After the worst drought on record in 2005 and below average rainfall again in the year ended on September 30, the country's reservoir levels dropped to their lowest in a decade.

Environment Minister Cristina Narbona said she was planning to guarantee a minimum amount of clean water for everyone and would raise prices above that limit.

"In principle, in line with a proposal made by Ecologists in Action, we suggest a minimum of 60 litres (13 gallons) a day per person," [Environment Minister Cristina Narbona] said.
...
In some towns it is practically free and farmers often sink illegal wells and obtain water from aquifers for no more than the cost of pumping it.

Kenyan Drought Kick More Ass (in a bad way)

    I was driving up to a client in Orlando and back yesterday, and while talking with Nathaniel (the systems architect who drove all of us), he was talking about a movie he had seen.  The movie, called Live & Become, is set agaijnst a background of Ethiopian famine.  And, having posted about drought so much, I had to interrupt Mathaniel and ask, "Which drought?"

So, here's another drought update.

Drought Doubles Kenyan Inflation Rate

NAIROBI - A spike in food prices caused by severe drought helped double Kenya's year-on-year inflation rate to 15.4 percent in January from 7.6 percent in December, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.

CBS said the food and non-alcoholic beverage index increased by 14.7 percent in January from the previous month.

"This was mainly attributed to (a) rise in prices of cabbages, kale, dry beans, English potatoes and green grams," it said.

Kenya is facing its worst drought in years with four million people on the edge of starvation. Dozens of people and thousands of livestock have died in the last few months.

Australia Drought: Happy Endings?

Anyway, they're playing it for happy endings right now.

Australian Farms Gleam as Rain Washes Away Drought

COWRA - Fine rain falls on farmer Ian Donges as he surveys a green valley from one of his high paddocks. Rivulets of water run down the hillsides, forming puddles on land that just a month ago was dusty dry.

"Look at this. Every possible plant has come up," says Donges, his boot sweeping green growth from the sodden earth. "We're getting rain every three days. It is just amazing. Famine to feast."

After the worst drought in a century, rains have arrived in Australia's prime eastern wheat districts just in time for planting.

Dustbowl paddocks are now soaking and tinged green as crops, frantically sown in the last few weeks, begin to emerge.
...
After waiting for months to plant, farmers turned hyperactive when rain finally fell.

Groves began to plant the day after the first fall, working two tractors lit with halogen floodlights throughout the nights until 3 a.m., taking a break then starting work again at 7 a.m. He and a station hand sowed 900 acres (364 hectares) in 13 days.

Global Drought Check: July 15, 2K05

I just posted one of these the other day, and I already have more to post.  I might have waited a week, but the Australia feature from Planet Ark/Reuters fit in too well to the earlier stories, about "drought depression."  I've been looking to see if this "Solastalgia" is mentioned anywhere else, but it appears to be a creation of Prof. Glenn Albrecht, in the Geogaphy and Environmental Science Dept. at the University of Newcastle in Australia.  More about that later, as I collect more info.

Africa

Drought-hit North Africa seen hunting for grains

Europe

Drought Knocks Off a Third of Spain's Wheat Crop

Americas

Drought making itself felt in urban areas around Illinois

Oceania

Drought Casts Suicide Shadow over Rural Australia

SYDNEY - The rate of rural suicide in Australia is amongst the highest in the world as farmers battle the stress of years of drought, failed crops, mounting debt and slowly decaying towns.

"Every day I look outside and I say to myself: 'I get so sick to death of blue sky'," wrote farmer Mick in a recent book, "Tough Times", in which 10 country men talk about their fight with depression and thoughts of suicide.

"I just want to see some clouds and some rain," said Mick, who has lived on a small farm all his life.

"The strain is just so constant and long and it's like someone grabbing at me by the throat and slowly choking you a bit more each day."

A total of 2,213 Australians committed suicide in 2003, the latest available statistics. The vast majority were men.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Australia has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, exceeding nations such as Canada, the United States and Britain.

My Grandpa Hanes grew up on a farm in Western Michigan, before he ran away in 1913 to be a cowboy.  My Mom tells stories about her Uncle Emil, who was a shell-shocked WWI vet, and how he would run into the house at the first sound of thunder from an approaching storm.  So I have always thought of farms as a place where mental illness and boredom unto death happens.  But these descriptions take place in a mental landscape beyond what I can really picture.  I've camped out in the Nevada desert, but even there it's not so bad because you know it will be dry and featureless.  The later description of Coral Russell is just brutal, of her holding up a picture of her verdant farm in 1978, and then looking out onto the drought-blasted landsape of this century.

"There are days when you just despair. This is beautiful country -- as long as you get the rain."

Australian Insane Drought Update (Leaky Fountain Edition)

This is one I've been forgetting to post.  With the drought going on in Australia right now, this story struck me as just absolutely beserk.  WIth all the restrictions on water usage, why wasn;t this sucker just turned off?

Fountain leaks 25,000 litres of water

A water feature at Parliament House has been leaking 25,000 litres of water a day for months.

As federal cabinet discusses a $500 million relief package for farmers suffering from the worst drought in Australian history, a Senate estimates committee has been told that the pond may have been leaking for as long as six months.

The leak was hidden because the pond was automatically topped up every day if its level dropped.
...
Labor senator John Faulkner asked why no-one had noticed the leak.

"Hasn't anyone noticed that 25,000 litres of water had gone missing on a daily basis from the water feature?" Senator Faulkner said.

"That's going to upset a few farmers around the place, isn't it, when they hear that?"

Global Drought Check

Africa
Southern Africa: Rising Indian Ocean Temperatures Will Bring Escalating Drought - New Report
DJIBOUTI: Pastoralists Suffer Drought

BOTSWANA: Drought relief measures announced Drought-stricken Botswana may ration water

Gaborone - Botswana is facing a "desperate" situation and may have to ration water and purify sewage after a drought that has left the capital's main dam at just over 20 percent of its normal capacity, officials say. Water is always a scarce resource in Botswana, a country dominated by the Kalahari Desert where the currency is named the "pula" or "raindrop" because the commodity is so valuable, but officials say this year is one of the worst on record.

Purifying sewage comes up later in this update.  Look for it by name!

Asia/Middle East
Drought-stricken delta region may receive emergency funds

Europe

Parts of Spain Losing More than Half of Grain Crop
Fires rage in drought-hit Portugal
France rations water as drought takes hold

France brings in water rationing after worst drought for 30 years

France is facing its worst water shortage since 1976, with rivers drying up, reservoirs struggling to meet demand, and rationing measures introduced in the most severely hit areas.
…
Teams of "water police" have been patrolling farming areas to enforce the restrictions on irrigation and handing out fines of up to €1,500 (£1,000).

But faced with losing their crops many farmers are prepared to risk being caught. "Those who are watering their fields know they are doing so against the regulations," Marylise Boche, president of the Association of Irrigators, said.

"They're not doing it to be provocative, but quite simply to save their business."

One farmer caught watering despite the ban said: "If I stop irrigating, I will lose €20,000 and have to lay off all my workers."

Americas

Right now, the Midwest is going through a nasty drought, especially in Central Illinois.

Drought worsens
Farmers try to remain positive as drought conditions fail to subside

Bloomington, Il:  Rain does little to ease state's ongoing drought

By Sharon K. Wolfe
swolfe@pantagraph.com
BLOOMINGTON -- Central Illinois welcomed some rain Monday and Tuesday, but the National Weather Service said north-central Illinois still is 7 to 10 inches short for precipitation so far this year.

"One rainfall isn't going to make a huge dent in it, " said Matt Barnes, meteorologist for the weather service's Lincoln office. An analysis from the Midwest Regional Climate Control Center in Champaign showed moisture levels in the top 12 inches of soil are at least 30 percent to 40 percent below normal across central and southeastern Illinois. It was last updated Monday on the weather service Web site.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported 91 percent of Illinois farmland is short of topsoil moisture, and 37 percent of the state's corn crop is in poor or very poor condition, triple a month ago.

For soybeans, 27 percent of the crop is in poor or very poor condition.

Been talking to my sister about the drought that's hitting Central Illinois - she just took a new job at Illinois State.  Much like Central Indiana, drought means the farmers start hitting the news in very visible ways.  A major radio station like WGN still does a farm report every morning, in between chatter about Mayor Daley and interviews with Barack Obama.  Good to see some rain is hitting the plains, finally.  Especially since this whole past month in Florida has been almost record-setting, with only two days without rain in the Orlando area.

The soybeans have been hard hit in Brazil because of the drought there, too.

Drought, economics slow Brazilian soybean blitz

Oceania

I have been keeping track of Goulburn, AU, over the last month, where things have gotten bad and worse.  So let's spotlight Goulburn.

Parched Dam on Farm Near Goulburn, Australia


FEATURE - Australian Drought Towns Run Out of Water

GOULBURN, Australia - Severe drought is drying up drinking water in cities and towns across Australia, threatening to shut down major population centres but also creating conditions for a revolution in water use.

Worst hit is the farming town of Goulburn, population 25,000, southwest of Australia's biggest city, Sydney. Its main dam, Pejar, is a cracked-earth dustbowl holding less than 10 percent of its 1,000-megalitre (220-million-gallon) capacity. The town will become the first in Australia to run out of water in six months, if it gets no substantial rain and if emergency action for new water supplies fails to work.
…
The worst drought in 100 years is forcing Australians to close the tap on profligate water use and turn treated waste, most of which flows into the sea, into drinking water. Some waste water is already recycled to irrigate gardens and sports fields and this is set to increase.

Goulburn residents are likely to become the first Australians to start drinking treated sewerage returned directly to their water supply -- a practice long-shunned elsewhere.

"Someone's got to do it. And then it will probably go through the rest of Australia," Goulburn mayor Paul Stephenson said.

That was the other recycling sewage mention, for those of you keeping track.  We finish up with these depressing gems.

Study finds drought breaking up families
Govt concerned about psychological impact of drought

Drought prompts new type of mental stress

Rural Australians may be suffering from a recently identified psychological condition known as solastalgia, says a researcher conducting the nation's first study into the effects of drought on mental health.

Gina Sartore, from the University of Newcastle's Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health revealed preliminary results of a pilot study at a Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists congress in Sydney this week. Sartore says solastalgia, or "drought as traumatic environmental change", is among a number of psychological problems afflicting drought-stricken rural communities.
...
Solastalgia describes the pain experienced when the place a person lives is under assault and destruction, a loss of a sense of belonging to a particular place and a sense of desolation about its disappearance, says Dr Glenn Albrecht, a lecturer in environmental studies at the University of Newcastle. ... "It's the homesickness you feel when you're still at home," he says.

Global Drought Update: May 25, 2K05

I have a bunch of drought-related items, but I've been overthinking the concept.  Trying to tiw them all together in a big rhetorical conception.

And finally, after days of tinkering and twitching, it finally hit me:  they're drought stories.  They tie together by their very nature.  Stupid.  Just post 'em.

Americas

Montana:  Governor's drought officials optimistic

Asia

China:  FEATURE - Drought Strikes Hard in Southern China

The drought in southern China has affected everything from crops and livelihoods to hydropower.

"Throughout history droughts have happened, but the frequency and level of severity are increasing because of climate change," said Yang Ailun, a Greenpeace climate and energy specialist based in the provincial capital of Guangzhou.
...
Crops are dying and fish farms drying up, while grid overloads last year forced factories to tap power only overnight, and led the government to ask restaurants and hotels to limit use of electric lights.

"In this part of Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta area, the population is increasing very fast. Through the 1990s, the economic boom has also driven up water consumption," said Ma Jun, an environmentalist and the author of "China's Water Crisis".

"The water consumption rise is staggering," he said.
...
In the first week of the New Year, Guangdong suffered three grid overloads and the province began restricting power supplies, saying the drought was partly responsible for daily power shortages of 500-600 megawatts.

Generating capacity in the province is forecast to fall short of demand by 3,000 to 5,000 MW over the next few years, the Economist Intelligence Unit says.

Greenpeace says the solution is renewable energy.
...
By 2010, China plans to boost renewable energy to cover 10 percent of its needs, raising green capacity to 60,000 megawatts with a mix of hydropower and wind power.

But in the meantime, the region's farmers are watching their livelihoods waste away.

I quoted all that just to give a context for that Greenpeace quote about renewable energy.  Wind farms or not, that clearly means a lot more hydropower.  Which one, is being hard hit by the drought in the first places, dolts; and two, China is already constructing one of the largest and most controversial hydropower project in the world right now, the Three Gorges Dam. 

I suspect the quote may have been in a larger context, but if it wasn't, it was just ill-considered and dumb.

Europe

Spain:  Drought-Hit Spain Sees 2005 Wheat Crop Down 29 Percent

MADRID - Spain's worst drought on record will have slashed its wheat harvest by 29 percent and lightened the barley crop by a quarter compared with last year, estimates from the Agriculture Ministry showed on Friday.

But farmers said the harvest could be even more disastrous as the ministry estimates were based on data collected in March and since then high temperatures and a lack of rain have continued to cause crop damage.

"The losses could be greater," Pablo Resco, crop technician for farmers' union COAG said.

I just want to point out this is the first Global Drought Update that includes a story from Europe.  So I'll probably add Spain to the watch I have going on Australia and Southern Africa.

Speaking of...

Africa

Djibouti:  5,000 mt of food needed for drought-affected people
Mozambique:  Coping mechanisms wear thin as the drought drags on
Ethiopia:  Weather Derivative Payout if Drought Hits Ethiopia

AMSTERDAM - The World Food Programme is set to launch a form of insurance based on Ethiopian weather data that will pay out when drought strikes, the first time a scheme of this sort has been used in the developing world.

The weather derivative will offer reinsurers the chance to diversify their portfolio away from the northern hemisphere and developed countries, said Richard Wilcox, director of business planning at the WFP.

Zimbabwe:  Agency: Zimbabwe faces food shortages
Zimbabwe:  Zimbabwe faces poor harvest as famine looms

Zimbabwe:  Zimbabweans cannot quench their thirst

Harare - After shortages of cooking oil, maize, milk, toothpaste and soap, Harare has now run out of soft drinks, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Saturday.
...
An official from Delta Beverages blamed Zimbabwe's critical lack of foreign currency for the shortages, which are also affecting alcoholic drinks. He said the company was unable to import the raw materials needed for production of the drinks.

Man, no water for farming, no booze for forgetting.

Zimbabwe is one of the hardest hit by the drought, but certainly not the only country.  For example...

Zambia:  Plight worsened by drought

Lusaka - Drought has compounded the problem of thousands of Zambians already reeling under the impact of HIV/Aids, says United Nations envoy for humanitarian needs James Morris.

He said in statement issued at the end of his visit to the country, Zambia needed about 150 000 tons of food worth $30m to feed about 1.5 million distressed people.

Morris said: "Sadly, it is a pattern that we are seeing in many parts of southern Africa and widespread relief assistance will be required."

In the last two years, Zambia produced unprecedented food surplus and exported several tonnes of maize corn to neighbouring Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Undermining country's ability

Morris said: "Zambia has made progress in strengthening its agricultural output for the last two years.

"It is unfortunate that these severe dry spells have had a massive impact on this year's production."

He said the HIV/Aids epidemic was also compounding the crisis, which was undermining the country's ability to respond to the humanitarian needs.

The UN envoy said life expectancy in Zambia had been reduced from 52 years in 1980 to an estimated 37 years in 2005.

Wow, that's just a horrifying drop.   Obviously, food and water issues are only one factor, and maybe the slightest of them.  Still, 52 to 37.

Oceania

More scenes from the Australian Big Dry.

Australia:   Drought assistance tops agenda on PM's bush tour
Australia:    Farmers demand better drought assistance

Australia:  Howard signals end to 'careless' water use

"Australia will never return to the days where we carelessly and wastefully washed the car in the backyard on a Sunday morning, thinking water was available in a never-ending supply," he said.

"Those days are gone."

Australia:  Sydney residents braced for new water squeeze

Dam levels are expected to drop below 40 per cent by the end of the week - the level the Government has said could trigger tighter water restrictions.

The Utilities Minister, Frank Sartor, is refusing to speculate on potential restrictions but a plan by the Sydney Water Corporation suggests measures could include further limits on watering gardens and a ban on washing cars and refilling pools. Other possibilities include a rotation of limits on homes based on street numbers.

Under current water restrictions in Sydney, Illawarra and the Blue Mountains, hand-held hoses are allowed only before 10am and after 4pm on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Sprinklers and hosing of hard surfaces are banned and permits are required to fill pools larger than 10,000 litres.

A list of possible restrictions outlined in a 2003 drought response management plan by Sydney Water included further limits on the watering of gardens and schemes to encourage the use of pool covers and front-load washing machines. The plan says level three restrictions would require measures to reduce water demand by up to 8 per cent.

In other areas with water shortages, such as Goulburn and Parkes, councils have banned fountains, outdoor watering, car washing and automatic cycle flushes in public toilets.

Australia:  Aussie city almost out of water

GOULBURN, Australia (AP) -- The rolling hills around this historic city were once renowned as some of Australia's best grazing land. After four years of drought they are as bleached and lifeless as old bones.

Goulburn is perilously close to becoming Australia's first major settlement to see its reservoirs run completely out of water as a Big Dry grips much of the nation.

The crisis in Goulburn is a stark warning to Australia's largest city, Sydney, which is just 200 kilometers (125 miles) away and whose reservoirs should be filled by water running off the hills around Goulburn.

"It's a major wake up call for Sydney," Goulburn Mayor Paul Stephenson told The Associated Press. "If we're dry up here, then there's nothing going into their catchment because we are their catchment."

Indian Tragedy? Or Urban Legend?

This sounds totally made up to me:

Drought in water and wives

AN acute water shortage in central India has made it tough for men of one village to find wives because families are reluctant to condemn their daughters to a life of hardship.

The only well near Karhod villagein Madhya Pradesh state is several kilometres away, and the women spend hours a day fetching water. Then in summer, the well dries up, causing even greater difficulty, the Economic Times paper reported.

"In rural India, it is the duty of women to fetch water. When people come to know that their daughter will have to trudge several kilometres to fetch a couple of pots of water after marriage, which parent will agree?" the paper quoted one sociologist as saying.

In a country where it is quite unusual in rural villages not to have an arranged marriage at a young age, nearly a tenth of the 1,200 residents in Karhod are bachelors between the ages of 25 and 60, the paper said.

I tried to look up this story on the "Economic Times", but found nothing.  Boy, if it is true, that village must go through lotion and tissues like nobody's business.

The Lesson? NO JOKES!

Yesterday, I posted about the prediction of an "apocalyptic summer" by Qin Dahe, the the head of the China Meterological Association.  And in the course of that post, I made a joke about locusts, since Qin had already predicted dought and floods.

Today, I read this:

Drought And Locusts Worsen Food Shortages in Six African Countries, UN Says

Appealing for $11.4 million, the United Nations agricultural agency said today that last year's drought and locust infestations have intensified food shortages in six Sahelian countries
...
Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and northern Senegal

 

The lesson?  Don't make jokes about locusts!  Because  when you then read about actual locusts causing food shortages and extensive child malnutrition, you end up feeling like a total ass.

Global Drought Check: May 9, 2K05

Africa
Zimbabwe:  I think there are two fair assessments to make about the drought in Zimbabwe. One, if you are going to redress the racist distribution of land ownership that resulted from years of colonial rule, you want a guy in charge who is a planner, someone who can forsee the probelsm that will occur, and has the ability to come up with solutions.

Two, Robert Mugabe is not that guy.

Zimbabwe, once known as the breadbasket of the southern African region, has in the past five years experienced food shortages mainly because of successive droughts. Last year, the government stopped donor agencies that were distributing food in the country from doing so, claiming it had a bumper maize harvest.

International aid agencies have also blamed the food crisis in Zimbabwe on President Robert Mugabe's sometimes violent land reform program launched in 2000. The exercise saw white farmers losing their farms ostensibly for the resettlement of landless blacks.

The president has admitted that some of his top officials took advantage of the program and helped themselves to multiple farms. He complained that some of them are not producing to capacity.

I wondered how someone like Mugabe, who by all accounts is a smart person, could fuck up the farms that badly.  Looking at his bio, I saw he had a degree in economics, and that explained just about.  Someone trained in economics starts to have control over the real world?  Of course everything will get fucked up.  The only possible worse choices would have been a former banker, or an MBA.  (God forbid you live in a country run by an MBA.)  (Oh, wait.)

Drought Hits Zimbabwe Wheat Production

Asia/Middle East
China & Vietnam: It's a good thing most of China doesn't follow any religion that involves Moses.  Because after reading the following predictions from the top guy at the China Meterological Association, I wondered why he didn't finish out his predictions with:  "There will also be a plague of locusts.  Make sure to stock on Deep Woods Off."

A leading weather expert has warned China may face an apocalyptic summer of severe drought and floods.

Qin Dahe, top official of the China Meteorological Administration, called for early preparedness across the country as the flood season approaches.

He warned: "China may face a grim situation from seasonal floods or drought this year with potential damage - worse than that of last year."

He added: "There will be much fear of a bad harvest this year if more disasters occur in the following months."

Qin was speaking during a national televised conference on summer weather forecasting and services.

Probabilities of such disasters are increasing, he warned, quoting the latest predictions released yesterday.

On the other hand, ill winds and silver linings.  Droughts have sever effects on hydro-power, so at least China can sell some of their excess capacity.  (Make sure to keep the Shanghai equivalent of Enron the hell away, though.)    

HANOI - Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the nation's main power provider, is to double capacity purchases from China to 400 megawatts to make up for a domestic hydro-power shortage caused by drought, state-run media said on Friday.
…
EVN started buying electricity from China for the first time last year, using spare capacity from the border province of Yunnan. Vietnam's power capacity purchases from its giant neighbour already stand at more than 200 megawatts, the daily said.
…
Hydro-power plants produce 40 percent of Vietnam's electricity output. But EVN said the plants would only come up with 21 percent of Vietnam's total during the first three months of this year, given the drought impact.

Floods and drought warning for summer

Drought Makes Vietnam Double Chinese Power Imports

Americas
Haiti:  Every time I hear some flaming fuckstick talk about the mystical powers of the market, I think about situations like this:

PORT-AU-PRINCE - A Haitian official on Monday called for international help and money to move thousands of people to safer homes before the looming hurricane season as weekend floods killed 11 in the capital.

Interior Minister Georges Moise said a large number of people could die if not relocated from areas vulnerable to mudslides or flash floods. He did not specify how many people would need to be moved or how much such an operation would cost.

In September, torrential rains killed 3,000 people in the northern port city of Gonaives after Tropical Storm Jeanne, later to become a hurricane, swept to the north of the impoverished Caribbean country. Floods in the South of Haiti killed another 2,000 people last May.

"It is a very urgent matter, a disaster may occur any time. We need to move those people to another place," Moise told Reuters in an interview.

"We want to act, but we don't have the financial means."

OK, I know Haiti has been a screwed-up place since Columbus started slaving and plantationing, since Toussaint L'Overture led the only successful slave revolt of modern times, since U.S. Marines Button and Hanneken blew away Charlemagne Peralte in 1919, since forever really.

But when you can't afford to do basic things for your citizens in times of disaster, that's just amazing.  Amazing to an American, I guess.

Haiti Calls For Storm Season Help, Floods Kill 11

Oceania
Australia:  The drought continues.  There are a ton of stories coming over the transom about the ongoing drought in Australia.  Let me just grab a couple quotes from the last few days.

"There is a grim realisation today that the drought is getting worse in south-east NSW."

"Record temperatures in many parts of New South Wales have worsened the big dry with 87 per cent of the state now officially drought-declared."

"FAMILY favourites such as steak and three veg and roast lamb could be off the menu for many Australians this winter as meat prices climb because of the worsening drought."

Drought tightens grip on south-east NSW

Drought worsens as temperature rises

Drought cuts Longreach Show displays

Drought could take meat off the menu