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June 18: Drought Weakens Haiti’s Food Security

Food Security
The current drought in Haiti is one of several natural disasters that have damaged the country’s food supply and reduced the resilience of small farming communities, AlertNet reported. The United Nations World Food Programme warned that 1.5 million Haitians could go hungry.

Floods
At least 70 people are dead due to flash floods in northern India, and New Delhi could also face flooding as torrential rains hit the country, The New York Times reported. The floods have stranded many pilgrims on their way to Hindu religious sites.

Energy
The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers has released an interactive map of select hydraulic fracturing wells in Europe. The map includes information sheets on each well that disclose substances used to frack the wells.

The Stream is a daily digest spotting global water trends. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

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Water News

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Satellite Data Shows U.S. Water ‘Hotspots’

Scientists who use the GRACE satellite say they need more resources to maximize its usefulness – for predicting floods and droughts.

EPA Water Infrastructure Survey Reveals Little About Utilities’ Climate Readiness

Though few reported climate change adaptation projects to the EPA, utilities are preparing in other ways.

Choke Point: India — The Leopard in the Well

Thanks in large part to the Green Revolution that catalyzed grain production in the mid-1960s, India ended the perennial fear of famine. But achieving food abundance has overwhelmed India's mammoth and unwieldy bureaucracy, drained its freshwater reserves, and strained the energy sector and electrical grid.

Great Lakes Water Quality: Technology and Regulations Work to Eliminate Major Shipping Pathway for Invasive Species

Political action and technological advances are cutting down on the transfer of invasive species via ballast water.

The Price of Water 2013: Up Nearly 7 Percent in Last Year in 30 Major U.S. Cities; 25 Percent Rise Since 2010

Utilities tinker with rate structures designed to stabilize revenue.

Global Grain Reserves Are Low; Legacy of U.S. Drought

Dwindling water supplies, low grain supplies, high prices for bread, meat, milk are outcomes of one of the worst droughts in the American history.

U.S. Foreign Aid Agency’s New Water Strategy Targets Health and Food

The U.S. Agency for International Development last week unveiled a new strategy for water that sets criteria for project selection and numeric targets for people served.

Sequestration Takes a Big Cut from USGS Water Research Programs

Less money means fewer staff positions and fewer research projects at the nation’s universities.

Study: Fewer Trees in the Amazon, Less Hydropower from Dams

The study runs counter to the conventional wisdom about deforestation’s effects on the water cycle.

U.S. Groundwater Losses Between 1900-2008: Enough To Fill Lake Erie Twice

Groundwater depletion in the United States has accelerated over the last decade, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, contributing to both localized problems and global issues, like sea level rise.

Report: Half of U.S. Fracking Wells Drilled in Highly Water-stressed Regions

Energy companies should provide better data on fracking water use, and investors should push for quantifiable water targets, according to a sustainable investing advocacy group.

Ned Breslin: Opening Water Meter Markets to Support Tariffs and Water Management

Water meters allow for greater equity of supply, but traditionally have been feared because of possible implications toward water utility privatization. But the tides are turning around the world, and water meters are increasingly being seen in a positive light.

Study: Plants Play Bigger Role in River Flows Than Previously Thought

Transpiration from plants dominates the terrestrial water cycle.

Texas Water District Finds Few Friends in Quest for Water in Oklahoma

A water rights case to be argued in the U.S. Supreme Court this week has national implications.

Looking To Buy: Dry Year Means Higher Prices on California’s Water Market

Scarce surface water supplies will lead to an active market, research firm says.

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In The Circle: Fresh Focus

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Behind the Scenes: Publishing the Global Choke Point eBook

Reporter Andrew Maddocks explains how a months-long labor of love came to digital fruition this week.

U.S. Marks At Least 65 Years of National Water Crisis

A short history lesson about water shortage, water wars, and drought in the United States.

Designing Qatar and India

Circle of Blue design intern Laura Stegmeyer reflects on her first week.

TIQ: This Is Qatar

Except for energy, virtually every other feature of Qatar's national existence comes from someplace else.

All Wet – A Stormy Spring Stymies Farmers in the U.S. Midwest

In much of the Corn Belt, too much rain has left fields too soggy to sow.

Doha’s Toybox Skyline

An arresting array of architecture alongside a sea burdened by rising concern about how development affects ecological and economic security.

Qatar Challenges Way of the Desert

Circle of Blue's director J. Carl Ganter and senior editor Keith Schneider find that, in this country of just under 2 million, desert extremes meet a high-octane economy, testing both the limits and responses to the competition between water, food, and energy.

Bouncing on Circles of Blue

Circle of Blue intern Jinah Park summarizes the first three weeks of spring at the Traverse City office.

Thinking Big and Small About Natural Gas and Water

A U.S. Senate hearing on drought and energy provided some statements to ponder.

A FOIA Saga

The long road to information about a federal study of fracking’s effect on groundwater in Wyoming.

The Metropolitan Lockdown of Boston: A Unique American Experience

The four days of shock and outrage in Boston — which started on Monday with the Boston Marathon bombings and climaxed on Friday in Watertown with a flurry of bullets — was history in the making. Circle of Blue's Keith Schneider was there for part of it.

Just As It’s Always Been, Earth Day Marks Big Problems and Big Choices

Circle of Blue's senior editor Keith Schneider spent Earth Day on the East Coast, reflecting on the celebration's past accomplishments and future goals.

Iraqi Engineer Wins Goldman Environmental Prize for Work on Marsh Restoration

Over the last decade, Azzam Alwash has helped revived Iraq’s legendary marshes.

In Hawaii, ‘The Rain Follows The Forest’

With her recent move from Alabama to Hawaii, Circle of Blue reporter Codi Yeager-Kozacek finds that, in the middle of an ocean, freshwater challenges abound.

Don’t Believe the Hyperbole: Kansas’ Reputation as a Backward-thinking State is (Partially) Wrong

When it comes to water management, Circle of Blue reporter Brett Walton thinks Kansas is a beacon on the plains.

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Infographics

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Map: 30 Years of Trading Water in Australia

Learn more about the history of trading water in Australia's three markets in this infographic.

Map: China’s Provincial Water Resources and Use (2002-2010)

Click through the interactive infographic to see how China, the world’s largest nation and second-largest economy, faces multiple challenges for sustaining its water supply.

Map: China’s Provincial Energy Production (1997-2010)

Click through the interactive infographic to see how China, the world’s largest nation and second-largest economy, races to meet rising demand for energy.

Map: China’s Provincial Grain Production (1997-2010)

Click through the interactive infographic to see how China, the world’s largest nation and second-largest economy, has shifted its bread baskets to the north.

Infographic: The Oyster Industry in Florida’s Apalachicola Bay

How do freshwater flows — or lack thereof — affect the marine life downstream?

Infographic: A Drought and Water Policy Timeline for Georgia

It is not clear whether any of the new policy, planning, and supply initiatives are making a difference.

Infographic: Climate Change in the Great Lakes

How will predicted changes to water levels and water temperatures affect the future of this region that is home to 8 million people?

Infographic: Drought Slashes 2012 U.S. Corn Crop

Much goes into producing a corn crop and much comes out.

Infographic: G20 Renewable Energy from 2002 to 2020

The NRDC predicts that the G20 will produce less than 4 percent from renewables by 2015 and 6 percent by 2020, up from only 2.6 percent currently and 0.86 percent in 2002.

Infographic: Water Privatization in the Philippines

Breaking down the history of water privatization in the Philipine capital of Manila, this infographic explores the city's varied success with privatization using a timeline and a map.

Map: 2012 Water Prices in 30 Major U.S. Cities

The price that Americans pay for water is rising faster than the cost of any other utility service in the United States — be it gas, electricity, or telephone charges.

Infographic: 2010, 2011, and 2012 Water Pricing Survey for 30 Major U.S. Cities

The price of water can be influenced by the supply sources and systems, in addition to the number of users who are sharing these water resources and the burden to pay for the supply system's maintenance.

Map: Annual Australian Water Use By Individual States and Territories

Agriculture is the largest water user in Australia. Where do other sectors like mining, manufacturing, and household use fall?

Map: Interbasin Water Transfers in Iran

The country already has major water transfer projects moving 2,110 million cubic meters (557 billion gallons). Just two weeks ago, Iran began construction on a new $US 1.5 billion project that will transfer more water from the Caspian Sea.

Once A Cleanup Leader, Michigan Struggles With Leaking Fuel

The state’s water is at risk from 9,100 leaking underground storage tanks, second most in the United States.

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Action Figures

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Dennis Nelson

Dennis Nelson grew up on his family’s North Dakota farm, where the groundwater well barely supplied their basic needs. As a child, he didn’t know why the water was scarce when their land was surrounded by wetlands, or “prairie potholes,” as he calls them. “I simply couldn’t make the connection at a young age about [...]

Stacey Travis

For more than 15 years, Stacey Travis was a television producer for networks like FOX, A&E, and AMC. Until, that is, she drastically switched careers in 2006, when doctors in Uganda and South Sudan told her about the water-related illnesses that plague these nations. Travis felt compelled to help and soon after founded Drop In [...]

Ajay Krishnan

Can something be made of nothing? According to the research of 16-year-old Ajay Krishnan, the answer is yes. A research enthusiast since the sixth grade, Krishnan — now a junior at Oregon Episcopal School — found a way to produce hydrogen gas from wastewater utilizing microbial electrolysis cells. For his work in renewable energy, Krishnan [...]

Rose George

While working as an editor and writer at COLORS Magazine, Rose George was assigned to work on Cacas, a coffee table book featuring photographs of animal and human feces, for which “caca” is slang. Through the project, she discovered Sulabh International, an organization in India that provides public toilets and works to liberate those whose [...]

Peter Thum

Wine turned Peter Thum to water. While working on a project in South Africa involving two wineries, Thum saw the difficulties that many people experienced just trying to get clean water every day. “I did a bit of research and began to see the size and magnitude of this problem,” he says. So he decided [...]

Vessela Monta

“We cannot say that rain is not interesting just because we can dig wells,” says Vessela Monta, a civil engineer by trade who began working with the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance (IRHA) in 2002. Some resources — like the availability of harvestable rainwater — get forgotten when discussing sustainability, but not to Monta. She points [...]

Isabella Bovolo

Guyana means “land of many waters” in a native Amerindian language, but it also houses one of the most pristine rainforests left in existence, the Iwokrama. In 1996, Guyana and the Commonwealth of Nations established an organization of the same name. According to Iwokrama resident scientist Isabella Bovolo, the organization aims to fill large data [...]

David Breashears

In 2007, from 5,600 meters atop the north side of Mount Everest, explorer David Breashears recalls how he was “astonished” by what he saw and “shocked” that he hadn’t been more aware of the state of this Tibetan glacier. Breashears was on a comparative photography assignment to match a photo from 1921 with the modern [...]

Erin Huber

Erin Huber grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, near the Great Lakes, where clean fresh water is abundant and tap water is sometimes taken for granted. As a humanitarian and an environmentalist, Huber spearheaded rooftop gardens and farmers’ markets, but eventually honed her focus to water. Huber founded the Drink Local Drink Tap (DLDT) campaign in [...]

Rohini Nilekani

Rohini Nilekani began her career as a journalist and writer. But upon marrying Nadan Nilekani — co-founder of the Indian tech-consulting firm Infosys — and coming into some money, she sought a cause to support financially. “I was looking for an area that would make sense to me and that would also have some kind [...]

Chris Groves

Dr. Chris Groves spends a lot of his time going underground into caves carved by eons of water flow. Once a boy with an interest in rocks, today Groves is a world-renowned cave and limestone karst expert who directs the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute at Western Kentucky University. “It was the only practical way to [...]

Lori Pottinger

Lori Pottinger advocates for rural communities that are at risk of being displaced by dam construction. She says that residents are not always aware of the extent of cultural and lifestyle adjustments they will have to make — or the option of resisting development. “They’re giving their all, and then they’re getting nothing from these [...]

Kunal Sangani

Innovation started early for incoming Stanford University freshman Kunal Sangani. At just 17, he was named the U.S. finalist for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for his project about the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing (also known as “fracking”). A native of Syracuse, New York, where intense discussion about fracking led to a moratorium on [...]

Ed Wargin

Ed Wargin set out almost 17 years ago to document the Great Lakes, and he’s almost finished. The Fresh Coast Project is an effort to document the Great Lakes as a single unit. “I have felt through the years that we needed a solitary type of message, that we needed to look at the Great [...]

Brian McSorley

Brian McSorley, Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator, promotes water, sanitation, and hygiene programs in Northern Kenya. This includes Dadaab refugee camp, where 88,000 people rely on Oxfam to provide facilities. “Water keeps us alive. But get too little, or too much, or the wrong kind, and results can be catastrophic — drought, floods, crop failure, children dying [...]