Global Rundown
- Israel began pumping desalinated seawater into the Sea of Galilee, the country’s largest lake, in an effort to reverse its decades-long decline.
- China’s outsourcing of rare-earth mineral mining has acutely impacted Myanmar, which since its 2021 coup has become a regional hotspot for extraction and water pollution.
- Several significant breaks have been discovered in the water line serving the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, forcing overnight lodging bans and water restrictions.
- The future of a man-made lake in Nepal hangs in the balance as a corruption scandal unfolds.
The Lead
In southern Nepal, a recently opened man-made lake that has helped recharge low groundwater supplies and bolster biodiversity has found itself at the center of a local corruption scandal.
Since it was built in 2021, the 84-acre lake, known locally as Bharat Taal, has been a favorite destination for tourists and local residents. “We have limited drinking water supplies here, but I like to come here to see the lake,” Satendra Kumar, who lives in India, told Mongabay. Downstream, farmers have said that soils are wetter, wells are fuller, and harvests are healthier. Scientists have noted the arrival of 13 species of migratory birds to the wetland, which provides refugia during long seasonal journeys.
But anti-corruption investigations have revealed that the local mayor and lake’s namesake, Bharat Bahadur Thapa, commissioned its construction without proper environmental assessments, illegally diverted water from the Bagmati River, and forged documents to allow construction within a national forest, Mongabay reports. In August, a court convicted the mayor and several other officials of wrongdoing, sentencing them to eight years in prison and fining each $700,000.
Months later, the lake’s future remains in limbo. There is a concern that continued tourism and economic activity could generate levels of waste that the ecosystem — which, because officials shirked proper environmental assessments during its construction — would be unable to handle. Meanwhile, the suspended mayor says that environmental impact assessments are forthcoming, and maintains he did no wrong.
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This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
264,000
As of late October, the number of gallons of desalinated seawater pumped every hour into the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s largest freshwater lake, the Times of Israel reports.
The effort is expected to raise the lake’s water level by 0.2 inches per month, reversing a two-decade decline in volume that neared all-time lows in March 2017. Drought, overconsumption, and rising temperatures have all been attributed to these losses.
Israel’s project is suspected to be the world’s first instance of adding processed seawater to a freshwater lake. Now, more than a month since the initiative was inaugurated, scientists have begun to study the biological and chemical consequences of this new flow. Of particular concern is how concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus may fluctuate within the lake, potentially leading to the formation of algal blooms. Water samples will be taken from several locations within the lake’s delta and inflowing streams for at least one year, scientists told the Times.
In Context: Danger Looms Where Toxic Algae Blooms
66 percent
The share of China’s rare earth minerals imported between 2017 and 2024 that came from Myanmar, according to research conducted by Thailand-based think-tank Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar.
Since a 2021 coup, more than 245 new mining sites have opened in the Myanmar’s eastern Kachin state, which shares a border with China and is one of the world’s largest sources of rare earths — minerals that are crucial components of electric vehicles, wind turbines, phones, batteries, and magnets. Operations in Kachin, where tributaries to the Irrawaddy River flow, continue to expand.
China, which has the world’s most rare-earth processing facilities, has recently moved to keep public quotas of its own domestic extraction unpublished, while outsourcing mining operations to its neighbors. The resource remains “a key commodity in the trade war between the United States and China, which has tightened rare earth export restrictions over the past year in response to escalating tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump,” Yale Environment 360 reports.
The industry continues to contaminate important water sources, clear-cut rainforests, and threaten human health across not only Myanmar but Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. According to recently published data from the Stimson Center, more than 2,400 rare earth mines have proliferated across Southeast Asia, forcing tens of thousands of residents living downstream from these sites to stop or otherwise severely reduce their usage of rivers. Among these at-risk waterways is the mighty Mekong River, upon which 70 million people rely for drinking water, food, jobs, and trade.
In Context: Can the Mekong, the World’s Most Productive River, Endure Relentless Strain?
On the Radar
Hotels and lodging on the southern rim of Grand Canyon National Park will close until further notice — and water restrictions will be implemented — after “a series of significant breaks” were discovered in the 12.5-mile-long Transcanyon Waterline, which delivers water to the area, according to a National Park Service news release.
“Since mid-November, the park has faced challenges with water supply, and currently, no water is being pumped to the South Rim,” according to the release. The closures will go into effect on Saturday, December 6.
Wetland Watch
Indonesia’s Floods: In the aftermath of last week’s devastating regional flooding that killed more than 700 people in Indonesia, residents are placing blame on widespread deforestation for exacerbating the damage, France24 reports. The loss of millions of hectares of rainforest in Sumatra left land unstable, prone to erosion, and unable to filter and absorb excess water — a crucial role for wetlands — locals say.
“The forest, which was supposed to act as a giant sponge for the upriver, ceased to function,” Tommy Adam, the West Sumatra Head of Environmental Advocacy at WALHI, an environmental justice organization, told France24.
