Global Rundown
- Extreme heat waves across Europe are quickly draining water supplies in small, isolated territories, including the island of Jersey.
- The construction of a new natural gas plant in rural Thailand threatens to further restrict farmers’ water access, advocates say.
- A majority of data center hotspots worldwide are in regions vulnerable to extreme heat, flooding, wildfire, and storms.
- The World Meteorological Organization has warned governments globally that El Niño is likely to spur several months of extreme weather.
HotSpots H2O: Jersey
Water reserves on Jersey — the largest of the Channel Islands, located between England and France — are in fair standing but subject to rapid fluctuation ahead of potentially record-breaking summer heat, officials warn.
During last week’s heat wave, the 40-square-mile island used 5 percent of its total stored water alone, BBC reports — the highest demand since a drought rocked the island in 2022.
The island’s reservoirs currently sit around 89 percent full, good for 120 days of usual water use. Amid the summer heat, officials have warned islanders to use water wisely, while a nearby desalination plant has been put on notice to help boost supply if needed.
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Betting on Lake Mead’s Demise — An online prediction market offers wagers on a shrinking Lake Mead.
- U.S. Homes Show Three-Decade Decline in Indoor Water Use — Long-term drop in residential use is a federal policy success story.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
329,000
Acres of farmland that were damaged in 2019 and 2020 during one of Thailand’s worst droughts in recent memory, Mongabay reports. The dry spell cost farmers across the country roughly $301 million in lost crops, and saw some regions run out of water for factories and irrigation, including in the country’s southern Chachoengsao province, famous for its mangos.
This year, ahead of an intense El Niño that is predicted to bring lower-than-usual levels of precipitation, Thailand’s agriculture officials are urging farmers to plant crops that are less water-intensive to avoid another devastated harvest. But another looming development is seen as a more existential threat to the region’s growers: a planned 600 megawatt natural gas power plant in Chachoengsao, which locals fear “could exacerbate water shortages and air pollution linked to the expansion of industry,” the outlet reports.
Chachoengsao’s growers rely on water from the Bang Pakong River, which flows into the Tha Lat canal. The new natural gas facility will withdraw water from a canal directly upstream of farming communities. It is the latest power plant to arrive in the industry-crowded region: 65 factories opened in the area in 2024, and industrial water use in the province has increased “more than tenfold” in the last 20 years.
Local environmental groups estimate that total annual water withdrawals in the subbasin by 2034 will reach 32 billion cubic feet, which is greater than its estimated capacity of 27 billion cubic feet of water. Advocates fear that farmers will be the first affected by the deficit.
79
The percentage of data center markets — of 97 markets analyzed worldwide — that are vulnerable to elevated climate risks including flooding, wildfire, drought, and extreme heat, according to a report released last month by First Street. Vulnerability is worse in the Americas, where 86 percent of markets are risky.
“The industry is concentrating some of its largest and fastest-growing hubs in some of the riskiest locations,” the report reads. “Northern Virginia, Johor [Malaysia], and Marseille [France] all sit in the highest exposure tier… In other words, scale is being built where operating conditions are hardest, not where they’re easiest.”
North Carolina, South Carolina, the Atlanta metropolitan area, and New York and northern New Jersey were listed as hubs with the greatest climate risks.
Climate risks are already evident. The report identifies flooding in Texas and extreme heat waves in the United Kingdom as destructive events that interrupted operations and revealed their heavy reliance on functional grids, cool temperatures, and water availability.
On the Radar
In a statement released late last week, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned global governments and humanitarian organizations that a strong El Niño event between July and September is very likely to spur “extreme weather events” including droughts, heatwaves, and heavy rainfall.
“El Niño conditions are already underway and are forecast to strengthen rapidly into a strong event — as accurately anticipated by WMO forecasts,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. “This will intensify the chances of drought and heavy rainfall and the risk of heatwaves on land and marine heatwaves in many regions of the world.”
Forecasts indicate dry conditions are especially likely for much of Oceania, Central America, the Caribbean, northern South America, and the Horn of Africa. By contrast, the southwestern United States and Africa’s northern Gulf of Guinea are likely to receive above-average precipitation.
A joint “Extreme Heat and Agriculture” report released earlier this year by the WMO and Food and Agriculture Organization found that for every 1 degree Celsius of additional warming, yields of staple crops such as maize and wheat decline by between 4 percent and 10 percent. By 2100, under a high-emission global scenario, 75 percent of the world’s livestock could be exposed to heat stress.
