Terraced rice paddies and vegetable fields in India’s Himalayan region sit close to where the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda rivers meet to form the Ganges, India’s sacred river. Photo Dhruv Malhotra for Circle of Blue

Global Rundown

  • Drought is imminent in the Netherlands, researchers say, as groundwater reserves and major rivers are much emptier compared to years past. 
  • Snowfall in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region this year was down significantly, a change with wide-reaching effects on several major Asian river basins. 
  • Louisiana, home to the largest area of America’s coastal wetlands, is at risk from oil development that threatens to harm waterways and release stored carbon.
  • China and Cambodia will build a $1.2 billion, 94-mile canal that will connect the Mekong River to a seaside port.

The Lead

China and Cambodia have agreed to a $1.2 billion deal to build a 94-mile-long canal connecting a branch of the Mekong River near Phnom Penh to a Gulf of Thailand port, the Associated Press reports. Leaders expect the project to boost regional trade and create up to 50,000 new jobs as the stability of global supply chains fluctuates. 

The deal is an updated version of an agreement the countries had reached last summer — a 112-mile canal estimated to cost $1.7 billion, according to Reuters. For unknown reasons, the project was halted in August soon after its groundbreaking ceremony. 

Critics of the forthcoming Funan Techo Canal worry that it will have devastating downstream impacts, namely disruptions to the Mekong’s natural flood patterns that could heighten the effects of drought in Vietnam’s rice paddies. The Cambodian government’s assurances that resettlement efforts are ongoing with proper “compensation and consultation” for communities are red flags for human rights watchers, AP reports. 

Cambodian investors hold a 51 percent stake in the project, while Chinese investors hold 49 percent. Geopolitically, the deal is another chapter in what has become a strong economic and militaristic partnership between the two nations.

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

23.6

Percent by which last year’s snowfall in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region fell below historic winter averages. The region encompasses more than 2,000 miles across high mountain areas in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, and Pakistan. Some two billion people live downstream of these catchments. According to a new report from IciMod, this winter brought the lowest amount of snow in 23 years to the HKH region, which is called the world’s “water tower” for the 12 major river basins flowing through it. Below-normal snow persistence — the amount of time snow remains on the ground — has been observed in four of the last five years. This anomaly has affected the Mekong, Salween, and Tibetan Plateau basins most acutely.

40

Percent of America’s coastal wetlands that are located in Louisiana, whose salt marshes store an estimated 6 percent to 8 percent of the ecosystem’s global carbon share and provide habitat for diverse aquatic life, the Louisiana Illuminator reports. But these lands are at risk — the state is losing roughly a football field of wetlands every 100 minutes from subsidence, erosion, and oil development. Energy projects fast-tracked by the Trump Administration, including the Blue Marlin Offshore Port crude oil pipeline, threaten to accelerate this loss and release vast quantities of the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

On the Radar

After a “slightly” dry winter and an “extremely” dry spring, communities in the Netherlands are bracing for imminent drought, Wageningen University reports. Groundwater levels have fallen well below their historic averages for the season, while discharge from the Rhine River is at its lowest level in 50 years. The Meuse River, which flows through France and Belgium before meeting the North Sea in the Netherlands, is also expected to remain drier than usual over the coming weeks. Farmers throughout the country have begun to require irrigation to compensate for the lack of rain, though some regional water boards have imposed extraction bans on surface- and groundwater.

49th State Focus: Susitna River One of America’s Most Endangered Waterways

West Susitna Access Project: The annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers report has listed southcentral Alaska’s Susitna River as the country’s eighth-most vulnerable waterway, the Alaska Beacon reports. A proposed highway extension called the West Susitna Access Project seeks to connect Anchorage’s Parks Highway “to the roadless upstream area of the Skwentna River, a Susitna River tributary that runs along the base of the Tordrillo Mountains.” Supported by Alaska’s Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the development would cross an estimated 180 streams and facilitate traffic for mining and drilling activities. Those opposed to the river cite its potential harm to subsistence fishers and hunters, and Indigenous communities. A request by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy for $2.5 million in state funds to accelerate the project was voted down by the state Senate last week. 

Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region

Buoy Network at Risk: A 2026 NOAA budget proposal draft obtained last week by several news outlets indicates that the Trump Administration would cut roughly $1.6 billion in funding from the agency, Michigan Live reports. Among the projects facing a potential shutdown is the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS), which uses more than 250 buoys and towers to collect real-time data on water quality, weather, algal blooms, floods, search-and-rescue procedures, and maritime navigation.

Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.

  • Fish, mines and Indigenous Rights ensnared in court case in northern Ontario — The Narwhal
  • How community gardens serve as ‘third places’ for Detroiters — Great Lakes Now
  • Climate change making Great Lakes water birds sick — Bridge Michigan
  • Dam failure risk prompts Trout Lake drawdown — Michigan Public

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.