Global Rundown
- Nearly two dozen water projects across the globe have been abandoned as a result of cuts to USAID, hurting many vulnerable communities.
- China broke ground this weekend on what is planned to be the world’s largest hydropower dam.
- In Iowa, an overabundance of manure is deepening the state’s water pollution crisis.
- Nebraska is suing Colorado for failing to adequately share water from the South Platte River.
The Lead
Following the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), 21 water projects spread across 16 countries have been abandoned, according to an exclusive report from Reuters.
The half-finished efforts “enjoyed broad support in Washington” and promised to deliver clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to millions of people in need. Now, the abandoned construction sites — where water towers, irrigation canals, plumbing, and solar panels were in the midst of being built — are causing greater harm to the communities their finished products were meant to serve. Open holes and abandoned supplies are safety hazards in Mali and Nepal, while half-finished irrigation canals in Kenya make residents more susceptible to potential flooding. In Lebanon, the scrapping of a project aimed to power water utilities with solar panels has forced officials to switch to diesel. In Democratic Republic of the Congo, remnant water kiosks, situated adjacent to fighting between Congolese and M23 forces, are dangerous playgrounds for children.
Select few “life-saving projects” have had their funding restored, though the definition of “life-saving” is subjective. In many countries the cuts to water projects disproportionately affect women and girls, who bear the burden of collecting fresh water. With few clean, reliable water sources located nearby, they sacrifice schooling and walk hours each day, often doing so at risk to their safety and health.
“Do we want girls carrying water on their heads for their families? Or do you want them carrying school books?” John Oldfield, a consultant and lobbyist for water infrastructure projects, tells Reuters.
At least one project is back online through political will. A $6 billion desalination plant in Jordan had its funding restored “after a diplomatic push by King Abdullah.” But projects in places including Ethiopia, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have not been restarted.
Water projects accounted for just $450 million of USAID’s $61 billion budget last year, a marginal 0.74 percent.
In context: USAID Shutdown Causes Global Alarm in International Water and Climate Programs
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Trump’s Budget Would Devastate Sea Lamprey Control in Great Lakes — Huge cut in funding for federal environmental research agency is proposed.
- A Muffled American Environmentalism — So much weakening. So little concern.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
$167 billion
Estimated cost of the Motuo Hydropower Station, which broke ground this weekend in Tibet. When completed it will be the world’s largest hydropower dam, BBC reports. To be constructed on the Yarlung Tsangpo, the dam has stoked regional fears for its potential to give China a significant economic and military advantage over India and Bangladesh, which are both situated downriver. Recent discourse between the countries has centered on China’s right to build the dam, and its responsibility to consider the security and interests of downstream nations. With these concerns in mind, India announced plans to build a dam within its own border, where the river is called the Siang, to protect against a potential Chinese “water bomb” — the sudden release of water from the upstream Motuo, creating an artificial flood.
110 billion
Pounds of manure produced and consumed each year in Iowa, the country’s leading pork producer. The organic waste is a cheap, easy fertilizer for farmers who spread it amply across their land, though the imprecision of this act — “time constraints on when manure can be spread and the difficulty of knowing its exact nutrient contents” — leads to fields being oversaturated, Inside Climate News reports. As a result, excess phosphorus and nitrogen have leaked into fresh waterways and exacerbated Iowa’s deepening water crisis. According to Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources, of more than 1400 water segments tested, 722 fail to meet water quality standards.
In context: In Iowa, a Tale of Politics, Power, and Contaminated Water
On the Radar
As megadroughts in the American West and Central Plains continue to rage and water supplies sputter, Nebraska is suing Colorado over the amount of water the latter draws from the South Platte River, the Nebraska Examiner reports.
The river originates in central Colorado and flows 440 miles northeast through Nebraska, connecting Denver with Omaha’s south suburbs before emptying into the Missouri River. Nebraska is accusing Colorado of storing an illegal amount of water for its “upstream economy,” violating an agreement ratified in 1923 that entitles the Cornhusker state to “at least 120 cubic feet of water per second each day of the summer, during irrigation season.” According to Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, the state has received just 75 cubic feet of water per second this summer.
The states are familiar foes over shared rivers. In 2018, they reached a settlement over the Republican River, which also flows through Kansas.
The newest lawsuit has big implications for the proposed Perkins County Canal, a major water project that would allow Nebraska — under the terms of the agreement — to build a river diversion in northeast Colorado that would send water throughout Nebraska.
“We’re going to fight like heck. We’re going to get every drop of water,” Pillen said last Wednesday. “We’ve been losing to Colorado on this issue for too long. It’s time we win.”
Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region
Sea Lamprey Barrier: The construction of a new sea lamprey barrier will begin this week at Michigan’s Little Manistee River Weir, where Chinook salmon and steelhead trout eggs are collected by the state, the Huron Daily Tribune reports. Sea lamprey, an invasive species in the Great Lakes, can “kill up to 40 pounds of fish during feeding season.”
In Context: Have You Seen This Fish Thief?
Warmer, Wetter Weather a Great Lakes Trend: An updated report from the Environmental Law and Policy Center confirms that since 1951, the annual average air temperature in the Great Lakes region has warmed 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit and total precipitation has increased by 15 percent. These increases are coinciding with extreme, erratic events — heat waves, storms, and droughts — impacting lake ice cover and increasing the frequency of both high and low water levels.
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.
- $300 million in federal funding for Indigenous-led conservation in the Northwest Territories arrives — The Narwhal
- EPA grant will fund barrier to stop spread of sea lamprey in Grand River — Michigan Public
- The DNR is selling over 120 plots of land. Why? — Bridge Michigan
- Baby bald eagles tested positive for PFAS and other legacy contaminants — Great Lakes Now
