Global Rundown
- Wealthy nations are failing to provide adequate financing for poorer countries contending with climate adaptation crises, a new United Nations report finds.
- Mexico’s Lake Texcoco, once nearly completely drained to build a new airport, has emerged as a crucial floodplain and wetland after its decade-long restoration.
- Residents in Asheboro, North Carolina, are urging federal and local officials to curb the discharge of 1,4-dioxane, a likely carcinogen, into their water supply.
- Lebanon, amidst its worst drought in decades, is staring down a sweeping water crisis exacerbated by war and poorly maintained utilities.
The Lead
Lebanon is facing its worst drought in 65 years, Arab News reports. The country’s total rainfall has fallen to less than half its annual average amidst ongoing drought, and wet-season inflows to Lake Qaraoun, its largest reservoir, were just 13 percent of average — the lowest ever recorded.
Water trucks are traveling from residence to residence, though the water they sell is often unsafe, according to a United Nations report published in September. Nonetheless, 44 percent of the country now relies on this water, which is costly and often unaffordable amidst Lebanon’s long-standing economic crisis. One-third of Lebanon’s population — nearly 2 million people — now live in drought-prone areas.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict has compounded the water crisis. At least 150,000 people across 30 towns and villages in southern Lebanon have lost access to running water in the aftermath of local drone strikes.
“The World Bank estimates these attacks have resulted in damage worth $171 million to Lebanon’s water, wastewater, and irrigation systems,” according to Arab News. In the country’s Bekka Valley, 70 percent of potato farmers were unable to plant any crops this year with uncertainties over irrigation.
Experts also place blame on the Lebanese government for failing to prioritize infrastructure and environmental protection that would make communities more resilient in the face of shortages.
An estimated $100 million is needed to adequately address water scarcity “across the water, sanitation, hygiene, and agriculture sectors.”
In context: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence: A Conversation with Author Peter Schwartzstein
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This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
$26 billion
Funding that wealthy nations provided poorer ones for climate adaptation needs in 2023, a 7 percent decrease compared to the year before. According to the UN’s new Adaptation Gap Report, this drop represents a concerning global trend as the impacts of climate change amplify in the Global South and regions with less robust economies. According to the report’s findings, financing needs in developing countries are currently 12 to 14 times greater than the funding they are receiving. By 2035, the UN Environment Program estimates that climate financing needs will balloon to between $310 billion and $365 billion.
“As a result of these climate impacts, the poor and vulnerable are dying, suffering poor health and seeing their livelihoods damaged,” wrote Inger Andersen, UN under-secretary-general, in a statement this week. “Expensive infrastructure, from bridges to power grids, is under threat. The costs are large and growing, because strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global temperature rise is lacking.”
95
Percent of Lake Texcoco’s original surface area that had been lost as of 2015, when plans were made to drain the waterbody and build New Mexico City International Airport, a $13 billion project, Wired reports. But these plans were scrapped in 2018 after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office. Today, the site — home to 60 percent of Mexico’s bird diversity and nearly 20,000 acres of high-priority conservation areas — has become one of the country’s most successful wetland restoration projects. Expected to capture more than 1.4 million tons of carbon per year, the ecosystem’s woodlands have already established themselves as an important floodplain during storms and nexus for nine regional rivers. In 2022, the lake was established by Ramsar as a Wetland of International Importance.
On the Radar
The U.S. EPA and residents of Asheboro, North Carolina, are urging the town to curb its discharges of 1,4-dioxane, a synthetic solvent used in detergents and cosmetic products and a “likely human carcinogen,” according to the agency. The pollutant originates at two locations in the town of 28,000 people — StarPet, a plastic manufacturer, and the Great Oak Landfill — and flows undisturbed through Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant. The chemical enters directly into the Upper Cape Fear River Basin, which supplies the drinking water of 900,000 people, Inside Climate News reports.
There are currently no maximum limits legally restricting the chemical’s concentration in drinking water, though the EPA advises lifetime exposure to reach no greater than 0.35 parts per billion due to the potential for long-term damage to livers and kidneys.
In July, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit against the city for violating the Clean Water Act. This week, despite the government shutdown, the EPA held a public meeting in Asheboro to discuss the pervasive pollutant. Roughly 100 residents attended, urging the regional EPA administrator to uphold a Department of Environmental Quality permit that would force the city to control its 1,4-dioxane discharges.
Wetland Watch
Delhi’s Shrinking Wetlands: A study published by Delhi University in India has found that 9 percent of the metropolitan area’s wetlands have been lost to development over the past 30 years, Tribune India reports. South Delhi was most affected, losing 97 percent of its wetlands in that span.
