- Nepal is still reeling from devastating floods that killed hundreds of people, as experts warn that a hotter planet will fuel similar disasters in the future.
- Israel has temporarily shut down five of its six desalination plants due to “turbidity” concerns at sea.
- A dry summer in Ethiopia has forced officials to announce strict regulations ensuring the country’s large network of hydropower dams has enough water to produce electricity.
- At least two people have died in the Grand Canyon following flash flooding that was made worse in part by recent wildfires and extreme heat.
The Global Water News Storymap
Explore the world’s most pressing water stories, mapped. — and see how the crisis is unfolding near you and far from home. Click the image below to learn more.
Hundreds of people were killed and thousands remain missing in Nepal after devastating floodwaters and a massive landslide — caused by the melting and collapse of a large alpine glacier — swept through communities in the country’s northern districts.
The scale of the event’s destruction was immense. Rock, mud, snow, and ice tumbled from high elevation and coursed through rivers, which were themselves already swollen due to monsoon rains. Entire villages, including hospitals and schools, were decimated. Roughly 10 percent of Nepal’s power capacity remains offline.
Scientists have been quick to name man-made climate change as the primary cause of the disaster.
“There’s no question that this event was made more likely because of climate change and that we’re seeing more likely other similar glacier hazards occurring,” Twila Moon, the deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, tells NPR.
The Himalayas are warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, threatening two massive disasters. Most imminent are the landslides, avalanches, and flooding that result from melting permafrost, glaciers, and snowpack. These risks are especially prevalent in Nepal, where an estimated $124 billion worth of infrastructure sits exposed to climate-driven disasters, the Associated Press reports.
In the long-term, the disappearance of these landforms threatens sweeping freshwater shortages for nearly 2 billion people. According to a landmark 2023 report from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, based on contemporary emissions trajectories, the Hindu Kush Himalaya region could by century’s end lose 80 percent of its glaciers.
Flash flooding this weekend in Grand Canyon National Park killed at least two people and left dozens others unaccounted for, as forecasters warn that more severe rains and flooding early this week may disrupt emergency rescue efforts.
Heavy bursts of rain this weekend in the Arizona park caused floodwaters to rush through an area of the canyon that is popular with hikers and comes within close proximity to the Colorado River, which despite these late-summer deluges continues to experience unprecedented water stress. In fact, the long-standing impacts of extreme heat and drought in the basin likely made the weekend’s flooding worse: the absence of vegetation on the landscape, which burned last summer in fast-moving wildfires, led to a rapid funneling of rainwater across charred soils that absorb water poorly.
More than 2 inches of rain fell Saturday at the park’s Bright Angel campground, about half an inch less than the area’s average total for all of August, USA Today reports. Arizona is currently in the midst of its “monsoon season,” an annual rainer-than-normal period that this year is exacerbated by record-breaking El Niño conditions. Levels of atmospheric moisture above the park have been between 5 percent and 15 percent higher than normal this summer, the Washington Post reports, increasing the likelihood of heavy rainfall events.
“Flash flooding will be possible in creeks, normally dry washes, swimming holes, and over recently burned areas,” the National Weather Service in Flagstaff, Arizona, wrote on its social media platforms in advance of additional weekday downpours. “Raging killer currents will be possible in side canyons and narrow slot canyons. Low-water crossings may be flooded.”
In Context: Circle of Blue’s Colorado River Watch Dashboard
In Ethiopia’s first major test since last fall’s inauguration of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the largest hydropower plant in Africa, officials have announced that they will be strictly regulating water usage and electricity generation amidst a summer of significant rainfall deficits.
According to the Ethiopian news outlet Borkena, Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), which owns and operates the national grid, reported a 20 percent decrease in water inflows across its major hydroelectric dams earlier this month. The shortages — which are especially concerning in a country that generates more than 90 percent of its electricity from hydropower — have been attributed to the year’s record-breaking El Niño conditions.
The Addis Standard reports that EEP in its most recent fiscal year recorded a 23 percent increase in electricity generation — and a 25 percent increase in profits — when compared to the previous year.
Word of the water regulations and energy priorities is likely to rouse Ethiopia’s Nile basin neighbors. Egypt sits downstream and perceives the GERD as an existential threat to its water security, economy, and grid.
The Nile provides 97 percent of Egypt’s fresh water. Last year, on the precipice of the dam’s opening, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told reporters that “whoever thinks Egypt will turn a blind eye to its water rights is mistaken.”
In Context: Spotlight on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
Israel’s Water Authority announced on Monday that five of the country’s six desalination plants would need to temporarily shut down due to “severe turbidity” in the seawater at these facilities’ Mediterranean intakes, the Times of Israel reports.
The decision to close so many plants simultaneously is rare since desalination provides up to 80 percent of the country’s drinking water.
According to the Jerusalem Post, authorities sent a message to residents preparing them for restrictions: “Following problems with the water supply in the national water network, disruptions to water supply may occur in the coming hours, including reduced pressure and water outages in certain areas. We ask the public to conserve water as much as possible and use water only for essential needs until normal operations resume.”
Farmers in southern Israel were the first affected by these shortages, as irrigation networks were closed in favor of prioritizing household drinking water. In a separate announcement, the country’s Agriculture Ministry approved the increase of up to 15 percent more potable water to be used for agriculture across the country through the rest of 2026.
Good stories should flow further. Click here to send this newsletter along.
