Global Rundown
- Leaders in Corpus Christi, Texas, voted to cancel the construction of a desalination plant, as industrial use and drought threaten widespread water shortages.
- Nearly two million people in eastern Pakistan have been forced to evacuate their homes as rivers continue to swell from extreme rains and dam releases.
- Officials in Iowa’s largest county rescinded $400,000 intended to promote the results of a study that linked agricultural runoff with watershed pollution.
- Local Water Done Well, a policy initiative bringing sweeping water reforms to New Zealand, is now in action after final legislation was passed into law.
- A massive wetland in Kurdistan has officially run dry as a result of drought and over-irrigation.
The Lead
The Corpus Christi City Council voted last week to cancel the construction of a desalination plant that would have turned seawater into fresh water for use by the oil and gas facilities, refineries, and chemical plants operating in the coastal Texas city, Inside Climate News reports.
More than a decade in the making, the project began with an initial $50 million investment from the city — just under a third of its total cost of $160 million, estimated in 2019 — and was slated to open in 2023. But as the plant’s expected cost swelled to $1.2 billion and progress stalled, companies began “consuming municipal water, while a seven-year drought in the area helped dry up the city’s main reservoirs to near-emergency levels.” If alternative water sources for industrial users are not soon identified, Corpus Christi officials point to December 2026 as when a potential Level One Water Emergency may occur. In such a scenario, the city will be within 180 days of its Western Reservoir water supply falling completely empty.
The city had already promised large quantities of water to some companies. In 2017, officials allocated 25 million gallons of water per day to a plastics plant proposed by Exxon Mobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corp., and 6 million gallons per day in 2018 to a Steel Dynamics steel mill. These two projects began operations in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Community members who were critical of the desalination plan also cited local environmental impact studies, which indicated that a buildup of briny discharge would harm Corpus Christi Bay’s ecology and tourism industry, which is heavily supported by fishing.
In the face of these delays and looming ecological crises, and with another $50 million needed to continue the facility’s design, officials decided instead to nix it altogether. The 6-3 deciding vote followed a raucous 13-hour public meeting, during which three speakers were arrested.
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Data Center Energy Demand Is Putting Pressure on U.S. Water Supplies — More coal, more nuclear to power information sector would reverse a trend of reduced energy-related water use.
- Political Left, Right, and Everyone Between, United Over Water — In a raucous era, citizens in Indiana find a safe place for consensus on water supply.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
1.8 million
People in eastern Pakistan who have been displaced from their homes due to flooding in the past month, the Associated Press reports. Extreme rains in the region, coupled with the release of water from overflowing dams in upstream India, have caused rivers to swell, inundating more than 3,900 villages and hitting communities in eastern Punjab province with particular force. Rains continued to fall over the weekend, and another 25,000 people were moved overnight from high-risk neighborhoods in the city of Jalalpur Pirwala, to safer ground. Reuters reports that agricultural losses in eastern Pakistan — which produces 90 percent of the country’s basmati rice — are expected to be steep. Roughly one-fifth of the annual yield could be lost.
$400,000
Money remaining from a $1 million, two-year study on Iowa’s worsening water quality that was earmarked to promote public awareness and communicate the study’s results, the Guardian reports. But these funds, supplied by Polk County, were suddenly zeroed out. The study, which focuses on the health of the Racoon and Des Moines Rivers, has been controversial in central Iowa for linking waterway pollution and the state’s larger water-quality crisis to agricultural runoff. With nearly 87,000 farms, Iowa is the country’s top corn, egg, and pork producer.
In context: Make America Polluted Again Starts in Iowa
On the Radar
Two major pieces of legislation, intended to transfer the responsibility of water infrastructure and security in New Zealand from public entities to local governments, were passed into law late last month, The Post reports. The Local Water Done Well initiative will empower local councils to “decide whether to work with their neighbors on delivering water services to meet new standards and regulation, aimed at fixing the country’s patchy drinking, waste, and storm water systems.” Each council was given a deadline of early September to finalize new “financially sustainable” water delivery plans.
Wetland Watch
Kani Barazan: More than 1,000 hectares of wetland habitat in eastern Kurdistan have officially and completely dried up as a result of both over-irrigation and drought, Kurdistan24 reports. The loss has put an end to generations of farming and animal husbandry, though the region’s residents are not giving up in their efforts to salvage the land for endangered waterfowl. Though their economy is decimated, communities have dug wells and are pumping water to the surface. “Out of compassion, we dug that pit,” Ramezan Shal, a resident of Khurkhura, told the outlet. “Once or twice a week, we draw water for the animals and birds. The supply is modest, but it is clean and sufficient to keep them watered.”
