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Putin’s Pipe Dream: Russian Scientists Discuss Project to “Redirect” Siberian Rivers
November 21st, 2025
Russian scientists have reportedly asked the Kremlin to fund a feasibility study on diverting water from Russia’s Ob River down to Central Asia. The $100B plan would see a massive plastic pipeline carry up to 22 cubic km (5.3 cubic miles) ofw ater through Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan annually. This idea builds upon a similar Soviet-era […]
Read more »New Iraqi Leadership Confronts Water Shortage and Economic Strain
November 20th, 2025
Via OilPrice.com, a report on Iraq’s urgent water crisis: Iraq’s latest election saw a surprisingly high turnout (56%) and a fragmented outcome. The new government faces urgent challenges: a severe water crisis due to drought and upstream dams, weak public finances tied to oil dependence, and delicate relations with both the U.S. and Iran. Balancing […]
Read more »Kabul Braces For A Waterless Future
November 20th, 2025
Via The Week, a report on how a confluence of manmade and environmental factors makes the Afghan city the first modern capital to risk running out of groundwater: For the past half-century, the city of Kabul has endured more than its fair share of hardship and tragedy. As Afghanistan’s capital works to move past its […]
Read more »In Drought-Stricken Iran, Nature Is Doing What Sanctions And Airstrikes Could Not
November 17th, 2025
Via Forbes, commentary on Iran’s drought: “May God protect this country from the enemy, from drought, from lies.” The ancient prayer of the Persian King Darius the Great, carved into stone more than two thousand years ago, captures three existential threats that have forever concerned Iranians: foreign aggression, water scarcity, and the erosion of truth. […]
Read more »Tehran’s Residents Are Panicking as Taps Run Dry
November 13th, 2025
Via Foreign Policy, a report on how years of drought and neglect have left Tehran nearly unsustainable: In recent days, prolonged water cuts across Tehran have created widespread panic among the Iranian capital’s 10 million residents. Last week, after years of drought and reduced rainfall and snowfall, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that Tehran’s residents would have […]
Read more »Texas’s Water Wars
November 13th, 2025
Via the New Yorker, a look at how – as industrial operations move to the state – residents find that their drinking water has been promised to companies: In 2019, Corpus Christi, Texas’s eighth-largest city, moved forward with plans to build a desalination plant. The facility, which was expected to be completed by 2023, at […]
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