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The American Dream (Water Not Included)
February 7th, 2025
Via The Lever, a look at how real estate developers are running a dark-money campaign to overturn new housing rules — and ignore basic laws of nature: For most of human history, a simple axiom for survival seemed to prevail: Don’t build houses where there is too little water. Amid dangerous droughts, Arizona officials recently […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China’s Water Grid Shapes Its Future
February 4th, 2025
Via The Asia Times, a report on how China’s continued focus on engineering projects to redistribute water can lead to water shortages downstream from diversion projects: Much attention has focused on China’s recent approval of a massive hydropower dam but less has been said about the next crucial step in the country’s water management strategy […]
Read more »At Phoenix’s Far Edge, a Housing Boom Grasps for Water
January 31st, 2025
Via Circle of Blue, a report on how more than 1 million people could pour into western Maricopa County, Arizona in the coming decades – if housing developers can secure the water: Buckeye, Arizona, has plans to become one of the Southwest’s largest cities in the next decades. Photo © Brett Walton/Circle of Blue Beneath […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon and Parched Tiger: ‘Dam for a Dam’ – China and India’s Dam War In Himalayas
January 30th, 2025
Via The Week, a look at Delhi’s response to Beijing’s plans for a huge dam in Tibet? Build a huge dam of its own right nearby India is building a giant hydropower dam near the Siang river to counter a huge Chinese dam further north. But this latest move in a tit-for-tat saga of water […]
Read more »Struggling Over Water, Losing It Through Evaporation: The Case of Afghanistan and Iran
January 30th, 2025
The long-standing water conflict between Iran (downstream) and Afghanistan (upstream) led to the 1973 Helmand Water Treaty, ensuring Iran a share of the Helmand River. However, prolonged #droughts and rising water demand are intensifying disputes with tensions reaching alarming levels. While both nations have built reservoirs to mitigate water shortages, evaporative losses from these reservoirs […]
Read more »Trump Says He’s Sending Water To LA. It’s Actually Going to Megafarms.
January 29th, 2025
Via Grist, a report on how the president’s executive orders on California water will help irrigate Central Valley farms. They won’t do anything to fight wildfires. While President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of far-reaching decrees during his first week in office, one relatively niche issue has received a disproportionate share of the president’s […]
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