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March 11th, 2008
For months now, as discussed on this blog and as recently reported by TreeHugger, several areas of the USA have been confronting severe water problems. In particular, the southeastern United States, where massive growth over the last few decades has outpaced rational water planning, is facing an extreme drought that shows no signs of improving in the near future. The ongoing water crisis has led to some tough questions for decision-makers, who have resorted to border disputes, and even the occasional design solution. As the article notes, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s National Drought Mitigation Center, in cooperation with several federal agencies, produces a weekly map called the US Drought Monitor, with updated info on the state of the country’s droughts:
“…The picture doesn’t look pretty though. According to the Monitor, large portions of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee are currently experiencing “extreme” to “exceptional” drought conditions. That this is due to mismanagement of water resources becomes particularly clear when one looks at the affected areas in relation to the region’s rivers, which run straight through all of the severely affected areas, whereas river-less areas of the southwestern US are in much better shape….”
It’s highly ironical in the fact that river-less areas are currently in much better shape than those with water resources…