Via Terra Daily, a report on the drought stress adding to the tragedy of Myanmar’s displaced citizens: Zay Yar Tun fills his truck with water for delivery to refugees in the parched hills of war-ravaged eastern Myanmar, where a heatwave is adding to the misery of life in displacement camps. Under a roof of plastic sheets in one of the camps in Kayah state, Augusta waits for the 10 gallons that must cover her family’s drinking, cooking and washing needs for the next three days. More than 123,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Kayah by the conflict unleashed by the military’s 20 ..read more

Via Inside Climate News, a report on a historic deal that will help the tribe raise money for infrastructure and services for its members while the water could ease the drought in the Southwest: Against a backdrop of the Colorado River, members of the Colorado River Indian Tribes watched Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Amelia Flores, the tribe’s chairwoman, sign a historic agreement on April 26 that asserts the tribe’s right to lease portions of their allocation of the river’s water to users away from the tribal land. The agreement between the tribe, the I ..read more

Via Fair Observer, an article on the impact that climate change is having upon water supplies in Jammu and Kashmir, India. The winter of 2023–2024 was the driest on record, with major cities in the region such as the summer capital of Srinagar recording their hottest winter in 18 years. With the world projected to become even warmer, the challenge will be finding long-term solutions to deal with the impact of climate change. The Himalayas span 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) across South Asia. The region is home to over 50 million people and provides water to 2 billion people in a r ..read more

Via BorderReport, an article on the growing impact of water scarcity in south Texas and north Mexico: The South Texas border town of Mission is known as the “Home of the Grapefruit.” But the sight of grapefruit, lemon and orange groves could soon be no more as water scarcity is beginning to affect the citrus industry here significantly, and other Rio Grande Valley towns and communities are having to adjust because of Mexico’s inability to pay the United States water it owes. So far, Mexico has paid barely one year’s worth of water in the current five-year water cycle, which ends in October 20 ..read more

Via Nagaland Post, commentary on Bengaluru’s water crisis and India’s need for ‘water urbanism’: India is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world according to a report by the NITI Aayog. The country is home to nearly a fifth of the world’s population, but it has only 4% of global water resources. Add to this the rapid depletion of freshwater resources and increasing urbanisation, and you have a country whose urban centres are perennially fighting water crises today. Bengaluru has become a cautionary tale in that regard for most Indian cities. Data from the Ministry of Jal Shakt ..read more

Via Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting, a report on Kazakhstan’s efforts to battle water scarcity: Despite the disastrous floods this spring, it is a usual picture for particular regions of Kazakhstan to face water shortages in summer. To maintain water content in the three largest rivers of the country, the state increases expenses. In the last decade, over 30 billion Kazakh tenge (66.9 million dollars, hereafter the rate is 448 Kazakh tenge for 1 dollar, unless otherwise specified) have been allocated from the budget for Zhaiyk (Ural) and Yertis (Irtysh). At least 4 billion Kaza ..read more

Via The Guardian, an article on the drought-driven end to sugarcane farming in parched Texas, where there’s just not enough water in the Rio Grande to share between the US and Mexico: Tudor Uhlhorn has been too busy auctioning off agricultural equipment to grieve the “death” of Texas’s last sugar mill. “I’m as sad as anyone else,” said the chairman of the board of the Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers cooperative, which owns the now-shuttered mill in Santa Rosa, a small town about 40 miles from Brownsville. “I just haven’t had a whole lot of time to mourn.” In February, the cooperati ..read more

Via IPS News, an article on how rural farmers in Chile are facing a combination of climate change-induced mega droughts, and water policies that make access unaffordable and a State that either doesn’t want to or dares not intervene in the water market means family enterprises are dying out: Lack of water threatens the very existence of family farming in Chile, forcing farmers to adopt new techniques or to leave their land. The shortage is caused by a 15-year drought and exacerbated by the unequal distribution arising from the Water Code decreed in 1981 by the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Genera ..read more

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, an article on a federal allegation that a San Joaquin Valley water district official secretly directed employees to exploit a leak in the Delta-Mendota Canal: Robert Zavala was fresh out of the Marines and looking to escape dead-end work at a poultry plant in the early 1990s when his old baseball coach — now the head of a local water district — swooped to the rescue with a job offer. Zavala was grateful for the job, which eventually paid more than $150,000 a year and included perks such as free housing and a new truck. Grateful enough, he later testifi ..read more

Via Modern Diplomacy, a look at the forthcoming 10th World Water Forum conference, will be an important momentum for Indonesia to fight for access to clean water and better sanitation for its people and the world as a whole: Through its participation in the World Water Forum, Indonesia, the largest archipelagic country in the world, with more than 17 thousand islands with a long coastline, and a complex and diverse river system, has made it one of the countries rich in water resources. However, despite its abundant natural wealth and large population, Indonesia has an important role in deter ..read more