drought
Fernley (United States) (AFP) - Fixing a crucial but leaking, century-old canal that severely flooded the city of Fernley might have seemed like a no-brainer. But when federal officials stepped in to do just that, residents sued. In a situation that highlights the complex, competing claims to water in the US West, this high desert city says water seeping from the dilapidated waterway's earthen base is essential for its very survival. Residents say a new concrete lining -- intended to safeguard the city from future breaches -- would cause wells they have relied upon for decades to dry up. "It w...
AFP
Lemmon Valley (United States) (AFP) - Beneath a bone-dry Nevada lakebed, close to the dusty desert where the Burning Man festival is held each year, an ambitious water project is reshaping this pocket of the US West. A giant, natural underground aquifer containing enough water to supply 25,000 homes annually is fed by rainfall and snowmelt from the surrounding volcanic mountains. For the past few years, a little-known company called Vidler Water Resources has been quietly pumping much of this water out through a buried pipeline, under the mountains -- and straight into the rapidly sprawling n...
AFP
San Francisco (AFP) - Gazing out at San Francisco harbor from her wooden fishing boat, Sarah Bates looks glum. In happier times, she would head out to sea every morning. But for much of this year, she has remained hopelessly docked, due to a ban on salmon fishing as a result of California's drought. "Salmon is my main fishery and it's 90 per cent of my income," says the 46-year-old. In force since April along the entire coast of the Golden State, and parts of neighboring Oregon, the moratorium will last until the end of the salmon fishing season in September. It was brought in as the number ...
AFP
Buena Vista (United States) (AFP) - A healthy Rocky Mountain snowpack looks set to offer a bumper season for thrill-seeking white water rafters on Colorado's rivers. Operators plying waterways fed by the US mountain range say a decent winter and a slow snowmelt should offer months of fun for those intent on hurtling over bubbling rapids. "This river has doubled in size... since three days ago," said Corey Coker, who has been leading rafting expeditions on the Arkansas River in Colorado for well over a decade. "I believe today we're just under 1,000 cubic feet per second," he told AFP in mid-Ma...
AFP
Las Vegas (AFP) - Known around the world as an oasis of overindulgence, the desert city of Las Vegas has emerged as a surprising model of austerity and prudence when it comes to water. Some 2.3 million people live in the arid Las Vegas Valley, and 40 million tourists are drawn each year to its giant casinos and hotels. Yet because Nevada is allowed to use less than two percent of the drought-hit Colorado River's total water, it has taken drastic action, from banning lawns to capping the size of swimming pools. Even as the region's population has exploded by more than half in the past two decad...
AFP
Arapahoe Basin (United States) (AFP) - Record snowfall across much of the western United States has not only helped to alleviate drought -- it has also brought a massive boon for the region's ski resorts, with many hoping to keep their lifts running deep into summer. Sitting more than 10,500 feet (3,200 meters) above sea level, Colorado's Arapahoe Basin has long been famous for its long seasons. The resort's frozen pistes were the state's first to open last fall, and typically don't close until June. "I bet you, here, we might make it into July. I hope so," said local ski enthusiast Ian Burkle...
AFP
Mosquito Creek (United States) (AFP) - High up in a dazzlingly white, tree-lined valley of the Rocky Mountains, two scientists armed with skis and clipboards peer at the long hollow tube they have just thrust vertically into a pristine snow drift. "Twenty-four inches, that's not so bad," says Brian Domonkos, before grabbing the metal cylinder -- now stuffed with snow -- and hitching it to a portable scale dangling from his colleague's ski pole. Originally carried out using an improvised set of milk scales, this same measuring technique has been performed on this exact spot every winter since 1...
AFP
Rio Verde Foothills (United States) (AFP) - With its cactus-filled garden and breathtaking views of the rocky peaks of the Arizona desert, Wendy and Vance Walker's home in the Rio Verde Foothills seemed to be a little slice of paradise. Until the water was cut off. The neighboring city of Scottsdale decided it could no longer afford to sell its dwindling supply from the Colorado River, as a decades-long drought bites the American West. For three months, the couple have eaten from disposable paper plates, had lightning-quick showers only every few days and collected rainwater to flush their to...
AFP
El Centro (United States) (AFP) - A blanket of crops covers the floor of the Imperial Valley in southern California, a patchwork of vibrant greens given life by the Colorado River in a landscape bleached by the desert sun. But as a decades-long drought desiccates the US West and the once-mighty river dwindles, questions are being asked about why a handful of farmers are allowed to take as much water as all of Nevada and Arizona combined. "We average less than two inches (five centimeters) of rainfall per year," fourth generation farmer Andrew Leimgruber told AFP. "So without the supply of Col...
AFP
Nairobi (AFP) - US First Lady Jill Biden on Sunday visited drought-affected communities in Kenya and appealed for wealthy nations to give more as the Horn of Africa suffers its driest conditions in decades. Biden concluded her two-nation tour of Africa by calling for a greater spotlight on the record-breaking drought which threatens 22 million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia with starvation. The United States has funded the lion's share of the aid budget for the disaster which has killed millions of livestock and destroyed crops. "We cannot be the only ones. We have to have other countr...
AFP
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