I have always told you to do so… Prep for water and grow your own food! After one of the warmest, driest springs on record water is drying up around the world. In a few months, FOOD and WATER will become the most precious commodities around… And the dangerous sharks at WallStreet are already making big bucks with water trades.
California expands drought emergency to 41 of 58 counties
California has expanded a drought emergency declaration to a large swath of the nation’s most populated state amid “acute water supply shortages” in northern and central parts of California.
The declaration, expanded by Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday, now includes 41 of 58 counties, covering 30% of California’s nearly 40 million people. The US drought monitor shows most of the state and the American west is in extensive drought just a few years after California emerged from a punishing multiyear dry spell.
Officials fear an extraordinary dry spring presages a wildfire season like last year, when flames burned a record 6,562 sq mi(16,996 sq km).
The declaration comes as Newsom prepares to propose more spending on short- and long-term responses to dry conditions. The Democrat last month had declared an emergency in just two counties north of San Francisco – Mendocino and Sonoma.
The expanded declaration includes the counties in the Klamath River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Tulare Lake watersheds across much of the northern and central parts of the state.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides about a third of the state’s water, was at just 59% of average on 1 April, when it is normally at its peak.
This year is unique in the state’s recorded history because of extraordinarily warm temperatures in April and early May, the administration said. That led to quick melting of the Sierra Nevada snowpack in the waterways that feed the Sacramento River, which in turn supplies much of the state’s summer water supply.
The problem was worse because much of the snow seeped into the ground instead of flowing into rivers and reservoirs, the administration said.
The warmer temperatures also caused water users to draw more water more quickly than even in other drought years, the administration said, leaving the reservoirs extremely low for farmers, fish and wildlife that depend on them.
That all reduced the state’s water supplies by as much as what would supply up to 1m households for a year, officials said.
“It’s time for Californians to pull together once again to save water,” Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California natural resources agency, said in a statement.
He urged residents to limit their use, whether by limiting outdoor watering, checking for leaks, or taking shorter showers and turning off the water when washing dishes or brushing teeth.
Newsom’s declaration directs the state water board to consider changing the rules for reservoir releases and water diversions to keep more water upstream later this year to maintain more water supply, improve water quality and protect cold water pools for salmon and steelhead.
The declaration also allows more flexibility in regulations and contracting to respond to the drought, while speeding voluntary transfers of water between owners. [AP]
Related item: This is your best solution for water storage…
Taiwan rations water, drills extra wells amid record drought
Some households in Taiwan are going without running water two days a week after a months-long drought dried up the island’s reservoirs and a popular tourist lake.
Authorities are drilling extra wells and using military planes to dump cloud-seeding chemicals in hopes of triggering rain. The government has allocated money to extract drinkable water from the sea.
Farmers who need to flood paddies to raise rice, lotus root and other thirsty crops have been hit hard.
“The lotus flowers and seeds I planted don’t produce well,” said Chen Chiu-lang, a farmer in the southern city of Tainan standing in a dry paddy field.
Rainfall in the seven months through February was less than half the historic average after no typhoons hit Taiwan in 2020 for the first time in 56 years, according to the government.
Households in areas under top-level restrictions go without running water two days per week. They include Taiwan’s second-biggest city, Taichung, with 2.8 million people, and Miaoli and Changhua counties.
Parts of Sun Moon Lake, a popular tourist spot, have dried up.
“Our business is 90% less than last year,” said Wang Ying-shen, chairman of a group for businesspeople who rent boats to visitors.
Light rain fell in some areas this week, but Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua warned Thursday restrictions might be tightened.
Other cities are restricting total water supplies for each customer. They include Hsinchu one of the biggest global enters for semiconductor manufacturing, and Tainan and Kaohsiung in the south.
The economy ministry allocated 2.5 billion New Taiwan dollars ($88 million) in March for well drilling and emergency sea water desalination facilities. [Independent]
Related product: A very affordable emergency water filter…
Wall Street has begun trading water as a commodity, like gold or oil
The market allows farmers, hedge funds, and municipalities to hedge bets on the future price of water and water availability in the American West. The new trading scheme was announced in September, prompted by the region’s worsening heat, drought, and wildfires.
Proponents argue the new market will clear up some of the uncertainty around water prices for farmers and municipalities, helping them budget for the resource.
But some experts say treating water as a tradable commodity puts a basic human right into the hands of financial institutions and investors.
Yes, it is kind of weird to trade that source of life on the planet… [Bloomberg]
So do you think we heave reached the summit, before the inevitable collapse? If not, we are really close to it! So prep for water and grow your own food… You will soon understand why this is truely important…
I put up six, 2,500 gallon water towers, ( elevated )
around my land.
Mainly for a dripline system. $3,500 per tower/tank. Figure those may come in handy.
How do you grow your own food without water? Most survival foods require water for cooking. You need water to drink. Water for sanitation. Water to flush a toilet. A few cases of stored water bottles are not going to cut it.