California Water #Crisis May Be Impossible To Fix

A guide to California's water crisis — and why it's so hard to fix

California saw this drought coming. Even if people in the state didn't know it would be this bad — now the worst in recorded history — they've known that dry years are inevitable and had all sorts of ideas for how to deal with them.

But for all that planning, California's current drought has been a disaster. Reservoirs are drying up. Crops are wilting in the fields. For the first time ever, towns and cities will face a mandatory 25 percent cut in their water use.

The problem isn't that no one foresaw the drought. The problem is that no one has been able to solve an underlying issue that is simultaneously less scary and also much harder than a dry spell: California's convoluted water system and intractable water politics. Read More

More Facts And Figures

Dr. Kinesa's - Global Edge

California is fast becoming the stage for one of the biggest climate related disasters; begging the obvious question - who in their right minds would be thinking about growing the state further in any economic  or physical way. The by-product consequences will also drive food costs everywhere to unprecedented heights.

Is this what happens when you put bone-head celebrities in key leadership positions? For sure, this  is not the only reason for the years of short -sightedness.

International Offices
April 28, 2015

SAO PAULO - #Brazil - STILL DRY DESPITE RECORD RAINS

SAO PAULO STILL DRY DESPITE RECORD RAINS

Despite heavy rains, reservoir levels still low after worst 80 year drought in Sao Paulo

By Stan Lehman 
2 April 2015

SÃO PAULO (Associated Press) – Brazil's biggest city has recorded its rainiest March since 2008, but the worst drought in more than 80 years has left reservoir levels critically low and water experts fear that strict water rationing may still loom for São Paulo as it enters the April-September dry season.

The crucial Cantareira water system, which provides water to about 6 million of the 20 million in the metropolitan area, was still only about one-fifth full as the dry season began.

Authorities already have imposed water-saving measures, including cut rates for people who limit usage, reduced pressure in water lines during off-peak hours and de facto rationing: some areas receive water only half the day.

Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said this week that those programs must be expanded, and the government is preparing "a rational water-use program, given the end of the rainy season." She offered no details.

But some think that may not be enough.

Mario Thadeu Leme de Barros, head of the University of São Paulo's hydraulic engineering and environmental department, said existing measures, combined with the transfer of water among reservoirs, "will hopefully allow us to reach the end of the year with the mini-rationing that exists."

He also called for the use of more efficient appliances, the use of wastewater and better detection of leaks in a system that loses more than 30 percent of its water to leaks.

"But we cannot discard the possibility of more harsh water rationing measures should we be hit with an even worse drought during the coming dry season," he said.

Moody's Investors Service warned last month that water rationing looks increasingly likely, adding, "Overall, mandatory federal or state water rationing would worsen Brazil's already sluggish economic growth."

In March, São Paulo, received 8.13 inches (206.5 millimeters) of rain, 16 percent above the average, boosting the level of the Cantareira system from 5 percent to nearly 19 percent of its capacity, the water utility Sabesp said Thursday on its website.

The other five systems were at 23 percent to 97 percent of capacity as the dry season started.

Time For A New Rain Dance

Five Billion People Face Water Scarcity

Water Scarcity

Five Billion At Risk

Read More

By the end of this century with concurrent trending in population growth it is projected that up to five billion people could be exposed towater scarcity. These figures are according to a recent scientific research letter published in IPOScience  (read more  above).  Here’s the real scary part – that assumes that temperature does not rise 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. Guess what? We are trending to go higher because restrictive measures are not being implemented.  The number should be bigger!

The report referenced provides ample numerical, mathematical and modeling analysis if you have a geeky urge.  What cannot be emphasized enough is that we are not just talking about ducks and daisies here – we are talking about the essence of human life. Climate change is not a bad dream to be swept under the media carpet, and ignoring it may not affect our lives, but the misery we are leaving our children, grand children and so on, has never been imagined by any word constructions of any dictionary on the planet.

Now, I leave you with no further words - just that thought…  

Dr Peter G Kinesa

October 17,2013

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