Pins matching tag:Drought

On 30 October 2023 the Panama Canal Authority announced a staged cut in daily transits after the driest October on record, the first time the canal had ever restricted transits. It was later softened but queues of ships built up for weeks.

Cyprus's agriculture ministry said on 5 April 2026 that the mobile desalination unit at Limassol port had finished trial operation and was in full operation, the third emergency unit running after Moni and Kissonerga, as the island races to cover almost all supply from the sea.

On 7 April 2026 the Victorian Government confirmed a 150-billion-litre desalinated water order for 2026-27, the largest ever placed with the Wonthaggi plant, as Melbourne's storages fell to 67.1% and the lowest end-of-summer level since 2020.

Breel Embolo and Dan Ndoye scored either side of halftime as Switzerland won a World Cup knockout match for the first time since 1938.

Lake Mead's surface fell to 1,040.50 feet above sea level, below the 1,040.58-foot record of July 2022, after a record-low snowpack left the reservoir that supplies Las Vegas lower than at any time since it filled in the 1930s.

Lake Powell's elevation dropped to 3,519.91 feet on Saturday 15 August 2026, just under the April 2023 record, less than two weeks after Lake Mead hit its own record low.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed the Record of Decision and 2027-2028 Operating Guidelines for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, cutting Lower Basin deliveries by 1.25 million acre-feet a year for two years, 50,000 of them Nevada's, as both reservoirs hit record lows.

On 1 September 2026 Corpus Christi's council voted 5-3 against a $78.6 million design contract with Corpus Christi Desal Partners that would have taken the 30 million gallon a day Inner Harbor seawater plant to 60% design, leaving the roughly $979 million project and its state-backed debt in doubt.

Copernicus announced on 10 September 2026 that August 2026 averaged 16.96C worldwide, 1.65C above pre-industrial levels and level with July 2023 (16.95C) as the warmest calendar month ever recorded. It also beat the old August record of 16.82C.

Amazon pledges $20 million and launches the Colorado River Basin Collaborative, a corporate coalition with Aldi, The Coca-Cola Foundation, Ecolab and others that aims to raise $100 million for water projects across the basin in two years.

California's State Water Resources Control Board is due to consider the final water right permit for the $6.2-6.8 billion Sites Reservoir on 4 November 2026. The Sites Project Authority moved the 1.5 million acre-foot project into its investment period after the revised draft permit, the last big step before construction.

Phase 1 of Pure Water San Diego, a roughly $1.5 billion program, is due to start sending purified recycled water through Miramar Reservoir into the drinking supply near the end of 2026. It starts at about 7.5 million gallons a day and ramps to 30 million once the Morena Pump Station comes on line.

Cape Town's permanent 50 to 70 million litre a day desalination plant lost its Paarden Eiland site to Transnet's port expansion, and the City's August 2026 Water Outlook now puts its new-water programme at 2036, about five years later than first water planned for 2030/31.