drought (Page 14)

Jerry Bowen and Jim Axelrod write in cbsnews.com that more than a third of America is now affected by months of drought and the worst is yet to come. While the government believes there will be improvement in the East and parts of the West by the end of July, conditions in the Southwest and High Plains are likely to remain as bad as any seen since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.

Bowen reports on the West, where drought conditions range from mild to extreme and cover a wide area. In the parts of the West where the drought is worst, so is the wildfire danger. Americans from Arizona north to Colorado have received a signal that the fire season’s come early.
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Few residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey have read — or can understand ? the new water restrictions and few authorities are enforcing them. So in communities across the region, sprinkler spies are ratting out their neighbors.

Officials in 14 area communities, including Philadelphia, say they have not issued any tickets for violating water restrictions. Some say they?ve issued verbal warnings. Some say it?s too early for much lawn watering. Others say that although they welcome information from neighbors, the tips don?t always pan out. “You have to be careful, because people sometimes have vendettas against each other,” says Maryann Paradise, public-education officer for the Mount Laurel Municipal Utilities Authority.
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Rivers in the U.S. fell to historic low levels during the past months. Using U.S. Geological Survey data that tracks the flow of rivers nationwide, researchers have identified 59 points on 57 rivers that reached record low levels in March.

This analysis showed that 40 of those points also reached a record low in one of the months of December, January or February. Less water flowed down these rivers than at any comparable time in at least 30 years and, in many cases, as long as 80 years.
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More than 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by the year 2025 if the world continues consuming water at the same rate, the United Nations warns. A new report says that another 2.5 billion people will live in areas where it will be difficult to find enough water to meet their needs. The crisis is being blamed on mismanagement of existing water resources, population growth and changing weather patterns.

The areas most at risk are in semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. But at least 120 million people living in Europe — one in seven people — still do not have access to clean water and sanitation. The UN says wasted water is costing Europe around $10 billion a year.
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