Water
There are few resources that will tell the story of our future better than water.
While southern Africa has seen deadly, climate crisis induced flooding in recent years, Mozambique is experiencing more droughts. In this issue, we learn about the plight of Zimbabwean farmers who are struggling as consecutive droughts see groundwater stocks disappear.
In the United States, the Colorado River is bone dry and, as Richard Keller describes for Sliced, competition between western states over water rights and access could see them coming into increased conflict. Water’s place as the most precious of resources will take on new meaning in this context.
As cricket’s groundskeepers are discovering, we will have to learn how to use water more smartly. Dwindling water resources and the need to ration our usage will be difficult and in many places near-impossible as stocks drop so low, but it is not completely a story of doom and gloom. In Vietnam, Peter Cowan describes how the Mekong Delta is subsiding, placing the country’s supply of rice at risk, but experts say this is an opportunity to farm new crops in the delta and to diversify the Vietnamese diet. In Sierra Leone, Benson Kandeh is bringing his own low-cost water pump technology to hundreds of remote communities.
Hong Kong has long had an abundant supply of water. Yet, as Marie Bröckling writes, it has neglected alternatives. As it suffers its own water crisis, desalination won’t be enough, but examples of innovative solutions elsewhere might be the inspiration it needs.
We should be worried about the future of water. But fear can be motivating, too. As the stark realities of the climate emergency hit home, our leaders need to realize they are all in the same boat together — otherwise we’re all going to run aground with them.
The Western United States continues to suffer as drought conditions, lower rainfall, and changing seasonal patterns due to warmer weather hit states hard. As states on the west coast compete to ensure water access for their people, leaders are clashing over water rights claims. It is looking harder and harder to remedy.
The Mekong Delta has long supplied Vietnam with its rice: the country’s staple food and key export crop. But the climate crisis, rising sea levels, and subsidence are putting the country’s rice bowl in serious danger. What happens next could change the country in profound ways.
Surrounded by water on all sides, Hong Kong has never really had to worry about its water supply. But now, as rising temperatures, pollution and extreme weather induced by the climate crisis start to bite, it needs to embrace alternative water sources.
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