Search results: water scarcity
12 results found
When the Cooling Water and the Power Run Out
…that by summer 2026 the continent was facing record-low river levels and a structural water shortage that has been building up for years: in August, 50% of the territory of the EU and the UK was struggling with some level of drought, flows on the Rhine,…
Who Gets the Water? FAO's Draft Principles
Every drought ends up asking the same question: who gets the water? Sometimes the answer is written down. Often it's scattered across old permits, local customs and whoever has the deepest well. And usually it's settled in a hurry, when the river is already…
A Record Number of Water Conflicts Are Hitting the World
More water-related conflicts were recorded worldwide in 2024 than ever before, according to the latest analysis by the Pacific Institute, a US water research institute, presented on the opening day of World Water Week 2026 in Stockholm. At the event, organised…
Drinking Water From the Sea, Without Brine or Chemicals
…to the UN, 2.2 billion people on Earth today lack access to safely managed drinking water. Climate change is making the situation ever more dramatic: in the Mediterranean, falling rainfall and increasingly intense droughts are straining water supplies,…
The World of Water Recycling Gathers in Los Angeles
In March 2026 the WateReuse Association held its annual symposium in a city where water management is not an abstract policy issue but everyday reality. It is no coincidence that Los Angeles – the largest metropolis of the water-scarce American Southwest –…
Where Centralised Wastewater Treatment Stops Paying
For half a century, the standard answer to dirty water has been a longer sewer and a larger plant. China has followed that model at a vast scale, and a study in Nature Water now uses that experience to ask where it stops making sense (Shen et al.,…
Shrinking Rivers Push Water Utilities Towards Desalination
…the Rio Grande and the Danube at record lows, the week's financing decisions followed scarcity towards new supply, from Arizona's cross-border water swap to Azerbaijan's first large desalination plant.
Europe Is Drying Up
We are launching a new series of articles analysing Europe's water and energy problems. This year has made it clear that the continent faces serious problems in these areas, which are likely to get worse in the period ahead. The aim of our series is to inform…
Hydrogen Will Not Drink Europe Dry
…agenda, and where they meet a question keeps coming up: will hydrogen production drain water supplies? Mostly not, according to a report published by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) on 8 October. In the authors' words, Europe's…
Elephant Butte Reservoir at a Historic Low
…the NASA Earth Observatory show a dramatic decline in the Rio Grande reservoir, whose water also supplies agriculture in New Mexico and Texas. Behind the phenomenon lie years of extreme drought and a record-early snowmelt in 2026. A half-century…