The Stream, April 29: Natural Disasters

Southern California, Arizona and Nevada are in discussions with the Mexican government about sharing a desalination plant across the border in Mexico, Reuters reports. But some conservation groups say that the controversial plan may be taking advantage of Mexico’s lower costs and weaker regulations.

Emergencies
A violent tornado swept across the American South on Wednesday evening, killing hundreds of people, and leaving hundreds more injured an missing. It also unleashed flash floods that raised the water levels at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Meanwhile, intense drought is causing “massive crop losses” across Texas.

Eight million people in the Horn of Africa are roiled by fierce water and food shortages amid a devastating drought that harks back to a 2009 dry spell that left 20 million people in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Eritrea scraping by. British aid groups warn about scant donor funding, hit by the demands of simultaneous crises in Libya and Ivory Coast.

Opinion
This column for the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman argues that the United States can play a positive role in averting water-related conflicts between India and Pakistan.

Turkey’s prime minister has proposed the construction of “Canal Istanbul,” a new waterway linking the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea that will bypass the heavily congested Bosporus. But some think this is a crazy idea.

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