The Stream, July 31, 2024: In Drought-Stricken Sicily, Tourists and Locals Live Different Water Realities

Birds fly over California’s Salton Sea. Counteracting the toxic dust that is associated with the shrinking of the sea will be a significant task. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN 

• Built in an attempt to boost food production, a 70-mile artificial river in northern Egypt is nearing completion. 
• The Canadian and UK Space Agencies have launched the Aqualunar Challenge, supporting inventors’ efforts to secure reliable, clean water for future moon bases. 
• Extreme drought and above-average temperatures in Sicily have burdened the island’s residents, but visitors are shielded from such drastic water shortages.
• A “state of calamity” has been issued for Manila as monsoon rains and Typhoon Gaemi have contributed to displace hundreds of thousands of residents in the Filipino capital.

Despite high asthma rates from dust pollution in communities near southern California’s Salton Sea, a federal plan likely to worsen these conditions is moving forward.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Stream Editor

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

• When the Heat Is On, Water Can Still Be Off in Great Lakes Cities — Formal water shutoff policies in some cities are ill-defined for extreme heat.
• Skepticism in Rural Northwest India as Modi Government Pushes Big Water Infrastructure Projects Instead of Small-Scale Fixes — Rainwater harvesting, an ancient solution, could counteract fluoride contamination, gender inequality, and a warming climate in the state of Rajasthan.

The Lead

This year has been one of the driest in Sicily’s history, though visitors to the Italian island’s hotels and archaeological sites wouldn’t know. Water to these areas continues to flow freely as business owners, in many cases, are prioritizing the resource for tourists, the Associated Press reports. 

For residents, the drought is a different story. Water is being rationed to nearly a million people, some with access for only two to four hours per week. Locals are getting by with the private cisterns many keep on their roofs, which can store around 264 gallons of water, but even this measure is running dry. 

In May, a state of emergency was declared and $21.7 million was allocated to purchasing water tankers and digging new wells. Late last week, an Italian navy vessel delivered 3.2 million gallons to Sicily’s hardest-hit residents. 

Adding to the problem of drought and high temperatures — which are exacerbated by human-caused climate change — is the island’s aging infrastructure. Leaky pipes and aqueducts, and out-of-service desalination plants, are now being fixed up and rebooted as funds become available.

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

12

Inches of rain that fell on Manila late last week after monsoon storms were exacerbated by the arrival of Typhoon Gaemi, prompting the declaration of a “state of calamity” in the metropolitan area, home to some 13 million people. The inundation by chest-deep flood waters throughout the city forced displaced residents — numbering at least 600,000 — onto roofs and into boats as they sought shelter, CNN reports. At least 13 people have been killed.

70

The length, in miles, of an artificial river along Egypt’s northern coast that is nearing completion as part of the country’s “Future of Egypt” greening megaproject, The Guardian reports. The river, which cost more than $5 billion to construct, will deliver 3.5 billion cubic meters of water each year to a new stretch of crop fields that just a decade ago was a desert landscape. Government backers hope to increase food exports from the scheme. At the same time, Egypt suffers from inflated food prices, which earlier this year peaked at fifth-highest in the world. Water to fill the artificial river is pumped from aquifers. This, critics say, makes the project unsustainable in an arid country that already has an annual water deficit of 7 billion cubic meters. “What about future generations?” Richard Tutwiler, a former director of the Cairo-based Research Institute for a Sustainable Environment, told The Guardian. “If you use up all the water, they won’t have water in the desert.”

On the Radar

A growing number of national space agencies have already committed to space missions that will return man and machine to the moon over the next decade, motivated in part by the search for mineral resources and the future exploration of Mars. Now, the Aqualunar Challenge, presented jointly by the UK and Canadian Space Agencies, is seeking to solve a practical difficulty of lunar settlement: obtaining reliable and clean water. The former agency is awarding nearly $40,000 apiece to 10 teams as they design technologies to extract and purify water from crater-bound ice on the moon’s south pole, The Guardian reports. Rewarded teams competing in Canada will receive nearly $800,000 for their solutions. Winners are expected to be announced in 2025.

Christian Thorsberg

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.