Latest news with #drought
Malay Mail
9 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Wheat becomes battleground as Syria's worst drought in 60 years threatens 16 million
DAMASCUS, June 28 — Rival Syrian and Kurdish producers are scrambling for shrinking wheat harvests as the worst drought in decades follows a devastating war, pushing more than 16 million people toward food insecurity. 'The country has not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years,' said Haya Abu Assaf, assistant to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative in Syria. Syria's water levels have seen 'a very significant drop compared to previous years, which is very worrying', Abu Assaf told AFP, as a relatively short winter rainy season and decreased rainfall take their toll. 'A gap of between 2.5 to 2.7 million tonnes in the wheat crop is expected, meaning that the wheat quantity will not be sufficient to meet local needs,' Abu Assaf said, putting 'around 16.3 million people at risk of food insecurity in Syria this year'. Before the civil war erupted in 2011, Syria was self-sufficient in wheat, producing an average of 4.1 million tonnes annually. Nearly 14 years of conflict have since crippled production and devastated the economy. The FAO estimates that harsh weather has impacted nearly 2.5 million hectares of wheat-growing land. 'Around 75 per cent of the cultivated areas' have been affected, as well as 'natural pastures for livestock production', said Abu Assaf. Imports, competition To bridge the wheat gap, imports would be essential in a country where around 90 per cent of the population lives in poverty. Before his ouster in an Islamist-led offensive in December, Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad used to rely on ally Russia for wheat. In April, new authorities reported the first wheat shipment since his removal arrived in Latakia port, with more Russian shipments following. Iraq also donated more than 220,000 tonnes of wheat to Syria. During the war, Damascus competed with the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast to buy wheat from farmers across fertile lands. Last year, Assad's government priced wheat at US$350 (RM1,480) per tonne, and the Kurds at US$310. After Assad's ouster, Damascus and the Kurds agreed in March to integrate Kurdish-led institutions into the new Syrian state, with negotiations ongoing on implementation. Damascus set wheat prices this month at between US$290 and US$320 per tonne, depending on the quality, plus a US$130 bonus. The Kurdish-led administration offered US$420 per tonne including a US$70 bonus. 'Poverty and hunger' Damascus' agriculture ministry expects a harvest of 300,000 to 350,000 tonnes in government-controlled areas this year. Hassan Othman, director of the Syrian Grain Establishment, acknowledged Syria was not self-sufficient, in comments on state television. But he said authorities were working 'to ensure food security by importing wheat from abroad and milling it in our mills'. In northeast Syria's Amuda, farmer Jamshid Hassu, 65, inspected the tiny wheat grains from his fields, which cover around 200 hectares (around 500 acres). Despite heavy irrigation efforts to offset scarce rainfall, he said, production has halved. The FAO's Abu Assaf said indicators showed that 'about 95 per cent of rain-fed wheat has been damaged and affected', while irrigated wheat yields were down 30 to 40 per cent. Hassu, who has been farming for four decades, said he had to pump water from depths of more than 160 metres (525 feet) to sustain his crops as groundwater levels plunge. Agriculture remains a vital income source in rural Syria, but without urgent support, farmers face ruin. 'Without support, we will not be able to continue,' Hassu warned. 'People will suffer from poverty and hunger.' — AFP
CBS News
10 hours ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Outdoor water ban in effect in Bridgewater, Massachusetts due to drought
After an intense heat wave earlier this week, officials from the Bridgewater water department have issued a full water ban on outdoor usage. "We are looking for cooperation. We don't want to interfere with people's lifestyle," said Azu Etoniru, the director of the town's Department of Public Works. "But it's just that we have an obligation." Right now, signs are in place informing residents of mandatory water restrictions. "We're asking them to hold off on the watering of their lawns, filling your pools and all the excessive use outdoors," Etoniru said. The ban is effective immediately and while one resident told WBZ, "It's bad for the lawns and people who have gardens," another added, "It's more important to preserve the water for what we need it for." According to Etoniru, it's being enforced because of a drought. "So, when we have high demand and high withdrawal and we can only pull so much out of the ground, it creates a problem," he said. Below average rain in June And while some may wonder how that's possible, with what seems like endless rain lately, "A friend of mine once told me years ago that 'One sunny day doesn't make a summer,'" Etoniru said. June has actually seen below average rain and Etoniru says it is drought conditions over the past year that have affected the town's groundwater and well levels. "So, we have had some good rain, but that hasn't been enough to build back our aquifer levels to the safe yield that we need," he said. Without safe water levels, residents worry the fire department won't have enough water in the hydrants. "And until we get to the point where we can safely meet that maximum demand, we hope and pray that people will understand," Etoniru said. To ensure that residents are abiding by the ban, officials from the water department will be periodically patrolling the area. Those in violation of the ban may receive a fine starting at $50.
Malay Mail
10 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Wheat turns battleground as Syria's worst drought in 60 years threatens 16 million
DAMASCUS, June 28 — Rival Syrian and Kurdish producers are scrambling for shrinking wheat harvests as the worst drought in decades follows a devastating war, pushing more than 16 million people toward food insecurity. 'The country has not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years,' said Haya Abu Assaf, assistant to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative in Syria. Syria's water levels have seen 'a very significant drop compared to previous years, which is very worrying', Abu Assaf told AFP, as a relatively short winter rainy season and decreased rainfall take their toll. 'A gap of between 2.5 to 2.7 million tonnes in the wheat crop is expected, meaning that the wheat quantity will not be sufficient to meet local needs,' Abu Assaf said, putting 'around 16.3 million people at risk of food insecurity in Syria this year'. Before the civil war erupted in 2011, Syria was self-sufficient in wheat, producing an average of 4.1 million tonnes annually. Nearly 14 years of conflict have since crippled production and devastated the economy. The FAO estimates that harsh weather has impacted nearly 2.5 million hectares of wheat-growing land. 'Around 75 per cent of the cultivated areas' have been affected, as well as 'natural pastures for livestock production', said Abu Assaf. Imports, competition To bridge the wheat gap, imports would be essential in a country where around 90 per cent of the population lives in poverty. Before his ouster in an Islamist-led offensive in December, Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad used to rely on ally Russia for wheat. In April, new authorities reported the first wheat shipment since his removal arrived in Latakia port, with more Russian shipments following. Iraq also donated more than 220,000 tonnes of wheat to Syria. During the war, Damascus competed with the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast to buy wheat from farmers across fertile lands. Last year, Assad's government priced wheat at US$350 (RM1,480) per tonne, and the Kurds at US$310. After Assad's ouster, Damascus and the Kurds agreed in March to integrate Kurdish-led institutions into the new Syrian state, with negotiations ongoing on implementation. Damascus set wheat prices this month at between US$290 and US$320 per tonne, depending on the quality, plus a US$130 bonus. The Kurdish-led administration offered US$420 per tonne including a US$70 bonus. 'Poverty and hunger' Damascus' agriculture ministry expects a harvest of 300,000 to 350,000 tonnes in government-controlled areas this year. Hassan Othman, director of the Syrian Grain Establishment, acknowledged Syria was not self-sufficient, in comments on state television. But he said authorities were working 'to ensure food security by importing wheat from abroad and milling it in our mills'. In northeast Syria's Amuda, farmer Jamshid Hassu, 65, inspected the tiny wheat grains from his fields, which cover around 200 hectares (around 500 acres). Despite heavy irrigation efforts to offset scarce rainfall, he said, production has halved. The FAO's Abu Assaf said indicators showed that 'about 95 per cent of rain-fed wheat has been damaged and affected', while irrigated wheat yields were down 30 to 40 per cent. Hassu, who has been farming for four decades, said he had to pump water from depths of more than 160 metres (525 feet) to sustain his crops as groundwater levels plunge. Agriculture remains a vital income source in rural Syria, but without urgent support, farmers face ruin. 'Without support, we will not be able to continue,' Hassu warned. 'People will suffer from poverty and hunger.' — AFP
Times
a day ago
- Business
- Times
Thirsty data centres are sucking up Britain's scarce water supplies
Britain's data centres are consuming close to ten billion litres of water a year at least as the country braces for widespread drought, The Times can reveal. Two regions are in drought, with more likely to follow, raising the possibility of summer hosepipe bans as rivers hit 'exceptionally' low levels, highlighting the squeeze on Britain's water supplies despite its rainy reputation. Yet there is no official estimate of how much water the nation's 450-plus data centres are using to keep their servers cool. The chairman of the Environment Agency (EA) has warned that England is heading for a national shortfall of five billion litres of water a day by 2055, more than a third of the 14 billion litres a day used now. But that is without factoring in the rapid rise of thirsty generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT. The British tech industry and the EA have been working in recent months to gauge water demand from data centres today and in years to come. Neither will publicly disclose a figure on data centres' water use. However, figures released under transparency laws suggest that water companies are already supplying at least almost ten billion litres a year to 231 data centres, the equivalent of 3,980 Olympic swimming pools. The snapshot, obtained by the technology campaign group, Foxglove, and The Times, suggests Thames Water is far and away the biggest supplier of water to data centres. About half of the UK's water companies were unable to provide figures to Foxglove, in part because data centres do not have to report their water usage. 'It is deeply alarming that over half our water companies have no clue how many data centres they supply, nor how much water they are hoovering up,' Donald Campbell, of Foxglove, said. This information void exists as the government eyes data centres as a totemic part of its economic growth plans. Labour has said AI will 'turbocharge' growth, with £39 billion committed for more data centres in the next five to ten years. Debate is also intensifying over the greater water demands of data centres running AI models. On June 10, Sam Altman, the OpenAI founder, mounted a defence of ChatGPT, saying an average user query required just one fifteenth of a teaspoon of water. So, what is the truth? Is the growth in data centres and AI a threat to Britain's water supplies, at a time when climate change is already increasing the risk of droughts? Most of the concern over data centres' environmental impact has focused on their energy use. Less understood is the impact of their water consumption. The Times's analysis has focused solely on water used directly for cooling the data centres themselves. While a small number are believed to use air cooling, most use water. The most water efficient are 'closed loop' systems, while the thirstiest are 'open loop' ones. The estimate of close to ten billion litres of water being used by about half of the UK's data centres is based on figures released under environmental information requests, The Times's conversations with individual water firms and, in the case of Thames Water, an unpublished report by the consultancy, Jacobs. The total is equivalent to the annual water use of 189,781 people, more than the population of Oxford. The tally is almost certainly a large underestimate. It covers only about half of the data centres and the figures for Thames Water are three years old. TechUK, the industry group, estimates there are 450 to 500 data centres in the UK. The group was unable to say what proportion uses each cooling technology. However, Luisa Cardani, TechUK's head of data centre programmes, said: 'Generally, you could argue that the newer data centres, especially when they are in water-constrained areas, will choose types of cooling like liquid cooling [closed loop] or direct to chip cooling [another approach] because it's more efficient.' Britain's data centres are mostly running servers powering websites, cloud storage and the latest hit series on Netflix. However, servers running AI models are much more water intensive. A study last year found ChatGPT uses four times as much water as previously thought. Some experts think the fears over water use are overwrought. Henry Shevlin, associate director at the University of Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, noted most things of economic value consume water, from agriculture to football matches, and data centres running AI models are neither an exception or an outlier. 'Is the juice worth the squeeze? To the extent that we do care about economic growth, we should be prioritising economic and resource-intensive activity in areas that are also going to give us big payoffs. Obviously AI has phenomenal potential here,' Shevlin said. Still, he said the tech industry should be more transparent about water use in Britain and the government could demand more openness. 'Revealing estimates of water usage and electricity usage are, let's be honest, they're not deep, sensitive corporate secrets,' he said. The result should be more water efficient data centres, Shevlin added. Anglian Water has even suggested data centres could be cooled with heavily treated effluent, known as recycled water, rather than water drawn from rivers and reservoirs. Growth in AI is 'likely to result in a large and rapid increase in the number of data centres in England', the Environment Agency said on June 17. The concern, it said, is many will be built by 2030, before new reservoirs and water transfers are complete. Britain's first new reservoir in more than three decades, Havant Thicket near Portsmouth, will not be full until 2031, for example. 'It is therefore critical that water availability is considered early in the planning stage [of data centres'], EA officials said. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, has recently overruled local councils to give the green light for building new data centres, once at Iver in Buckinghamshire last December and this May for one at Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire. Water industry sources believe new data centres in the next five years could need the same amount of water as 500,000 people. Thames Water said southeast England was already water-stressed and the region was earmarked for a large proportion of proposed new data centres. 'This brings a challenge between safeguarding our finite [water] resources while supporting the UK's growth strategy,' a Thames Water spokesman said. Water UK, the industry body, said: 'We need planning hurdles cleared so we can build reservoirs quickly'. An EA spokesman said: 'We are working with the technology sector to understand their needs, to help develop sustainable solutions.' Campbell said: 'Water companies and the government are walking into this future with a blindfold on. Ministers and water companies need to wake up — the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google must not be given carte blanche to drain our rivers and streams.'
Fast Company
a day ago
- Climate
- Fast Company
What is ‘precipitation whiplash'? The new accelerating, climate change weather danger
In recent decades, California residents have experienced a 'whiplash' of weather conditions. After a few years of severe drought, heavy rains came in early 2023 that soaked the state for weeks. That rain led to mudslides, which were worsened by the fact that years of drought had dried out the soil, so it couldn't absorb the rainfall. That rain also then led to an explosion of vegetation growth, which would dry out when the next drought period hit and fuel devastating wildfires. This rapid transition between wet and dry weather conditions is a hallmark of climate change, and it's also an accelerating climate threat. This phenomenon is called 'precipitation whiplashes,' and the forces that bring these drastic swings between drought and floods are speeding up. In a recent study, researchers say we could see an increase in precipitation whiplashes as early as 2028. What causes precipitation whiplashes? Weather systems are constantly swirling around our planet, like the Arctic polar vortex, a swath of cold, low-pressure air that sits at our planet's poles; or the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, a cyclical climate pattern that brings a change in winds and sea surface temperatures. Another one of these weather systems is called the Madden-Julian Oscillation, or MJO. It's a mass of clouds, rainfall, winds, and air pressure that passes over the tropics, moving eastwardly around the planet. Though it's above the tropics (and can bring events like tropical cyclones), it impacts weather around the world, including global rainfall patterns, atmospheric rivers, and more. The MJO circles the planet in periods of 30 to 90 days, and it includes two phases: a period of enhanced rainfall, and then a period of suppressed rainfall. But warming from greenhouse gases is speeding that cycle up, research has already found. In a new study from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers used advanced climate models to look more closely at how rising greenhouse gasses could exactly change the MJO's behavior. Those models predicted a 40% increase in 'fast-propagating MJO events' by the late 21st century, from 2064 to 2099, compared to historical data (1979–2014). But we'll start to see that frequency pick up as early as 2028, the researchers note. They also expect not only for this weather system to move faster, but for there to be an increased risk of 'jumping' MJOs—meaning an abrupt shift in the phases between precipitation—beginning before 2030, too. Why precipitation whiplash can be so dangerous 'More frequent fast and jumping MJO events are expected to trigger disruptive weather fluctuations worldwide,' the researchers write—like precipitation whiplash: rapid swings between really wet and really dry extremes. Researchers expect the precipitation impacts of these accelerated and jumping MJO events to be 'unprecedentedly severe.' Around the world, a few areas are expected to be hotspots for precipitation whiplash including central Africa, the Middle East, the lower part of the Yangtze River basin in China, the northern Amazon rainforest, the East Coast of the continental United States, and coastal Argentina, to name a few. These hotspots 'can result in various forms of cascading hazards,' the researchers write, 'that pose unprecedented stress to ecosystem services, existing infrastructure, water and food security, and human safety.' Those cascading hazards include events like what California has already witnessed: drought to rain to mudslides to vegetation growth to drought to wildfires. And as MJO events accelerate because of climate change, that will also 'significantly shorten response times against compound hazards,' study author Cheng Tat-Fan says in a statement, 'catching societies off guard unless adaptation measures are in place.' The impacts of precipitation whiplash, then, should be considered when it comes to future infrastructure, urban planning, and agricultural practices, the researchers say. Fortunately, these 'fast-propagating' MJOs can be a bit more predictable. But still, researchers need to improve their forecast models to better understand this weather behavior. If they do, and if they could then forecast these extremes four to five weeks in advance, that could improve disaster preparedness and save lives.
