‘First meaningful rain for a long time’ is forecast but water firms continue to ask customers to restrict use
Floods and drought could hit the UK at the same time this week, with heavy rain forecast to fall on hard, parched soil.
While some parts of the UK will have the “first meaningful rain for a long time” in the coming days, it will not reverse widespread drought conditions that have put pressure on wildlife, farmers, firefighters and water resources.
Continue reading...PM steps up climate response with measures including better water access and support for building farm reservoirs
Farmers must not carry the risks of the climate crisis alone, Andy Burnham has said, as he announced £65m of funding to help them manage the devastating drought.
The prime minister is stepping up his response to the immediate climate crisis after facing a backlash from his own MPs and Labour’s grassroots for not addressing the climate crisis despite wildfires tearing through Britain and a drought affecting food producers. Labour MPs argued Burnham had taken too long to talk about the climate crisis and had not made it a priority.
Continue reading...Exclusive: England ‘desperately unprepared’ for effects of crisis including water shortages and heatwaves
Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within a key government department tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed.
The officials make up 0.3% of staff within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Continue reading...Levels at reservoir along Arizona-Nevada border dipped below previous record set in 2022, amid water crisis in west
Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has plummeted to its lowest water level since it was filled some 90 years ago, the latest sign of a deepening water crisis in the American west.
Water levels at the reservoir, which straddles the Arizona-Nevada border outside Las Vegas, hit 1,040.4ft (317.1 meters) above sea level on Friday, according to federal data. That’s just below the record set on 28 July 2022, according to the US Bureau of Reclamation.
Continue reading...Residents and farmers say contractors have tapped border aquifers that threaten water supply for those nearby
Construction crews building a border wall in New Mexico were ordered to stop drilling new wells after ranchers said that pumping groundwater to produce concrete could threaten their livestock amid a severe drought.
The order comes as crews across the southern border race to complete one of Donald Trump’s highest domestic priorities – barriers that span four states and received over $46bn in federal funding. Controversies have sprouted up in Texas and California, and border-town residents and environmentalists have reported a wide variety of issues with construction.
Continue reading...Climate scientist urges better planning as southern England had just 1% of long-term average rainfall last month
Half of England and the whole of Wales are officially in drought and July is set to be the driest month on record as extreme heat intensified by the climate crisis continues to grip the UK and Europe this summer.
The announcements this week by England’s Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales mark the third such event over the past five years, and come in the wake of four record-breaking heatwaves since May which have fuelled huge wildfires and left farmers, wildlife and protected habitats running out of water.
Continue reading...Council leaders say crumbling infrastructure and lack of water are jeopardising government’s plans for new homes
The government’s housebuilding agenda is hitting the stark reality of a lack of water and crumbling infrastructure across the east and south-east of England.
Half the country was declared to be in serious drought this week, for the second consecutive year, with the Environment Agency warning of dire consequences for the economy, environment and wildlife.
Continue reading...Labour politicians say mutualised model puts public in control without adding debt to government’s balance sheet
MPs and mayors close to Andy Burnham have told the prime minister there is a “third way” to gain more control of failing companies, as the row over whether or not to nationalise Thames Water rumbles on.
Burnham is said to be concerned about the increase in government debt that Treasury projections show could be a result of nationalising water companies.
Continue reading...Government move follows months of drought and crop failures in Karamoja, with 1.5m people facing malnutrition
Uganda has launched emergency food relief distribution after at least 19 deaths from hunger were reported in an area of prolonged drought in the east of the country.
A crisis has been building in the Karamoja region of Uganda as crops have failed without the season’s expected rains, leaving the region’s 1.5 million people facing acute food shortages and rising malnutrition.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Eight companies expect to be covered by the ban for 2025-26, the Guardian can reveal
Water company bosses’ total pay rose over the past year despite a government bonus ban and public outrage over pollution and bills, the Guardian can reveal.
One chief executive, Mark Thurston of Anglian Water, received £1.9m – including a £500,000 “retention payment”, despite the bonus ban.
Continue reading...Exclusive: £75m publicity drive will ask people to treat water as precious resource and cut daily use by 28 litres
The biggest ever campaign to encourage the public to reduce their water use will launch this week, as the UK emerges from record temperatures attributed to the climate crisis.
The £75m publicity drive, called Let’s Save Water, will advise and encourage people to treat water as a precious resource and has a target for everyone to cut their daily use by 28 litres – or two large buckets – from the current average use of about 140 litres a day.
Continue reading...LSE analysis highlights litigation linked to energy sources, water consumption and air pollution
The proliferation of datacentres and AI is increasingly at the forefront of environmental litigation around the world, from the US and UK to Chile to Ireland, a report has found.
In an analysis of about 3,600 climate-related lawsuits filed since 2015, the latest annual review of climate litigation by the London School of Economics (LSE) found a growing number of cases challenging the energy sources, water consumption and air pollution of datacentres, all of which have related climate implications.
Continue reading...Study warns AI datacenters are vulnerable to the climate hazards that their global greenhouse gas emissions bolster
Amid rising concern that the artificial intelligence boom is fueling the climate crisis, a new report has found that nearly 80% of datacenters are also exposed to extreme climate hazards, including flooding, extreme winds and wildfires.
Those impacts are leaving the infrastructure vulnerable to disrupted operations, increased time offline and inflated insurance and repair costs, the research from climate risk analytics firm First Street shows.
Continue reading...Marnie Lovejoy hopes to inspire other women to fish, protect England’s rivers and lift up the ‘beautiful’ grayling
With its iridescent pink scales and elegant dorsal fin, the grayling is known to anglers as the “lady of the stream”, yet the society fighting for its protection has never been led by a woman, until now.
Angling, and fly-fishing in particular, has always been a very male-dominated sport. The fly-fisher’s club in Mayfair, London, where anglers meet to lunch on dover sole and drink fine wine, did not allow women to cross the threshold even as guests until 2024.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labour’s Makerfield byelection candidate advocates public ownership of water companies as he prepares for potential leadership bid
Thames Water should be nationalised, Andy Burnham has said, revealing public ownership of water companies would “absolutely be an option” under his potential leadership of the Labour party.
Burnham, Labour’s candidate in the Makerfield byelection, has previously called for “greater public control” over the companies. In an interview with the Guardian, he has confirmed this could mean nationalisation.
Continue reading...Without urgent intervention England faces water shortages of 5bn litres a day by 2055, peers tell government
Rainwater harvesting, the use of grey water in homes and an urgent campaign to reduce water usage across society are vital to prevent water shortages of 5bn litres a day by 2055, the government has been told.
Without intervention, England will face severe water shortages in the coming decades, as climate change-induced weather patterns, population growth and the expansion of industries such as water-intensive datacentres put excessive demand on supplies and endanger life, according to a House of Lords report published on Thursday.
Changes to building regulations to require new homes to achieve a maximum water usage of 105 litres a person a day and accelerated grey water reuse.
Nature-based solutions such as restoring peat bogs and reconnecting rivers to their natural flood plains to enhance water retention.
An urgent awareness campaign for the whole of society to reduce water usage.
A full environmental and economic assessment of drought to weigh the cost of inaction against the value of resilience.
The rolling out of nature-based solutions more widely in urban and rural settings.
Continue reading...Water minister Rose Jackson calls drying in Gwydir region ‘devastating’ as bill passes upper house
Water flows to parched New South Wales wetlands where an urgent rescue mission to save dying wildlife unfolded are a step closer to resuming after legislation passed the state parliament’s upper house.
The water minister, Rose Jackson, told the parliament on Thursday night the impact of a halt to environmental flows in the internationally significant Gwydir region had been “devastating” as she introduced legislative amendments she said would allow flows to resume.
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Continue reading...Powerful radar system is providing new data on city’s subsidence, which experts hope will draw more attention to it
Walking into Mexico City’s sprawling central Zócalo is a dizzying experience. At one end of the plaza, the capital’s cathedral, with its soaring spires, slumps in one direction. An attached church, known as the Metropolitan Sanctuary, tilts in the other. The nearby National Palace also seems off-kilter.
The teetering of many of the capital’s historic buildings is the most visible sign of a phenomenon that has been ongoing for more than a century: Mexico City is sinking at an alarming rate.
Continue reading...Tent where twins were born up to a 15-minute walk away from nearest public toilets or running water
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The tent where a newborn baby was found dead at Wagga beach at the weekend was part of a homeless encampment up to a 15-minute walk away from the nearest public toilets or running water, with residents in a nearby apartment block saying conditions were “worse than a Syrian war camp”.
The tragedy has prompted fury in the community, with residents of Wagga Wagga calling on authorities to take urgent action to make the encampments safe and sanitary.
Continue reading...NSW and Queensland governments ‘severely underdelivered’ on promised infrastructure to improve water flows, independent review finds
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Two state governments have drastically underdelivered more than $160m in infrastructure measures to improve river health in the northern Murray-Darling basin eight years since they were promised, a major independent review has found.
This includes failure by the New South Wales government to secure any of the private land access needed to improve water flows over floodplains in the state’s Gwydir region, where scientists had to scramble to rescue turtles in dried up wetlands last week.
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