Who needs rice when you can grow money on water?

N. California Farmers Skip Planting to Sell Water To LA at $700 Per Acre Foot

Northern California farmers are leaving their fields fallow this year to cash in on their water rights at  $700 per acre foot, said a report.

[An acre-foot is about 1,233.5 cubic meters. —Editor.]

They’re selling their rights to Los Angeles County at a new price that is twice what southern California authorities paid for their water in 2010.

In 2014, rice farmers received $500 per acre foot of water. This year the stakes are even higher because water replaces rice as their cash crop.

“We’re going to make a lot more selling the water than planting the rice,” a farmer north of Sacramento told NBC News. “This is a huge deal.”

Some farmers are concerned that the water may simply be taken away from them.

“In the long term, if we don’t make it available we’re afraid they’ll just take it,” said a fourth generation rice farmer with senior rights to Yuba River water, said the report.

“It’s much more than we ever expected to get. But at the same time, that just shows the desperation of the people that need it,” he said.

He and his fellow farmers are selling 20 percent of their allotment to Los Angeles’s Metropolitan Water District, which provides water from Los Angeles to San Diego County.

California experienced its driest January in recorded history (record-keeping began in 1895), as groundwater and snowpack levels fell to record lows.

A state of emergency proclaimed by Gov. Brown in January remains in effect, as Califonia enters its fourth year of severe drought.

Meantime, the Governor and other senior state officials were expected to announce Emergency Drought Legislation later Thursday, March 19, 2015.

“Taking action to further strengthen water conservation in the state, the State Water Resources Control Board yesterday voted to expand and extend an emergency regulation to prohibit certain water use, such as washing down sidewalks, and create a minimum standard for outdoor irrigation restrictions by urban water suppliers,” said the governor’s office.

‘Worst Drought in 30 Years’ Paralyzing Nicaragua

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC HAZARDS
RISING TEMPERATURES
EXTREME DROUGHT
SCENARIOS 900,  555, 444, 111, 100, 03, 02
.

Nicaragua Facing Worst Drought in Decades

Nicaragua is experiencing its worst drought in 3 decades, according to the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INET).

The agency predicts that the drought will continue through October, with the losses estimated at 1.1 billion bushels of corn, 100,000 bushels of peanuts and more than one million tons of rice during the 2014 – 2015 crop year.

Nicaragua has received very little rain during the the current rainy season which began in May, according to a report.

In July, both local rain gauges and satellite estimated rainfall anomalies show fairly large moisture deficits ranging between 5 to 50 percent of normal across central Guatemala, southern Honduras, El Salvador, and western Nicaragua. Much of this dryness is in addition to the drought conditions that developed over west-central Nicaragua, and has already resulted in failed and wilted crops over many local areas. Long-term vegetation indices also reflect poor moisture conditions over much Nicaragua, with recently declining vegetation conditions over the past several weeks in parts of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The continued suppression of late-season Primera rainfall will likely result in reduced seasonal crop yields over many local areas of Central America. —CPC/NOAA

No Money, No Water!

FAILING ECONOMIC, POLITICAL & SOCIAL  SYSTEMS
MUNICIPAL BANKRUPTCY
UNEMPLOYMENT
POVERTY
CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE
COLLAPSE
SCENARIOS 244, 109, 049, 047, 031, 028, 02
.

Detroit Denying Water and Sewerage to ½ Million Citizens

Officials at the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) have cut off service to 7,556 customers in April and May and are now speeding up the service denial to as many as 3,000 delinquent accounts per week.

“That the water department’s shutoff policy is uncompromising, making no exceptions for households with infant children, elderly or disabled residents, said a report.

Detroit!

About 40% of Detroiters live in poverty. Some 83% of population are black, and the reported unemployment rate is edging close to 15%.

“Assisting low-income residents with paying their water bills would help avert a public health crisis,” U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit), said in a letter to Obama Thursday, while asking Health and Human Services Secretary to declare a public health emergency, calling the shutoff campaign “draconian.” Said the report.

“Regardless of the rationale for these cutoffs, the human consequences are unacceptable and unsustainable,” said Conyers on Friday.

“Last week, the Detroit City Council approved an 8.7% increase in the water rate, contributing to a total increase of 119% over the last decade,” Conyers said.

“As roughly half the city is now eligible for shutoffs, we believe that immediate action is necessary to stem the consequences of this counterproductive and coldhearted policy,” he said.

“It is utterly unacceptable to put the most vulnerable members of our population through severe hardship, utilizing a method that clearly violates their basic human rights, as a collection practice.”

United Nations

Detroit: Disconnecting water from people who cannot pay – an affront to human rights, say UN experts

“Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights.”

Related Links

• Purpose of Business to Enrich Lives? August 3, 2013
• Detroit’s long-term liabilities exceed $14 billion February 21, 2013
• Lawmakers consider dissolving Detroit as bankruptcy looms December 1, 2012

• Dissolving Detroit! December 1, 2012
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

 

A Few Extreme Events Away

Our world is a few extreme events away from total catastrophe

India

Widespread flooding caused by extreme monsoon rains has claimed about 100 lives in east and northeast India and left up to a million people homeless. As many as five million people are affected.

Philippines

As Typhoon Fengshen with gusts of of about 200kph lashed across the Philippines, flash floods and landslides killed about 155 people in south of the country. Dozens of people drowned, some of them buried alive after a landslide at a municipal garbage dump.

Meanwhile a 24,000-ton passenger and cargo ferry capsized off central Sibuyan island, with 626 passengers and 121 crew. Only 4 bodies have so far been found.

Guatemala

Large landslides caused by torrential rains have killed up to 10 people and injured others scavenging at a garbage dump near the Guatemalan capital.

California

An “unprecedented” lightening storm sparked about 840 fires in Northern Calif destroying dozens of homes and forcing thousands of residents to flee the area. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the Calif National Guard to assist the firefighters.

Mars

Meanwhile, as climate change melts the arctic ice mush faster than most scientist had anticipated, NASA reported that the Phoenix Lander has discovered ice on the surface of Mars, near its arctic circle [where else !] The discovery of ice/water on Mars is a key step in establishing whether life has ever existed on the red planet.

It really makes a whole lot of sense worrying about life on Mars as life becomes extinct on Earth! Right?

Related Links:

• Floods
• China “Frankenstein”
• Midwest Flood Victims Feel Misled by Feds
• More levees at risk from surging Mississippi as Bush tours flood areas

• I’m a War President, Not a Weatherman!

• Drought (Index Page)
• In Spain, Water Is a New Battleground
• California ‘Mojavefied’ by 2011?
  

• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

mars

Bangladesh coastal population threatend by sea level rise

Country in Focus: Bangladesh

Satellite image of Bangladesh (Photo credit NASA)

Geography

• Land Area: 136,000 km² (US comparative: slightly smaller than Iowa)
  [Global rank by area: 94th]
• Water 10,325 km²
• Coastline: 580 km

Elevation extremes

• Lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
• Highest point: Peak, the Mowdok range, 1052m

Most of the country is situated on deltas of large rivers flowing from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty into the Bay of Bengal (Source: CIA, The World Factbook)

Land use

• Arable land: 55.39%
• Permanent crops: 3.08%
• Other: 41.53% (2005)

Map of Bangladesh (Source: CIA, The World Factbook)

Population

• 2007 Estimate: 150,448,340
  [Global Rank by population: 7th]
• Density: 1106/km²
  [Global Rank by population: 11th]
• The population of Bangladesh rose from 75 million in 1971, to more than 150 million in 2007.
• The population is still growing at an annual rate of about 2 percent.

Environmental issues
many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; water-borne diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion; deforestation; severe overpopulation (Source: CIA, The World Factbook)

• About 10 million people are threatened by annual floods and storms.
• About 4,500 people were killed and at least two million were made homeless homeless as a result of two massive floods and a cyclone in 2007.
• Extreme climate events destroyed about 2 million tonnes of rice, the country’s main staple, in 2007.

Ganges River Delta, Bangladesh and India (Image: NASA)

Bangladesh is threatened by

• Climate Change
• Rising population
• Shrinking farmland

3/4 of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, under water (2004)
Bangladeshi Children and adults move through flood stricken areas.
[Photo Credit: University of Alabama]

Related Links:

• Sea level rise in Bangladesh threatens coastal population
• Photo Flood 2000 (15 images)
• Flood 98 – Bangladesh – Photo Gallery (57 images)
• Floods in Bangladesh photo gallery (UNICEF UK)
• In pictures: South Asia flood chaos
• Photo Gallery: Bangladesh