Water levels in the reservoir that supplies drinking water to most of Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, have fallen to just 9 percent of capacity and are below water supply pumps, Bloomberg News reported. The reservoir has been shrinking for the past two years, supplying one third of demand and prompting water rationing that cuts off water for as much as nine hours, three days each week.
Different approaches to regulating groundwater in Texas are creating tension between two conservation districts that share the same aquifer, Think Progress reported. At stake are the water supplies for two major, growing cities in the state—San Antonio and Austin—and there may not be enough water in the aquifer to satisfy both.
Groundwater withdrawals in the Mekong River Delta are causing the land to sink between 1 and 4 centimeters each year, according to researchers from Stanford University, Environmental Research Web reported. The sinking land is making the delta more vulnerable to flooding from both the Mekong River and the sea, which is also rising due to climate change.
The environment—and especially water quality—will likely be a key issue in the upcoming election for New Zealand’s prime minister, Bloomberg News reported. The debate between the current prime minister and the country’s Green Party centers on whether New Zealand will continue to pursue oil and dairy production in a way that pollutes water resources, or make changes that the leading National Party sees as detrimental to economic activity.