Climate change threatens California water supply

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www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0936310120070509?feedType=RSS&rpc=22

California's tallest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, may lose nearly all its snowpack by the end of the century, threatening a water crisis in the nation's most populous state, a leading scientist and Nobel laureate said.

California could lose 30 percent to 70 percent of the snowpack to the ills of greenhouse gases and global warming, Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, told Reuters.

Climate change may lead to more severe drought and higher flood peaks that could mean the loss of one-fourth of the snowpack by 2050, according to California's Department of Water Resources.

Water officials are also worried by dry conditions in the Colorado River Basin. The river is a big source of water for Southern California but has had below-average precipitation for seven of the past eight years.

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www.sun-herald.com/Newsstory.cfm?pubdate=051107&story=tp4ch9.htm&folder=NewsArchive2

State strengthens water restrictions as drought worsens

South Florida residents and golf courses were placed under the region's most severe water restrictions on record Thursday, as officials try to cut use by up to 45 percent to offset unprecedented drought conditions.

''The seriousness of this drought and the public's role in cutting back cannot be overstated,'' said Carol Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District.

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Drought and negligence threaten Turkey’s lakes, rivers

Turkey has suffered a dramatic fall in the level of its potable
water supply in recent months, with the water level in dams dropping alarmingly low and major rivers and lakes -- particularly in central Anatolia -- beginning to dry up.

Experts say that unregulated irrigation, together with pollution and global warming, are to blame for the country's looming water shortage, which may pose threats both economic and natural. Officials are urging citizen s to take measures for water conservation in the hope of mitigating the effects of what increasingly appears to be a drought, perhaps a severe one.