California and the American West are not the only places suffering from drouth — in fact , there are several places in the earth right now where overtaxed aquifers , knockout contamination , and want of rain are create utmost water insecurity for residents . In some places , water is so scarce that municipal supplying are being rationed or shut off completely .
Many of the droughts currently happening are thanks toEl Niño — unusually quick ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific . But even when the weather convention eventually transfer , they will not be able-bodied to turn decades of abuse and disregard of local water organization . A newNASA field released last weekrevealed that even some area flush with downfall are still running low on piss reserves underground . Here ’s a face at how five place are presently coping with drought — which might give some insight into what California will have to grapple with in its water hereafter .
Puerto Rico
Workers closing a valve to shut out down the pee supplying to part of metropolitan Puerto Rico as part of rationing . AP Photo / Ricardo Arduengo
The Caribbean is probably not the first place you ’d think of when it comes to water scarcity , but a lack of rain plus miserable base direction — plus asevere economical crisis — has stultify the island ’s fresh water second-stringer . It ’s so bad that citizens are now subject towater rationing , which begin in May : Some resident have their water thin out off every three 24-hour interval for 48 hour at a meter . sinewy amercement are levy upon water waster and the National Guard hasdistributed purification systemsto assist those in rural areas . Today it was announce thatrationing will be extended , with about 350,000 residents being hit with H2O restrictions . Water is also being ship in to the island .
India
54 percent of India is have high or exceedingly mellow weewee tension , according to theWRI ’s India Water Tool
Thesearing , deadly temperaturescities like Mumbai saw sooner this natural spring are only make matter bad for the country , which is present one of the big groundwater crises on the planet . A recent subject withdata collectedby NASA ’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment ( GRACE ) satellites revealed that Northern India is home to the mostquickly depleting aquifers on Earth . According to theWorld Resources Institute , it ’s large - shell irrigation practice which are to blame , with farmers draw out so much water for farming purposes that the aquifers could collapse , bankrupt the provision of potable water forever . With so much of the universe already without access to unobjectionable water due to far-flung pollution , the loss of groundwater sources could be ruinous .
Sao Paolo
People sway plastic bottles to fulfil up with water at a community of interests cubicle after their water system was close off . AP Photo / Andre Penner
Municipal piss shut - offs have also been a reality for the resident of this Brazilian city , which is one of the densest and most populous cities in the world . The worst drought in 80 geezerhood has been exacerbated by deforestation in the Amazon lavatory but that ’s only one part of the problem here : The body of water organisation is polluted and has horrendously leaky pipes ( and , of course , many are blaming the city ’s loser on the exorbitant costs oflast year ’s World Cup ) . The neighborhood ’s weewee arrangement was most depleted earlier this spring and functionary had to deform to emergency reserves , admonish resident they might “ need to flee . ” Now the city’selectrical grid could also be compromisedas much of the city ’s might swear on hydroelectric decameter which do n’t have high-pitched enough flow to power them .
North Korea
trope via NASA ’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer ( ASTER ) onboard its Terra satellite
North Korea is coping with a 100 - class drouth that has decimated one main origin of intellectual nourishment production : It’sreportingthat one - third of its rice paddies have dry out up . Malnourishment is already widespread in the country and people have died due to governance - controlled food rationing ; it ’s forecast that 2 to 3 million multitude in North Korea werekilled in the last famine . Although some are claiming that North Korea exaggerates these claims to get human-centered aid — its friend Iran has alreadyoffered to help — NASA captured these Landsat 7 images of North Korea from June 29 , 2002 ( left ) and June 26 , 2015 . Red is flora , and as you may see , there ’s a whole lot less of it now . Things in North Korea are bad enough . Now this ?
Top image : People praying for more pelting in the streets of Sao Paulo , Brazil . The augury at the center of the frame scan in Portuguese ; “ piss . Use religiously . ” AP Photo / Nelson Antoine

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