| | | A field in Ottawa County, Michigan. Salty groundwater has damaged some crops in the county. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons user Rachel Kramer |
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| Paul Sachs has a lot of explaining to do. As the director of the Ottawa County Planning and Performance Improvement Department, Sachs’s job is to inform residents, elected officials, and business leaders that, even though they sit next to one of the largest bodies of fresh water on the planet, the fast-growing Michigan county has a groundwater problem more reminiscent of the deserts of the American West than the Great Lakes region. |
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A young girl’s drowning in eastern South Africa this January aggravated existing frustrations over water supply in the parched nation. Residents of Mandela Park township, on the edge of QwaQwa municipality, have struggled for years with water shortages. Chronic mismanagement and recent drought have depleted local waterways, which are choked with sewage, algae, and debris. Residents, who periodically protest the shortages, are often forced to rely on emergency water deliveries. |
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What's Up With Water - February 17, 2020
For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud.
This week's episode features coverage on Australia, where water levels in Sydney’s main drinking water reservoir surged to 78 percent of capacity after a week of torrential rainfall in the state of New South Wales. Additional international coverage looks at Thailand, where a lack of water is weighing on the economy.
News in the United States, officials in two Great Lakes states who are considering ways to lighten the financial burden of high water bills on low-income families.
Finally, this week’s featured story from Circle of Blue looks at how North Carolina is dealing with water debt. You can listen to the latest edition of What's Up With Water, as well as all past editions, by downloading the podcasts on iTunes, following Circle of Blue on Spotify, following on iHeart Radio, and subscribing on SoundCloud. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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| | | A wheat field in southern Ottawa County. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons user Rachel Kramer |
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| The dry wells, not more than 15 miles from Lake Michigan, one of the largest bodies of fresh water on the planet, were the first alarm bells for Ottawa County. It happened a little over a decade ago, back in 2007, when wells supplying drinking water to new homes in the Highland Trail subdivision of Allendale Township started to sputter and then blink out. Allendale is in the north of Ottawa, which has been the fastest-growing county in Michigan since at least 2010. The expansion is propelled by proximity to Grand Rapids, the economic engine of western Michigan and one of the nation’s highest-growth metropolitan areas. |
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