Texasโ plan to provide water for a growing population virtually ignores climate change
Texasโ biggest single solution to providing enough water for its soaring population in the coming decades is using more surface water, including about two dozen new large reservoirs. But climate change has made damming rivers a riskier bet.
The Odessa water outage underscores a growing problem: Aging pipes in Texas cities are getting more fragile
Texas had 3,866 water boil notices in 2021, the most in the last decade. Aging water systems threaten water supply and quality โ and for many small towns across the state, they wonโt be cheap to repair.
Tens of thousands of people in Odessa have endured nearly 48 hours without water to drink, wash or flush toilets
The outage left about 165,000 people without water in Odessa and some surrounding areas. It has been attributed to a main line break in the cityโs aging water system and comes amid a dayslong heat wave.
Rural Texas was meant to get 10% of state bonds for water projects. A report shows itโs getting less than 1%.
Rural Texas communities often donโt have the resources, technical experience, or ability to take on large amounts of debt to pursue state funds for water supply and quality projects. So, many simply donโt apply.