Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control
In 2024, the U.S. Northeast faced severe drought, prompting lessons on water management from cities like Cape Town and São Paulo. Proactive conservation and planning can mitigate future crises.
Water scarcity is often viewed as an issue for the arid American West, but the U.S. Northeast’s experience in 2024 shows how severe droughts can occur in just about any part of the country.
Cities in the Northeast experienced record-breaking drought conditions in the second half of 2024 after a hot, dry summer in many areas. Wildfires broke out in several states that rarely see them.
Before the drought, many people in the region weren’t prepared for water shortages or even paying much attention to their water use.
As global temperatures rise, cities throughout the U.S. are more likely to experience hotter, drier conditions like this. Those conditions increase evaporation, drying out vegetation and soil and lowering groundwater tables.
The Northeast drought was easing in much of the region in early 2025, but communities across the U.S. should take note of what happened. They can learn from the experiences of cities that have had to confront major water supply crises – such as Cape Town, South Africa; São Paulo, Brazil; Melbourne, Australia; Las Vegas; and New Orleans – and start planning now to avoid the worst impacts of future droughts.
Lessons from cities that have seen the worst
Our new analysis of these five cities’ experiences provides lessons on how to avoid a water supply crisis or minimize the effects through proactive policies and planning.
Many cities have had to confront major water supply crises in recent years. Perhaps the most well-known example is Cape Town’s “Day Zero.”
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After three years of persistent drought in the region, Cape Town officials in fall 2017 began a countdown to Day Zero – the point at which water supplies would likely run so low that water would be turned off in neighborhoods and residents would need to fetch a daily allocation of water at public distribution points. Initially it was forecast to occur in April 2018.
Residents in Cape Town, South Africa, line up to fill water jugs during a severe drought in 2018. AP Photo/Bram Janssen
Water rates were raised, and some households installed flow restrictors, which would automatically limit the amount of water that could be used. Public awareness and conservation efforts cut water consumption in half, allowing the city to push back its estimate for when Day Zero would arrive. And when the rains finally came in summer 2018, Day Zero was canceled.
A second example is São Paulo, which similarly experienced a severe drought between 2013 and 2015. The city’s reservoirs were reduced to just 5% of their capacity, and the water utility reduced the pressure in the water system to limit water use by residents.
Water pricing adjustments were used to penalize high water users and reward water conservation, and a citywide campaign sought to increase awareness and encourage conservation. As in Cape Town, the crisis ended with heavy rains in 2016. Significant investments have since been made in upgrading the city’s water distribution infrastructure, preventing leaks and bringing water to the city from other river basins.
Planning ahead can reduce the harm
The experiences of Cape Town and São Paulo – and the other cities in our study – show how water supply crises can affect communities.
When major changes are made to reduce water consumption, they can affect people’s daily lives and pocketbooks. Rapidly designed conservation efforts can have harmful effects on poor and vulnerable communities that may have fewer alternatives in the event of restrictions or shutoffs or lack the ability to pay higher prices for water, forcing tough choices for households between water and other necessities.
Planning ahead allows for more thoughtful policy design.
Lake Mead, a huge reservoir on the Colorado River that Las Vegas relies on for water, reached record low levels in 2022. AP Photo/John Locher
Since 2023, the Las Vegas Valley Water District has implemented water rates that encourage conservation and can vary with the availability of water supplies during droughts. In its first year alone, the policy saved 3 billion gallons of water and generated US$31 million in fees that can be used by programs to detect and repair leaks, among other conservation efforts. A state law now requires businesses and homeowner associations in the Las Vegas Valley to remove their decorative grass by the end of 2026.
Since 2002, per capita water use in Las Vegas has dropped by an impressive 58%.
Solutions and strategies for the future
Most of the cities we studied incorporated a variety of approaches to building water security and drought-proofing their community – from publishing real-time dashboards showing water use and availability in Cape Town to investing in desalination in Melbourne.
But we found the most important changes came from community members committing to and supporting efforts to conserve water and invest in water security, such as reducing lawn watering.
Prioritizing green infrastructure, such as retention ponds and bioswales, that help absorb rain when it does fall and investing in water recycling can also diversify water supplies.
Taking these steps now, ahead of the next drought, can prepare cities and lessen the pain.
The once red-hot U.S. residential solar market is showing signs of cooling off—but don’t count it out just yet. A combination of rising interest rates, regulatory changes, and supply chain challenges have led to a notable dip in installations across the country. But while the short-term trend suggests a slowdown, industry experts remain optimistic about the long-term potential of rooftop solar.
📉 The Numbers Don’t Lie: Installations Are Down
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, residential solar installations dropped by 13% year-over-year in Q1 2025, with 1,106 megawatts (MW) installed nationwide. That’s also a 4% decline from the previous quarter. This marks a continuation of the trend that began in 2024, which saw the residential sector contract in 22 states—including a five-year low in California [^1].
Analysts at BloombergNEF predict that total U.S. solar capacity will fall by 7% between 2025 and 2027, with a projected 1% annual decline through 2035 under current policy scenarios [^2].
🧾 What’s Behind the Drop?
1. Higher Interest Rates
The Federal Reserve’s continued efforts to tame inflation have made financing solar systems more expensive for homeowners. The result? Fewer consumers are willing to commit to the upfront investment, even with long-term savings in play [^3].
2. Policy Shifts in Key States
California, long considered the leader in solar adoption, rolled back its Net Energy Metering (NEM) 2.0 program in favor of NEM 3.0, which significantly reduces the value of solar exports back to the grid. Installations in the state fell sharply as a result [^1].
On the federal side, proposed cuts to the 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC)—a major driver of residential adoption—have caused uncertainty in the market. According to Reuters, solar stocks plummeted following changes in a Senate tax bill that threatened to shrink or eliminate these credits [^4].
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3. Tariffs and Supply Constraints
Tariffs on Chinese and other foreign-made solar panels have led to price increases and reduced availability. Simultaneously, battery storage components are experiencing shortages, further delaying installations and complicating project timelines [^5].
🌤 The Long-Term Picture: A Resilient Future
Despite the headwinds, many in the industry see this as a short-term correction rather than a lasting decline. SEIA projects a return to 9% annual residential growth from 2025 to 2030, particularly if financing conditions improve and federal incentives remain intact [^1].
Additionally, solar panel prices remain historically low, hovering around $2.50–$2.60 per watt installed. That affordability, coupled with increasing demand for home electrification and EV charging solutions, makes rooftop solar an attractive long-term investment [^1].
In a recent industry survey, 78% of solar installers said they expect to sell as much or more in 2025 than they did in 2024 [^3]. And while the market is down in states like California, others—including Texas, Florida, and Arizona—are continuing to grow.
✅ Final Takeaway
Yes, residential solar is currently in a downturn. But it’s more of a recalibration than a collapse. Regulatory turbulence and financial pressures are squeezing the market, but the fundamentals—affordability, environmental benefits, and technological advancement—remain strong.
The future of residential solar will depend heavily on stable policy support, affordable financing, and continued innovation. If those stars align, the industry could see another boom in the latter half of the decade.
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📚 Sources
[^1]: SEIA/Wood Mackenzie. U.S. Solar Market Insight Q1 2025.
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
This screenshot of an AI-generated video depicts Christopher Pelkey, who was killed in 2021.
Screenshot: Stacey Wales/YouTubeNir Eisikovits, UMass Boston and Daniel J. Feldman, UMass Boston
Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road range incident in 2021. On May 8, 2025, at the sentencing hearing for his killer, an AI video reconstruction of Pelkey delivered a victim impact statement. The trial judge reported being deeply moved by this performance and issued the maximum sentence for manslaughter.
As part of the ceremonies to mark Israel’s 77th year of independence on April 30, 2025, officials had planned to host a concert featuring four iconic Israeli singers. All four had died years earlier. The plan was to conjure them using AI-generated sound and video. The dead performers were supposed to sing alongside Yardena Arazi, a famous and still very much alive artist. In the end Arazi pulled out, citing the political atmosphere, and the event didn’t happen.
In April, the BBC created a deep-fake version of the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie to teach a “maestro course on writing.” Fake Agatha would instruct aspiring murder mystery authors and “inspire” their “writing journey.”
The use of artificial intelligence to “reanimate” the dead for a variety of purposes is quickly gaining traction. Over the past few years, we’ve been studying the moral implications of AI at the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and we find these AI reanimations to be morally problematic.
Before we address the moral challenges the technology raises, it’s important to distinguish AI reanimations, or deepfakes, from so-called griefbots. Griefbots are chatbots trained on large swaths of data the dead leave behind – social media posts, texts, emails, videos. These chatbots mimic how the departed used to communicate and are meant to make life easier for surviving relations. The deepfakes we are discussing here have other aims; they are meant to promote legal, political and educational causes.
Chris Pelkey was shot and killed in 2021. This AI ‘reanimation’ of him was presented in court as a victim impact statement.
Moral quandaries
The first moral quandary the technology raises has to do with consent: Would the deceased have agreed to do what their likeness is doing? Would the dead Israeli singers have wanted to sing at an Independence ceremony organized by the nation’s current government? Would Pelkey, the road-rage victim, be comfortable with the script his family wrote for his avatar to recite? What would Christie think about her AI double teaching that class?
The answers to these questions can only be deduced circumstantially – from examining the kinds of things the dead did and the views they expressed when alive. And one could ask if the answers even matter. If those in charge of the estates agree to the reanimations, isn’t the question settled? After all, such trustees are the legal representatives of the departed.
But putting aside the question of consent, a more fundamental question remains.
What do these reanimations do to the legacy and reputation of the dead? Doesn’t their reputation depend, to some extent, on the scarcity of appearance, on the fact that the dead can’t show up anymore? Dying can have a salutary effect on the reputation of prominent people; it was good for John F. Kennedy, and it was good for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The fifth-century B.C. Athenian leader Pericles understood this well. In his famous Funeral Oration, delivered at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War, he asserts that a noble death can elevate one’s reputation and wash away their petty misdeeds. That is because the dead are beyond reach and their mystique grows postmortem. “Even extreme virtue will scarcely win you a reputation equal to” that of the dead, he insists.
Do AI reanimations devalue the currency of the dead by forcing them to keep popping up? Do they cheapen and destabilize their reputation by having them comment on events that happened long after their demise?
In addition, these AI representations can be a powerful tool to influence audiences for political or legal purposes. Bringing back a popular dead singer to legitimize a political event and reanimating a dead victim to offer testimony are acts intended to sway an audience’s judgment.
It’s one thing to channel a Churchill or a Roosevelt during a political speech by quoting them or even trying to sound like them. It’s another thing to have “them” speak alongside you. The potential of harnessing nostalgia is supercharged by this technology. Imagine, for example, what the Soviets, who literally worshipped Lenin’s dead body, would have done with a deep fake of their old icon.
Good intentions
You could argue that because these reanimations are uniquely engaging, they can be used for virtuous purposes. Consider a reanimated Martin Luther King Jr., speaking to our currently polarized and divided nation, urging moderation and unity. Wouldn’t that be grand? Or what about a reanimated Mordechai Anielewicz, the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, speaking at the trial of a Holocaust denier like David Irving?
But do we know what MLK would have thought about our current political divisions? Do we know what Anielewicz would have thought about restrictions on pernicious speech? Does bravely campaigning for civil rights mean we should call upon the digital ghost of King to comment on the impact of populism? Does fearlessly fighting the Nazis mean we should dredge up the AI shadow of an old hero to comment on free speech in the digital age?
No one can know with certainty what Martin Luther King Jr. would say about today’s society.AP Photo/Chick Harrity
Even if the political projects these AI avatars served were consistent with the deceased’s views, the problem of manipulation – of using the psychological power of deepfakes to appeal to emotions – remains.
But what about enlisting AI Agatha Christie to teach a writing class? Deep fakes may indeed have salutary uses in educational settings. The likeness of Christie could make students more enthusiastic about writing. Fake Aristotle could improve the chances that students engage with his austere Nicomachean Ethics. AI Einstein could help those who want to study physics get their heads around general relativity.
But producing these fakes comes with a great deal of responsibility. After all, given how engaging they can be, it’s possible that the interactions with these representations will be all that students pay attention to, rather than serving as a gateway to exploring the subject further.
Living on in the living
In a poem written in memory of W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden tells us that, after the poet’s death, Yeats “became his admirers.” His memory was now “scattered among a hundred cities,” and his work subject to endless interpretation: “the words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living.”
The dead live on in the many ways we reinterpret their words and works. Auden did that to Yeats, and we’re doing it to Auden right here. That’s how people stay in touch with those who are gone. In the end, we believe that using technological prowess to concretely bring them back disrespects them and, perhaps more importantly, is an act of disrespect to ourselves – to our capacity to abstract, think and imagine.
Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Applied Ethics Center, UMass Boston and Daniel J. Feldman, Senior Research Fellow, Applied Ethics Center, UMass Boston
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
The culinary world is reeling from the sudden and tragic loss of beloved chef and television personality Anne Burrell, who was found dead in her Brooklyn, New York, home on the morning of Tuesday, June 17. She was 55 years old.
According to a statement from the New York City Police Department, officers from the 76th Precinct responded around 7:50 a.m. to a report of “an unconscious and unresponsive 55-year-old female.” Emergency medical services arrived shortly after and pronounced her dead at the scene. While police did not formally release her name pending family notification, public records and the address provided in the police statement confirm that the residence belongs to Burrell.
A cause of death has not yet been determined. The city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to clarify the circumstances surrounding her passing.
Burrell’s representatives confirmed the heartbreaking news in a release obtained by People magazine, marking a devastating moment for fans, friends, and fellow chefs who admired her bold personality, bright red hair, and fierce culinary skills.
Best known for her work on Food Network shows like Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Worst Cooks in America, and Iron Chef America, Burrell was a standout in the food television landscape. A classically trained chef and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, she blended expertise with an infectious enthusiasm that made her a favorite among viewers and a mentor to many aspiring cooks.
Tributes from across the food and entertainment communities have begun pouring in as the industry mourns the loss of one of its brightest and most unique stars. More details are expected in the coming days as the investigation continues and the autopsy results are released.
Anne Burrell’s legacy will live on through the meals she inspired, the careers she helped shape, and the joy she brought to countless kitchens around the world.
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
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