Drought du jour, part one

The latest installment in Drought Watch might not be actually an issue of lack of water to drink, but a lack of fuel with which to pump said water. The island of Rotuma, a dependency of Fiji with a population of about 2,000, is out of fuel:

ROTUMA is again plagued with shortage of water because there is no fuel to operate pumps.

Speaking from the island yesterday, Samuela Kafoa said the last ship to visit to the island arrived there two weeks ago but since last week there had been no piped water on the island.

He said the island had run out of fuel.

“Yesterday the schools on the island had to be closed after lunch because there is no water,” he said.

Mr Kafoa said if the next ship did not bring fuel supplies soon, schools would have to remain closed.

The last time they had to approach an island council member to talk the to the interim regime before the island was re-supplied.

As more and more people become dependent on water sources that require large energy inputs, such as desalinization, I fear that this sort of issue will happen more and more often.