Sharjah24 – AFP: Summer has not even begun and Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California that provides drinking water to more than 25 million people, is at less than half of its average capacity at this time of year.
It is a worrying indication of the worsening drought conditions in the northern part of the Golden State.
Since May 10, California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency linked to drought in more than 40 counties. Conditions in Butte County, where Lake Oroville is located, are already seen as "extreme," the highest level.
And the situation -- exacerbated by the effects of climate change across the western United States -- is not expected to improve before the rains return in five or six months.
Many of them recalled how in 2017, they had to evacuate because torrential rains had prompted authorities to fear that the dam would break under the pressure. Not even five years later, the situation has shifted dramatically.
- Evaporating snow -
Lake Oroville, built in the 1960s at the confluence of three rivers, is the key component of California's State Water Project, a massive network of reservoirs, aqueducts and pipelines bringing water from the northern part of the state to the south, which has a higher population and a far drier climate.
On average, Northern California gets two-thirds of the state's total precipitation, but this year has been particularly bad.
On April 1, which traditionally marks the end of snowfall in the state, snow reserves in the Sierra Nevada mountains -- source for about a third of the water used in California -- stood at only about 60 percent of the average.
The waters contained by Oroville Dam, the tallest in the United States at 770 feet (235 meters), will not dry up that quickly, but at the end of the so-called dry season the lake is expected to be at its lowest level recorded since September 1977.
- Fears of forest fires -
After two years with very little precipitation, and with no assurances that upcoming seasons will be any better, water restrictions are the next step.
The California Department of Water Resources, which runs the State Water Project, has warned that it risks being unable to provide more than five percent of requested supplies this year.
The owners of dozens of boats moored on Lake Oroville were forced this week to put the vessels in dry dock, or risk seeing them run aground and be damaged.
Another serious consequence of the drought: the increased risk of wildfires, which is particularly worrying for authorities in a region that has been repeatedly devastated in recent years by massive forest blazes.
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