Panama Canal cancels Niño-related restriction

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced Friday it had canceled plans to restrict the passage of ships above a certain size through the canal.

Panama Canal to limit ship size due to drought

The Panama Canal Authority says it will temporarily cut the size of ships allowed through because of drought caused by El Nino.

China's largest inland saltwater lake expands

The surface area of China's largest inland saltwater lake has expanded over the past decade, as rainfall increases and temperatures rise, northwest China's Qinghai provincial weather bureau said Tuesday.

Cleaning up China's big rivers

The health of China's rivers is due for a thorough examination, as an action plan for pollution control goes on stream.

A State Council plan on water pollution, released on Thursday, aims to reduce pollutants and protect resources through new, strictly quantifiable targets.

Lake shrinks by third. (The sharp fall of the lake's water level will affect shipping and fishing as well as nearby residents' water supply)

China's largest freshwater lake, Poyang, has shrunk by one third over the last three days due to a reduced water supply from the Yangtze River and little rainfall.

At 8 am Wednesday, the lake's surface area was 1,490 square kilometers, a reduction of 679 square kilometers compared with 2,169 square kilometers on Monday, said the Jiangxi Provincial Hydrological Bureau on Wednesday. 

The water level at the Xingzi hydrological station was 11.99 meters at 4 pm Wednesday, 2.13 meters lower than the average level recorded in recent years. The water level is falling by 30 centimeters every day.

Water quality excellent at most of Europe’s bathing sites

European Commission, Press release, Brussels, 27 May 2014:

The water at Europe’s beaches, rivers and lakes was generally of high quality in 2013, with more than 95 % of these sites meeting minimum requirements. Coastal performed slightly better than inland bathing waters, the data shows.

All the bathing sites in Cyprus and Luxembourg were deemed ‘excellent’. These countries were followed by Malta (99 % excellent), Croatia (95 %) and Greece (93 %). At the other end of the scale, European Union Member States with the highest proportion of sites with a ‘poor’ status were Estonia (6 %), the Netherlands (5 %), Belgium (4 %), France (3 %), Spain (3 %) and Ireland (3 %).

NASA rover discovers lake on Mars

Curiosity rover that was launched by NASA came up with another discovery. A lake on Mars with water that seems like drinkable was found and it might even be suitable for simple forms of life.
It was known before that Mars was a planet more like Earth once before and it didn’t look like a desert as it looks right now. Rover found the evidence to that, holes full of water that perhaps is what is left out of the lake after millions of years.

Northernmost Lake Resurrected Due to Warming

Kate Andries

National Geographic News

Published October 17, 2012

The world's northernmost lake, situated near the coast of Greenland (map), is coming back to life.
Populations of microscopic algae, called diatoms, have been absent from the lake Kaffeklubben Sø for over 2,000 years. But a new study has found that the diatoms are returning, thanks to global warming...........Northernmost Lake Resurrected Due to Warming