Dieing Rivers?
Information and discussion purposes-

2012-
Tuesday, 31 July 2012 (3 days ago)

The Mississippi river is drying up and some shipping companies are worried that the drought of 1988 may be repeated, a time when the river dried up so much that barge traffic came to a standstill. In 1988 the shipping industry
http://www.onenewspage.com.au/n/World/74rc5lili/Mississippi-River-Is-Drying-Up-As-Massive-Drought.htm

Kansas
Snip-
The Ark stopped flowing at Great Bend a few days ago, Loving added.
Meanwhile, the Smoky Hill River near Ellsworth usually flows at 90 cfs in July. However, at 0.48 cfs, it is about to go dry, as well.
"It has only been dry once for a few hours," Loving said. "This summer, it is probably going to go completely dry — something that has never happened before in 100 years."
It didn't take long for word to spread of the current state of the North Fork of the Ninnescah River. It was the talk over coffee at the Carriage Crossing restaurant Tuesday morning, said Pretty Prairie rancher Marion Krehbiel.
Standing on the river bridge on Centennial Road, Krehbiel watched as the river flowed at a trickle not far from his farm. Tall green weeds cover the sandbars, which are now larger from the lack of water.
The drought isn't parching just the Ninnescah, he said. Fall crops like milo are baking from the triple-digit temperatures and no precipitation. With only half of the normal rainfall coming this spring and summer, his pasture grasses are hurting. He cut his cattle herd after last year's drought and he plans to wean his calves six weeks early because of the prolonged conditions.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/2ed54ff277874df4a92c116ce8888126/KS--Drought-Low-Rivers

England – snip-
"People are already starting to alter their cropping procedure. I was talking to a farmer at the end of last week who said he was going to plant 20% fewer root and vegetable crops. Snip-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17091256


2009-The Euphrates is drying up.
“There is no water!”
The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq’s neighbors, Turkey and Syria; a two-year drought; and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.
The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilization that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, has left fishermen impoverished and has depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.
The poor suffer more acutely, but all strata of society are feeling the effects: sheiks, diplomats and even members of Parliament who retreat to their farms after weeks in Baghdad.
Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned to baked dirt. Canals have dwindled to shallow streams, and fishing boats sit on dry land. Pumps meant to feed water treatment plants dangle pointlessly over brown puddles.
“The old men say it’s the worst they remember,” said Sayid Diyia, 34, a fisherman in Hindiya, sitting in a riverside cafe full of his idle colleagues. “I’m depending on God’s blessings.”
The drought is widespread in Iraq. The area sown with wheat and barley in the rain-fed north is down roughly 95 percent from the usual, and the date palm and citrus orchards of the east are parched. For two years rainfall has been far below normal, leaving the reservoirs dry, and American officials predict that wheat and barley output will be a little over half of what it was two years ago.snip-
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/world/middleeast/14euphrates.htm?_r=1