The symptoms are here: multiyear droughts, large-scale crop failures, a major city—Cape Town—on the verge of going dry, increasing outbreaks of violence, fears of full-scale water wars. The big question: How do we keep the water flowing?

A dispatch from Cape Town, where surprising things can happen when it feels like the world is about to end.

In the middle of a new drought, looking back at a drowned California town.

It takes a gallon of water to grow a single almond. Yet in drought-ravaged California, hedge funds are racing to plant as many new trees as they can.

The water’s nearly gone in the San Joaquin Valley, and an old farmer sees the writing on the wall.

Scenes from the California drought.

How greed is sucking Texas dry.

The California Dream is made possible by old water and big water. Unfortunately, the former doesn’t care about us, and the latter’s running dry.