It’s hardly a question of whether the water will run out for one town on the Kansas-Oklahoma border. It’s a matter of when. The stubborn drought that has hung over southeast Kansas for close to two years has brought Caney, a town of less than 2,000 people, within weeks of reaching the end of its water supply. Without rain, Caney could run dry by Christmas. “This is the worst it’s been since any of us have been alive,” said City Manager Kelley Zellner. Signs of the crisis are everywhere. At Eggbert’s, a diner at the edge of town, the price of bottled water is listed with the restaurant’s specials by the front door. Menus carry a notice that the staff can’t give out tap water. Cases of bottled water, donated by Walmart, sit in front of City Hall. There’s a portable bathroom trailer outside the junior and senior high school. And the town’s primary water source, the Little Caney River, is so low that the water that remains is stagnant.
Source: Kansas Reflector
