BARCELONA --- Barcelona, one of the great European cities, suffers its worst drought since records began 60 years ago, Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital, has been the worst-hit region. After months without adequate rainfall its reservoirs are down to just over a quarter of normal capacity. On May 15, a tanker ship from Marseilles will pull into a specially equipped dock in Barcelona's busy port, connect to a new pipeline, and discharge a liquid cargo essential to the running of the city. The ship will not, however, be carrying oil or petroleum. It is the first of many shipments of drinking water that form part of a program to slake the thirst of this drought-plagued city. 

NESTLE --- Nestlé SA said Monday it is scaling back plans in Northern California to build what would have been the country's largest water-bottling plant. The announcement by Nestlé Waters North America comes after years of opposition by environmentalists and a group of residents in the rural town of McCloud. Nestlé signed a contract in 2003 with the McCloud Community Services District to pump up to 521 million gallons of water a year. In exchange, the Swiss food-and-drink company agreed to pay $250,000 to $350,000 a year to McCloud, a town about 200 miles north of Sacramento. Palais said the company now will seek permission to pump a fraction of that water and build a smaller plant of about 350,000 square feet. Critics of the plant welcomed Nestlé's announcement.

LOS ANGELES --- California communities face a strong possibility of water shortages and even mandatory rationing this summer because of record dry weather in March and April, a fast-shrinking snowpack and below-normal reservoir levels, state officials said Thursday. The bleak news means a second consecutive year of water anxieties in a state heavily dependent on water from the melting snow in the Sierra Nevada. "I have not seen a more serious water situation in my career, and I've been doing this 30 years," said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies. An outmoded delivery system and court rulings that protect endangered fish are also straining the system, he said.