In our lives we take simply things for granted; being able to go to the store and buying anything you’d like, being able to communicate with anybody anytime, having a roof over our heads, and being able to have a nice cup of cold water. To people in the United States water is a necessary and easy resource to come by. Walk to any facet and 99.99% of the time you shall receive a nice consistent flow of clean drinking water. People hardly ever stop to think about where this resource is coming from and how it manages to get to your home. Even during severe drought, when it is scarce, water is still easily obtainable.
Water is a resource. It is considered to be a renewable resource. Water is provided to you, it is used, returns to the “system”, somewhere in between it returns to the water cycle, before making it back into your home. Water is renewable but even it has its limitations. The amount of water on the Earth now is the same as when the dinosaurs where around. Over millions of years the quantity of this resource has hardly changed. Earth is considered to be the blue marble with 70% of its area covered in area. Of that seventy percent, 1% is freshwater. The human race has a ever growing population of 7 billion that has to manage with a limited supply of water. Our need for water is only going to keep increasing along with population, production, manufacturing, and energy rate. A great strain is being put on our limited supply.
Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project, addresses the issues concerned with our water supply in her publication, Water Adapting to a New Normal. Postel states that our water problems are actually much more worrisome than our current energy situation. Currently there is water shortage around the world, no matter
what your kitchen faucet says. With such a large population water is needed to grow and be healthy, for production, for energy, for agriculture, and for consumption.1 As the need for water increases and the supplies remain the same we approach a shortage of water. Water shortages around the world are leading to, ”leading to economic disruption, food crises, social tensions, and even war.”
Water is our most valuable resource. More valuable then oil, coal, lumber, etc. Mrs.Sandra states that the three main points for the importance of water. It is necessary for life to exist. Without water we would dehydrate and not be able to produce goods. Unlike oil, water has no substitute. If global warming is a reality we shall experience its impacts of climate change most directly through water.
Postel then goes on to make a compelling case on the subject of water. By stating all of the shortages and droughts happening across the world. Water resources are being used faster then they can be replenished. Governments are trying to respond to these server shortages. Billions of dollars are used to help move water to our civilizations and even with that it is not enough. Construction projects to try to harness water cost millions, if not more, while damaging the ecosystem around at the same time. Causing more harm then good. While a dam and reservoir might fix the current ailment it does little to improve the situation to come.
The publication then goes on to list what cities and countries are doing to help improve the situation. New York city is investing $1.5 billion to restore and protect their watershed.2 Which shall cost them an additional $300 million a year. China has built the Three Gorges Dam. The single largest Earth moving project in existence. To help control the water supply of the Yangtze river and provide hydroelectricity. While Latin American countries are imposing fees to help reduce water use. Chicago is leading the race of green roofs with over 200. Green roofs help absorb and control storm water.
The topic then shifts from energy and polices to agriculture. The single largest user of our fresh water supply. If all anyone ate was grain, fruits, and vegetables water use in agriculture would significantly drop. To get 500 calories from beef it take twenty times the amount it would for 500 calories of rice. Grain has to be grown, harvested, and produced into feed. Animals then go on to eat large amounts of feed until they are large and ready for butchering. Some might say this is outrages but for us its just a way of life.
I really enjoyed reading the publication by Mrs. Sandra Postel. While it was lengthy it provided a great quantity and quality of information. She provided a history lesson on what has been done in the past and then takes us on a tour on what is currently going on with projects and polices around the world. While taking the environmental stand on the subject I don’t believe she can be considered bias and I or an extremist. She was just stating the facts as they are. People might ignore the current issues we are having with our water supply but Mrs. Postel is not shy about the subject. She conveys the information in an easy to read and follow manner.
I agree with the message Sandra Postel is trying to get across. Water is a valuable resource that is being diminished. Proper step need to be taken to try to conserve water, mostly through politics. The problem is politics takes to long or they don’t react until an event has happened. It comes down to money. The project needed to help conserve water cause hundreds of millions of dollars but these cost are nothing compared to what it will cost us to fix the problem in the future. If the shortage of water isn’t addressed now or in the near future it is only going to get worst.
Majoring in Civil Engineering one of the concentrations is hydrodynamics. Which deals with the movement of water and the construction of structures that can help in the process. I know from a recent presentation I went to recently that many cities across the nation are trying to reuse grey water. Grey water is the water we use to wash our hands, cook, do laundry, etc. For the majority the water is clean and returned to lakes and streams. Cities are trying to implement plans where instead of getting rid of the grey water they recycle it back into their facilities. Grey water is being used for irrigation, fountains, bathroom facilities, and other water supply that don’t require drinking water. Durham just spent 100 million dollars on a project that would help them deal with and reuses their supply of grey water. 100 million might seem excessive but the city actually saved money. It would have cost them upwards of 500 million to try to get a more viable water supply to the city. Most cities could love to implement these kinds of strategies, it is just the money thats holding them back. The small city of Chapel Hill is also implementing a program to recycle grey water. 3 They plan to incorporate it campus wise. Programs like these are small steps to trying to fix the water storage problem. They are helping reduce the need of water. We know we have a problem and we know what steps we have to fix it but it is going to take a lot of initiative politically to be able to reduce our need on water.
1. Postel, Sandra. "Water Adapting to a New Normal." The Post Carbon Reader Series: Water. Post Carbon Institute, 2010. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.postcarbon.org/Reader/PCReader-Postel-Water.pdf>.
2. Postel, Sandra. "Water Adapting to a New Normal." The Post Carbon Reader Series: Water. Post Carbon Institute, 2010. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.postcarbon.org/Reader/PCReader-Postel-Water.pdf>.
3. "Future/Potential Projects." School of Government. UNC. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://www.sog.unc.edu/node/1049>.
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