The Looming Water Shortage
“Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink” so wrote the poet about a becalmed ship in a sea of salt water. Little did he know that he may have been predicting the future? Top economists are predicting a massive fresh water shortage in the next 20 to 30 years. Parts of America are already suffering from the lack of abundant fresh water. Places such as:
1. The peninsula area of Virginia has worried for over twenty years that the dropping of the aquifer could result in the intrusion of salt water which would contaminate the remaining fresh water. As a result, development was slowed down considerably in what was a high growth area.
2. The Georgia aquifer water level in southeast Georgia was falling at a high rate. It was determined that the aquifer level rose 3 meters when one industrial user was closed for a period of time. It was joked that if they shut the plant down permanently, that part of Georgia would be flooded in six months.
3. Florida constantly sends out letters to home owners telling them that they are using too much water, that they are above the average in water usage for the month. This is done in the middle of the 90’s and 2000’s building and development boom. No effort was made to stop development. The only effort at conserving water was to harass the folks who lived there. Most of us just throw the letters away; after all, probably half of us are above “average” no matter where they set the mark.
These same economists state that agriculture uses 70% of the fresh water in irrigation that is lost to evaporation and leakage and does not return to the aquifer. They also state that rain is insufficient to replace the aquifer.
There are many examples of drought around the world, mostly caused by global warming, or so it is claimed. One would think that an Ice Age would lock up the fresh water resulting in an even greater shortage.
But whatever the cause, we are facing a water shortage. We are also facing a food shortage, and an oil shortage, all compounded by a leadership shortage. It seems the only thing we have an abundance of is people, the number of which is causing the other shortages.
Technology is the only key that we can contemplate to alleviate all these shortages. The leadership shortage, though, seems to be the roadblock to the development of new and better technology.
June 10 2008 04:48 am | Environment
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