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Water, that wonderful necessity and cleanser, refresher of the Earth, bringer of life, is becoming a scarce commodity. Fresh water once taken for granted in many places now looms as the tension maker and breaker of civilizations in the not too distant future. Drought and over use have driven our water supplies to a global crisis and here in North America this shortage could become the crux issue and most important international point of contention in the very near future.
Fresh H20 has given man and Earth sustenance for time out of mind our bodies are close to 75 percent water and the Earth is close to seventy percent water. Civilizations were often formed around bodies of water, supplies were the first priority of planning a new community. Egypt and other places prayed for the inundation to replenish the soil with floods from the melting snow south of their delta. The hanging gardens of Babylon were a testament to the water abundance and control this ancient desert city maintained.
Fresh water is less then 2,5 percent of the total water content of the planet that supports us all. Water is of course necessary for crops, farm animals, sewage, fishing, and essentially every thing that lives depends on H2O's life retaining force. With only 2.5% of the world's water is fresh not salty, and two-thirds of that is locked up in the ice caps and glaciers. Of the difference that is left, about 20% is in remote areas, and much of the remainder arrives at an inconvenient time and place, such as monsoons and floods.
Our diversion of streams and creeks river and lakes for agriculture, Industry and sewer consumption has become a drain on the fresh water supply from coast to coast. Aquifers once deemed endless reservoirs, are now more realistically assessed as drying up; places like Los Angeles Phoenix and many other cities depend on fresh water from aquifers and out of state suppliers. Water systems throughout the USA are not only growing in shortage problems but the water supply infrastructure is crumbling and needs billions in repairs.
Wet lands and lakes are drying up at an alarming rate and that is another strong warning sign. Cities are cutting deals to siphon water from more plentiful areas, destinies are being reshaped by water supply and species put in peril by plans to draw from underground rivers or already vastly depleted local rivers.
Once a free commodity for public consumption water has been bottled and sold for rather exorbitant prices for many years now and has become a mainstay of the commercial beverage business. Sewage chlorine lead and other contaminates have been discovered in drinking water leaving a mis trust in tap water and thus the bottled water industry has made out quite well. Yet we now realize the standards are not as high as we thought in this bottled water business and the waste from billions of plastic bottles created another issue.
Aqua Infrastructure in the USA
A recent report claims that eighty percent of the US water supply infrastructure is in dire need of repair. In the 1970s the Federal government supplied seventy percent of the funding for this water supply infrastructure. Today the federal budget supplies three percent of the infrastructure assistance and States, counties townships and communities are falling behind as the pipes sewers drainage ditches culverts and water towers are falling apart.
Our very existence is compromised by this neglect, water is more important in reality then petroleum yet we have disdained its conservation and misused this valuable resource until now a crisis looms.
Further there is a constant contamination of fresh water supplies for various reasons, waste water treatment plants need repair and up dating across the country. The statistics supplied by the American Society of Civil Engineers the United States 55,000 water systems and 16000 wastewater treatment facilities all in bad need of repair and upgrades. An adequate water management supply project cost millions and the entire package could be an astounding one trillion dollars.
Mr. Bush lowered water quality pollution standards for the nation and this has added to the ongoing problem, yet he did not create this problem it existed long before he was appointed to office, but his actions have exacerbated the issue. The Bush administration has gone about privatizing much in the American landscape that once government operations took care of, and water supply and management is no different. As of this date {Oct 07} private investors own less then 20% of the United States 55,000 water systems yet this will change as time goes on, because there is great profit in that clear liquid especially when it becomes more scarce.
Water pipes and systems have a life expectancy of one hundred years, yet today, many American metropolitan areas depend on water pipes and systems that are more than eighty and some are a century old. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that at least 1\4 of US water pipes are "poor, very poor or elapsed"; this is a sad state for the worlds most developed nation.
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A few things to note in terms of our water use and our responsibilities. Everyday the United States wastes approximately 60 billion gallons of H20 from substandard or leaky pipes alone. In a few isolated cases 25% of total water volume is lost through leakage, can we afford this? Further corroded pipes can cause water contamination through petroleum, lead, bacteria's and other toxins entering the water supply.
There are a few International water sector portfolio funds that specialize in American and International water sectors. Names that may become more familiar as the problem grows worse, PowerShare's water Resource Portfolio Luxembourg's Pictet Water Fund Claymore S&P Global Water ETF are into profit based water supply ventures. Then there is Kinetic Asset Management's proposed Water Infrastructure Fund is a water management mutual fund currently under scrutiny by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ninety-five percent of the U S fresh water is underground in aquifers and well's access them constantly. As agricultural practices in say for example: the Texas High Plains, pump groundwater at a higher rate than rain can replenishes it, the water tables drop. Farmers in the High Plains are now leaving irrigation practices behind, as they become aware of the problems of overuse, and realize water is a finite commodity.
The largest aquifer in North America is the Ogallala, it is being depleted at a rate of 12 billion cubic meter's (bcm) annually. Depletion to date amounts to some 325 bcm, an amount equal to the annual flow of 18 Colorado Rivers. The Ogallala extends from Texas to South Dakota, and irrigates one-fifth of US watered agricultural land.
Drought is prevalent in nearly fifty percent of the continental USA, conditions run from exceptional in parts of Alabama Georgia Tennessee and the Carolinas and extreme in Ca. Nevada even Hawaii, while many other places are in severe draught like Florida and Montana.
International concerns
Developing countries face an even more daunted task to preserve and clean their water. Population growth wasteful water shed and poor water supply management and pollution have made the task extremely tough. Water experts tell us that there is no more fresh water on earth than there was 2,000 years ago, back then the population was about three percent of its current size. A John Hopkins University population report says that nearly half a billion people all across the glob,- mostly in the Middle East and Africa -- currently face water crisis. By the year 2025, the number will increase five times to 2.8 billion people or 35 % of the world's total population of eight billion people.
In that same year the study estimates another 17 countries, including Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Peru, will be on the list of countries likely to experience shortages of water. And China and Pakistan are also expected to be approaching water stress, by that time.
Canada and the USA share a huge water supply in the Great Lakes and other sources and an ongoing battle for water resources is already brewing and will no doubt increase this tension as the crises grows worse.
Riparian water rights is a system of allocating water among those who possess land around its source. It has its origins in Anglo common law, It is used in Britain and in the eastern U. S.
Under the riparian principle, landowners whose property is adjacent to any body of water have the right to make reasonable use of it. If there is not enough water to satisfy all users, allotments are generally provided in proportion to frontage on the water source. These riparian rights cannot be sold or transferred other than with the adjoining land, and water cannot be transferred out of the watershed. This is the crux of the problem as the world grows drier the local riparian rights may be challenged.
Global warming
As polar Ice caps melt and global warming becomes more apparent are we to continue denying its effects and cause? Weather patterns alter leaving many more arid areas or wet where it is not accustomed, or monsoons that never appear all critical to our life on Earth.
A recent International scientific study proved that the polar ice caps have been melting at an alarming rate 23% in two years. This means there will be twenty-three percent less sun reflection from the ice and that much more warmth distributed throughout the planet. And more fresh water poured into the salt filled seas, causing currents to cool and altering the course of sea currents bringing drought and other global weather catastrophes.
As the fresh water supply dries up, will the water quality standards be altered to reflect the situation, or will Corporatisem under the Neo Con paradigm of deny or ignore it win out; and we lose? As this crisis looms in the near future we must ask ourselves are we doing enough to protect our most precious resource, or will we ignore the responsibility and let the fresh H2O simply dry up.
Conservation is more then a phrase to be scoffed at it is the only solid hope for a continuation of civilization as we know it. Fountains in Vegas, lawns in Arizona, water wasted trough leakage and poor infrastructure can be prevented but we must act soon or the dust bowel of the thirties may become a reality throughout most of the globe.
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Robert W. Barker [send him email] is a writer, professional photographer and travel aficionado from Eureka Ca. His work is carried on many web sites around the globe, a first novel recently copyrighted in the library of Congress, is soon to be published.
