Think, Value, Use

From The New York Times (July 17, 2011) - - Drought A Creeping Disaster by Alex Prud'Homme, author of The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the 21st Century:

"Meanwhile, global demand for water is expected to increase by two-thirds by 2025, and the United Nations fears a "looming water crisis."  To forestall a drought emergency, we must redefine how we think of water, value it, and use it.

Singapore provides a noteworthy model: no country uses water more sparingly.  In the 1950s, if faced water rationing, but it began to build a world-class water system in the 1960s.  Now 40 percent of its water comes from Malaysia, while a remarkable 25 to 30 percent is provided by desalination and the recycling of wastewater; the rest is drawn from sources that include large-scale rainwater collection.  Demand is curbed by high water taxes and efficient technologies, and Singaporeans are constantly exhorted to conserve every drop.  Most important, the nation's water is managed by a sophisticated, well-financed, politically autonomous authority.  As a result, Singapore's per-capita water use fell to 154 liters, about 41 gallons, a day of 2011, from 165 liters, about 41 gallons in 2003.

America is a much larger and more complex nation.  But Singapore's example suggests we could do a far better job of educating our citizens about conservation.  And we could take other basic steps: install smart meters to find our how much water  we use, and identity leaks (which drain off more than 1 trillion gallons a year); use tiered water pricing to encourage efficiency; promote rainwater harvesting and wastewater recycling on a large scale.  And like Singapore, we could streamline our Byzantine water governance system and create a new federal water office - - a water czar or an interagency national water board - - to mange the nation's supply in a holistic way.

No question this will be an expensive, politically cumbersome effort.  But as reports from New Mexico, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida  make plain, business as usual is not a real option.  The python of drought is already wrapped tightly around  us, and in weeks - - and years  - - to come it will squeeze us dangerously dry."