Water from nowhere, needs to go everywhere

 

"It seems a shame that living on a water planet such as ours, we should still suffer droughts. We have the expertise, we have the resources, we have the will to fix this. But we are still living in yesterday." 

Don't look now, but slightly over half of the country is in some kind of water shortage. How could that happen? Welcome to the age where potable water is becoming more valuable than oil or gold. Wait - we have plenty of water here. Just look at the Great Lakes. Yes, we can look at the Great Lakes, who have enormous amounts of water remaining. But that water is finite. Just like the water in our great aquifers. Finite and going down. Between industry and personal use, we use a whole lot of water. Too much, actually.

But hold on - are we not considered to be the water planet? Sure, we are. But most of the water on this big, blue marble is non-potable. There are major metro cities in the desert southwest who are living in the brink. The Colorado River, which has been our lifeline to the desert southwest for just about forever - is dying. And as it dies, do does Lake Powell. So does Lake Meade. And there is no "plan B" - when the water runs out from Lake Meade, right now there is no other place for Las Vegas, Pheonix and Tucson to get water. And Lake Meade is just feet away from "dead pool".

But there is hope. Not right now, but in the near future if we chase it. For example, Israel who has arid and desert land has decided to try and do something good with their Negev Desert. In the desert, they drilled deep, very deep, until they hit some prehistoric water. Because it was so deep, the water was warm to hot due to its geothermal nature. It also was salty. Too warm and salty to be potable - too warm and salty to use on vegetation. But they did find out it was perfect for raising certain types of tropical fish. Thus, Israel is now raising and harvesting tropical fish to eat and to sell to Europe.

But we need water for our crops. We need water to drink. Our ground water is shrinking, and our rivers and streams are iffy at best these days. Currently, scientists at MIT have come up with screens and filters which even in very dry climates, can harvest some water just by using air. Not much - maybe a gallon a day for a small set up. But it is a start.

We also need to capture more rain runoff, rather than just let it go. We have the technology to capture it, and we should. It is fresh water, so it would not need to be desalinated like ocean water. And speaking of which, we are way behind the curve in getting more desalination plants built. We have thousands of miles of coastline in which to build them.

It seems a shame that living on a water planet such as ours, we should still suffer droughts. We have the expertise, we have the resources, we have the will to fix this. Rainfall is only one way to get needed moisture. But we need to stop living in yesterday. Rather than farmers using drip irrigation, we are still using massive sprinkling systems in the heat of the day. Not smart. We can do better. We need to do better. We are running out of time.