Ways to Mitigate Water Scarcity
More than two-thirds of our planet is covered with water, but only a tiny percentage (less than 0.0003%) of that is fresh and available for humans to use. This tiny amount of fresh water is under increasing pressure, not just because of the rising human population and demand, but also because humans have not always been good stewards of water. Water scarcity and water pollution are growing problems across the world. In fact, the UN estimates that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living under āabsolute water scarcityā even though there is enough fresh water on the planet for everyone if we manage it sustainably.
Below are some ways you might act to conserve water. If youāre overwhelmed, start with small changes that make the biggest impact, like changing your irrigation schedule for your yard to be more water-wise. If you donāt have a yard, try indoor water-saving tips like limiting baths and taking shorter showers.
- Resources for saving outdoor water: https://www.watercalculator.org/save-water/.
- Estimate your water footprint: https://www.watercalculator.org/.
- Reduce the amount of meat and processed foods you eat ā these foods require a lot of water. Try instituting “meatless Monday” or focus on eating further down the food chain.
- Slow the flow! Wait to turn on your sprinklers! Watering your grass too much will make the roots shallow and weak. Wait to water, and find out more about efficient landscape water use here: http://slowtheflow.org/.
- Check out this graphic from the USGS on the relative volume of water on Earth. There are three blue dots. The biggest dot represents ALL of the water on earth. The smaller one represents fresh water in the ground, lakes swamps, and rivers. The smallest one, barely visible over Georgia, represents the freshwater found in only lakes and rivers, which are the sources most humans rely on to use every day: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html.
- If you live in Utah or the western U.S., you may have heard about the proposed Lake Powell pipeline project. This project would deliver about 70,000 acre-feet of water from Lake Powell (a reservoir on the Colorado River) to Washington County, Utah, and cost at least $1.5 billion. The Colorado River Basin is already facing serious shortages due to increased demand. Pipelines and diversions like this one will make the problem worse, because water is taken out and used, but not replenished. The state has already spent an estimated $33 million on the application process for the pipeline over the last decade, but still only submitted an incomplete application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The application was found to have numerous problems with the data and figures. In addition, a recent state audit of the stateās division of water resources showed that local communities are not collecting reliable water use data, and therefore DWR canāt be confident in their own baseline water use study that underpinned the justification for the pipeline. You can read the audit here. Finally, Western Resource Advocates found that conservation, reuse, and agricultural water transfers can meet the water needs of Washington County residents through 2060, and a much lower cost. You can read their analysis here.
Erica Fleming Jones is a member of Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
Photo by Johnny McClung on Unsplash.
