Water Shortage: What can we do?
22 Comments Published by clay October 27th, 2007 in State and Local Politics, U.S. Politics.Much of the U.S. could see a water shortage
It just seems like conserving and making use efficient will not really solve the overall problem.
An epic drought in
Across
The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.
“Is it a crisis? If we don’t do some decent water planning, it could be,” said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the Denver-based American Water Works Association.
Water managers will need to take bold steps to keep taps flowing, including conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development.
Californians use nearly 23 trillion gallons of water a year, much of it coming from
Experts also say the
California, like many other states, is pushing conservation as the cheapest alternative, looking to increase its supply of treated wastewater for irrigation and studying desalination, which the state hopes could eventually provide 20 percent of its freshwater.
“The need to reduce water waste and inefficiency is greater now than ever before,” said Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency. “Water efficiency is the wave of the future.”
there is really nothing that we can do to preserve water. people need to drink water everyday to stay hydrated and everyone takes showers, i hope. anyway we need to use water everyday to live, the only realistic thing we can do is either ration water, not gonna happen, or sace all the water we come into contact with. if global warming is a problem then we should do something anout that. to preserve water we could use a resivoir. the world is covered in it but we can only use a very smaal percent of it. ocean water can be cleaned and made into useable water but that would gives us an energy problem and probably increase global warming. the way i see it is that we start saving watrer in large resivoirs today, if we arent already doing it.
With the United States population over 300 Million and still growing, a water shortage is inevitable. By letting hoses run, water spill over reservoirs and all other forms of waste, along with global warming, the climate is working against us to try and meet the demand for fresh clean drinking water.
There are many ways we can help the water shortage. I know that on the 71 North on ramp off of Holt Ave. in Pomona, the entire garden area around the on ramp is watered by recycled sewage water. Although it smells for the 15 or so seconds I am passing by, I think that is a positive way to help conserve water. By saving gallons of water each day, more public garden sections that are not highly traveled through by pedestrians should convert to recycled water,
Also, I know that some cities have a water restriction in place where residents can only water their lawns on certain days and at certain times. The city officials decide which times the water will be needed most and try to keep residents from using it during those times. Knowing that not all residents will comply, the balance is what really helps relieve the use of water.
With all the different uses for fresh, clean water today such as water fountains, bottled water, showers, and sinks, the need is ever rising and is in increasing demand as the population grows. Although the article states that conservation methods are not working, I disagree and believe that by using discretion with water waster and management, we can help slow the rate at which we use water faster than it is being produced from the ice caps. The simple solution is that with less and less water being produced each year, we need to both cut back on our current wasteful tendencies as well as find new ways of purifying and recycling water that was once deemed unfit to drink or use.
Life depends on water and sadly water shortages are affecting 400 million people as of today. Sources of drinking water is decreasing, while the population is increasing.
There are so many ways to conserve water, I know this because for my innovention project sophmore year, my group got the issue of water shortages. I remember one of the solutions my group came up with is a desalconduit plant which contained a drip-feed irrigation system and the water would go through a reverse osmosis process. The water that would be used for this innovention would be rain water or sea water, then the water would be purified through this innovention. The invention combined uses of utilizing salt water to make drinking water (desalination) and conserving water (drip-feed irrigation), which is an efficient method because we’re using what we have, like sea water and just cleansing it to make it drinkable.
Cutting back on use of water will not solve the water shortage problem completely. People need water and live on it. I think the best solutions would be coming up with alternatives to conserve. For example, using rain water and producing it into drinkable water by purifying it through filters. There are many other methods known in addition to desalination, like getting water from melted polar caps, something like that.
Life depends on water and sadly water shortages are affecting 400 million people as of today. Sources of drinking water is decreasing, while the population is increasing.
There are so many ways to conserve water, I know this because for my innovention project sophmore year, my group got the issue of water shortages. I remember one of the solutions my group came up with is a desalconduit plant which contained a drip-feed irrigation system and the water would go through a reverse osmosis process. The water that would be used for this innovention would be rain water or sea water, then the water would be purified through this innovention. The invention combined uses of utilizing salt water to make drinking water (desalination) and conserving water (drip-feed irrigation), which is an efficient method because we’re using what we have, like sea water and just cleansing it to make it drinkable.
Cutting back on use of water will not solve the water shortage problem completely. People need water and live on it. I think the best solutions would be coming up with alternatives to conserve. For example, using rain water and producing it into drinkable water by purifying it through filters. There are many other methods known in addition to desalination, like getting water from melted polar caps, something like that.
we will eventually going to run out of fresh water. the whole world needs to conserve on water especially US. i do not want to have to take a shower in sewered water or brush my teeth with water that taste like shit. people take 30 minute showers or leave the faucet running while brushing their teeth. my dad told me to wet my self for 10 seconds of water then turn off the water and then scrub and shampoo while water is off then turn the water on when you are ready to rinse for less than 30 seconds. hot water is costly also, short cold showers is the cheapest. i think if the water company raise the water bill by five times it will get peoples attention and then will use less water. one toilet flush is like 3-5 gallons of water wasted down the hole. really think about your grandkids 50 years from now, do you want then to be drinking dirty water; the only water that is left because we used all the fresh water.
I think we all agree that water shortages are going to happen whether or not we like it. We, as human beings, drink and utilize far too much of it to deny that there will be shortages.
All we can really do right now is to try and conserve water to the best of our ability. We can stop watering lawns with fresh water, stop constantly washing cars. However we still have to drink water and bathe. Still, we use fresh water for frivilous things that we could be giving up. I mean, who honestly cares if your gardens watered if you’re depriving people of hydration all around you?
People in the US need to wake up and take a more serious stance on this issue. Including myself, because I’ll be the first to admit that I still water my lawn with fresh water… We’ve got to start some time and what better time than now?
The numbers are staggering. In 2000, the United States used 148 trillion gallons of water, about 500,000 gallons of water per person, which has by now surely increased. Now we are experiencing a water shortage that in time could be debilitating. Many states are looking to increase conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development, which is great but I wondered what I could possibly do to help. Although 70% of fresh water is used for irrigation we could still do our part to decrease the 30%.
I found a great website, http://www.h2ouse.org, that has a Home Tour where you can tour the rooms where you can save the most money and a Water Budget Calculator to calculate how much water you use. While on this site I found 5 ways to conserve water at home. They are as follows:
1.Stop These Leaks!
2.Replace your toilet, the largest water use in your home
3.Replace your clothes washer, the 2nd largest water use in your home
4.Plant the right plants with proper landscape design & landscape
5.Water what your plants need
I also know of simpler ones like take showers instead of baths and turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. I do agree, this is a problem and we need to do all we can to help secure the future of water for the 2 billion worldwide estimated to experience water shortages in 2050. This crisis is overwhelming, but I feel that all of these tips, though maybe not solving the water crisis, could help. To me it is always the small things in big amounts that make a difference.
The numbers are staggering. In 2000, the United States used 148 trillion gallons of water, about 500,000 gallons of water per person, which has by now surely increased. Now we are experiencing a water shortage that in time could be debilitating. Many states are looking to increase conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development, which is great but I wondered what I could possibly do to help. Although 70% of fresh water is used for irrigation we could still do our part to decrease the 30%.
I found a great website, http://www.h2ouse.org that has a Home Tour where you can tour the rooms where you can save the most money and a Water Budget Calculator to calculate how much water you use. While on this site I found 5 ways to conserve water at home. They are as follows:
1.Stop These Leaks!
2.Replace your toilet, the largest water use in your home
3.Replace your clothes washer, the second largest water use in your home
4.Plant the right plants with proper landscape design & landscape
5.Water what your plants need
I also know of simpler ones like take showers instead of baths and turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. I do agree, this is a problem and we need to do all we can to help secure the future of water for the 2 billion worldwide estimated to experience water shortages in 2050. This crisis is overwhelming, but I feel that all of these tips, though maybe not solving the water crisis, could help. To me it is always the small things in big amounts that make a difference.
We all depend on water, we need it to survive and sadly whether we like it or not are goin through a water shortage right now. The best thing that people as a whole can do is try to conserve as much water as they can. meaning dont take 2 hours showers or watering your lawn or even having water fights with your friends. we have to start being serious about this issue because if we dont, sooner or later it will come back to haunt us.
well, everyday people use water obviously to keep hydrated and hopefully to take showers and other clean things of that sort. the only thing we can really do is conserve water such as when washing a car or even your teeth instead of leaving the water running the whole entire time you can turn it on and off when your not using it. honestly saving water is very difficult because people drink water and the base of our universe is made up of water some how. Poeple just need to cut down on their showers and keep in mind that one day we’ll be in need of water that we wont have enough of and thats when it will really hit us that we need to conserve water in any little way possible. Think about the future but not only yours others as well.
I think we will never get away from water shortages but what we could do to have is start cleaning/filtering ocean water. I know the water here is green and nasty so it will be taken form places like Hawaii where the water is crystal clear.
Water is a vital resource and we need to save and try to reduce the water we use everyday. Without water we will not be able to survive because water directly influences our food sources. I think we need to start converting the ocean water into fresh water and store it into reservoirs for future use. We can do it because it only takes cooperation and commitment to do this. Gloabal warming is a serious issue and shouldn’t be looked at lightly, hopefully people are starting to realize this.
Conserving water is always going to be an issue and is going to change slowly but surely. I think that not only are us Californians not conserving water as much as we should, but are forgetting about it completely. The reason why this is such a big issue is because people are using water in unnecessary ways, and causing the water bills to raise higher. Now-a-days you see the reporters talking about it on the news all the time, you see signs on the streets telling you to conserve, and even the different city cars driving around advertising to conserve for their city. Its unbelievable how much water we use yearly as stated in the article, “23 trillion gallons”! That’s a lot of water, and that’s the other reason why this is an issue is because we are causing water shortages in states such as Georgia (as stated in the article).
For example people a day use way too much water in their homes running the bathroom or kitchen sinks, letting the water hose run for a few seconds as you go get something in the house, running the bathtub water and your just sitting in the tub, or even letting the sprinklers run on a constant timer. It seems that people aren’t thinking about it when they are using water, they just forget that we are trying to conserve as much as we can.
So with that being said, I don’t think that people are going to take heed to the signs, news reports, or city cars telling you how to manage your water, because that won’t work anymore. Unless the water company shuts off your water, but its going to take time for people to think about how much they are using and condition themselves to use water better, because to break a bad habit it takes someone to do the new habit 21 times to break the old one (from what I heard), and if people don’t take that step then things could get worse. I’m not saying that the solution is to turn off the cities waters, but in my opinion the solution is to let the people learn for themselves, and give them the chance to rid their bad habits.
Everyone needs water, without it we’ll die. The water shortage that this article talks about is very real, and I think that the way people use water in our world is most definitely not helping. If we really want to help save up some of the water that we have, people need to stop letting the water run from their hoses on their lawns, leaving their sprinklers on for hours, and especially get rid of fountains. Sure they’re nice, but they really are wasting water, and lots of it, especially those really huge ones. Also, if people would stop leaving their pools uncovered, the water wouldn’t evaporate and they wouldnt have to fill it all the time when they want to go in. For a mayor or someone else to tell us WHEN we can and can’t use our water for certain things, is a foolish and absurd idea. No one would bother listening to it, no matter how serious the issue is. It’s not like they can just give you a fine or something for watering your grass when you want, that’s stupid. So I don’t think some sort of regulation like that would work. What would work, in my opinion, would be getting this message across the nation, especially in the states that are going to be suffering the most. I think it’s kind of stupid that they sound like they’re making it so huge, yet I never even hear about it if I turn on a radio or something else. If they REALLY wanted to get this accross to people, they should be talking about it through any and EVERY form of media we have, even billboards…because frankly not everyone watches TV all the time or even a little, including myself. If they do talk about this on television, great, but not everyone will be there watching it. They need to get this important information out there.
One day, eventually just like fossil fuels we WILL run out of it. Water is a resource that all of our bodies needs, at least 60% of our body is made up of water. Sense our population is growing more and more each day, were using up more of our water resources in order to keep our body hydrated. I think that we should keep enforcing more and more the fact that we need to conserve our water. Not only should we keep enforcing conservation of our water but also, global warming that which affects our water. Also, I think we should find an alternative to water shortage. For example, we should only give a certain amount of water in each household. By giving a certain amount to each household it will make people think wisely about how they should use their water.
Water shortage is a growing problem that many people around the world have experienced. This problem has been around for centuries, so there were many processes or solutions that were used. Now for once Americans are experiencing water shortages in their state. Which is a problem since water is an important factor that keeps humans alive. With all this is mind manly should see why water shortages could be such a big problem. This consideration is why I believe that we should do everything in our power to find ways to solve water shortages.
There are many different processes, which can save and store fresh water like irrigation for example. However, my main focus will be on the many different desalination processes. Distillation, and reverse osmosis are all desalination process. To start of distillation is when water is purified through a heating and cooling process. I do not believe this process would work to solve water shortages. Since basically a company would have to set this up. I believe reverse osmosis is a more reasonable process o use. Since the water is pushed through membranes, which separate the water from the other particles. Let’s say for example that a person was to get a small machine that used reverse osmosis. This machine would be able to take rain water and then turn it into drinkable water. Even other types of water that are not purified can also be used.
I believe that water shortages can be solved by using different purification processes. The one that I believe is most effective is reverse osmosis.
I have been aware of several of the water shortages in some of the states and many ads or bulletins on how to conserve water for this purpose. When i went to Las Vegas several months ago in some of the hotels they had to shorten the amount water shows they had throughout the day due to the water shortage. Here in CA we have several ads that tell us how to conserve the amount of water we use daily. I believe many of the states have had this problem because of the amount of water people use each and every day but these ads really do nothing. Seriously, i know no one who actually thinks about the ads and saves water and the closest i’ve every came to conserving water was in eighth grade and went to Catalina and they told us we could only take 3 minute showers. I think that even though we do have this problem going on, we will find some way to get through it because we usually do and water companies will find another way to make there money. They will desalinate the water if they have to, they are a business.
There so much to worry about in this world… but we dont we dont care about the animals about gangs ect but we should car about water because we are made up of more water then ever. many people take the water for granted and they have to realize that they shouldn’t because we are having troubles we shortage of water with no rain. people use water like nothing and its wrong people should stop and think about how they are using the water for example when ur taking a shower is it necessary to shower for an hour? we should make everyone aware of this. We are having trouble with the conversion of water but we will find a way. but for now i think that we should think before we waste our wonderful water
The problem is that drought is starting in Georgia and soon moving to Florida. Our nation’s lakes are shrinking due to rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess. There is less snow pack and it is melting prematurally. We need to conserve water and reduce our water waste.
CA alone knows how quickly water can be wasted. We used up the natural LA basin water, dried up the owens valley within one generation, shrunk the Owens river greatly, almost dried up mono Lake, and are rapidly using the colorado river. However once LA did realise what they were doing was dangerous to the water supplies, that it not only changed whole eco systems for plants and animals of the surrounding areas, it was dancerious to the overall water supply of the earth, they drastically conserved water. They noticably slowed their intake of water.
It is easy to reduce water waste and conserve energy without reducing how much water a person drinks. Fixing leaky fixtures can reduce up to gallons of water leaked out of it a day. Changing appianced to water efficent, which is hard to see difference and is often better quality machine, can also save hundreds of gallons a month or even week depending on the household. Watering lawns at night, covering jacuzzis and pools. All easy stuff that is not hard to do, even lazy people can do it without knowing they are putting a little extra work into things to conserve.
People individually need to conserve water because that is often where the most wasted water goes. After we use it it can be refined into gray water to be used in other places.
Water shortage is a major issue since water is necessary for many things to function. The paragraph above stated that global warming might be one of the causes of this water shortage. So what California should do is create more organizations to decrease the use of aerosol in many products, for example inventing companies that make the same products that have aerosol except use something else less harmful to earth that doesn’t cause global warming or less global warming if its impossible. Also if that doesn’t result in anything good, then we can also get our water supply from countries that have ice glaciers since no use is being put to them. The truth is that global warming NEEDS to desperately be decreased because if it is not. It’s just going to be constantly affecting us in many other ways.
Water shortage is a major issue since water is neccessary for many things to function. The paragraph above stated that global warming may be one of the causes of this water shortage. So What california should do is create more organisations to decrease the use of aerosol in many products, for example inventing companies that make the same products that have aerosol except use something else less harmful to the eart that doesn’t cause global warming or less global warming if its imposible. Also if that doesn’t result in anything good, then we can also get our water supply from countries that have ice glaciers since no use is being put to them. The truth is global warming NEEDS to be decreased because if it is not..Its just going to be affecting us in many other ways.
Water shortages are a major issue right now. We all depend on water to live, which is sadly decreasing as time goes by. Water is revolved around everyone’s lives, whether we realize it or not. We use it everyday, to take showers, wash our hands, drinking water, its everywhere. One thing we could do to conserve water is not waste it as much as we do. People use up so much water when they take 20 minute showers. Our population is growing everday. That is more people using water. Eventually, like everything else, water is going to disappear. When that happens, I don’t even know how the world would survive. Because when everything else fails, we are going to start consuming the great oceans for water. And the earth without the oceans would not be the same planet.
So I believe that more strict water laws should be passed. It would help out everyone. We may not be around to see the end of water, but the future will. And we should do everything we can to protect it.