US States Face Future of Water Shortages

Boat houses barely touch the water of Atlanta’s shrinking Lake Lanier reservoir in this aerial view.

It’s scary but is it a crisis?

Many States Seen Facing Water Shortages is a fascinating article about the US water problem:

An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn’t have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York’s reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year. Across America, the picture is critically clear _ the nation’s freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.

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.

“We’ve hit a remarkable moment,” said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The last century was the century of water engineering. The next century is going to have to be the century of water efficiency.”

The price tag for ensuring a reliable water supply could be staggering. Experts estimate that just upgrading pipes to handle new supplies could cost the nation $300 billion over 30 years.

“Unfortunately, there’s just not going to be any more cheap water,” said Randy Brown, Pompano Beach’s utilities director.

Source: http://carsonspost.wordpress.com/2007/10/27/us-states-face-future-of-water-shortages/

Creating solutions to a water crisis

The International Herald Tribune, August 11, 2008 Monday - The first thing you see is shelf after shelf of plain glass bottles all containing different colored liquids. Some of the liquids are clear, and others whitish, yellowish, brownish, greenish, or almost black. The colors change daily, as does the consistency, and whatever is growing inside.

All of the liquids are exactly the same thing - water. To be specific, they are examples of the 1 percent of the world's water that is available - and deemed suitable - for human consumption. These samples are displayed at the start of ''1% Water and Our Future,'' an exhibition at Z33, a design and art gallery in the Belgian city of Hasselt, which explores our relationship to water, and how design can help us to use it more responsibly and productively.

''There is growing concern about the scarcity of water, and the need to save it, but in many countries, it's still taken for granted as something that pours out of the tap,'' said Jane Withers, who co-curated the exhibition with Ilse Crawford. ''People think of water as a clear, neutral product that always looks the same. It doesn't, because it's a living thing, as the samples show. We hope that once people realize this, they'll consider using water more pleasurably as well as more thoughtfully.''

The underlying theme of the exhibition is that the current efforts to stave off the water crisis will have greater impact if we also grow to appreciate its special qualities, such as its playfulness and sensuality.

The blunt facts of the water crisis are depicted in a graphic installation created by Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker of the New York graphic design studio karlssonwilker. Some 70 percent of the earth's surface consists of water, but only 3 percent of it is freshwater, and less than a third of that (the 1 percent in the exhibition's title) is drinkable. The amount of water we consume is increasing, whereas the supply of freshwater is static, which is why it's running out. More than a third of the world doesn't have enough water, and the situation is worsening.

Another crisis is looming in water disposal. A third of the world's population already has inadequate sanitation. Many cities in developing countries are expanding so fast that they are literally outgrowing their sanitation networks. In developed countries, most of the networks are now decrepit. Hence the chaos on London's roads while its 19th-century drains are replaced.

Patching up and enlarging existing sanitation systems isn't the solution, as we may not have enough water to supply them, given that we waste so much of it. Some 70 percent of the drinking quality water flowing into North American or European homes is flushed down the toilet or used for cleaning. Our water footprints - which include the water used to manufacture the things we consume, as well as the water we use ourselves - are increasing. The further a product, and everything used to make it, has to travel, the bigger its water footprint will be. A typical Belgian consumes 108 liters, or nearly 30 gallons, of water directly each day, and another 4,940 liters indirectly, including part of the 10 that are used to produce a sheet of A4 paper, 11,000 for a pair of jeans and 40,000 for a car.

What can we do about it? The exhibition, which is to tour in other cities after Hasselt, including a stint at Somerset House in London in 2010, suggests lots of possibilities. Some are political initiatives, such as the water-saving program adopted by the Spanish city of Zaragoza, which succeeded in reducing its citizens' water consumption to a third of the national average. Others are ideas developed by designers and artists to suggest how we can redefine our relationship to water, as well as to propose practical solutions to the crisis.

Some of them are being tested at Z33. Hanging outside the building is Rain Catcher, a giant raindrop-shaped device developed by the Spanish designer Jordi Canudas to add rainwater to the drainage system. Taking pride of place in the garden is Pig Toilet, an experimental dry sanitation project devised by the Dutch artists Atelier Van Lieshout. It combines a pigpen with a human toilet, the contents of which are eaten by the pigs, rather than being flushed away and wasting water. ''It sounds disgusting, but it works,'' said Crawford. ''In the 19th century there was a vigorous debate between the advantages of dry and wet sanitation systems. The urgh! factor is the reason why wet systems won, but dry sanitation was a perfectly workable solution.''

More conventional (and less stomach-churning) proposals include the LifeStraw, a $5 portable device invented by the Swiss company Vestergaard Frandsen to purify water as it is sucked up through a straw. Another is the Aquaduct, a concept tricycle developed by the American design group IDEO, which carries water, and purifies it using a mechanism started by turning the pedals.

Other projects not only help to save water, but encourage us to use it more imaginatively. Some countries, such as Japan, Finland and India, have never lost their appreciation of water, notably by cherishing communal bathing as an important social ritual. But industrialized countries tend to treat it as a commodity, with quantity trumping quality even in water's most ''luxurious'' guises, such as enormous ''luxury'' baths and power showers.

A collection of antique water vessels from different countries shows how water has been used sparingly, but very effectively by cultures that value it. Crawford and Withers believe that the designers of today's water-saving systems can learn from them, as the Dutch designer Irene van Peer did when developing the Mahlangu hand-washing device. ''Hand washing is still the first defense against disease in the developing world,'' said Crawford. ''People in communities without running water can make the Mahlangu themselves by customizing a plastic water bottle. They can have 50 or 60 hand washes from one liter of water. One woman commented on how pleasant it felt to feel water splashing on her hands - something she'd never experienced before.''

August 11, 2008

Copyright © 2007 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

Business Challenges in a Water Constrained World

Geneva, 22 April 2008 - Everyone understands that water is essential to life. But many are only just now beginning to grasp how essential it is to everything in life � food, energy, transportation, nature, leisure, identity, culture, social norms, and virtually all the products used on a daily basis. But with population, per capita demand and, in many places, water pollution all growing rapidly, it is clear that water, already a critical issue, will become increasingly critical in the coming decades.

This fact challenges different businesses in different ways. But some general trends, observable today, suggest what more and more businesses will face in the future.

Scarcity usually encourages better management of resources. Water resources are getting scarcer due to both increasing demand and decreasing reserves, such as the melting of glaciers. It is inevitable that water use by all sectors will come under closer scrutiny as governments from local to national levels strengthen their water resource management. This will require companies to manage water better.

Businesses will need to measure all the dimensions of their water footprint, looking beyond the direct consumption of their own operations to the water dependency and impact of their supply chains, as well as those of the users of their products. In a water-constrained world, managing water-related risks becomes an imperative. Knowing the water footprint of the business is a first st ep toward identifying and quantifying those risks.

Knowing their water footprint can also help companies position products and services in response to the expectations of consumers, who are hearing more and more about water issues. And efforts are underway to give them the information they need to make �water wise� choices. The US Environmental Protection Agency recently launched its �WaterSense� program to promote water-efficiency through the market. Based on a labeling scheme, it helps consumers identify products and services that use less water while performing as well as or better than their less-efficient counterparts. The European Union, which has had an eco-label scheme in place since 1993, is studying a new approach to make water ratings as explicit as energy ratings.

Water is everybody�s business, and the principles of water management being promoted today reflect this. European water policy, for example, calls for the extension of public participation in river basin management to balance the interests of various groups.

In this context, businesses need to be prepared to engage with other stakeholders, whether business or non-business, including those who speak for ecosystems. To be credible and constructive participants in the setting of water policy, businesses need to thoroughly understand not only their own water footprint, but also the needs and priorities of others.

Another principle of water management that is receiving much attention is that of full cost recovery. While this is most often discussed in relation to water services, the concept applies to any water use, including industrial and agricultural. How should costs be calculated and who decides? How should the opportunity cost of specific uses be counted? For businesses that have located their operations to take advantage of cheap, abundant water, the emergence of such questions can have significant implications. Recognizing the economic value of water in an age when the balance between supply and demand is shifting will force many companies to reassess their models.

When it comes to water, businesses and all other sectors of society face the challenge of dealing with uncertainty, but some things are certain. One is climate change and the observed impacts on water resources. Martin Parry, co-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II, said in referring to the effect of climate change on animals, plants and water: �For the first time, we are no longer armwaving with models; this is empirical data, we can actually measure it.� But considerable uncertainty remains about where and when further water impacts will occur.

There is also a great deal of uncertainty about the capacity of various affected populations, as well as global systems, to adapt to changes in water availability and quality. Will we see significant changes in values and lifestyles? To what extent will global trade in virtual water compensate for local deficiencies in real water resources? How will human migration patterns change as water availability decreases in regions supplied by meltwater, where more than one-sixth of the world�s population currently lives?

There are a number of things besides climate change that are certain. One is that virtually all businesses will be affected either directly or indirectly by water-related issues over the next few decades. But how does a company effectively communicate this to get water higher up on its agenda? The WBCSD�s Water Project will be focusing more on advocacy and communications to help do exactly that.