What Can We Do?
Water is the most common substance on earth – yet only 1 percent of it is available for human consumption (most of it is salt water that we can’t drink, and the rest is locked in ice). This water must not only satisfy domestic use, but also industry and agriculture.
It’s likely that we’ll hit a water crisis in many parts of the world within the next 20 years or less, which could easily lead to water wars.
We need water to survive. Will water privitization help?
Industry and agriculture are two of the biggest water users, so here are solutions for them, but also for you and me.
What can agriculture do?
It is estimated that commercial farmers could save 20-25% of their irrigation water with existing technology.
In addition, planting water-wise crops in high rainfall areas rather than area of drought, would make a massive difference. But government subsidies can sometimes make logic seem unattractive.
What about industry?
Many industries could reduce their water demand by up to 90 percent just by recycling the water they do use. It means investing in equipment, but they then reduce their running costs. And this does not involve new technology.
And individuals?
Here are my top 10 tips for what we can all do.
- Practice water conservation – it’s easier than you think! See 6 best water tips
- Don’t buy bottled water! It’s LESS regulated than tap water (yes, less regulated!) and you pay a fortune for it. See what’s involved in producing bottled water
- If you don’t like the taste of your water, you can solve it easily with a water filter. (That’s what many of the bottled water manufacturers do, so you’re drinking it anyway – just save yourself a lot of money). But which one? Find out how to choose the best water filter for YOU in your specific circumstances. Also see the Water Taste Test Video
- Eat food which helps to cleanse the body – fresh, organic fruit, vegetables and legumes.
- Inform yourself on the water situation in your area.
- Write to your representative / minister about the water problems in your area. Lobby to end wasteful agricultural practices.
- Recycle and dispose of your waste properly – especially pharmaceutical waste (not down the toilet!)
- Use natural fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides on your garden. Plant local, indigenous plants in your garden which don’t require much water.
- Grow some of your own food – there are some really easy things you can grow, even in a small space.
- Look at the places where you and your family work, the places you go to to eat, relax, spend. Can they easily introduce water efficiencies? It’s not always ‘someone else’s problem”.
To end, here is a thought-provoking quote from the New York Times:
“The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support there will be for investing in maintaining America’s public water supply. That would be a serious loss. Access to cheap, clean water is basic to the nation’s health“.
Here are two books which discuss the water crisis in more detail. In Not a Drop to Drink: America’s Water Crisis (and What You Can Do)
the author says that Sun Belt cities (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego) are fighting with subsidized farmers for water from the Colorado River. He talks about the politics of water, and suggests political methods of solving the impending crisis – primarily people lobbying against the government subsidies.
He suggests we use too much water – too much in our homes, and too much for irrigating water-intensive crops in dry areas.
When the Rivers Run Dry: Water-The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century by Fred Pearce
This hard-hitting book uses lots of real-world examples from all over the globe to illustrate the issues that water is causing. What I like about it is that the book is divided up into several short sections (5 – 7 pages each) which can be read independently, so you don’t have to read the whole thing at one time. It’s full of fascinating insights that are well worth reading.
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Great tips on water conservation and some great resources. Thanks!
Clare,
there are many sites that offer water purification and filtering chambers. They install fear about the coming collapse. What do you think?
I haven’t seen any but I can imagine the sort of thing you’re talking about. They serve a purpose. Of course they want to sell their products, and fear is a great motivator. Fair enough.
For me personally, I would always look to see just how eco friendly these ‘solutions’ are. For example, if they were selling a reverse osmosis water treatment, it really gets the water clean (there is literally nothing left, not even the good minerals), but it takes many gallons of water to create one gallon of drinking water, and what do they suggest you do with the waste products?
If they are predicting doom (and if the doom is water shortages then I think they’re probably right, other ‘dooms’ I don’t know enough to comment on), then I would sincerely hope that they also have information to help people learn how to use less water – now. So it’s not such a shock and we can cope better when we no longer have an unlimited supply. We all use more water than we should, and I think many Americans might be harder hit by water shortages than some other nations. It takes time to generate the habits that enable water efficiency.
One other thing I would add. If you feel you want to stockpile some water, great. Just don’t make it bottled water. Use tap water – filtered if you wish – and store it in a cool, dark place.
My advice: if anyone is considering making a largish purchase, do your research, so you don’t get ripped off! (That applies to all largish purchases, of course).
Thanks for a great question Margarita!
Don’t buy bottled water should be a no-brainer since the majority of bottled water is tap water.
Indeed it is – with fewer regulatory safeguards! But you’ve got to hand it to the marketers. Many people believe all types of bottled water are superior to tap water. It’s a real marketing success story!
Thank you for sharing this information, and the 10 tips!
What do you think about companies like Culligan?
Mark Hogan
Well, they sell bottled water for a start….and they appear to have no green initiatives that I could easily find, so personally I certainly wouldn’t recommend them.
I believe that Minnesota has one of the Top Ten best tap water quality in the USA, so hopefully not too many people there are buying tap water (which is often tap water anyway, sometimes filtered, sometimes not).
It takes considerably more than 25oz of water to make a 25oz plastic bottle from petroleum.
By the way, you asked yesterday about the cost of water. From Wikipedia, “typically 90 percent or more of the cost paid by bottled water goes to things other than the water itself- such as bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing, retailing, other expenses, and profit.
I have been to places with low flow toilets where you have to flush 2-3 times just to get the paper to go down. Didn’t seem very “green” to me. We used to have great tap water and then they put in chlorine. We use a filter and it tastes great.
With Passion & Conviction,
Wendy
Hi Dr. Wendy, some of the older lo-flo toilets were awful, you’re right, they negated the whole concept. I still see some of the older style lurking around, but luckily the newer lo-flos are much better. Chlorine stops the spread of disease, especially where people live closely together (e.g. cities) and it’s normally the lack of chlorinated water that causes problems – think after the Haiti earthquake and how disease spread. Well done on doing the right thing and getting a filter to improve the taste! Thanks for sharing!
During the Summer months I always see so many people who “over water” their lawns or they water their lawns during the hottest part of the day. If just those simple habits were changed a lot more water could be saved.
Yours In Health!
G.E. Moon II
I’m SO so so guilty of buying bottled water. But I try to reuse my bottles for several days at a time. I have yet to find a reusable bottle that I like.
Sabrina Peterson, NASM CPT, CES
Thanks for continuing to bring the water problem to people’s attention.
Michael
Never thought about it in those terms before…thanks for the insight.
Be Well.
Jc
Water….we threw it around, like, well, like water when we were young. And to think that by the time we are old, it will be like gold!
Sunny Carlson
You think about all the people we have and the 1% number is pretty scary.
It is indeed!
What has happened to the building of desalinzation plants … seems this was often discussed years ago yet it is rarely mentioned … I know are costly yet provide potable water (a plus / justification for privatization?)
Lyle R. Johnson – aka The “Wiz”
We have a few desalination plants on my little island – privately funded, mostly by the large hotels, because government couldn’t guarantee water delivery 100% of the time. You’re right, they are very expensive, and private funding is often the only way. The advantage is that there’s a large volume of sea water available. Their disadvantage is that all that salt and other chemicals that gets taken out of the water to make it drinkable, has to go somewhere. It’s a toxic sludge mess.
I guess I’d be able to make a more informed deiiocsn if I actually had a better understanding of what we’re worried about with tap water (if indeed we’re worried).Like, is the reasoning behind using special water a concern about microbes? (in which case boiling seems like it would fix the issue, right? do filters catch most microbes that we’d be worried about?) Or are we mainly concerned with traces of lead or minerals or other non-microbial…things? (in which case a filter would probably pick a lot of that up, but boiling woudn’t make a difference, right?)
Hi Yumiko,
There are as many reasons for people being worried about tap water as there are people, I suppose! In developed and also many developing countries, it’s relatively easy to get a water report form the supplier. Then you will know exactly what’s in your specific water and if you need to worry.
Where I live, I can’t, but I do know my dogs get sick when they drink the tap water (and they are more hardy than me!). Yet, in another part of the island, the tap water is good to drink.
Microbes – yes, boiling would help with most of those, but many people don’t want to have boil water before they use it, unless they are forced to. Lead and trace minerals, yes, a filter will take those out, as well as chemical residues (from fertilizers and pesticides in fields washed into rivers) and industrial effluent. Reverse osmosis takes even more out (but uses more water, is more expensive, and creates more waste).
As a general rule, buying bottled water in most cases is no different from adding a filter at home – because that’s what the bottled water companies do (if they do anything at all). But of course it’s much more expensive to buy bottled water than a filter.
Thanks for a great question!
“Apollo 13, I think we have a problem” As you might guess, Americans are the largest consumers of fresh water in the world. The average U.S. citizen uses 150 gallons per day. Compare this to 40 gallons used by each person in England and 22 gallons by each Chinese individual.
I hope I can add more insight with my report on world water scarcity.
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