After air to breathe, it’s the next priority. We tend to take it for granted. Rhubarb pointed out this article, in which some corporate experts predict economic problems “by 2015 as the supply of fresh water becomes critical to the global economy.”
Thinking about water shortages reminded me of the first business trip I made to Philadelphia. I wondered if Pennsylvania was always that green, or if it was possible the trees and grass were putting on a special show that summer. I recall experiencing the same amazement at the greenery of Western Oregon and Maryland, almost a distrust of so much verdure. It is never that green here. Even with the vast Pacific Ocean beside us, the nearest we come to that quality of green in Southern California is a dusty, grayish imitation in parks, and that in El Niño years. Our water is imported, much of it from the Colorado River, which is so strained by use that it dwindles to a mere trickle where it meets, or used to meet, the ocean in the Gulf of California. These days the spent river disappears somewhere in Mexico. The rushing torrent that carved the Grand Canyon, and spilled over in flood years to fill the Salton Sea, becomes no more than a creek trickling through irrigation culverts into thirsty Mexican farmland. According to U.S. Water News Online:
The valley along the river south of Mexicali produces roughly 10 percent of Mexico’s wheat, about 17 percent of its cotton, and important quantities of sorghum, alfalfa, and asparagus. Even when there are heavy rains upstream, a few steel culverts under a gravel road can handle what was once called “an American Nile” as it limps toward its mouth in the Gulf of California.
In dry years, the river is devoid of water. Between 1961 and 1978, when reservoirs were slowly filling behind upstream dams, there was almost no water in the lower channel at all.
Recently I read a collection of essays and stories by West Texas women, Writing On The Wind. The emphasis on drought, the importance of windmills, the quality of water in some places (one woman had lived in a house where her toilet bowl was perpetually stained black) carved impressions in my mind. I recognized, even if I’ve known it to a lesser degree, the disorientation and distrust of an unfamiliar abundance of green that West Texans feel when traveling to wetter places.
My limited travels and that book served as stark reminders of what a precious commodity water is. While those reminders centered in the wealthy US, where money so often manages to truck or pipe water where it’s needed, the world as a whole has a more tenuous claim on fresh water to begin with. If the shortage is worsening, we may all be in trouble soon.
1.
Pennsylvania is always very green in the summer. Right now the green is intense. In the spring the green comes in all variations, from yellow-green to blue-green.
We depend on a well here. We just have to have faith there’s water down there.
A shortage of water is truly frightening. As much as I’d love to know what wonders the next century will bring I’m just as glad I wasn’t scheduled to be born in 2050 rather than 1950 because I fear the horrors may outweigh the wonders.
Comment by Eric Mayer — August 19, 2006 @ 9:34 am
2.
I totally think that water shortages are in our future, and no one is paying much attention besides the companies that are buying up the water…argh…
Comment by violetismycolor — August 21, 2006 @ 8:30 pm
3.
It seems that we are not leaving such a nice place to live to our children.
Cas
but then, I guess every generation has said that.
Comment by cassie-b — August 22, 2006 @ 3:28 am
4.
Just think, if it weren’t for all that water we “steal” from Mexico, we couldn’t live here in dusty, grey-green San Diego. All of southern California would not have developed if it weren’t for piping in water from elsewhere. I feel so guilty taking a bath!
Comment by Georganna Hancock — August 24, 2006 @ 7:14 pm
5.
This makes me think worse of the future. I don’t know what the soon-to-be children can expect. I think it’s our responsibility to protect whatever resources we have right now so we can have something to offer to them.
Comment by Hollie Smith — August 24, 2006 @ 7:44 pm