EnviroLink Forum

http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/01/the-water-tamer

Briscoe brings an analytical framework to each of these basins, encouraging students to think about “three Is”: infrastructure, institutions, and innovation. “If you look at an arid basin like the Colorado,” he points out, “there is infrastructure [dams] to store three years’ supply of water. Historically, that is how they have dealt with variability. But in Pakistan, for example, the storage capacity is not three years but 30 days, so there is an enormous need for more infrastructure.”

Australia’s institutions are among the most advanced. (Cities have invested in desalinization plants to supply drinking water, as a kind of insurance policy that makes economic sense.) During a drought from 2000 to 2008, the Murray Darling basin in the country’s irrigated agricultural heartland suffered a 70 percent reduction in water availability. “Amazingly,” Briscoe reports, “they were able to produce the same aggregate agricultural output. They had lots of long-standing infrastructure [such as dams for storage], but they also had flexible institutions”—including a market for trading water rights as needed. Rice, for example, is a high-value crop when water is abundant and cheap. But when water is scarce, rice farmers who can’t grow rice still “make a killing because they have water entitlements” to sell to grape and fruit growers who produce much more value per unit of water. Then, when the price of water comes down, they grow rice again. The result is that the region produces the same value of goods—just not the same goods.

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Good article, Wayne. The Colorado watershed has improved some, up to 65% from a low of 50% a few years back(NOW, 9-2012, it is 47%). Still only a two year supply in a real drought. The AGW fluctuation and added evap makes it harder for water managers. The article was on watersheds and >>not much on the >>real danger<<, >>>>running out of aquifer water in many large pop and ag locales.<<<<<<
I found this bookmarked.
"Water Supply and the Impact on Food Security

Map of the Ogallala Aquifer from wikipediaNoodling around the Internet, I came across a year-old Scientific American article about the coming disappearance of the Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground water source that lies under America's breadbasket and irrigates crops that supply one fifth of the total annual agricultural harvest in the U.S. The High Plains, the area above this endangered aquifer supplies a large amount of the corn, sorghum, soybeans, wheat and cotton that America produces for itself and the world.

According to wikipedia, the U.S. Geological Survey, in its mass-balance studies of the aquifer, indicated in 2005 that 312 cubic km of water had been pumped out since irrigation and agricultural development began in the area in 1911. That's 9% of the 3,608 cubic km left in 2005. Serious tapping of water from the Ogallala began in the 1950's. At the current rate of pumping, some experts estimate that the aquifer will dry up in as little as 25 years. Of course, more efficient farming practices can slow that rate down.
(NOW, in part of the Ogallala, W. No. Dak. have gone to a 10,000% increase in drawdown!!! all from fracking!!)
Increased focus on local food anyone? Seriously, that was the first thought that crossed my mind as I read about the likely disappearance of the Ogallala. Just as we work individually and collectively to shift to alternative fuels to make the transition to a world of peak oil, we also need to be shifting to relying on local sources of food because our children and grandchildren are not going to be able to rely on America's breadbasket for their food supply."
Not to mention that 70 large metropolitan areas also depend on the Ogallala, and California has screwed the farmers and ranchers for the central valley water from the San Joaquin Aquifer and the watershed feeding it, so that the overpopulation of SoCal can continue---for a while. The blog was from WA and it will be looking at the Columbia Aquifer depletion sometime in the not too distant future. Cities sinking in Texas, rivers running dry in the NE, FL looking grim, and other places with tight water and surface water that is polluted.
It is the weakest link in the chain of sustainability.(see chapter 29 of Immigration's Unarmed Invasion: Deadly Consequences" I wrote)
It is bad in most of Africa, the ME, parts of India, and parts of China. Other places with plenty of water, but it is highly polluted like in SE Asia.
Of course, the main culprit is overpopulation. Even here in the USA.
I see future migrations for water, more conflicts over water, and higher costs for water, and with it, food, in a poorer world.
No matter how efficient you get, or how much and good you can recycle it, overpopulation takes away those gains and causes shortages, until mass deaths reduce the demands.

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
“Those Who Have the Privilege to Know Have the Duty to Act”…Albert Einstein

Thanks sharing useful information and spreading awareness.

You're welcome.

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
“Those Who Have the Privilege to Know Have the Duty to Act”…Albert Einstein

I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the good information you might have right information about water issues here on this post.

Three points on this issue:

One of the biggest water pollution sources is run-off water from cities. This water should be captured and stored on the land where it was rained down on. If we all had rain capture as a priority, we would not only be careful not to contaminate that water but we would have a much healthier river system and safer sewage treatment system (because we do not need to treat as much run-off)

Most locations on this planet do receive enough rain water to provide at least the drinking needs of people on a typical house lot. This water is not contaminated like the river water that is treated for water systems. There is a small amount of air-borne pollutants that get into the water (like "acid rain") but not typical pathogens found in dangerous waters. This means you can avoid chlorine and only need a pass over a carbon filter to get very clean water. If you are also being careful not to run out of water in your cistern, chances are that you will have less sewage. Composting toilets are the best way to reduce your water consumption and removes the biggest source of disease from the waste stream.

Underground aquifers are only replenished from water that soaks into the ground. The best way to get that water below the surface is to have holes in it. We have to have the return of burrowing wildlife

Rainwater catchment for family water needs will only work in some areas, not most. It is true that it is a mistake for cities to combine rainwater and sewage. Rainwater should be allowed to sink into the ground, but the sad truth is that aquifers are generally slow to recharge and being pumped out at up to hundreds of times their recharge rate. This has been going on some time.
Universal compost toilets would be nice if people would universally use them properly. A lot of water is used up by inefficient clothes and dish washers. Much is leaking from underground piping. Increases in efficiency and storage are over-matched by population growth.
Water returned from city treatment to river systems still is loaded with hormones and pharmaceuticals. Runoff from agricultural areas still has excessive fertilizer, heavy metals from their low grade and from coal plant fallout, plus animal excrement and urine that often escapes capture in heavy rains. In places like China and India it includes human wastes, too. Others, like the Mekong are full of that and industrial wastes. Over 100 estuary dead zones attest to the sad fact of river pollution.
Sure, places like Pakistan need more dams, too. The main thing needed is far fewer people. People need to get to sustainable, where use equals replenishment and pollution equals absorption.
Instead, with water, with soil, with the oceans and rivers, and with the very atmosphere and climate, people are headed toward ecocide as they continue to over-breed and not live green low carbon and ecological footprint lives. Effects are amplified into the future, and have been since the long term sustainability was reached a hundred years ago. Sustainability is going down on a planetary scale with each gallon pumped out of aquifers, each ton of coal burned, each barrel of oil burned, each child over one or none, every acre of soil depleted, and on and on..........

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
“Those Who Have the Privilege to Know Have the Duty to Act”…Albert Einstein

Lack of water means lost school time for many children and also lack of water means women spend many hours collecting water every day, sometimes from many miles away.As climate change affects communities across the world.some states are leading the way in preparing for the impacts on water resources. These states are reducing carbon pollution and planning for environment change impacts. But still now many states are not acting and remain woefully unprepared.

Where are you from? India? Africa? China? "Lack of water means lost school time for many children and also lack of water means women spend many hours collecting water every day, sometimes from many miles away." Obviously people not living in the right location and too many people in general.

_________________
"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
“Those Who Have the Privilege to Know Have the Duty to Act”…Albert Einstein

Latest on my former favorite places;
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/44598

_________________
"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
“Those Who Have the Privilege to Know Have the Duty to Act”…Albert Einstein

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Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.

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Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.