The Water Economy – Is The Well Almost Dry?

Do We Live In a Water Economy?

Most of us take for granted that we have access to water whenever we want, all we have to do is turn on a faucet and water comes spilling out in seemingly endless supply. It is impossible to run out of water right? Well yes and no. On a global scale there is just as much water as there has ever been. So the short answer is no, we are not running out of water in the literal sense.

About 3 billion cubic feet of water falls on the land surfaces of the planet per year, to put this into perspective that would cover all of the land masses on this planet with about 3 inches of water, this might not seem like a lot, but consider that the above sea level surface area of earth is about 57,500,000 square miles.

Now take that 3 billion cubic feet number and cut that in half because of evaporation and water taken up by trees, grass and other plant life. About 50 million cubic feet of the remaining 1.5 billion cubic feet of water flows out to the oceans and makes it undrinkable. So this leaves 1 billion cubic feet of drinkable water that falls on the surface area of earth each year.

Around 10%of that water is used to grow our crops, personal use, for industrial use and to generate electricity. All of that water eventually evaporates and continues the never ending fresh water cycle.

Why Is That So Bad?

So how can we be running out of clean water when the earth gives us 900,000,000 cubic feet a year?

Water isn’t evenly distributed throughout the planet; geographic location and topography dictate where water is more likely to evaporate and where it will fall. Another factor is population, not all regions require the same amount of water.

Even though earth is 70% water people still don’t have enough clean water to drink, of the 300 million trillion gallons of water on earth, only 3 percent of that is fresh water, and of that 3% a little over 2% is taken up in iceberg’s and glaciers… basically it’s frozen.

This means that all of the rivers, streams, lakes, aquifers and groundwater expected to sustain the 7 billion people on Earth make up less than one percent of the total water on the planet.

Global water consumption has tripled in the last 50 years. A family of 4 can use 400 gallons a day, that’s just a “little” more than the minimum 1 gallon per day required for person use. In the United States the demand for fresh water will exceed its supply by 40% before the year 2030, according to a State Department report . Water scarcity results from short and long term droughts and human activity, using an average of 100 gallons a day per person only makes the problem much worse, much quicker.

It is difficult to estimate an exact amount of water needed for an individual, but I’m pretty sure that 100 gallons a day might be overdoing it. There is no question that adequate hydration is important, as water is a critical nutrient for survival, and your individual needs will vary based on age, gender, weight, health, and physical activity levels along with numerous environmental factors  such as temperature and humidity. But this is an example of how complaisant and ignorant to the problem.

The Water Economy

Water can be both a social and an economic good. Access to clean water is fundamental to survival and critical for reducing the prevalence of many water-related diseases. Civilizations have been built and crumbled because of water supply; a small community can be turned into a thriving city because of running water and vise versa.

This requires governmental action, oversight, or regulation. Because water is important for economic development and essential for life and health, it has often been provided free, and makes water available to even the poorest segments of society. This is what a government is supposed to do; a government should be working on building a thriving society, not trying micro managing every aspect of our lives.

Frustration over the failure to meet basic needs for water for all people in the last century has led to a rethinking of national water priorities and policies. Among these is the potential value of applying more economic principles. The International Conference on Water and Environment in January of 1992 defined 4 principals for valuing water, one of which is…

“To manage water in a way that reflects its economic, social, environmental and cultural values for all its uses, and to move towards pricing water services to reflect the cost of their provision. This approach should take account of the need for equity and the basic needs of the poor and the vulnerable.”

The United Nations clearly feels that economics must play a part in efficient water management…

“Integrated water resources management is based on the perception of water as an integral part of the ecosystem, a natural resource, and a social and economic good.”

Treating water as an economic good, and privatizing water systems are not new ideas. Private entrepreneurs, investor-owned utilities have provided water or water services in different parts of the world for some time now. But my question is where does this lead? Who will take advantage of this, and when will the government feel like they need to jump in and save us?

This all seems a little similar to national health care and it seems like it could be a way for our government to once again control our lives by telling us that we have too much water and it needs to be shared with the less fortunate.

What We Should Be Doing

Unfortunately I don’t see a solution to this problem other than government regulation and more privatization of water. People don’t worry about a problem until it is staring them in the face, and as long as water is freely flowing out of their faucets at a cost of almost nothing they will not concern themselves with how much water they use. I’m not even sure most people know that you can only survive for 3 to 5 day without water.

This is why storing water, knowing how to collect water and filter water is so important. If water becomes undrinkable we will need to know not only how to get water, but how to make that water drinkable.

Not everyone will have the option to put a 1000 gallon water tank in their back yard, and even if you do have that option you will need to protect it. It’s not like you can hide a 1000 gallon tank under your bed, and once the water is gone people will do whatever it takes to survive, and if they know you have a year’s worth of water stockpiled you become a target.

I’m not going to go into all of the different ways to purify water or make a water catchment in this post but there are so many valuable resources available out there that you can learn from. All you have to do is a little bit of research about what options you possibly have given your individual circumstances.

Not having enough water or not having a way to filter that water could make everything that you have prepped irrelevant, If you can’t survive three days it doesn’t matter how much food you have stockpiled.

Dale

SurvivalistPrepper.net