For over a decade I have unwaveringly chanted my mantra to all who will listen; There is no shortage of water in the world, there has never been a shortage of water in the world, and there will never be a shortage of water in the world.
Those who would argue with me readily point to geographies where the citizens are starved of water. However, the reasons that individuals in certain parts of the world are without water has absolutely nothing to do with climate and rainfall, and everything to do with poor water management, or in the case of the United States, no water management. It is not a failure of the Earth that we over build available resources, fail to invest in new infrastructure to keep up with changing demographics and population, and underutilize existing resources.
Joe Biden has suggested reducing the water that California, Nevada, and Arizona draw from the Colorado River. How will that help people? How will that bring more water to people? You see, bringing more and more water to the people is the only goal of water management. The Earth is 3/4 covered by water, and yet people are without water.
- California is experiencing record rainfalls of up to 160% of normal yet has not build sufficient reservoirs to catch this water, bring it to the people, and bring relief to the Colorado River
- California sits on the ocean yet is woefully weak in the construction and use of desalination plants, which would also help people and bring relief to the Colorado River.
- The Great Lakes contain roughly six quadrillion gallons of fresh water, 1/5 the worlds supply of fresh water, yet there are no pipelines taking precious water to Americans who need it
- The government is adding new regulations to limit the concentration of new contaminants such as PFAS, but has no plan to fund water infrastructure to deal with this.
Make no mistake, our water is being fatally mismanaged.