Over the Thanksgiving holiday I had a conversation with someone from Phoenix, Arizona. I asked this person what the city and the surrounding area were doing in terms of water conservation, because of the extreme drought conditions in the region. The short answer I got was "not much" considering the seriousness of the problem.
Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia initiated some public prayers on the steps of the state capital a couple of weeks ago because of the water crisis in his state.
I posted an article about Sonny back in October (The Future, Mr. Gittes: Part II). While the governor and many like him are way over their heads, we can all hope that his appeal to a "higher power" is answered because the drought in the entire region is serious.
The National Weather Service and the U.S. Drought Monitor believe, at this point, that the winter and spring of 2008 will be warmer and drier than normal, and conditions could expand in southeast Georgia by spring. The two areas of the country where "extreme" drought conditions exist are in the Southeastern U.S. and Southern California/Arizona.
We should however not get too comfortable in this part of the country. The Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world's largest underground repositories, some 225, 000 square miles and running from the High Plains of Texas, through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska is not a perpetual water machine.
The withdrawal of groundwater has now surpassed the aquifer's rate of natural recharge. We first started tapping this natural marvel in 1911. Now imagine drier weather and less precipitation throughout the Great Plains.
I put a small amount of money recently into a newly organized investment company, whose assets will go primarily to those firms engaged in new energy, agricultural technology, and water resources. It was "water resources" that really caused me to write the check.
While our planet is 70% covered by water, only 2.5% is fresh water, of which 68% is currently in the form of ice. Around one billion people on Earth today do not have access to safe drinking water and approximately 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. It's expected that water use will increase 50% in the next 30 years!
It's estimated that the cost of all maintenance and repairs for freshwater and sanitation needs in the U.S. will amount to some $1 trillion over the next 20 years. Globally we're talking about approximately $5 trillion. Think about it.
As the political season moves inexorably forward and illegal immigration drones on--at a fifth grade level--and Islamofascism is thrown out as our most important foreign policy issue, take a moment to think about water ... and what you'd do without it.
