Water is one of the most important natural resources; we literally can’t live without it. We use it everyday. In fact, the average American uses 101 gallons of water each day. Where does all this water come from? Well, of the approximately 333 million cubic miles of water on earth, 97% is found the oceans, 2% is locked up in glaciers and polar ice caps, and only 1% is accessible to us as freshwater found in rivers, lakes, and as groundwater. However, these reservoirs are being depleted at an alarming rate.
As Americans, it can be easy to ignore this issue, especially if you live in one of the states with high precipitation levels. We find it difficult to identify with the 884 million people in the world who don’t have access to safe drinking water. The majority of the nation’s population doesn’t know what it means to depend on rain so that they can eat and make a living. Contrarily, they most likely view rain as a nuisance that disrupted their plans for a weekend at the beach.
Still, there are many reasons for us to be concerned. Signs of water stress are visible in the United States, as those from California and Florida can testify. Major rivers, such as the Rio Grande and the Colorado are low, no longer flowing to their final destinations. As global citizens, we have reason to be interested in the conditions of our home, planet Earth. From an ethical perspective, this means that we should be concerned regarding the welfare of our fellow citizens, including those in Africa and the Middle East who are dying as a result of infection and diseases acquired from drinking contaminated water. From a practical perspective, there is a finite amount of water on this planet that we all have to share. It is tempting to then choose to act in a way such as to collect as much water for ourselves, leaving as little as possible for the others. However, such a mindset may end up backfiring because if the world’s population continues to grow at its exponential rate, all the water may be used up. Jeffery D. Sachs, in his book Common Wealth, describes the relationship between water scarcity and war. Not only does water scarcity lead to conflicts within unstable countries, but it could also very easily develop into war between multiple countries that are competing for the same reservoir. They need water, not only for human consumption, but also for crop irrigation. In fact, 70% of water usage is devoted to agriculture.
No one can predict what will happen in future years, but that is no reason to stop us from taking conservative measures now to improve water management in an effort to stabilize water usage. As Americans, we like to be independent, we don’t like having someone tell us when we can wash our car or water our lawn. However, the reality is that as living beings, we have an impact on our environment, and we can choose today to either move towards sustainability or away from it.
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