California’s current water crisis has created what analysts and researchers are calling “fundamental changes in the way the entire West Coast will use its water.” Our fresh water comes from two basic sources: surface water seen in snowmelt or rain and ground water in aquifers or fossil water.
As with anything on this earth, the symbiosis of these water systems remains acutely connected. California’s lack of snowfall coupled with warmer than usual winters has created surface water issues in an area generally void of surface water events. This has driven supply to be drawn on aquifers, all of which have a limited lifespan. Current regulatory fallout will be only a start on restrictions in water use. Most of these restrictions are being directed toward residential use. Some of the positive programs include funding for homeowners who remove lawns for arid landscapes.
However, still the largest use of water remains agricultural, which has yet to feel the full burden of these cutbacks. California produces about 46 billion in crops, which includes half of the U.S-grown fruits, nuts, and vegetables. For this, and many more reasons, dialogue on water and water conservation moves from individuals, to California and states, and to the country as a whole and globally.
I currently have three students working on this exact conundrum in the country of Jordan for the summer. Jordanians live in a similar dry climate and, like Californians, have a dramatically rising population that demands resources. With technological advances, the ability to tap into these aquifers has created a comfortable society who uses water liberally as we all do. However, the acre-foot of water measured in their current supply in correlation to the country’s usage is closing at an astonishing rate. Projections for running out of water are measured in decades rather than millenniums.
Again, agriculture sits at the top of the food chain for supply demands due to social and economic needs. The Jordanian government is stepping back to traditional ecofriendly ways of living. We have students developing a “socioeconomic garden” demonstrating the many agricultural plants that grow natively in their climate as well as re-introducing the collection of water through cisterns supported by solar-powered pumping systems. Many of these older, yet completely acceptable ways of life have slipped from the conscious and even life-skill of a current generation. This phenomenon isn’t isolated to the Middle East or developing countries.
To think that water problems exist for people halfway around the world, across our nations, or future generations to solve is naive at best. Water, like air, remains a fundamental right to each soul that walks this earth. And water isn’t the current topic; water crisis is. Not much longer will researchers be calling for “fundamental changes in the way the entire West Coast uses its water,” rather it will be fundamental changes on how we all use our water.
Stories of Coca-Cola’s large bottling plant depleting ground water and causing Plachimada’s (Kerala, India) wells to go dry is shocking and unfortunate but not isolated. Water crises will ebb and flow but should still be seen as calls to a national movement for they foretell the future. Environmental changes, population growth, pollutants, and business, with rights over water, all begin to put pressure on our cumulative fresh water supplies.
My home west of Washington, DC, sits atop Blue Mountain. I recall a new neighbor telling a story of washing his car and having a local mountain dweller stop to scream, “The rain can wash your car, the rest of us need to drink that.” Yes, during dry summers our wells may go dry. I’ll never forget coming home with a tired one-year-old adorned in a messy diaper to find our own well dry. Our community must act united in order to preserve life’s necessities for the whole.
Nine trillion gallons of fresh water flows from 150 streams, creeks, and rivers starting in a 64,000-square-mile watershed holding more than 100,000 sources of moving water feeding our Bay. For the Bay person, water embodies an intrinsic part of our life experience. We work in it, eat from it, play in it, and we drink it.
Unfortunately solutions to the water crisis aren’t simple. The dialogue now moves globally, and it’s critical to think from a new perspective in the use of our most finite resources as no longer one-sided but more a measure in balance. Many of us know Dame Ellen MacArthur and watched her record-breaking sailing in the last decade. She now has taken on global issues and provides a unique perspective, which only a sailor could manage, on finite resources. She suggests moving from a linear approach of materiel use, seen in current trends, to a circular approach.
As sailors we leave shore with finite resources, with limited supplies. We understand more than many the heightened experience in that conservation. We have a great deal to offer to this global dialogue. We have a lot to offer to the smaller conversations in our communities and more so to the solution. Take a look at MacArthur’s TED talk. Ask yourself how does this apply to one of the most important finite resources, and how does it apply to my Bay?
Watch MacArthur's TED talk here!
About the Author: Garth Woodruff was raised on the South River and raced out of Herrington Harbor for more than 10 years. Although he works in Michigan, he still keeps a boat and home in Maryland near family.
