Not a Drop to Drink:
Our Looming Global Water Crisis
Not a few years from now, but today, we are facing an unprecedented catastrophe in the planet’s water supply. For drinking, for agriculture, and for preservation of wildlife and the global environment, we are confronted with critical water shortages on an unprecedented scale. Our response to this crisis will literally determine the future, not just of populations in the most severely threatened areas, but of our species and of the earth as we know it. Solutions are at hand if we can only come together to cooperate in implementing them.
The Glass Really Is Half Empty
In 2018 Cape Town, South Africa, a city of over 4 million, ran out of water. The city government announced that on “Day Zero” residents would have no running water in their homes and businesses. People lined up at communal stations to collect a daily water ration. The crisis was only averted at the last minute, in part by the arrival of exceptional storms.
Growing Food in the Desert
Unlike many global problems today, the drinking water shortage has clear solutions. Most of the world’s fresh water use is not for drinking, but for agriculture—perhaps as much as 80%–making agriculture the most promising focus for water conservation.
Water, Hard and Soft
In the 20th century, massive dams, aqueducts, and centralized treatment plants dominated water planning. This infrastructure produced some of the most important developments in human history, notably a great reduction in water-related diseases and deaths. But negative consequences of this “hard” infrastructure have led us toward a new, “soft” approach.