Red State Green

But not a drop to drink. Or so goes the poem.

Most of us get water from the tap and think nothing of it. But there’s only so much fresh water in the world at any given time, and with more and more people comes more of a strain on our fresh water resources.

What if something went wrong with the water treatment plant? Or there was a serious drought, to the point where there was water rationing? Many communities in the US are facing this right now. What would you do?

You’d water less. Some plants might die. If you have a garden set up (you remember, food supply?) this could cause a problem.

Many of us who grew up in the southwest US have experienced water rationing. Everyone who lived through Katrina can tell you it’s not always the dry areas that have drinking water shortages. Too much rain and flooding can overload sewer systems and lead to contamination of tap water.

Lack of water is actually a much more serious issue than lack of food. You can live six weeks without food, only six days (at the most, and the last three days won’t be pleasant) without water. Babies, the sick and the elderly do the worst, and every summer, hundreds of people die from dehydration even with adequate water supplies. With rationing, the problems only worsen.

Water shortages affect more than just your drinking water supply. Drought affects our ability to produce food. We already touched on the need to secure your food supply.

Now water shortages and rationing isn’t in the same league with a real water crisis, where there’s no clean water to be had. But the government doesn’t want to be accused of ‘crying wolf’, so they don’t do what they need to do, which is improve our water infrastructure before that serious of a situation presents itself.

I believe we should be prudent and take steps in advance to make sure our families and homes aren’t threatened by lack of water, and encourage our neighbors to do the same. Here’s some things you might consider doing:

• Conserve fresh water everywhere you can. I’ve put some essays on the “Further Reading” page but all you have to do is use Google and you can find many websites with tips.
• Stock up on water. There are many ways to do this for emergency use, but I wouldn’t rely on that for a long-term solution.
• Look into ways you can use your greywater (non-toilet waste water, such as from baths, dishes, etc.). This can go into the garden in most cases, or into the compost bin if greasy.
• Plant drought-tolerant landscaping that you don’t have to water much, if at all. This is called xeriscaping.
• Consider a rainwater harvesting system, especially if you garden. A simple downspout collection system can be set up for less than a hundred dollars. The major cost is for the containers, and often food processing factories have large food-quality drums they’re willing to give away or sell cheaply.
• Some people have begun to install composting toilets that don’t use water at all.

Have you ever thought about conserving water? What things might you like to try?