Drought is symptom, not illness

By Alan Briggs

Originally published in the July 21, 2002 Greensboro News & Record

The increased attention to North Carolina's drought conditions has heightened our appreciation for clean reliable water supplies. Unfortunately, this attention may also compound the existing perception that this is a passing problem rather than a challenge to our long-term plans for economic growth.

Water is, or will be, North Carolina's oil in the 21st century. All economic activity and growth in the coming years will be determined by the availability, reliability and affordability of clean water sources. Agriculture, cities and industry will be competing with personal consumption for this fundamental resource.

If this pronouncement prompts you to yawn, consider the emerging global reality. While three-quarters of the earth is covered in water, only 3 percent is fresh and over two-thirds of that is found in glaciers, icecaps or underground sources too deep to obtain. By 2015 about half of the worldıs population will live in countries with insufficient water supplies. Human population growth has pushed us to increase supply through dams, canals, wells and aqueducts, but the absolute limit of fresh water supplies remains constant.

Surely that doesn't apply to us in the southeastern United States or here in North Carolina does it? Yes, it does. Long before drought became a staple headline in our daily news, Greensboro and other North Carolina cities such as Asheville, Concord, Cary and Chapel Hill regularly imposed water usage restrictions. Aquifers in the Cape Fear River basin are dropping 8-10 feet per year. Virginia is diverting water from the Roanoke River. Even in a relatively "wet" state and region we face the same challenges as the rest of the world.

Agriculture uses twice as much of the nation's water as all the buildings, industry and mining combined. What does this bode for our state where agriculture is the No. 1 industry? How can we encourage industries fleeing declining water supplies in other areas to migrate here if we lack sufficient water, too? By taking the challenge seriously and acting accordingly.

Homes and offices use 12 percent of all freshwater withdrawals. The typical home uses 70 gallons per person per day. One flush of a standard U.S. toilet uses more water than most individuals in the world use for all their needs in a day. How can we reduce that? New units flush 1.6 gallons as opposed to the old 5-7 gallons. Newer separator toilets in use in Europe separate liquids for fertilizer and solids for composting further eliminating the massive consumption of water and expense of municipal waste treatment systems.

Showers traditionally used 6-8 gallons per minute. New showerheads can be just as forceful at 1- 1.5 gallons per minute. Newer faucets in sinks provide similar efficiency improvements. Washing clothes in standard horizontal axis machines consumes 23 percent of indoor water use. Vertical axis machines, common overseas and in laundromats here, use 40-75 percent less water, clean more thoroughly and are easier on clothes: no agitating; no tangling.

Farmers in Texas are using wired gypsum cubes embedded in the root zone and attached to meters that indicate soil moisture levels. This allows more even watering, more efficient watering schedules and reduces runoff. Over the last twenty years Gillette has reduced the water used in producing razor blades by 96 percent. A new breed of service contractors is emerging who will choose, install and maintain energy and water efficient technologies in homes, businesses and public buildings in exchange for a share of the savings.

Government can stimulate efficiency, too. The city of Cary is using "graywater" (from sinks and showers) to provide homeowners and landscapers with water for irrigation. The city of Greensboro is selling barrels to enable citizens to harvest rainwater. Denver, Colorado even provides incentive payments to businesses based on how much water they save. The answer to decreasing water supplies will not be through increasing availability but through efficiency. North Carolina can position itself to use our relative abundance of water to ensure a viable economic future by acknowledging water's vital role, planning for future demands and developing state policies on sustainable water usage. South Africa has a national water-policy whose goal is, "Some, for all, forever." North Carolina will prosper and grow if it adopts a policy with a similar goal.


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