Is there a connection between climate change and water? There certainly is.
As this is being written, devastating rains have caused catastrophic flooding in Vermont. Due to the rain, some small creeks and rivers have turned into raging rivers. Business and commerce have virtually come to a standstill, as have the lives of thousands of people.
What makes the situation even worse is that when the rains began, there was no warning to indicate how bad the situation would get. Most people in the state initially perceived it as just another typical summer rainfall event.
But according to a July 11, 2023, report in the New York Times, this type of “catastrophic flooding can increasingly happen anywhere, with almost no warning. [Further, the] United States is nowhere near ready for the threat.
The idea that anywhere it can rain, it can flood is not new. But rising temperatures worsen the problem: They allow the air to hold more moisture, leading to more intense and sudden rainfall, seemingly out of nowhere. And the implications of that shift are enormous.”
Without question, this is one of the impacts of climate change. However, while climate change produces “intense bursts” of precipitation, that does not mean water is now abundant everywhere.
According to the United Nations, the number of areas worldwide experiencing drought conditions has increased by 30 percent since the year 2000. As a result, available freshwater worldwide has fallen 22 percent in this century alone.
The study estimates that two-thirds of the global population live in areas of severe water scarcity at least one month of the year, and about half a billion people live with water scarcity continuously.
So how are countries around the world addressing this?
What most are doing, including in our own country, is pumping water from underground aquifers. However, while we readily extract this water, we are not – nor is Mother Nature – putting much back in. To see what happens when we take out more water from aquifers than we restore, we need to look no further than Mexico City.
In large parts of this city of nearly 10 million people, the ground level is sinking by half a meter (about 20 inches) annually because the aquifers are drying up. This is happening in the US as well. In parts of San Joaquin Valley in California, land levels have been sinking a startling one foot each year.
According to BBC journalist and author Tim Smedley, who recently visited Arizona, “huge earth fissures are appearing, several inches deep and up to one kilometer (more than half a mile) long.” Smedley states this is happening because the state is pumping so much water out of the ground.
So what can we do about this? Is, for instance, desalination the answer?
We’ll explore desalination in greater detail in an upcoming blog post. However, what we can say here is that desalination is an answer but not always the solution to our water-related challenges.
There is only one thing we can do, which is true today and will be valid in decades to come. We must use water more efficiently.
Water efficiency refers to the long-term reduction in water consumption. The perfect example is the transition from water-using to no-water urinals. Water is not needed to flush urinals, and because of this, these no-water urinals can save 35,000 gallons of water – or more – per year.
This is how we use water efficiently. Using water efficiently means finding ways that reduce water consumption in the long term. Such changes should help us decrease the amount of underground water we pump out of the earth, keep land levels from sinking, allow us to restore aquifers, and make us more water resilient in years to come.
Waterless Co., Inc is a pioneer in water efficiency. We are the go-to company when it comes to reducing water consumption, understanding the many benefits of waterless urinals, and finding ways to use water more efficiently. For more information, contact a Waterless Co Specialist.
