Short on water by Claudia Sonea

The blue planet is on the verge of having water problems. People have long abused of what nature offered to them, now it seems like it turned its on us for breaking the natural balance of the Universe. The epic drought in Georgia is only one of many more water crisis to come. Due to rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess, the US government expects at least 36 states to be short on water. This situation is not specific to Americans, but to people all over the world like Australia is around a 30-year dry spell, while its population is growing, especially that in urban centers of sub-Saharan Africa is straining resources. A United Nations network of scientist called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed that by 2050 up to 2 billion people will have to deal with water shortages. According to Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the Denver-based American Water Works Association a solution must be found fast before it turns into a problem. It is a challenge for water manager who will have to do go on with conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development. Also, it will be expensive, for instance experts come up with a cost for upgrading the pipes handling new supplies of about 300 billion dollars in 30 years. Concerning the amount of water consumed by people every year is registered with US Geological Survey which says that in 2000 there was a consume of 500000 gallons per person in US including residential, commercial, agriculture, manufacturing and every other use. The main causes for which Florida and California deal with water shortages are that the increasing demand and temperature that leads to the melting of glaciers that make the sea level to rise and therefore water is lost through evaporation or it is pushed into the underground source of freshwater. Florida instead of using for irrigation hundreds of billions of gallons a year of treated wastewater, it dumps everything into the Atlantic through pipes. Still Michael Sole, Florida's environmental chief, is trying to find a legal way of persuading the municipalities to reuse the wastewater. He stated that although the state is leader in reusing the water with a record of 240 billion gallons annually, it is still insufficient. There is expected a boom in population especially in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach and that may lead to water crisis. Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council says the next century will be of water efficiency and Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency supports this idea, underlining the fact that water efficiency represents the future. It is a matter of concern for everyone. What will happen? Stop wasting water and look better around you, spoiling nature gifts attracts misery upon mankind and its existence.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071027/ap_on_re_us/vanishing_water;_ylt=An56FEor3OUlYMANwrrVfiSs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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