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  • From: Scott Chilcote <scottchilcote AT earthlink.net>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] Duke and UNC water astroturf fields
  • Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:05:39 -0400

Michael Czeiszperger wrote:
We do pay for water, just not enough given that its becoming scarce. Say the local governments decide to follow your advice and charge enough to reduce consumption for most people, the side effect is that any price sufficient to make the average person conserve would mean that water would become much more expensive for the poor, and using water would be become a symbol of wealth, both with unintended consequences. Instead, we've taken the tact of making water relatively cheap, and are using voluntary bans, peer pressure, and minor penalties to restrict usage.

It very well may be that your suggestion may work, but do we really want to make it so that a green lawn is a sign of wealth? Wouldn't that simply lead to people using even more water to show they can afford it?

It's not the fact that we don't charge enough for water that makes us wasteful. It's the inefficient water systems that we use. We spend a huge amount of money and energy making water pure enough to drink, and then use only a tiny fraction of that as drinking water. The rest is used to flush away wastes, water lawns, and wash stuff.

At a larger scale our water purification systems are haphazard at best. On some of our major rivers, communities downriver pay extra to remove waste products added to the water by industries upriver. There's no coordination or cooperation.

Compared to the advances we've made in using electricity, our water use is still in the stone age. Washing machines and flush toilets that use water more efficiently have been on the market for several years, but they're more expensive and are only beginning to interest consumers. The decision whether to use them is most often made buy builders who have no incentive to pay for them, so when they are purchased they're typically replacements for worn out, old equipment.

Rainwater and gray water collection systems could solve a lot of our water usage problems. The knowledge we have today could make our use of water a whole lot more efficient. Increasing the amount of research on using water efficiently would help even more. Other countries where water is more scarce are well ahead, so we could gain a lot just from seen what they're doing.

--
Scott C.




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