Save water! Notes on the World Water Forum in Mexico City.

I heard on the radio sometime ago that thousands of Ethiopians were dying because they didn't have enough water to drink because of the region's prolonged drought. Can you imagine not having enough water to drink let alone to bathe and wash with?

I was talking to a friend who lives in New Mexico about their drought situation. Apparently their aquifer is not being replenished because of the low volume of water of the Rio Grande. He also mentioned that the farmers were the big users of water amounting to about 80% of the total use. He was also upset that gray water collection systems were not being installed in new construction when it would be the easiest time to install tanks, pumps and cisterns underground.

He said they have a little ditty to remember not to flush everytime to save water..."if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down". Kinda yucky but we do it in New Jersey too even if we have ample water. A friend from Philadelphia was aghast that we would try to save water in NJ - I even bucket out bath water to flush the toilet...the yuck factor was too much for him! "We have lot's of water so why go through all the trouble to save such a small amount?". Well, our water resources are being stretched and who knows what global warming will do to the amount of rainfall we get. We already went through a drought about 5 years ago so we save water. I wish there were someway to easily use the unsoapy shower water to water the garden.

Here's a couple of articles that tells about the problems of heavy use of water by farms. I guess it's easier to spray it on, let it run in irrigation ditches or flood fields than using the more labor intensive drip irrigation.

From the Environmental News Network and Wired News & AP.