absolut_joe's Blog
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Water – How can we help others when we can’t help ourselves?
- Posted on 02.16.09
I’m having a hard time with the constant “drought” situation in the Western U.S. There seems to be obvious solutions that are not being utilized or thought of. How can we realistically try to help provide clean drinking water in other nations when we are unwilling to take such simple steps in our own?
1. Waste – I live in Los Angeles and see water running down the streets every day from their timed sprinklers. Medians and highway sides seem to have the best grass in the city. The first appalling factor here is that they don’t seem to control this watering schedule to account for seasonality or volume of water. That’s not taking into account the fact that they still turn on if it’s raining outside. The second issue is that, if we are truly in a drought situation, we don’t need grass on the sides of highways or in the middle of medians AT ALL. How can there be advertisements telling citizens to cut back when the local government does not?
2. Price – Have you ever heard someone complain about their water bill? If you are not someone who is constantly watering your lawn or filling up a pool, you are likely not affected much by your monthly water bill. If we are in a drought, why can’t we raise prices to help curb usage? People do complain about their electricity bill in the summers from air conditioning, which leads to people cutting back. Why can’t this idea be applied to water? Not only would higher prices lead to the cutting back of usage, but it would make water a more profitable investment, thus leading to more investment in clean water technology. Win/Win.
Related causes: Environment
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Absolutely. Where water is subsidized by keeping prices lot, you are actively encouraging waste. When it finally gets adjusted to supply and demand we're in for a huge shock.