For Release August 21, 2001

The Water Wars are Coming

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

I spent the last two weeks in the American southwest. As I often do on these trips, I spent a lot of time observing, listening and reading. The parts of New Mexico and Arizona that we visited were in the middle of their monsoon season and were very lush and green, relatively speaking. But it became very apparent to me, that the entire United States, and probably most of the world, is heading in to a period of water wars, the likes of which none of us can imagine.

We can all complain and gripe about the price of energy the past year or so. But the price of energy may become trivialized when the water wars start hitting in the next 25 years. Let’s acknowledge the biological facts. We all need clean fresh water and we have all that we are ever going to have, on this planet, right now. There isn’t any more being made, it is simply being cycled around and around and around.

We live in an area that is fairly water rich. Some years we don’t have enough rainfall, some years too much. But in general, we can pretty well keep up with our needs. We are in a rare situation but we can’t become too complacent. Take a moment and think about where the rapidly growing population centers are around the United States; Florida, south Texas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, southern California. What do these locations all have in common? Lot’s of sunshine and limited water.

While spending time in Albuquerque and Tucson I saw a lot of advertising on water conservation. There were many newspaper stories about water shortages and water rights and water issues. Many of the citizens and the local government are aware of the problem. Their growth is outstripping their available water.

The city of Las Vegas has been buying up water rights all through the state of Nevada. Entrepreneurs are trying to not only buy water rights in some states, but they are planning on how to pipe the water to wherever it is needed. There have even been attempts to trade water futures like we do stocks. Remember the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when Wichita wanted to put a pipeline into Milford Lake? Water supply decisions like that are nearing reality in other states. How long will it be before water is being piped across three or four states to the highest bidder?

Unfortunately, in the long run, redistribution of water resources won’t be the answer. It becomes important for all of us to learn to get by on less water. I can think of a couple of leaky faucets in my house that I have to get fixed. But that’s just a one time fix. Sure, it helps, but what we need in the long run is a change in our societal attitude.

For years, the American dream has been of each family having their own home, and with it a landscape that is basically a modified English garden. This isn’t England. We need to start matching our landscapes to the locations we live. More and more new homes in the southwestern United States are going to a desert oriented landscape. If they have any turf at all, it’s limited and in the backyard. What do you suppose is a good naturalistic landscape for a Kansas home?

We’re all in this together; homeowners, industry, agriculture and government. Water supplies will become tighter for all of us. We will, for example, look at rainwater runoff as a resource to be used, not a nuisance to get rid of. It will become imperative that we look upon all water as a valuable commodity to be guarded and used wisely. Water is not a right of life, but it is a requirement!

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