And not a drop to drink?

Is this where we are heading? I see so much being written about climate change, which is obviously a big problem, but comparatively little about water change. Of course, climate and water are closely related, but it seems to me that our water problems might be our biggest ones.

I am obviously not an expert here, but there are some things that I think about:

1. Rising seas, largely as a result of melting ice caps and glaciers, threaten not only coast lines, but larger swaths of land and even the existence of some islands. We read about the potential of rising seas on islands particularly on the Atlantic Coast, and only coastal cities, such as Charleston SC and Miami. They seem inevitable. Houses are even now crashing into the sea on the western coast of Nantucket Island, and every coastal storm causes a rise in sea levels that is a bigger threat than the wind to coastal buildings.
2. We hear about some independent nations in the Pacific and Indian oceans, such as Vanatu, Kiribat, Tuvalu and the Maldives, being under threats to their very existence by rising seas.
3. We see that every year, at least 25% of the comparatively large nation of Bangladesh is flooded, and that the flooded area will be undoubtedly increasing in the size in future years.
4. We read about glaciers melting in Greenland and Antarctica, among other places, with the potential result being a significant rise in sea levels word wide.
5. At the same time, we see interior glaciers melting in various parts of the world, causing immediate extensive floods, but portending the possibility of insufficient melting and consequently insufficient water flow in the future.
6. We read of increasing desertification in various parts of the world, perhaps the rest in parts of Africa, which will lead to large areas becoming uninhabitable and to mass out migration.
7. We read about rivers which are flowing at record lows, especially lately the mighty Mississippi, and certainly the Colorado in the western U.S., and we see the dangerously low levels of western lakes, such as Lake Mead, near Las Vegas, and Shasta Lake in California.
8. We see that areas in this country, which are at peril for water shortage, such as Nevada and Arizona, continuing to grow in population.
9. And of course we see continuing droughts, often with no signs of near time reversal.

Clearly, there are people who are worried about this in all places where water shortages. But it is difficult (a) to come up with solutions on which a sufficient number of people would agree, (b) come up with solutions that necessary organizations, corporations and governments would be willing to implement, and (c) come up with solutions that are affordable and do not have untold unexpected consequences.

Most countries are currently failing at these. One country which has been able to meet the challenge so far is Israel. In Israel, all water is the property of the government, irrespective of its source, and its distribution is controlled by the government, but it is kept completely out of politics. It is viewed as a natural resource. Israel reuses almost all of its water, not only water available from storm drainage, but also water from sewage. It is all purified and reused for various specific purposes – sewage water may, for example, be used for irrigation but not for drinking water. In addition, Israel has agreements with some of its neighbors, particularly Jordan, to share water resources, some of which is found in aquifers which are shared by the two countries. And, Israel has a very sophisticated desalination process, converting sea water to usable water. And it is reversing desertification. All of this is discussed in fascinating detail in Seth Siegel’s book “Let There Be Water”, which I highly recommend.

Yes, Israel is ahead of most of the rest of the world. Whether it will stay that way, we will see. And the entire world has a massive challenge. And I, for one, am not at all certain that it can meet it. It requires cooperation, reliable scientific knowledge, financial solutions, and common sense. Do we have any of that now?