Water Crisis Now & ‘Future: “Water crisis rocks L.A., Mexico City; who’s next? is the title of the Martin Sieff piece at upi.com this past 4/10/09. The article discusses the critical and diminishing resource of fresh water, it’s effects on 40 million people in and around the U.S. and how it’s likely to impact us in the future. Here are some key points:

• “Water crisis are rocking two of the world’s largest cities as Mexico City starts a 36 hour water cutoff and Los Angeles is in the midst of a water dearth.”
• “The problem, however, is far wider than two of the most populous cities in the Western Hemisphere. “… An unprecedented world population of 6.8 billion people (and adding a U.S. population number every four years or so -PH) … and the inescapable reality of global climate change are guaranteed to make the long term crisis worse.”
• The Mexico City cutoff effecting 5 million people was brought about by the need to “…fix a leaky supply system and to ease — somewhat — a supply problem that began when the lakes that once flooded the city were drained 409 years ago.”
• “In Los Angeles, the City Council unanimously turned back a rationing plan Wednesday that had been put together by the city’s Department of Water and Power, which is caught between the council and a statewide order from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cut usage 20%.
• “If the city fails to take action, the agency that supplies the bulk of water to Los Angeles could impose rationing.”
• “U.S. cities are going to be hugely vulnerable to water shortages within the next five to 10 years. There’s a huge aquifer under several states in the Midwest. The aquifer, tapped primarily for agriculture, has been depleted over the past couple of decades and is a future crisis waiting to happen.”
• “… CNN cited a recent American Society of Civil Engineers report that concluded more than 1,800 U.S. dams are in urgent need of reconstruction work and pose a significant risk of being breached.
• “…Repairing dams and leaky pipes is not sexy. It is not cutting edge technology. …. It’s only a matter of life and death for 300 million Americans.”

Finally, we’re providing some additional resources for your personal research:

Water Crisis Websites:

www.water.org

www.usaid.gov – Water Crisis

California Water Crisis – calwatercrisis.com

Nature.com – Global Water Crisis

Water Crisis Books:

When the Rivers Run Dry: Water–The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water

Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It

Not a Drop to Drink: America’s Water Crisis (and What You Can Do)

Beginning Preparations At The Family Level: A lot of the U.S. is in drought now and in our area, cities are tapping into a river that many local citizens thought of almost as a preserve several years ago. Water resources, among a host of others, are being rapidly depleted and we must begin to adjust our lives and lifestyles to this fact.

In beginning preparations at the family level for these coming changes we look to some basic information provided in Appendix A: Water Conservation Tips of the excellent, and previously recommended, FEMA booklet “Are You Ready? An in-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness”

This booklet is foundational in family preparedness and is FREE. It is available by calling FEMA at 1-800-BE-READY or by going to Department of Homeland Security web site: www.ready.gov.

Until the end of the week then, keep your eyes on the horizon as the weather’s changing fast.

Although the article is a work designed to inform the investor, the excellent background context for the investment advice in very pertinent to the home gardener. Here’s what we mean;

1. The critical shortage of fresh water worldwide is described as the “worst crisis of all time” and is the result of: 1. The global financial and credit crisis, 2. Ongoing world modernization that is increasing water demand and pollution, and 3.Major droughts around the world including the U.S. which is officially in drought over 60% of the country (While not specifically mentioned in the article, many of the world’s hardest hit areas are also the largest food producing countries such as Australia and Argentina).
2. In pulling some specific U.S. water situation information from the article we note that the ground water in the U.S. in being consumed “ … at a rate 25% faster than it is being replenished.” and that currently “…the Western U.S. is experiencing it’s worst drought in 500 years.” and that while agricultural irrigation accounts for 70% of fresh water use it is only 35-50% of that water that “…actually helps grow crops.”

‘Wise Water Use’: Prudent Home concludes: The bottom line is that water is such a critical resource that the home gardener must take the view that wherever one lives, “drought gardening”, with its emphasis on water conservation techniques, is the only reasonable and sustainable approach to home gardening.

What-you-can-do and ’How’: Drought Gardening: We’re going to use as our guideline, a University of Vermont Extension Department of Plant and Soil Science post (pss.uvm.edu/ppp/pubs/oh72drought.htm) that contains about three pages of key information that could generally be applied to almost any location. We recommend that you contact your county extension service and state university for guidelines more specific to your geographic area. Here are some of the keys:

• With the help of your county extension service, state university, and seed catalog, search for plant varieties specific to your geographic area with drought resistance as one of your considerations.
• When watering: water early either manually (our preference), or use soaker hoses or drip systems combined with mulching to reduce water loss.
• Water deeply and less often (we water at least once/day early) noting that “One inch of water will wet a sandy soil to a depth of about 12 inches.
• Save water by using “gray” water from your dishes, washers, beginning shower use, window A/C’s, and dehumidifiers.
• Collect water from gutters and down spouts (rain barrels are best but clean garbage cans or buckets will do) for garden use (watering cans-manual watering- are a natural fit to these collection techniques).
• Mulch 3-4 inches with organic matter, ie. Straw (or dried grass clippings). This helps water retention in soil and leave a 4 inch space around the plant for watering and fertilization. Newspaper works great too with mulch on top. These efforts reduce weeds and the necessity for soil surface disturbance from hoeing and weeding thus aiding in water retention.
• Work organic matter into the soil (compost) to aid in water retention and add nutrients.
• Fertilize with organic fertilizers as they help water retention and soil humus.
• Use natural pesticides, as they’re effective and less stressful to plants, as needed only.

Notice that what we’ve described here are essentially organic and sustainable gardening methods for the home garden. They are the basic basics so learn and do more. Good luck!

Until the end of the week, keep your eyes on the horizon as there’s weather moving in.

First: A year ago 56% of consumers thought that the economy was in good shape with 43% believing the economy to be in poor shape. Currently, 75% believe the economy is in poor shape while 25 % think it’s on good shape.

Second: Home prices have fallen an average of 15.4% year to date.

Third: An increasing number of economists are worried more about inflation than mortgage and credit market problems.

SERIOUS FOOD CONCERNS: SurvivalBlog.com has posted a two part article, August 23 & 24, by Richard Heinberg entitled “ What Will We Eat as the Oil Runs Out? “. Mr. Heinberg is an author and a research fellow of Post Carbon. Org.

The article discusses four major areas of concern in future food production: 1. “…direct impacts on agriculture of higher oil prices”, 2.”…indirect consequences of high oil prices-the increased demand for biofuels”, 3. “… the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events…” , and 4. “… the degradation or loss of basic natural resources (principally, topsoil and fresh water supplies) …”

Proposed solutions are discussed and provide a lot of food for thought.

Just a word here about SurvivalBlog.com: It is, in our opinion, an excellent source of high quality survival information and worthy of a daily read. It is presented by James Wesley Rawles, an author, former U.S. Army intelligence officer, and (by all accounts) a Christian gentleman.

GARDENING: There are at least four good reasons to garden:

1. Economic: the food you produce will be cheaper now and if you save the seeds from your open-pollinated production, it will be even cheaper in the future as you plant these next season.
2. Safety: the most recent, in a long line of food safety concerns, involved peppers imported from Mexico. A quick look the time required to determine the source of the contamination serves the point.
3. Food, like just about everything else in our economy, is controlled by a just-in-time inventory system. This translates into a roughly three day supply food in your grocery store under the best conditions. The prudent family can initially fall back on its stored foods to get by in the short run but then what?
4. Finally, Independence. Organic production of fruits, vegetables, and grains with it’s minimal dependence on fossil fuels, provides a key element in family security. Without food production there can be no long term food security.

Again, please take the time to read Richard Heinberg’s two part article at SurvivalBlog.com as mentioned above.

We really wanted to provide some specific sources for the family, gardening under space and climate restrictions today but felt that the SurvivalBlog.com article we mentioned above along with our rationale for gardening in general was more important. Friday, 8/29, we’ll try to cover more gardening specifics.

Until next week, keep your eyes on the horizon.