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Not Just in the Third World

United StatesSam Parker, Carrboto High School
April 6, 2011

NEWS

“You don’t just get all the water you want,” says Becky Glenn of Silver City, New Mexico of the water regulation program based on the acquisition of “water rights,” “You have to need the water.”

All over the southwestern United States, states and counties are instituting new programs based around the regulation of water resources to combat the dwindling availability of the liquid gold we know as water. Because of rising temperature, droughts, population growth, urban sprawl, and waste, 36 states have been predicted by the federal government to experience water crisis in the next five years . Among those states are much of the southwest: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Water is a finite resource; there is as much as it today as there was 100 million years ago. Water cannot be created, nor can it be destroyed. Out of all the water in the world, only 2.5% of that is fresh water, and less than 1% of it is readily accessible for direct human use . The only thing that is changeable is how much is used, and with the world’s population expected to increase by 40-50% in the next 50 years , the demand for water is rapidly increasing. With a greater demand for water, and the inability to satisfy it, everyone, not only developing countries, is feeling the strain.

In fact, even prosperous, powerful nations, such as the United States, are experiencing water crisis. Where developing countries with weak governments struggle to supply sanitary water, the United States and other powerful nations are beginning to struggle to supply enough water to sustain their country. With the increases in population, the spread of urban areas, and the growth of the agriculture industry, the water resources that used to be able to supply all the water the United States needed are now not able to do so. The United States depends on water in order to maintain the wealth and the power of the country; the value of the crops in counties labeled as at-risk for water crisis alone exceeded over 105 billion US dollars . Without water, the United States will be unable to continue its economic and industrial growth.

In order to sustain the nation’s water demand, many states, particularly in the southwest, have been establishing water regulation programs, one of them being the allotting of “water rights” to the citizens.

In New Mexico, water rights are given out in the form of acreage. After you install and register a Totalizing Flow Meter, which reads the amount of water you use, officials from the state engineering department come to your house and measure the amount of land that is reliant on watering, such as a lawn or a flowerbed. The total acreage of the land that depends on watering is added up, along with the amount of water used in the house (as read by the meter) and one is allotted water rights for that number of acres.

“You would think it would be smart to plant trees, because they need a large amount of water to survive in a place like New Mexico, which is considered to be ‘desert land’,” Becky Glenn responded. “But actually, it would be smarter to plant grass. Why? Because the grass takes up more space. Even though my husband and I didn’t plan on planting a lawn when we moved here, we are seriously thinking about planting the grass, installing some sprinklers, and letting the water flow!”

The program has been able to determine how much water the citizens need, and then provides the needed amount, which gives the government solid figures on where and how much water is used. Although, there have been reports that the process of justifying the amount of allotted water rights has led some people to actually be excessive in their use of water in order to ‘justify’ the need for more water rights.

“In order to justify their water rights, some people deliberately waste and use more water. They leave their faucets on, they run water-using appliances frequently, anything to be given more water,” says Glenn. “I’ve actually been told that I should raise a herd of Pigmy goats, so I can ask for more water.”
Glenn also said, “Here in Silver City, it is illegal to conserve water with the use of rain buckets. At first I was irritated, because I, being a very natural person, wanted to conserve water in any way I could. But I realized, now that the use of water is regulated and given out, if people keep rain water, then that’s preventing that water from going back into the aquifers and the rivers that the city uses, so essentially using rain buckets would be stealing water from everyone else.”
The water rights also have monetary value. When water is such a scarcity in southwestern states like Arizona, and New Mexico, the demand for water is greatly increased. This need for water opened up a market for the buying and selling of water rights.

“The water rights do have value. People need water and are willing to pay for it, and others are willing to sell some of their rights. We have a quarter of an acre of water rights that have been given to us for our property. If we found that we didn’t need all of that quarter of an acre of water, we could sell, say, an eighth of our quarter of an acre of rights to someone,” Glenn said.

The rules and specifications of water rights may differ from place to place in the southwest, but the message is the same: Water crisis, even in the United States, is a potential problem, and if we cannot regulate our water usage, then we will have shortages. A country as immense and powerful as the United States relies on water, just like everyone else.

Glenn, Rebecca P. (Resident, Silver City, New Mexico). Telephone interview. April 1, 2011.

Skoloff, Brian. Many States Seen Facing Water Shortages. Rep. Huffpost Politics. Web. 1 Apr. 2010. .

"UN-Water Statistics - Water Resources." Welcome to UN-Water. Web. 01 Apr. 2011. .

"Water Crisis." World Water Council. Web. 01 Apr. 2011. .

"1 in 3 U.S. Counties Face Water Risk From Climate Change." UK Business News, UK Financial News | IBTimes. 27 July 2010. Web. 01 Apr. 2011. .



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Tags: water crisis, new mexico, water rights, globalwater

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