Water Woes

Who is Thirsty?

58% of California experienced “exceptional drought” conditions in July 2014

Almost 50% of Nevada is currently in “extreme drought”

Oklahoma & Texas – large pockets in “extreme drought”

Rising cost of water will bring far-reaching effects to the US economy

Why?

Unique ecological and weather pattern issues

Mismanagement of existing water resourcesCreating ever expanding cities, farms, & golf courses

across parched regions has generated a new, and at times, a massive demand for water

Lake Mead Located 24 miles SE of the Las

Vegas Strip

Supplies water and hydro power via the Hoover Dam to multiple states

Generates 4.2 billion KWh annually for the whole Las Vegas metro area & SW region

96% of the water is from melted snow that fell in CO, UT, NM, WY

Lake recently fell to it’s lowest level since being filled in the 1930s

Colorado River basin has lost 17 trillion gallons of water over the last decade

Lake Meadchange over time

Lake Mead

Ogallala Aquifer

Occupies the High Plains of the US from South Dakota to western Texas

Underlies about 174,000 square miles - including 8 states

Provides water for residential, industrial, and agricultural us

Farming accounts for 94% of use due to irrigation (13.6 million acres are irrigated)

Supports 1/5 of the wheat, corn, cotton and cattle produced in the US

Aquifer is being depleted & polluted

The map shows the saturated thickness (vertical distance between the water table and the aquifer floor) of the Ogallala in 1996-97. The next map shows water level changes between 1980 and 1997. The aquifer is depleted in parts of northern Texas and west central Kansas. A large share of Ogallala water lies beneath the Nebraska Sandhills, where the resource remains largely untapped because crop irrigation is uneconomic.

Aral Sea Situated in Central Asia,

between the Southern part of Kazakhstan and Northern Uzbekistan.

Used to be the world’s 4th largest lake.

Two rivers feed into it - Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers

The Soviet government decided in the 1960s to divert those rivers so that they could irrigate the desert region surrounding the Sea in order to favor agriculture (cotton production).

Consequences –public health issues, desertification, dust storms

Clean Water Issues

1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water

2.6 billion lack basic sanitation

Lack of water is closely related to povertyAlmost 2 in 3 people lacking access to clean water survive

on less than $2 a day, 1 in 3 living on less than $1 a day400 million children have no access to safe water1.4 million children will die each year from lack of access

to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation3.4 million total die each year from a water related

disease (that is almost the entire city of Los Angeles)

Clean Water Issues12% of the

world’s population uses 85% of its water

If you live in a slum in Manila, you pay more for your water than people living in London

DesalinationThe removal of salt and other minerals from

saltwater.

Salt water is desalinated to produce fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation.

Desalination is used on many seagoing ships and submarines.

The costs of desalinating sea water are generally higher than the alternatives (fresh water from rivers or groundwater, water recycling & water conservation), but alternatives are not always available.

Desalination

Desalinated water typically costs about $2,000 an acre foot -- roughly the amount of water a family of five uses in a year.

The price tag is at least four times the cost of obtaining "new water" from conservation methods -- such as paying farmers to install drip irrigation, or providing rebates for homeowners to rip out lawns or buy water-efficient toilets.

Who Drinks Desalinated Water?

The world's largest desalination plant is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Israel – produces 40% of its water from desalination

Middle Eastern countries

Australia

China

South Africa

Spain

ETC

Desalination

Carlsbad, California Project: Hope for a drought-proof

water supply Will be the largest ocean

desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.

The $1 billion project will provide 50 million gallons of drinking water a day for San Diego County when it opens in 2016.

In Carlsbad, two gallons of seawater will be needed to produce each gallon of drinking water.

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