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Peter Gleick: Population and water. 1

Posted by: Maven on October 14, 2009 at 8:41 am

From Peter Gleick at the City Brights blog:

“Population discussions raise lots of hackles. And they bring the crazies out of the woodwork like termites when the Orkin Man appears. But I hope to post a series of pieces on population and water because we must stop ignoring the role of population in our environmental and water problems.

The amount of water on Earth is fixed. We’re not losing it to space and we’re not getting more (with negligible exceptions). The amount of water in a river basin or watershed is fixed. It goes up and down with natural variability, and it may change over time due to climate changes, but water is a renewable resources and our use of it does not affect the amount we get next year.

But population is not fixed. It is growing, and growing rapidly in some places. As a result, the amount of water available per person (“per capita”) is declining. Here is a simple example: assume that the average flow of water in a river basin is 10 million acre-feet per year and the population using that water is 20 million people. Then on average, the water available for use is around 450 gallons per person per day, if you could use it all (which would, of course, destroy the river ecosystem, but that’s another topic). If the population of the basin doubles to 40 million, the water availability per person drops in half, to around 225 gallons per person per day. If the population doubles again, water availability drops to just over 100 gallons per person per day. The math is easy, but the consequences can be severe: abundance can become shortage. In simple terms, addressing water problems in the face of population growth come down to three choices: (1) increase the water supply, (2) decrease the water demand per person, or (3) change the number of people. …”

Read more from Peter Gleick at the City Brights blog by clicking here.

October 14, 2009 · Filed Under Development & Population

Comments

One Response to “Peter Gleick: Population and water. 1”

  1. WaterSource/WaterBank on October 14th, 2009 10:02 am

    “… increase water supply …” … create JOBS !

    Verifying a new fresh water Source of a million acre feet a year for CA is easy …

    Storing a new million acre feet a year in Lake Mead which holds 28.5 million acre feet and is only half full is easy …

    Moving water from Lake Mead into CA in existing canals is easy … ( on a space available basis).

    Exchanging the new water for water that would be brought in from Northern California is easy …

    Getting others to help pay for development of the Source is easy … Las Vegas could save $5-6 Billion.

    Helping the environment is easy … annual instantaneous releases from Lake Mead could restore the Colorado River Delta valued at $2 Billion/year.

    Providing new JOBS for CA is easy … more water with complete versatility because the new water is non-tributary.

    What is NOT EASY is getting any politician/governmental entity to look at a truely new fresh water Source for CA that can be developed without damage to anyone’s water rights, anywhere.

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