The Hydro-Illogical Cycle
That’s what the experts call the tendency people have toward apathy about long-term weather and climate and thus, their tendency to get caught unprepared by drought, quickly progress to panic, and then just as quickly switch back to apathy when the crisis is perceived to be past. Here’s a diagram of what it looks like (courtesy of the National Drought Mitigation Center):
Since our local government declared a Level 4 Drought Response, last week, banning all outside residential use (and even most business use) of water, I hear it’s been a source of major discontent around the county. According to the executive editor of the local paper, most of the calls and letters flooding in are from people who feel personally put out and are PO’d about it. The county’s telling us we have about 6 weeks worth of water left in a reservoir we share with at least three other counties (all of which are much bigger than us) and if we don’t get some serious rainfall, we’re going to be up a dry creek bed. Won’t need the paddle. I don’t get the sense of entitlement some people feel beyond all neighborly reason.
But then, I also don’t get why the local government (or the state, for that matter) hasn’t been proactive on the matter. Mind you, this drought’s been going on for ten years, and for several years we’ve been tapping this reservoir that was designed to be the fall-back in case of extreme emergency — yes, the reservoir that’s now down to a 6 week supply — so they can’t claim this all happened so fast.
Implementing watering restrictions doesn’t count; it’s reactive, not proactive. Could they not, for example, have done incentives for the installation of low-flow faucets and toilets, or offers to subsidize the cost of rainbarrels? These are relatively simple, low-cost responses that, on a large scale, could have saved the community thousands of gallons of water a day. Nor am I aware of property tax breaks or other incentives offered for those who want to take the next step of installing larger freshwater catchment or greywater recovery systems? Did anybody discuss assessing higher prices for high-volume water users and/or discounts for businesses with demonstrable water conservation plans? We see the stick — where’s the carrot been?
I’ve been reading that water is new petroleum, the issue of the 21st century. I had no idea how soon that truth would become starkly evident right here at home. So, what if this drought continues? How long do we, as a community, go on doing the same old, same old, before we start thinking more like Arizona and those other permanently arid states and doing things differently? (Actually, some of those states, themselves, have yet to start doing things differently, but that’s a blog entry for another day) I can’t afford to wait to find out. I already practice conservation and will be doing even more in the coming months. To be honest, in this case with the water issue here, it’s more out of self-preservation than any altruistic reason. But, come to think of it, isn’t the practice of conservation the ultimate self-serving action? Taking care of the resources that take care of you. We’re getting a very harsh lesson about that, right now, here in North Georgia.
