How Dry I Am

Bone dry Australia has even less water than the Western United States, but they are a nation surrounded by ocean, and most of their population is wrapped around their significant coastline. Water has always been an issue, but with global climate change and a growing population, slated to grow by more than 50% within 40 years (there are 22 million living there now), the pressure on Australia to generate a whole lot more life-sustaining water is escalating. While the U.S. has larger issues about transporting massive amounts of water to large agricultural and urban centers in the Western and Plains States (as the Ogallala Aquifer – once the size of Lake Huron, stretching from the Dakotas to north Texas – dries out), Australia is more about getting access to fresh water than in moving it around. L est you think moving water isn’t much of an issue, pick up a bucket of water and feel how much energy would be required to move billions of gallons from the source of water to places that need it (the picture above is of a part of the famous multibillion dollar California aqueduct system).

So Australia has rolled out an ambitious program of building desalinization plants all over the country, infrastructure projects that have cost $13.2 billion. The last plant is scheduled to go online within two years, at which time Australia’s major urban areas will draw just south of a third of their potable water supply from the sea. But this process is profoundly expensive, requires massive amount of additional electrical power generation to effect the process, and homeowners are blanching as they see the numbers reflected in their monthly water bills. It is a reflection of America’s future, a factor that undoubtedly will drive what residential property will look like in the future. Welcome to the new sweeping trend of drought-resistant landscaping and appliances and plumbing fixtures that suck down vastly less H2O.

“‘We consider ourselves the canary in the coal mine for climate change-induced changes to water supply systems,’ said Ross Young, executive director of the Water Services Association of Australia, an umbrella group of the country’s urban water utilities. He described the $13.2 billion as ‘the cost of adapting to climate change.’” New York Times (July 10^th). Australia’s commitment to water issues has embraced a lot more than desalinization: “Besides restricting water use and subsidizing the purchase of home water tanks to capture rainwater, the state spent nearly $8 billion to create the country’s most sophisticated water supply network. It fashioned dams and a web of pipelines to connect 18 independent water utilities in a single grid. To ‘drought proof’ the region, it built facilities for manufacturing water, by recycling wastewater, to use for industrial purposes, and by desalinating seawater. Production of desalinated water can be adjusted according to rain levels.” The Times.

Take a really good look at the costs that are becoming a part of living in a water-impaired world. The water shortages of the future could become the planet’s number one environmental issue. Animals (including human beings) and plants will face a slow, constricting death struggle to survive. Whatever energy saving we may effect with better mileage will probably be more than offset on water-related energy needs. Not only do the nations of the world face finding new sources of water, but large countries like the U.S. and China need a whole lot of energy to move that water to the inland centers that also need irrigation and potable life-liquid. We should keep our eye on the Australian experiment, because it may well represent our own future.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the future is going to be very, very different from the here and now.