Research Paper on Water Crisis in the West

Introduction

The long battle for adequate water by the Western United States seems to be an endless war. According to scientists, there is the possibility that climate change would reduce rainfall by 25 per cent in future years. This means that the regions are likely to experience more extended drought, and more so concerning the growing population. On the same note, according to climatologists, there is a need by the farmers and ranchers to design a way of operating in ride conditions. The cities are urged to improve in their conservation methods to counteract citizen's resistance. Experts have emphasised the need thereby states to implement policies and plans aimed at curbing water limitations. Water disputes have also contributed to this disaster. It has been further argued that the adoption of new technology, i.e. desalination plants that make seawater drinkable may solve this problem. This paper, therefore, provides a discussion of the water crisis in the west. It further looks at the causes and the solutions to the crisis.

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Background

Since human settlement is most appropriate near water sources, the West must have responded to this. Based on the fact that it is necessary for life, industrial development, agriculture, as well as transportation have contributed to the water crisis in the West. The situation, in this case, implies that means the cyclical nature of droughts throughout history that has subjected the state's population to the surfer. California's five-year drought that ended in the year 2016 left hundreds of wells in East Portville, between Fresno and Bakersfield, which went residents desperate since they could not wash their dishes, flush their toilets and even to shower after the dry up (Cosgrove & Rijsberman, 2014).

Causes of Water Crisis in the West

Various factors must have contributed to the water scarcity in the West. Fundamentally, the overconsumption of water among the increasingly growing population is a significant factor. The US population consumes more water per person in comparison to anywhere else in the world. Ideally, they use more than three times as much as people in China and more than 15 times than the Danish society. This is evident especially in the domestic use of the dried Western States. Research has shown that nearly 147 gallons per day are being used by Arizona residents, while on the other hand only 51 gallons is being consumed by the residents living in the Wisconsin state. The crisis is traced back to 2001 and is anticipated that it may persist for the next coming years.

The overestimation of the amount of water needed for a start has been reported to be another significant cause of the crisis. In the Southwest' states, water is predominantly being got from underground. Similarly, they also rely on rivers and streams as other sources of water. Fundamentally, the hydrological interconnection of both ground and surface waters in most of the states. According to the officials, these systems are being treated separately, and as a result, there is no accuracy for the total supply. However, until the previous year in California, there is no comprehensive law regulating the amount of water being got from aquifers underground, even the best accountability is roughly half of what is being consumed by the state.

The over-allocation of Colorado Rivers States, which includes have divided uprights for 5.4 trillion gallons of river water on an annual basis (Hanjra & Qureshi, 2010). However, this is estimated at 1.4 trillion which is beyond what is being flowed through the river each year on average, since 2001 and 500 billion gallons a year which is beyond what the river produces, on average, before the drought. Together with other hydrological factors, it is evident that the inefficient withdrawal of water from Colorado has been an issue of a water crisis in the west. Based on the rapid evaporation as well as the seepage, the Lake Powell has been shown to lose about 290 billion of gallons out of the capacity of 7.9 billion gallons that the lake can carry. However, the movement and supply of water have been shown to require a high amount of power. In this sense, therefore, the quantity of the river has reduced as a result of the warming climate and the increased climate change. The water crisis has consequently contributed to the increased drought menace.

The increased emission of the carbon dioxide from the Navajo generating station has led to the rise in the global warming and climate change as a result. Because there is an increased population in the west that consists of nearly three times as it was in 1960, it is anticipated to demonstrate a steady increase in the next two and a half decade. Finally, water crises are also a result of farming. Primarily, agriculture and agriculture account for more than 70 per cent of all water used by the Colorado River Basin States. They grow cotton, alfalfa, and almonds. Notably, these are the four most water-intensive crops worldwide

Mitigation Factors Put Forth to Curb the Water Crisis in the West

The west has also made some practical measures to ensure that water crisis is dealt with. One, farmers are urged to stop planting crops that hog Colorado waters. According to experts 67 billion of gallons would be saved per year. This can be done by converting cotton fields to wheat. Similarly, Alfalfa can also be grown as one of the largest water users in the west, merely by applying less water, in return, this would support a population of 8.7 billion. Secondly, research suggests that Americans should eat less meat, since a meat-based diet may only require 30 per cent more water as compared to a vegetarian diet.Notably, 90 per cent of Americans consumes meat. Thus they are being urged to have meatless days or meat once a week .consequently, this would slow made crop demand for feed hence save an amount of water. Additionally, Federal States and local governments have also ventured in new conservation methods based on new technology. The USDA since 1935 has spent more than $200 billion to help in conservation programs, e.g. sprinkler irrigation, and other tools that can help ranchers to adopt new ways to use less water to grow alfalfa. Other than that, infrastructure improvements may cater for themselves hence saving water during the drought. Notably, one million of pipes in the United States carry drinking water. Because of leakages billions of gallons of clean water are being lost daily. Consequently, repairing leaks is more economical to drought. This is according to experts. There is a need to establish water markets in the West claiming that the waters that the farmers get from the irrigation districts are so cheap. Therefore they have no incentive to slow usage (Sivakumar, 2011).

Lastly, one of the strategies employed to help curb the environmental degradation that often leads to drought involves suing the city based fossil fuel companies (Pulwarty, Jacobs, & Dole, 2005). Imperatively, this measure help minimize the adverse effect of the climate change as well as reducing the cost of resisting drought. On the same note, California's, biggest water agency is expected to spend $ 15 billion in the repair of tunnels also known as Water Fix. It was initiated to bring water from Northern California to Metropolitan consumers in Loss Angeles, Long Beach, and San Diego. More importantly, these tunnels are meant to ensure reliable water flow.

The desalination as technology can be adopted as a measure to curb the water crisis since it is geared to solve the perennial water problems in the arid Western United States. The concept of Ocean desalination is an appropriate method that can be used by the surrounding environment to address the constant water crisis (Jury & Vaux Jr, 2007).

Impacts of the Water Crisis in the West

The significant effect of the water crisis in the west has resulted in the depletion of the Reservoirs and groundwater during the drought which can never be restored shortly. Secondly, a conflict between agriculture and urban need for water has gained momentum as the water supply has dried up. More significantly, the combined effort by California in collaboration with San Diego are working together to solve these problems, however, it's not known whether a common ground to solve this problem would prevail .on the other hand, the development of canals and dams as modern infrastructure has made desert agriculture and urban oases like Las Vegas possible. However, such projects are still inefficient since they lose millions of gallons of water. Additionally, through agriculture America can do it since 80 per cent of Colorado River water is being used, which means even if all the golf courses and lawns in Southern California may experience a small impact on regional water shortages. Lastly, regular trading in water is the order of the day since investors see western scarcity as an opportunity to make higher profits.

Conclusion

Water is one essential commodity which has a significant contribution to the entire society. It, therefore, requires a combination of efforts drawn from the communities, local governments to adopt suitable strategies to curb the water menace in the entire society. The approach taken such as environmental conservation measures help secure the future economy as well as the social demographics. On the other hand, the state policies help provide the guiding principle for the conservation of the environment which acts as a water reservoir in the long run.

Reference

Cosgrove, W. J., & Rijsberman, F. R. (2014). World water vision: making water everybody's business. Routledge.

Sivakumar, B. (2011). Water crisis: from conflict to cooperation-an overview. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 56(4), 531-552.

Hanjra, M. A., & Qureshi, M. E. (2010). Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change. Food Policy, 35(5), 365-377.

Jury, W. A., & Vaux Jr, H. J. (2007). The emerging global water crisis: managing scarcity and conflict between water users. Advances in agronomy, 95, 1-76.

Pulwarty, R. S., Jacobs, K. L., & Dole, R. M. (2005). The hardest working river: drought and critical water problems in the Colorado River Basin (pp. 249-286). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA.