Water Benefits Health News -- Water Shortage and Ways to Conserve Water

Back to Back Issues Page

Water Benefits Health News -- Water Shortage and Ways to Conserve Water
June 03, 2015

Water Benefits Health News, Issue #34

June 3, 2015

Hello,,

According to Dennis Dimick, an Executive Editor for National Geographic, drought and the shortage of melting snow is the underlying cause of historic water shortages throughout most of the western United States.

In March 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown initiated the first-ever mandatory water restrictions in California in order to compensate for the worst drought ever in the history of the state.

However, California is not the only western state facing water shortage issues. Certain parts of Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona have also been affected.

The Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to many cities in these states, has suffered drought conditions for over ten years. In addition, the aquifers in the river basins have also been dropping.

Over the past year, National Geographic has reported extensively on the increasing water scarcity in the western states and has shown how climate change and reduced snowfall in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges has impacted the water supply to this region.

Obviously, water shortage is a really big deal—in terms of drinking water, food production and prices, our economy, and just about every aspect of our lives.

As difficult as the current freshwater scarcity problem is for so many people here in the U.S. and throughout the world, I believe the potential outcome of this crisis could be valuable – leading to an increased awareness of the value of water and the need to protect our water supply with greater ingenuity and resourcefulness.

A corollary issue to freshwater scarcity is drinking water shortage. Even though the issues are closely related, drinking water shortage has as much to with water pollution as it does with drought.

Thus, our feature article this issue answers a question from one of our site visitors: If we keep on drinking water at the same rate that we have been drinking, how long will it take until we run out of water?

On another note, the 9th article in our Healthy Eating Nutrition series is on Drinking and Eating Sugar - The Epidemic Affecting Our Health

To your health and wellness,

Nancy Hearn, CNC

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Q&A: Drinking Water Shortage – When Will We Run Out of Water?

QUESTION: If we keep on drinking water at the same rate that we have been drinking, how long will it take until we run out of water?

ANSWER: Interesting question and my answer is this: I have no idea.

However, I will say that I don’t think how much water we drink is really the main issue when it comes to water scarcity.

The issue in long-term drinking water shortage has more to do with water pollution and water waste than it does with how much water we drink.

There is no doubt in my mind that if we (all human beings) would stop polluting our streams, rivers, lakes and oceans today, we would never run out of drinking water.