Isn’t a Tier 1 water shortage in fact a water crisis?
The USA is expected to declare its first “tier one” water shortage very shortly.
Arizona’s Drought Contingency Plan which we wrote about in January 2019 clearly hasn’t work.
In December 2019 we pointed out that the USA isn’t facing up to the full extent of its water crisis.
And now the water level in Lake Mead, the largest US reservoir by volume, is at a historic low – just 37% of capacity – and continues to decline.
Declaring a tier one shortage will mean that cutbacks will be made, starting next year, in the amount of water sent to the states of Nevada and Arizona from the Colorado River water, as well as the share that goes to Mexico.
Action should have been taken much sooner to conserve supply, and can still be taken. And those should have included obligations on water companies to reduce water losses, or ‘leakage’ as the industry calls it, and a long-term plan to reduce water use by appliances, industry, and agriculture.
Waiting until there’s a crisis is leaving it too long. Crises can end in death through protest or water shortage, regional conflict and problematic population migration. Is the USA going to sleepwalk into these?
i2O provides solutions for monitoring and reducing over-pressure in water distribution networks that helps minimise the amount of water loss. And Echologics provides solutions for more cost-effective leak detection and pipe condition assessment.