Sustainable water management is the act of ensuring that the dwindling freshwater supplies around the world remain for the sake of future generations by not depleting them in the present. With a concern resting on all facets of water use between us and the environment, there is much to be considered. How to best address the balance and the rising demand versus the ever shrinking quantities is just a part of the task of the management process.
In a world full of water, the majority is confined to the oceans and undrinkable. Of the amount of freshwater on the planet, two-thirds of it is frozen, while the majority of what isn’t frozen is underground, leaving less than a percent of all water on the planet fresh and drinkable. With all the pollutants and water borne organisms, there is barely any water that would be considered healthy. Given that the current human population approaches seven billion, that amount of water is virtually gone already. Therefore it is necessary to take what is known about the water cycle, conservation efforts, management efforts, and general use, and turn it into a plan that will sustain itself.
Currently, around 90% of the water consumed by a normal population distribution returns to the water cycle whether through residential or industrial use. Unfortunately, through agriculture – particularly irrigation – the water returned is 50% or less, with the rest lost to the atmosphere. Due to such a large loss, correction methods and alternative practices with water use through agriculture is a large part of the focus, in order to reduce that percentage by either minimizing evaporation losses or increasing the efficiencies of watering. Other efforts focus on limiting the public’s use of water in hopes that it will offset the waste necessary to feed them, while other solutions focus on the water tables or similar storage.
Long necessities in island countries and areas of heavy irrigation, cisterns have been storing rainwater since ancient times where a reliable source of water is hard to come by. Now once again, cisterns have been gaining respect as old solutions to otherwise costly efforts of water distribution. As seen here, http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/17/gsif.rainwater.solutions/, cisterns are part of a movement to help where water is becoming more of an issue. But even with cisterns there’s still a need to conserve, especially if the rain that fills them fails to fall.
In a time with growing concerns of severe water shortages from climate changes, an outlook to future water supplies is needed more than before, as just conservational efforts may not be enough. For those times and the other hard ones to come, a solution for then has to begin now, in order for it to make it in time. Definitely a sustaining solution, water plants that take water from the rising oceans, desalinize it, and then distribute the pure water to those who need it, storage centers, or the land itself are capable of being built now. This process, described in detail here at http://theonlineweapon.blogspot.com/2009/06/water-cure.html will one day make the worry of water in general a thing of the past.
Until the time comes when people are ready to invest in that future, the practitioners of Sustainable Water Management will help conserve what is available now and teach people how they can do their own part in protecting the water we need.
