14 Feb 2015 Not a weeks goes by without another headline news story about water. This week's report comes from Sao Paulo. Brazil's economic capital and South America's largest city. The news is stark and brutal" the city's Cantaeira reservoir system, which provides half of Sao Paulo's drinking, now holds just six percent of its capacity. The story mentions neither the source nor condition of the other half of the city's water supply, just that the continent's most populous city has very nearly drained its reservoirs. Homes and businesses struggle with the shortage -- one restaurant reports using paper plates because the taps give water only four hours daily, from 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon, which seems an interesting way to run a restaurant. The city's overall prognosis is even worse: an extreme scenario sees residents without any water for five days of each week. Carnival dancers dress this year as rain gods, wearing smiles a bit less broad, while the residents pause to pray for rain.
San Paolo's crisis follows the usual recipe of the modern water shortage: severe and prolonged drought, leaky pipes, official mismanagement, and a new construction boom with its accompanying loss of green spaces, which are vital to a water system;s replenishment. A few quotes later the story ends, as a kindly media abruptly shifts from parched Sao Paolo to yet another ruin or sport or celebrity where I, unlike the Cantaeira reservoir, am renewed.
In comparison, I am also fortunate. Own own Catskills and Hudson Valley are a rather wet and often humid part of the gloriously damp northeastern region of these United States. New York's taps run 24 hours a day, our restaurants shoot streams of scalding water at dirty dishes and, except perhaps for farmers in drier months, I can't remember anyone beseeching any rain gods, however gaudily dressed. And our domestic usage -- the amount we use at home for bathing, drinking, washing, cooing, and squirting at lawns, gardens, cars and swimming pools -- reflects our water wealth. The U.S. Geological Survey says that New Yorkers are among the highest of U.S. domestic water users, tying for third place with Florida at 6% of the national total, but still trailing California (15%) and Texas (8%). If you've got it then flaunt it, seems to be our view, because you can't take it with you. But the USGS also notes that national domestic consumption has dropped by several percentage points, which is an encouraging sign.
This seems a good and fairly upbeat place to end this note, but another story intrudes. The BBC reports this week that a new NASA study warns of a :"mega-drought" heading for the U.S., the likes of which the world hasn't seen in over 1,000 years. Maybe I'll wash the salt off my car and learn a rain dance step or two while I still can.