The Real Problems with Water Conservation

When I read the suggestions for conserving water, it brought to mind the continual American tendency to attempt to solve problems by putting the onus on those not primarily responsible and least capable of solving them. Thus we neglect the causes of these problems and are never able to solve them.

You present eight suggestions for ordinary people to follow in their homes. And although each would indeed save water, the effectiveness of these solutions would depend entirely upon the number of people you could get to work together in these ways. But anyone who believes that it is possible to get enough people to cooperate in such ways to have a significant effect on the problem is a dreamer.

Yet I can think of things that can have significant effects on the problem. I have over the past many years lived in seven American states, and not once have I lived in a house that had insulated hot water pipes. As a result, one had to run the hot water two or three minutes before the water became hot enough to bathe in. And I suggest that this is happening in almost every American home. This waste could be eliminated with a good building code. But building codes require businesses to tackle the problem, and American legislators are not inclined to do that.

Here in Texas, cities are always imposing watering restrictions; yet they allow builders to put houses on unstable soil using foundations not meant for such conditions. The owners of these homes are told to keep the soil around their foundations moist year round to ameliorate foundation problems. And one city I lived in that had watering restrictions also had a recycling program that required citizens to wash any glassware that was to be recycled.

Until the NWF and other organizations go after the people who allow these kinds of things to go on, no water conservation program will ever succeed. (NWF 5/23/2004)

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