Full article published and available on Ensia. March 21, 2018
If we want water security, we need to diversify our water sources to include underground storage, stormwater capture, recycled wastewater and more.
The word “drought” is once again entering the California vocabulary. As quickly as we exited our state’s historic five-year drought, signs are beginning to show that we are slipping back into another round. Of course, a “March Miracle” could still materialize, easing our insecurities, but we cannot let that be our only comfort. We — and others in similar circumstances around the world — need a strategy for reliably meeting the water needs of growing populations and economies in the face of increasingly dramatic swings in precipitation caused by climate change. The way to do so is by diversifying water sources.
As regions around the world have experienced periods of extended drought, we’ve seen how singular water supply sources can create crises when exhausted. Cape Town, South Africa’s second largest city and a mainstay of the nation’s tourism industry, is experiencing its worst drought in more than a century with its 4 million residents limited to using just 13 gallons of water per person per day as they count down to Day Zero, when municipal taps will be switched off. The city’s near-total reliance on rainfall-fed dams has led to its vulnerability.