My WebLink
|
Help
|
About
|
Sign Out
Home
Browse
Search
Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West
CWCB
>
Water Supply Protection
>
DayForward
>
5001-6000
>
Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
8/14/2012 2:48:17 PM
Creation date
8/14/2012 1:47:01 PM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Water Supply Protection
Description
Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West
State
CO
Date
5/5/2003
Title
Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West
Water Supply Pro - Doc Type
Meeting
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
41
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
Show annotations
View images
View plain text
Reality Number 5: <br />Crisis Management is N ®t Effective <br />,� <br />Crisis management is not an effective <br />solution for addressing long -term, <br />systemic water supply problems. <br />Congress, states, tribes, and interested <br />citizens have over the years sought to <br />define and refine water policy in the <br />West. Many studies and other <br />processes have assessed these issues <br />at a conceptual level. Collectively, <br />these studies would fill entire rooms. <br />However, in reality, the options for <br />addressing water supply crises are <br />fairly well known and understood. In <br />the long run, shortages in water <br />quantity can be met only by increasing <br />efficiency of existing uses, transfers of <br />water between uses, reducing or <br />eliminating existing water uses, the <br />development of alternative sources of <br />water such as desalination, or by <br />storing additional water in wet years for <br />use in dry years. <br />Public and policy -level attention to <br />water supply issues in drought <br />conditions tends to disappear as soon <br />as rain (or snow) relieves the drought. <br />But drought is only a magnifier of the <br />larger problems associated with rapid <br />population growth and environmental <br />demands for water in areas where <br />water supplies are already over - <br />allocated <br />12 <br />Water 2025 is intended to focus <br />sustained attention on measures that <br />can be put in place before extended <br />drought or other pressures push <br />communities toward divisiveness and <br />conflict. <br />Simply put, the West has developed to <br />the point that the social, economic and <br />environmental consequences of water <br />supply crises are no longer a local or <br />regional issue. These crises now affect <br />economies and resources of national <br />importance. <br />Conflict can be minimized or avoided <br />when potential water supply crises are <br />addressed in advance by local and <br />regional communities. <br />Mere plans or endless processes are <br />not a substitute for decision making, <br />and can have the unintended and <br />adverse effect of delaying action until a <br />potential crisis becomes a reality. <br />In some areas of the West, <br />communities are already implementing <br />water banks, voluntary transfers <br />between existing users, and water <br />conservation measures to address <br />potential water supply crises in <br />advance. <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.