Editorial: Our future depends on conserving water

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 9:17 a.m.

The American Water Works Association is the world's largest organization of water professionals. For more than 30 years it has sponsored National Drinking Water Week to help spread the word that clean drinking water must not be taken for granted. This year the week begins May 4. A recent study published by the United Nations after two years of research leaves us hoping that heightened awareness will remain long past that week. The study, which includes information provided by agencies in the United States, drives home the point that water awareness should be a lifetime commitment.

Among the facts cited in the report: Severe water shortages will affect half the world's population by 2050. More than 2.5 billion people already lack access to adequate sanitation services. Each day 2 million tons of waste are being dumped into the primary sources of fresh water -- rivers, lakes and streams. The American Southwest will face severe fresh-water shortages by 2025. Worldwide social instability is in store if the projections are not tempered with adequate responses, including, most importantly, conservation.

Summer watering restrictions, turf limitations, fines for wasteful lawn sprinklers, and various programs to educate people about conservation are all at work in Southern Nevada. But as any drive around town will show, the critical importance of conservation has not yet penetrated the public consciousness despite drought conditions for the past three years. Unnecessarily lush landscaping, irrigation runoff flowing down gutters and people using hoses to clean driveways and sidewalks are common sights. What is predicted for the world can happen in Southern Nevada, a point none of us should ever forget.