There is no solution to the water problem. Instead, there is a set of solutions and approaches that, taken together, will improve humanity’s ability to manage this most precious of commodities. Anyone who reads about the water problem quickly realizes that many of the people pushing the “crisis” are also pushing an agenda. Socialists think the water crisis means that the government needs to nationalize the water table. Capitalists think that everything should be privatized. Even farmers have an agenda, and it probably involves making sure that agriculture is #1 on the priority list for water.

There will undoubtedly be some structural changes in the way that water is managed – and whether that means privatizing decrepit and mismanaged public systems or creating markets to set rational prices for water or investing the billions it will take to put public water systems on a sound footing is more a question of local conditions than it is of the ideological merits of various forms of management. The truth is that, as with our energy problem, we’re going to need to try a lot of different approaches and ideas.

Fortunately, people are already applying their ingenuity to the water situation, both on the local level and on a global scale. Some municipalities are shipping in fresh water from nearby ports that have a surplus. Activists are raising public awareness of the water problem with traveling exhibits encouraging conservation and more responsible use of water. Wild-eyed geniuses are developing technologies to literally pull pure clean water out of the air – or just collecting the incredible bounty that often falls on developed land and then runs straight into the sea. Other organizations take a larger scale approach, urging the adoption of better irrigation techniques and conservation in the developing world. (where much irrigation water is wasted because the water infrastructure is so primitive)

From an agricultural point of view, there are two key points to keep in mind. One is that water for irrigation, over the long run, must come from sustainable sources. We cannot indefinitely “mine” the aquifers, nor will urban populations accept the diversion of drinking water into the fields past a certain point. Water for agriculture is an incredibly important priority, but it is not the only priority. The second point is that solving the water problem is going to require changes both on the large scale and at the level of the individual farm. Farmers, whether in Oklahoma or Thailand or Zaire, cannot rely on irrigation techniques that put more of the water into gulleys than onto productive fields. Many US farmers are already highly efficient in their water use, but others have become accustomed to plentiful cheap, or even free, water because of local weather or because of fortuitous water treaties and agreements that were made in decades or even centuries past. Many of those agreements are simply going to change, whether farmers wish them to or not; it would be wise for farmers to understand the changes that are coming and make adjustments in advance, rather than being taken by surprise.

In coming weeks, I will have some posts on the types of things that farmers can do to improve their water use, saving both the water and in many cases, a lot of money. From tillage techniques to land-use planning, there are a lot of ways for a farm to make better use of the water it has access to – and the better the use we make of what we have, the more likely we are to be able to keep using it in the future.

Previous post on this Topic Series Below

August 15, 2008: Water – 80% to 90% of Global Freshwater Used for Irrigation; Sustainable?

August 6, 2008: Water – Agriculture and Changing Weather Patterns

July 30, 2008: Water – US Farmers, Count Your Blessings

July 23, 2008: Water - The Next Farm Crisis