Cultivating clean water.

• Author: Pennybacker, Mindy
• Position: GREEN GUIDANCE - Protection of clean drinking water

Summer is a thirsty time for us all, but we can't all safely quench our thirst. Worldwide, more than one in five people--1.2 billion in all--does not have a regular supply of clean drinking water, according to the World Health Organization. More than 90 percent of people in the Middle East live in areas of water stress, where fresh water is being consumed more quickly than it can be replenished.

Developed nations, too, are trying to cope with water scarcity and pollution, problems exacerbated by droughts and violent storms possibly due to global warming. "Safe drinking water will almost certainly be the single most limited natural resource worldwide in the twenty-first century," notes Peter Rogers, Ph.D., professor of environmental engineering at Harvard University.

Aside from drowning one's sorrows with some other liquid, what's a consumer to do? The key is to see ourselves as part of the flow. Whether our drinking water trickles from a mountain stream or is pumped from an aquifer, we can take several measures to keep it clean and safe:

* Conserve water. Moderating use for washing, flushing, and watering saves potable water for drinking and helps prevent pollution caused by overpumping of aquifers. The average faucet delivers more than 11 liters of water per minute, so turn off the tap when brushing your teeth and while soaping in the shower, and you'll save as much as 150 liters. Water your lawn between dusk and dawn to slow evaporation, and use rainwater, drip irrigation systems, and less-thirsty native plants. Reduce runoff by covering outdoor surfaces with plants, bricks, or gravel rather than smooth pavement. Go for water-saving washing machines, showerheads, and toilets.

* Urge government cleanups of underground storage tanks. In the United States alone, more than 100 million people drink groundwater from areas where underground storage tanks leak toxic substances, including the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), benzene, toluene, and heavy metals, according to the Sierra Club.

* Protect your watershed from development. Worldwide, watershed areas are being polluted by agriculture and by residential and industrial development. This pollution, plus the diversion of water for these uses, affects stream flow and aquatic ecosystems as well as our drinking water. Urge your representatives to support the purchase of buffer lands around aquifers, as New York City has done to protect its Catskill reservoirs.

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