Wake Up California, Here's What a Real Water Crisis Looks Like

By Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute. Posted July 8, 2009.

In short, under duress, Australians did what they (and we) should have done long ago.

Australian rice production in thousand tons per year, from 1960 to 2008. These data come from the annual crop reports of The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE).

And the results? Urban and agricultural water consumption has been reduced throughout Australia -- they've had no choice. In Canberra, water consumption dropped 35% within the space of just one year. In Melbourne, per capita water consumption in 2008 fell to its lowest level since 1934. In Sydney, water use today is at the same level as it was in 1974, despite 1.2 million additional residents. And their use is far, far below our use here in California. (For more details, see the good summary by Craig Windram at his Think Carbon blog.) While a few of the measures used to achieve these immense decreases are extreme (they were in an extreme situation), many of these techniques are no-brainers and are long overdue for California.

Will we, in the western U.S., stop the scrambling for political positioning, move from ideological arguments, look for common ground, and stop misusing data in attempts to gain some political advantage? Maybe someday, when today's "drought" looks like the good old days of plenty. I'd like to think we can do these things before the real pain starts.

See more stories tagged with: water, california, drought, australia, water shortage

Dr. Peter Gleick is president of the Pacific Institute, an internationally recognized water expert and a MacArthur Fellow.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Water! Sign up now »