What if There was no Water Where You Live

When I was a Mayor the topic of a water emergency came up often. Fargo, ND, has 120,000 people and gets its was from an adjacent river. There are other small rivers nearby and some wells in the area but these are not necessarily solutions in all cases. The main river, the Red River, is subject to drought but also contamination. A trucks carrying lethal chemicals use a bridge just upstream every day. One of the ultimate solutions was always to haul water by truck into the city from 200 miles away. We discussed how water trucks could be loaded and unloaded quickly. 

Today, around the world, climate change and population growth has made hauling water over the road the solution in some places. A city of 80,000 people in Spain is doing it. That city has some contaminated water people use for toilets and bathing. Parents worry about children bathing in that water.

It is very popular right now for people from all over the U.S. to "escape" wherever they are living and move to their own desert land in Arizona. Counties and townships are platting roads through cattle free-range desert and people are buying 10 acre parcels. The local governments do not maintain the roads so those who buy land need to provide whatever maintenance there is. The water table has fallen too low for wells and electricity comes from solar collectors. Hauling water is the long-term solution. Septic systems are required.

Many of those buying this Arizona desert land know how to live with solar and tiny amounts of water because they have been living in vans, cars or small camping trailers. Van dwellers are a growing subculture all over the U.S. Many are living on Social Security. The majority are single women. Movies and books have been written about them and they continue to grow in number. The economics of expensive housing and acres of parking lots make this seemingly inevitable. Cities are trying to limit this. They cannot monitor every spot in a city. You Tube sites give training in "stealth camping." 

Having a tiny amount of water available each day for drinking, cooking, bathing and sewage is, of course, terribly inconvenient. Yet, as van dwellers can tell you, it is not impossible. It is, as far as I can tell, the future of millions of people. Drought moves around so any area might change years later.

As we all know, drought is a product of climate change. Along with water, transportation looks to be the other way our standard of living will be affected. Briefly it was said electric cars would make automobile use as available as ever. That is proving to be incorrect. It may well be we will both travel less and use less water. We'll be fine with less of both. We'll just complain at lot.