Water: Going. Going. Gone.

Cherokee County, GA at US Army Corps of Engineers' Sweetwater Creek Campground during the drought, December 2007. [Photo Credit: mjn9, flickr.com]

I’m a water thief. At least, that’s what my dad likes to call his four daughters when we visit. Every time we come home, we set the pipes in our country home banging with loads of laundry and longer than the house-rule “Five Minute Showers.” My dad tries to guilt us into water-moderation. He’ll wave around the utility bill or remind us that he’s the one who has to stand knee-deep in septic muck when our water use overwhelms the system. I will admit I generally brush these sentiments aside, but there’s one that always gets me: In the summer, he warns me that my willy-nilly water practices might make our well run dry.

Tonight, safely tucked away in Hoboken, New Jersey, I’m reminded of my “thievery” as I scan magazine headlines online. Everywhere I look, I see water. Or rather, articles predicting that soon, my dad might be right: The world’s wells may actually be running dry.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that this summer, Barcelona’s fountains are waterless and residents are threatened a $13,000 fine if they douse their delphiniums. SoCal is under threat of water rations starting in spring 2009, enforcement that hasn’t been enacted since 1991. And Texans wouldn’t know what rain looked like if it fell from the sky.

Popular Mechanics tells me that in light of coming water shortages, T. Boone Pickens—who supposedly owns more water rights than any other American—wants to start selling the blue liquid, or, rather, “the new oil” as it’s now being called. Scientific American’s August cover is a hand wringing out a relatively dry Earth. Thankfully, this last media outlet offers some hope for how to stave off the impending water crisis. Go out and grab the issue, but a snapshot of its expert advice:

1. Price water appropriately – Higher prices would make us use less. Makes sense: for me, the same principle applies to chocolatiers, liquor, avocados, and air conditioning.

2. Improve irrigation – Industry and farmers can do this by staying up-to-date on pipe maintenance, saving irrigated water underground to limit evaporation, or using drip irrigation methods.

3. Employ low-water sanitation – Who cares if you don’t think low-water toilets flush as well! They’re saving the environment! Also, check out waterless toilets.

4. Desalinate – Ninety-seven percent of the world’s water is salty, and climate change ain’t helping. To make that water usable, plans are afoot for desalination plants, but they come with their own problems.

5. Buy fewer jeans – Okay, okay, SciAm’s experts don’t recommend this, but the mag does have a stat that shows 2,905 gallons of water are required just to make one pair of jeans! Come on…

Check out more on your water footprint at www.waterfootprint.org. Lastly, the peanut gallery does recommend enforcement of the five-minute shower rule, under threat of charges of thievery.