Hydrology: A Question of Birthright

• Share

(8 of 8)

On a grander scale, the Los Angeles engineering firm of Ralph M. Parsons Co. has proposed a scheme to tap the vast water reserves of northern Canadian rivers. Called NAWAPA, for North American Water and Power Alliance, the project would channel the waters to the Canadian prairies, 33 U.S. states, and three states of northern Mexico, opening up in Mexico alone eight times as much irrigated land as in the Aswan Dam region. But NAWAPA would cost $60 billion to $100 billion and take more than 30 years to complete.

All of which is a costly reminder that while the world stands in no danger of running short of water, it faces an ever growing problem of finding and delivering water at a cost man is willing and able to bear. Cities and nations of the future may well find their water bills soaring, and some water experts argue that a higher price would be beneficial, because it would encourage a wiser use of a vital resource.

In the Western U.S., for example, where the Federal Government has spent nearly $21.5 billion on water development, the price of subsidized irrigation water is unrealistically low—from one-third to one-tenth of the actual cost of delivering it. Says University of Washington Law Professor Ralph W. Johnson, an authority on the legal and economic problems of water: "It is time we stopped thinking about water as a unique commodity, governed by novel rules outside the ordinary economic pattern. It is no more unique than food, clothing or shelter."

The People's Choice. As the engineers and scientists of the International Hydrological Decade expand man's knowledge of water, man will have to face up to critical decisions. And in the U.S., at least, the questions are not so much technical as they are problems of economics and management. "After the hydrologist states the problem," says Dr. Nace, who proposed the idea of the 1HD and became the chief U.S. representative of the Decade, "the policymakers must solve it." Thus, the great problem is people. "How many of them know what water is about?" asks William E. Warne, director of the California Department of Water Resources. "Not one in a million." Yet the people, who use and misuse water, who pay the taxes and vote on the bond issues for water development and conservation, must make the political and economic commitment that will ensure a steady flow of it. Though it may be considered a gift of God, water must be harnessed and husbanded by people.