Beyond water wars

Instead, we focus on rising gasoline prices, as well as pending increases in home-heating costs brought on by Hurricane Katrina. Yet water is a finite resource that is at least as critical to our existence -- and arguably even more so.

A report issued this week by the Pacific Institute, an independent research organization in Oakland, comes to the encouraging conclusion that, without any radical changes, it should be possible to reduce water consumption in the state by 20 percent over the next 25 years.

With modest extensions of current price increases in water, along with more comprehensive conservation measures, the report asserts that California could cut its water consumption by 8.5 million acre-feet per year. That's almost as much as the city sector in California uses in a single year. (To see the full report, go to http://www.pacinst.org/)

"We're not talking about taking shorter showers or stopping irrigation for agriculture," said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute and one of the authors of the report. "We're talking about reducing waste and inefficiencies."

This conclusion differs from official state projections that anticipates that by 2030 urban water use will increase significantly, while agricultural use will modestly decline.

If Hurricane Katrina has taught us anything, it is that we cannot wait until there is a crisis before responding. Rather than wait until another drought is upon us, we must move far more aggressively to conserve water. The "high efficiency" scenario outlined by the Pacific Institute provides a blueprint for how to begin doing so -- today.