Previously, I briefly talked about the danger of lacking natural resources and how it will impact our future generations. Among various natural resources given to us, I think water is very important. I know that everything is equally important but in my opinion, I can’t live without water for a single day so I chose to write about water for this week. Most of our water supply comes from rainfall, snowmelt, and infiltration and we get it from all over the landscape. Our concern is that in some areas, the adequacy of the available ground and surface water supply and the quality of the water is decreasing.

    In United States, agriculture is the largest user of the Nation’s water. With increasing population, people in agriculture field increased, leading more use of water. As a result, the competition for water supply is higher each year and ultimately led to water shortages. This means that the water to produce food for human consumption, industrial processes, and all the other uses is becoming scarce.

    Another crisis arising due to the lack of clean water is environmental. Not only humans are in need for water but also plants and animals require water. It will have a profound effect on aquatic ecosystems and the dependent species.

    As a result, we cannot put this issue aside because it is happening quickly than we believe and after desolation would be useless. According to NRCS, natural resources conservation service, NRCS provides technical and financial assistance to producers who implement conservation practices and management strategies, including the restoration and protection of wetlands, which benefit water quality and improve water management.

   Today, 1.1 billion people live without clean water, 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation, 1.8 million people die every year from diarrheal diseases, and 3,900 children die every day from water borne diseases (from UNICEF/WHO).

    Keep in mind that when you use freshwater at any time, huge saving and improving of water management is possible. In general, Americans do not notice water scarcity so almost everywhere the water is wasted.

    As I said there are so many ways to conserve water in our daily lives. From the waterproject.org website, I found some general tips for us to keep in mind every day.

• Turn off taps all the way so they do not drip

• Do not run the water continuously when doing dishes and hand-washing

• Load fully when using automatic dishwasher

• Low flush toilets can reduce the water shortage to 40 ~ 50%

These are just several lists from the website that I thought we encounter the most as college students. For me, I began to waste so much water after I came to Penn State and began dorm life. Water that I use when I brush my teeth, take a shower, or wash dishes was spent without thoughts. Because I thought that I have paid for everything that is available to me here at Penn State, I exploited given materials. Now I know that this is bad and it is wrong, I do try harder than anyone else at least in the bathroom not to use single drop of waste without a purpose. Considering Penn State as my alternative house, I took more conservative actions and began to think greener.

We are all human being and we tend to take things granted. However, if we start to think that one little action we take towards saving environment, the world’s natural resource won’t run out.

           It is our responsibility to maintain what we got from our ancestors and turn it over to our next generation. Personally, I think the government should enforce more laws or organizations to implement water conservation system into the community. Increasing water overuse those results in water scarcity is the negative connotation of worse things to come. For example, I did not we had a water day marked on our calendar. The awareness of water scarcity is very low and this is the first thing we need to fix.

           Let’s face it. We need water to survive. Our body is made up of 60% water and water is used for producing food, clothing, etc. We need to know and learn how and why they are used inefficiently so that we can conserve, manage and distribute the water we have productively.