Nerve Endings Firing Away

My friends in Atlanta might be having a little less water to splash around. Georgia is experiencing its worst drought and the city’s primary water source, Lake Lanier is at historic low levels. The water scarcity problem has been further exacerbated by the need to let go water from the reservoir downstream to Florida and Alabama. This downstream water flow through Chattahoochee river protects mussels and other species of fish. The protection of this wildlife is not only important from a conservation point of view but the economy of small towns downstream is heavily dependent on them.

Politicians in Georgia are crying foul and blaming the Army Corps of Engineers who manages the water level and downstream flow. Some politicians are even questioning their motives by pitting man against nature and say, it is despicable to see the Corps trying to save some fish over humans and goes against the natural order of priorities. Well, in fact such logic is skewed because damming rivers and redirecting flows of major rivers is as unnatural as you can get. Of course, doing so leads to development of cities but if you overstretch the limit of these resources more than what they were designed for, ultimately you are looking at the destruction of both beneficiaries. Favoring the humans over the fish might solve the problem for Atlanta in the short term but it does nothing to change the trend of over-the-top urban growth in metropolitan Atlanta. I’m sure people in Atlanta are not lacking in basic water needs such as drinking and bathing but might feel the pinch when they water their lawns around their McMansions. This shortage might just be a way for nature to reclaim what was rightfully hers just as building homes in marshy hurricane-prone regions ain’t going to last forever. Las Vegas is one such city which technically shouldn’t exist simply because it is heavily reliant on the Hoover dam for its water needs (it’s in a desert, for crying out loud!) So can Las Vegas really handle a ceaseless in-migration of people who continue to consume resources at levels of their other American counterparts? Do we really see a conscious understanding among the people to live off the limited resources just as any historic civilization would?

Whoever said that the next war would be over water isn’t off the mark. Certain African countries are already experiencing climate-related conflicts and we are only too aware of the political battles between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery waters. Georgia, Florida, and Alabama now find themselves in the middle of such a battle. In a rational process, people would eventually move away from regions that lack water resources just as animals find a new watering hole but our technological capabilities allow us to prolong the inevitable just a while longer. And when everything else fails, we always have the option of war. Wars have been fought for far less significant reasons so envisioning such a scenario over a life-saving resources is not exactly improbable. Although we might not see Georgia and Florida going to war just yet but the fight over resources that know no political boundaries is causing lot of heartburn in both states and may virtually impact the way of life.

The only solution from this mess although it may be a tad late for Atlanta now is sustainable living. The government cannot always impose restrictions on consumption. Traditionally, such conservation or living with limited resources has been ingrained within the social and urban fabric of any city. However, with unbounded mobility of people within cities there isn’t a common culture of conservation that a city can call its own especially in sunbelt cities which have enjoyed abundance in natural resources to care for conservation. It is simply coming back to bite them.