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A prime cause of the global water concern is the ever-increasing world population. According to recent, research from the United States geologic cal survey, "Landscape water conservation is an important issue for municipalities throughout the United States, and especially in Utah as rapid growth strains existing water supplies.” As populations grow, industrial, agricultural and individual water demands escalate. According to the World Bank, worldwide demand for water is doubling every 21 years, more in some regions. Water supply cannot remotely keep pace with demand as populations soar and cities explode. The chart below shows the trends in water withdrawals for the Nation from 1950 to 2000 compared to population
Even though two thirds of the Earth’s surface is water we as humans only have available less than .3% of all the earth’s fresh water. The earth’s total estimated water supply is to be 330 million cubic miles, and each cubic mile contains more than one trillion gallons.
Farmers, industries and the water providers can help in this fight. We may not realize this but even farmers can conserve and protect our water sources. There are also things that industries and water providers can do to reduce the amount of water withdrawn from streams daily.
Farmers dealing in high value crops such as vegetables, and small fruits such as grapes and berries, where lack of moisture can mean the difference between a profitable harvest and costly failure typically use trickle irrigation systems. These systems are similar to those used by the home gardener. High-efficiency irrigation systems for row crops use less energy to pump water and since they spray water downward, less water evaporates before it reaches the crop. Farmers implement other water management practices to reduce the amount of water used to produce a crop. Farmers can also protect our streams by limiting the runoff of fertilizers and other products used on the farms.
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