Water woes require cooperation

The front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday provided an easy and somewhat controversial topic when I was wondering what to write about for my editorial: water.

What's so interesting about water? The headline summed it up nicely: "Metro Atlanta's Need for Water: Three Months from a Mudhole."

The AJC's Stacy Shelton reports, "Lake Lanier, metro Atlanta's main source of water, has about three months of storage left, according to state and federal officials. That's three months before there's not enough water for more than three million metro Atlantans to take showers, flush their toilets and cook."

After reading the article and discussing it in one of my classes, I managed to formulate two predictions for the immediate future. The first is that instead of looking for a solution, the media, politicians and regular people will point the blame at each other in a desperate attempt to preserve personal images. Somewhat faulty facts will be thrown to and fro, and I am quite certain global warming will enter the dialogue at some point. The second is that the price of bottled water will go up despite it coming from sources other than Lake Lanier.

Notice something missing? A solution, perhaps? Or even a slight nudge in the right direction? No, of course not. That doesn't sell newspapers or make people watch the news.

Instead, I will act as a member of this media and point the blame. I could blame gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic status; the list goes on. But instead of wasting space on every imaginable topic, my focus will lie on just one.

Being a member of the fairer sex, I take long showers. Perhaps that comment is not completely fair to all women, but let's be honest, ladies: it takes time to get our hair washed and conditioned, our legs silky smooth and our bodies clean and lightly scented.

A typical shower allows five to eight gallons of water to flow out per minute. For the sake of argument, six and a half (the average) will be used in all future calculations. So multiply six and a half times 30 minutes, get 195 gallons, times seven days a week, and the product is a lot of water. Thankfully Tech uses reduced-flow showerheads, so the actual output of water is cut by about 50 percent.

But do not blame me for the water crisis! At the very least, I don't exacerbate my water consumption by expending gallons upon gallons scrubbing my car or leave the faucet running throughout my morning routine. Leaving the water running for just a few extra minutes a day can add up to several thousand gallons a year, and on average, 50 gallons of water is wasted each time a car is washed at home.

Enough numbers. Now that the hopeless circularity of my logic is revealed, I will bring up my actual point. Men are as much to blame as women, so I am going to drop the gender card and instead place the responsibility where it belongs...on everyone. Humans are a wasteful species, so instead of blaming different groups of people, how about working together? Everyone learned cooperation in kindergarten, but somehow in the transition from crayons to laptops it became an obsolete tactic.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch plan to give Governor Sonny Perdue a list of recommendations and actions to take into consideration within the next two weeks. But thus far, no one really knows what to make of the crisis. The article quotes Couch as saying, "We've never experienced this situation before."

But until then, those living in the Metro Atlanta area have no guidelines or suggestions.

Water bans are already in place, but the effectiveness is limited. In the past, water bans and minor restrictions have served to reduce the impact of drought, but nothing compares to the awaiting crisis.

I personally have no solution. Every article I've read concerning water conservation recommends things like changing the showerhead and reducing the water flow in the toilet, which I, like many other who live on campus, simply cannot do.

One of my teachers, however, offered this humble advice: find a good friend and shower together. That sounds like a win-win solution, but will it prove effective enough? Meanwhile, I am left only to wonder if three months from now, my shower will suddenly fizzle to a stop and Atlanta will break out in panic. I can only hope that a good solution turns up before then.

For now, though, anyone looking for a shower buddy?