Posts Tagged ‘nashville’
First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers go out to all of our friends in Nashville who have suffered losses from the recent flooding.
When you see an image like the one on the right, probably the last thing you think of is a water shortage. And yet, despite the severe flooding in Nashville over the weekend, residents have been asked to conserve water for just that reason.
In this case, the rising of the Cumberland River has swamped several municipal water treatment facilities and now threatens the city’s last fully functioning treatment plant. The article below explains why Metro Water is asking everyone to conserve water by 50% or more.
It’s always good to see cities planning ahead, especially in terms of drought management. Metro Nashville is no exception. On their home page, you will find a draft of their Drought Management Plan, a multi-staged approach to conserving water during especially long dry spells.
This plan advises everything from watering your lawn in the mornings to more aggressive measures like adding a 300% surcharge to the price of water. Reading through the plan, I was glad to see that “public education will continue year-round to promote the wise use and conservation of water.”
As part of this education, I would argue that we need to offer incentives and rebates to encourage people to conserve water. Rainwater harvesting and gray water recycling are just two ways that people can cut their water consumption by 35% or more. After all, the less water we use today the more water we will have tomorrow, come rain or shine.
In addition to drought, population growth is one of the greatest reasons for water shortages in this country. Metro Nashville and the ten surrounding counties (commonly called the Cumberland Region) have experienced tremendous growth since 1960.
According to the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR), the greater Nashville area will have a population of over 2.3 million by 2030—in comparison to Nashville’s 1.6 million population today.
Offering incentives for residents to conserve water will hopefully be an integral part of the city’s urban planning. If not, where will this water come from? What happens if Tennessee is hit by another serious drought? Shouldn’t we answer these questions before the proverbial well runs dry?
