If you were thirsting for some good news about the water crisis, the panelists at the Lobero Theater on Sunday had some.
It’s true, they said, that 700 million people around the globe are without access to safe drinking water. Polluted rivers still catch on fire. People still get sick from water-borne diseases such as cholera, and from lead poisoning, as in Flint, Michigan. In California, where aqueducts crisscross the state, every source of water, including rivers, lakes, and underground basins, is over-committed, both legally and physically, the experts said. Even absent the drought, there is not enough water.
But water use in the United States peaked 30 years ago, even as the economy expanded and the population grew, Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank based in Oakland, told the Lobero audience of 200. It is a sign, he said, that the country is entering the “Third Age of Water.”