Water productivity a more worthy goal than conservation?
2 Feb, 2011 By: Ron Hall i-newsThe terms water conservation and irrigation efficiency increasingly dominate conversations relating to water use on our residential and commercial properties, parks, sports fields and golf courses. Well they should. Most of us recognize that the availability and cost of water to irrigate our landscapes will grow as ever-larger challenges. This includes everybody in the chain from plant breeders and growers to wholesalers and retailers to those us installing and maintaining them.
A tough job, but somebody's gotta do it
But as we know, irrigating turf and landscape plants is both science and art, but mostly science. And a demanding one at that. Consider the variables — weather (including wind), sun or shade, soils, slopes, plant materials, water availability, quality and cost. Irrigation professionals, even the best, are hard pressed not to admit at least some of the water applied to landscapes under their care isn’t wasted. Too often, in fact, lots of water. And this in spite of the use of today's smart irrigation technology.
Those of us in the Green Industry are hardly alone in that regard; and that’s the larger point to keep in mind. Our society, as a whole, must squeeze more productivity out of every unit of water.
Indeed, productivity — rather than the vague term conservation with its connotation of deprivation — may be a more sustainable way to approach water use, be it in our homes, our factories, on our farms or on the properties we maintain. Think of squeezing more value out of every drop.
“We’re only scratching the surface of what is possible and what is necessary,” said author Steven Solomon in that regard at the 2010 WaterSmart Innovations Conference this past October.
A ways to go yet
While Solomon, author of the 500-page “Water, The Epic Struggle for Weather, Power, and Civilization,” barely touched on the topic of turf or landscape irrigation in his 45-minute talk, his message resonated with the audience, who realized how connected we all are within this larger water picture. And how necessary it is that, as he urged —“we get more use out of every drop of water that we have.”
Not that we’re not making some progress, with Solomon noting that U.S. per capita use has fallen nearly 30% since 1975. It’s just that it’s still way too high in terms of sustaining not only the quantity but also the quality of our fresh water resources, bringing into focus the question of the degradation of our water resources. After all, what's the purpose of increased productivity if it’s achieved at the expense of ecosystems? The two — increased productivity and ecosystem preservation and restoration — must go hand in hand, said Solomon.
At the core of his talk, as it is in his book, Solomon said that societies that are blessed with adequate water resources and that make “most productive” use of them while protecting their ecosystems thrive and will continue to prosper on the world stage. Societies that lack fresh water resources will struggle. Those that disastrously squander and misuse what they have and degrade their ecosystems ultimately fail.
Listening to Solomon, I had to wonder if I might be the only person among the 300-plus people in the audience (Surely I wasn't.) thinking the same scenarios may, in fact, hold true for specific industries, such as our Green Industry, for example. Is that taking too much of a leap?
Editor’s note: To get a broader view of water and its importance in shaping the world as its been, as it now is and, perhaps, how it will be, I highly recommend Solomon’s entertaining and informative “Water The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization.” It makes a great companion piece to Jared Diamond’s “Collapse.”
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