User:Egm6322.s12.TEAM1.HW/Summer 2012

Water Deprivation and Its Effects
David Wilks ENV 6932 William A. Wallace 6/27/12 (Summer)

Abstract
 * Water is a precious resource and a basic requirement of sustainable life. Throughout history, water has been worshipped, abused, fought over and literally flushed down the toilet. The quantity, as well as the quality of fresh water is an important resource that is coming to the fore front of mankind’s future plans. One city, Atlanta, Georgia in particular, has had to grasp with the modern day situation of supplying a booming population with limited water resources. These resources are increasingly becoming scarce as overall population increases as well as industrial and commercial necessities as well as climate changes have placed an unforeseen and unplanned burden on fresh water supplies. Steps are being taken to try to preserve this resource in the near term, while long term conservation efforts are beginning to take shape. As breathing air is a necessity for human life, so is the need for fresh water supplies, thus making it vitally important to mankind’s survival.

Introduction


 * Water is everywhere. It comprises more than two thirds of the Earth's surface area, but only one percent of the Earth's water is clean enough to be available as a source of consumption. The importance of pure water cannot be understated. Pure water is an odorless, tasteless, clear liquid. The ingestion of water in some form is widely recognized as essential for human life. But we usually do not consider water as food because it does not contain any of those substances we regard as nutrients. Yet if its status as a foodstuff remains ambiguous, it is far less so than it has been through much of human history. Water has been considered as food, a solvent for food, a pharmaceutical substance, a lethal substance, a characteristic physiological state, and a spiritual or quasi-spiritual entity. Before it reaches the consumer's tap, it comes into contact with many different substances, including organic and inorganic matter, chemicals, and other contaminants. Water is also known as a natural solvent, thus water needs to be purified prior to and during transit to an individual’s water supply. Public water systems must treat water with chlorine to destroy disease-producing contaminants that may be present in the water in order to produce water pure enough to become potable or fit for human consumption. The simplicity of its easily recognizable symbol, H2O, signifying water’s composition of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, understates its fundamental importance to all life on our planet. Being a basic building block of life, water is second only to our air in sustaining all living things, both animal and vegetable. Water is one of the most essential elements to good health -- it is necessary for the digestion and absorption of food; helps maintain proper muscle tone; supplies oxygen and nutrients to the cells; rids the body of wastes; and serves as a natural air conditioning system. The human brain is made up of ninety five percent water, blood is eighty two percent water and lungs composed of ninety percent  A two percent drop in the human body’s water supply can trigger signs of dehydration: fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on smaller print, such as a computer screen. Mild dehydration is also one of the most common causes of daytime fatigue. An estimated seventy-five percent of Americans have mild to chronic dehydration at any given time. This statistic is exacerbated by the fact that the United States is a developed country where water is readily available through the tap or bottle water. Health officials emphasize the importance of drinking at least eight glasses of clean water each and every day to maintain good health, yet society continues to contaminate this precious resource. Why, one may ask is this a limited resource if two thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with water? Salinity in the vast majority of the earth’s water supply is the main reason that a large percentage of water is unusable or unfit for animal and plant consumption.  Most water becomes a saline solution as it comes into contact with earth’s soil, atmosphere and oceans. Salinization is a naturally occurring process that requires desalination in order to bring the water back into a potable form that may be safe for human consumption. Human consumption and waste of desalinated water has become critical in recent years as populations have exploded around the world. While the world's population tripled in the twentieth century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty years, the world population will increase by another forty to fifty percent. This population growth - coupled with industrialization and urbanization - will result in an increasing demand for water and will have serious consequences on the environment. Another problem with the current water supply, besides increased demand is reduced supply. The sustainable supply of potable water is being diminished by climate changes. Droughts, warming trends in the arctic regions and continued pollution to the world’s water supply have made this commodity a hot topic in some regions of the globe. One location where all three of these factors has factored into a water shortage scenario is Atlanta, Georgia. Not only is Atlanta facing water shortages due to natural causes, it is facing political and social battles that have been brought about by lack of foresight in one of the fastest growing cities in the country. In order to understand the water deprivation issue facing Atlanta, one must first explore the history behind the issue, the importance of the topic, the contributing factors that led to the problem and what has been proposed to resolve the water shortage.

History
 * The consumption of water by humans has played a significant role in the growth of civilization. Ancient hunter- gatherers did not stray far from water sources, continually returning to fertile river valleys to grow crops and hunt the animals that came to partake in the necessary water for their survival. Thus, when people stopped living the nomadic life and began settling in one place and growing crops for sustenance, it was invariably near water sources like rivers, lakes, or groundwater springs. It is apparent in our study of ancient civilizations that they established themselves around water sources due to the necessity of water for drinking, irrigation, cleaning and a variety of other daily tasks. Water has also been used since as a symbol by which to express devotion and purity. Some cultures, like the ancient Greeks, went as far as to worship gods who were thought to live in and command the waters. Whole cities have been built by considering the location and availability of pure drinking water. The place of gathering was around the wells, which is perhaps the following trend in building fountains in the middle of piazzas. As civilizations moved forward and time progressed, humans began discovering new ways to control, store and utilize water. Water usage was controlled thru irrigation, drainage, and impoundment. These three types of water control have had a major impact on landscapes and water flows. Since the dawn of irrigated agriculture at least 5000 years ago, controlling water to grow crops has been the primary motivation for human alteration of freshwater supplies. The Mayans were one of the first noted civilizations to discover the importance of water. The Mayans used irrigation as a major resource to growing food. The Mayans also relied on the nearby water for consumption, cleaning and other various chores. Unfortunately heavy deforestation along with a severe prolonged drought brought forth the realization that water was essential to the survival of a civilization. Today, the principal demands for water are similar to those of the Mayans, with the notable exception that water is now heavily used in industrial settings. Most water consumed in modern times is cleaned or purified before being delivered to the consumer. Many cities water supplies come from surface runoff, although mining of "fossil water" from underground aquifers is an important source in some areas. Runoff or surface water which comes from rivers, streams and springs has not always been a clean supply from which mankind could draw upon. In ancient Rome, sewers carried human waste into the Tiber River. By 312 B.C. the river was so polluted the Romans had to construct aqueducts to obtain clean drinking water. The pollution of water with raw sewage has been a catalyst of many health epidemics in many parts of the world throughout history. In the mid 1800's fecal contamination of surface water caused severe health problems including typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery in some major North American cities, most notably Chicago, where 5.5 percent of the population died from cholera alone. The connection between water pollution with human waste and the outbreaks of diseases such as cholera was not understood until the 1850s. In 1854, a devastating cholera outbreak gripped the Soho part of London, centering on the Broad Street well. A physician named John Snow, in what has become one of medicine's most celebrated sleuthing cases, deduced that the cause of the outbreak was contamination of the Broad Street well. Since no one believed him, Snow suggested taking off the well pump's handle. Once the well was not in use, the epidemic ended. The cause was later traced to washing a sick baby's dirty diapers in a cesspool that seeped into the well. Unfortunately for Soho, calls for eliminating cesspools from the vicinity of wells in that area went unheeded for quite some time. Even today, in numerous developing nations, cholera still kills tens of thousands each year because clean drinking water is not available, or accessible, to everyone. Like many places in the United States, Atlanta used open watercourses to capture storm water and divert it into nearby brooks and creeks in its early days. As the city grew, and as sinks, bathtubs, and flush toilets became popular, storm water sewers became conduits for carrying household wastewater as well. These drains were covered and transformed into combined sewers for the collection of storm water and sewage. Combined sewers were a common method of sewage disposal in major cities. Since these systems were not designed to remove waste, and this combined waste was being discharged into the city’s streams, they eventually became a threat to public health as it had in so many other large cities. In the late 1880s, sanitary sewers were built in the outlying areas of Atlanta to receive wastewater generated by urban households. Although the image of water as a public good, essential for meeting universal standards of health and decency usually supplied the rationale for undertaking water-supply projects, the ulterior motives of private interests were often more important in actually getting waterworks built. Perhaps the most significant of these private interests were industrial users. Many industries required large quantities of relatively high-quality water, and the capital costs of obtaining such supplies were prohibitive for individual firms. Consequently, they sought to obtain those supplies (sometimes at subsidized prices) through the sanitary betterment of society. In port cities with much warehouse space, the threat of fire was another underlying incentive for a public water supply1. Other contaminants in U.S. water systems began to sprout up during the age of the industrial revolution, when industrial waste was also being discarded directly in rivers and streams. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, water pollution became a major crisis. Factories found water sources, especially rivers, a convenient means of waste disposal. The trend continued well into the twentieth century. The Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire several times since the 1930s, a result of oil slicks and flammable industrial waste dumped in it. Coupled with widespread industrial and human waste contamination of rivers, a fire on the Cuyahoga in 1969, led to the enactment of the 1972 Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act prohibits pollutants' discharge into navigable waterways, and there is no doubt it has improved water quality in the United States considerably. However, there is no realistic standard as to how clean is clean, and the act has been criticized for leading to wasted money without effective controls and monitoring systems. There is also the difficulty inherent in controlling nonpoint source pollution—pollution from diffuse or not-easily identifiable sources—a harder task than controlling point source pollution, which can be predicted, controlled, and monitored.

Water Quality
 * While the importance of ample water quantity for drinking and other purposes was apparent to our ancestors, an understanding of drinking water quality was not well known or documented. Although historical records have long mentioned unpleasant appearances, tastes or smells with regard to drinking water, it took thousands of years for people to recognize that their senses alone were not accurate judges of water quality. Water quality has many different meanings to different people around the world. For some, water quality may be defined as clean, clear, free from any toxic impurities and without any taste, whereas an individual from another location may simply hope that the water they drink is potable and will not make them ill. The goal of water treatment, usually from surface sources such as lakes, reservoirs, or rivers, is to remove contaminants and organisms through a combination of biological, chemical, and physical processes to make it safe for drinking. Some of these occur in the natural environment, whereas others occur in engineered and constructed water treatment plants. The engineered processes usually mimic or build on natural processes. Water-treatment concepts underlying those used today were developed in Europe during the 1700s. At the point in which the United States began using chlorine to disinfect drinking water (1908), Europe was also using chlorine but exploring the possibility of employing ozone to treat drinking water. The U.S. Public Health Service developed the first drinking-water regulations in the United States in 1914. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later assumed responsibility for this task when it was established in 1970. The Safe Drinking Water Act became law in 1974, and was significantly revised in 1986 and 1996. The revisions reflected improvements in analytical methods to detect contaminants at lower levels and improvements in automated monitoring used to evaluate treatment plant performance. The revisions also started to address the need to balance immediate (acute) risks versus long-term (chronic) risks. The need to disinfect water to kill pathogens to protect against acute illnesses, versus the formation of disinfection by-products and their chronic health effects is an example of this risk balance. The United States has continued to examine water treatment practices in Europe, particularly water-quality standards established by the World Health Organization. Although there are some philosophical differences between the United States and Europe relating to the treatment of the distribution system and its operations, the United States has benefited from the European experience. One such philosophical difference is that the European water treatment community does not see the maintenance of a disinfectant residual to the end of the distribution system as a necessary public health protection measure. The United States drinking water community sees this as an important step to protect customers and the water system from bacteriological regrowth or recontamination. As the United States entered the twenty-first century, researchers were collaborating with scientists around the world to continuously improve water quality and treatment, and openly share their research findings. Another consideration in the quality of fresh water is the cyclical nature of how fresh water is obtained. Consider the water cycle and the water-use cycle. Water falls to the earth in the form of precipitation. It drains into rivers, lakes, and streams either naturally or via constructed storm-water-drainage systems. Industrial manufacturers and wastewater treatment plants discharge waste from their processes into lakes and rivers. Under the Clean Water Act these facilities have water-quality limits that their discharges must meet. These limits have been established to protect the water ecosystem and downstream users. Water suppliers withdraw water from lakes and rivers to be treated for human consumption and other uses. The water is treated and delivered to customers' taps through a system of pipes and storage facilities that make up the water distribution system. After the water is used, it is conveyed to a wastewater treatment plant and discharged again to a receiving water body. If the water is used outside, it either seeps into the ground or drains to a storm-water system, which may go to a treatment plant or directly to a river, lake, or another body of water. The cycle continues as the water flowing to the ocean evaporates, ultimately falling again as precipitation. Source water protection, often referred to as "watershed protection," is the reduction or prevention of water pollution at its source. This kind of protection is not always possible, but has been very effectively implemented by several water systems. A water system that has access to a high-quality source may not need as extensive a treatment plant as a system with a poorer-quality source. This is especially true if a high-quality source, such as a reservoir in an isolated natural area, can be protected by limiting human activity close to that source.

Importance of Fresh Water
 * Given that so much of our civilization has been based on fresh water supplies, one may wonder why it is so important and how is it that something that is so inexpensive and seemingly expendable be considered such a valuable resource? In general, water composes nearly three-quarters of Earth's surface. Of that water, only three percent of the Earth's water is fresh. Of that three percent, less than one-third is in a form or place that makes it readily available for human consumption, thus fresh water is truly an important resource due to its limited supply. Water is one of the most essential ingredients to life as we know it. Since life on Earth began in water some 3.5 billion years ago, living organisms have evolved an amazing variety of techniques for surviving in different watery conditions—from the deepest oceans to the driest deserts. Humans are about 60 percent water by weight-though the percentage is slightly higher on average for men than for women. Humans know the worth by putting water to work in an endless number of ways. Water is much more than just a basic human need. It is an essential, irreplaceable element to ensuring the continuance of life. Water is intrinsically linked to fundamental human rights such as the right to life, to food and to health. Access to safe water is a basic human right. In a Message to the Bishops of Brazil in 2004, Pope John Paul II wrote, "as a gift from God, water is a vital element essential to survival, thus everyone has a right to it". Defining access to safe water as a human right is an important step in making this access a reality in the lives of many people living in poverty. Water is a dimension of what is referred to today as resource security. Conflicts have already occurred for control over water resources and others may come center stage the more water scarcity manifests its consequences on the lives of the human beings and their communities. One such example of a conflict is Atlanta’s fight to pull water from Lake Lanier. Forty miles northeast of Atlanta lies Lake Lanier, created in the 1950s when the Army Corps of Engineers built the Buford Dam. As chronicled in “The Big Thirst,” by Charles Fishman, Atlanta refused to finance the dam, partly because, at the time, it wasn’t clear the city would ever need water from Lake Lanier. As Atlanta has grown, its need for water from the lake has become increasingly obvious. In 1989, the Corps of Engineers recommended that 20 percent of the water used for hydropower be diverted to Atlanta’s water supply. Thus began a dispute known as the tri-state water dispute. The dispute centers around the drain from Lake Lanier and the downstream effects it is having on neighboring states, Alabama and Florida. Alabama and Florida representatives argue that diverting the area’s already limited supply to Atlanta will cause environmental and economic damage. The dispute has worked its way through the court system and has yet to be fully resolved. Much more severe consequences are occurring worldwide due to water depletion. Two examples of severe fighting over water supplies are occurring at the Horn of Africa and in the Middle East. The extreme drought in the Horn of Africa is intensifying ethnic tensions and conflicts for the control over the few, still available, water resources. This drought is threatening the food security of already poor populations and has lead to a food emergency situation. In the Middle East, the main problems with water are related to tensions among countries generated by water scarce environments, although often masked by ongoing political tensions. Water scarcity can present a clear danger to the internal stability of countries in the region. Water can in so many ways become an indispensable element for the security of peoples and nations. However all too often water is not perceived as the luxury it really is and is wasted. This action of wasting water is morally unsustainable. Citizens in some countries are used to taking advantage of a privileged situation without thinking to the consequences of their wasting water on the lives of the rest of the world. In other situations, water is lost or wasted due to an infrastructure that is old, badly or improperly constructed or inadequately maintained. There is an urgent need to regain a "culture of water", to educate society to a new attitude towards water. In many ways, esteem for water has fallen. Traditionally water was revered and protected, even celebrated. Today it runs the risk of becoming a mere consumer product. In the face of waste, water cannot be treated as a mere product of consumption among others since it has an inestimable and irreplaceable value. Cultural traditions and societal values determine how people perceive and manage water. Poor water management is a major contributing factor to most of the water problems evidenced today. Governance is therefore perhaps the most important requirement for solving problems of access to safe water and sanitation. Another theory is to put a price on water and let the market fix the problem. It is assumed that fi the price of water rose then usage would drop. The problem with this theory is any rise in the price of water will also dramatically increase the price of food and many other commodities.

Availability versus Consumption
 * The reality of supply versus demand shows that when demand rises, thus dwindling supplies, prices rise accordingly. What occurs when the supply of a product is limited due to its available quantity? In general, prices will rise as the supply dwindles until no more of the supply remains. While global population is rising, the supply of fresh water is remaining constant, thus leading to certain doomsday scenarios. In reality, the current supply of fresh water on earth can handle a rising population, to a certain point, given that precautions are taken early enough to prevent pollution and contamination from fouling the supply. An example of the problem of water consumption versus its availability is in Atlanta. In Atlanta, three percent of the available fresh water is used in industrial settings, twenty one percent by commercial entities, single family homes consume forty three percent and multi-family homes (apartments) use anther twelve percent. This statistic shows that residents, not industry, in Atlanta use over half of the available fresh water for personal use14. Other factors that place a burden on municipal water systems are increased consumption due to population increases and climate changes that affect rainfall. Atlanta’s water shortage was not always the epidemic that it has become in recent years. Atlanta was settled as a train depot, unlike most other major cities that were founded near a port or body of water that could be used for transporting goods. In turn, Atlanta was far from any major river or lake. In 1839 homes and a store were built there and by 1842, the settlement—now named Atlanta—had six buildings and 30 residents. By 1890, the city had a population over 65,000; by 1910, the city had more than 150,000 residents. The Atlanta metro area had a population of 2.9 million in 1990 and 4.1 million in 2000, and its daily draw on the water reserve was 320 million gallons in 1990 and 420 million in 2000. With 2 million more residents projected by 2030, water use is expected to rise to more than 700 million gallons a day.  With this type of population growth and the finite supply of water, the growing pains of a city ill prepared to deal with this type of water consumption are beginning to emerge. It is estimated that if Atlanta’s population do not begin to use water more efficiently, they are expected to run out by the year 2030. While the metropolitan area of Atlanta is relatively large, the city has a small surface water supply relative to its populations. As a result of this water supply and demand imbalance, Metro Atlanta is disproportionately affected by water shortages—a condition likely to worsen as Atlanta continues to grow.

Water Shortage!
 * Ben Franklin stated that “When the well's dry, we know the worth of water”. As potable water scarcity becomes a reality in many places around the world, the true value of this resource is becoming known. Humans have inadvertently attempted to destroy one of earth’s most precious resources for millennia without knowing how important and scarce it could become. Already there is more waste water generated and dispersed today than at any other time in the history of our planet. More than one out of six people lack access to safe drinking water and more than one third lack adequate sanitation. As this resource becomes scarce, tensions among different users are intensifying, both at the national and international level. Over 260 river supplies are shared by two or more countries. In the absence of strong institutions and agreements, changes within a water source, such as a river, can lead to neighboring tensions. When major projects proceed without regional collaboration, they can become a point of conflicts, heightening regional instability. Between 1950 and 2000, the U.S. population nearly doubled, yet public demand for water more than tripled. This increased demand has put additional stress on water supplies and distribution systems, threatening both human health and the environment. In recent years, increased demand and climate change have placed unprecedented pressure on our water resources. The effects of this pressure are felt differently depending on the region of the country. While some areas have experienced higher than average rainfall, many parts of the United States are suffering droughts. A recent government survey showed that at least 36 states in the United States will be experiencing local, regional, or statewide water shortages by 2013. Though Georgia has a humid climate and a statewide rainfall average of fifty one inches per year, periodic water shortages have become a fact of life for the state’s residents. Such shortages are triggered not only by occasional droughts, but also by uncertain supplies and a dwindling number of new surface water sources available to satisfy the state’s growing population. Most of the streams in Atlanta are small and greatly affected by droughts. The only sizeable stream in Atlanta is the Chattahoochee River, which is of marginal size relative to the water demand of a metropolis the size of Atlanta, which currently has over five million inhabitants. Metro Atlanta receives the majority of its water from Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona, either directly from the lakes or by releases to the rivers. Because of the limited groundwater resources in the area, the Atlanta metro area relies on surface water—water from streams, rivers and lakes for ninety eight percent of its needs. In 2007, Georgia marked the fifty year anniversary of the construction of Lake Lanier, a reservoir on the Chattahoochee River situated northeast of Atlanta. Originally constructed for power production, flood control, and downstream navigation, the lake has become the sole source of water for most of Metro Atlanta, which presents a significant problem for the future security of Atlanta’s water supply. In late 2007, the lake dropped to its lowest point since construction, and persistent drought conditions in 2008 slowed its recovery. Due to extreme weather patterns Georgia experienced in 2009, Lake Lanier made a full recovery; however, given that a hot day can evaporate about 200 million gallons from the lake, and with the continued demand of Metro Atlanta's growing population, major water-efficiency measures are needed to avoid future droughts in the area.

Current Countermeasures
 * Water restrictions are already being placed on the citizens of Atlanta. Some of these restrictions include watering of lawns between the hours of 4 P.M. thru 10 A.M., odd and even day schedules for pressure washing and automobile washing with exemptions being given to commercial agriculture, watering food gardens, water from a private well, watering plants for sale, and watering athletic fields, golf courses or public recreational turf. Other near term planning calls for replacing old plumbing fixtures with high efficiency ones, returning highly treated waste water to its source and implementing an education and public awareness campaign. Another important part of the conservation plan is conservation pricing, which increases the cost of water as the volume of use increases. With this measure, the District hopes to reduce excessive water use—especially outdoor irrigation. The city has begun leak identification and repair programs and another effort to replace old water meters with automated meter reading technology, which reduces leaks and ensures accurate billing. In addition, the city is participating in a low-flow toilet rebate program and creating new policies on landscaping and swimming pools that aim to increase water conservation. Georgia has implemented a number of successful water-efficiency efforts to reduce demand on water sources, from the top levels of government to its neighborhoods. The Georgia legislature recently passed Governor Sonny Perdue’s plan to encourage the conservation of the state’s water supply, including a mandate that state codes will require individual water metering in multi-unit buildings, as well as high-efficiency toilets and other plumbing fixtures in all new construction beginning in July 2012. The state has also hosted a sales tax holiday for the past two years on WaterSense labeled products. For several days in October, Georgia residents pay no state sales tax when they purchase one of these water-saving devices. Cobb County, which includes Marietta, was named a WaterSense Partner of the Year for 2009. Cobb County’s toilet rebate program helped pay for more than 1,650 WaterSense labeled toilets and brought together Lowe’s, The Home Depot, and local partners to make the most of the statewide sales tax holiday. On the other side of the state in Chatham County, residents saved more than one million gallons of water in one year after replacing 600 water-wasting toilets with more efficient models. At the local level, Atlanta’s Brown Village saw water consumption drop by more than 6.1 million gallons per year after distributing efficient toilets, low-flow showerheads, and water-saving tips to 340 residents. If every household in Georgia replaced its showerheads with WaterSense labeled models, they expect to be able to save nearly 9 billion gallons of water, more than $50 million in water bills, and another $120 million in energy costs for heating the water each year.

Long Term Goals
 * With the current state of affairs, correcting measures still can be taken to avoid the long term crisis to be worsening. The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District expects its constituency to nearly double over the next 30 years. As such, conservation measures have been adopted to help maximize limited water resources. Included in the District’s Water Supply and Water Conservation Management Plan is the completion of new reservoirs and water treatment plants. Continued efforts such as these will help Georgia get the most of its water supply and ensure sufficient water supply for generations to come.

Critique
 * What motivates people to conserve water? Some may be motivated by the knowledge that water conservation is good for the environment, some by the knowledge that saving water saves money, and some by the knowledge that saving water saves energy. More than 12 percent of the energy used in the western U.S. goes to pumping, treating, using, heating, collecting, re-treating and releasing water. There is an increasing awareness that our freshwater resources are limited and need to be protected both in terms of quantity and quality. This water challenge affects not only the water community, but also decision-makers and every human being. Water is everybody's business and as such everyone should be held accountable for their water usage. Whatever the use of freshwater (agriculture, industry, domestic use), huge saving of water and improving of water management is possible. Almost everywhere, water is wasted, and as long as people are not facing water scarcity, they believe access to water is an obvious and natural thing. However with increased demand and limited natural resources not being a well-known or oft discussed issue, ignorance prevails and water is continually wasted. As is most often the case, education is necessary to inform and as a call to action. Individuals must be made aware of how their actions affect the environment and their neighbors. In the case of Atlanta’s water crisis, as the public was informed of the problem, they became more aware of their surroundings and the effects they were having. Changes have been made and the conservation of water is slowly taking effect.

Conclusions
 * Atlanta’s water issue is not isolated. Many places in the world face consumable water shortages every day. As the Earth’s population continues to expand, either the production of fresh water through desalination or the reduction in usage must occur linearly. The failure of mankind to realize this will create a global epidemic as never seen before. The rise of disease, dehydration and malnourishment will rise in developed countries if conservation efforts are not implemented immediately. Those in underdeveloped and developing nations would benefit greatly by learning from the mistakes that already developed nations made as they were developing and growing. Implementing corrective actions early will save time, money, resources as well as human lives. As Pope John Paul II wrote, "as a gift from God, water is a vital element essential to survival, thus everyone has a right to it". Mankind must preserve this necessary resource such that our neighbors and future generations can and will have access to fresh water which is a basic requirement of life.