Water scarcity is not a politically sexy topic, and as a result, has not been an issue that’s been placed in front of the public in any meaningful way. However, like infrastructure investment or tax policy, once the issue becomes a real problem, neither the public nor the politicians will be able to ignore it. Global warming was an academic exercise up until the 2000’s, when projections of climate change’s devastating effects were starting to hit very close to home. In fact, 2011 was the hottest year in the U.S. since we started keeping records, and sea level rise is now an indisputable fact to all but the most belligerent. In addition, climate change, as well as our present water usage policies, is beginning to have a very real effect at home.

Globally, climate change is beginning to alter some of the fundamental climate regions, particularly those north of the equator (as seen in the graphic). Desertification, the process of a region becoming more arid and eventually transforming to desert, is becoming a global phenomenon and the U.S. will not be spared. The primary areas of impact right now seem to be in the south and west of the nation, where water resources are already fairly scant, and rampant water misuse is exacerbated by heat and drought. Texas, for instance, has been in a crippling drought for several years, and wildfires have destroyed much of what agricultural land there was.

Below are some of the more pressing domestic concerns, as outlined on sustainable analysis website 8020 Vision:

• Lake Meade (the source of 95% of water for Las Vegas) will be dry in the next 4 to 10 years
• In the US, 21 percent of irrigation is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water supplies ability to recharge.
• By 2020, California will face a shortfall of fresh water as great as the amount that all of its cities and towns together are consuming today.
• The Ogallala aquifer stretches across 8 states and accounts for 40 percent of water used in Texas. It’s volume will fall a staggering 52 percent between 2010 and 2060.

There are public and social policy solutions to the problem of water scarcity, but there hasn’t been much political or social will to bring them to bear. For instance, metropolitan areas can pursue more densely developed urban areas. This is particularly true of urban developments in a watershed, where concrete and infrastructure pollute the runoff that does make it into streams and rivers, but often prevent water from ever getting there at all. In a study highlighted in Think Progress, urban areas on a watershed that are developed at 8 units per acre, rather than 4 units per acre, can save as much as 27 million gallons of runoff water.

In addition, individuals can do their part to conserve water use at home, and to contact their politicians to help guide water rights legislation. Right now people (T. Boone Pickens is one) are actually buying water rights near urban areas so that when fresh water does become an inevitable problem, they can sell it. It’s essential that water scarcity become a forefront issue now, so that we’re already facing the problem when it becomes a serious problem.