Water, the new Gold?

[Don M.]

We have a niece in Las Vegas, and we talked to her today. She said that Las Vegas is considering banning lawns, gardens, and any outdoor water use, due to the levels in Lake Mead dropping lower every year. Lowered snowfalls in the Rocky Mountains in recent years, coupled with increased population growth in the SW, is apparently almost ready to create water supply issues in that area.

While the Western states seem to be having increased issues with drought....while many Midwest and Eastern states are "swimming"....I can see the day when there is a major infrastructure project to move excess water from the Mississippi river to our western states.

 

[Mike]

I am not sure if it is true Don, but I read many years ago
that the water problems in the West of America were
exacerbated by the construction of the Hoover Dam on
Colorado River.

A long time ago I saw an experiment on TV, black and white
TV, about harvesting water from the air!

This was done on the West coast of Africa by the Sahara Desert,
there was a little building with a roof but no real walls, the walls
were made of corrugated cardboard lying flat but at an slight
angle down into the building, the outer side was towards the
sea.

The high temperatures in the area evaporated the sea into the
air and the wind brought it ashore, the little building slowed the
wind speed down and the vapour returned to water, this ran down
the cardboard and into a catchment area where it flowed into the
system, at a rate of many gallons per second.

I never understood why it was never followed up on, maybe the
cardboard disintegrated as it is fragile when wet, but today we
have other substances that can be corrugated, plastic or aluminium.

Almost free water after the building is up.

Mike.