Written by William Kurtz
Broad stretches of our Midwest are ravaged by floods every Spring, while crops in the Plains and in the Central Valley of California (the vegetable basket of the country) have not enough to drink, resulting in higher food prices in the supermarket. Every drop of water that goes over Niagara Falls helps to create a beautiful vista, but it goes straightaway to the ocean.
Click on pictures for larger image.
This makes no sense. It is a problem of supreme importance to the well-being of the country, but no one in high places is addressing it on a macro, unified basis. This is Waste, on a monumental scale. There is no one banging the drum to do something about it.
Where is the leadership, the initiative, the drive that produced the Panama Canal, the Erie Canal, the trans-continental railway system, the Interstate Highway System? There are no voices in Congress proposing a remedy, while the President’s voice is silent on the matter.
We have too much water too often in too many places; and not enough water all the time in other places. Arguably, there is plenty of water; it just isn’t being managed properly – or at all, certainly not on a nationwide basis. The country is in dire need of Attention Being Paid. What is called for is a Master Plan of Water Management – covering the acquisition of surface water in the first place; flood control; a system of water storage; and a nationwide web of pipeline distribution – almost surely in concert with Canada.
Who will lead? I don’t see any raised hands.
