The Obama administration has begun an initiative aimed at making the United States more water-efficient. It recently claimed that the country has the potential to reduce its total water use by a third in 2016.
Deputy Interior Secretary Mike Connor revealed some of the White House's objectives, including encouraging more recycling of waste water. The Obama administration also wants to focus on promoting investment in water treatment and desalination technologies.
"From a technology standpoint, the administration views this as similar to the great strides that it's made in the renewable energy area, where we set goals of reducing the costs of solar energy," Connor told The Desert Sun. Then he added during a visit to Las Vegas, where he attended a conference on water law, "I think in the area of water, given the impacts of climate change, the issues associated with long-term droughts, questions about sustainability, we're striving to make and promote those types of investments to help us build resiliency in the long term."
According to USA TODAY, the White House also declared its new "water innovation strategy" last month and plans a summit on March 22, which is World Water Day. It aims to focus on potential solutions to the country's water challenges. The White House also emphasized in a fact sheet about the initiative that with improvements in efficiency, better management practices and more widespread adoption of water reuse technology, "we have potential to considerably reduce water usage by 33%."
During a December 15 meeting at the White House, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced the making of the new Natural Resources Investment Center. This will be responsible for encouraging private investment in infrastructure projects and facilitating local water-exchange deals in the West. "We recognize there are limits to the resources that the federal government can apply towards these water resource challenges," Connor mentioned. He continued by saying, "so we're trying to promote more public-private partnerships."
One big reason federal officials are confident it's possible to reduce the nation's water footprint is that it's been done before. Because of the enhancements done with efficiency and conservation, total water consumption in the United States has decreased in recent years, as mentioned in USGS. It claimed that researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey have estimated that the country's water use in 2010 was about 13 percent less than 2005, which was the lowest level since before 1970.
Meanwhile, in a recent report of the White House, it laid out its water proposals and noted some of the biggest increases in water demand because of climate change. It also added that as global warming puts added strains on water supplies, communities will need to "reconfigure their water infrastructure systems" in order to adapt.
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