The Big Thirst

“That first water revolution ushered in an era—the one we think we still live in—in which water was unlimited, free, and safe. And once it was unlimited, free, and safe, we could stop thinking about it.” 

Scientists found bacteria in water. By filtering and chlorinating water, a revolution prevented serious diseases. This produced the ensuing century of water abundance. Most Americans assume that since water is now safe, in abundance, and free, it will always remain that way. Fishman believes this is not the case.

“Ten gallons of tap water, at home, costs on average 3 pennies.” 

Water does not cost much. Farms pay even less for water. Because of this low cost, water is invisible. Fishman makes the case that if water cost more, people would pay more attention to it.

“We are on the verge of a second modern water revolution—and it is likely to change our attitudes at least as much as the one a hundred years ago. The new water scarcity will reshape how we live, how we work, how we relax. It will reshape how we value water, and how we understand it.” 

The Big Thirst argues that after an early 20th-century revolution in water that made it cheap, abundant, and safe, a second water revolution a hundred years later will limit these qualities. A water crisis restricts the water people can get.

“Every year, according to the World Health Organization, 1.8 million children die either from lack of water or from diseases they got from tainted drinking water.” 

Safe water is abundant and cheap in the developed world. However, in developing countries, many people do not have safe water. As a result, millions of people die from thirst or contamination.

“So between now and forty years from now, more new people will join the total population than were alive worldwide in 1900. They will be thirsty.”

The population of the planet grows fast. Fishman argues that we already have a water crisis, and it will continue to worsen. Utilities have to add expensive infrastructure to supply water.

“Water’s indestructability, its reusability, will be vital as we confront an era where water scarcity becomes more common. Water itself isn’t becoming more scarce, it’s simply disappearing from places where people have become accustomed to finding it—where they have built communities assuming a certain availability of water—and reappearing somewhere else.”

Fishman distinguishes between water itself versus water consumption. Water gets recycled through the environment. However, it shifts locations, so that people have built societies in locations where water no longer appears.

“There are plenty of water problems in the United States, plenty of ways that water is wasted, plenty of places where people are fighting about water, or will be soon. But the real lesson of the transformation in the United States in the last twenty-five years is that it is possible to grow dramatically and use less water.” 

Water consumption can result in different products. As the United States has grown economically, it requires less water. Growth does not depend on consuming more water, as evidenced by the city of Las Vegas, which grew abundantly while consuming less water.

“It is one of the ironies of our relationship to water that the moment it becomes unavailable, the moment it really disappears—that’s when water becomes most urgently visible.” 

People take water for granted because of its availability. This abundance can make water seem unimportant. However, during water shortages, people revert to water awareness. Fishman wants societies to act as though water is scarce now, regardless of its abundance in any specific society.

“It’s one of the more astonishing things about water—all the water on Earth was delivered here when Earth was formed, or shortly thereafter.” 

Chapter 2 of the text focuses on the origins and history of water on the planet. Fishman contends that for something that humans are composed primarily of, we know little about water.

“Water is transparent, and also reflects light. Water is soft and soothing, and also hard as concrete. Water is comforting, and also threatening; gentle, and fierce. Water is the source of life, and also often a source of death.” 

Water has various physical and chemical properties. These properties determine its shape, which affects how people relate to water. For human society, water is often paradoxical.

“There is no two-mile stretch of ground anywhere in the United States that has such a density of water features, water attractions, and sheer water exuberance.”

Las Vegas features various numerous water attractions. Despite the dryness of the location, it has more prominent water than elsewhere. Fishman often contrasts the dryness of places against their water consumption. This further shows human society’s paradoxical relationship with water; in one of the driest places in the United States, there is more being used wantonly than anywhere else in America.

“It’s exactly the kind of unexpected, cascading benefit people often discover when they start managing their water use more closely.” 

Fishman argues for planning and managing water. Other resources get managed due to pricing. When people track water consumption, they become more aware of it and manage it better, once they can see how it can save them money.

“Water is basic. It may be the most fundamental need beyond air, the one thing without which we cannot make it through a single day.” 

Fishman visits Galveston, Texas after a hurricane. The flooded city suffers from power and water outages. In the absence of water, people notice its importance. The city has to be evacuated because of water (from Hurricane Ike) and, somewhat ironically, cannot be reentered until there is enough water for the human population.

“Each pound of wool requires 3.6 gallons of wash water to get clean, almost twice what your home washing machine uses.”

An Australian wool producer consumes large amounts of water. The company shifts to recycled water, reducing costs. Industrial and agricultural water consumption often far exceeds residential use. Further, human society often does not take into consideration things like how much water it takes to produce a wool sweater.

“The city of Salisbury has taken a waste product that it had to spend money to manage and dispose of—storm water—and turned it into an asset that brings in about A$1.6 million a year.” 

An Australian city recycles storm water, which commercial and residential consumers use instead of drinking water for many aspects of living. Fishman mentions benefits of alternative water systems.

“During the depth of the Australian drought, Mawson Lakes residents could still water their outdoor plants and gardens when no one else could—because they were using reuse water.” 

An Australian state faces drought. While the state water utility struggles to supply more water, and refuses to provide water alternatives, the town of Salisbury redirects its storm water. This costs customers less, reduces drought pressure on other people, and supplies water during the drought.

“Companies are starting to gather the kind of information that lets them measure not just their water use, and their water costs, but their water efficiency, their water productivity—how much work they get from a gallon of water, how much revenue, how much profit.” 

Large corporations start to measure their water consumption. Fishman notes that companies often lead consumers in water awareness. Companies consume larger amounts of water, affecting costs, but because they need to turn a profit, they look toward every aspect of consumption, including water use.

“It has no river, no bay, no lakes, no oceanfront. Dousing rainfalls, captured in three city reservoirs, historically provided the water Toowoomba needed.” 

The Australian town of Toowoomba runs low on water during a megadrought. After considering a recycled water plant, the town refuses funding because of revulsion to the idea of drinking recycled water. Later, the town pipes in water from farther away, at larger cost and still containing recycled water.

“Water may be mostly ignored, but when it becomes important, it often ends up being about emotion as much as science or rational policy-making.” 

When water is abundant, cheap, and safe, it is invisible. When water becomes scarce, it becomes a sociopolitical issue. Fishman argues that the social aspects of water are more important than science; generally, human societies fear change, even in the face of a mounting paucity of resources.

“The 39,680 farmers of the Murray basin use at least 7,000 gigaliters each year—the 39,680 irrigators use ten times the water that 5.2 million city dwellers require.” 

Australian farmers grow water-intensive crops in a dry country. During a drought, farms fail. This is not limited to Australia; all around the world, and because there is the idea that water is in virtually endless abundance, farms take on water-intensive crops. When drought arrives, it destroys livelihoods, drives up food prices, and can wreak havoc on communities.

“Just one of the thirty-five largest cities in India has twenty-four-hour-a-day water service.” 

Most Indian cities do not get water service 24 hours per day. Instead, only one or two hours, sometimes every other day. While other countries have considered 24-hour water a fundamental aspect of development, India has not. In sectors where India has tired 24-four-hour water, water consumption has gone down.

“Free water has a cost, and not a trivial cost.” 

A hotel chain offers free bottles of water. Most people think that drinking water should be free. Fishman notes that free water can have larger costs, such as having to fetch it by foot. Further, bottled water, due mainly to transport, requires not just a large amount of water, but also a large amount of oil.

“That’s where economics comes in. Economics is a way of managing scarcity, and market economics—pricing—is a way of letting the people who want something that’s scarce participate in deciding who gets it.”

Mike Young, a water economist and environmentalist, argues for a pricing system for water. American society has become quite used to having their tap water be virtually free, or at least very cheap, so such an argument has the potential to face strong societal opposition.