Is Water Conservation Message Getting Out There?

Water conservation needs a serious multi-level effort to be effective for all, less painful on the budgets of the majority of Florida water consumers. With 1,000 people moving into the state each day and predictions of Florida's population larger than California's by 2050, water conservation has to be part of Floridians' lifestyles. The Orlando Sentinel's early indications of their unscientific poll showed that 60% of the persons responding to the poll watered their lawn every one to two days. This highlights the need of more water conservation education, tiered water rates, and strigent enforcement of local restrictions.

State officials haven't taken a hard line against water wasters despite water shortages in some parts of the state, including Central Florida.

In 2002, on the tail end of a fierce four-year drought, a statewide task force created a shopping list of water-saving measures -- everything from asking farmers to catch rainwater in cisterns to hiring a new army of inspectors to nab people violating lawn-watering rules.Although many of the ideas are implemented in piecemeal fashion around the state, none of the 51 recommendations spelled out in the Florida Water Conservation Initiative has become a state law with tough enforcement.

"I know people joke about how slow government is, but it's been four years," said Doug Shaw, a University of Florida hydrologist and Florida's director of conservation science for The Nature Conservancy."It seems the government has taken a torturously long path on this," he said. "Where did all the recommendations go?"

What other strategies are being developed to insure an alternative water source? Read more here...