Some experts believe years of extreme drought and unchecked water usage have put U.S. cities at risk of critical shortages.
The term “day zero water” has become synonymous with a worst-case scenario for public water resources. It refers to a moment in which a city or region’s water supply is almost depleted and officials cut tap supply to communities.
This crisis was narrowly averted in 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa, which approached the threshold of a day zero event after rationing was almost not enough.
Subsequently, environmental researchers and resource insiders have voiced concern over the possibility of water running out in U.S. cities after years of drought have reduced groundwater in places such as the Great Plains and the Southwest.
In a recent study published in Nature, researchers noted “rapid groundwater-level declines” globally in the 21st century of more than 0.5 meters (20 inches) per year across 170,000 monitoring wells and 1,693 aquifer systems.
This includes water resources in the United States.
The study authors further observed groundwater declines have accelerated over the past four decades, highlighting an “urgent need for more effective measures to address groundwater depletion.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also expressed concerns over national water assets.
The agency highlights on its website a Government Accountability Office report from 2014 that stated that 40 out of 50 state water managers “expected shortages in some portion of their states under average conditions in the next 10 years.”
Groups such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) attribute much of the groundwater loss to climate change.
“The conditions in the American West, which we’re seeing around the Colorado River basin, have been so dry for more than 20 years that we’re no longer speaking of a drought,” Lis Mullin Bernhardt said in a statement in May.
Ms. Bernhardt, an ecosystems expert at the UNEP, called it “aridification” and a “new very dry normal.”
However, some experts say poor water management and aging pipe infrastructure also play a significant role in depleting groundwater reserves.
“Given current consumption patterns and the increasing strain on water resources due to factors like climate change and population growth, a Day Zero water crisis is certainly a possibility for some U.S. cities,” Natalya Holm told The Epoch Times in an email.
