Wednesday, December 2, 2009

How much for a shower?

A recent report says solving water supply issues globally may look similar to solving electricity demands – cut demand.

The report from McKinsey & Co. calls the current situation a water gap since about 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean water. It says the answer is economics or charging more for water to make people use less.

Enhancing the ability of farmers to grow more "crop per drop" is also thrown out as a viable approach.

That’s a roughly similar approach to the calls for increased efficiency to reduce power usage before trying to produce more sustainable energy as an answer to carbon emissions.

While the report is a little geeky, it poses some interesting questions and posits some solutions that sound like they'd work. Of course, it talks mostly about developing countries where large portions of the population might not be so touchy about being forced to conserve.

So how much would you pay for a shower?

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