It’s April again, and usually that means a lot of rain. In Missouri, which recently underwent heavy rains and flooding, is showing no signs of water shortages. However, just because Missouri is more fortunate that doesn’t mean that other states are not struggling as well. A prime example would be the California.

The drought taking place in California is just the beginning, however. Soon, not just California will be in a water yearning state, but the entire nation, including Missouri, could be.

California, a state that relies on rain, snow, and the Colorado River, is in a severe state of lack of water. Scientists have claimed that California hasn’t been this dry in 500 years. In fact, due to the drought, farmers have had their water rights cut for the first time since 1977.

The California drought is speculated to be the effect of Colorado overestimating the annual river flow. The water system set up there is failing including the dams, which are doing way more harm than good. Dams actually often lose its’ water to evaporation according to Fox News.

California has, however, put in water conservation laws to reduce the future effects. For instance, it is illegal to water your landscape so much that the water runs off into a street, driveway, sidewalk or a neighbor’s property. It is also illegal to wash sidewalks and driveways. You can’t even water your lawn within 48 hours of rainfall.

How does this affect me?

California grows and exports a lot of fruits and foods and if water gets worse the food supply will decrease. A tiny slice of cantaloupe, four strawberries, two florets of broccoli or a fraction of an egg takes an entire gallon of water to produce.

California simply will not have enough water to continue to supply us with resources such as freshly grown foods and fruits. This would because the heated weather in California is causing rising water levels which is blending salt water with pure water, making it inaccessible for our needs.

Currently, there is no part of Missouri in a water drought due to healthy rain totals over the past year. However, just because Missouri is in good standing with their water resources, it does not mean that it cannot get as bad as California’s. Missouri was in extreme drought 2 years ago, in fact so there is still a possibility to go into agricultural drought.

There is 3/10ths of freshwater in rivers, lakes, and etc. 3% of the freshwater comes from everything else that is not in oceans. Of this, 30% of water is ground water and 68% of the water is frozen. Unless water use is drastically minimized, researchers found that widespread drought will affect between 30 and 40 percent of the planet by 2020. Not to mention, if this continues, it will be too hot and it will start to cause wild fires, spread water born diseases, and the food supply to drastically decrease.

Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, New York and 11 other states could deal with water shortages at least on a local level. Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, California and 20 other states could suffer through water shortages on regional scales, according to a survey conducted on state water managers on freshwater shortage in 2014.

“There is a big difference between agricultural drought and city drought,” Said Brian White, a government and social studies teacher. “We use a lot of fresh water when we could be using recycled water.”

Water is not destroyed by everyday water uses such as long showers, however. Farming uses more than 70% of water while long showers don’t use much at all but scientists still advise to keep it short. Also, the generation of electricity is one of the biggest sources of water consumption throughout the world according to a union of concerned scientists.

Why is this happening?

Parts of the world are going through water shortages because global warming is causing the weather to shift as it gets hot. As it gets hot, some parts get wetter and others get drier. High latitude places get more precipitation while lower parts gets less. Too much precipitation, however causes delayed planting while not enough causes not a lot of snow which is a big source of water.

The temperature also makes the atmosphere more moist due to the climate. As the climate changes, the patterns of ocean currents change. The patterns of the currents can also cause a weather change which cycles into global warming as indicated by Jennifer O’Connor, a AP environmental science teacher which is an elective that is open to juniors and seniors attending Hazelwood Central High School and is a class that serves as dual credit which can be used in conjuntion with the University of Missouri St. Louis so you also get college credit from this class.

Another reason is that we use a lot of water in agriculture and industries. We are using water faster than it can be replaced.

“People think of water as limitless. It’s just there for us in our personal lives. We expect to turn on the faucet and fresh water to always come out,” Said Mrs. O’Connor.

How can I prevent this from happening to me?

Fortunately for people living in Missouri, they don’t have to do much—yet. Their state government has a drought plan in place in the case of drought, which is unlikely as of now.

The average annual rainfall in Missouri is 43.11 inches. The average annual snowfall, which is another source of our water supply, is 12 inches. Missouri is in pretty good standing when it comes to water. In fact, Springfield has 35 years of good water supply due to proactive preservation.

Missouri has 4 phases for the drought according to the 2002 drought plan. Phase 3 is the conservative phase which when the Palmer drought severity index is between -2 to -4, we enter phase 3 which means we keep a close eye on the water levels and warn people to be more conservative and put an alternative water supply in effect and expand pricing measures.

Phase 4 is when the index exceeds -4.0 which means we may enter a drought emergency state which means we may implement limitations on water usage and emergency actions and allow a max allowable usage of water.

Missouri also has water conservative plans in place for our personal lives. For example, it is mandatory that all new toilets only use 1/10^th of a liter to flush and shower  heads are made to be more conservative and with less water pressure. Not to mention, new construction reduces water as well.

However, Missouri residents should not rely solely on their government. If residents wish to help prevent this from happening, they can take personal conservative actions to do so. For instance, people can learn to turn the faucet off when they brush their teeth and take shorter showers. For people who are into planting, they can learn to plant native plants which don’t require daily water rather than ones that do. We should also learn to use recycled water instead of fresh water.