1. Its kind of an oxymoron. A drought is periodic weather pattern characterized by less than normal rainfall. This makes “permanent drought” something of an oxymoron. Chronic shortage is probably more precise.

2. A drought is a weather pattern. It suggests a condition we can’t do anything about but perhaps endure. People tend to avert their eyes to big problems with no end in sight.

3. It places the emphasis on a resource shortage. The problem is not too little water, its too much wasteful overuse. A message should place the emphasis on the demand side of the equasion where we can do something sensible about it and individual actions matter.

But until we reach the point where people don’t have water to flush their toilets, the reality of water scarcity will remain what it is now: an enigma, an apocalyptic cry of enviro-alarmists and one of The Unimaginables. In the U.S., we assume clean drinking water is a right, yet do nothing to protect it. Life wihtout water is unimaginable. Even those areas plagued with repetitive drought years are coping…

Here in the Catskills, we’re at the other end of the spectrum — too much water and regional flodding more often than not these days. This recent memory overshadows any call-to-arms for water conservation. Our area provides clean drinking water for nine million NYC consumers. I’d say our residents are pretty savvy about water in general. But Permanent Drought is not a term I’d be using any time in the near future. I do wonder at what point our water-rich area will be called upon to provide water recoures or those less unfortuante miles away. We are, after all, Americans and will come to the aid of our parched compatriots. We have yet to reach that point of realization that water is not in the tap or in the toilet bowl.

I like the concept of Permanent Drought because it gets to the point…Once we’re there, there is no going back.