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The need to curtail the use of water was driven home by the 2012 State Water Plan.
It opened with the statement, “In serious drought conditions, Texas does not and will not have enough water to meet the needs of its people, its businesses, and its agricultural enterprises.”
In Waco this Thursday, a Water Conservation Symposium will no doubt focus on measures relevant to that part of the state.
Jennifer Walker is with the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, one of the sponsors of the forum.
“We’re trying to provide utilities with tools, to plan for and implement water conservation programs. There’s a lot of communities around the state that have water conservation programs in place, and they’ve had a lot of trial and error in implementing those, and we want these cities to be able to share with other cities their experiences and the lessons learned from implementing water conservation programs.”
At a recent gathering held in Central Texas, Walker says the focus with water providers in the area was on managing water supplies during a drought.
“And in the Houston area, the symposium that we put on this past March, we really focused on the basics, about how to get a water conservation program in place, and why we should need to do so, and how it affects the bottom line for utilities, because they’re starting out at a different place than say Austin, or other communities that have already been doing water conservation for many years, are at.”
She adds the state could also do more to simply promote public education on conservation. Last year, the city implemented water conservation measures that included fines for citizens who did not comply.