Drops to drink

Periodic relief such as recent rain is by no means a long-term fix for water shortages. A strategy is crucial, statewide

Those driving in certain parts of North Carolina last weekend, with those things called windshield wipers (the name escaped us there for a minute) working and umbrellas pulled out of their dusty homes, might have experienced a brief and false sense of security about this water problem in North Carolina. That's understandable, but the parched conditions this year will need more than a relative drop or two before we can stand at ease. Not that we ever really can.

In fact, as Governor Easley and other state officials rightly note, what the state must have is a long-term water conservation plan. Toward that end, a convention was held last week in Raleigh, and the governor is asking the state's Drought Management Advisory Council to come up with ways to help those communities hit hardest by this year's drought, which constitutes an emergency in many places.

Emergency is putting it mildly for many of North Carolina's farmers, whose losses because of drought-related crop damage are pegged in the hundreds of millions. Disaster relief, certainly in the form of low-cost loans to help finance plantings next season, should be a top federal priority.

But when it comes to water for human consumption and use, what needs to happen is for the state to help localities not only with immediate conservation but also in preparing for the extended consequences of meager water supplies. That takes in a lot of territory, from recycling to the use of water-thrifty appliances to planning for growth in ways that won't further burden limited natural resources of all kinds.

In states such as California, where water shortages are a fact of day-to-day, year-to-year, decade-to-decade life, conservation measures have long been on the scope. They range from lower water-use toilets to plants that use less water to helping industries curb what for them is a tremendous expense.

In North Carolina, such efforts have been slow to gain traction, but there are encouraging signs in homes and in businesses. There has been an awakening to the fact that resources are strained, and all citizens must work to preserve and protect them. With its top scientific research universities, North Carolina in fact could be a national leader in research on water and energy conservation. The universities already are doing much in that regard.

Officials from the appropriate departments also can work on raising public awareness of the need to conserve. How many of us, for example, have observed excessive watering of lawns or washing of cars by people who simply didn't seem to know that alerts had been sounded and limits installed? Or, did they just not care?

The answer to dealing with potentially long-term water shortages lies in bringing attention to the issue, raising the money to seek ways to deal with it, and marshalling public support for conservation.

It also includes figuring out better means of reusing water supplies that already are available, and of shielding those supplies from contamination. Steps of that sort will be essential to safeguarding the quality of life we have come to expect, and perhaps in many cases have taken for granted.