Speaker: Doug Ellrich
The state of water availability in the present and in the future around the world. There are 3 main aspects. 1. There is the technology of water - storage, various desalination methods, uses. 2. There is the availability of water with several places as examples - Saudi Arabia, Morocco, SoCal, Uzbekistan, Canada, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, Africa. 3. The politics. The water rights agreements of the American West, how water gets allocated by these hundred year old agreements. Africa; after decades of water projects in Africa, it's still a place where millions upon millions of people still do not have clean water after there have been $trillions spent trying to bring clean water to Africa. The politics of drought and the science of climate change as it affects water availability.
Doug Ellrich worked for the Marion County Welfare Department from 1973-1979. He served in the US Army from 1979-1989. He worked at the U. S. Department of State from 1990 - 2014. He has been a Scientech club member since 2023.
Program: Water Now and in the Future
Speaker: Doug Ellrich, MA, Foreign Service Officer (retired), US Department of State, Scientech Club member
Introduced By: Doug Ellrich
Attendance: NESC: 97; Zoom: 30
Guest(s): Dennis Matthews, Larry Dalyds, Bob Fisher, Shriv Kendall, Niceta Bradburn, John Spadorcia, Urmilla Singh
Scribe: Alan Schmidt
Editor: Bill Elliott
Talk’s Zoom recording found at: https://www.scientechclubvideos.org/zoom/08042025.mp4
Doug Ellrich presented the state of water availability now and in the future worldwide. There are three main aspects: 1) There are various technologies related to water storage, including desalination methods, and their applications. 2) There is the availability of water in several places, such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Southern California, Uzbekistan, Canada, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and in Africa. 3) The politics-water rights agreements of the American West, and how water gets allocated by these hundred-year-old agreements.
Africa, despite decades of water projects, remains a place where millions of people lack access to clean water, despite billions of dollars spent on efforts to bring clean water to the continent. The
politics of drought and the science of climate change affect water availability.
Doug developed water experience from living or spending time in desert areas –Arizona, California, Uzbekistan, Saudia Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Morocco, and the Middle East generally. Only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh water, and 4 billion people face water scarcity each month. The water usage is distributed as follows: 70% for agriculture, 12% for industry, and 16% for municipal purposes. Of the global water supply, 96.5% is in oceans, 1.74% in glaciers and ice caps, 1.7% in groundwater, and small amounts in other locations.
Environmental challenges encompass climate shifts, glacier loss, pollution, overuse, wetland loss, threats to biodiversity, and groundwater depletion. In western US states, prior appropriation disincentives conservation. There is a legal and political conflict over water rights and usage in the shared river system of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin that begins in Georgia, flows through Alabama, and ends in Florida; a significant contributing factor is growing water consumption in Georgia for Atlanta. Elements of water scarcity include the environment, heritage water rights, poor policy choices, lack of resources, corruption, mismanagement, lack of technical skill, and growing population densities.
Technological solutions include drip irrigation versus pivot irrigation and closed-system aquaculture, which involves water flow through shrimp, tilapia, and seagrass. With energy input, perhaps from solar energy, desalination can be done by a reverse osmosis membrane-based methods or distillation.
Saudi Arabia faces significant and ongoing environmental concerns due to aquifer depletion linked to agricultural practices, an arid climate, and reliance on nonrenewable groundwater. In contrast to Indiana, Saudi Arabia is a place where, when it rains, we all go outside and stand in the rain. Desalination processes are contributing to the increased warmth and salinity of the Persian Gulf. The Soviet Union’s decision to grow water-intensive cotton in Uzbekistan led to the depletion of the Aral Sea, with canals losing 50% of the water. In Morocco, Africa, solar arrays in the desert power desalination plants on the coast. The depletion of Lake Chad is one of the most striking examples of environmental degradation in Africa with serious humanitarian, ecological and geopolitical consequences. Human mismanagement and climate pressures have been the main accelerators.
The main drivers of water problems are policy, political, historical, and cultural. Desalination helps but is not a cure-all. Reform, pricing, and technology are all needed. Water’s finite, solutions are not.
Doug Ellrich
