Obama Administration: Water Use Could Be More Efficient

The Obama administration has begun an initiative aimed at making the United States more water-efficient, saying the country has the potential to reduce its total water use by a third.

Deputy Interior Secretary Mike Connor said some of the White House’s objectives include encouraging more recycling of wastewater and promoting investment in water treatment and desalination technologies.

“From a technology standpoint, the administration views this as similar to the great strides that it’s made in the renewable energy area, where we set goals of reducing the costs of solar energy,” Connor told The Desert Sun in an interview by phone last week.

“I think in the area of water, given the impacts of climate change, the issues associated with long-term droughts, questions about sustainability, we’re striving to make and promote those types of investments to help us build resiliency in the long term,” Connor said during a visit to Las Vegas, where he attended a conference on water law.

The White House announced its new “water innovation strategy” last month and plans a summit on March 22, which is World Water Day, focusing on potential solutions to the country’s water challenges.  The White House said in a fact sheet about the initiative that with improvements in efficiency, better management practices and more widespread adoption of water reuse technology, “we have potential to considerably reduce water usage by 33 percent.”

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