America Needs TAHAL

 

From Upmanu Lall (pic), by SciAm: 

There is no central planning for water investments in the U.S. Compare that with the situation for energy, where we have the Energy Information Administration and the Department of Energy. Whether they do a good job or not, there are at least some people tasked with thinking about what should be done and to put some requests for money on the table. In contrast, we have seven or eight different federal agencies with some sort of jurisdiction on water. And that structure is then replicated at the state level and at the local level. 

 ...with agriculture, which is the largest water user, there are options such as agrivoltaics and shifting which crops are grown where. So you start thinking about restructuring the whole system. That is not just a question of liberating money. It’s more a question of getting some good, higher-level planning and thinking in place and then putting money behind these plans and innovations.

 One big concern is the California drought. The agriculture industry there is at an extremely high risk of dying.  More generally, we will see a slowly evolving epidemic of water system failures like the one in Jackson.

Dr Upmanu Lall is another Indian talent lending his brain to solve American problems. I find funny the expression "liberating money". But Lall is very good. TAHAL is my alma mater, תכנון המים לישראל - Water Planning for Israel, a national water planning company, that in its heyday had 800 employees and did much work in Latin America and Africa. 

.