The water wars have already begun and we need to put a stop to it now before it gets worse. Water is the bloodstream running to keep our planet alive. The human race's destruction of this vital source has become cancerous and needs to be stopped. Living in a first world country, I’ve noticed that we tend to take the simple things in life for granted. A vital source of life that is continually wasted in our society is water. We have running water within hands reach of us everywhere, and we take advantage of it. What many people don’t know is how fast we are running out of it. Water is a renewable resource, but to a certain extent. At the rate that we, as a race, are using up water it is not giving the planet enough time to replenish itself, thus, slowly draining it out day by day. Underdeveloped countries are the ones who are struggling the most with their battle for water.

We need to make drastic changes in how we waste this precious resource. More education on water efficiency can help the public save water and money, like taking shorter showers, closing the faucet when you’re brushing your teeth or watering your lawn (if needed) early in the morning or late at night to prevent evaporation. Agribusinesses should change the way they irrigate their crops to drip irrigation. This way their crops remain hydrated and it saves the planet millions of gallons of wasted water each year. Instead of buying name brand water bottles, I would advertise the use of recycled water (sewage water). It may sound gross, but the water is clean, tastes like any other name brand water bottle, and it reduces the amount of water taken from the planet. Bottled water is just purified tap water at the end of the day. If the water is clean it shouldn't matter where it comes from. Businesses/companies can replace their regular toilets with high efficient toilets. Maybe the government can give these businesses a compensation for their “greener” change. Limitations should also be place to how much water can be taken from lakes and aquifers each year and would be fully enforced with fines or any other penalties towards anybody who goes over said limit. This gives the environment at least some water to support itself and will dramatically reduce the number of sinkholes created from draining aquifers. Stricter laws on pollution need to be placed and enforced, whether it’s throwing a cigarette into a pond or agricultural runoff from farms. This will reduce the amount of toxins in our drinking water and into the environment, thus preventing any additional pollutants that will need to be cleaned for safe drinking.

With these new laws and restrictions hopefully we would have been able to not only save more water being wasted in the United States, but also influence other countries to do the same. If we all work together, as a race, we can save ourselves from a future of war and suffering, and our planet as a whole. It’s the only home we all truly have, we should be fighting to save it rather than destroy it.