Texas’ Water Shortages Could Cost State
According to Texas’ chief Comptroller Susan Combs, water shortages combined with expected population growth could cost Texans’ their way of life.
In a new report, issued by Combs, the state estimates that it could lose some $466 million in tax revenue by 2010 and up to $5.4 billion by the year 2060 due to water shortages.
The report expects water demand to go up by 27 percent over the next fifty years; with no new sources of water to exploit, Combs also anticipates Texas’ agriculture will suffer. Already, droughts cost the state’s agriculture sector some one to four billion annually.
The report, Liquid Assets: The State of Texas’ Water Resources proposes a dedicated funding source for water development programs to help aid and prevent future loses.
Read more here.
Source : The Office of Comptroller Susan Combs
Circle of Blue’s east coast correspondent based in New York. He specializes on water conflict and the water-food-energy nexus. He previously worked as a political risk analyst covering equatorial Africa’s energy sector, and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa. Contact: Cody.Pope@circleofblue.org
There is a billionaire that has water rights to an aquifer in Texas that is draining our free resource and bottling it, through Nestle and Pierre and selling back to U.S. citizens (and around the world). Stop Him! This isn’t fair! It’s the rich who take advantage just to get richer.