Letter – We all need to do our part to conserve water

Talk about it

To the editor:

Water, humans’ most essential need, is not in unlimited supply, but many people, including myself, often act like it is. We often leave the faucet running, carelessly water the road as well as our yards, and waste it throughout our daily lives. This global water shortage will require worldwide action, but as a community we must do our part to conserve this valuable resource.

Our first step must be to increase the public’s education of water conservation. We need to stress the importance of waste-conscious personal behavior. It might be hard to fathom a water shortage in our community due to our large supply of lakes, but we must not be wasteful simply because we seem to have an abundant supply of fresh water. The fact of the matter is that a large number of U.S. cities will suffer water shortages and many of them are communities just like ours.

We need to encourage and support conscious behavior and explore options to reduce our water consumption. Low-flow showers, toilets, appliances and lawn irrigation systems would be great for our community and our environment. We could cut our water’s costs and be environmentally friendly at the same time.

Steps such as these from a very water-abundant community would set a great example for people everywhere. The water crisis affects everybody on Earth and we all must work together to beat it.

Nick Retzlaff, St. John’s University

Collegeville, MN

Tags: opinion, letter, editor, nick, retzlaff, northland, outdoors