Sunday, February 01, 2009

So, I'm Not The Only One Praying For Rain...

Finally, they're talking about it! It seems like anyone with half the sense of a grasshopper has realized that we have had a pitifully tiny amount of rain this year. Today, the Jordan Times posted an article on our dry situation. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation has avoided calling it a drought. Which gets me thinking...

You know, in 2007 and 2008 Alabama had persistent drought conditions. In 2007, they had "near record rainfall deficits." You may be wondering, so what does that mean, how much rain did they get? Well, they ONLY got 20-40 inches. Alabama typically gets as much annual rainfall as Seattle (it's just sunny and pretty while it rains instead of gloomy and grey).

2007 and 2008 saw such actions as:
  • A lawsuit over Georgia's use of water in a lake negatively impacting rivers in Alabama and Florida (Georgia didn't win this one)
  • Restrictions on citizens as don't water the lawn during the day
  • Bans on people filling swimming pools

So, they are in drought conditions with only 40 inches of rain! From what I can see, Jordan typically gets between 20 and 30 inches of rain per year. Can you imagine that Jordan's average rainfall is a drought in Alabama...

In an average year, Alabama gets closer to 60 inches of rain a year. Oh, and it's spread across the seasons. Every season has rain. The cold blustery ran of the winter season, the life-giving, flower-growing rain of the Spring, the gentle warm rain of the summer and the chilly fall rains. yep, every season's rain has it's own characteristic.

This year in Jordan has rather made me long for rain (only the warm summer rains, though). I'm also thinking of ways to make better use of the water we consume. I'm got a big water bottle (you know the sort from the water coolers) that I'm planning to press into service as a reservoir. That way I can save the Bean's bath water (and my shower water) for watering plants and washing cars. After all, if we aren't going to conserve, who is? I hope that you'll think of ways to better use our limited natural resources. And, please share your best ideas so that we can all benefit from them!

Happy non-drought!

2 Comments:

At 7:09 AM , Blogger Ali Dahmash said...

I think they had the samre article in Al Rai and I read that the last rain didn't fill the dams as they need atleast 12 hours of rain fall to get filled. And we only have about 45 days of winter left before spring. We have a serious problem and I wonder what the government strategy will be this summer?

 
At 9:05 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well said. Great idea about saving bath and shower water...I am going to keep a bucket in the shower now.

One thing we could do...prepare a flier for the kid's schools to remind the parents to implement what the kids have learned in school about water conservation. There have been a couple of wat/con programs in our elementary school.

If our kids didn't get that part yet, maybe we could visit the classrooms and give a little lecture. :)

Aren't there some radio stations that do free public service announcements?

 

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