Nevada is coming up with its own plan to be smarter about how they use their natural resources. The program that they have designed is actually called Water Smart and they are comparing it to Energy Star. This program was designed to make guidelines to help keep the natural resource of water from becoming a scarcity within the state of Nevada.
There are many homes throughout the state that are exceeding their water efficiency standards that are helping to preserve the resources, such as water. This has only been since the Water Smart program was originally formed in 2004. The government within the state is hoping to use the results of this program to prove how successful the state could become if it came time to be a drought, as it has been within past year. The biggest question about what to do with the water resources and how to conserve all boils down to what technique needs to be used in order to follow through.
A problem that had arisen for Nevada was simply that much of their water resources were not going to nourish people, but rather to supply nutrients to turf and landscaping. The researchers figured that by using different techniques, no one's landscaping would have to suffer but water would not be as scarce of a resource as it has been lately. Their studies were measuring the average water reduction that people could create with an effort and yet still live comfortably as well as the varying kinds of water people were allowed to use.
The next step was to see what kind of incentives needed to be set in place to make people want to use these practices. Anyone who has nice landscaping probably has a business that helps to support the lawn. There needed to be an actual desire to change their practices, not just the need to do so. Although no definite answer was found throughout the research, it was determined that there is a level on which people are willing to give up their landscaping.
Another part that accompanies all of the research on landscaping was the construction companies that are doing much of the building and destroying of some of our natural resources. One of the rewards that the government had agreed to do a preliminary study on was giving a rebate to construction workers who were able to minimize their impact on water resources while completely their jobs. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was behind this project and it helped to benchmark the existing practices and efficiencies as well as determine opportunities to improve water efficiency for the construction workers. This in turn helped the researchers to develop a recommendation as to what the rebates actually would be, and again, what it would take to get people to want to agree to these programs, as opposed to show them the need for it.
Nevada's government it being very proactive in attempting to find a solution for low water levels during times of trouble. Their efforts have been improved by the research but their questions are not yet solved. With their continued dedication, however, Nevada may soon have a solution to their water worries.
Gretchen Vuvalgee writes about floods and water damage problem. See:
http://www.localwaterremoval.com/Nevada
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