Water shortages series: What happened to our water?

Population growth has exploded since the Industrial Revolution. With steady jobs, better medicine and a stable food supply, the world’s population has tripled in the last 70 years, adding five billion people. In the two previous centuries, it took 100 years to double our population. With mankind’s changing living habits, we utilize much more disposable trash and garbage, which is turning into mountains around our cities, or, in some parts of the world, it is clogging our rivers and being dumped into our oceans.

The increase in population and the associated trash continues to increase the need for clean water. These problems are not going to improve until we decide to work for that progress. One way to accomplish the advancement in water accessibility is through education. There are numerous cultures and languages that might be easy to educate in some locations, but is an obstacle elsewhere. To simplify the educational process, we could involve missionaries who are embedded and accepted in these different cultures. I don’t believe we should depend on a particular religious group, nor should we focus on locating water or education for a specific religious group. To get as broad support as possible, we don’t want to make this a competition between religions, manufacturers or even borders. The struggle should only be against what pollutes drinking water. The biggest problem is financing. Financing can be done in a number of ways.

How many times are we asked to round up our payment in order to support a charity when checking out at a store? In a similar manner, your service technician could talk to the customer about how they could help themselves as well as those less fortunate by reducing their carbon footprint while helping to increase the supply of clean drinkable water through donations to this proposed charity.

Awareness of the depleting water resources is obvious to those who don’t have potable water. Many who do have access to water are oblivious to the need for water which requires education as well. In the USA and many other countries, this education could be a part of our service call. How many times are we asked to round up our payment in order to support a charity when checking out at a store? In a similar manner, your service technician could talk to the customer about how they could help themselves as well as those less fortunate by reducing their carbon footprint while helping to increase the supply of clean drinkable water through donations to this proposed charity. The technician could involve their customer in a maintenance agreement that would provide fixtures as needed from participating manufacturers. These fixtures would benefit all parties and also the charity. This service agreement would include an inspection of the plumbing system in search of water closets that are inefficient in water consumption as well as any other water-wasting fixtures. Your technician could focus on housing built before 1960 (currently estimated at over 130 million nationwide) that need to have their failing cast iron piping replaced. This replacement would also prevent more contaminants from reaching our waterways. Water filtration should also be a part of this inspection and the technician should be prepared to test the water with or without an existing filter.

Technicians might also be incentivized not only by helping those in need but possibly a trip to aid in supplying water to a needy community. Just think of the young men and women spending their amazing vacation in a foreign country helping install a freshwater system and how easy this would be to share with a customer once they return. A company offering this water-saving maintenance agreement could offer this free home inspection. The inspection will not only increase your service revenue but also build customer confidence and loyalty.

When I worked with Contractor Success Group, we had a travel agent who saved us thousands and made travel so much easier. Our charity might consider involving travel agents and even airlines to sponsor travel for travel to these areas in need of water. Providing this support will be a low cost to the companies involved and will be promoting their business in a very special way while doing a very good thing.

As we consider these possibilities, be mindful that this is a major undertaking that has been attempted in the past by our trade. Even though the task is large, each individual can make small contributions that will add up to provide for many. If you are a contractor, there are simple changes you can make that will advance not only the quality of water on a global basis but also improve profitability for your business, employees and customers. This charity would also offer a manufacturer the ability to advertise something that the world needs while helping to finance and support this effort without any significant investment.

If you are interested in further discussion or have other ideas to involve our industry or to support this endeavor, contact me. My email address is davidratliff1@aol.com

Editor’s note: Read more of David Ratliff’s water scarcity series below.