Jamaica is pushing forward with required rainwater harvesting for new developments. Per the article linked below:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Drought-triggers-Senate-support-for-rainwater-harvesting_13778719
Drought seems to move mountains where they existed before. In Santa Fe, New Mexico it took a severe drought a decade ago to move the city to adopt expansive water conservation measures and the county to adopt mandatory rainwater harvesting for larger homes.
In Atlanta it took a drought to enact leading legislative actions legalizing rainwater drinking systems. The same for California's new water programs and it is the same in Texas.
Although drought is never a good thing, it is forcing governments to evaluate strategies that had no been looked at before. Mandates are one approach, rebates and incentives another and guidelines a third. Mandates level the playing field so everyone must abide by the same rules and have the bigger, longest term impact at a direct cost to the builder and homeowner. Rebates and incentives; even paying for the entire systems, have much less impact and cost the government and thus all taxpayers for something only a few will take advantage of. Guidelines are by far the preferred approach in the United States and have even less long-term impact.
Eventually as drought becomes more and more prevalent guidelines will move to incentives and then to mandates. Water is a common and the cost of saving it should be a direct cost. This will drive prices down and lead to the biggest savings of this precious resources that most of us have come to think of as a human right.
Government Senator Norman Grant, while supporting the motion, argued that the country's water problem lies in the management and distribution of the commodity.
However, Grant said rainwater harvesting "must become a bigger part of the conversation" as the country deals with the strategy to provide all Jamaicans with potable and irrigation water.
He emphasised that the installation of rainwater-harvesting systems in new housing developments would mitigate the predictable drought conditions experienced mainly during the dry months.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Drought-triggers-Senate-support-for-rainwater-harvesting_13778719
Drought seems to move mountains where they existed before. In Santa Fe, New Mexico it took a severe drought a decade ago to move the city to adopt expansive water conservation measures and the county to adopt mandatory rainwater harvesting for larger homes.
In Atlanta it took a drought to enact leading legislative actions legalizing rainwater drinking systems. The same for California's new water programs and it is the same in Texas.
Although drought is never a good thing, it is forcing governments to evaluate strategies that had no been looked at before. Mandates are one approach, rebates and incentives another and guidelines a third. Mandates level the playing field so everyone must abide by the same rules and have the bigger, longest term impact at a direct cost to the builder and homeowner. Rebates and incentives; even paying for the entire systems, have much less impact and cost the government and thus all taxpayers for something only a few will take advantage of. Guidelines are by far the preferred approach in the United States and have even less long-term impact.
Eventually as drought becomes more and more prevalent guidelines will move to incentives and then to mandates. Water is a common and the cost of saving it should be a direct cost. This will drive prices down and lead to the biggest savings of this precious resources that most of us have come to think of as a human right.
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