Water Resources Problems of the United States: A Comparison with Great Britain

Abstract

N adequate comprehension of the important and far-reaching proposals put A forward by the National Resources Committee of the United States in the 1937 revision of Drainage Basin Problems and Programs' might well be no easy achievement for an American, even if equipped with the requisite knowledge; for an English engineer attempt grasp their full significance and offer any observations on a subject that is so clearly an affair of American domestic policy would seem slightly presumptuous. Yet in favor of the external viewpoint it may be urged that as regards questions of water conservation and use there is an international community of interest. Water is one of the commonest things in nature and, jointly with air and food, the most vital of human requirements. Hence all matters connected with its economical administration and distribution are of universal concern In Great Britain people have only recently awakened an appreciation of the fact that, if careless and wasteful dissipation of the generally bountiful, but occasionally restricted, supplies of water is be avoided, it is essential make an accurate investigation of the water resources of the country. In this respect the United States has for a long time been setting a commendable example in the researches of its Geological Survey, whose publications on ground water have been of great interest and value. I served for three years as a member of a committee appointed in 1932 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science to inquire into the position of Inland Water Survey in the British Isles, and the possible organisation and control of such a survey by central authority. The outcome of the investigations and subsequent representations of this committee was that in January, 1935, the British government instituted an official survey of the national water resources, which is now in hand under the Ministry of Health.2 So far, progress has been mainly in the direction of preliminary organization; but when, in course of time, records accumulate and are tabulated, there will be numerous reliable data on which proceed the satisfactory apportionment and distribution of the available supplies. (It should be explained that the deficiency hitherto existing in records in Great Britain has been chiefly in regard surface runoff and river discharge. There has been since I86o an admirably systematic collection and compilation of rainfall statistics under the British Rainfall Organization.) The difficulty of dealing with the National Resources Committee's report within reasonable limits of space lies in the vast area of ground that it covers and the varied uses of water. There is not only the consumption for household use in the ordinary course of domestic routine be taken into consideration; there are also the require-