Finch, Calvin

Texas A&M University

Fall 2012  tx H2O 5
Column by Dr. Calvin Finch, Water Conservation and Technology Center director
Conservation and 
Drought Management
WAT E R
CONSERVATION
& TECHNOLOGY
CENTER
Securing Our Water Future
Water conservation and drought management are 
related, but they are not the same. 
Water conservation is a long-term effort to reduce 
the amount of water it takes to manufacture goods, 
manage households and care for landscapes. 
Drought management is water-use rules initiated 
to deal with reduced water supply or increased 
demand in an emergency. Often the “emergency” 
is regularly expected as in an area where rainfall is 
erratic. 
Both water conservation and drought 
management are reasonable ways to manage water 
resources. Effective use of water conservation 
and drought management meets water needs at a 
reduced cost to ratepayers. 
Through technology and behavior changes, 
communities can get the same jobs done without 
using as much water. In the home, some obvious 
water conservation technologies  are high efficiency 
toilets, showerheads, washing machines and water 
heaters. Behavioral changes include turning the 
water off except when rinsing while shaving and 
brushing teeth and putting full loads in dishwashers 
and washing machines. Using efficient irrigation 
systems and fixing leaks are also behavioral habits 
that can save water.
The use of low water-demand landscape plants 
probably qualifies as a technological change. 
However, a lush, colorful landscape using less water 
comes only if people caring for the landscape choose 
to use the right amount of water at the right time to 
take advantage of the plants’ capabilities.
Water purveyors can conserve water with good 
maintenance and leak repair of distribution systems. 
New leak detection 
techniques fit in 
the technological 
conservation area, 
but getting the 
repairs done is a 
behavioral issue. 
Effective conservation can significantly increase 
water supplies. As a result of water conservation 
efforts, the city of San Antonio is able to provide 
water to 50 percent more people than it did in 1982, 
without using more water. Even more remarkable, 
BBC Research and Consulting did a cost benefit 
analysis of the program in 2003 and determined that 
every dollar invested in water conservation by San 
Antonio saved the community $4-$7 by reducing 
the need for more water resources and more 
wastewater treatment.
San Antonio spends about $300 per acre-foot 
of water yield from conservation on education, 
incentives and enforcement. New water resources 
generally cost the community at least $1,000 per 
acre-foot.  
Drought management is typically used when 
reservoir supplies are diminished and water demand 
is high. Drought management tools include water 
restrictions and increasing water costs for users.
Landscape irrigation in the summer often 
accounts for 50 percent or more of the water used in 
a community, so reducing landscape watering can 
save a lot of water. Ideal use of drought management 
techniques involves temporarily reducing water 
use without slowing economic activity or causing 
permanent damage to landscapes.
San Antonio achieves this goal by restricting 
landscape watering when the Edwards Aquifer level 
falls because of drought.
This option is attractive because water use on 
landscapes can be reduced significantly without 
permanent landscape damage. In San Antonio, 
Stage 3 water restrictions limit lawn watering to 
once every two weeks, which local studies show is 
enough water to keep grass alive.
Tolerating a dry-looking lawn for a few months is 
a small price to pay to preserve available water for 
manufacturing and in-home use. Reducing demand 
also means that special water supplies do not need to 
be paid for every year for the less frequent occasions 
when demand would be high enough to use it.


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Conservation and drought management

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Conservation and drought management

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