HOW LAS VEGAS ROSE FROM THEIR WATER CRISIS
Perhaps quite an application to the famous adage“ What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is with their water, although water is not very exclusive to them – only they have an edge due to their water technology. The thirstiest city in Nevada, a state wherein they only get 4 inches of rain annually, Las Vegas has to find a way around their lack of water blessing, and so far they are delivering well in conserving their water. New front lawns have been banned for years; golf courses are being punished with fines due to their excessive water rationing. Not only that, they also have a recycling program wherein the city’ s indoor water goes back and forth Lake Mead that enabled them to trim their aggregate water use by a third despite the considerable population growth since 2000. Behind these efforts are more, especially in their water innovation. Research and development in Las Vegas grew more with the area’ s umbrella water utility, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, being a recognized water quality treatment. It has state-of-the-art laboratory that produced major academic journals together with their accomplished group of scientists. There are also efforts from the teaming up of the state, the city, the University of Nevada’ s Desert Research Institute, the regional water authority and private industry that produced what they call as WaterStart, a tiny incubator that treats water for research. Vegas locals and visitors can gamble and need not to worry about water anymore as things are patching up despite their history with water. They can even be rightfully called the Silicon Valley of Water with their water innovation.
Photo by OutsideOnline
SEPTEMBER 2016 Clean Water Technologies
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