Letter to the Editor: Global water supply

Dear Editor:

I generally enjoy Byron Dillon’s letters in the Patriot, but I tend to disagree with John Wesley Powell’s quote of 1889, which he cited to show that there isn’t adequate water available. 
There is plenty of water, it just isn’t evenly distributed around the globe. 

On Mt. Waialeale, on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, it can rain more than 400 inches a year. Conversely, in the northern Atacama Desert in Chile, several years can go by with no precipitation whatsoever. 

Does our planet have enough water? If the world were smooth like a marble, water would cover the entire globe to a depth of over 5,000 feet. 

What we need to do is construct proper infrastructure for distributing it, and use it more wisely through recycling and better water management. 

Jack Russell
Downey