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Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, South Jersey Commentary, on
August 16, 1999. Water, water everywhere By Sidney B. Kurtz
After the Cuban missile crisis, Fidel Castro came up with what he thought was a brilliant idea to force the U.S. Navy from its Guantanamo Bay base. A lease negotiated after the Spanish-American War allowed the United States to take over Guantanamo. The Americans were guaranteed use of the base in perpetuity through a 1934 agreement that can be broken only by mutual consent. Castro cut off the base from the rest of Cuba after he took control of the country in 1959. Five years later, he figured he could end the annoying U.S. military presence in his socialist backyard with a simple turn of the faucet handle. He would stop the flow of fresh water to the site, he thought, then sit back and watch the evacuation begin. He should have known better. If Castro had been up to speed on history, he would have known that when confronted with a crisis - particularly one of national scurity - the United States will go to any lengths, financially and otherwise, to protect itself. Just north of San Diego, on an isolated rock on the Pacific Coast called Point Loma, Westinghouse had built an experimental plant for the sole purpose of converting saltwater to fresh water at the rate of one million gallons a day. The government "borrowed" the plant, taking it apart and reassembling it at Guantanamo. Our base is still there, and today it supplies its own water. Castro's action could have been construed as an act of war. We responded not with guns, but with imaginative daring. Why can't we do the same when confronted with a similar crisis - the lack of rainfall in New Jersey and much of the rest of the nation? This is war, too, no question about it. Mother Nature has turned the faucet handle to "off." So what are we going to do about it? We're sitting around wringing our hands, praying for rain and waching the water levels drop. Take a look at a map of the United States. We are nearly surrounded by water - the Pacific Ocean to our west, the Atlantic to our east, and the Gulf of Mexico to our south. The popular reason offered in opposition to saltwater conversion is cost, and rightly so. It's just plain expensive to take saltwater and make it suitable for drinking. So what? Oodles of money is being spent here and overseas, some of which can be diverted for this purpose. Billions could be shaved from our military, the space program, foreign aid, nonessential grants and freebies, etc. to pay for this vital need without affecting the lifestyle of the average American. When that little ball called Sputnik passed ominously across our night skies, we gave little thought to the cost of putting men on the moon. We did it. Somehow, the money materialized. It was a crisis, we thought. During World War II, when President Franklin Roosevelt announced that we would produce 50,000 planes a year, he was called a crazy dreamer. But we did that, too. There is nothing that our country, with its vast technological and industrial know-how, cannot accomplish when we put our minds to it. But after the rains come, as they will, and autum turns to winter, this crisis will again be a thing of the past, relegated to the backs of our minds until the next drought. Why must a problem become a life-threatening crisis before action is taken? Why is a traffic light installed after a child is run over? Maybe it's human nature, but fresh water, like oil and coal, is not inexhaustible. Some day, the piper will have to be paid. Israel utilizes saltwater converters. Westinghouse built huge evaporators for Kuwait. Oil-drilling rigs at sea have their own conversion units. St. Thomas no longer depends on collecting precious raindrops. All of the above have found money to pay for making fresh waer. Why? Because their existence depends upon it. We are no different. Even cruise industry is finding it cost-effective to employ a desalinization system on many of its vessels, the added expense being offset by the space made available for other uses. Parts of the East are under drought restrictions. At Gov. Whitman's request, President Clinton has declared New Jersey a disaster area. And without a shot fired in return. We like to think of our naitonas young and adventurous - the best and greatest country in the world - a country that thrives on challenges. OK, here's a challenge worthy of our pride. Let's get to work on it. Sidney B. Kurtz is the author of a family memoir, The Jewish Rectangle: An American Adventure. He lives in Pennsauken. |