Water for the Future

Report Outline
Water Resources and Water Shortages
Attempts to Alleviate Water Shortages
Public Policy on Use of Water Resources
Special Focus

Water Resources and Water Shortages

Water, natural resource that is basic to life itself, is becoming a more and more precious commodity in the United States. Assurance of adequate supplies for the present and the future is a pressing problem for government officials, industry executives, planners, and plain citizens. Water supplies remain fairly constant—as a result of nature's replenishment—but water requirements are rising sharply. Growth of population and expansion of industry make it imperative that the usable supply be increased.

The report of a Cabinet Committee on Water Resources Policy, intended to provide the background for presidential recommendations on water legislation, is currently awaited at the White House. President Eisenhower, in his State of the Union message last Jan. 6, noted “great need” for a “nation-wide comprehensive water resources policy” and said that such a policy, then already in preparation, would be proposed to Congress. The President had set up the Cabinet committee in May 1954 and at the same time established an inter-agency committee to coordinate federal water activities and assist the Cabinet group.

The Hoover Commission scheduled a study of water resources and power as soon as it was constituted in September 1953. The report, released as the commission went out of existence on June 30, 1955, recommended that Congress adopt a national water policy and that the Cabinet and inter-agency committees be “transformed into a Water Resources Board to be located in the Executive Office of the President.” To consist of Cabinet and public members, the proposed board would “determine … broad policies” and “devise methods of coordination of plans and actions” of federal agencies dealing with water problems at Washington and in the field.