Proven strategy: Shared sacrifice on water
If you are a community that has to save water and you need people to willingly cooperate, what strategies should your community leaders employ?
There is one strategy that has been proven to work repeatedly to get people to, on their own accord, make lifestyle changes for the collective good, and it is called “shared sacrifice.” As the name implies, this strategy involves everyone to make a contribution for the survival of all. Currently, the city of Bakersfield is not using this strategy. The city has not declared a water emergency that requires the city to no longer issue water hook-ups for any new construction, since we do not currently have any water to accommodate any new construction in Bakersfield.
This is an example of a city showing and participating in “shared sacrifice,” and that kind of leadership from the city would show the community the importance of water conservation. However, our city is allowing hundreds of new homes to be built in east Bakersfield, which relies primarily on the overallocated Kern River. During the last historic drought, former Bakersfield City Manager Alan Tandy had to ask Kern County for water for east Bakersfield. Few people really understand how close east Bakersfield came to having “spiders and cobwebs” come out of the water spout, when positioned to the “on” setting. Sometimes it seems like if you ask people where their water came from, they look at you like you are insane, and bluntly state, “from the kitchen faucet.” Most of the residents of our community are completely indifferent to water conservation, and with the hypocrisy of the city’s lack of commitment to “water conservation,” how could they not be puzzled.
City residents watch their recreational lakes go dry causing a stinky fish die off, while local private golf courses are a moist green and their lakes are full of water. Hundreds of new homes with pools and expansive landscaping are being permitted for construction and water hook-ups in the city, yet we are constantly bombarded by a media campaign telling us we are running out of water.
Those in positions of leadership in Bakersfield are clearly asking us to “do as we say, not as we do.” There is a real problem in our city leadership deciding that water conservation is for other people to do. If the city approves hundreds of new homes without any consideration that east Bakersfield almost ran out of water before, why would Kern County give them water the next time east Bakersfield gets in a jam? If there really is a water emergency, then the city has do bold moves that show we are serious about water conservation.
Here are a few of the most obvious things the city must do to get the community to buy into water conservation and to show that the city is a full partner in the “shared sacrifice.”
1. Issue an emergency moratorium on the city issuing any new water hookups. (There are a large number of abandoned homes and properties that have current water hook-ups. Those properties would be available.)
2. Stop all watering of city properties with the exception of drip irrigation lines to mature trees.
3. Stop all watering of golf courses and dry all lakes in them.
4. Pay city residents to dig up their yards and replace them with decorative rocks or bark.
5. Ban all watering of lawns and bushes by businesses in the community.
6. Run on local media advertisements that showcase our community leaders showing what they are doing to conserve water, in their own day-to-day lives. (For example, a local restaurant owner getting astroturf to replace their water-hungry lawn. Or a City Council person doing an ad where they are writing “do not wash me!” on the back window of their dirty car. You get the idea.)
There are many of us, me among them, who reason that we collectively are not doing the behaviors needed to save enough water, and that we will, in fact, will run out of water if we do not change our ways. Will you wake up one morning with “spiders and cobwebs,” as opposed to cold clear water rushing out of the bathroom faucet? Currently, it seems more likely than not.