The first part of the blog post's title is a play on the Dutch saying, 'No policy without a calamity.' In the USA, I'm not sure a calamity is sufficient.
Great cartoon from Tom Toles, via Joe Romm's Climate Progress blog. Wish for a water policy, too.
Read Charles Fishman's New York Times Op-Ed, Don't Waste the Drought. He's got good some good ideas.
Some great quotes below, too.
"The US does have a water policy and vision; it’s to have no water policy or water vision." – Gerry Galloway, Past President, AWRA
“One could argue that a fractured, ad hoc, haphazard mish-mash of random, inconsistent, and stove-piped projects, administered by a hodge-podge of 36 congressional committees and more than 20 agencies in accordance with outdated and inadequate laws constitutes a national water policy. A de facto one. But with so many ignored ‘Aha!’ moments followed by ever-more-frequent and disastrous ‘Uh-oh!’ moments, it seems we could use a policy that's not quite so dependent upon sandbags and firehoses.” -- Elizabeth de la Vega (thanks to Racquel Rancier)
“While many support better coordination of federal water activities and a "clearer" national vision for water management, Congress has not enacted overarching water policy legislation since the 1965 Water Resources Planning Act. Instead, water policy has largely evolved through executive and judicial actions, in many cases in response to piecemeal legislation. Congress continually modifies federal water projects through amendments to existing projects and programs through Water Resources Development Acts (WRDAs), Reclamation acts, water quality legislation and appropriations decisions. Incremental and ad hoc evolution of water policy, however, is not surprising. ” - Betsy Cody and Nicole Carter, 35 Years of Water Policy: The 1973 National Water Commission and Present Challenges
"No policy without a calamity." - Dutch proverb
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