The unwelcome beeping of my alarm awakens me from a deep sleep. I tune out the sound until I reluctantly acknowledge that my alarm isn’t going to mute itself. I roll over and slide my finger across my iPod screen. Groggily, I force myself out of bed, and stumble across the room to the bathroom. I reach for the shower knob and anticipate the luxury of the steaming water running down my back but, when I pull the handle, I continue to stand in the cold morning air. There is no water, again. I stand there for a couple of seconds hoping the water will miraculously spring from the showerhead but nothing comes out. Water shortage is not an uncommon quandary in our house, especially during late summer. Our water tank is dry, and it will take at least 24 hours for the well to fill it back up again. The historic five year drought in my hometown in Northern California is impacting my family’s daily life. Our household has to limit our daily water usage, but we have enough to meet our basic needs, and sometimes more. We always have enough water to drink, clean, and cook with, and often have enough to water the garden and orchard. Many other places in California are affected by the drought on a more severe scale and I am thankful that we are affected only slightly. …show more content…
My cousin recently traveled to Kenya to volunteer in a small community. As she recounted her experiences, one fact in particular stood out to me: the air is very humid, yet in many communities, there is rarely enough water to bathe, yet alone to drink. I live in a very humid area and sometimes people use dehumidifiers to extract moisture out of the air to prevent mold and decay. This water can then be used to water plants. I started to wonder why people do not use dehumidifiers on a large scale in places with freshwater shortages to extract drinking water from the