Here in soggy Alabama we have too much water. Rain nearly every day through the long hot humid summer. Its easy to forget that water is a scarce commodity in much of the world. I found the international responses to this article especially thought provoking.

http://permaculturenews.org/20...

That's some really scary stuff right there.

To me it was scary to realize some people may not have water at hand--they have to wait a day or two for it, or for a delivery by truck.

I have always been happy to live near a river: The Manistee back home in Northern Michigan, and the Black Warrior here in Alabama. Its hard to believe that people actually live so far away from a river, lake, or ocean.

And I was surprised to learn many years ago that ground water for wells can be depleted in just a few days by bull dozing the trees.

Yet I have seen this on archeological sites several times. Cut the trees and the ground water level recedes. I haven't seen the reverse: grow trees and the ground water rises. of course it would take many years to regrow mature trees.