Proposal

1.     Introduction.

Water is one of the most essential things in our lives. To have a life in any world, there should be enough water resources in that world. The story is true for Lubbock too. As we all know, Lubbock is a dry place and its population is getting increased day by day. But, due to lack of rainfall, water resources are drying up. Lake Meredith, which was Lubbock’s primary source of water, is already dried completely (Reed, 2012). When we listen to the discussions and debates, and when we read articles and reports about Lubbock’s water crisis, this problem cannot be considered as an insignificant issue. Therefore it is very important that every person, every farmer, and every landowner in the city of Lubbock become aware of this problem and try to take necessary actions to save every single water drop.

Using this project, we are going to find out whether people in Lubbock are aware of Lubbock’s water crisis, how they contribute in saving water consumption, which of Lubbock’s people give most contribution to control this problem, and people’s attitude about laws, traditions, and restrictions on water consumption.

 

2.     Literature review

Some writers have pointed out how severe the crisis is. According to the article titled “Nine cities Running out of Water” (Sauter and Hess, 2013), Lubbock is the city that has had the worst level of drought since the beginning of 2011. Furthermore, this article shows that the cause of the drought is low rainfall and the level of water crisis depends on the source of water that the area has. According to the home page of City of Lubbock Water Department (2013), Lubbock gets ground water, which is the main source of water for the city, from two places, well fields in Roberts County and well fields in Bailey County, and Lake Alan Henry is also used for some water needs. According to Abby Reed’s “Lubbock’s water crisis, how did we get here?” (Reed, 2012), Lake Meredith was the one used as surface water resource of the city, and since it got dried up completely in 2012, Lake Alan Henry has taken Lake Meredith’s place. In this article, former Mayor Tom Martin, whose words Ms.Reed is pointing out here, encourages residents to put their effort into water conservation, though “the city is constantly working on developing future water supply sources” (par.9).

As stated in the article titled “Lubbock’s water crisis: keys to the future” (2005), the average of water usage per person in Lubbock is 190 gallons per day, and if it’s reduced by 20 gallons or more, alternatives can be postponed for several years and by that we can save our money. Further, in this article, Deputy city manager Tom Adams says, "If we didn't do anything, it's possible by 2015, we would need a new source. But if we can conserve just a little bit, we can push that to 2020, 2025, even 2030" (par.2).

These facts open the path towards actions on conserving water as much as possible. Though water crisis is a serious problem for people in Lubbock, there is evidence that people have concern about different environmental problems in general. According to the article “Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors of American Youth with An Emphasis On Youth From Disadvantaged Areas” (1994), which gives a cluster analysis on people’s perceptions, it can be seen that 5 different types of students have different environmental concerns. For an example, students from disadvantaged areas are concerned about kidnapping, the large number of people with guns, crime and violence in local neighborhoods and economy more than about the environment. According to the gender it exhibits different levels of concern on issues. Today students’ environmental concerns are not necessarily about their neighborhood, but “problems that cannot be seen: damage to the ozone layer and destruction of the rainforest” (Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors of American Youth with An Emphasis On Youth From Disadvantaged Areas, 1994, Chapter one, p.3).

If we consider people’s awareness about Lubbock water crisis, depending on the types of Lubbock’s people, there will be different observations about perception. If we divide people into these groups, students and nonstudents, Texans and non-Texans, male and female, we can expect them to answer questions differently to our survey about the Lubbock water crisis.

 

3.     Hypotheses

On the survey, different responses for each question are expected. Among those responses, we would expect to observe that females’ concern about this problem is higher than the males’ and their contribution in water conservation would be greater than males’ contribution. We would expect awareness and attitudes of students to be very poor, while that of residents would be at a better level. When we consider the question ‘Do you know what fracking is?’, we can expect more than 90% would give the response ‘No’. Around 50% would not have an idea about where Lubbock gets its water supply.

 

 

4.     Bibliography

Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors of American Youth with An Emphasis On Youth From Disadvantaged Areas (1994, December). Retrieved on October 02, 2013 from http://eelink.net/ROPER/One.html

City of Lubbock Water Department (2013). Retrieved on September, 26, 2013 from http://www.mylubbock.us/departmental-websites/departments/water-department/home

 

Lubbock’s water crisis: keys to the future (2005, November, 16). Retrieved on September 26, 2013 from http://www.kcbd.com/story/4129560/lubbocks-water-crisis-keys-to-the-future

Reed, A (2012, February 9). Lubbock water crisis, how did we get here? Retrieved on September 26, 2013 from http://www.kcbd.com/story/16903788/lubbocks-water-crisis-how-did-we-get-here

Sauter, M.B. and Hess, A.E.M. (2013, August, 1). Nine cities Running out of Water. Retrieved on September 26, 2013 from http:/247wallst.com/Special-report/2013/08/01/nine-cities-running-out-of-water

 

       C.D.