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Floods And Droughts
This may be speculative fiction, but perhaps the idea is viable.
Several areas of our country are suffering from torrential floods. Several others are suffering from drought; and the Colorado River, cited here as an example, has nearly dried up.
In the same way that we built the interstate highway system (although the idea was not ours, but, according to some historians, Adolf Hitler's; brought back to this country by I-Like-Ike), we need to built an interstate pipeline system. In known flood areas (such as where I happen to reside), or those that may become potential flood areas (in the opinion of geologists, hydrologists, and civil engineers) a series of basins (heavily covered with minute grill work that would allow water, but no debris, no people, and no pets to enter) connected to pipes that would pass the excess water through filtration stations and on to distributary mechanisms in the areas stricken by drought.
In addition to the obvious benefits, this would also provide additional benefits to our economy: new jobs would be created for the construction and maintenance of the pipeline; operators would be needed for the general conveyance of the water, and for the filtration processes; water turbines could be placed at strategic points to generate electricity to relieve our overstrained power grid, without dependence on fossil fuels, and creating a minimum, if any, of pollution.
All sorts of sites would probably qualify to receive the piping, especially the median strips of our interstate highways, and the areas on either side of railroads.
We spend billions of dollars sending people, robots, and satellites into outer space. I, for one, am very grateful for the Hubble space telescope, and, now, the James Webb. But, why do we need to colonize Mars (which, they tell me, Nasa is planning, and raising funds) when the twin catastrophes of flood and drought continue to harass our nation.
As for funding, Congress needs to tax the corporations of big business, and especially those foreign corporations that have nested in the United States, and are taking advantage of too many loopholes. If Congress is reluctant to act to raise the funding, the American people need to demand, through elections, that the Interstate Flood and Drought Relief System be funded by a tax on corporate profits. (I, myself, believe the IFDRS fund should be started by stripping the Trump family of all of their assetsm to their last nickel; then following by stripping the assets of those foreign corporations and investors who siphon off the business profit and growth that properly belongs to the American People.)
If this nation can place astronauts on the moon, land a robot on a moving comet to take a ride, launch and operate the Hubble and the James Webb, and maintain an orbiting space station to to experiments on vegetables and insects, then we can also create a Flood and Drought Relief system to drain water from flooded areas and deliver that same water, properly filtered, to those areas stricken by drought.
Starward
