Miami-Dade is teaching the public to use water efficiently - and we're seeing the results! The response to our efforts has exceeded all expectations - In the last year and half, consumption has been reduced by 10% - that is 40 million gallons of water a day! This is a combination of landscape irrigation restrictions, rebate and incentive programs and a comprehensive public information effort. This demonstrates that water conservation doesn't mean we have to do without it, it means that we need to use it sensibly, wisely and thoughtfully. Everyone benefits by practicing water conservation.

Even so, to mark the national celebration of this ongoing effort, two major undertakings highlight this month's activities:

• "D-rop", joined the Water Use Efficiency Team and led the "Every Drop Counts Poster Contest", in which students in grades K through 5 were asked to submit their ideas for getting the message of using water efficiently to the community. More than 1,000 entries were received. Judging will take place on Wednesday, April 8th at 2:00 pm at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, 111 N.W. 1st Street in downtown Miami.
• Miami-Dade County employees came together once again to collaborate with the WATER FOR PEOPLE organization raising funds to bring clean water and improved livelihoods to some of the poorest regions of the world.  You can contribute to this effort at: www.miamidade.gov/waterforpeople/donations.asp

Last April, Miami-Dade County celebrated the inaugural Water For People Week with unprecedented success: over $69,000 raised. That distinguished Miami-Dade County among contributors across the country as a model for the innovative approach applied to the project. 

We all care for the environment and we all want to leave a clean and sustainable world for our children and grandchildren. Sometimes the challenges facing our earth seem insurmountable. Yet, here is something each and every one of us can do: we can adopt new behavior in our water use.  Each gallon of water that we save today is a gallon of water that will not have to be produced at a higher cost tomorrow. 

For additional information, please visit: www.miamidade.gov/conservation