Letter: Instead of rain, Utahns should pray for new leadership

Gov. Cox has done it again — he’s calling for Utahns to pray for rain ... or snow.

I’m a believer, but I’m not praying for Utah’s water this year.

Utah is horribly inefficient with water. It has one of the lowest per-capita water availabilities and one of the highest per-capita usage rates in the country.

Roughly 80% of Utah’s water goes to agriculture, much of it to alfalfa fields that still rely on archaic irrigation systems. Large amounts of that water evaporate, run off, or percolate into the soil, missing crops entirely. Farmers often resist investing in modern equipment, and lawmakers have been equally reluctant to regulate usage.

It’s no secret that the Great Salt Lake is dying — or more accurately, being killed — as water is diverted from the rivers that once sustained it.

Utah’s culture doesn’t help. A significant share of household water use goes toward watering grass, a plant poorly suited to a desert climate. Xeriscaping, common in places like Phoenix, has yet to gain widespread acceptance.

Water is also extremely cheap compared to other states, which actively discourages conservation.

Cox proposes no real accountability for overconsumption or water waste. His approach is akin to an older sibling who receives a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cuts off the crusts — and a good inch of perfectly edible bread around the crust – throws them away, and then asks me, the younger sibling, to go beg our mother for more sandwiches because we’re “starving.”

Praying for precipitation also runs counter to the teachings of Cox’s Latter-day Saint faith, which emphasizes the wisdom of Joseph of Egypt: storing resources during years of plenty and carefully managing them during years of famine, rather than relying on last-minute miracles to correct long-term mismanagement.

While I support prayer, asking residents year after year to pray for moisture is not a serious ecological strategy.

Utahns should instead pray for new leadership. God helps those who help themselves.

Brian D. King, Provo

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