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Gov. Mike Easley’s recommendations for meeting future water needs include a concept everyone ought to be taught in childhood: sharing.

But, as kids learn long before they grow up, sharing doesn’t always work.

"Public water systems should act now, not wait for an emergency, to set up interconnections with other water systems and seek backup supplies, whenever those options are possible," Easley said Monday.

The governor didn’t invent that idea. The state’s 2001 water-supply plan notes, "Cooperation and coordination between water systems is becoming an increasingly important water-supply planning strategy. ... In some cases, water systems with inadequate water supplies may link with systems that have surplus water supply."

Greensboro made those connections years ago. It purchases water from more amply supplied neighbors, primarily Burlington and Reidsville. Those smaller cities’ relative abundance is Greensboro’s good fortune — but at the price of $18,000 to $20,000 a day, according to Allan Williams, water resources director for Greensboro. When it comes to water, cooperation requires financial incentives. Cities with excess supplies stand to make a lot of money, which helps keep rates lower for their own residents.

The problem arises when those cities also experience shortfalls. Droughts generally are regional, not localized. While Burlington wasn’t affected as severely as Greensboro last fall, it did ask its residents to cut back — an awkward step when it was still sending water to Greensboro. By contract, Burlington and Reidsville can suspend sales when their supplies dwindle.

Easley’s admonition to share can meet resistance across the state when communities with water can’t or don’t want to drain their own resources. The governor has no power to force them.

"The state can cajole, recommend or wring its hands because some communities have let themselves get in some dangerous situations," Williams said. Which leads to the water director’s proverb: "He who needs the water better be damn sure he who has the water is willing to sell it during a drought."

Pressure to sell is bound to fuel resentments among cities that feel they have managed their resources more responsibly or experienced less growth than others.

With that will come intense conflicts over how much water can be transferred from one river basin to another or is returned from a reservoir to a river. What happens upstream affects communities downstream all the way to the ocean.

Easley suggested other sensible measures, including rate structures that penalize excessive use. He promised help in finding leaks.

Wastefulness will become increasingly expensive, for individual customers and for cities that can’t grow without water. Ultimately, only conservation promises to stretch supplies and save money. Sharing is a nice idea but not something to count on when it doesn’t rain.