Preview

What Is Water Scarcity

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
484 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is Water Scarcity
What is Water Scarcity?
Simply put, water scarcity is either the lack of enough water (quantity) or lack of access to safe water (quality)
Water covers 70% of our planet, and it is easy to think that it will always be plentiful. However, freshwater—the stuff we drink, bathe in, irrigate our farm fields with—is incredibly rare. Only 3% of the world’s water is fresh water, and two-thirds of that is tucked away in frozen glaciers or otherwise The problem of water scarity is a growing one. As more people put ever increasing demands on limited supplies, the cost and effort to build or even maintain access to water will increase. And water's importance to political and social stability will only grow with the crisis. Unavailable for our use.
As a result, some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water, and a total of 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year. Inadequate sanitation is also a problem for 2.4 billion people—they are exposed to diseases, such as cholera and typhoid fever, and other water-borne illnesses. Two million people, mostly children, die each year from diarrheal diseases alone.
In places like sub-Saharan Africa, time lost gathering water and suffering from water-borne diseases is limiting people's true potential.
Water is the foundation of life. And still today, all around the world, far too many people spend their entire day searching for it.
The problem of water scarity is a growing one. As more people put ever increasing demands on limited supplies, the cost and effort to build or even maintain access to water will increase. And water's importance to political and social stability will only grow with the crisis.

WATER POLLUTION
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater). Water pollution occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.
Water pollution affects plants

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Matt Weiser’s article “Water Controversies Boil Over” from Sacramento Bee’s opinion column explains how the world’s bad management of water has led to scarcity. Weiser claims that human’s careless behavior with water is going to cause a war. He validates his argument with facts from the World WAter Forum, U.N Environment Programme, and International Alert to support his reasoning.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hsc300 Unit 7

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1.6 billion people, or almost one quarter of the world's population, face economic water shortage (UNDESA, 2014)…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the International Water Management Institute environmental research organisation global water stress is increasing, and a third of all people face some sort of water scarcity. Where demand exceeds supply and no effective management operates, there will be conflicts between the various players involved.…

    • 915 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Water scarcity has been a common phenomenon over the world and is becoming increasingly serious. The data from UN (n.d.) suggested that approximately 700 million people in 43 countries are experiencing water scarcity. About 1.8 billion people will face the danger of water scarcity and 2/3 of global population will bear water scarcity by 2025(ibid). Lacking of…

    • 2011 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Looking for Abrandi

    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages

    • Water covers 71% of the earth’s surface. Of this amount: 93% is in the oceans 2.5% lies in underground aquifers 2% is in ice caps 2.5% is available freshwater that we can use. • Global water consumption has risen 6 fold since 1900. • Each Australian household uses around 700L of water a day. • The UN predicts that 1/3 of the world’s population currently lives in countries already experiencing moderate to high water stress. This is measured by each country’s ratio of water consumption to water availability – its use-toresource index which gauges overall pressure on water resources. Moderate to high stress translates to consumption levels that exceed 20% of available supply. UN predicts that this figure could rise to 2/3 in the next 30 years. • Developing nations are particularly vulnerable to water scarcity as in addition to high water stress, they have little money to implement sustainable practices, technologies, or pay high water pricing schemes.…

    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Water is a precious resource that we take for granted. People need to become more and not…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do the citizens of the world know that the world’s water is scarce or undrinkable? And if so, what are they doing about it? Although water seems to be everywhere all water is not useable. Even though 71% of the earth is made up of water, water is still scarce in every country; including the United States, according to Williams (2014). California sits right on the Pacific Ocean; however, this water is not consumable and Californians are experiencing a four-year drought. As mentioned by The Water Project (2015), in developing countries, either the quantity of water is significantly scarce or the quality of safe drinking water is insufficient, thus creating a water shortage. When the water crisis is mentioned two terms are associated with it: water stress and water access. According to the European Environment Agency ([EEA], 2015), water stress exists when…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Indian Water Crisis

    • 219 Words
    • 1 Page

    The unsanitary water problem many of we Indians face is water born illness. We have a word from one of our people, “The Indian water crisis affects me and my family. The more financially struggling side of my family does not have water systems (i.e. Showers, baths, sinks, e.t.c.) We don’t even have fridges to store milk. A milk lady carrying hot buckets of milk must come for us to get our needed vitamins. Instead of shower handles, we have another bucket of hot water to pour on ourselves. Some of my neighbors who are men must walk without a shirt, and barefoot, for they cannot afford shoes and shirts for themselves.”…

    • 219 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chem Revision Notes

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Economical water scarcity – there is a supply of water but a lack of resources to make it available.…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As earth’s most valued resource moves further into scarcity, water privatization has become a fear for those who cannot afford its high prices, turning water into a privilege rather than a right. People all over the world have witnessed a shift in water accessibility as droughts continue to occur, and access to a reliable source of water is not as common as it once was. As water consumption is set to exceed supply by over 30% around 2040 (Interlandi, 68), multinational companies have taken it upon themselves to help curb the consumption of water by setting high costs that are often pricing people out around the globe. For instance, As the Jeneen Interlandi stated, “As the crisis worsens, companies like True Alaska that own the rights to vast…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There is on impact on people when they don’t have clean water. 783 million people do not have clean or safe drinking water worldwide. Out of the 783 million people 319 million of them do not have access to a reliable drinking source. 2.4 billion people don’t have sanitation facilities which can cause poor hygiene and lead to infectious and tropical diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. 80% of illnesses are because of water and poor hygiene. 443 million school days are lost because of water-related diseases. Less than three people in Sub-Saharan Africa have use to a proper toilet. 84% of the people who cannot access clean water, live in rural areas. About 1 out of 5 deaths under the age of five is because of dirty water.…

    • 127 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Water

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages

    BYLINE: Kevin Watkins SECTION: COMMENT; Pg. 32 LENGTH: 923 words The rich world must act to prevent dirty water and poor sanitation now killing more than a million children a year Halving the proportion of the world without access to clean water would cost a month's bottled water in Europe and the US Nobody reading this started the day with a two-mile hike to collect the family's daily water supply from a stream. None of us will suffer the indignity of using a plastic bag for a toilet. And our children don't die for want of a glass of clean water. Perhaps that's why we have such a narrow view of what constitutes a "water crisis". Dwindling reservoirs and a few ministerial exhortations to flush the toilet less often, and we've got a national emergency on our hands. Hold the front page, there could be a hosepipe ban in the home counties. In the next 24 hours diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation will claim the lives of 4,000 children. The annual death toll from this relentless catastrophe is larger than the population of Birmingham. Dirty water poses a greater threat to human life than war or terrorism. Yet it barely registers on the radar of public debate in rich countries. At any one time, close to half the population of the developing world is suffering from water-related diseases. These rob people of their health, destroy their livelihoods, and undermine education potential. The statistics behind the crisis make for grim reading. In the midst of an increasingly prosperous global economy, 2.6 billion people still have no access to even the most rudimentary latrine. Over one billion have no source of drinking water.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    It is commonly accepted by many that the world faces a crisis over restrictions on water supply and we cannot continue to expect water to be a finite resource. According to A. Kirby (2000), the earth is covered by water in approximately two thirds of its surface. However, the vast majority of this water is too salty to use and, alarmingly, there is only 2.5% of it available for consumption by the human species. Furthermore, two thirds of that small percentage is locked in the icecaps and glaciers and with only 0.08% of supply accessible a picture begins to emerge of the challenges facing the world. Humans utilise approximately 70% of its water supply in developing its agriculture and related activities but the World Water Council has stated that it believes this figure could rise by up to 17% by the end of 2020. It could be argued that in ten years time millions of lives could be at risk because of the careless nature of our attitude to the production, treatment and consumption of water. Even in the present day it is estimated that approximately 30,000 children in poor and third world countries are dying each year from diseases directly related to the transfer and storage of water. The world’s water shortage issues have arisen because of the people who live in it, the rise in their population but most importantly their waste of this product. Overpopulation is another problem which causes water shortages.…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hundreds of thousands of people travel more than 10 miles every day to get water. More than eight thousand four hundred people die everyday because of water and air related diseases. “Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water sanitation and hygiene kills an estimated 84,000 people every year globally or approximately per day,” (“11 facts about water in developing world”…

    • 1644 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Kenya Water Crisis

    • 1877 Words
    • 8 Pages

    An increasingly serious drought continues to plague the county of Kenya effecting the environment and numerous ways.…

    • 1877 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics