What the Ancient Mariner expressed in frustration when they found themselves becalmed in the middle of ocean, as I understand it, running out of drinking water. But in this poem, what he said almost two centuries ago is certainly has relevance in real life today. The one of the most serious threats to humanity over the coming decades is the shortage of fresh clean water. Nowadays the earth is still rich in seawater, but fresh water is not. The global situation is less than 3% of the world’s water is fresh, the rest of them is seawater and undrinkable. So, the 7 billion population of the world must rely on this 0.5% of freshwater for all of man’s and ecosystem’s needs because of other 2.5% are frozen.
Source: Water Business Council for Sustainable Development (Fry, 2006)
With the global population is projected to increase about 9 billion by 2050, the World Bank forecasts the two-third of global population will run short of fresh drinking water by 2025. (Network, 2012). This means the water usage growing at more than twice the rate of global population growth. Scarcity of drinking ...
Although water is all around, very little is drinkable. Six billion people live on earth and 1.1 billion in 31 countries are unable to access safe, clean drinking water. California has only 20 years of water supply left. Ironically, even the wettest place on earth, Cherrapunji, India, has often water shortages. After years of millions of people dying of thirst and disease, a corporate movement to find a solution to the water crisis has now swept the world. Water, a fleeting resource vital to every life, every single day of the year, is now being taken out of the governments control and becoming a commodity bought and sold by big business, a.k.a privatization.
“Water is the driving force of all nature.” Leonardo da Vince once said. Water is a huge part of life, and everything that lives requires water to make it through its days on earth. A lot of people think that the world has massive amounts of water available for use; therefore, most roll their eyes when conserving water is mentioned. After all, 71% of the earth’s surface is made up of water. However, the truth is that only 2.5% of that is clean, drinkable water, and two-thirds of that percentage is unavailable because it is stuck in ice caps and glaciers (water). The water ordeal in America is bigger than many realize, and the United States needs to begin looking at how we can solve this issue. The U.S. needs to acknowledge the impending dangers and help the states that are already suffering by putting water conservation methods in place and investing money into research for alternatives.
In our generation of new technologies and high civilization it is hard to believe that our World is in Water crisis. This crisis is affecting not only low-developed parts of the world but also it affects high-developed countries, about one third of the humanity suffers from the scarcity of water (Molden 2010). One of the main causes of it is overpopulation. In increasing water demand water sources which we have now are not able to renew themselves. Another factor of water scarcity is not economized water consumption. Nowadays most of countries are beginning to realize that solving the problem of scarcity of water is very crucial. One of them is Mexico where water shortage is the national problem.
“Water is needed for all living things. Water is our planet’s most precious resource. It is required by every living thing, yet a huge proportion of the world’s population struggles to access clean water daily.” (Feldman, 2012)
Throughout the path of human and mammal history, there have been a small number of characteristics in life that are needed to maintain and facilitate survival. These necessities consists of water, nutrition, shelter and oxygen, which many historians, anthropologists and humans in general have began to realize. Through this realization, one apprehends the fact that out of the four requirements of life, water by far provides as the most important. Each year, the world population increases exponentially; today being over seven billion. Due to this increase human beings have begun to experience a serious crisis dealing with the loss of water. The world has become limited with its supply of water, due to its high demand. Humans believe water is a resource that is completely renewable and everlasting, but through many years water supply is becoming extremely scarce. Statistically proven there is only " 2.5 [percent] which is freshwater. Almost all of it is locked up in ice and in the ground. Only a bit more than 1.2 [percent] of all freshwater (which was only 2.5 [percent] of all water) is surface water, which serves most of life's needs (The World's Water). Water, on a daily basis, is wasted through many daily activities such as people utilizing water in their houses, at work and tremendously through gardening. People cannot live without water, but many do not understand how much water supply around the world is potable. Many countries around the world do not facilitate clean water, usually consisting of dirt and bacteria, which makes many people ill. The polluted water is usually in the rural and poor countries, that do not have enough money and technology to provide hygienic water. Contaminated water broadens the s...
2.1 billion people in countries that are undergoing a form of urbanization have inaccessibility to clean drinking water as a result of pollution, poverty and poor management of resources. Water resources are being depleted by agriculture and energy production
In the United States, we take for granted the luxury of clean drinking water. There are many counties that yearn for the cleanly vital essential infrastructural nutrient that we in the United States and many other developed counties take for granted. According to water.org, a website and movement founded by actor Matt Damon, there are seven-hundred and eighty-three million people without clean drinking water in the world. Africa is the country with the highest need for clean water harnessing three-hundred and forty-five million by its lonesome. Asia is not far behind accounting for two-hundred million people in need of water. These statistics equate to a statistic that is even more alarming. 3.4 million people per year die from contaminated water. This is more than the amount of people that die due to war each year.
Fresh, clean, and plentiful water provides the foundation for many communities all around the world. We depend on fresh water to survive, but currently we are heading towards a water crisis, even in California. The changing climate patterns are always threatening lakes, rivers, and even the ocean from melting ice caps, and the key sources that we need for drinking water are being overdrawn or polluted. From severe and frequent droughts to flooding across the world, many of the most profound and immediate and pressing impacts of climate change relates to water. More than one-third of all counties will face high risks of water shortages and problems by 2050 as a result of global warming if it is not stopped. Other serious impacts will include sea level rise, saltwater intrusion into freshwater banks, harm to fisheries because of lack of fish, and more frequent hurricanes and extreme storm events. Somalia, Mauritania, Sudan, and Niger are just some of the nations most heavily affected by the pollution of water and/or not being able to obtain such water. Because water is a necessity for life to be created and to exist, this alarms the international community. These people are forced to drink dirty water that carry diseases and infections and do not have access to fresh water.
Four water uses are the main source of water consumption: industrial, human, agriculture and energy. Water industrial demand is expected to increase in all sectors of production[1]. Furthermore, we should note that the world’s population is growing by about 80 million people per year and could reach 9.1 billion by 2050, with 2.4 billion people living in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the most heterogeneously distributed water resources[2]. Also, water waste in agriculture and
Water is a source that humanity need for both domestic and industrial use and is utilized in a huge amount. Thus, there is a pressure on water. The increase of population and the industrial development of the majority of countries aggravate the problem. The excessive consumption of water coupled with the scarcity of this resource makes the issue even more critical. According to Lefort, water covers around 70 percent of the Earth, freshwater makes up only 3 percent of it, moreover, almost all of that is unattainable to use. (Lefort, R.,1996) Generally, only about 0.01 percent of the world’s total water supply is considered available for human use. What is more frustrating is that only a few sources of fresh water can be relied
Most people never give attention to the importance of water or the purity of what is provided. Water is a universal necessity, which is becoming a crucial issue in insufficiency. The deficiency is a global crisis around the world, and leads to many detrimental effects. The lack of water affects the entire continent without worldwide knowledge. Water is used in almost every entirety of human life; the careless usage causes profuse issues for living. There are several resources that provide the necessity of water, which are in poor situations in provision. Water scarcity is rapidly becoming a global crisis that is often neglected, but the driving forces, the consequences, and the ability to reduce the problem are crucial to assert.
Freshwater in the world makes up only a small portion of water on the planet. While the percentage of water in the world is nearly 70%, only 2.5% is consumable. Even further, only <1% is easily accessible to basic human needs. According to National Geographic, “by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.” With this current trend, water will become more immersed in environmental, economic, political, and social changes. Many of these in later years shall need to be addressed as tension rises:
The problem of water scarcity has increasingly spread throughout the world as of yet, The UN reports that within the next half- century up to 7 billion people in 60 countries which is more than the whole present population will face water scarcity (Sawin “Water Scarcity could Overwhelm the Next Generation”). As well the demand for freshwater has tripled over the past 50 years, and is continuing to rise as a result of population growth and economic development. 70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades.
Have you ever had to walk miles away just to get clean drinking water, or don’t even not have access to clean drinking water? People all over the world, even in North America, don’t have access to clean drinking water or have to walk very far just to drink water. The main areas where this problem is prominent is in third world countries, and this is due to the lack of money and sanitation (Millions Lack Safe Water). Due to this lack of sanitation, water borne diseases can grow and infect people who consume it. Clean water is very important for life, and within this paper I will explain why we need it, how it can affect us, and what it will take to obtain clean water.
Freshwater is quite scarce, but it is even scarcer than one might think: about seventy percent of all freshwater is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland and is unavailable to humans. Most of the remainder is present as soil moisture or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater. It is not economically feasible to extract this waster for use as drinking water. This leaves less than one percent of the world’s fresh water that is available to humans. It includes the water found in lakes, reservoirs, groundwater that is shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. These freshwater sources are the only sources that are frequently replenished by rain and snowfall, and therefore are renewable. At the current rates of consumption, however, this supply of fresh water will not last. Pollution and contamination of freshwater sources exacerbate the problem, further reducing the amount of freshwater available for human consumption. Something must be done if humans want to even survive in the near future: the lack of clean drinking water is already the number one cause of disease in the world today. The first step is worldwide awareness of the water crisis: governments and the citizens they govern worldwide need to know about this problem and be actively involved in solving this problem.