Groundwater Pollution and Drinking Water Scarcity Essay

Are you ever thirsty for a nice cold glass of clean water? Most privileged people can find decent drinkable water in at least three places in the average kitchen. It’s a gift we commonly undermine. Unfortunately, many adults and young children aren’t granted this privilege. Striving each day to find clean water and still worry if it is safe enough to drink. All around the world some of the deadliest bacteria, diseases, and germs are alive in the water. Underprivileged countries do not have clean running water or even a decent well to draw from; this results in drinking from stagnate rivers, salty oceans, and contaminated puddles. Each year, thousands of people die from the bacteria living in unclean water. Sorrowfully, many of those numbers are young children! When a child becomes sick from bacteria found in their drinking water, an entire daily system becomes thrown out of balance. They cannot attend school or work, and it affects friends and family around them! Moreover, economical issues arise. Humans around the world have their whole lives ahead of them. Everyone should have daily access to clean drinking water to keep them healthy and growing. In this fallen world that’s not always the reality. The cycle that contaminated water brings is almost unstoppable.

When you think of problems in the world today, water pollution isn’t one that would normally come up. In fact it is one of the worst problems in the world today. Water pollution, by definition, is the contamination of streams, lakes, underground water, bays, or oceans by any substances harmful to living things. All living things contain water and most need water to survive, so water pollution is a big problem. If severe, the pollution can kill off birds, fish, and any animals that use the water source. In some cases even killing an entire species.

Water contamination is vastly becoming an alarming issue across the world. We rely on clean water to survive, yet right now we are heading towards a water crisis. Changing climate patterns are threatening lakes and rivers, and key sources that we tap for drinking water are being overdrawn or tainted with pollution (www.nrdc.org). Clean and plentiful water is the cornerstone of prosperous communities. Yet as we enter the 21st century, swelling demand and changing climate patterns are

The world’s supply of water is in steep decline as more and more is being used each year by more and more people around the globe. Currently, 800 million people do not have access to a drinking source. At the current rate, 1.8 billion people could be living in areas of absolute water scarcity by 2025.

Clean water is essential to our basic needs as human beings and has been acknowledged as a basic human right according to the UN as of July 28, 2010. Still, 1 in 9 (782 million) people don’t have access to clean water, 1 in 3 (2.5 billion) don’t have access to adequate sanitation which results in the spread of often fatal and preventable disease. In a world where 2 in 5 people own a smartphone, it’s easy to forget that for some people even the most basic necessities are hard to come by. Approximately 3.5 million people die every year due to inadequate water supplies. Access to sanitation and safe drinking water could save the lives of 1.5 million children each year.

There is a water crisis which faces many parts of the world and it is a threat to survival of human beings since humans are primarily dependent on water. Shortage in drinking water is beginning to show its effects in first world countries, but is a current major problem facing lesser developed countries which have not taken drastic steps to harvest water and purify it to make it safe for human consumption. In developed countries the population growth has strained available water resources and stretched the ability of governments and private firms to provide safe drinking water to the vast majority of the population. Seventy one percent of

Water pollution has become a huge factor in the crisis of earth contamination. It is defined as the addition of harmful chemicals to natural water. Sources of water pollution include industrial waste, marine dumping, global warming, oil pollution,

A fifth of the world’s population (1.2 billion people) lack access to safe water today.

any countries in the world are short of precious water. Given that water is so essential to everyday activities, such as cooking,washing, and growing crops, without the quality of water can affect our nation, even causing economic or social instability. The cdc estimates 780 million people around the world,more than 1 in 10, do not have access to an improved water source one that is protected from outside contaminants.

Water scarcity is a major issue the world now faces because of the prolonged global warming that the Earth has been enduring. Global warming has been causing a dramatic change in the Earth’s atmosphere, water supply, as well the ecosystem. It has caused glaciers, that hold a great deal of the world’s freshwater supply, as ice, to melt into the surrounding oceans because of the Sun’s heat warming the waters, and melting the glaciers. This has caused a problem for countries that rely on those sources. Not only the warming of the Earth, but also the multitude of pollutants that currently affect water supplies such as fecal matter, lead, and garbage, harm the available drinking water and render it useless. Due to the fact that certain countries are more polluted than others, just by default, their water supply has a greater chance of contamination. Therefore, the most ethical thing to do would be divide up remaining water equally amongst all countries. However, America and other first world countries will get privilege over the water because of their resources, wealth, and power.

Water Pollution has been an increasing problem over the last few years. Pollution comes from many different things; agricultural, urban runoff, industrial, sedimentary, animal wastes, and leeching from landfills/septic systems just to name a few (Resources). The reason why pollution has increased over the years is because the rise in population and the advancements in technology the society has made. If society plans on having their resources here for many years to come they are going to have to make some drastic changes in the way they treat the earth, and these changes will have to start with their pollutants (Foundation).

The Earth’s oceans contain up to about ninety-six percent of all the water on the planet, while roughly the other four percent is in the air as vapor, in the ground as soil moisture, in frozen glaciers and ice sheets, and even stored in the human body. Humans depend on water for basic survival needs and without water would perish within a few days shy of a week. Water is not only accessed by humans but terrestrial and aquatic animals and plants as well. All living biotic organisms need water and also need clean air for breathing to be able to survive and thrive in their environment. Human unconscious and conscious actions are negatively altering the water and air on planet Earth. Paul Voosen, senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, argues, “The world is getting hotter, and that heating is caused by humans” (Voosen 11) in his article “Striving for a Climate Change”. The greatest threat to the Earth is human-caused toxic pollution of the water and air.

As the worlds population grows, it is forced by circumstances that it has created to face the limitations of the worlds resources. Most people in the US have always been fortunate enough to have enough of whatever they wanted. When something they like breaks or wears out, they throw it away or buy a new one, and they often don’t even make an attempt to repair an item. They neglect basic maintenance until they damage their belongings beyond repair, and expect that they’ll always have enough. But some things are beyond their control, beyond there power or financial ability to replace or repair. The world’s drinking water supply is one of these without concern, without attention, without preventative maintenance and reclamation and

Unfortunately, water is a scarce resource, and there are about 1.1 billion people around the world without access to clean drinking water (World Water Council, 2016). As a result, we have declared a global water crisis and initiated a change to allow access to every human being on Earth. All around the globe people are striving to find ways to mend the global water crisis, but as the population rapidly increases, it becomes a problematic task.

Access to safe and reliable drinking water is a long-standing problem in developing countries, and it was identified as a major target in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. But, even the recent data indicate that close to 900 million people lack access to a safe and sustainable source of drinking water. The access to safe water is affected by temporal differences in availability of water as well as contamination through natural minerals and anthropogenic wastes. As a result, people relying on water from natural rivers and reservoirs, unprotected wells and springs, and other sources are often at high risk due to lack of either quantity or quality or both of water.