The Shortage Of Fresh Water

However in order to secure their supply they must engage in peaceful negotiations as violence would only jeapordise their share of the supply. Thus the potential for water conflict is there as tensions continue to increase between upstream and downstream nations, and perhaps overtime as the downstream nations share of the supply is further squeezed, these tensions are likely to result in conflict.

In recent years there has been so much talk and propaganda regarding the ongoing in drought in California. Scholars argue when the exact start of the drought was, but I believe that it started in 2007 because rainfall has fallen below average since then. Droughts occur because the quantity demanded of water does not meet the quantity supplied which leads to a shortage. The drought has impacted not only everyone in the state, but also the ecosystem. While there are many reasons why there is a shortage of water in California; today I will touch on three of them, the lack of precipitation, increase in population, and wasteful water use. In my research I will report on these three reasons and look at possible solutions for this most recent dismal event in California.

Water is a privilege. Living in the 21first century America, many individuals including myself have forgotten this. Many families all over the world are forced to walk miles for water just to find that it isn't even clean. Water shortage is a problem all over the world, but especially in poor countries like Africa. Because individuals all over the world have to get their water, my class did a water walk to understand their pains, but I would change it by making it longer, carrying more water, and having harsher conditions.

If residents and corporations throughout the United States continue to frivolously waste water and refuse to make painless changes and upgrades around their homes, it will continue to increase in cost to people across the United States. For example, as a result of the water shortage crisis currently afflicting the southwestern United States, the city of San Diego, California, is currently constructing a desalination plant, located in Carlsbad, California. The idea of a desalination plant is to collect undrinkable saltwater from the ocean and, using reverse osmosis and other filtering techniques, remove the salt to produce clean, potable water (Barnett). However, there are many downsides to relying on desalination practices to provide for a city the size of San Diego. First and foremost, it is considerably more expensive to produce clean drinking water from saltwater as opposed to using regular surface water or groundwater. The act of filtering the water alone can be twice as expensive as traditional filtration methods. In addition, desalination plants consume much more energy than traditional treatment plants, mostly due to the fact that the filtration methods are much more involved. Desalination consumes twice as much power as recycled plants, and four times as much as pumping groundwater (Newell, Roohk and Reardon). For example, the Carlsbad plant alone will require the same amount of electricity as is used to power 125,000 homes in California. However, the biggest

Many people know that water is essential for human-being and it is not only valuable for health and life, but water is also important for industry and agriculture. Furthermore, use of water has a spiritual, cultural and recreational dimension. However, water resources are not infinite. Wide and inefficient use of water resources can lead to irreversible consequences, such as water shortage. This essay will firstly discuss the problem of water shortage on examples of developed and developing countries and include the diversification of the same issue in the different parts of the world. It will also identify causes and effects of this environmental problem on society and other spheres of life. Moreover, in this essay I am going to propose

Lack of water and conflict with water rights have instigated wars and political tension especially in the Middle East and Africa, as well as promoting unlikely cooperation to ensure its availability. Also, natural water bodies like lakes mark international

Earth is filled with vast amounts of water, yet it’s like a cruel joke to people who cannot drink it due to its toxicity to us. Likewise, fresh water is our most precious resource that people depend on every day. Our society is based around the use of large amounts of water in our everyday lives. Charles Fisher, a three time winner of the Gerald Loeb award, a writer for the magazine Fast Company, and the author of The Walmart Effect and The Big Thirst, tells a different story. In the article Will the World Run out of Fresh Water, which explains that people take water for granted and never see its true value like people in the past, published at the Detroit Greenhaven Press in 2012. Because we use vast amounts of water and never see the process in which water is given to people, Fisherman proposes this idea that water is taken for granted until we run out, which is more than true.

One statement can be seen as the premise for National Geographic’s Water: Global Challenges & Policy of Freshwater Use (2013): “Water is life” (p.8). The book discusses how access to clean freshwater is not only essential to our survival, but shows it is also a contested resource. With much freshwater being unavailable due to location, sustainable water management decisions are an important part of supporting regions across the globe. National Geographic’s book elaborates on multiple freshwater issues and highlights how important water is to our survival. Providing regional, water-related examples of conflict, critical challenges, mitigation efforts, and economic importance it reveals many common themes regarding freshwater and its global importance.

The author, Maude Barlow, begins her article by stating that there is a problem concerning the world’s water and how it can affect the people’s way of living. She includes three possible outcomes that could result from how people are mistreating the water supply. Sources of freshwater are becoming scarcer as people keep polluting and depleting them. As the lack of clean freshwater decreases, the amount of children dying increases, more so than war and diseases altogether which occurs more frequently with those that are of low socioeconomic status. Those that belong to companies dealing with water exchange are taking advantage of the shortages by selling them to regular people at expensive rates; this could ultimately lead to the market’s dictating

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.

The water crisis in the world is increasing, and it will continue to increase if something is not done. Water makes up approximately seventy-one percent of Earth’s surface. This does not include the water underground. Everyday water is being taken more than it is being put in, and people have a large role in this. Climate change, the number of people in the world, and water wasted is among the uppermost causes of the water crisis. It is simple, if you do not have water, you will eventually die. The water crisis is a health crisis for everyone globally.

A new comprehensive study conducted by Dr Arjen Hoestra of the Netherlands’ University of Twente, demonstrates that water scarcity around the world is a getting worst than ever. Water shortage is becoming a global issue that may result in regional conflicts, economic losses and environmental risks.

Earlier this year, an obscure United Nations document, the World Water Development Report, unexpectedly made headlines around the world. The report made the startling claim that the world would face a 40 percent shortfall in freshwater in as soon as 15 years. Crops would fail. Businesses dependent on water would fail. Illness would spread. A financial crash was likely, as was deepening poverty for those just getting by.

Water can be considered the most important nonrenewable resource in the world. Every human across the world needs it in order to live and it carries a lot of value. The world is now at a stage where the scarcity of water is making people nervous because groundwater is at an all-time low. Several wars over the years have arisen in the Middle East for water. Desert is the many land condition that rules over the Middle East which means drier air, sand, and minimum water available. This is not a light issue since blood is being spilled over the control of certain rivers and dams within the area. Tension over control for water sources will only worsen as fresh water availability decreases.

Many countries are also highly dependent on water that originates outside their borders; the water diversion provided by dams for countries that are downstream exacerbates an already serious problem. The diversion of river systems is an area of international concern, the nature and extent of such interdependency is already extensive: 145 countries share over 261 international river basin. As demand increases, and as indigenous sources of water become fully utilized or exhausted, the only alternatives are likely to be international (Dolatyar, 2006). Ironically, the very solution of one country's scarcity, plunges another into water shortage, this is the reason why water security is one of the most crucial foreign policy considerations of a globally connected economic and political atmosphere.