Water Scarcity Essay

According to “Implications of Growth”, in many parts of the world natural water sources are already pushed to and past their limits. The human population greatly relies on water, therefore, it is essential and necessary to the future population growth in the entire world.

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

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 is becoming a limited natural resource in the world. In an article published on National Geographic website about “Fresh Water Crisis” [1] it has mentioned that out of the 70% of water which is covering the earth, only 2.5% is suitable for drinking and just 1% of fresh water is easily accessible. In the same article the author talks about how people are wasting this limited resource. The growing scarcity of water is due to the rapid growth of population, rising demand for food and cash crops, increasing urbanization and rising standard of living. On the other hand people are writing articles and papers about how to solve this scarcity issue and all the resources presented about

Manzoor, K. P. (2011). The global water crisis: Issues and solutions. IUP Journal of Infrastructure, 9(2), 34-43.

“Water is the driving force of all nature” a famous quote from Leonardo da Vinci [1]. Unfortunately, supplies are now running low at an alarming rate. The world’s population continues to soar but this growth in numbers has not been matched by an increase in availability of fresh water. In the last 50 years, the human population has more than doubled [2]. This rapid

Although humans depend on water for survival, freshwater ecosystems are also dependent on consuming the precise amount of water in order to circumvent

Natural ecosystems require water for the survival of the plants and animals that live within them. These ecosystems help to regulate water quality and quantity of water. Wetlands hold water in periods of high rainfall, slowly releasing it during dryer periods, and purify it of heavy metals and other contaminants. Forests recharge our groundwater, which can be used elsewhere for drinking or irrigation. (Bergkamp 1) Natural ecosystems can help to prevent floods, provide shelter and millions of people are able to get their food, water, and fuel from these areas. As the world population continues to expand people are overusing water and destroying many natural resources. By destroying these ecosystems, more that 3,500 species are threatened

Abstract: In the last few decades, large scale desalination plants have been constructed in countries where water scarcity is an issue in hopes of providing these countries with additional water resources. As the number of water crises increases globally, the number of desalination plants is expected to increase as well. Although the technology has rapidly advanced since the first use of these plants, the financial and energy impact is deemed by some to not be worth the cost compared to the use of traditional water treatment technologies. In this paper, I examine the pros and cons of desalination by using empirical data, along with real examples to discuss the effectiveness and potential of desalination plants long term.

Currently, “only 2.5 to 3 percent of all the natural water sources available on Earth are composed of fresh water” as written by Paul Alois, a researcher and writer for The World Bank. Alois continues, “less than 1 percent is easily accessible for human use” due to most of the natural water sources being unaccessible. As the global population grows, the environment keeps changing, and over usage of water sources continues, freshwater sources are only going to deplete even further. Consequently, “2 billion people lack access to clean water” and more than 80 countries are presently suffering from water scarcity as reported

Around 20% of the global population does not have access to water suitable for consumption, and with the rising population numbers this problem will only continue to grow (Nappier et al. 47).

It is an essential resource for sustaining life as well as central to agriculture and rural development, and is intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of people across the world. According to the World Bank, (2010) report, water is a scarce resource with multiple interwoven uses that range from drinking water, energy, irrigation, manufacturing things, transport of people and goods among others. The report further states that, more than one-sixth of the Worlds’ population does not have access to safe drinking water, with 80% living in rural areas thus access to water cannot not be guaranteed globally.

Water is the most important substance in the universe. Water resources support agriculture, industry, electric power, recreation, navigation, and fisheries. People need it to live and grow food. The availability of water resources and the quality of the water are vital to life and to the world’s economy. Water makes up about 71% of the earth’s surface, but over 97% of all the earth’s water is contained within the oceans as salt water, “only 2.5% of total water supply is fresh water” (Solomon, 96). Of that tiny amount, 2.0% is locked away in ice caps and glaciers, while groundwater adds up just 0.62%, lakes 0.009%, and river a mere 0.0001%” (Holston,105). Finite fresh water supply with rapid population growth will easily cause water scarcity around the world. Recorded on the analytical report from World Health Organization, “there are 1.1 billion of the earth’s inhabitants, or one-six of humanity, lacks access to the bare minimum of safe drinking water, which 2.8 billion, almost half of the world’s population, exists without a minimum level of sanitation” ( Holston, 105). Which is the fact of water shortage today, in twenty century, and will probably getting worse in Twenty one century if the trends in water use are still not being changed.

Lingering water scarcity has been in our global forecast for years. Although water accessibility fluctuates from country to country, climate change, environmental factors and population growth have intensified the dwindling of freshwater worldwide. As a result, tensions have emerged between users nationally and internationally, especially in areas where water reservoirs overlap recognized territorial boundaries. It goes without saying that water shortages eventually result in food shortages and of course deprivation to the expanding cities. Recently, awareness has risen that freshwater globally needs to be protected, so that this crisis does not worsen and steps are taken to prevent sudden emergencies. Such as the one occurring now in California. Technical solutions will only be adequate if accompanied by sensible scientific research of the problem and corrective measures are implemented in a minimal costly way. Worldwide, we need to start thinking about solutions to balance the increasing depletion of our residual freshwater supplies and hopefully devise some methods to increase the depleted residual aquifers. Otherwise we are going have serious consequences.

"In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference.”