Water crisis

     We have being working on Water Cycle in class. We learned that is one of the basic needs for life on Earth. In this text I explain the importance of fresh water on Earth.

The importance of water worldwide:

Fresh water is essential for life on Earth. For plants, animals and humans, as well. Only 3% of water on Earth is freshwater. This creates a massive problem. However, these 3% is not fully for humans use. As form that 3%, 30,1% is groundwater, 68,6% in glaciers and ice caps and 1.3% in surface water and others. From this 1.3%, 0,2% is found in the atmosphere, 0,6% in rivers, 2,5% in swaps, 3,5% in soil moisture, 20,2% in lakes and 73,1% in ice and snow. Furthermore, precipitation is very important, it fill up water supplies by padding surface rivers and topping up surface and underground stores. This also, leads to a big problem because precipitation varies from place to place so it’s not available worldwide. UN Water’s World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) said: “The world is not ‘running out of water,’ but it is not always available when and where people need it.” The countries known as water rich countries are the ones that have plenty of fresh water supplies. They have plenty of space for rain to fall, Russia is the one with more space, and also Canada, China, USA and Brazil. Besides, some of the greatest rivers flow for these countries like for example the Amazon. Nevertheless, having a lot of space doesn’t mean that the country would have a big water source. Some of the largest countries don’t even appear in the top 50 of the water sources as they contains substantial area of desert within its borders, for example Australia. US is the biggest water users, mainly for industry use followed by agriculture. On the other hand, there are water poor countries, where they have no access to clean drinking water or improve sanitation methods. Nine of the most poor countries are dominated by desert, except for Singapore and Mauritius where there are high precipitation but small are to fall on.  Two major problems are diseases on these countries population and water scarcity that affect business, farms and community, where it may face a farm production problem in the future. Freshwater withdrawals have increased a lot since 1950 and the world’s demand have increased along population growth and the increase for new agriculture methods and energy demand which leads to the need of more water source. Also, water pollution have grown massively from agriculture followed by industry. The overdraft of countries withdrawing and polluting creates water stress. This is the worries over present and future water supplies. According to the WBCSD it impacts are:  “Increases in water use have resulted in high environmental costs, including loss of biodiversity as well as affecting natural water systems such as rivers and aquifers. Half of the world’s wetlands have disappeared over the last century, with some rivers now no longer reaching the sea, and over 20% of the estimated 10,000 freshwater fish species are now endangered or extinct.”   

 In my opinion we should all take into account that water is an essential source that even though we consider that being able to use it whenever we want is something usual, some people around the world have to walk hours to find it. We can’t waste it. I think that to make a difference in the world we should start with something small, for example not taking long showers or baths, closing the bobbing when we brush our teeth or when we see one open. One action no matter if it's small will change the world if everyone starts to do so. This page also have some programs and donations to fight against this problem: https://water.org/about-us/ways-donate/

Annual precipitation

Page

Book: Environmental Management, John Pallister, Oxford.