Let’s Talk About The Water Crisis

The term “water crisis” signifies a situation where available potable water within a region is less than that region’s demand.

Unarguably, water is a vital resource.

An average person requires about 2.4 liters of water a day. Our drinking needs are met by water pumped from wells or drawn from rivers and reservoirs.

In the developing world however, finding safe and reliable sources of water can be an immensely time-consuming and costly enterprise. Economic water scarcity, exists when a population does not have the necessary monetary means to utilize or exploit an adequate source of water that can be used. It has been discussed that economic scarcity is a more disturbing form of water scarcity, as this form stems from underlying reasons that are man-made. Gapminder, an organization that studies global inequalities, also observes that there is a clear correlation between access to safe water and GDP per capita. As such, economic water scarcity is often simultaneously both a product and a cause of economic inequalities.

Apart from economic scarcity, water stress also falls under the bracket of water crisis that we’re talking about today. Water stress, refers to a difficulty in obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a certain period of time of when various factors lead to a temporary depreciation in the quality and quantity of available water in a given region. Despite being a temporary situation, the phenomenon could contribute to further depletion and deterioration of available water resources. A rising population also worsens the problem of water stress. For instance, the American state of Georgia rose 45% between 1990 and 2007, and a study conducted by Columbia University found that this increase was a major reason for increasing frequencies of water stress, independent of climate change and other possible factors. Hence, with population levels growing and set to continue booming over the following years, particularly in the developing world, water stress could be set to worsen if no action is taken.

Meanwhile, in some places the lack of water stems from a fundamentally geographical and geological problem. Around one fifth of the world’s population live in areas that are currently affected by physical water scarcity. In short, certain parts of the world are simply arid and dry, causing physical access to water to be limited. Such scarcity may also occur where water was abundant but resources were over-committed to various other enterprises. For instance, the excess development of hydraulic infrastructure for irrigation, or simply where water resources of a particular region is overused!

If you read until here, I hope this short blog have given you fresh perspectives to the term ‘water crisis’. We often hear people talk about the need to preserve our water resources, to save guard our fresh water sources but most of the time, it is ineffective in really driving us to remain active in this movement. Stay tune for more insightful blogs related to our environment, and may you have a great day :)

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