By: Mathias Betancourt, Emilia Bustamante, Juan

Xavier Villacreces

Water Scarcity Article

Water is an essential source for life and health. Growing populations make

the need for water increase significantly each year, and water becomes less

available for industries and agricultural companies, decreasing food production

drastically. Water scarcity could prevent international development and it can

become a problem for our daily life. Water scarcity usually happens in dry areas

with a low rate of rain, while human activity can also be a major cause. Water

scarcity occurs when there are insufficient resources in a certain area to satisfy

human needs. It means a high water demand with low availability. Europe has

plentiful water resources, but the demand rises each year. Water scarcity has

become an enormous problem for humanity due to the fact that water is society´s

and populations prime resource. Without it, we couldn’t farm in any way we have

before and now this will make food production both decrease growth and health.

That’s not where the problem stops though, huge groups of population such as

cities or even entire countries wouldn’t last long without water. This is the main

reason world leaders attempt to find a possible and productive solution for the sake

of our world. Their solution will depend on the amount of demand and usage of

water itself. Those numbers change daily, so we can’t get to worthy solution right

now. Globally, the problem is getting worse as cities and populations grow, and the

requirements for water growth in farming, business and homes. Studies have

shown that 3.41 million people die each year from water, sanitation and hygiene-

related causes each year. This shows water scarcity not only affects our earth and

pollution but it affects our health and our future. It’s our job as the humans in this

generation to look for possible solutions and to take care of this resource that is

essential to our life.

Causes and Effects of Water Scarcity

One of our vital natural resources is fresh, drinkable water. It is essential for life on Earth, and without it, we wouldn’t survive for long. In many underdeveloped regions, however water stress and scarcity is a serious issue, and is a major health, living, and economic problem for the people who live in such places. When we think of water scarcity, we usually think of Africa, where many of its regions suffer from scarcity, and this is indeed a hazard for its inhabitants.

While Africa isn’t the only region suffering from scarcity, it is easily noticeable there, along with other surrounding countries, mainly in Asia. This is because there is very limited access to water in these areas compared to other regions.

There are many, many causes for water scarcity. They can vary between lack of accessible freshwater in a region, legal and territorial disputes over it,

inability to meet demands for it, population increase that causes demand to rise, or excessive use for tasks such as food production, bathing and washing, etc. Other than the obvious adverse effects of a prolonged lack of water, drinking untreated water can potentially cause severe diseases such as cholera, and it also creates a breeding ground form disease-harboring mosquitoes. It also affects the quality of life of people suffering from its effects, as without water, there is no way to properly bathe and clean oneself, and

these people may also be greatly malnourished. This is why water scarcity is such a major world health issue, and why it is important to solve worldwide. This is especially true in nations that lack proper sanitation systems to treat water in order to make it safe to drink, as do a number of African countries suffering from scarcity, like Sudan and Ethiopia.

Today, more focus is being put into taking action against water scarcity. To halve water scarcity by 2015 is one of the Millennium Development Goals, a series of developmental goals agreed to by the United Nations to successfully achieve, like reducing poverty, facilitating education, and control the loss of bio-diversity. International governments everywhere are working to achieve this goal, not just in underdeveloped regions, such as Africa, but around the whole world. They are lending their aid in helping provide means to access safe drinking water in places that suffer from the lack of it, by way of supplying the adequate tools, economic resources, and physical aid from support groups. Help can be given by providing nations with proper technology, like digging equipment and

proper sanitation, to ensure people gain access to reliable freshwater, as well as aiding them establishing limits on its use and obtainment. By working together like this, many nations throughout the world can lend a hand in helping reduce water scarcity. Though we are still far from that goal, it can yet be done if the world is able to organize itself in this way that allows it to combat this issue. If that can be done, not only will that improve the quality of life for many people, but we can go one step closer in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals and creating an overall better world for all the people who live in it.

Water scarcity solutions

Water scarcity is a global issue that is increasing in a major scale. One

possible solution is the use of desalinization technology. This process consists on

filtering salt water through skins and removing the salt through electro dialysis and

reverse osmosis. This solution has been put to practice and worked for about 130

nations in North Africa and the Middle East. The results have turned out both

possible and positive. But this solution has been shown to be more practical for

metropolitan areas and its very expensive to implement this process on third world

countries it’s practically impossible. Studies have shown that only 2.3% of

wastewater that is generated by municipalities is being recycled and reused. This

means the other big percentage of water is being wasted and given a bad use.

Another solution is to implement recycling and filtration systems to our water so

that it will help us both to reduce our use of water and reuse it. This would be an

easy thing to do that would win outstanding benefits.

Applying solutions like this would not only help this global issue in an

economic situation but it would also be environmentally friendly and assure us a

better future with resources indispensable for human beings such as water.

Another solution is to make little developments

in individual homes. This solution will develop

and mandate more able our household water

heaters and also make awareness on not to use

so much water when showering, brushing your

teeth or thing on our everyday lives. A very

interesting solution is to create a multinational treaty that is able to specify water

sharing. Currently watersheds of the world 261 major rivers are being shared by

two or more countries. Using my research I have come to a realization that to solve

or improve this global issue water scarcity that we are facing today, we need more

than one solution. Awareness and the previous solutions I have listed are very

good candidates to decrease this world wide issue and prevent it to become even

harsher.

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