Global water crisis

Millennium Post , Monday, January 29, 2018
Correspondent :

The supply of water has been taken for granted across the world. Be it for drinking or irrigation, water scarcity is critical. Water is the driving force of all nature, the great Leonardo da Vinci had observed. Unfortunately, for our planet, supplies are now running dry - at an alarming rate. The world's population continues to soar but that rise in numbers has not been matched by an increase in supplies of fresh water. The consequences are proving to be profound. Across the globe, reports reveal huge areas in acute crisis. More than a billion people, one in seven on the planet, now lack access to safe drinking water. At the World Economic Summit at Davos, the incoming President of South Africa seemed to press the panic button when he stated that Cape Town was running dry. By May, there would be no water left. So, he rushed back. The nature of the problem is revealed by US Geological Survey figures, which show that the total amount of fresh water on Earth comes to about 10.6m cubic km. Combined into a single droplet, this would produce a sphere with a diametre of about 272 km. However, 99 per cent of that sphere would be made of groundwater, much of which is not accessible. That droplet sustains most of the inhabitants of this planet - and it is under increasing assault as the Earth heats up. As matters stand, in future, serious conflicts are likely to erupt as the planet dries up. Said former Canadian Prime Minister and co-chair of the InterAction Council,"The future political impact of water scarcity may be devastating. Using water the way we have in the past simply will not sustain humanity in future."Small wonder that the World Economic Forum has listed water scarcity as the largest global risk in terms of potential impact over the next decade. Two-thirds of the global population (4.0 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least one month of the year. Half a billion people in the world face severe water scarcity all year round. Half of the world's largest cities experience water scarcity. Although a mere 0.014 per cent of all water on Earth is both fresh and easily accessible (of the remaining water, 97 per cent is saline and a little less than 3 per cent is hard to access), technically, there is a sufficient amount of freshwater on a global scale, for mankind to get by. However, due to unequal distribution (exacerbated by climate change) plus a sharp rise in global freshwater demand in recent decades, we are facing a water crisis, with demand expected to outstrip supply by 40 per cent in 2030. Climate change, such as altered weather-patterns (including droughts or floods), deforestation, increased pollution and wasteful use of water cause insufficient supply. Scarcity can be expected to intensify with most forms of economic development, but, if correctly identified, many of its causes can be predicted, avoided, or mitigated. The International Resource Panel of the UN infers that the most cost-effective way out of this situation is for governments to create holistic water management plans that take into account the entire water cycle: from source to distribution, economic use, treatment, recycling, reuse and return to the environment.

 
SOURCE : http://www.millenniumpost.in/editorial/global-water-crisis-281975
 


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