Water Scarcity

WATER SCARCITY

The world is facing many challenges due to the lack of potable water on the planet. A great deal of attention is being paid to water issues. The world is also experiencing a serious increase in water scarcity. Water scarcity means ‘the shortage of safe water and the lack of clean water’. According to the World Wildlife Organisations, approximately 1.1 billion people lack access to clean and safe water, and nearly 2.7 billion experience water scarcity all around the world every month. It also plays a significant role in the balance of biodiversity on Earth. This essay will identify some major causes of water scarcity. It will then specifically focus on two solutions of resolving the water scarcity problems, namely improving agricultural productivity and the desalination of ocean water.

Human activity is a major cause of increasing water scarcity. As populations have exponentially increased in the past 50 years, there is an ever-growing demand for using water for agriculture, domestic industry and daily activities. This means that the use of water has been radically changed by building dams, water wells, vast irrigation systems and other structures that have allowed civilizations to grow and thrive. As a result, hundreds of lakes, rivers and aquifers are dying up and causing drought. In addition, professors warn that the release of carbon dioxide gases may lead to the raising of the temperature of the earth (IPCC, 2001, p.46). Higher temperatures in turn produce a shorter snow season, a faster snow melt, and then increased runoff.   Another aspect of water scarcity is global warming, which reduces the amount of water in reservoirs and creates higher evaporation losses from the surfaces of lakes and rivers, according to Glennon R.(2005, p.31).

One way to slow down the increase of water scarcity is by improving agricultural productivity. This method includes the cultivation of crops using less water, along with using wells, dams, and reservoirs instead of pumping water from rivers. As the population of the world continues to increase, a huge amount of water is used to irrigate farmland. The water in the world may dry up and drought might be created because the world population continues to increase along with the use of water for agriculture. Using a high level of technology could resolve these problems. In fact, according to the United Nations (2011, p.viii), technologies already exist which could make wells, dams, and reservoirs become more sustainable and less harmful to the environment.

The desalination of ocean water is another approach to halt the increase in water scarcity. This method will remove salt from ocean water to make it able to be consumed, offering the possibility of an abundant new source of water says Glennon R. (2005, p.33). A good illustration here is the fact that some countries in the Middle East and the Caribbean Islands have used water from desalination plants for a long time. However, desalination could also function as an incentive to increase the drinking habits of people. Overall though, desalination might develop a widely-available, cost-effective, environmentally friendly source of drinkable water.