Summary- According to an article called "Water Scarcity," by ScienceDaily, water scarcity is the "lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region."
- Water scarcity is either the lack of enough water (quantity) or the lack access to safe water (quality). - It involves "water stress, water shortage or deficits, and water crisis." - Water stress is a big problem because it is the difficulty of "obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time" which can create another big catastrophic which is depletion and deterioration of available water resources. - Water shortage is another problem in which it may be caused by climate change, such as "altered weather patterns including droughts or floods, increased pollution, and increased human demand and overuse of water." - Also, water crisis will occur which is a "situation where the available potable, unpolluted water within a region is less than that region's demand." - The two main reasons as for why this is occurring are known as "physical (absolute) water scarcity and economic water scarcity). |
Water ScarcityFacts- It affects around 2.9 billion people around the world at least one month of every year.
- More than 1.2 billion individuals lack access to clean drinking water. - It is the result of two mechanisms: physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity. - Physical water scarcity is known as when "water scarcity is a result of inadequate natural water resources to supply a region's demand." - Economic water scarcity is known as "a result of poor management of the sufficient available water resources." - "The latter is found more often to be the cause of countries or regions experience water scarcity." Meaning that a lot of individuals have enough water to live or to meet "household, industrial, agricultural, and environmental needs." - One of the main goals of multiple countries is to reduce water scarcity, many have achieved it, but many are still working on it. |
Key Terms- Water scarcity: The lack of sufficient available water resources to meet demands of water usage within a region.
- Water stress: It causes deterioration of freshwater resources in terms of quantity (aquifer over-exploitation, dry rivers, etc.) and quality (eutrophication, organic matter pollution, saline intrusion, etc). - Water shortage: The excess of human worldwide not having safe, clean, potable water. - Water deficits: The amount of water by which potential evapotranspiration (PET) exceeds actual evapotranspiration (AET). - Potable: Safe to drink; drinkable. - Sustainable: Able to maintained at a certain rate or level or able to be upheld or defended. - Sanitation: Conditions relating to public health, especially the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sewage disposal. |
Opinion
Water covers more than 70% of our planet, for that reason many individuals think that water will last forever and that there will always be plenty of water to drink and use for our necessaries. Unfortunately, freshwater, which is the water that we, humans, drink in order for our body to use it in its cells, organs, and tissues to help regulate its temperature and maintain other bodily functions, is rare since only around 3% of our planet has fresh water. In this 3%, two-thirds of that freshwater is found in frozen glaciers or it is not available for our use, leaving us with less amount of water. With that amount of water that we have available there is a crisis called water scarcity that it is occurring in which billions of individuals lack access to water which creates multiple problems such as health problems (ex. fatigue, tiredness, constipation, digestive problems, stomach ulcers, problems with an individual's weight, and others). Another big problem that water scarcity creates is inadequate sanitation since individuals start to drink water that is not potable because they are not able to find any fresh water. This causes diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, and other illnesses. According to Treehugger, more than "1.5 million children die a year from diarrhea." And the main cause of it? "unsafe drinking water." For that reason, individuals should take action and try to stop this problem. Some of the solutions for water scarcity is education (educate kids about how to use/save water and which water is safe to drink), recycle water, advanced technology related to water conservation, improve practices related to farming, improve sewage systems, and support clean water initiatives.