GLOBAL WATER CRISIS What are the effects of water shortages?

The effects of water scarcity can be grouped into these 4 broad areas Health, Hunger, Education and Poverty. Health In many developing countries, people are forced to drin low !uality water from flowing streams, many of which are contaminated. There are many water"borne disease that people die of. #ess water also means sewage does not flow, and mos!uitoes are other insects breed on still $stagnant% dirty water. The result is the deadly malaria and other infections. #ac of water or !uality water causes huge sanitation issues. &linics, local restaurants, public places of convenience and many other places are forced to use very little water for cleaning. This compromises the health of the staff and people who use the facilities. Hunger It ta es a lot of water to grow food and care for animals. E'perts say that globally we use ()* of our water sources for agriculture and irrigation, and only +)* on domestic uses. #ess water means farming and other crops that need water to grow have lower yield. It means farm animals will die and others will not do well without water. The result is constant hunger and thirst and low !uality of life. Education It is a bit hard to see how water and education is related. ,or many people in other parts of the world children $and teen girls% have to be up at dawn to collect water for the family. They have to wal for several miles to get water. The children get tired and some have to miss school as a result. -oing this for many years ta e away school times and the cycle continues. In other places girls and women are not allowed to go to school at all, so that they can serve the family by getting water and and ta ing care of other family needs. Poverty .ccess to !uality water is ey to economic prosperity and better living standards. /usinesses and schools thrive when people come to wor on time and not have to spend all morning loo ing for water. 0estaurants, hotels and shopping places need to eep clean to attract tourists and foreign investments. 1anufacturing activities, commercial farms, and mining processes all need a lot of water to thrive. #ac of water means no economic activities will happen and the people will be in constant poverty. Causes of water scarcity Population expansion 2ust 3) years ago, the total number of people on earth has doubled and continues to grow. This is a result of larger family si4es and access to better health care and lifestyles. This means that use of wholesome water for drin ing, cleaning, coo ing and sewage has tripled. Humans are a lot more careless in recent time, and we waste more water than ever before. This has placed a lot of pressure on the same amount of water that we have. Urbanisation5 &ities are growing and e'panding more than ever before. &ities also tend to hold more people than towns and villages. This means there an increased need to ta e care of sewage, cleaning, construction and manufacturing. Pollution 6ater, air and land pollution together contribute to the reduction of water !uality. 7ewage, oil discharges from industries, waste dumping into water bodies, radioactive waste from mining activities as well as dirty water fro sanitation wor in hospitals, hotels, schools and restaurants all end up polluting our waters. Vegetation destru tion and !e"orestation Trees help prevent e'cessive evaporation or water bodies. They also enrich and condition the climate. This means the destruction of forests by fire, logging and farming has e'posed soil moisture and water bodies to the sun8s intense heat, leaving them dried out. Cli#ate $ange .ll over the world, places that used to have lots of rainfall do not have enough again and dry places suddenly are getting colder and wetter. /oth cases result in clean water shortage because less rainfall means less water, and e'cessive rains cause flooding and which brings all sorts of debris and destroy water treatment. 1

CRISIS in A%RICA 1ore than 9.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene"related causes. :early all deaths, ;; percent, occur in the developing world. 9 #ac of access to clean water and sanitation ills children at a rate e!uivalent of a <umbo <et crashing every four hours. =f the >) million people added to the world?s towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements $i.e. slums% with no sanitation facilities. (@) million people lac access to an improved water sourceA appro'imately one in nine people. BCThe water and sanitationD crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.B .n .merican ta ing a five"minute shower uses more water than the average person in a developing country slum uses for an entire day. =ver E.3F more people lac water than live in the Gnited 7tates. 1ore people have a mobile phone than a toilet. The world is rapidly running out of clean water. 7ome of the largest la es and rivers on the globe are being depleted at a very frightening pace, and many of the most important underground a!uifers that we depend on to irrigate our crops will soon be gone. .t this point, appro'imately 4) percent of the entire population of the planet has little or no access to clean water, and it is being pro<ected that by E)E3 two"thirds of humanity will live in Hwater"stressedI areas. Today, the most important underground water source is rapidly running dry. .ccording to one shoc ing government report that was released last year, the global need for water will e'ceed the global supply of water by 4) percent by the year E)9)J&lean, safe drin ing water is scarce. Today, nearly + billion people in the developing world don?t have access to it. Ket, we ta e it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drin it from little plastic bottles.6ater is the foundation of life. .nd still today, all around the world, far too many people spend their entire day searching for it. 6e need it for drin ing, for coo ing, for washing, for food, for industry, for energy, for transport, for rituals, for fun, for life. .nd it is not only we humans who need itA all life is dependent on water to survive. /ut we stand today on the brin of a global water crisis. The two ma<or legacies of the E)th &entury " the population and technological e'plosions " have ta en their toll on our water supply. 1ore people lac drin ing water today than they did two decades ago. 1ore and more freshwater sources are being used"up and contaminated. 1odern technologies have allowed us to harness much of the world?s water for energy, industry and irrigation " but often at a terrible social and environmental price " and many traditional water conservation practices have been discarded along the way. 1ost of the solutions to the crisis must be developed and implemented locally, and always with the view that water is not to be ta en for granted, or un<ustly appropriated by particular groups for particular needs. 10 facts about water scarcity 6ater is an essential resource for life and good health. . lac of water to meet daily needs is a reality today for one in three people around the world. Llobally, the problem is getting worse as cities and populations grow, and the needs for water increase in agriculture, industry and households. This fact file highlights the health conse!uences of water scarcity, its impact on daily life and how it could impede international development. It urges everyone to be part of efforts to conserve and protect the resource. 6ater scarcity occurs even in areas where there is plenty of rainfall or freshwater. How water is conserved, used and distributed in communities, and the !uality of the water available can determine if there is enough to meet the demands of households, farms, industry and the environment. 6ater scarcity affects one in three people on every continent of the globe. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbani4ation and increases in household and industrial uses. 2

.lmost one fifth of the world?s population $about +.E billion people% live in areas where the water is physically scarce. =ne !uarter of the global population also live in developing countries that face water shortages due to a lac of infrastructure to fetch water from rivers and a!uifers. 6ater scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drin ing water. It also means they cannot bathe or clean their clothes or homes properly. Poor water !uality can increase the ris of such diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water"borne infections. 6ater scarcity can lead to diseases such as trachoma $an eye infection that can lead to blindness%, plague and typhus. 6ater scarcity encourages people to store water in their homes. This can increase the ris of household water contamination and provide breeding grounds for mos!uitoes " which are carriers of dengue fever, malaria and other diseases. 6ater scarcity underscores the need for better water management. Lood water management also reduces breeding sites for such insects as mos!uitoes that can transmit diseasees and prevents the spread of water" borne infections such as schistosomiasis, a severe illness. . lac of water has driven up the use of wastewater for agricultural production in poor urban and rural communities. 1ore than +)* of people worldwide consume foods irrigated by wastewater that can contain chemicals or disease"causing organisms. 1illennium -evelopment Loal number (, target +) aims to halve, by E)+3, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drin ing water and basic sanitation. 6ater scarcity could threaten progress to reach this target. 6ater is an essential resource to sustain life. .s governments and community organi4ations ma e it a priority to deliver ade!uate supplies of !uality water to people, individuals can help by learning how to conserve and protect the resource in their daily lives. @3* of the world population lives in the driest half of the planet. (@9 million people do not have access to clean water and almost E.3 billion do not have access to ade!uate sanitation. > to @ million people die annually from the conse!uences of disasters and water"related diseases. Marious estimates indicate that, based on business as usual, N9.3 planets Earth would be needed to sustain a global population achieving the current lifestyle of the average European or :orth .merican. Llobal population growth pro<ections of EO9 billion people over the ne't 4) years, combined with changing diets, result in a predicted increase in food demand of ()* by E)3). =ver half of the world population lives in urban areas, and the number of urban dwellers grows each day. Grban areas, although better served than rural areas, are struggling to eep up with population growth $6H=PG:I&E,, E)+)%. 6ith e'pected increases in population, by E)9), food demand is predicted to increase by 3)* $()* by E)3)% $/ruinsma, E));%, while energy demand from hydropower and other renewable energy resources will rise by >)* $66.P, E));%. These issues are interconnected O increasing agricultural output, for e'ample, will substantially increase both water and energy consumption, leading to increased competition for water between water"using sectors. 6ater availability is e'pected to decrease in many regions. Ket future global agricultural water consumption alone is estimated to increase by N+;* by E)3), and will be even greater in the absence of any technological progress or policy intervention. 6ater for irrigation and food production constitutes one of the greatest pressures on freshwater resources. .griculture accounts for N()* of global freshwater withdrawals $up to ;)* in some fast"growing economies%. Economic growth and individual wealth are shifting diets from predominantly starch"based to meat and dairy, which re!uire more water. Producing + g of rice, for e'ample, re!uires N9,3)) # of water, + g of beef N+3,))) #, and a cup of coffee N+4) # $Hoe stra and &hapagain, E))@%. This dietary shift is the greatest to impact on water consumption over the past 9) years, and is li ely to continue well into the middle of the twenty"first century $,.=, E))>%. 3

.bout >>* of .frica is arid or semi"arid and more than 9)) of the @)) million people in sub"7aharan .frica live in a water"scarce environment O meaning that they have less than +,))) m9 per capita $:EP.-, E))>%. The impact of climate change The IP&& predicts with high confidence that water stress will increase in central and southern Europe, and that by the E)()s, the number of people affected will rise from E@ million to 44 million. 7ummer flows are li ely to drop by up to @)* in southern Europe and some parts of central and Eastern Europe. Europe8s hydropower potential is e'pected to drop by an average of >*, but rise by E)O3)* around the 1editerranean by E)() $.lcamo et al., E))(%. The cost of adapting to the impacts of a EQ& rise in global average temperature could range from G7R() to R+)) billion per year between E)E) and E)3) $6orld /an , E)+)%. =f this cost, between G7R+9.( billion $drier scenario% and R+;.E billion $wetter scenario% will be related to water, predominantly through water supply and flood management. 6ater is not confined to political borders. .n estimated +4@ states have international basins within their territory $=7G, n.d., E))@ data%, and E+ countries lie entirely within them $=7G, n.d, E))E data%. There are E(> transboundary river basins in the world $>4 transboundary river basins in .frica, >) in .sia, >@ in Europe, 4> in :orth .merica and 9@ in 7outh .merica%. +@3 out of the E(> transboundary river basins, about two"thirds, are shared by two countries. E3> out of E(> are shared by E, 9 or 4 countries $;E,(*%, and E) out of E(> are shared by 3 or more countries $(,E*%, the ma'imum being +@ countries sharing a same transboundary river basin $-anube%. 4>* of the globe8s $terrestrial% surface is covered by transboundary river basins. +4@ countries include territory within one or more transboundary river basins. 9; countries have more than ;)* of their territory within one or more transboundary river basins, and E+ lie entirely within one or more of these watersheds. .frica has about one"third of the world8s ma<or international water basins O basins larger than +)),))) mE.. #and grabbing is another increasingly common phenomenon. :early all .rab countries suffer from water scarcity. .n estimated >>* of the .rab region8s available surface freshwater originates outside the region. Pollution The treatment of wastewater re!uires significant amounts of energy, and demand for energy to do this is e'pected to increase globally by 44* between E))> and E)9) $IE., E));%, especially in non"=E&countries where wastewater currently receives little or no treatment $&orcoran et al., E)+)%. Pollution nows no borders either. Gp to ;)* of wastewater in developing countries flows untreated into rivers, la es and highly productive coastal 4ones, threatening health, food security and access to safe drin ing and bathing water. =ver @)* of used water worldwide is not collected or treated $&orcoran et al., E)+)%.