Environmental

Environmental
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Introduction
Approximately 70% of the surface of the earth is covered with water, however, 97% of this is saltwater that is unfit for human consumption. It cannot be used for drinking, irrigation, and most industrial uses. The remaining 3% is freshwater and of this 3% only approximately 1% is readily available for human consumption (Serageldin, 2010). We believe that there is an infinite supply of water is infinite, however, this is a false assumption as indicated above, there is only 1% of fresh water supply of fresh water. Fresh water is renewed by rainfall only and this is done at a rate of 40,000 to 50,000 km3 per year (Barlow, 2001).
In addition, the river systems on earth are geographically unevenly distributed and much of the water used is wasted or polluted by urbanization, and industrialization. Moreover, the increasing global population has increased dependence on the now scarce resource; water is also ubiquitously used in agriculture, in industry, and households (Barlow, 2001). Overpopulation, deforestation, intensive urbanization, pollution, water diversion, and industrial farming combined with the drying earth’s surface are significantly increasingly depleting the finite small supply of fresh water. These trends are persistent and deplete river basins in every continent. This depletion is increasingly making water an increasingly big commodity (Serageldin, 2010).
Discussion
Indicators of the Looming Crisis
As indicated above, the common assumption held globally is that the world’s water supply is large and infinite. However, the global fresh water supply is only 2.5% with the available supply for consumption being more or less than 1% of the total stock of water with the rest being seawater, inaccessible ice caps, ground and soil water supply which is crucially finite (Serageldin, 2010). It is in the recent past century that rivers ran wild discharging a bulk of their contents in to the seas; utilization of ground water was limited to extraction using manual shallow wells, and crops grown with rain water. The pollution of water was mainly due to sewage disposal that was at minimum and affected only those in zones surrounding the emissions (Jury & Vaux, 2007).
Unlike the uncertainty surrounding the supply of oil scarce minerals and underground fuels, water supply is well characterized and projected. There are no large underground water deposits that have not been discovered in easily accessible regions, therefore, development of newly discovered sources will be expensive to develop. In addition, human activities are increasingly dependent on groundwater supplies utilization and hence exhausting and contaminating the reserves (Jury & Vaux, 2007). Moreover, the projected population growth for the next century will occur in areas having the greatest waiter shortage and currently there are no plans to address this. The economic forces are also luring water and land from food production to other lucrative activities and at the same time encourage pollution that impairs the quality of drinking water for the large and ever-growing population. These indicate that we are headed into a future where a large population of people globally will be obligated to live in areas where their needs for food and portable water for consumption will not be met (Jury & Vaux, 2007).
The Current Crisis
As the indicators of a water crisis mentioned are actualizing as water resources have been chronically exploited, shortages have cost countries billions to reduce output economically and industrially, lives have been lost or the quality of remained static or has diminished for the poor living In developing countries. Most disturbingly, countries have currently diverted, polluted, and depleted the finite sources of water at astonishing rate than initially predicted (Barlow, 2001). The United Nations has reported that today, over 31 countries are experiencing water stresses and scarcity with over 1 billion people lacking adequate access to clean water for drinking. The UN is further projecting that by the year 2025 approximately two thirds of the world population will have expanded by around 2.6 billion people living in areas where people will be living with serious water shortages and a third in absolute water scarcity (Barlow, 2001).
The United Nations Environment Program, the World Bank, and the World Resources Institute publication "World Resources" warned that the thirst for water globally is going to be the most pressing resource issue of the 21st century. Today, the withdrawals of water are very high compared to the supply, therefore, current water supplies are shrinking and ground water supplies depleted as a faster rate that than they are being replenished by precipitation (Barlow, 2001). Today ground water over pumping and depletion of the aquifer are critical problems within the most agricultural intensive areas in the world. For example, the High Plains Ogallala aquifer in the US is being depleted eight times faster than the rate of replenishing. The San Joaquin Valley’s water table has dropped nearly ten meters in some areas in the last 50 years (Barlow, 2001).
In the Arabian Peninsula, the use of groundwater is triple the rate of recharge. In Saudi Arabia, with the current rate of water extraction, the country will be depleted of any water reservoirs by the year 2050. Today extraction rate in Israel has exceeded the replacement rate by over 2.5 billion meters in only 25 years with 13% of the coastal aquifer contaminated by seawater and runoff from fertilizer (Barlow, 2001). In Africa, the depletion rate is even worse where in the non recharging aquifers it is at 10 billion cubic meters per annum. In India, the water tables are falling while in Bangkok the land beneath is sunken due to excessive over pumping and Northern China has over 8 regions of aquifer overdraft with Beijing dropping over 37 meters in the last forty years. The case of China is so severe that experts are worried of China’s future (Barlow, 2001).
Today, the Nile, the Ganges, the Yellow River, and the Colorado River are dammed, diverted, or over tapped that there is very little or no freshwater at all arrives at their final destination for long periods of time. The Colorado is oversubscribed over its course to an extent that nothing is left to enter the sea. Rio Grenade and Upper Colorado River flows are at risk of being reduced by up to 75% and 40 % respectively within the next century (Barlow, 2001).
Michal Kraveik provided the most devastating analysis and evidence of the global water crisis. Destroying the natural habitat for water creates a supply crisis for human beings and animals and diminishes the reservoirs of fresh water on earth. Therefore, Kraeviks provides a warning regarding the areas where there is drainage of water (hot stains) (Jury & Vaux, 2007). Drying out of planet earth will result into global warming as it is currently happening that will result into extreme weather conditions that are drought, decreased atmospheric protection, and increased radiation from the sun. In addition, there will be a melting of the polar icecaps, submersion of vast territories, continental desertification signs that are vastly evident today that will eventually result into the global collapse (Jury & Vaux, 2007).
The Causes
* Over Population
The World Water Development report of 2009 revealed that approximately half of the world’s population by the year 2030 will be living in areas with high water stress. The forecasting is disturbing due to the fact that in 2000, over half a million people inhabited water-stressed or water-scarce regions (Population Institute, 2010). This implies that the percentage of the world’s population could skyrocket from a mere 8% to 47% in only three decades. This scarcity is correlated to poverty as a large population surviving with less than $1.25 corresponds to that number of people unable to access safe water for consumption (Population Institute, 2010).
The global population is rapidly expanding by 80 million people per annum. This expansion exerts more pressure on the demand for freshwater by approximately 64 billion m3 a year. As a matter of fact, the withdrawals of water over the last half century have gone up three times due to the rapid increase in population. The rapid growth in population has resulted into the rapid rate of growth has resulted into a decline of the potential global availability of water from 12,900 m3 in 1970 to 9,000 m3 in 1990 per capita per year and 7,000 m3 in 2000 (Population Institute, 2010).
Water is required for all life on earth and is essential in the health, economy, environment, and food production of human beings. Safe drinking water and freshwater are not only imperative for development but also for public health as 21 out of 37 primary healthcare diseases are related to water and sanitation. Regardless of its importance water remains a finite commodity and is not renewable, but it is recycled through the atmospheric, hydrologic cycle (Population Institute, 2010). The finite nature in supply results to dire consequences in the highly populated and growing world. The rate of water consumption doubles after every twenty years which are double the rate of population growth. If the current rate of population growth persists, the demand for water is expected to go above the availability of water by 56 % and consequently by 2025 approximately 1.8 billion people will inhabit regions having a scarcity of water. This situation is further worsened by the reality that the developing countries that are already having water stresses have the highest population growth rates bringing more people into a region that already cannot support them (Population Institute, 2010).
* Pollution
The lack of regulation in many countries globally on water usa...