Facing the Freshwater Crisis
- New Delhi residents were notified that freshwater will only be available for the next hour. This was because water was being diverted to irrigate crops.
- Policy makers hold a lot of power when it comes to water resource management.
- 1 out of 6 people don't have access to enough safe freshwater.
- The lack of access to water leads to disease, starvation, death and political instabilities.
- An increase in droughts are causing shortages of freshwater in developed nations.
- Exporting food or commercial goods can help countries with little water because the country no longer has to use water to create those products. This is known as virtual water.
- Only 3% of water on the planet is freshwater.
- Desalination plants creates new sources for freshwater.
Many people on the planet do not have access to freshwater. It's estimated that over a billion people are unable to get their needed amount of freshwater to survive. Policy makers decide how water resources should be managed, whether it'd be irrigation or communal use. However estimates says this problem will only get worse. By 2050, 75% of the earth's population may face water scarcity. Undeveloped countries can be helped by exporting food and products to them, making then use less water on producing them in the first place. With only 3% of earth's water being fresh, desalination plants can be used to create a new source of freshwater.
Water is very important to communities so I feel like it should be left up to communities to decide, not a small handful of policy makers. Giving so much power to a small amount of people doesn't seem like a good idea in the first place. This article makes it clear that even though this is a much bigger problem in developing countries, it won't be long until it's a problem here as well. The concept of virtual water the author describes here is similar to the one I learned, but also turns it into a solution. I learned it as the amount of water that goes into producing a product or food. The author shows a way to use that as a relief to countries with water problems, by exporting products so the country won't have to use water in the first place. Desalination plants are definitely the way to go to solve this problem, but first we much figure out how to use them in an efficient matter that won't take up so much energy.