3. Water quality and Water Scarcity Flashcards
What is physical water scarcity?
When the natural supply of freshwater is insufficient to meet the demand.
Physical water scarcity affects regions where droughts or pollution limit water availability.
What is economic water scarcity?
When the supply of clean and affordable freshwater fails to meet demand due to underdevelopment, lack of infrastructure, or polluting economic activity.
Economic water scarcity can occur even in areas where freshwater is abundant.
Which regions suffer from physical water scarcity?
Large parts of South and Central Asia, North Africa, and northern Europe such as Belgium.
Physical water scarcity occurs primarily due to natural conditions such as droughts.
What is a key factor in the occurrence of physical water scarcity?
Droughts that create conditions where natural water supply fails to meet demand.
Droughts can be influenced by climate patterns and geographical factors.
How does the Tropical Dry season in the Sahel region contribute to physical water scarcity?
It is characterized by global atmospheric circulation that creates high pressure zones leading to dry conditions.
This region experiences droughts as part of its climate dynamics.
What effect does climate change have on droughts?
It seems to be increasing the frequency and extremity of droughts.
Changes in atmospheric circulation due to temperature fluctuations contribute to this phenomenon.
What is the role of El Nino in drought conditions?
It causes changes in ocean currents that lead to drier conditions in normally wet climates, impacting global climate patterns.
El Nino can exacerbate drought conditions in regions like Southeast Asia.
What geographical feature contributes to drought conditions through rain shadows?
Mountain ranges that create dry conditions on the leeward side by locking moisture in.
An example is the Atacama Desert in South America.
What is continentality and how does it affect droughts?
Air movement over large land masses leads to dry conditions due to distance from large bodies of water.
This phenomenon can be observed in regions like Australia.
What are some impacts of droughts in high-income countries (HICs)?
Disruptions in society, water rationing, restrictions on water use, and impacts on agriculture.
HICs tend to experience less severe droughts compared to lower-income countries.
What are the severe impacts of droughts in low-income countries (LICs)?
Direct impacts on water and food security, leading to hunger, displacement, and potential starvation.
In LICs, droughts can exacerbate existing economic vulnerabilities.
What is a significant issue associated with economic water scarcity?
Polluted water due to drainage basin mismanagement, domestic waste, and industrial effluents.
This issue affects water quality rather than quantity.
According to WHO and UNICEF in 2017, how many people lacked access to basic water services?
More than 785 million people.
Additionally, over 884 million people did not have safe water to drink.
What does economic water scarcity indicate about water availability in a region?
Water is naturally abundant but not easily accessible due to infrastructure and governance issues.
Many people in these regions must collect water from distant sources.
What is a critical example of a country facing economic water scarcity?
China, due to rapid growth of unregulated economic activity leading to water pollution.
Economic water scarcity is often linked to under-investment in water services.
