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geography > 5.3 - water security > Flashcards

5.3 - water security Flashcards

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1
Q

What are players?

A

Individuals, groups or organisations with an involvement or interest in a particular issue

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2
Q

What percentage of water is usable/accessible by humans?

A

2.5% is freshwater, 1% of this available as easily accessible surface water

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3
Q

What is ‘peak water’?

A

The state of growing constraints on quantity and quality of accessible water

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4
Q

What are the issues with physical distribution of water?

A

There is a mismatch between where water supplies are and where demand is. 60% of supplies are contained in just 10 countries and 66% of population live in areas receiving only 25% of annual rainfall

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5
Q

What factors are driving rising demand for water?

A

population growth

rising standards of living (higher consumption of water from meat rich diets etc)

economic growth increasing demand in all economic sectors

irrigated farming

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6
Q

What is fracking?

A

A technique to harness gas and oil in which rock is fractured by a pressurised liquid

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7
Q

Why are water supplies dwindling?

A

diminishing supplies available from groundwater aquifers (main cause of over abstraction = irrigation)

drought etc putting pressure on supplies and leading to a falling water table

groundwater supplies are being extracted faster than they are replenished

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8
Q

What are the reasons for pressure points (water supplies under threat)?

A

diminishing supply

rising demands

competing demands from users

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9
Q

What is the water availability gap?

A

Imbalance between supply and demand due to variations in usage (distribution and demand tend not to coincide)

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10
Q

How much of the world’s population are predicted to be water vulnerable by 2050?

A

Around half

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11
Q

What is virtual water?

A

The hidden flow of water when food or other commodities are traded

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12
Q

What is physical scarcity?

A

When more than 75% of a country or region’s blue water flows are being used

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13
Q

What is economic scarcity?

A

When the development of blue water sources is limited by lack of capital, technology and good governance

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14
Q

What are physical factors determining the supply of water?

A

Macro scale - climate determines the global distribution of water supply via distribution of precipitation.
Other factors:
- atmospheric pressure systems
- ENSO
- topography, distance from sea
- geology

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15
Q

What are human factors influencing the quality of water supplies?

A

Human actions can pollute both surface and groundwater supplies.
- contaminated water e.g. China due to industry
- untreated sewage disposal
- chemical fertilisers causing eutrophication
- dams affect sediment movement

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16
Q

What are the human factors affecting the quantity of water supplies?

A

Over abstraction for domestic, agriculture and industrial usage.
Other drivers = urbanisation, population growth, rising living standards, industrialisation, economic development
- salt water incursion

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17
Q

What is the water poverty index, what indicators does it use

A

An assessment of the degree of water shortage and subsequent water insecurity problems.
Uses five parameters:
- resources
- access
- capacity
- use
- environment

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18
Q

What is water insecurity?

A

The lack of adequate and safe water for a healthy and productive life.

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19
Q

What is the problem of water insecurity related to?

A

availability (supply AND distribution network)

access

usage

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20
Q

What is physical scarcity determined by?

A

Climate (balance between precip inputs and EVT outputs).
At a local scale, geology and topography may be more significant

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21
Q

What is economic scarcity determined by?

A

Often associated with developing countries that lack capital and technology and good governance to fully exploit often adequate blue water sources

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22
Q

What factors determine the price of water?

A

physical costs of obtaining supply

degree of demand for water

whether or not there is sufficient infrastructure

who supplies the water

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23
Q

What is the privatisation of water?

A

A western, neo liberal view that water should be privatised and people should pay for what it costs to capture, treat and provide it

24
Q

Why can the privatisation of water be viewed as a positive?

A

It is based on the assumption that the market mechanisms would simultaneously conserve water, improve efficiency and increase service quality/coverage.
- provides jobs
- profits made
- sanitation infrastructure paid for

25
Q

What are the negatives of water privatisation (using Bolivia as an example)?

A

creates one company monopoly
cost of providing water in LICs/NEEs means huge price increases and poor cannot pay
BOLIVIA - US TNC Bechtel given a monopoly (by World Bank) to collect water charges and tried to raise prices: leading to months of protests and riots (80,000 in city square) meaning the company eventually fled

26
Q

What are SAPs?

A

Structural adjustment programmes
Neo liberal policies promoted by the World Bank and IMF to help developing countries overcome their debt problems

27
Q

What is the importance of water supply for economic development?

A

industry

energy supply: 20% of all fresh water withdrawal worldwide is for energy production and industry, particularly in developing countries

agriculture: 1/5th of world’s land is under irrigation

28
Q

What is the importance of water supply for human wellbeing?

A

sanitation
health
food preparation

29
Q

What is the issue with the lack of clean water supply for humans?

A

Unsafe drinking water can spread disease. The fundamental source of this is a lack of sanitation, combined with low levels of personal hygiene. Diseases related to a lack of clean water lead to high levels of morbidity and vulnerability to poverty

30
Q

Why can there be conflict over water supply?

A

Competing demands for diminishing water supplies and their usage can lead to tension both within countries and between countries

31
Q

Why can aquifers/groundwater supplies cause conflict?

A

Many subterranean aquifers straddle international boundaries, which are very unclear underground.
- difficult to negotiate an equitable share for each nation
- cannot see how much of aquifers are being used up

32
Q

Why is there potential for conflict in the Nile Basin?

A

Key geopolitical issue = large number of national borders traverse the basin (10 countries)
Some countries are dependent on Nile for water (e.g. Egypt and Sudan) and economic scarcity, climate change and growing populations means all countries could become water scarce by 2025 - impacts food security. Unfair allocation of Nile waters currently due to historical agreements and increasing needs.

33
Q

What is the controversy of social vs political players opinions on water management?

A

Social players see access to clean safe water as a basic human right
Whereas political players see water as a human need which can be provided in a number of ways through market mechanisms, public services or public-private partnerships.

34
Q

Who are the players in managing water supplies?

A

Political - international organisations like UN responsible for MDGs, government and local groups
Economic - World Bank and IMF who fund mega projects, TNCs and businesses who are large users
Social - those individuals who feel access to water is a human right, NGOs
Environmental - conservationists who fight hard engineering schemes, scientists and planners, NGOs, UNESCO

35
Q

What is the controversy of economic vs environmental players opinions on water management?

A

Economic players favour hard engineering schemes to keep pace with rising demands, but these have very high social and environmental costs and are opposed by environmental players

36
Q

What are top down and bottom up schemes?

A

Top down - large scale capital intensive development schemes, usually developed by government
Bottom up - small scale development schemes

37
Q

What are hard engineering projects for water management, what are the 3 main types?

A

Hard engineering projects are those that need high levels of capital and technology to be carried out. Economic costs are very high, but there are often also environmental and social costs.
Water transfer schemes, desalination, mega dams

38
Q

What are water transfer schemes, what are the positives and negatives?

A

Water transfer schemes involve the diversion of water from one drainage basin to another, either by diverting the river itself or constructing a large canal to carry water from an area of surplus to an area of deficit
POSITIVES - increases availability and water security
NEGATIVES - causes long term changes to hydrological cycle, increased flood risk, spreading diseases and pollution, impacts on source area (water scarcity), extremely expensive

39
Q

What are mega dams, what are the positives and negatives?

A

Mega dams have the facility to store 15% of annual global runoff. They impeded, store, rechannel and re-engineer rivers to redesign natural flows for the benefits of humans.
POSITIVES - provide water for irrigation and domestic supply, HEP key for economic development (renewable).
NEGATIVES - displace settlements, hugely expensive, disrupts local ecosystems, can result in water borne diseases

40
Q

What is desalination, what are the positives and negatives?

A

Drawing supplies of water from the ocean and removing the salt to make it potable/usable.
POSITIVES - recent breakthroughs in technology (reverse osmosis) have made desalination much more cost effective, less energy intensive and easier to implement on a larger scale.
NEGATIVES - still a costly option and has a major ecological impact on marine life. Left over water from the desalination process is pumped back into sea with 2x normal salt concentration, affecting coral reefs and their food webs

41
Q

What is the difference between economic, environmental and socio-cultural water sustainability?

A

Economic = guaranteeing security of access to water for all groups at an affordable price
Environmental = protecting water quality
Socio-cultural = managing water supplies taking into account views of all user, equitable distribution

42
Q

What are the 3As of water supply management?

A

Clean and safe water should be:
- available
- accessible
- affordable

43
Q

What are the 4 areas of the water sustainability quadrant?

A

FUTURITY - manage demand and conserve supplies
ENVIRONMENT - high standards of water protection, restoration
EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE - equitable allocation between users to ensure secure supplies at affordable prices
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION - involvement of communities, decentralised decision making

44
Q

What are the 3 methods of water conservation?

A

recycling water
rainwater harvesting
smart irrigation

45
Q

What are the 3 main ways for reducing demands of water?

A

recycling
grey water usage
reducing consumption

46
Q

What are the ways in which water can be conserved in agriculture, industry and domestic use?

A

Agriculture - recycling city waste water to use on crops, empowering farming communities (magic stones), GM crops tolerant of drought, hydroponics
Industry - TNCs reducing consumption of water, recycling of water
Domestic - installation of smart metres, use of eco products, hosepipe/sprinkler bans, filtration technology, cutting down on leakages

47
Q

What is water restoration, what are the positives and negatives?

A

Returning water environments such as wetlands and rivers to their natural state.
POSITIVES - environmentally sustainable, have many socio-cultural benefits to communities
NEGATIVES - uncertain whether this is economically sustainable

48
Q

What is IWRM?

A

Integrated water resource management
A process which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising sustainability of vital ecosystems

49
Q

What are the benefits/drawbacks of IWRM?

A

Benefits - allows for the holistic management of the river basin, very practical at the community level
Drawbacks - the larger the basin, the more complex it becomes, especially if a transnational basin is involved

50
Q

What are the main features of IWRM?

A

freedom from corruption
environmental protection of all supplies/ecosystems
food security and water security
good governance
appropriate choices regarding water use in economic productivity
effective regulation and planning of use

51
Q

What are the 4 main areas in the process of IWRM?

A

groundwater management
waterway management
integrated urban water management
monitoring technology

52
Q

What should criteria for water sharing based on?

A

natural factors
socioeconomic needs
downstream impacts
dependency
prior use
efficiency

53
Q

What are the 4 main approaches to managing the rising risks of water insecurity?

A

Water crisis - sky high consumption of water leads to dramatic decline of supplies, possible conflicts
Business as usual - overall consumption rises up as current pattern shows, preventing efficient and equitable allocation, potential conflicts
Sustainable management - global water consumption stabilises, no major food security issues, most disputes solved by negotiation
Radical action - strict control of water allocations, emphasis on water conservation, enforced sharing by legislation

54
Q

What are the Helsinki rules?

A

An international guideline regulating how rivers and their connected groundwaters that cross national boundaries may be used. ‘Equitable use’ and ‘equitable shares’ concept

55
Q

What are some of the frameworks for water sharing treaties/conventions?

A

UNECE - United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (promotes joint management and conservation of shared freshwater ecosystems in Europe)
UN Water Courses Convention (offers guidelines on protection and use of transboundary rivers)
Helsinki and Berlin Frameworks

geography (55 decks)

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