EQ3

Question 1

What are the water insecurity statistics?

Answer 1

• By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in water insecure areas.
• Water scarcity = between 500 - 1000 m2 water per capita.
• water stress = between 1700 - 1000 m2 water per capita.

Question 2

What are the physical causes of water insecurity?

Answer 2

• Climate variability
• salt water encroachment
• increasing warnwater waste.

Question 3

What are the human causes of water insecurity?

Answer 3

• globalisation
• increasing middle class population.
• Thermal power and hydropower contribute to 80% and 15% of electricity production. Both require water.
• 20% of groundwater aquifers are overabstracted.
• groundwater provides pop. with 50% of drinking water.

Question 4

CASE STUDY: Pacific islands and salt water encroachment

Answer 4

• 35% of its supplies = aquifers
• IPCC = global sea levels have risen 0.19m between 1901 and 2010.
• Marshall islands triplped its groundwater extraction as a result of the 1997-1998 ENSO event.
• Kiribati is completely relocating to New Zealand.

Question 5

What factors impact water quality?

Answer 5

• intensive agriculture
• mining
• industrial production
• untreated sewage
• urban runoff and waste.

Question 6

What are the current issues with water supply?

Answer 6

• 90% of all wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers untreated.
• in 2015, 1.35 milliom m3 of contaminated water was released into the Colorado River by the Environmental protection Agency.

Question 7

What is the predicted future demand for scarcity?

Answer 7

UN WWDR (2015) Predicts a 55% increase of water demand by 2050.

Question 8

What are the risks for water security in the future? (FAO)

Answer 8

FAO identifies three dimensions of water scarcity:
- Availability
- Access
- Utilisation

Question 9

What is the issue with global pricing of water?

Answer 9

• It changes globally, and unfortunately, it usually turns out that water tends to be 100 times more expensive in developing countries, as people have to pay street vendors for water.
• Privatisation of water by the IMF and WB leads to unaffordable water.

Question 10

What does the world Poverty index measure?

Answer 10

• Resource
• Access
• Use
• Environment
• Capacity
  (Each factor is scored from 1-20, the best being 20. This can then be plotted on a radar graph)

Question 11

What does the UN WWDR say about water supply?

Answer 11

A lack of sufficient water supply can lead to hindered economic development. This is because manufacturing demand for water is increasing, with it increasing at a rate of 400% by 2050.

Question 12

Why is water important on an individual level?

Answer 12

Socially - it provides dignity and wellbeing
Economically - it allows people to maintain a livelihood through farming. Rural farmers in Bihar.
(Water is less accessible to women and children, as they are disadvantaged in many places)

Question 13

What is the issue with environmental sustainability and water supply?

Answer 13

Many economic models reject and do not factor in environmental factors and ecosystem sevices. This is due to it being hard to quantify.

Question 14

CASE STDY: Salton Sea, California

Answer 14

Aquatic species sustain over 500 bird species, such as the pelican. Between 2017-18, there was an 18% decrease in inflow to the lake due to the Imperial Irrigation District not diverting its water supply to this area.

Question 15

Water Conflicts globally:

Answer 15

• 40% of the world’s population lives in a drainage basin which is occupied by more than 1 country.
• 158 of the 263 transboundary management schemes lack cooperation.

Question 16

CASE STUDY: Nile Basin Conflicts

Answer 16

6,700 km long, longest basin in the world.
Shared by 11 countries.
1922 agreement made by Sudan (UK imeprialists) and Egypt allocating 95% of its water to these two countries.
New 1999 agreement sees that equitable division of water is given through te Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). However, Egypt still believes that the old treaty should be honoured.

Question 17

CASEE STUDY: Conflict within Ethiopia

Answer 17

• Gilgel Gibe III Dam was constructed in order to provide HEP to 50% of Ethiopia. 3rd largest HEP project in Africa.
• it was build on the Omo River, which unfortunately meant 200,000 indigenous people did not have access to the water they needde to survive.
• However, the government implemented cotton planting and sugar planting schemes to help people earn a livelihood. This was opposed by many people.

Question 18

CASE STUDY: Lake Turkana (Ethiopia)

Answer 18

UNESCO describes this lake as a world heritage site. If the dam Ethiopia eventually built over the Omo was complete, a 10m recession of water would occur at this lake, costing 300,000 people their livelihoods.

Question 19

CASE STUDY: South China’s south-north water transfer.

Answer 19

China’s constructing a series of pipes to push 25 billion m3 of water annually from the Yangtze basin to the North China Plain annually.
50% of China’s population lives in the North Plain, but only has around 20% of the national water supply. Beijing’s water table has dropped 300m in the last 40 years.

Question 20

What have been the social, economic, and environmental costs of China’s south-north transfer?

Answer 20

social = 300,000 people were displaced during construction.
economic= Cost $80 billion in 2015 alone.
environmental = may have detrimental affects on the Yangtze basin if discharge is significantly reduced.

Question 21

What is the step forward for China if it wishes to have better water control?

Answer 21

Deal with the deeper issues with water management in the North Plain. It actually has the right amount of water to sustain itself, but waterwater management is not good enough to sustain this.

Question 22

What are ‘soft management approaches’ to water supply issues?

Answer 22

forest conservation and urban permeability. (Permeable pavement building) Also reconstructing wetlands. As opposed to building dams and groundwater abstraction.

Question 23

What are the ‘soft management approaches’ to water quality issues?

Answer 23

reconnecting rivers to floodplains, creating more greenspaces. As opposed to creating water treatment plants.

Question 24

What are the ‘soft management approaches’ to regulating flood events?

Answer 24

constructing wetland areas and protecting mangroves. As opposed to creating sea walls.

Question 25

CASE STUDY: Singapore’s hollistic management

Answer 25

• 5.4 mil pop.
• high evaporation rates due to tropical climate
• NEWater scheme used to recycle domestic water.
• This now meets 30% of Singapore’s water needs.

Question 26

CASE STUDY: China’s smart irrigation

Answer 26

China do not give the optiml level of water to plants, and instead give them minimal supply to plants which are resistant to slight drought, such as wheat, and this allows them to preserve water. Research shows they can preserve up to 25% of regular water outake.

Question 27

CASE STUDY: rainwater harvesting in Uganda

Answer 27

WAteraid aided 3,000 people in the village of Kitayita through installing rainwater catchers on the roofs of houses. This means that 1,500 litres of water can be caught and used throughout this village.

Question 28

CASE STUDY: Colorado river

Answer 28

97% of the Colorado basin is in USA, 3% is in Mexico.
Starts at the Rocky Mountains, and goes through the Colorado Plateau to California and Mexico.
1922 agreement was signed between 7 states.
In 1990, US states used all of their water allocation for the first time because there were drier conditions, this led to more conflict.

Question 29

CASE STUDY: The Berlin rules

Answer 29

Replaced the 1966 Helsinki rules.
9 principles of water management concerning the environment and socio-economic factors. The ongoing conflict in the Nile Basin shows the difficulty in implementing these rules.