EQ3: How does water insecurity occur, and why is it becoming such a global issue for the 21st century? Flashcards
The growing mismatch between water supply and demand had led to what?
A global pattern of water stress (below 1,700m³ per person) and water scarcity (below 1,000m³ per person)
Below 1,000m³ per person gives way to what?
Water scarcity
Below 1,700m³ per person gives way to what?
Water stress
Examples of countries experiencing absolute scarcity
Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Syria
(less than 500m³ per person)
Examples of countries experiencing water stress
Much of east Africa, and India
What does the growing mismatch between water supply and demand lead to?
The distribution of freshwater resources (water availability) and the distribution of the demand for water.
What does the United Nations define water security as?
The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable water for sustaining livelihoods, human wellbeing and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.
When does water insecurity occur? (according to UN definition)
When these economic, social, and environmental criteria are not met, or only partially met.
According to UN water, how much has water use been growing by?
Growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century
By 2025, how many people will be living in countries with absolute water scarcity?
1.8 billion
How much of the world could be living under water stress conditions by 2025?
Two thirds
Water stress
When the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain period. Countries experience water stress if renewable water resources are between 1,000 and 1,700m³ per capita.
Water scarcity
When renewable water resources are low, between 500 and 1,000m³ per capita. Imbalance between demand and supply.
Symptoms of water stress
Symptoms are widespread and include frequent and serious restrictions on water use, growing tension and conflict between users and competition for water, declining standards of reliability and service, and harvest failures and food insecurity
Symptoms of water scarcity
Unsatisfied demand, open tension and conflict between users, competition for water, over-extraction of groundwater and insufficient flows to the natural environment.
Physical water scarcity
Where water availability does not meet water demand in a particular area. Arid regions often face this, such as southern Spain.
Occurs when more than 75% of a country’s or region’s blue water flows are being used. Applies to about 25% of the world’s population, most countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and regions such as North China and Western USA.
Economic water scarcity
Occurs due to lack of investment in infrastructure so people cannot get access to water, or the price of it is at a point where the population cannot afford the amount they need.
Water insecurity
When a country has inadequate quantities of acceptable water quality for livelihoods, wellbeing and development.
Absolute water scarcity
Countries experience this if their renewable water resources very low, less than 500m³ per capita. Leads to widespread restrictions on water use and rationing.
Renewable water resources
The long-term annual average of internal and external renewable water resources.
What are internal renewable water sources?
The discharges of rivers and the recharge of aquifers, generated from precipitation.
What are external renewable water sources?
Those generated outside a country including inflows from upstream countries and parts of a water body (lake or river) divided by a border.
Summarise reasons for rising demand of water
Population growth
Rising standard of living
Economic growth
Irrigation - intensive agriculture
By 2025, what will the total annual water withdrawal be? (km³)
5235km³
Why are water supplies diminishing?
Human activity is the most significant cause of diminishing supplies - mainly related to over-abstraction of groundwater supplies for irrigation. In many countries, groundwater is no longer regarded as an unlimited supplement for surface water supplies.
Why else are water supplies diminishing?
Cheap technology used to pump water
Few/minimal legislation to regulate pumping
Threats of climate change - induced drought
Water pressure points Venn diagram
Diminishing supply?
Impact of climate change
Deteriorating quality from air pollution
Impact of competing users upstream vs downstream
Water pressure points Venn diagram
Rising demands?
Population growth
Economic development
Water pressure points Venn diagram
Competing demands from users?
Internal conflicts in a basin
International issues - upstream and downstream, HEP vs irrigation
Water pressure points Venn diagram
Section right in the middle
PRESSURE POINT - need for management
According to the International Water Management Institute global water stress in increasing, how many people face some sort of water scarcity?
1/3 of all people
(Named example) Physical water scarcity in Australia
Diversion 1/4 of all water away from Murray Darling Basin for agriculture
Physical water scarcity in Egypt
Egypt imports less than 50% of its food because of physical scarcity
Physical water scarcity in China
Severe water scarcity in North China, leading to the South-North transfer scheme
Aral Sea approaching physical water scarcity
Aral Sea faces environmental catastrophe although recent attempts to reduce attempts to reduce impacts of river diversions for cotton production.
Physical water scarcity: West coast of USA: California
Ogallala aquifer provides 1/3 of all US irrigation water, but is seriously depleted: the water table is dropping by about 1m per year. As a “fossil” reserve, formed from past glacial meltwater flows, it is effectively a finite resource.
Economic water scarcity: Sub Saharan Africa
Much of Sub-Saharan Africa (1 billion people) suffers from economic scarcity from poverty but also lack of infrastructural development.
India - River Ganges
Physical stress from pollution and over abstraction
List 6 physical causes of water insecurity
Climate change - changing weather patterns
Changes in glacial snowmelt
Less precipitation
No groundwater store (fossil water) - could be due to humans
ENSO
Flooding - pollution of water
List 7 human causes of water insecurity
Climate change - changing weather patterns
Pollution making water sources unusable (industrial, fertiliser, domestic)
Deforestation - changed transpiration
Economic development - over abstraction
For irrigation - intensive agriculture
Dams and reservoirs - issues with upstream vs downstream
Population increase (natural increase, migration)
The United Nations World Water Development Report 2015 projected an increase in global water demand of _____ by 2050.
55%
Mainly due to a growing demand from secondary industries, thermal electricity generation and domestic use - increasing urbanisation in developing countries.
Significant problems related to water insecurity in Asia and the Pacific?
Salinity and arsenic (from industrial pollution) affect 60% of the groundwater supplies across the Indo-Gangetic Basin
Withdrawals in West Asia exceed natural replacement
1 billion gallons of raw sewage us demurred into the Ganges each day
Significant problems related to water insecurity in Europe and Central Asia?
Increasing water consumption, with half of Europe’s cities over-exploiting their groundwater reserves
Significant problems related to water insecurity in North America?
Aquifer depletion is increasing due to both population and urban growth, and expansion of irrigation and industry
Significant problems related to water insecurity in Africa ?
Predicted that 25 African countries will face either water stress or water scarcity by 2025
Lack of groundwater protection from agricultural uses (which make up 80% of total water use)
Lack of preparedness and mitigation
Significant problems due to water insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean?
Poor sanitation - only 2% if the sewage in Latin America is treated
Economic scarcity, with conflict over access to - and use of - water.
What is leading to direct and indirect effects on the whole of the hydrological cycle?
Increasing variability in precipitation patterns, with changes in runoff and aquifer recharge and in water quality.
What does the warmer climate mean for water insecurity?
Increased rates of evaporation and transpiration, leading to less effective precipitation (the amount of precipitation that is added and stored in the soil after losses.
Higher water temperatures of a warmer climate and localised industrial discharges of warm waste water increase many forms of pollution. Warmer waters encourage the growth of bacteria and other organisms that are harmful to human health and possibly ecosystems.
What is saltwater encroachment?
The movement of saltwater into underground sources (aquifers) of freshwater.
What happens to the natural pump during saltwater encroachment?
Starts to produce saline water, so it’s closed off.
Describe natural process of saltwater encroachment.
Under natural conditions, the seaward movement of freshwater reduces saltwater encroachment in coastal zones, and soil moisture and groundwater remain fresh.
Two factors that increase saltwater encroachment?
Localised abstraction of groundwater
Sea level rise (result of climate change)
How do human processes e.g localised abstraction of groundwater and sea level rise increase the risk of saltwater encroachment?
Extensive groundwater pumping for freshwater wells lowers the water table, and allows saltwater to move into soils and aquifers.
Thermal expansion of the sea, along with melting ice sheets and glaciers - a result of global warming - are enabling saltwater to intrude further inland, threatening farming and natural ecosystems e.g Sundarbans in Bangladesh.
Synoptic link with saltwater encroachment?
Saltwater encroachment will occur in coastal areas due to sea level rise associated with global climate change, but further than this, all coastal processes will change, with stronger storm events and associated storm surges, increased coastal erosion, and flooding of low-lying land.
This will put pressure on people and whole countries, and superpowers may have to help developing countries to relocate their people or provide mitigation and adaptation measures.
Main physical causes of water availability/insecurity
- CLIMATE VARIABILITY
- SALT WATER ENCROACHMENT AT THE COAST
- climate - annual precipitation - the water is then moved and distributed by the drainage network
- evaporation and evapotranspiration
- discharge into the sea
- saltwater encroachment at the coast
Human causes of water insecurity
- OVER ABSTRACTION FROM RIVERS, LAKES AND GROUNDWATER AQUIFERS
- WATER CONTAMINATION FROM AGRICULTURE
- INDUSTRIAL WATER POLLUTION
- contamination of water by agricultural, industrial and domestic pollution
- over-abstraction from rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers and the acute need to replenish these dwindling stores
What are physical and human causes of water insecurity exacerbated by?
Global warming and climate change.
What is rising demand from a growing population, industry and agriculture leading to?
Serious implications in some locations and increasing the risk of water insecurity.
What has generated ever increasing demands for freshwater resources?
Population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation, as well as increases in production and consumption
What has led to sharp, and perhaps unsustainable increases in water use?
Strong income growth and rising living standards (a rising middle class).
What has led to sharp, and perhaps unsustainable increases in water use?
Strong income growth and rising living standards (a rising middle class), especially where supplies are vulnerable or scarce and where the distribution, price, consumption and management of water are poorly regulated.
What are some changing consumption patterns that typically involve increased water use?
- Rising demand for meat (water is needed for fodder crops as well as for the animals).
- For larger homes (water is used in concrete manufacture).
- Increased use of motor vehicles.
- Increased use of appliances and energy consuming devices (needing HEP and cooling water for power stations).
What is the human activity with the largest use of water?
Agriculture. Excessive water withdrawals for agriculture have created problems from California to India.
How much water does agriculture use ?
70% globally and 90% in developing countries.
What do freshwater withdrawals for energy production account for?
15% of the world’s total because nearly all forms of energy require some input of water as part of their production process.
What do thermal power generation and hydropower account for? How does this contribute to energy insecurity?
80% and 15% of global electricity production respectively, and require large quantities for water.
Human causes of water insecurity - Agriculture: What has inefficient use of water for crop production resulted in?
Inefficient use of water for crop production:
* depletes aquifers
* reduces river flows
* degrades wildlife habitats
* caused salinisation of 20% of the global irrigated land area
How many people depend solely on groundwater resources to satisfy their basic daily water need?
2.5 billion people worldwide. Groundwater plays a substantial role in the water supply.
Hundreds of millions of farmers rely on groundwater to sustain their livelihoods and ensure food security.
What percentage of the population does groundwater provide drinking water for?
At least 50% of the global population.
What percentage of the population does groundwater provide irrigation water for?
43% of global population.
When does over-abstraction occur?
When too much water is removed from groundwater so supplies diminish.
What percentage of the world’s aquifers are over-exploited?
An estimated 20%.
What is water availability affected by?
Contamination and pollution.
What is water contamination caused by?
- Intensive agriculture - chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
- Industrial production - wastes and chemicals
- Mining - dangerous metals
- Untreated sewage - harmful bacteria
- Urban runoff and waster water
Why is water contamination a serious issue in developing countries?
Many cities in developing countries have inadequate sewerage and water infrastructure to collect and treat sewage and separate it from rivers.
In developing countries, what percentage of waste water is discharged untreated into rivers, lakes or oceans?
Up to 90% - ewwww
What has expansion of commercial agriculture (agribusinesses) led to?
Increases in nitrate and phosphate fertiliser applications, causing eutrophication (excessive nutrients lead to algal blooms and low-oxygen (hypoxic) waters that can kill fish and seagrass and reduce essential fish habitats) of freshwater ecosystems and significant environmental and health risks.
What is an atoll?
A ring shaped coral reef that encircles a lagoon.
What is desalination?
The process that removes salts from saline water in order to make it potable.
Resilience
The ability to reduce the loss experienced from a natural hazard or natural phenomena, or to return to an original state more quickly by having measures in place that allow individuals and communities to adapt to their changing circumstances.
What are water resources?
Finite
What do finite water resources face pressure from?
From rising demand (increasing population, improving living standards, industrialisation and agriculture), which is increasingly serious in some locations and is leading to increasing risk of water scarcity.
The rising demand for water is driven by three main factors, what are they?
- Population growth - more people so more demand.
- Economic development - increases the demand for water in almost all economic activities- the agriculture, industry, energy and services. One of the biggest and fastest-growing consumers is irrigation.
- Rising living standards - increase in the per capita consumption of water for drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning. Added to this domestic consumption are water-extravagant things such as swimming pools, washing machines and dishwashers.
What does rising demand for water lead to between players?
Increasing competition between water users for this dwindling resource.
Three main pressures increasing the risk of water supply:
- Diminishing supply
- Rising demands
- Competing demands from users
Diminishing supply subpoints
- climate change (+ impacts)
- deteriorating quality from pollution
- impact of competing users (upstream vs downstream)
Rising demands subpoints
- population growth
- economic development
Competing demands from users subpoints
- international issues
- upstream vs downstream
- HEP vs irrigation
Why is the demand for water growing?
- Population growth
- Urbanisation
- Industrialisation
- Increases in production and consumption
- Strong income growth
- Rising living standards
- Changing consumption patterns such as rising demand for meat.
- Larger homes
- Increased motor vehicle use
How does agriculture contribute to water scarcity?
- It’s the human activity with the largest use of water (70% globally) and excessive water withdrawals for agriculture has created problems.
- Contamination and over-abstraction.
- Freshwater withdrawals for energy production are accounting for 15% of the world’s total.
- Inefficient use of water for crop production depletes aquifers, reduces river flows and degrades wildlife habitats.
How does contamination lead to greater water insecurity?
- People and livestock at risk.
- Less water available for use.
- Eutrophication (resulting in harmful algal blooms, dead zones, and fish kills).
- Linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera.
How does agriculture lead to contamination of water?
- Intensive agriculture uses chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
- Industrial production results in wastes and chemicals.
- Mining uses dangerous metals which could contaminate water.
- Urban runoff and waste water.
- Untreated sewage.
- Expansion of commercial agriculture (agribusinesses) had led to increases in nitrate and phosphate fertiliser applications, causing eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems and significant environmental and health risks.
What is Germany’s price for water per m³?
$1.91
What is Canada’s price for water per m³?
$0.40 - Canada has a lot of water so can afford to sell it at such a low price? Canada is one of the most water-rich nations in the world.
What has the United Nations World Water Development Report 2015 projected by 2050? What is this due to?
An increase in global water demand of 55%. This is mainly due to a growing demand from secondary industries, thermal electricity generation and domestic use, all of which are linked to increasing urbanisation in developing countries.
What has the UN projected will be happening by 2030 ?
The UN projects a 40% global water deficit by 2030 under the business-as-usual scenario, which would pose serious challenges in some locations.
Synoptic link between water contamination and globalisation/superpowers
Water contamination is a particular risk in the informal settlements (shanty towns) of megacities, where there are high population densities with inadequate infrastructure for effective sewage treatment.
Water supplies may be from occasional standpipes, rather than a complete network to every home. This creates poor living conditions with health risks.
Poor sanitation encourages the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. These are major challenges for countries considering themselves to be emerging superpowers.
Examples of what water demand is increasing for
- Electricity
- Manufacturing
- Livestock
- Domestic
- Irrigation
What’s the relationship between GDP per capita and water cost in the graph?
Countries with a higher GDP per capita e.g USA and UK, have a lower cost of water per m³.
However, the cost of water per m³ is more expensive in countries with a lower GDP such as Ghana and Colombia.
What does WPI stand for?
The Water Poverty Index
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) identifies three dimension of water scarcity. What are they?
- Availability - physical scarcity of clean freshwater to meet demand.
- Access - scarcity due to the failure of institutions to ensure a reliable water supply through water management.
- Utilisation - scarcity arising from inadequate infrastructure to use water resources due to financial constraints.
Little or no water scarcity
Abundant water resources relative to use.
Physical water scarcity definition from Pearson textbook
Water resources development is approaching or has exceeded sustainable limits.
Economic water scarcity definition from Pearson textbook
Human, institutional, and financial capital limit access to water even though water in nature is available locally to meet human demands.
What does water scarcity therefore consist of?
Water scarcity therefore consists of physical water scarcity, due to lack of availability, and economic water scarcity, due to a lack of access and poor resource management.
Roughly many people are restricted from accessing blue water by high levels of poverty?
Around 1 billion people - economic water scarcity.
In the developed world, what has most of the world’s water been?
Privatised
Example of charity that provide invaluable help in reducing the extent of economic water scarcity
WaterAid
What is the Water Poverty Index?
A holistic mathematical data-driven tool for gauging the degree of water-related poverty in a community, region, or country.
Why is the Water Poverty Index useful?
- To provide a better understanding of the relationship between the physical extent of water availability, its ease of abstraction and the level of community welfare.
- Could lead to a better understanding of how to use water sources sustainably.
- A mechanism for prioritisation of water needs - governments know what to prioritise in terms of providing availability.
- A tool by which progress in the water sector can be monitored, which can help developing countries.
There are ways of measuring water poverty, which include the WPI. What are they?
- level of access to water
- water quantity, quality and variability
- water used for domestic, food and productive purposes
- capacity for water management (how well a country manages the water it has)
- environmental aspects such as damage and pollution
The Water Poverty Index uses five measures to indicate levels of water insecurity. What are they?
Resources, Access, Capacity, Use, Environment
- Resources - the physical availability of surface and groundwater and its quality.
- Access - the accessibility of safe water for human use, including domestic, industrial and agricultural use.
- Capacity - the effectiveness of water management to ensure affordability.
- Use - the use of water for different purposes, including domestic, industrial and agricultural use.
- Environment - water management strategies to ensure ecological sustainability.
How do you read a WPI graph?
- In each category up to 20 points can be reached (best situation)
- The scores are added together to get a total score out of 100. The water poverty decreases as the score increases. So a higher score means better water management and less poverty.
Purpose of WPI (The Water Poverty Index: an International Comparison by Peter Lawrence, Jeremy Meigh and Caroline Sullivan)
The purpose of the Water Poverty Index is to express an interdisciplinary measure which links household welfare with water availability and indicates the degree to which water scarcity impacts on human populations.
What does the index enable? (The Water Poverty Index: an International Comparison by Peter Lawrence, Jeremy Meigh and Caroline Sullivan)
Enables national and international organisations concerned with water provision and management to monitor both the resources available and the socio-economic factors which impact on access and use of those resources.
Examples of countries with a high WPI
Canada, Iceland, UK
Examples of countries with a low WPI, which will have issues with water poverty
Haiti, Ethiopia, China, India, USA, Brazil
Providing access to clean drinking water requires what?
The construction and maintenance of robust infrastructure systems that also dispose of and treat used dirty water. Such services are expensive and therefore difficult for many developing nations to provide, especially in areas of poverty and high population density.
In developing countries, what are many people relying on for water?
Many people rely on street vendors for their water, and the cost can be up to 100 times more expensive than if the water were supplied to their home.
What have the IMF and World Bank done to help with water supply in developing countries?
During the 1980s, the World Bank and IMF gave loans that required many developing countries to privatise their water supply system, in the hope that competition would reduce costs. However, many of these projects have since been cancelled due to public pressure, because the price of water became unaffordable for a large portion of the population.
Explain the link between WPI and GDP per capita
Typically, the higher the GDP, the higher the WPI.
What country has highest WPI?
Canada - good management, good access
Country with the lowest WPI?
Ethiopia
Price of water
As demand increases and supplies decrease, price rises.
In developed countries, do people pay for their water supply?
Yes e.g Washington DC = $350 per year = 72 cents per m³.
Developing countries price of water
- Rural locations – often free but needs to be carried long distances and can be contaminated.
- Slums – may be brought from private vendors – often exceeds $1 per m³.
Why do costs of water vary?
Cost of freshwater depends on transport cost, availability, contamination levels, management and level of demand.
What is water essential for?
Sustainable development - it is needed for almost everything humans do.
What does the UN World Water Development Report 2015 state?
“Progress in each of the three dimensions of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental - is bound by the limits imposed by finite and often vulnerable water resources and the way these resources are managed to provide services and benefits.”
Water is an essential resources in the production of most types of goods and services including food and energy, so what is it needed to ensure?
Economic sustainability
What must industrial water supply be?
Reliable and predictable - to support financially sustainable investments in economic activities.
Why is global water demand for economic activities increasing?
- Manufacturing industry - demand is expected to increase by 400% between 2000 and 2050. The majority of this increase is occurring in emerging economies and developing countries.
- Energy production is water-intensive, and meeting ever-growing demands for energy will generate increasing stress on freshwater resources, with repercussions for other uses.
In the manufacturing industry, what is water demand expected to increase by between 2000 and 2050?
400%
What will increasing industrial pollution result in?
Impacts on water quality and increasing water stress. In localised areas where water use for industrial production is not well regulated or enforced, pollution could increase dramatically, closely linking increasing economic activity with the degradation of environmental services.
Why is water so important for wellbeing and social sustainability?
Water is critical for a family’s health (human wellbeing) and social dignity (social sustainability) and access to water for economic productive uses such as agriculture or family run-businesses is critical for generating income and contributing to overall economic productivity.
What can investment in improved water management and sanitation services result in?
- Reduced poverty
- Sustained economic growth through better health, reduced health costs, increased productivity and time savings.
Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a human right, but what does its limited realisation throughout the world result in?
Disproportionate impacts on the poor and on women and children and other disadvantage groups.
What do freshwater ecosystems provide?
Essential services for economic, social and environmental wellbeing.
How has groundwater been affected in Mexico?
Pesticides and fertilisers
How has groundwater been affected in Mexico City?
Ground subsidence
How has groundwater been affected in Arizona?
Irrigation increases salinity
How has groundwater been affected in California?
Saltwater intrusion
How has groundwater been affected in Bangladesh?
Aquifers overdrawn
How has groundwater been affected in NE China?
Industrial pollution
How has groundwater been affected in Pakistan?
Excessive pumping, wells drying out
What do wetlands do for environmental, economic and social wellbeing?
Reduce the incidence of floods (they can store water), store water, and provide other direct economic benefits such as fisheries and recreation, YET HALF OF THEM HAVE BEEN LOST.
What do forested highlands do for environmental, economic and social wellbeing?
Serve a key role in recharging aquifers and ensuring clean water flows for agriculture, hydropower and other uses.
Why do most economic models not value the essential services provided by freshwater ecosystems?
Partly because they are difficult to quantify, which may cause natural environments to be overlooked and lead to unsustainable use of water resources and then ecosystem degradation.
What undermines an environment’s capacity to sustain itself?
The disruption of ecosystems through urban sprawl and urbanisation, over-abstraction for agriculture, deforestation and pollution.
How does smart irrigation work?
Provides crops with a suboptimal water supply causing mild stress during crop growth stages that are less sensitive to moisture deficiency. This technique has been found to conserve water without a significant reduction in yield.
How has the North China Plain benefitted from smart irrigation?
A six year study showed water savings of 25% or more through the application of smart irrigation, combined with acceptably high yields and net profits.
How has smart irrigation benefitted Australia?
Regulated smart irrigation of fruit trees increased water productivity by approximately 60%, with a gain in fruit quality and no loss in yield.
Why is controlled irrigation beneficial?
Controlled irrigation such as drip feed, ensures that water goes directly into the soil next to the root of crops, which prevents evaporation loss.
Describe rainwater harvesting jars in Uganda
Kitayita village, Uganda, 3,000 people lack access to safe water.
Local builders have been trained in the construction of rainwater harvesting jars, which are made from locally available materials and have a capacity of 1,500 litres.
They are designed to collect rainwater from roofs and store water for drier periods.
What is WaterAid?
An international non-governmental organisation that raises funds to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene for some of the world’s poorest people.
What are rainwater harvesting jars designed to do?
They are designed to collect rainwater from roofs and store water for drier periods.
What is the objective of rainwater harvesting jars?
To help the community construct on-site water supplies close to home. removing the need for old or infirm people to travel long distances across terrain.
What is the objective of rainwater harvesting jars?
To help the community construct on-site water supplies close to home. removing the need for old or infirm people to travel long distances across terrain.
What’s good about rainwater harvesting jars?
The jars have a long life and once constructed can provide a stable water source for many years.
