How Does Water Insecurity Occur & Why’s It A Global Issue 21st Cen

Question 1

Define water security

Answer 1

• The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of quality water for human well-being and socioeconomic development ensuring protection against water related diseases preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace

Question 2

What are the mismatches of water?

Answer 2

• 12% of the worlds population consumes 85% of its water
• 25% of people drink contaminated water with faeces
• 1.8billion people lack potable water
• 2.4bn people lack adequate sanitisation
• 0.7billion people face water shortages

Question 3

Water stress & water scarcity

Answer 3

Water stress:

• If renewable water resources are 1000-1700m cubed per capita, a country is experiencing water stress
• Conflict for water supplies = restrictions on usage of water

Water scarcity:

• If renewable water resources are 500-1000m cubed per capita, a country is experiencing water scarcity
• Leads to open conflict & competition for water supply

Absolute water scarcity:

• If renewable water resources are < 500m cubed per capita, a country is experiencing absolute water scarcity
• Over 75% of river flow and groundwater sources are already used
• Over 60% of water resources are used today

Question 4

Categories of water scarcity

Answer 4

Physical:

• Over 75% of river flows are allocated to agriculture or domestic use
• Over 60% of river flows allocated & these basins will exp water scarcity in future

Economical:

• < 25% of water from rivers withdrawn for human purposes, human + financial capacity are limiting

Question 5

How does water scarcity affect Asia & Pacific?

Answer 5

• Critical health problems as a 1/3 of the population lacks access to potable water
• 500,000 children die a year from faeces related issues in Asia
• Level of bacterial waste from human sources is 10x greater than recommended
• 1bn gallons of raw sewage is dumped into Ganges each day
• 42% of Chinas sewage is dumped into Yangtze River each year

Question 6

How does water scarcity affect EU/Central Asia?

Answer 6

• There’s a lack of access to potable water in Eastern EU and Central Asia
• Half of EU cities over exploit groundwater reserves = overconsumption
• Water quality is decreasing in countries with groundwater pollution from heavy metals, pesticides and nitrates etc

Question 7

How does water scarcity affect North America?

Answer 7

• Changes in rainfall in California have led to droughts, declining groundwater supplies & reservoirs
• Water pollution from agricultural runoff has contaminated many ground & surface waters

Question 8

How does water scarcity affect Africa?

Answer 8

• It’s predicted t 25 African countries will face water scarcity by 2025
• A lack of mitigation from flooding droughts & storms = chronic health issues
• 19/25 countries in the world with lowest access to potable water are in Africa (makes up 80% of total water use)

Question 9

What are the physical and human causes of water insecurity?

Answer 9

Human:

• Increasing population and urbanisation leads to water insecurity since the worlds population is growing by 80mill per year but demand for water is 2x as fast. Increasing urbanisation = local pressure on availability of freshwater
• Production of biofuels affected water demand where 1000-4000L of water is needed to produce 1L of biofuel

Physical:

• Geology influences water supply since river form on impermeable rock like granite or clay which have greater surface runoff and do not trap water in aquifers which doesn’t contribute to the 70% of the water supply in SE England coming from the chalk aquifer, only permeable rocks are useful in this case

Human:

• Over-abstraction from rivers and aquifers leads to water insecurity e.g Mexico’s over abstraction of the aquifer is causing problems with subsidence. City is built in layers of clay & sand that easily compress when water is abstracted which is inelastic and irreversible when the aquifer provides 72% of the water supply in the city. When this is being over consumed this leads to water insecurity.

Physical:

• Rising sea levels and storm surges led to salt water encroaching fresh water supplies contaminating them preventing human use and is worsened by over abstraction of water as more salt water from sea goes into freshwater supplies
• Climate variability: The climate determines the global distribution of water supply. The UK has the highest rainfall and is secure. Sahel in Africa has high air pressure and less rainfall so less water. El Niño causes California to have drought declining water supplies

Question 10

Water Poverty Index

Answer 10

The WPI assesses the degree of water shortage and insecurity problems

Scores correlate with GNP per capita

Canada has the highest score of 78
Ethiopia is one of the lowest with 48

5 parameters of the WPI:

• Resources: Quantity of surface and groundwater per person and it’s quality
• Access: The time & distance to obtain clean water
• Capacity: How well the community manages its water
• Use: How water is used at home and by agriculture and industry economically

Global efforts spend $35billion p/a to improve water supply and sanitisation

1billion people still can’t access clean water and mainly live in 30 developing countries

Question 11

Price of water

Answer 11

• In many countries water services are controlled by the private sector
• So consumers pay a higher price for water
• Ireland’s water supply is 75% cheaper than UK
• Denmark has the most expensive water as the gov want to remove excessive usage
• Canada Water is controlled by the government so it’s 80% cheaper than Germany

Question 12

Factors affecting price of water

Answer 12

Physical cost to obtain supply:

• Californian coastal city of LA gets its water from Colorado through a very long pipeline

Degree of demand for water:

• Scarce water increases prices to manage demand
• E.g Accra Ghana 50L = £0.45 which is 25% of a low salary but UK 50L = £0.07 which is 0.1% of a low salary

Insufficient Infrastructure:

• Poor people in slums have to rely on water tankers and bottled water like Accra in Ghana. Water price from informal vendors 2x amount than standard tap water

Question 13

Water conflicts

Answer 13

Turkey, Syria & Iraq:

• Variations in water supply in Turkey caused the gov to develop the ’GAP’ project costing $32billion
• Aim was to improve water supply in Anatolia but causes conflict with Syria and Iraq due to construction of dams along Euphrates and Tigris rivers

Nile Basin:

• Schemes developed in Ethiopia and Sudan which may threaten supplies to Egypt & Sudan and Egypt are currently weakened by poor governance
• 11 countries compete for its water
• 300mill people lived in Nile basin in 2017
• Set to double by 2019
• People need water for growing crops
• Nile expected to generate HEP
• Dams in Sudan and Ethiopia deprived Egypt of fair share of Nile water

Ganges Brahmaputra:

• India built dams like Farakka Barrage which reduced flow of water into Bangladesh

Murray Darling Basin:

• 2.3 million residents
• $11billion in tourism industry
• 1million sq km
• Provides 75% of Australia’s water
• Provides 40% farm production
• 7300 agriculture businesses
• $22billion in agriculture industry
• Extraction within the basin increased by 500% since the 1920s

263 rivers in the world form political boundaries

UN reports: 158 of the world’s transboundary water basins lack cooperative management framework

Question 14

Water management strategies - Sustainable

Answer 14

Recycling water:

• In 2002, Singapore opened its first production plant for recycled water providing 30% of the city’s water supply & estimated 50% by 2060.
• Stages are conventional treatment, micro-filtration, reverse osmosis & UV treatment

Smart irrigation:

• This is where crops are provided with below optimum water levels during growth stage so they become less sensitive to lack of water which saves water in long run
• Works by allowing water to drip slowly to roots of plants to minimise evaporation and has seen a 60% increase in water productivity in Australia

Rainwater harvesting jars:

• Jars are made by covering a wooden mould with mud, letting it dry then encasing it in concrete. Mould is removed and inside of the jar is plastered so it’s waterproof
• Rainwater that falls onto a roof can be channeled into a jar. Successful in Uganda
• Cheap & effective & used by locals
• Reduces time women & children collect water for but if poorly constructed, the jar can cause diseases

Question 15

Managing water supplies - hard engineering

Answer 15

The Three Gorges Dam:

• Designed to control flooding on Yangtze, improve water supply & generate HEP
• Pros: Flood control, electricity generated for China’s growth & allows transfer of water from south to north China
• Cons: 632km sq land flooded to form reservoir, 1.3mill people relocated from 1500 villages & decomposing vegetation in reservoir produced methane

The South-North Water Transfer Project:

• 3 routes will take water from Yangtze to North China through a western route to yellow river, an eastern route via lakes and a central route
• Pros: Reduce abstraction of groundwater & reduces risk of water shortages in Beijing while boosting economic growth
• Cons: Will submerge 370km sq land, 345000 people have to relocate, risks draining too much water & costs $70bn

Desalination in Israel:

• Aims to provide 70% of Israel’s domestic water supplies by 2020
• Pros: Produces 600tonnes of potable water per hour
• Cons: Each plant requires its own power station & adds co2 emissions