The water cycle and water insecurity EQ 3

Question 1

Define water scarcity

Answer 1

When a population struggles to maintain a sustainable access to usable water supply to reach their demand.
Sustainable access must preserve political relationships, protect ecosystems and be socially and economically viable.

Question 2

What is the difference between water stress, water scarcity and absolute water scarcity?

Answer 2

Using UN data
water stress is less than 1700m3 per capita
water scarcity is less than 1000m3 per capita
absolute water scarcity is less than 500m3 per capita

Question 3

What did the 2015 UN Millennium Development goals review reveal?

Answer 3

15% of the worlds population did not have access to safe water.
Only 60% of accessible freshwater is being utilised.
60% of the worlds freshwater supplies are in ten countries increasing the gap between water secure and water insecure.

Question 4

What is causing a rising demand for water?

Answer 4

Population growth
Increase in quality of life
Economic growth (industrial use)
Irrigation demands are increasing

Question 5

What is causing a diminishing water supply?

Answer 5

Loss of groundwater due to increasing irrigation
Threats from climate change
Poor legislation leading to water sources being exploited
Lack of technology to access ancient stores.

Question 6

How does climate variability cause water insecurity?

Answer 6

Contrast between physical water supplies between humid and arid zones.
variability in precipitation rates changes surface runoff levels and the rate of aquifer recharge.
Warmer waters encourage bacterial growth, causes pollution and more expensive cleaning process.
ENSO cycles, change drought and flooding probability in the South Pacific Ocean.
Sahel receives 85% of rain in the summer monsoon season.

Question 7

How does saltwater encroachment cause water insecurity?

Answer 7

movement of saline water into freshwater aquifers, contaminates drinking waters sources.
Risk increased by global sea level rise and localised abstraction of groundwater sources lowering the water table allowing salt water to enter.
Kiribati.
More than ten countries in Europe have reported that they are affected by salt water intrusion.

Question 8

Pacific Nations Water insecurity example

Answer 8

The majority of pacific islands are low lying, with small aquifers making up 35% of Samoa’s water supply.
Aquifers are threatened by salt water intrusion and over extraction from increasing population demand
ENSO cycles cause climate variation causing seasonal water insecurity.

Question 9

How does agricultural contamination contribute to water insecurity?

Answer 9

Chemical fertilisers pollute blue water sources by leaching, often causes eutrophication.
Causes dead coastal water zones
Health hazard the water in unpotable.
Florida USA Everglades

Question 10

How does industrial waste cause water insecurity?

Answer 10

Water from sewage, manufacturing and farming in dumped in the basin.
Heavy metals and chemicals are toxic decreasing water quality.
Industry also consumers a large amount of water leading o over abstraction.
Industrial demand is expected to make up 70% of the worlds total energy demand.
Norlisk Russia a river was polluted by a leakage in a pipe from a nearby nickel plant, slurry entered the river causing it be undrinkable and go a red colour.

Question 11

How does over abstraction contribute to water insecurity?

Answer 11

2025 water withdrawl is expected by reach 5000km2, 2/3 of which will be for agriculture.
Decreases rates of aquifer recharge, increase the concentration of pollutants as the volume decreases, lowers the water table encouraging water salter encroachment of coastal areas.
India have swapped to more water demanding sugar crop encouraging drought as more water is sued for irrigation.

Question 12

What is the difference between physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity?

Answer 12

Physical - not enough water to meet demand

Economic - not enough money or infrastructure to obtain water from supplies.

Question 13

What are the three dimensions of water scarcity identified by the FAO?

Answer 13

Availability _ physical water scarcity, lack of freshwater supplies
Access- failure of institutions to secure a sustainable access to water sources.
Utilisation - scarcity arising from inadequate infrastructure and financial means to extract and use water sources.

Question 14

Global water prices. US$ per 100m2 per year

Answer 14

Geneva Switzerland - 400
New York 238
Hong Kong 34
London 225.

Question 15

Why does the prices of water vary?

Answer 15

Cost of obtaining a supply - investment in infrastructure and treatment, water from desalination is often more expensive.
Demand - price often increases with demand e.g during the 2015 California drought, 1/30 people in the US have a swimming pool so Chicago has one of the highest water prices at £0.7 per m3
Privatisation - TNCs do not subsidies water prices, profit driven , Bolivia water prices more than double when water supplies were privatised.
Supplier - when areas lack a piped water supply they may depend on venders, forced to pay vender prices, benefit from lower if no tax but vendors often pay 100 more than governments.

Question 16

What is the water poverty index?

Answer 16

An index that uses five parameters to measure a countries water insecurity. Each indicator is scored out of 20 to give a total score out of 100, Lower score means there is a higher risk of water insecuritY
Almost all of Africa and India/china rank as severe or high risk.
varibales include- resources, access, affordability, use and environmental sustainability.

Question 17

How does water insecurity link to the UN Millennium Goals?

Answer 17

Goal 7- ensure environmental sustainability, includes halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015.
Will also link to goal 4 and 5 to reduced child mortality and improve maternal health.

Question 18

Why is water important to industry and energy?

Answer 18

20% of all freshwater withdrawl is used for energy production and industry.
Also industrialisation/ global shift to occur with water intensive industry such as paper and electronic.
HEP has little effect as water is returned to the source.
Biofuels are a growing problem with crops used to produce biofuel needing an average of 15,000 litres of water for every litre of fuel.

Question 19

Why is water important to human health and wellbeing?

Answer 19

Diarrhoeal diseases are common in sub-sharan Africa, passed by faeces oral routes. Blamed on poor sanitation and personal hygiene.
Lack of sanitation contributes to 10% of global disease burden.
Lack of education means people often use unsafe water sources, increasing infant mortality and lowering the life expectancy.

Question 20

Why is water important to economic well being?

Answer 20

Many crops are rain fed so are vulnerable to drought.
The Aral sea has decreased to 10% of its original volume, in the 1950s the soviet government diverted water from its tributaries to irrigate farmland.
Demand in agriculture is worsend by industrial farming rather than subsistence farming.

Question 21

What are the types of event assorted with trans-boundary water?

Answer 21

167 international water treaties
21 extensive military actions.
Shows conflict over shared water sources is more likely to be political tension rather than military action.

Question 22

Transboundary water source statistics

Answer 22

90% of all countries share a water basin with a neighbour

Question 23

What is the difference between territorial sovereignty and territorial integrity?

Answer 23

Sovereignity - where a country claims ownership over a water source because the source of it begins in their country. Ethiopia and the Nile.
Integrity - a country claims they should have continued access from shared water source due to historical claims despite the source not starting in their country.

Question 24

Examples of transboundary rivers

Answer 24

Colarado - USA and Mexico

Nile - 11 countries in Africa including Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Question 25

Water wars statistics

Answer 25

Only 25% of water disputes lead to any form of conflict.
Majority of conflict focus on the quantity of water available.
conflicts can be about surface water or groundwater sources.

Question 26

Examples of conflict within countries.

Answer 26

Kielder - building of dam and reservoir, concerns over flooding local houses and farms.Built in 1975 one displaced village contained 14 families.
Colorado - conflict between farmers and new housing developments over priority water supply, California, agriculture uses 80% of the areas water supplies, concerned over rapid urbanisation of Pheonix and Arizona will take economic priority. reducing irrigation by 10% will double the amount of water available for urban areas.
In Arizona, Native tribes are losing access to water supplies due to new infrastructure, supreme court granted them access to 10% of Arizonas water supplies.

Question 27

What is the conflict over the Tigris-Euphrates water basin?

Answer 27

Iraq and Syria are concerened that Turkeys GAP project will divert their water.

Question 28

Pros and Cons of the GAP project in Turkey.

Answer 28

Will provide irrigation water for 20% of turkeys farmland
Predicted to help the turkish economy grow by 12%

Over 55% of stored water is lost as evaporation
22 dams will destroy local habitats decreasing biodiversity.

Question 29

Why is there conflict over the River Nile?

Answer 29

360 million people depend on water from the Nile for survival.
85% of water originates from Eritrea and Ethiopia but 94% is sued by Sudan and Egypt,
Problem is worsening as more countries develop and demand increases.
Traditional decision were made without upstream countries such as the 1929 Nile agreement between Eygpt and the UK (sudan) gave these countries the majority of supplies and Egypt veto power over any construction on the Nile.

Question 30

What has been done to reduce conflict over the River Nile?

Answer 30

1999 - Nile Basin Initiative to increase co-operation over the Nile resources.
2010- Ethiopia, Uganda signed the CFA treaty with Burundi and DRC to agree that all riparian countries should have equal access to the Nile - Egypt and Sudan did not sign.

Question 31

How successful is management in the Nile?

Answer 31

Ethiopia is still building the Grand Ethiopian dam, significantly reducing Egypt’s water supply and decreasing sediment renewal in the Nile Delta by 90%.
2011 17% of Egypts population suffered food insecurity due to a lack of irrigation water.

Question 32

What are the causes of conlfict over the Colorada River?

Answer 32

90% of water is extracted before it reaches Mexico
40 million people rely on it for water.
Increasing the standard of living and development is increasing water demand.
Variation in discharge - 2500mm of snow annually in Rockies but only 250mm of rain in downstream arid regions
Temperatures can reach 40 degrees - up to 95% of rainfall can be lost as evaporation.
Ten major dams built by the USA between 1935 and 1966 obstructed downstream flow and increased evaporation losses.

Question 33

What are some of the impact of conflict along the Colorado River?

Answer 33

Inflation of prices - during drought bottled water in California can cost more than petrol.
In the gulf of califonrian the Delta no longer receives sediment renewal, wetlands habitat is decreasing in size reducing biodiversity.
Public discontent as restriction on water usage in Arizona despite Lake Mead being at it lowest since 1935.

Question 34

What has been done to manage toe Colorado river?

Answer 34

1922 Colorado Compact - upstrea states were prevented from building dams that would interfere with the functioning of dams downstream. Each state and Mexico was given an allocation of water.
2019 - Drought contingency agreement established water usage prioritise during a drought, aims to share the impacts of drought.
problems - colorado takes 20% more than its allocation, needs updating to suit new needs.

Question 35

What is the difference between a top down and bottom up approach to management?

Answer 35

Top down - government led, may ignore attitudes of local people.
Bottom up - work with the local people, e.g WaterAid projects, often lack the economic support.

Question 36

What are some examples of techno fix stratergies?

Answer 36

Hard engineering
Water transfer schemes
Mega dams
Deslaination

Question 37

What are some examples of small scale management project?

Answer 37

smart irrigation
Recycling water
Rain water harvesting
Reducing virtual water and agricultural water use,

Question 38

What is virtual water?

Answer 38

The indirect use of water through importing crops, buying clothes and food production.
Water is not seen by the users.
Often water scarce countries rey on other countries to import food (this food was grown using another countries water - virtual water)
1 kilo of coffee uses 20,000 litres of water
1 cotton t-shirt uses 7,000 litres of water.

Question 39

What is China’s Three Gorges Dam project?

Answer 39

Moves water from an area of surplus to deficit.

Along the Yangtze river, construction began in 1994 and ended in 2006/

Question 40

Evaluation on Chinas Three Gorges Dam

Answer 40

+Generates HEP capacity of 22.5 GW
+reduces flood risk in the Yangtze plain from one in every ten years to one in every hundred.

-caused displacement of 1.3 million people
_ disrupted livelihoods and water supplies to nearby farms
- reservoir blamed for increase in earthquakes and landslides
-increase evaporation loses.

Question 41

Chinas south north water transfer scheme

Answer 41

$14bn 2400km netwrok of canals and tunnels designed to carry 44.8 bn cubic meters of water from Chinas Humid South to their Industrial north.
Includes three pipelines.

Question 42

Evaluation of Chinas, North South water Transfer Project.

Answer 42

Creates a more even water supply, is used to provide the north with emergency drought relief.

345,000 people have been displaced by the project by December 2014.
Could descimate the Han River, where 40% of discharge is expected to be diverted.
Farmers have been displaced and land suffered environmental degradation with a lack of compensation.

Mainly improves quantity, may not be sustainable long term when south becomes more industrial.

Question 43

What is Israels Desalination project.

Answer 43

Five plants to remove salt from ocean water creating potable drinking water.
Israels Sorek plant can make 624 million litres of drinkable water a day.

Question 44

Evaluation of desalination in Israel.

Answer 44

Plants provide 70% of domestic water, reduces dependency on rain water, increasingly cost effective by reverse osmosis technology

Many environmental issues, brine in released into ocean water and salt concentration increases, fish can be trapped and damaged, very expensive.

effective at increasing water quality, not accessible for LICs or small communities.

Question 45

What is Sweden’s smart irrigation?

Answer 45

Controllers monitor the weather and soil conditions, ensure ground is only watered when it is needed.
Sweden use IRRIOT systems to help farmers water crop.

Question 46

Evaluation of Sweden’s smart irrigation

Answer 46

+optomises farming production and nutrient cycling by decreasing the amount of water logged soils.
+saves up to 50% of water used for irrigation and increases crop yield by 30%

• technology is difficult and expensive to implement, only used on a small scale so has limited effect,

may increase in popularity in the future as water becomes more affordable.

Question 47

What is water recycling Uganda?

Answer 47

Water Aid helped local communties harvest and collect rainwater.
Locals were supplied with material to collect and store water from roof surfaces and rain fall.

Question 48

Evaluation of Uganda’s water recycling.

Answer 48

relatively cheap and straightforward
low maintaince
reduces time spent by women and children travelling to water sources improves social and economic development

• sources are easily contaminated by animal waste or dirt in containers
• algal growth and invasion from bacteria can cause disease

only small scale and short term..

Question 49

What is the Holistic Sustainable approach used in Singapore?

Answer 49

NEWater - reclaims water from cirt drains and recycles by passing it through an extra purification process, water used in industry and cooling applications, however concerns over public health.

Sky Green Farms - first commercial vertical farms uses a pulley system to water plants, reducing water loss as water trickles down the lower layer plants.

quantity rather than quality.

Question 50

Who are the different players in water management?

Answer 50

Social players - residents, see access to clean safe water as a human rights.
Political players - see water as a human need that must be provided by public and private services, monitors governments to ensure this is happening, governments, UN, World Banks
Economic players- focus on securing demand for the economy using mega dams etc, favours business growth. landowners and businesses.
Environmental players - conservationists often lobby to stop projects due to their environmental cost WWF.

Question 51

What is integrated drainage basin management?

Answer 51

Aims to establish a framework where all stakeholders work together to establish a secure water supply by developing policies and strategies.
Aims to promote co-ordinated development to benefit socially economically and environmentally.

Question 52

Colorado river environmental compact

Answer 52

1992 Grand Canyon protection act - tightened controls over building dams along the Grand Canyon

Question 53

What is the UNECE water convention?

Answer 53

A water treaty established in 1992 to encourage joint management.
Aims for members to reduce their impact on transboundary water sources, be more sustainable in their usage and co-operate on any new development plans.
Been working in Europe since 1992, expanded to all UN states in 2016
Aims to protect and ensure the quantity, quality and sustainable use of these transboundary water resources by facilitating and promoting cooperation

Question 54

What is the Helsinki water treaty?

Answer 54

International guidance regulating how rivers and connected groundwaters that are trans-boundary should be used.
Created in 1996 has five main criteria that decide how water should be shared considering the natural share of drainage basin and water contribution, socio-econmic needs, downstream impacts, dependency on this source and efficiency.

No mechanism is in place to enforce rules, it does not consider independent aquifers only those connected to rivers.

+ first time transboundary groundwater has been addressed.

Question 55

What are the Berlin rules on water Resources?

Answer 55

Consisits of 73 artilces relating to freshwater usage across international boundaries and within a country.
Aims to minimise environmental harm, increase sustainability and co-operation where all players should be considered equally. Published in 2004 it replaces pre-exsiting rules.

-have been difficult to implement shown by the ongoing conflict over the river Nile.

Question 56

Singapore Magic Stones

Answer 56

Lines of stones are placed by farmers along hillsides.
Prevents rapid surface runoff along steep gradients.
Increases infiltration.
Reduces desertification.
Increases the quality of farmland.
Is cheap and straightforward, however it still relies on rainwater.