Water conflicts

Question 1

What explains how water moves through the environment?

Answer 1

-Inputs, stores and outputs

Question 2

What are blue water flows?

Answer 2

• Is the visible part of the system, namely water running on the surface and supplying rivers or travelling underground, recharging aquifers
• This water is potentially available and recyclable

Question 3

What are green water flows?

Answer 3

• Involves either the interception and transportation of water by vegetation or its evaporation from a variety of surfaces.
• These processes have important ecological as well as hydrological function

Question 4

Three factors that are inked to water supply

Answer 4

• Climate
• river systems
• geology

Question 5

How is climate linked to water supply?

Answer 5

• The distribution of water globally is related to the Earth’s climatic zones.
• For example, regions near to the equator receive high levels of rainfall while some tropical areas receive recurring drought
• May vary with seasons e.g. equatorial areas such as the Amazon lowlands have two distinct have two distinct periods of wet weather a year, whereas the monsoon lands of southeast Asia have on very distinct wet season.
• High mountains with snowpack hold vast reserves of water, some of which is released in late spring and during the summer

Question 6

How are river systems linked to water supply?

Answer 6

• The worlds major rivers store large quantities of water and transfer it across continents
• e.g. The Amazon=discharge of 219,000 m3 s-1 from a catchment of 6,915,000 km2=20% of all water entering worlds oceans

River flow generally increases downstream as tributaries feed into the main river, though high temperatures can lead to considerable water loss by evaporation

-Seasonal changes in climate can also create significant variations in discharge and produce distinctive river regimes

Question 7

How is geology linked to water supply?

Answer 7

• Where rocks unedrlying a river basin are impermeable, water will remain on teh surface as runoff, creating a hihg drainage density
• Permeable soils and rocks such as limestone may allow water to pass into underground drainage systems
• Aquifers such as chalk and porous sandstones can store vast quantities of water under-ground
• Ogallala aquifer

Question 8

What is water stress?

Answer 8

Water stress occurs when demand for water exceeds the amount available during a certain period, or when poor quality restricts its use.

-Therefore when a country’s water consumption is more than 10% of its renewable freshwater rate it is said to be water stressed.

Question 9

Why has 20th century water consumption increased?

Answer 9

due to population growth and
economic development:

 Farming uses 70% of all water and in LEDCs this is up to 90%

 Industrial and domestic use has to compete with farming needs as a country develops

 Daily domestic water use on average is 47 litres per person in Africa, compared with 578
litres in the USA

Question 10

What are the consequences increased water stress?

Answer 10

This has lead to the development of a world water gap with 1.4 billion lacking clean drinking water and
12% of the world’s population consuming 85% of the world’s water.

Question 11

How has agriculture led to water stress?

Answer 11

• Some forms of farming are less water efficient than others e.g. a kg of beef is 10x more water costly to produce then a kg of rice.
• 17% of the global area used for growing crops is irrigated.
• Poor water and irrigation management can lead to problems with evaporation, seepage, salinisation and fertiliser pollution

Question 12

How has industry led to water stress?

Answer 12

• The proportion of water used globally by industry is 21%, rose relatively slowly during the 20th century, mainly in developed countries of Europe, Russia Canada and the USA-Large scale industrialization in China and India
• HEP countiinues to use large amounts of water, but this water is available to other users once it has passed through the turbines.
• Industry is generally more efficient user of water than agriculture, although paper manufacturing uses a lot.

Question 13

How does domestic water use lead to water stress?

Answer 13

• Only 10% of world’s water is used for this purpose but this varies from country to
  country.
• Domestic demand seems to be doubling every 20 years.
• Most developed countries uses 100,000 litres per person per year, however less than 50% in less developed

Question 14

Two types of water sources

Answer 14

• Surface water

- Aquifers

Question 15

Why is surface water a store of water?

Answer 15

-Rivers, lakes and reservoirs provide large amount of surface water for a wide variety of uses

‘mega-dams’ found in the world’s major rivers.

-Half of all the worlds dams are in China, USA and Japan and account for 25% of global freshwater supply

_Bring short-term economic gains in terms of water supply and HEP, must be measured against longer term environemtnal impacts

Question 16

Why aquifers a store of water?

Answer 16

• Sole drinking water for 25 of the worlds population
• 75% in Europe comes from underwater supplies
• But water is being abstracted from aquifers faster than it can be replaced, such over-abstraction leads to dwindling supplies, falling water tables and sea water contamination

Question 17

What is physical water scarcity?

Answer 17

-shortages occur because demand exceeds supply

Question 18

What is economic scarcity?

Answer 18

-people cannot afford water, even when it is readily available

Question 19

Human factors that affect water availbility

Answer 19

• Sewage disposal
• Chemical fertilizers
• Industrial waste
• Dams
• Abstraction

Question 20

How does sewage disposal affect water availability?

Answer 20

Sewage disposal in developing countries is expected to cause 135 million deaths by 2020.

• Diseases such as hepatitis, typhoid and cholera are rife in areas of polluted water
• In the UK we add 1,400 million litres of sewage to our rivers daily although most of it has been treated

Question 21

How do chemical fertilisers affect the availability of water?

Answer 21

Chemical fertilisers contaminate groundwater as well as river and water supplies.

-These add
nutrients to the water leading to an increase in the growth of algae downstream.

-In Yucatan, Mexico, the level of nitrate in the groundwater is 45mg-1, increase growth of algae which removes oxygen along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico-Eutrophication

Question 22

How does industrial waste affect the availability of water?

Answer 22

• every year the world generate 400 billion tonnes of industrial waste which is
  pumped untreated into rivers, seas etc.
• Lead, cadmium and mercury become concentrated in rivers.
• This creates chemical waste and widely banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB)

Question 23

How does dams affect the availability of water?

Answer 23

-Trap sediment in reservoirs which reduces floodplain fertility and the flow of nutrient
from rivers into seas.

• This ma damage coastal fish stocks and prevent beach formation, which in turn can expose coasts to greater erosions
• Sediment disturbance can also block the gills of river fish and suffocate them

Question 24

How does abstraction affect water availability?

Answer 24

removing water from rivers and groundwater sources can cause issues that in some arid areas rainfall can never recharge these underground stores and the removal of freshwater from aquifers in coastal locations can lead to salt water incursion.

Question 25

What does water insecurity mean?

Answer 25

-Means not having sufficient access to safe water, despite effort to improve supplies and sanitation

Question 26

The factors that are related to water insecurity?

Answer 26

• Availability: having a water supply and a distribution network
• Access: freedom to use or income to by water in a particular location
• Usage: entitlement to, and understanding of, water use and health issues

Question 27

What parameters are used for the water poverty index?

Answer 27

• Resources- the quantity of surface groundwater per person
• Access: The time and distance involved in obtaining sufficient and safe water
• Capacity: how well the community manages water
• Use:how economically water is used in the home and by agriculture and industry
• Environment: ecological sustainability (green water)

Question 28

How water links to poverty?

Answer 28

-Lack of water hampers attempts to reduce
poverty and encourage development.

• Improved water supply can increase food production, bring better health and provide better standards of wellbeing.
• Water wealth in cheaper countries brings cheap water, irrigation, energy and economic growth.
• Dubbed the ‘lubricant of development’

Question 29

What does the price of water depend on?

Answer 29

-transport costs and the level of demand

Question 30

Examples of price of water and transport affecting countries

Answer 30

• Californian cities import water over hundreds of kilometres from the Colorado Basin. Lifting water from depth and moving it over the hills is energy expensive
• Water prices in Australia markets peaked at nearly 75 cents per m3 in December 2006 due to prolonged drought
• In India, water security ha prompted some farmers to profit by selling their abstracted water instead of using it themselves for irrigation
• Water subsidies can be large. In the city of Delhi, they make up 80% of the cost of providing municipal water. However, farmers in California use roughly one-fifth of the states water, yet only pay one cent per m3.

Question 31

What water supply problems are there?

Answer 31

Secure water supplies are needed to support irrigation and food production, manufacturing and
energy generation.

• However, the development, extraction and use of water resources can lead to environmental and supply problems and can have negative impacts on both economic activity and human welfare
• During its ‘Green Revolution’ programme to increase food production, India put 45 million hectares of land into irrigation.
• This led to depletion of underground aquifers and salinisation of the soil

Question 32

What are conflicts over the same source?

Answer 32

Water conflicts occur when the demand for water overtakes the supply and several stakeholders
wish to use the same resource.

• Conflict is more likely where developing countries are involved as water is vital to feed their growing populations and promote industrial development.
• The UN reports there are around 300 potential water conflicts in the world.

Question 33

Geopolitics of water supply within a country

Answer 33

• Often when countries compete for water resources international agreements and treaties have to be drawn up on how best to manage shared water supplies.
• However, as the political situation changes, these can flare up into disputes (hydropolitics)
• As water resources take on a greater significance, new treaties many need to be negotiated using a water diplomacy.
• unfortunately, international law does not provide a clear solution to transboundary river disputes, except when navigable waterways are involved
• Upstream countries use their territorial sovereignty (It is our water, so it is our decisions how it is used)
• However, down stream countries claim territorial integrity (It is our right to receive the same amount and quality of water as we have in the past)

Question 34

Examples of international treaties to share water

Answer 34

Under the Helsinki Rules there is an agreement that international treaties must include concepts such as equitable use and share to whole drainage basins than single countries.
Therefore the criteria for water sharing should include:

 Natural factors – rainfall amounts, share of drainage basin
 Social and economic needs – population size, development
 Downstream impacts –restricting flow, lowering water tables
 Dependency – are alternative water sources available?
 Prior use – existing vs. potential use
 Efficiency – avoiding waste and mismanagement of water

Question 35

Problem with international agreements for equitable use for water

Answer 35

-Rarely equitable because the country with the greatest political, economical and military power gets the better deal

Question 36

Water transfers

Answer 36

• Solution to water shortages which is when water is diverted away from one drainage basin to another
• Large-scale transfers of water can be achieved by diverting a river or by constructing a large canal to carry available water from one basin to another

Question 37

Water changes by 2025 in a business as usual scenario

Answer 37

Water scarcity will reduce food production
-Consumption will rise by +50%

Household water use rise by +70%

-Industrial water demand in developing
countries will increase

Question 38

Wider impacts of Water changes by 2025 in a business as usual scenario

Answer 38

Developing countries will rely on food imports but increased
hunger and malnutrition

• In parts of western USA, China etc water will be pumped out faster than aquifers can be recharged
• In sub-saharan Africa grain imports would more than triple

Question 39

Water changes by 2025 in a water crisis scenario

Answer 39

 Global water consumption will increase
 Demand for domestic water will fall
 Demand for industrial water will +33%

Question 40

Wider impacts of Water changes by 2025 in a water crisis scenario

Answer 40

Food production will decline and food prices increase e.g. cereals

• Food insecurity and malnutrition will increase
• Dam building will decline and key aquifers in China, India between and within countries will increase

Question 41

Water changes by 2025 in a sustainable water scenario

Answer 41

• Global water consumption and industrial water use would have to fall considerably
• Environmental flows could be increase dramatically compared to other scenarios
• Global rain-fed crop yields would increase due to improvements in water harvesting and use of sustainable farming techniques
• Agriculture and household water prices might have to double in developed countries and triple in the developing world

Question 42

Wider impacts of Water changes by 2025 in a sustainable water scenario

Answer 42

• Food production could increase slightly and shifts occur in where its grown
• Prices could fall slowly
• Governments, international donors and famers would need to increase investment in crop research, technology and reforms in water management

Excessive pumping is unsustainable

-Governments could delegate farm management to community groups