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Water EQ3 - Water security Flashcards

1
Q

What are players?

A

Individuals, groups or organisations with an involvement or interest in a particular issue

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2
Q

What percentage of water is usable/accessible by humans?

A

2.5% is freshwater, 1% of this available as easily accessible surface water

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3
Q

What is ‘peak water’?

A

The state of growing constraints on quantity and quality of accessible water

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4
Q

What are the issues with physical distribution of water?

A

There is a mismatch between where water supplies are and where demand is.
12% of the worlds population consume 85% of its water
every 90s a child dies from a water borne disease

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5
Q

What are the physical causes of water insecurity?

A
  • climate variability
  • topography
  • geology
  • salt water encroachment
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6
Q

How do geology and topography affect water insecurity?

A

Geology - distribution of aquifers that store water underground (permeable chalk and sandstone store more but let less evaporate)
Topography - steep relief encourages run off and therefore more storage in water stores

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7
Q

What are the human causes of water insecurity?

A
  • overabstraction from rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers
  • water contamination from agriculture and industrial water pollution
  • changes in living standard
  • price of water
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8
Q

What factors are driving rising demand for water?

A
  • population growth
  • rising standards of living (higher consumption of water from meat rich diets etc)
  • economic growth increasing demand in all economic sectors
  • irrigated farming
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9
Q

What is fracking?

A

A technique to harness gas and oil in which rock is fractured by a pressurised liquid

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10
Q

Why are water supplies dwindling?

A
  • diminishing supplies available from groundwater aquifers (main cause of over abstraction = irrigation)
  • drought etc putting pressure on supplies and leading to a falling water table
  • groundwater supplies are being extracted faster than they are replenished
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11
Q

What are the reasons for pressure points (water supplies under threat)?

A
  • diminishing supply
  • rising demands
  • competing demands from users
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12
Q

What is the water availability gap?

A

Imbalance between supply and demand due to variations in usage (distribution and demand tend not to coincide)

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13
Q

How much of the world’s population are predicted to be water vulnerable by 2050?

A

Around half

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14
Q

What is physical scarcity?

A

When more than 75% of a country or region’s blue water flows are being used

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15
Q

What is economic scarcity?

A

When the development of blue water sources is limited by lack of capital, technology and good governance

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16
Q

What are physical factors determining the supply of water?

A

Macro scale - climate determines the global distribution of water supply via distribution of precipitation.
Other factors:
- atmospheric pressure systems
- ENSO
- topography, distance from sea
- geology

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17
Q

What are human factors influencing the quality of water supplies?

A

Human actions can pollute both surface and groundwater supplies.
- contaminated water e.g. China due to industry
- untreated sewage disposal
- chemical fertilisers causing eutrophication
- dams affect sediment movement

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18
Q

What are the human factors affecting the quantity of water supplies?

A

Over abstraction for domestic, agriculture and industrial usage.
Other drivers = urbanisation, population growth, rising living standards, industrialisation, economic development
- salt water incursion

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19
Q

What is the water poverty index, what indicators does it use?

A

An assessment of the degree of water shortage and subsequent water insecurity problems.
Uses five parameters:
- resources
- access
- capacity
- use
- environment

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20
Q

What is water insecurity?

A

The lack of adequate and safe water for a healthy and productive life.

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21
Q

What is economic scarcity determined by?

A

Often associated with developing countries that lack capital and technology and good governance to fully exploit often adequate blue water sources

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22
Q

What factors determine the price of water?

A
  • physical costs of obtaining supply
  • degree of demand for water
  • whether or not there is sufficient infrastructure
  • who supplies the water
23
Q

What is the privatisation of water?

A

A western, neo liberal view that water should be privatised and people should pay for what it costs to capture, treat and provide it

24
Q

Why can the privatisation of water be viewed as a positive?

A

It is based on the assumption that the market mechanisms would simultaneously conserve water, improve efficiency and increase service quality/coverage.
- provides jobs
- profits made
- sanitation infrastructure paid for

25
What are the negatives of water privatisation (using Bolivia as an example)?
- creates one company monopoly - cost of providing water in LICs/NEEs means huge price increases and poor cannot pay BOLIVIA - US TNC Bechtel given a monopoly (by World Bank) to collect water charges and tried to raise prices: leading to months of protests and riots (80,000 in city square) meaning the company eventually fled
26
What are SAPs?
Structural adjustment programmes Neo liberal policies promoted by the World Bank and IMF to help developing countries overcome their debt problems
27
What is the importance of water supply for economic development?
- industry - energy supply: 20% of all fresh water withdrawal worldwide is for energy production and industry, particularly in developing countries - agriculture: 1/5th of world's land is under irrigation
28
What is the importance of water supply for human wellbeing?
- sanitation - health - food preparation
29
What is the issue with the lack of clean water supply for humans?
Unsafe drinking water can spread disease. The fundamental source of this is a lack of sanitation, combined with low levels of personal hygiene. Diseases related to a lack of clean water lead to high levels of morbidity and vulnerability to poverty
30
Why can there be conflict over water supply?
Competing demands for diminishing water supplies and their usage can lead to tension both within countries and between countries
31
Why can aquifers/groundwater supplies cause conflict?
Many subterranean aquifers straddle international boundaries, which are very unclear underground. - difficult to negotiate an equitable share for each nation - cannot see how much of aquifers are being used up
32
Why is there potential for conflict in the Nile Basin?
Key geopolitical issue = large number of national borders traverse the basin (10 countries) -Egypt relies on nile for 90% of its water -ethiopia contributes to 85% of the nile from lake tana but historically had little access Ethiopia began constructing the GERD in 2011 on the Blue Nile to generate hydroelectric power and support development. Egypt fears the dam will reduce water flow downstream, especially during drought years or the dam’s initial filling. -ethiopia controls how much water is released despite no binding agreement even with outside intervention. this causes tensions
33
What is the controversy of social vs political players opinions on water management?
Social players see access to clean safe water as a basic human right Whereas political players see water as a human need which can be provided in a number of ways through market mechanisms, public services or public-private partnerships.
34
Who are the players in managing water supplies?
Political - international organisations like UN responsible for MDGs, government and local groups Economic - World Bank and IMF who fund mega projects, TNCs and businesses who are large users Social - those individuals who feel access to water is a human right, NGOs Environmental - conservationists who fight hard engineering schemes, scientists and planners, NGOs, UNESCO
35
What is the controversy of economic vs environmental players opinions on water management?
Economic players favour hard engineering schemes to keep pace with rising demands, but these have very high social and environmental costs and are opposed by environmental players
36
What are top down and bottom up schemes?
Top down - large scale capital intensive development schemes, usually developed by government Bottom up - small scale development schemes
37
What are hard engineering projects for water management, what are the 3 main types?
Hard engineering projects are those that need high levels of capital and technology to be carried out. Economic costs are very high, but there are often also environmental and social costs. Water transfer schemes, desalination, mega dams
38
What are water transfer schemes, what are the positives and negatives?
Water transfer schemes involve the diversion of water from one drainage basin to another, either by diverting the river itself or constructing a large canal to carry water from an area of surplus to an area of deficit POSITIVES - increases availability and water security NEGATIVES - causes long term changes to hydrological cycle, increased flood risk, spreading diseases and pollution, impacts on source area (water scarcity), extremely expensive
39
What are mega dams, what are the positives and negatives?
Mega dams have the facility to store 15% of annual global runoff. They impeded, store, rechannel and re-engineer rivers to redesign natural flows for the benefits of humans. POSITIVES - provide water for irrigation and domestic supply, HEP key for economic development (renewable). NEGATIVES - displace settlements, hugely expensive, disrupts local ecosystems, can result in water borne diseases
40
What is desalination, what are the positives and negatives?
Drawing supplies of water from the ocean and removing the salt to make it potable/usable. POSITIVES - recent breakthroughs in technology (reverse osmosis) have made desalination much more cost effective, less energy intensive and easier to implement on a larger scale. NEGATIVES - still a costly option and has a major ecological impact on marine life. Left over water from the desalination process is pumped back into sea with 2x normal salt concentration, affecting coral reefs and their food webs
41
What is the difference between economic, environmental and socio-cultural water sustainability?
Economic = guaranteeing security of access to water for all groups at an affordable price Environmental = protecting water quality Socio-cultural = managing water supplies taking into account views of all user, equitable distribution
42
What are the 3As of water supply management?
Clean and safe water should be: - available - accessible - affordable
43
What are the ways in which water can be conserved in agriculture, industry and domestic use?
Agriculture - recycling city waste water to use on crops, empowering farming communities (magic stones), GM crops tolerant of drought, hydroponics Industry - TNCs reducing consumption of water, recycling of water Domestic - installation of smart metres, use of eco products, hosepipe/sprinkler bans, filtration technology, cutting down on leakages
44
What is water restoration, what are the positives and negatives?
Returning water environments such as wetlands and rivers to their natural state. POSITIVES - environmentally sustainable, have many socio-cultural benefits to communities NEGATIVES - uncertain whether this is economically sustainable
45
What should criteria for water sharing based on?
- natural factors - socioeconomic needs - downstream impacts - dependency - prior use - efficiency
46
What are the 4 main approaches to managing the rising risks of water insecurity?
1. Water crisis - sky high consumption of water leads to dramatic decline of supplies, possible conflicts 2. Business as usual - overall consumption rises up as current pattern shows, preventing efficient and equitable allocation, potential conflicts 3. Sustainable management - global water consumption stabilises, no major food security issues, most disputes solved by negotiation 4. Radical action - strict control of water allocations, emphasis on water conservation, enforced sharing by legislation
47
What are the Helsinki rules?
An international guideline regulating how rivers and their connected groundwaters that cross national boundaries may be used. 'Equitable use' and 'equitable shares' concept
48
What are some of the frameworks for water sharing treaties/conventions?
UNECE - United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (promotes joint management and conservation of shared freshwater ecosystems in Europe) UN Water Courses Convention (offers guidelines on protection and use of transboundary rivers) Helsinki and Berlin Frameworks
49
What is the difference between water stress and water scarcity?
Water stress = below 1,700 cubic metres pp Water scarcity = below 1000 cubic metres pp
50
What is the purpose of sustainable approaches to water management?
Sustainable approaches aim to minimise wastage and pollution of water resources whilst guaranteeing equitable allocation of water for all users.
51
singapore NEWater
High-tech water recycling – wastewater is treated using microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and UV disinfection. 5 NEWater plants now supply up to 40% of Singapore’s water needs. expected to meet 55% by 2060
52
tigris and euphrates
-flow through turkey, syria and iraq providing water to 60 million -turkey launched a project creating 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric plants to boost economic development, create jobs and create energy security -this has reduced flow by 40% in syria and 80% in iraq this has caused disputes
53
mekong river conflict
flows through china,myanmar,laos,thailand,cambodia and vietnam supports 65 million people china controls upstream and has built dams causing conflict -mekong co operation created by china in 2016 has reduced conflict by effective governance and enhanced regional cooperation

geoggers (25 decks)

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