Water Insecurity Flashcards
Define water insecurity
Water insecurity is defined as not having access to sufficient safe/clean water.
Water stress begins when the available water is less than 1700m³ per person per day.
Water scarcity occurs when there is less than 1000m³ per person per day
Physical factors that affect water availability
Groundwater stores
Distribution of Precipitation (and other climate conditions)
Size of the country
Drainage intesnity (number of rivers, streams etc.)
Human factors that affect water availability
Population
Degree of industrialisation
Overuse of water in agricultural irrigation
Water efficient technology
Over abstraction of groundwater stores
Conflicts.
Factors affecting demand
Population growth
Economic growth leading to higher wealth and increased living standards.
Degree of industrialisation.
Physical vs Economic Water Scarcity
Physical water scarcity occurs when 75% of a country or region’s water flows are being used. This currently affects 25% of the population in countries like Tunisia, Oman and Morocco as well as regions like Northern China, Northern Mexico and South East Australia.
Economic Water Scarcity occurs when lack of capital, technology and good governance impedes water supply. This means people cannot afford an adequate supply of water. This affects 1 billion people worldwide in countries such as Somalia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia in Africa as well as Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar in Asia.
Price of water
The price of water varies greatly, due to differences in supply and demand as well the quality of infrastructure and privatisation.
Causes of water insecurity in Cape Town
Dr Winters in 2016, 2017 and 2018 failed to refill reservoirs. In 2017 and 2018, reservoir storage was below 200 billion litres compared to above 900 billion in 2013 and 2014.
Rapidly growing population - currently around 5 million
Despite the opening of the Berg River reservoir in 2009, supply couldn’t keep up with demand
Roughly 25% of water entering the city was lost through leaky and burst pipes
How was water insecurity managed in Cape Town to avoid “Day Zero”?
In February 2018, water usage restrictions reached level 6B limiting supply to 50 litres per person per day. had they reached “Day Zero”, level 7 restrictions would be put in place. This would limit supply to 25 litres per person per day.
Burst and leaky pipes detected and repaired - reducing losses to 13%
Increasing water prices - before 2017, the first 6000 litres of household water were free. this was removed and a 10 fold increase in rice of water use over 35,000 litres was implemented.
City Water App to show water usage (over users would be name and shamed)in each household and ‘nudging’ to encourage people to lower their water use habits
£500 fine for watering lawns or filling pools
Reducing water pressure
Smart water metres used in 350 schools to save 1 million litres per day
After level 5 restrictions were put in place farms were encouraged to reduce use by 20% then by 45% when level 6 restrictions were met
What long term strategies could be used by South Africa to prevent future water insecurity?
Currently Cape Town receives 96% of its water from rivers and 4% from groundwater. In 2019 the Cape town Water strategy aimed to diversify water supply through desalination plants - which are very costly ($100 million to supply 300,000 people daily) and energy intensive - as well as abstraction of the Cape Flats Aquifer which may damage the UNESCO World Heritage Site - Cape Floral.
