Water, it’s one of our most precious resources. But our water supplies are limited, and this limitation is a crucial factor in the water scarcity problem. In fact, 97.5 percent of the Earth’s water is salty, and only 2.5 percent is freshwater, but over two-thirds of this freshwater is locked in the polar ice caps and glaciers. This leaves only 0.5 percent of our lakes, rivers, and groundwater for agricultural, industrial and personal use.
Due to pollution, the quality of this water is under threat. According to the World Health Organization, only 0.007 percent of the world’s total water supply is safe for consumption, and this minuscule amount needs to be shared by the more than 7 billion people on the planet, and this water is not distributed evenly throughout the world.
Water scarcity can also be caused by social aspects like affluence, behavior, absence of infrastructure or altered supply factors like climate change. Physical water scarcity refers to a circumstance where natural water resources are not able to fulfill a region’s demand, and economic water scarcity is a consequence of poor water management resources.
A terrifying sort of water scarcity exists in less developed sections of the Earth. However, water scarcity is the shortage of sufficient available water resources to satisfy the demands of water usage in a region. Dateline reports water scarcity might be a problem in many areas of the planet, with one expert suggesting two-thirds of the planet population will reside in states of water scarcity in only eight decades.
In fact, 1.2 billion people live in areas of water scarcity in places such as southwestern United States, India, Spain, North Africa, Australia and northern China. At the same time, demand for water is intensifying. Over the last 100 years, global population has tripled, and water consumption has increased six-fold, but our total water supply has remained unchanged. More people are now using a lot more of the same limited amount of water, and what has driven this exponential increase in water consumption.
A growing middle class in the emerging markets has been one key contributor as disposable incomes rise, eating habits change and people tend to eat more meat.
It takes 1300 liters of water to produce one kilo of wheat, and 3400 liters for one kilo of rice, but 15,000 500 liters of water are required to provide one kilo of beef. And with continued population growth and prosperity, meat consumption is expected to double by 2050. At this rate, by 2030, total demand for water will exceed the available global supply by 40%. But what can be done to address our water challenges?
