Freshwater Crisis

One of the major questions that we are facing is whether there are enough freshwater resources to sustain a global population of more than 7 billion people. It leads to questions such as “Are we facing a freshwater crisis?”, “How much water do we have now and how much in the future?”. With major issues, such as climate change, many scientists can only confirm that freshwater resources are likely to become more variable and unpredictable, heavily affecting some countries more than others such as Africa (IPCC, 2007). Hence, I would like to explore ideas concerning the freshwater crisis. 

Out of the total amount of water on earth, freshwater only takes up 2.5% of this global sum, and it can be found in surface water, groundwater and glaciers/icecaps (Figure 1). However only, less than 1% of this freshwater is accessible to humans, and as explained in the previous blog, humans are using freshwater in an increasingly unsustainable manner. Water scarcity is on the rise and the World Water Development Report 4 (2014) explains that 1.8 billion people will be living in absolute water scarce conditions by 2025. Water scarcity is multi-dimensional, whereby water scarcity can be experienced physically, economically and institutionally. Central Africa, and some parts in East Asia are experiencing high levels of economic water scarcity, and areas in northern china, Saudi Arabia and the coastal areas of northern Africa is experiencing physical water scarcity (Figure 2;WWDR, 2016).

Figure 1. Distribution of  freshwater resources. (USGS)

Figure 2. Different types of water scarcity. (WWDR, 2016)

The freshwater crisis is on the rise due to increasing demand for freshwater. The world’s population is rising; and so, an increasing population needs to be fed, and freshwater is largely used on irrigation and agriculture compared to industrial and domestic sectors (Figure 3). In 2000, agriculture used approximately 67% of the world’s freshwater and this is expected to increase by 1.3 times of its current use (Shiklomanov, 1999). Industries store a large amount of freshwater in the form of dams to generate electricity and for irrigation. However, evaporation rates ultimately lose a large amount of water and the opportunity cost of using this freshwater elsewhere is lost. Domestic consumption is increasing due to increasing affluence and the number of people living in urban areas.

Many governments and international organisations are attempting to fight this water crisis, and one measure, the water footprint, is used in national policy to develop and manage freshwater use (Hoekstra & Mekonnen, 2011). The water footprint measures the amount of freshwater that is used to produce goods and services which is consumed by individuals or a community (Hoekstra et al., 2011). This measure includes 3 types of consumed freshwater, blue (surface and groundwater), green (rainwater), and gray water (Polluted water that can be recycled). Hoekstra & Mekonnen (2011) study concluded that 38% of global production of the water footprint is shared among 3 countries, China, India and the United States, two of which have incredibly high populations and the US having a large affluent population. India has the largest blue water footprint of 24% of the global total, and 33% of this is used for irrigation. China has the largest gray water footprint of 26% of the world’s total; this is quite alarming for just one country to hold more than a quarter of the world’s gray water but this measure can raise issues regarding the environmental effects of human freshwater resource consumption, and possibly bring it into national policy. If you’re interested in your own personal water footprint, you can calculate it here. 

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Figure 3. (a) Water demand for OECD, BRIICS, RoW and the world (WWDR, 2016). (b) Water demand for agricultural, domestic and industrial sectors (UNEP).

Issues regarding water scarcity and the freshwater crisis, on one hand is very important to people’s livelihoods, but on the other hand, it does not bring to mind the issues of how freshwater resources are being mis-managed or over-consumed unsustainably, which leads to environmental and ecological problems for example. I tend to submit myself to these ideas of water scarcity as something that needs to be resolved no matter the cost because of e.g. images of people in Africa suffering due to the lack of freshwater. The water footprint is a useful tool that can be used is water assessment but it is limited in looking at the relationship between human activates and freshwater resources. For example, the crisis explains that the lack of freshwater will have adverse effects on human activities such as agriculture in the future, but what should also be mentioned is the impacts of these human activities on freshwater resources and their renewability and sustainability in turn. Freshwater resources are being threatened by pollution and waste disposal, over-consumption and ultimately depletion (Rogers, 2008). Are we facilitating water scarcity due to irrelevant uses of water, and have we caused this crisis due to our unsustainable uses of water? I ask these questions because I feel that there should be more to the water crisis than just the insistent need to satisfy human demands for freshwater, and that we should look more at how our demand for water have impacts on freshwater resources themselves.