Introduction: Why Water?

In the wild, the ‘rule of 3s’ can make a big difference to your chances of survival in the wilderness. Bear Grylls, famous adventurer made sure to remind everyone on twitter, “3 minutes without air, 3 minutes without water, 3 weeks without food”. 

Now given that air isn’t going anywhere and we don’t mess it up, what caught my interest was how we cannot survive any longer than 3 days without water. Many environmental issues now greatly stress the importance of climate change and global warming – true, climate change is of great importance but what I find not being as equally as discussed is the issues concerning water and how sustainable our consumption of it is.

Water is an important resource to sustain life and currently our consumption appear to remain within planetary boundary levels. Steffen et al. (2015) explains that planetary boundaries concept was established to show the limits to which humans can emit to and extract from the environment before surpassing levels which would drive the earth system to a less thriveable rate.

However, future projections prove to say otherwise, changing water supplies into the future is becoming more uncertain. According to a WorldBank report published earlier this year, water shortages are expected to increase all over the world. Key findings show increased demand for water due to population growth and urbanisation, and increased water scarcity in areas where water is currently abundant such as Central and East Africa. However, the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (2014) have projected that rainfall levels are expected to increase in the same area. These conflicting reports show that the issues concerning water scarcity, insecurity and wider impacts on agriculture, economies and industries is highly complex, from the physical distribution of water and the access to this water and distribution from different stakeholders.

This blog aims to explore and discuss freshwater use over time and sustainable consumption is being ensured. This blog will reflect on past examples of freshwater use and its sustainability such as the Aral Sea case study, the causes for unsustainable use (both anthropogenic and physical causes) and the implications it had on different earth related systems. In addition, I will continue to explore current practices and consumption levels towards freshwater in some areas, and whether or not we have learnt from past experience in sustainable use and irreversible choices. 

For now, watch the TED talk on the importance of water by Dr.Kaveh Madani below: