Importance Of Water And Sanitation

CEIC4000

Environment and Sustainability

S1, 2014

Assignment 2

Water and Sanitation

z3337660

Woo-yun Kim

INTRODUCTION

Water and sanitation form the foundation of basic human needs for survival. American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs” proposed in his highly accredited 1943 paper, “A Theory of Human Motivation”, that the basic “‘physiological’ needs of human survival include air, water, food, shelter and sanitation” (Maslow, 1943), which form the base of the pyramid of human needs, i.e. they are mandatory preconditions for human survival and thus have innate priority amongst other needs. This underlying need for survival highlights the importance of maintaining a sustainable way in which society may perpetually utilize these resources. The Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) defines engineering for sustainable development as “providing for human needs without compromising the ability of our future generations to meet their needs” and this is focus on sustainable development in the provision of water and sanitation services is at the centre of worldwide focus.

PRIMARY INPUTS

The major primary ecosystem input to water and sanitation is fresh water. Other primary inputs include weather patterns, sea level and waste handling. Primary inputs from other human activities include built infrastructure and skilled human resources.

Water is a widely abundant resource, which covers approximately 71% of the surface of the Earth. However, the issue lies in the fact that more than 97% of the world’s water is saline and thus not fit for human use as drinking water or for the production of goods, such as agricultural crops. Of the remaining 3% that is freshwater, over 2.5% is frozen and locked up as glacie...

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...as approximately 46% higher than that today,

Note that the denominator of the ratio; total amount of freshwater on the Earth is finite, and so we may safely assume that the total renewable freshwater supply remains constant over this period of time. The resulting impacts on the ratio are tabulated below:

Region Freshwater Withdrawal* (km3/yr) Total renewable freshwater supply (km3/yr) FW*/ TRFS (%)

Africa 313.45 5581 5.62

North and Central America 916.11

7620.82 12.02

South America 238.55 17139.7 1.39

Asia 3621.99 15204.45 23.82

Europe 572.64 8050.47 7.11

Oceania 90.70 1607.4 5.64

Total 5753.43 55204.04 10.42

Resulting in an increase to over 10%.

thus the ratio will increase over time, the difference must be accounted for by the use of non-renewable resources can interpret meaning from the band of difference that is accounted for by non-renewable resources