Rights to Water
Drinking water is essential and indispensable to life itself possible on the face of the earth, it is much more than a well, a resource, a commodity, drinking water is specifically a human right of first order and an element essential national sovereignty itself and, most likely, whoever controls the water control the economy and life in the not so distant future.
Man's efforts to improve the environment in which he lives and improve their quality of life, then depend on the availability of water, there is a close correlation between key water quality and public health, including the ability to access water and the level of hygiene and water between abundance and economic and tourism growth.
Measures to expand and improve public delivery systems of drinking water, contributing to a reduction in morbidity and mortality associated with enteric diseases, because these diseases are associated directly or indirectly with providing substandard water or poor provision water. Currently, 1,400 million people lack access to safe drinking water and nearly 4,000 billion lack adequate sanitation. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of diseases are transmitted through contaminated water.
This is because only a small part of the population, particularly in developing countries, have access to water of acceptable quality. It is estimated that in some countries only 20% of the rural population has water of satisfactory quality. Based on these statistics, it is clear the urgent need for awareness about caring for water use. Almost without realizing it, we are seriously jeopardizing this essential resource, not for us but for our children's children and their generations, aware that in other parts o...
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...management than scarcity of that resource. In some cases up to 50% water in urban areas, and 60% of the water used for agriculture is wasted through evaporation and loss. Logging and land conversion to yield to the demands of human beings have been reduced to half the world's forests, which has increased soil erosion and water scarcity.
Between 300 and 400 million people worldwide live in areas near wetlands and depend on them. Wetlands are mechanisms for treatment of wastewater are extremely efficient because they absorb chemicals and filter pollutants and sediments. Half the world's wetlands have disappeared due to urbanization and industrial development. The only way to achieve sustainable development and poverty reduction will be through better management of rivers and wetlands, and the land they drain and drain as well as through increased investment in them.
Water has long been a controversy in countless places worldwide and Colorado is no exception. The water rights in Colorado involve different stages within the Prior Appropriation Law; the senior and junior water rights. Senior water rights are privileges that were the first to be issued on unappropriated streams in Colorado and are to be filled before the junior water right holders. Junior water rights are similar to senior water rights, but are filled after the senior water holders take their allotted amount (Wolfe Prior Appropriation Law). The water in Colorado is just that; Colorado’s water, owned by the people and restricted by the state. However, Colorado is required by law to send over 30 million acre – feet of water to seven western states (“Missouri River”). An acre – foot is “The quantity of water required to fill one acre with one foot of water and is equivalent to 43,560 cubic feet or 325,850 gallons” (“Missouri River”). The State enforces all water laws in Colorado even though they are not straightforward and are riddled with loopholes. These water laws came into effect “As early as 1879” (Hundley, Jr. 53). In the laws, there are even more constraints and idiosyncrasies including; owning ground water, owning surface water, senior rights and junior rights, and the use and reuse of rainwater or graywater. Water users in Colorado need to familiarize themselves with the laws and regulations involving water in order to receive the allotted water and the reasoning behind that number.
Many people grab a water bottle to go as they head to life as normal, others in developing countries spend their lives searching for water that is rarely found. Even if they do obtain water, it is seldom clean and usually comes with the risk of disease. As more developed countries pay a dollar or so for a bottle of water, others in less fortunate places worship water as if it is gold. As many children around the world attend a privileged school everyday, the idea of missing school due to water-borne illness never crosses their mind, yet for those in less fortunate countries, it is a gift to have the strength and health to attend school on a regular basis.
Water is essential to life. By being so important it is crucial to keep it maintained and preserved. Our water supply is affected by environmental, economic, and legal issues. In Oklahoma water is very sacred to its people especially to Native Americans. Both Choctaw and Chickasaw nations are suing the state of Oklahoma for the regulatory authority over Sardis Lake and the water resources it holds. The Choctaw and Chickasaw nations deserve the rights over Sardis Lake because it is their main water supply and they own the rights through the treaty of the Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830.
This paper introduces the environmental concerns of the loss of coastal wetlands. The paper will discuss the significance of wetlands and the devastation that is occurring because of human activity. Wetlands are an essential element of our environment both ecological and societal; conservation will be essential for the preservation of these precious ecosystems.
With a major drought happening all across Texas, water rights are becoming a major priority. Water rights in Texas are a huge issue today especially with our climate changing the way it has in the past few years. There are two types of water rights in Texas, groundwater and surface water. Groundwater belongs to the landowner and is governed by the rule of capture. The rule of capture grants landowners the right to capture the water beneath their property but, they do not own the water but, have the right to pump and capture the water. On the other hand, surface water belongs to the state of Texas and can only be used by the landowner with the state’s permission.
Wetlands are highly productive ecosystems. Wetlands include marshes, estuaries, bogs, fens, swamps, deltas, shallow seas, and floodplains. Wetland habitats support a vast range of plant and animal life, and serve a variety of important functions, which include water regime regulation, flood control, erosion control, nursery areas for fishes, fish production, recreation, plant production, aesthetic enjoyment, and wildlife habitat. Wetlands account for about 6% of the global land area and are among the most valuable environmental resources.
“97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water” (Human Appropriation of the World's Fresh Water Supply). With only 2.5% of earth’s total water harmonious enough to use, we have to administrate it correctly. Iowa State University and the students are in the pursuit of discovering the best way’s to distribute the water in farming, improving quality of water, and the systems used to manage it. One of the representatives of the Iowa Water Center said, “We facilitate research related to water management and disseminate information to those in the water profession.”(Citation). This relates to everyone, because as humans we utilize water everyday. From a routinely shower, to our daily meal. In order to understand how
Clean water is needed for good human and animal health, but as DoSomething.org states, over 1 billion people worldwide don’t have a means of getting clean drinking water, an...
Water is one of the most important and basic natural resources. Water is not only one of the most essential commodities of our day-to-day life, but the development of this natural resource also plays a crucial role in economic and social development processes. While the total amount of water available in the world is constant and is generally said to be adequate to meet all the demands of mankind, its quality and distribution over different regions of the world is uneven and causes problems of scarcity and suitability. It is therefore imperative that man develops, uses and manages this scarce commodity as rationally and efficiently as possible.
Having clean water to drink means that water must have microbial, chemical and physical characteristics that meet WHO guidelines or national standards on drinking water quality. Around 780 million people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water (Millions Lack Safe Water). More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in developing countries. Around the world, diseases in unclean water kill about 1,400 children every day (Clean Drinking Water). There are many organizations that raise money in order to help develop ways or create ways for people to obtain clean drinking water. However, many people are unaware that this is even a problem in other countries because we take clean water for granted.
Freshwater in the world makes up only a small portion of water on the planet. While the percentage of water in the world is nearly 70%, only 2.5% is consumable. Even further, only <1% is easily accessible to basic human needs. According to National Geographic, “by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.” With this current trend, water will become more immersed in environmental, economic, political, and social changes. Many of these in later years shall need to be addressed as tension rises:
... resources are already being documented. For example, in all corners of the world, there is growing empirical evidence of increased severe weather events, flooding, and diminished ice cover, all of which worsen the problem of water shortages and can be attributed to climate change. Many scientific studies also show increases in the intensity, duration, and extent of droughts, higher atmospheric temperatures, warmer sea surface temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, and diminishing glaciers and snowpack. The bottom line is that causes of climate change, such as greenhouse gas emissions, will have to be minimized if people want to do as much as possible to solve the water crisis.
The combination of safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities is a precondition for health and for success in the fight against poverty, hunger, child deaths and gender inequality. UNICEF works in more than 90 countries around the world to improve water supplies and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, and to promote safe hygiene practices. All UNICEF water and sanitation programmes are designed to contribute to the Millennium Development Goal for water and sanitation: to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation. Key strategies for meeting the water, sanitation and hygiene challenges are to:
70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well as not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human-caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to a UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades. One of the main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide.
Water is an integral part of not only human beings but all other creatures in the world. We use it every day for different purposes such as domestic, agricultural and industrial. Water has always been a prestigious resource. However, the majority of people do not appraise water’s worth since they do not face water scarcity; whereas, in third world countries it is one of the most serious problems. Nearly 2.4 billion people have a lack of water resources in the world, shows the investigation done by the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, California-based non-profit scientific research group. Moreover, every year this number is growing gradually and more people are suffering (Bloomberg News, 2010). There are certain causes which deteriorate current situation. The most influential reasons are global warming, pollution by human-beings and overpopulation. It is known that India is one of the countries which face water scarcity so this essay will consider the possible ways of solutions of water shortage in India.