The Importance Of The Water Cycle

The planet earth’s surface is composed of 71% water, it surrounds all landmasses, and contributes heavily to life on earth. All living creatures on earth depend on water, it is needed fundamentally to live, and mankind is most certainly not exempt from that need. However only a small percent of that is available as fresh water, even smaller still is the amount of fresh water that is accessible to mankind. And Unfortunately due to its perceived abundance, many tend to over use and even waste water on a daily basis. And while water is often hailed as a renewable resource, this is only true depending on circumstances, as the water cycle is a slow process and can lead to lapses with little or no water depending on the region. The consumption rate

This can cause problems when it comes to estimating, and predicting the water that is available for use, which directly ties into figuring out how much one person should use daily. Currently the figured show that “we each drink on average nearly four liters of water per day in one form or another, while 500 times as much water is required to produce our daily food totals. Seventy percent of all water use is for irrigation, compared with 20% used by industry and 10% used for residential purposes” (Brown, 16). However the percentage used for residential use varies largely on where it is globally, American’s in particular tend to use more, which is supported by the statement “Americans use approximately 400 liters of water per person per day for drinking, cooking, washing, disposing of wastes, and other personal use. This use is much higher than the average world personal use of 90 liters per person per day” (Pimentel et al., 99). Although this doesn’t dismiss the fact that the process of agriculture does tend to use a majority of the water available, which is further supported by the statement “the problem is the quantity of water required for food production. People will need more and more water for more and more agriculture. Yet the way people use water in

Be it in Africa, where fresh water scarcity has been a thing for ages, to India, where farming has had to adjust due to the lack of fresh water, or California where wells have already begun to run dry in certain counties, fresh water scarcity is spreading and fast. Many argue about what to do about it, some call for policy changes as well as production changes. One suggestion was that “Water professionals need to communicate these concerns better, and policymakers need to be more water-aware”. (Molden, De Fraiture, Rijbermen, 39) Another suggested changes to farming, claiming that while irrigation farming is generally the favored choice when it comes to growing crops, this method of farming is exactly why so much water is needed, as irrigation farming tends to use a lot of water and energy, this supported by the face that “Intensive irrigation has led to closed basins where all water is allocated to specific uses, including water for the environment. In fact, irrigation has been the single most important reason for closing river basins and creating physical water scarcity” (Molden, De Fraiture, Rijbermen, 45). It must also be taken into account that water is often used to create energy in the first place, leading to a very intense compounding of the situation. Some have even suggested dry land farming as a solution, as dry land farming tends to support water