Many people know that water is essential for human-being and it is not only valuable for health and life, but water is also important for industry and agriculture. Furthermore, use of water has a spiritual, cultural and recreational dimension. However, water resources are not infinite. Wide and inefficient use of water resources can lead to irreversible consequences, such as water shortage. This essay will firstly discuss the problem of water shortage on examples of developed and developing countries and include the diversification of the same issue in the different parts of the world. It will also identify causes and effects of this environmental problem on society and other spheres of life. Moreover, in this essay I am going to propose and select possible solutions for tackling problems caused by water shortage in specific world region as the North and the North-West China. To begin with, water shortage has become a global problem in recent years. According to Molden (2010), “one-third of the world’s population has to contend with water scarcity, and there are ominous signs that this proportion could quickly increase”. This means that the current rate of development has both positive and negative effect on society and, of course, the environment. However, the problem of water shortage is rather different in both developed and developing countries. While it reduces the economic growth and damages the life quality in developed countries, already low rate of development and faint state of life are under the greatest threat in poor countries. As a result, the problem of water shortage can cause catastrophic consequences for future generations of those countries. This problem also includes difficulties with organized water regulatio... ... middle of paper ... ...na’s Water Shortage Could Shake Water Food Security. World Watch 11(4) :10-21.http://www.ualberta.ca/~mdzahidu/brhamaputra_diversion/lester_brian.pdf (accessed November 18, 2010). McHarg, A. et al. eds. 2010. Property and the Law in Energy and Natural Resources. Oxford Scholarship Online. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com (accessed November 21, 2010). Molden, D. 2010. Solutions for the world’s water woes. BBC News website (accessed September 14, 2010). Wang, J. 1989. Water Pollution and Water Shortage Problems in China. Journal of Applied Ecology 26 : 851-857 http://www.jstor.org/pss/2403696 (accessed November 20, 2010). Xie, J. 2008. Addressing China’s Water Scarcity: A Synthesis of Recommendations for Selected Water Resource Management Issues. Herndon: World Bank Publications. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/astana/Doc?id=10273763&ppg=48 (accessed October 25, 2010).
China economy has been falling for many years. Part of this downfall is lack of clean water. You know this, but know one in this world can’t live without water ,so that means water is very important. Climate change, Industrialization, and Government policy all contribute to the chinese water crisis. Of these, the biggest driver is the government policy. The government in China has a strict policy that does not allow the people to have water because China is not using enough money for their water.
It is true that there are factors contributing to China’s water scarcity, such as a bad government policy. However, the three biggest causes of China’s water-scarcity crisis are population growth, global warming, and especially industry. It is important because
Water shortage is a growing problem for most countries in the world. For China, which has 20% of world’s population and only 7% of available water resources, this problem may become catastrophic (Hofstedt 2010, 72). Therefore some actions and measures should be performed to avoid or at least to weaken future water crisis in China. In this work the following three solutions will be proposed and analyzed in terms of efficiency and applicability: water usage efficiency improvement; adopting the local agencies on controlling water resources; reasonable water pricing.
Sheaffer, John R., and Leonard A. Stevens. Future Water. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1983.
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...
There are 80 countries that have been suffering from a lack of clean water, and two billion people lack access to freshwater, especially South Africa (Alois). This area of countries is the driest in the world - Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and so on. Like in the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, Nya, who lives in Sudan, has been lacking clean water. She has to find water every day for her family. Luckily, Nya got help from Salva who used to live in Sudan and came back from America to build the water system for her village. However, there are still many people around the world that have been suffering to find clean water for basic use. There are many factors that cause a lack of clean water around the world: geography of countries, deforestation,
Introduction on Water It covers 70% of our planet, makes up 75% of our body, it is necessary for survival and it is declining at a rapid rate (http://www.sscwd.org). It is water. Unfortunately, clean water is rare, almost 1 billion people in developing countries do not have access to water everyday. “Yet, we take it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic bottles” (The Water Project). Use of earth’s natural resources should be seen as prosperity, although it is taken for granted, every aspect of daily life revolves around the environment, forcing water conservation to be necessary for future on this planet.
Developing our national economy, especially industry, requires a great amount of natural resources, such as land, water, oil, coal, gas and iron. However, the natural resources are limited and decline very quickly when a large population exploits them everyday. Take fresh water as an example, in 1990, 58% of Chinese cities (http://www.cass.net.cn/y_sjr/y_cn_sjr_334.htm) suffered from the insufficiency of water. It not only brings great disadvantages to people's daily life, but also has a passive influence on the economic development. Released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the economic loss caused by the insufficiency of water is 250 billion RMB per year, including 230 billion lost industrial output and 20 billion agricultural losses.
(Source J) Huebert, J H, and Walter Block. “Space Environmentalism, Property Rights, and the Law.” Editorial. ProQuest. N.p., 2007. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. .
Freshwater is quite scarce, but it is even scarcer than one might think: about seventy percent of all freshwater is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland and is unavailable to humans. Most of the remainder is present as soil moisture or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater. It is not economically feasible to extract this waster for use as drinking water. This leaves less than one percent of the world’s fresh water that is available to humans. It includes the water found in lakes, reservoirs, groundwater that is shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. These freshwater sources are the only sources that are frequently replenished by rain and snowfall, and therefore are renewable. At the current rates of consumption, however, this supply of fresh water will not last. Pollution and contamination of freshwater sources exacerbate the problem, further reducing the amount of freshwater available for human consumption. Something must be done if humans want to even survive in the near future: the lack of clean drinking water is already the number one cause of disease in the world today. The first step is worldwide awareness of the water crisis: governments and the citizens they govern worldwide need to know about this problem and be actively involved in solving this problem.
Hennigan, Robert D. "Water Pollution." Oxford University Press 19.11 (1969): 976-78. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
One main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide. Water mismanagement has become a crisis of governance that will impact heavily ...
Water is the most priceless resource on our planet. Billions of gallons flow through our rivers and lakes. Millions of gallons are consumed by humans each day. Our world’s surface is seventy percent water. With so much water around us, how can 1.1 billion people still lack access to clean water (Cooper, Water Shortages)? People are already using fifty four percent of all the freshwater available on this planet (Cooper, Water Shortages). We cannot afford to neglect something so essential to our very survival. We must defend our most important natural resource—water.
"World Water Council - World Water Council." World Water Council - World Water Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. .
Cherain, T., Unni, K., and Sophie, L. 2010. China – India water shortage. Bloomberg News. http://www.grailresearch.com/pdf/ContenPodsPdf/Water-The_India_Story.pdf (accessed November 1, 2010).