Terrible Drinking Water Scarcity: How Will We Remedy the Situation in 2021?
While everyone talks about the Corona Virus that hit the whole world, almost no one thinks about water scarcity. It is one of the biggest problems, as 1.1 billion people worldwide don’t have access to drinking water.
For a start, let’s define water scarcity, explain the causes and the steps we should take to solve this problem.
What is Water Scarcity?
Scarcity definition is easy to understand — it is a physical shortage of water, caused by the failure of the institutions to ensure regular supply. In addition, this is also often related to a lack of adequate infrastructure.
As a result, people do not have access to drinkable water, which ruins society and people’s lives. The Governments of the countries often see it as a commodity instead of a valuable and precious resource.
The Main Causes of Water Scarcity
When we speak about the causes, we must say that natural disasters are mainly responsible for this. There are several causes, including:
- Climate change
- Natural disasters (floods and droughts)
- Overuse and misuse of drinkable water
- Illegal waste dumping
- Increased freshwater global demand.
Droughts are one of the main causes, especially when combined with global warming. But who contributes to global warming? No one else but ourselves (humans). Therefore, we go back to the start of the circle — we misuse water, technology and manufacturing processes that lead to global warming.
The increased number of people in the world leads to a bigger resource demand, so again people are guilty of this problem. At the same time, poorly-constructed sewage systems allow polluting water to enter the ground and contaminate fresh/drinking water. Therefore, we have to admit that we created this problem so we could start the process of healing.
What Can We Do to Reduce the Water Scarcity?
Global water scarcity needs to be addressed immediately as we don’t have the alternative resource or a way to ensure access to freshwater. There are several things we can do on a global level to save at least 2 billion people and extend their lives. So, the first thing we need to do is to raise awareness of this problem. Especially in countries where the average people do not even think of the way they use water.
More Education
As you know, water scarcity in Africa is something that lasts for decades and it is not going to change unless we start educating people. What we need to do is to educate people who don’t have this problem so they could start contributing. For a start, they should start using water more efficiently and wisely and think every time of water in Africa when they throw away a glass of freshwater.
New Water Conservation Technologies
Water scarcity occurs when people don’t treat it well, but sometimes the area they live in requires new technology to produce fresh water. Water conservation technology is going to explode in the future times as water will become an expensive resource. However, to have a successful and efficient water conservation technology, it is crucial to use water-saving devices. Or at least to reduce the water consumption.
In Thailand, 70% of rainfall goes back to the atmosphere via evaporation. In addition, a good amount of water is lost via evapotranspiration or seepage during the transfer from point A to point B. The Asian region has started adopting drip irrigation, sprinkler and surge irrigation methods to conserve water more efficiently. Therefore, it is essential that all the rest of the world starts applying the same technologies to preserve water.
Wastewater Recycling
Water scarcity in the world can be reduced by applying the water recycling method. Water recycling is the process of filtering wastewater and removing impurities and contaminants with the goal of producing clean water. The wastewater comes from households and sewages or even stormwater. Instead of letting wastewater enter the ground and contaminate the soil, we can recycle it efficiently and turn it into safe water.
However, this method is not that popular or overly used around the world. The main reason is the lack of experiments and researches, which means that recycled water is not meant to be used for drinking. Still, this is probably going to change in the near future as this is one of the best ways to manage wastewater and ensure drinking water. Recycled water is mainly used for washing needs, irrigating, toilet flushing or car washing.
Irrigation Improvement
Effects of water scarcity lead to problems with crops also, as it is impossible to irrigate gardens or crop fields. Around 70% of the world’s fresh water is used for agriculture so the scarcity may produce an even bigger impact than we think. Instead of using fresh water to water your garden or crops, you can use recycled water and therefore save gallons and gallons of freshwater. Sprinklers, for example, can be used to reduce the unnecessary water flow and therefore water your garden efficiently with recycled water.
Can We Beat the Water Scarcity in the 21st Century?
Yes, we can, absolutely! However, the main problem is that a lot of people is not even aware of this problem and they use fresh water in ridiculous amounts. So, we should start with the education first so the people that are aware of the problem could start contributing to the improvement of water management.
In addition, it is very likely that the world countries will introduce the policy on water usage, which will revolutionize water usage and reduce water scarcity enormously.
Until then, we need to be aware of the fact that our lives depend on water. Once every average human being becomes aware of this fact, this problem will become a thing of the past. But until then, we have to educate people on this subject as much as we can!
