The exhaustion of Water
There is a high media concentration that is directed towards the threatening energy disaster and the hunt for a sustainable resolution to the problem. At the background of all these, there is a threatening disaster that is alarming. Each year, millions of people die across the world for lack of clean and fresh drinking water. Although the figures have been released to the public by the United Nation Humanitarian Agency, the media still diverted the attention and instead reported on the impending obsolescence of fossil fuels. The media has laid much attention on the challenges that are faced in the oil sector forgetting the calamity facing most people across the world. Life is a basic need which is essential for the survival of human beings. Its scarcity, therefore, demands the attention of the whole world. Even though there are coordinated efforts from many nations to end the calamity, a prospect water crisis may cause in a health and economic disaster of high degree (Rijsberman, 2006). Not only will it lead to the death of many people, it will also result to the fall of many economies. Water is an important component to every part of the human being body, and the bodies can’t live for days without it. Every biological process in the body requires water to succeed. Some of the important processes in the bodies of human beings include digestion, excretion, and ingestion, among others. All these cannot function without fresh drinking water. Lack of water will bring to an end of the above processes which result to disease and later death if not addressed on time (Rijsberman, 2006). Fresh water in this case means water that is not contaminated while sufficient means enough amounts for personal needs.
Although it is considered a threat to the well-being of the planet, many countries and international agencies still remain unresponsive to the water tragedy. Those who have the courage to raise the matter are said to be evil-prophets. Water-related diseases that are caused by lack of water have led to the death of many children worldwide. It is on record that over the last ten years, the water-related diseases have killed more children than the combined deaths caused by armed combat across the globe for the last sixty years (Michael, 2009). The figure is tragic and all the stakeholders must come together to save the generation from destruction. Water conservation policies are ineffective and only support for the reduction of the frequency washing cars using water. The current plentiful access of water by the western nations has led them to ignore the approaching dilemma. The increasing matters connected with water shortage will eventually prevent the region from maintaining its lack of concern. Many parts in the Africa, for instance, are hit by famine which makes the regions suffers from lack of water for human consumption and animals use. People walk for about fifty miles a day to have access to little water. It has become their daily routine and profession to go search for water for household use (Michael, 2009). This has indirectly resulted to poverty because the same people are expected to provide for their families. Instead of working to bring food to the table or educate their children, they are on the walk to look for water. This is also the reason for the high cases of illiteracy and school drop-out in African schools. The same people do not have funds to dig boreholes of dams. The humanitarian agencies such as AMREF should come out to provide aid and support to these people.
Plants continually recycle its water by means of natural cycles of precipitation and evaporation; still approximately nineteen percent of the globe’s population lacks enough fresh water for use. The question “what is to be done?” seems to offer a worldwide suggestion meant to overcome the world’s problem. The scarcity of water is a result of some deeply deep-rooted principles in the Western culture. The solutions for these problems entail picking behaviors that clash with the principles. The exact solutions to the proper water plan are long and complex. The UN gratitude of the human rights secure freshwater in a pact with the United Nation’s Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights’ General comment 15 should be effective. Another cause for water shortage in most regions of the globe is the high consumption. In the past few decades, the global water consumption has doubled itself to more than 1,700 liters per person per day (Rosenberg, 2010). For every twenty years, water use increases by a variable of two. The rate is estimated to be twice the global population increase; meaning that an increase in population is not the case of water scarcity. The growth of the Western and modernizing manipulation are the main cause of the problem between the increase of the people and the consumption of water. Although communal proceeds such as ease to indoor plumbing are somewhat to blame, the pressure that the growing industries have caused to water resources is also to be blamed for water scarcity. The use of water in industries accounts for about ninety percent of water consumption by human beings. This big consumption by industries limits water available for domestic consumption. It is predicted that by 2025, the consumption of water by industries will be 200% greater than the levels in 1995 (Rosenberg, 2010). Agriculture is also another area with the largest consumption of water, adding up to about seventy percent of human consumption.
Access to water is no-longer a problem of rural areas. All over the developing countries, especially in urban cities, people spend the whole day lining up in a pump of water. The challenges of bringing water to remote villages are devastating. Most mountainous regions do not have access to water. Most of African villages in the tropics are built in hills characterized by coolness and less malaria cases. But the hills not have access to water. The drought and deforestations in the regions keep pushing the water table lower and lower. For example, in most parts of Africa, the water tables have sunk to 400 feet belowground (Rosenberg, 2010). To save some water for use, most villagers are digging wells close to the rivers. Although the water is not close, it is dependable and easier to remove and it is likely to be clean. The farthest that villagers can go to secure water is digging wells. Boring boreholes are difficult and require geological knowledge and expensive and complicated machinery. In many countries, like Ethiopia, water is the responsibility of each district, and each one of them has limited expertise or funds to manage water. The people who live in slums with minimum access to water are the same ones who do not have access to their leaders. In most countries, such resources are only available to individuals who have the attention of politicians. The poor and those who do not support the leaders in power are normally disadvantaged of their rights to access the resources. So, most efforts made to make clean water accessible to these households are largely dependent on charity groups, humanitarian aid, among other bodies (Curry, 2010). The point here is political negligence and corruption which makes water accessible to some households while others are deprived.
Despite the many statistics on the lack of water, there is still a reason for hope. If the water at our disposal is distributed in a fare and appropriate way, then everyone across the world will get enough water to satisfy both personal and domestic uses. The challenge is creating a plan that will imitate a worldwide agreement. The policies should target saving water and putting it in good use. Regardless of the approach used, any policy that is enacted should be able to address the three most important areas: rain water should be stored in watersheds; bore-hole water should not be bored beyond the rate of it ending; and finally, contamination of the resource should not continue (Curry, 2010). Specialists across the globe have disagreed on the privatization of water possessions or the establishment of individual rights to water. Both of them are not jointly limited and the beliefs of privatization normally disagree with those of creating a worldwide human right to water. The main motivation behind privatization is private enterprise and is also the reason water is scarce. The appreciation of the right to secure freshwater will conflict with capitalism. Humanitarian agencies should also come up with sensitization missions meant to educate people on the importance of conserving water. Further, every government should come up with measures to recycle the already used water (Curry, 2010). Recycling plants should be erected in every district in a country to recycle the used water.
It is clear that the world is facing a widespread problem that if it is not addressed it will be a disaster in the making. People and leadership are the ones to blame for the tragedy. If people can be responsible enough and use water in a responsible manner, then the world will be in a better place otherwise, people will continue to die and surfer. People are entitled to clean water; because most deaths are as a result of diseases such as cholera and typhoid which are caused by consuming dirty water.
References
Rijsberman, F. R. (2006). Water scarcity: fact or fiction? Agricultural water management, 80(1), 5-22.
Michael. P (2009). How to make filthy water drinkable?. Ambio, 112-118.
Curry, E. (2010). Water scarcity and the recognition of the human right to safe freshwater. Nw. UJ Int'l Hum. Rts., 9, 103.
Rosenberg, T. (2010). The burden of thirst. National Geographic, 247(4), 96-115.
