Abstract
Water is the most important source of life. Survival of any living organism without water is impossible. Though a large part of the earth is constituted of water, the supply of fresh water is limited to only 3% of the total amount of water found on the earth's surface. With the demand for fresh and clean water rising across the world, it is time for us to think seriously about the importance of water conservation. There are several engineering and behavioral practices which, if adopted by us at home, industries and other spheres of work and life, can reduce the overall amount of water consumption to a considerable degree. It is about time that we incorporate small changes in our behavioral pattern towards water usage so that the depletion of fresh water resources cannot go worse further. ‘Save water save life’ should be our motto for the future.
Introduction
Hungarian biochemist and noble prize winner for medicine Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi said “Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water” (SLPL 2013). Water is the necessary source for survival. No living organism can survive without water. As per the report of UNICEF, about 2,000 children die every day due to diarrheas and other diseases developed from drinking contaminated water, lack of hygiene and sanitation. Water contamination is a growing problem in the world. With the number of sources for fresh water depleting due to pollution, climate and overuse, it is a matter of great concern to conserve the supply of fresh and clean water. Since 1993, 22nd March is celebrated as World Water Day by United Nations in order to create public awareness about the importance of conserving and protecting fresh water supplies. The motto of United Nations behind this celebration is to encourage people to carefully use the water resources (Ryan’s Well Foundation). Not only our survival, but the basic infrastructure of the world economy, agriculture, irrigation, industrial production, fishing, recreation and maintenance of basic hygiene depend on the resource of clean water. The dearth of safe clean water leads to rampant spread of fatal diseases, poverty, famine and warfare. Though the issue related to clean water is particularly critical in developing countries, the overall climate change and the growing demands for clean water have contributed to a significance shortage of water across the globe.
What is Clean Water?
Safe water which can be consumed by humans with no or low risk of long term or immediate harm or effect is clean water. There are two sources for getting drinking water: ground or surface water. Ground water refers to the underground water originating from rainfall or snowfall and seeping into the ground, filling open pores or spaces between rocks, gravel formation, soil and sand (DEQ Lousiana). Groundwater has two main layers - the surficial aquifer and the deep Aquifer. The geological formation which contains sufficient amount of water to yield into a well is called an Aquifer. The surficial aquifer provides less than 1% of drinking water consumed by humans. It is the deep aquifer requiring little treatment that provides premium quality water (Seminole County Government). Water from both the aquifers is pumped to the surface by the water company which then treats the water to make it drinkable. The treated and purified water then is discharged into the distribution pipes to all the households.
Surface water also originating from rainfall and snowfall assimilates into the surface water of rivers, lakes and other water bodies. The water then is pumped and treated by the water company in a similar manner before being distributed among the households.
Water Crisis
It is a popular assumption that the supply of water in the world is infinite. It might surprise many that though the earth is mostly covered in water, only 1% of that water is usable for drinking, agriculture or manufacturing purpose. Most of the water found in earth is salty water. In order to make this salty water drinkable and clean, a process called desalination is used. Though salt and various minerals are removed through desalination from the salty water, this process is an expensive one (Intelligent Green Products). Only 3% of the water found in earth's surface is fresh but 2% of the same remains in unusable state because of being frozen in glaciers. So, only 1% of the water comes to our use. This 1% water comes from ground, rivers, lakes and rainfall. So contrary to popular belief that the supply of water is infinite, the supply of water is indeed very finite because all the sources of fresh water are "renewable only through rainfall, at the rate of 40,000 to 50,000 cubic kilometers per year" (Barlow 2001).
With the population of the world increasing voluminously, the consumption of water is increasing twice the rate of the growth of human population. Allerd Stikker of Ecological Management Foundation based in Amsterdam states that "The issue today, put simply, is that while the only renewable source of freshwater is continental rainfall (which generates a more or less constant global supply of 40,000 to 50,000 cubic km per year), the world population keeps increasing by roughly 85 million per year. Therefore the availability of freshwater per head is decreasing rapidly" (Barlow 2001). If this persists, then the demand for fresh water would escalate by 56% by 2025. Already about 1.2 billion people consisting of one-fifth of the world's population are suffering from the physical water scarcity in which there is not adequate amount of water to meet the needs of everyone. Another 500 million people are in a stage to reach this kind of situation and about one quarter of the world's population that is about 1.6 billion people are suffering from the economic water scarcity in which the countries do not have sufficient means and infrastructure to retrieve water from aquifers and rivers (UNDESA 2012).
Causes of Water Crisis
Vice President of World Bank Ismail Serageldin said, "The wars of the next century will be about water" (Barlow 2001). Water Crisis is becoming a reality with every passing year. The demand for clean water is increasing and supply is not increasing at the same pace. Overall per capita consumption of water for household activities, industrial usage, human consumption, agricultural process and other uses are on a rise. Most of the clean water used by us is pumped from the underground water layers. However, over pumping of those layers are creating problem. The rate at which those layers are getting refilled is much slower than the water pumping. Texas and California aquifer level have dropped more than 10 meter in the last 50 years. The same problem is also happening in Arabian Peninsula as well. In Arabian Peninsula, due to aquifer level depletion many of the clean water layers are getting contaminated by sea water and so the water can no longer be used for drinking or irrigation. Beijing has one of the most severe water problems in the world and the water level has dropped almost 37 meters in Beijing and it is becoming very costly and difficult to extract water from those layers (Brown 2005) .
Apart from water usage and extraction, the expansion of mining and manufacturing industries is also posing a threat of pollution to the underground water table. This is a problem in most of the developing countries. In developing countries industries often do not follow environmental norms to dispose of the waste and the discarded waste often permeates the soil and contaminates the underground water. Pepsi plant caused underground water contamination in Kerala, India by disposing off its plant waste without proper waste processing.
Furthermore, there is an issue of over exploitation of the river water as well. From Nile in Egypt, Ganges in India, Yellow River in China to Colorado in US are so much used for different purposes that the flow that finally reaches its destination is a small percentage of the total starting volume. Colorado and Rio Grande are so oversubscribed that there is a chance that the river size and its delta may reduce by as much as 75% over the next century.
Water – Food Cycle
World water vision report stated, "There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people - and the environment - suffer badly" (World Water Council). The problem with water crisis is that it is not only about water. Scarce supply of fresh water will get a lot of other things associated with the use of water affected. Most important of that is food cycle (Beaundry 1998). Less water will cause poor irrigation and poor agriculture, leading to water scarcity. The two main things for survival, food and water, will strike the world together.
Conclusion
Water is the most important source for a living organism. Humans and animals cannot survive without water for more than few days. Though the demand for clean and fresh water is soaring all across the globe, the supply of fresh water bodies is limited. There are several causes of water scarcity. The only way we can address that is by a conscious effort to reduce water consumption. Changing our behavioral patterns towards the use of water will help manifold in the reduction of water consumption at home. If we all become careful about the importance of water conservation and make small efforts to lessen water consumption then the resources for fresh clean water will last for a long time without us falling into a situation of water scarcity.
Work Cited
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