Water scarcity
Water scarcity refers to the insufficient availability of freshwater to meet the needs of people and the environment. It is primarily a supply-and-demand issue, where an increasing global population leads to higher demand for clean water. Despite the Earth being composed of 70% water, only 2.5% is freshwater, with just 1% readily accessible for human use. Various factors contribute to water scarcity, including natural disasters, climate change, and human-related issues such as unequal distribution and infrastructure deficits.
Freshwater is essential for a range of activities, including drinking, sanitation, agriculture, and manufacturing. The World Health Organization estimates that each person requires between 50 to 100 liters of freshwater daily for basic health. Agriculture accounts for about 70% of global water use, highlighting that domestic consumption is not the leading cause of water overuse. Additionally, water scarcity poses significant public health risks, such as increased contamination, the spread of waterborne diseases, and challenges in sanitation.
Efforts to address water scarcity include technological solutions like desalination and improved water management, but these can be costly and energy-intensive. International organizations, including the United Nations, are working towards ensuring access to safe water as a human right, although projections suggest that the challenges posed by urbanization, climate change, and geopolitical issues will continue to strain water resources in the future.
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Subject Terms
Water scarcity
Water scarcity is the lack of freshwater supplies for all users, including the environment, such that their needs are not fully met. Water stress is low availability of needed freshwater. Water scarcity is best understood as a supply-and-demand problem: the more people there are, the less clean freshwater there is for each person. Natural disasters and low natural availability can cause water scarcity, but often human factors, such as unequal distribution, are to blame.
Water scarcity is a great public health concern, affecting sanitation, hygiene, and disease prevention. It has been predicted to increase substantially because of factors such as global climate change.
Overview
Although the earth is made up of 70 percent water, only 2.5 percent of that is freshwater, and only 1 percent is easily retrievable for human use. Bathing and washing, drinking, producing food, manufacturing clothing and other needed items, and eliminating waste all depend on freshwater. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimate that each person needs fifty to one hundred liters (thirteen to twenty-six gallons) of clean freshwater each day to meet basic needs and maintain basic health. With the global human population having reached around eight billion by the early 2020s, according to United Nations estimates, and developing nations engaging in rapid industrialization, considerable strain persisted on limited supplies of freshwater.
While a handful of different measures and definitions used to assess water scarcity and stress each highlight different facets of the problem, water scarcity can generally be qualified as physical or economic. Physical scarcity tends to arise from natural causes such as drought or little groundwater. Economic water scarcity may arise from a lack of infrastructure (water supply systems) to distribute water evenly among a population or lack of reliable access to water services. Other common causes of water scarcity include freshwater contamination by floodwaters or chemical pollutants and water use that outpaces replenishment. Contrary to popular belief, individual use for domestic purposes is not responsible for the greatest overconsumption; in fact, by the 2020s, agriculture irrigation alone accounted for approximately 70 percent of all water use worldwide, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Economic disparities and regional differences in consumption (e.g., urban versus rural) are also factors in water availability.
According to the WHO, water scarcity has a severe impact on health. Limited supplies of water and/or difficulty in obtaining water for whatever reason may lead many to store water at home. This increases the risk of water contamination and of breeding mosquitoes, which are carriers for severe diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. Water contaminated from poor sanitation or chemical pollutants is unsafe for drinking, cleaning, or producing food, and has been linked to water-borne diseases. Similarly, wastewater used for crop irrigation or leaked through improper wastewater management can contaminate food supplies.
Another significant concern is the impact of climate change on freshwater supplies. Experts have noted that global climate change has shifted weather patterns, causing more droughts in already-dry areas and increased precipitation and flooding in other areas. Extended droughts can lead to major shifts in global agricultural production and potentially result in famines. Scientists have also documented rising sea levels, and mass migration from flooded coastal areas to inland regions can further exacerbate water scarcity. There is significant concern that commodification of water, increased demand, and diminished availability could lead to conflict.
Technological solutions, such as water-efficient devices, desalination (salt removal) of seawater, and cloud seeding, can sometimes increase water availability in areas where water stress or scarcity is a threat. However, these technologies are often expensive and require considerable energy, limiting their effectiveness and availability in many needy regions. International organizations such as the United Nations and the WHO have been trying to improve water access and quality and ensure water availability for all as a basic human right.
However, the United Nations released a report in early 2024 emphasizing the dire state of the world's safe water supply and stressing the several elements that continued to contribute to the inability to reach the goal of ensuring access to safe water and sanitation for all people worldwide by 2030. According to the report, urbanization, pollution, climate change, mass migration, and geopolitical unrest were just some of the factors causing strain on natural resources such as water and, more specifically, the access to safe water; the impact of such factors was projected to continue to increase in the future. The United Nations estimated that, at that point, over two billion people lived without access to safely managed drinking water, and by 2022, about half of the world experienced severe water scarcity for at least part of the year.
Bibliography
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