NexPlan Recycling
Renewable Energy
Water Shortage | World Running out of Water
The world is running out of water. Humans are polluting, depleting, and diverting its finite freshwater supplies so quickly, we are creating massive new deserts and generating global warming from below. This, along with variations in water availability, means that the water to produce food for human consumption, industrial processes and all the other uses is becoming scarce. Right now there are over one billion people on this planet without adequate drinking water. In many parts of the world, surface waters are too polluted for human use. Ninety per cent of wastewater in the Third World is discharged untreated. Eighty per cent of China's and 75 per cent of India's surface waters are too polluted for drinking, fishing, or even bathing. The story is the same in most of Africa and Latin America. Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is a potent fuel for wars and conflict. This planet faces a water crisis that will hit Asia especially hard.
We are polluting our water supply at an alarming rate. Water pollution has many causes and characteristics.. Organic wastes such as sewage put high oxygen demands on the receiving water leading to oxygen depletion with potentially severe impacts on the whole eco-system. Industries discharge a variety of pollutants in their wastewater including heavy metals, organic toxins, oils, and solids. Discharges can also have thermal effects, especially those from power stations, and these also reduce the available oxygen. Silt-bearing runoff from many activities including construction sites, deforestation and agriculture can also add to damaging ecological systems. Population growth alone does not account for increased water demand. Since 1900, there has been a six-fold increase in water use for only a two-fold increase in population size. This reflects greater water usage associated with rising standards of living and consumption.
In North America we don't take this as seriously as we should. Consider this: Providing water free of disease and toxins is ever more difficult, as old methods prove inadequate and new hazards emerge. Shortages have become endemic to many regions, as record drought and population sprawl sap rivers and lakes. Then there's the threat, unthinkable not too long ago, that now seems to eclipse all others: terrorism. More than half of humanity will be living with water shortages, depleted fisheries and polluted coastlines within 50 years because of a worldwide water crisis, warns a recent United Nations report. Put it all together, and it's easy to see why concern over clean drinking water might someday make the energy crisis look small in comparison.
