Water Warning: Previous attention may have focused on oil, but there’s an equally disconcerting threat to global water supplies.
Giles Crosse reviews the risk.
It’s very easy to concentrate on global dangers including climate change, forthcoming energy shortages or population control. But in fact one of the most pressing concerns is actually where all our water is going to come from.
It’s not necessarily about volumes; more precisely it’s about how we fail to manage and abuse water resources. “Is there such a thing as ‘peak water’? There is a vast amount of water on the planet, but we are facing a crisis of running out of sustainably managed water,” says Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute.
“Humans already appropriate over 50 per cent of all renewable and accessible freshwater flows, and yet billions still lack the most basic water services.” This harsh imbalance is something else we urgently need to deal with.
Gleick describes “peak ecological water” as ‘the critical point already reached in many areas, where we overtax the planet’s ability to absorb the consequences of our water use. A prime example is the water crisis in China, where water resources are over allocated, inefficiently used, and grossly polluted by human and industrial wastes, with 300 million people lacking access to safe drinking water.’
“China has developed a set of water quality and quantity problems as severe as any on the planet,” said Gleick. “Rivers and lakes are dead and dying, groundwater aquifers are over pumped, uncounted species of aquatic life have been driven to extinction, and direct adverse impacts on both human and ecosystem health are widespread and growing.”
China’s much criticised Three Gorges Dam is an example of unsustainable water practices. According to International Rivers (IR), it sets ‘records for number of people displaced (more than 1.2 million), number of cities and towns flooded (13 cities, 140 towns, 1,350 villages), and length of reservoir (more than 600 kilometres).’
IR reckons the reservoir is now filled with pollution and industrial effluent, potentially threatening fisheries in the East China Sea. It was set to meet its final height in 2009, but it appears the problems it’s causing are only now becoming apparent.
Setup for sustainability
‘Humanity now uses about three trillion tonnes (3,000 km3) of fresh water each year,’ reveals data from Julian Caldecott, Ecologist and Advisor to Our Future Planet.
‘Irrigation takes 70 per cent of it, with a trillion tonnes being used for export crops such as cotton, but industry’s needs are growing towards 25 per cent, leaving little for domestic use in the cities where half the world’s population now live. The regular supply of fresh, clean, affordable water is essential to life and is set jointly by the rules of ecology and decisions made by society.’
Caldecott argues that by protecting catchment ecosystems like forests and grasslands, we can develop sustainable water supplies, benefiting both biosystems and economies. ‘With this astronomic and increasing demand, supplies are falling so that, if you are 20 now, when you reach 40 your average ration will have dwindled by a third,’ predicts his data.
There are other truly ridiculous reasons why global supplies are endangered. ‘Every second of every day in the United States, a thousand people buy a plastic bottle of water, and every second of every day a thousand more throw one of those bottles away,’ explains The Pacific Institute. ‘That adds up to more than thirty billion bottles a year and tens of billions of dollars of sales.’
More importantly, this practice takes a previously free resource and turns it into a massive industry, which uses and wastes enormous amounts of energy and plastic. It also reveals something about our psychology, given there’s probably a tap within metres of every bottle sold in developed countries.
There are many ideas for potential solutions. One is desalination. ‘Worldwide, only one per cent of drinking water is produced by desalination, supplied by more than 12500 plants in more than 120 countries,’ explains EU Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) data.
‘Considering that almost one quarter of the world’s population lives less than 25 km from the coast, seawater could become one of the main sources of freshwater in the near future.’
‘Water scarcity is increasing in many parts of the world due to growing populations, greater per capita water demand, and the diminishing freshwater sources, a result of drought conditions, desertification and other degradations of ecosystems,’ continues the data.
‘Desalination was previously regarded as a prohibitively expensive solution; but dramatic cost reductions have led potential customers to view it more favourably,’ But it’s worth remembering that streamlining existing practices and cutting waste and pollution are just as likely to help as invoking new technologies.
Climate costs
It’s plain damage is already being done, but forthcoming impacts of climate change are likely to speed such harm, bringing new and potentially yet more worrying impacts to the table.
‘Global climate change will pose a wide range of challenges to freshwater resources, altering water quantity, quality, system operations, and imposing new governance complications.’
‘For countries whose watersheds and river basins lie wholly within their own political boundaries, adapting to increasingly severe climate changes will be difficult enough,’ suggests ‘Understanding and Reducing the Risks of Climate Change for Transboundary Waters,’ released by the Pacific Institute and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The paper recommends a number of steps, including extending international agreements governing hydrological cycles, establishing monitoring programmes and conducting adaptation assessments. For any of this to work though, moving sooner rather than later will be vital.
Science too will have a role to play, with processes like UASB water purification likely to find increasingly wide markets. ‘UASB is a single tank process that treats industrial and domestic wastewater,’ explains UNEP.
‘Wastewater enters the reactor from the bottom, and flows upward. A suspended sludge blanket, comprising microbial granules, filters and treats the wastewater as it flows through. The microorganisms in the sludge degrade organic compounds from which gases, methane and CO2, are released. The collected gases can be used as biogas.’
In practice, what all this science means is a process that ‘purifies industrial wastewater cost effectively, while producing renewable energy, fertilisers and soil conditioners. UASB uses 40 per cent less water to purify wastewater than other methods.’ says UNEP.
“I feel that it is essential that clean water is not misused through the collection of wastewater,” says scientist Dr Gatze Lettinga, behind the process. “The right treatment systems in terms of industrial and environmental impacts must be put in place. Above all, it is vitally important that water treatment systems prevent environmental pollution problems, rather than create or exasperate them.”
Whilst a combination of measures will probably provide the most realistic solution to such issues, it’s important to understand that most of these problems are self made. A little more foresight and respect when it comes to water might go a long way.
What are your views? Not sure? Read the resources below for more information. Add your comment below. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Not a Planetary Citizen? Sign up to Our Future Planet today!
Resources:
Pacific Institute Media Release - Innovative Farmers and Water Managers Show the Way to Sustainable Water Use
THE WORLD’S WATER 2008–2009 The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources By Peter H. Gleick with Heather Cooley, Michael J. Cohen, Mari Morikawa, Jason Morrison, and Meena Palaniappan
Table 1 - Total Renewable Freshwater Supply, by Country
Table 2 - Freshwater Withdrawal by Country and Sector
Table 3 - Access to Safe Drinking Water by Country, 1970 to 2004
Table 4 - Access to Sanitation by Country, 1970 to 2004
Water Brief 3 - Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, China by Peter H. Gleick
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