Water is a requirement for life on Earth. Most water on the Earth is not fresh water, but brackish or saline, and as such, not generally usable by humans.
Humans can only exist for a few days without fresh drinking water. Almost all animals and plants on Earth require fresh water in some form or another.
There are three basic reasons for having clean fresh water. They are:
- 1. Basic needs such as drinking, cooking, washing etc.
- 2. Agriculture and food production including raising livestock
- 3. Other uses such as transportation, power generation, recreation, fire protection etc.
The World Resources Institute (WRI - http: //www.wri.org) estimated the percent of people worldwide with chronic water scarcity (lack of fresh water for basic needs) as follows.
Year – Percent of world population lacking water for basic needs
- 2000 – 3.7
- 2025 – 8.6
- 2050 – 17.8
In addition, the global water supply infrastructure is aging. For example, much of the infrastructure in the United States, and other developed countries, was installed over 50 years ago, and some over 100 years ago. These systems are currently at or exceed their engineering life. This puts even more of the world’s population at risk of water scarcity.
Clearly, in 2017, based on the figures presented above, things are not getting better but worse. In part, this is due to the increase in global population. However, in many cases this is due to poor water management, aging infrastructure and/or lack of infrastructure resources to create or maintain water supply systems.
For more information about our current global water crisis and what you can do to help in your locality, check out my newest book in EPUB format entitled Water, Our Most Precious Resource.
Sincerely,
H. Court Young
Geologist, author & publisher
Promoting awareness through the written word
Blog: http://hcourtyoung.blogspot.com
Amazon: Water Our Most Precious Resource
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