There’s nothing more essential to life on Earth than water. Yet, from Cape Town to Flint, Michigan, and from rural, sub-Saharan Africa to Asia’s teeming mega-cities, there’s a global water crisis. People are struggling to access the quantity and quality of water they need for drinking, cooking, bathing, hand washing, and growing their food.
Water scarcity was listed in 2019 by the World Economic Forum as one of the largest global risks in terms of potential impact over the next decade. If current trends continue, the demand is expected to outstrip supply by 40% in 2030. About 4 billion people in the world live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year and about 2 billion people still use a source that is contaminated with human waste, and about the same amount don’t have access to adequate toilet facilities.
There is actually enough fresh water for each person currently living on the planet but access to that water is not always possible for everyone. Just 0.014% of all water on Earth is both fresh and easily accessible and of the remaining water, 97% is saline and around 3% is hard to access. Issues such as poor infrastructure, displacement, mean that many people often have to use unsafe water sources. This is a clear health and sanitation risk.
Some of the Water Scarcity Solutions
There are various solutions in order to redress the issue of water scarcity and one can simply get them from any book or web. In my view the following ideas may work well-
1. Rainwater Harvesting:
2. Pollution Control: Pollution is a major contributor to water
scarcity in the world today. Water pollution, which is the dumping of harmful
substances into clean water systems, is playing a major part in reducing the
amount of water available for consumption. Individuals, as well as
industries, keep polluting the water supply with chemicals and other forms of
waste.
3. Use of Water Cleaning Techniques: Recent breakthroughs in research and
technology have come up with techniques that have made it possible for water
considered unfit for consumption, to be made clean and safe for consumption.
Some of the most frequently used techniques include Reverse Osmosis,
Desalinization, Nano-filtration, and Solar and UV Filtration.
4. Support Clean Water Initiatives: Another very important solution to water scarcity is
supporting and donating to organization and initiatives that seek to provide
clean water to those in need. Donations come from donors all over the world act
as a middleman between those who do not have access to clean water and those
who are willing to help. Some of these organizations include NGOs like Charity
Water.
5. Increase Awareness and Education: This is a simple solution to the problem of water scarcity by increasing awareness and
education on water scarcity and its effects. There are a lot of people who are
unaware of the reality of water scarcity as well as its negative effects and
the number of people suffering from it. This is an important step in the fight
against water scarcity.
