Facing the Freshwater Crisis
A.
- Global freshwater resources are threatened by rising demands from many quarters
- Growing populations need ever more water for drinking, hygiene, sanitation, food production and industry
- Climate change, meanwhile, is expected to contribute to droughts
- Policy makers need to figure out how to supply water without degrading the natural ecosystems that provide it
- Existing low-tech approaches can help prevent scarcity, as can ways to boost supplies, such as improved methods to desalinate water
- But governments at all levels need to start setting policies and making investments in infrastructure for water conservation now
- As in New Delhi and Phoenix, policymakers worldwide wield great power over how water resources are managed
- Scientists expect water scarcity to become more common in large part because the world’s population is rising and many people are getting richer and because global climate change is exacerbating aridity and reducing supply in many regions
- Solving the world’s water problems requires, as a start, an understanding of how much freshwater each person requires, along with knowledge of the factors that impede supply and increase demand in different parts of the world
- Location does not wholly determine the availability of water in a given place: the ability to pay plays a major role
- Given the importance of economics and income in water matters, it is clear that reasonable pricing policies that promote greater conservation by domestic and industrial users are worth adopting
- Demand for water varied from place to place
- Keeping the demand for irrigation water in arid and semiarid areas down while still meeting the world’s future food requirements can be sup- ported by supplying “virtual water” to those places
- Staving off future water shortages means spending money, a lot of it
B. The demand for freshwater is soaring high now which makes the supply unpredictable. The existing technology in the current day can avert a water crisis but they must be used soon. Our freshwater resources are threatened due to the rising demand for it and our growing population now more than every need water for hydration, hygiene, food production, as well as industry. A big contributor to droughts would be the climate change our Earth is going through currently. We need to create a policy that can figure our a way to supply water without destroying the environment that provide it for us. We can have an approach that involves low tech that can prevent the scarcity as well as boost supply but governments at all levels need to start setting policies as well as create infrastructure for water conservation. As a start, research must be conducted as to how much freshwater a single person require. We also need to have knowledge on the factors that decrease supply and increase demand. We don't necessarily need new technology to get to this, just to enhance our current technology today to help us with these problems.
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C. After reading this article, I was very surprised to read about how our supply of fresh water is starting to dwindle. I like the fact that we are already starting to come up with solutions to this problem considering that water is one of the most essential part of every species life in our Earth. I feel very disturbed that we are starting to overuse not just our supply of water, but the water for all the other species that need it. I understand the fact that we are the more superior race and we have a moral responsibility to provide not just for us but for other species that are not intelligent enough to provide for themselves. They are all essential to not just the ecosystem but to us as well. We must work on a solution that can help up preserve water as well as supply the demand for it.
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