Water becomes a more Costly and Regionally more Scarce Resource

What we know about water so far:

• Only 2.5% of the world's water is freshwater
• Every form of water (solid, liquid, gas) (fresh- or salt water) is connected over the world's water cycle
• 11% of the global population is still without access to water
• When it comes to safe water, even less people have access: only one in six.
• By the year 2015 the water availability in Africa and South-East-Asia will be catastrophically low for nations like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Saudi-Arabia or India
• The access to safe water is unequally distributed in the world
• Whereas Americans use 100 gallons of water a day, people living in Sub-Sahara-Africa use only 2-5 gallons of water a day
• 70% of the water is used for irrigation
• Most of the countries in North and Sub-Sahara Africa, as well as countries in South-East-Asia use more than 75% of their withdrawn water for agricultural
• Water scarcity can be physical or economic
  
  
  
  
   Why is it important to know about these facts? 
  
  
  This You Tube video gives a first hint: The World's Water - Fidelity Investment 
  
  
  In the video it says: “This water stress could further accelerate regional water issues and border disputes. This is already happening in the Middle East....Water, becoming a more costly and regionally more scarce resource, will have massive economic, ecological and geopolitical implications.”
  
  
  I will think about it.

The Global Water Footprint

Agricultural water use per nation

Domestic water use per nation

 

Industrial water use per nation

 

"So the concept of water footprint is essential to help societies understand their global impact on this resource and the need for conservation and management. And in this domain, the main culprit is agriculture, as the Worldwatch Institute article states:  

'Agriculture has the greatest impact on a water footprint. Global crop production requires more than 6 trillion cubic meters of water each year, with nearly a quarter of supplies flowing to rice paddies. Livestock production requires the most water resources in the food chain. One hamburger, for instance, needs 2,400 liters of water on average.'"

Source

Even though I posted some days ago a world map that indicates the nations in Africa and South-East Asia as the ones with the highest proportion of total water withdrawal that is withdrawn for agriculture, we have to keep in mind that their withdrawal is nothing compared to what the industrialized countries consume.

Access to Water and Sanitation

Source

The Forecast Dry in Asia and Africa from 1950 to 2025

The difference between physical and economic water scarcity

Source

What is interesting about this map, is that it divides water scarcity in physical and economic scarcity. In areas of physical water scarcity there really is just not enough water available. 

But with economic water scarcity the situation is different: "Economic scarcity is where there is enough in-country water, but heavy investment needs to be made to ensure there will be no eventual physical water scarcity" (WWF Global), This applies for most countries in Central Africa.

Agricultural Water Withdrawal per Country

Source

This is a map of the world illustrates the proportion of total water withdrawal that is withdrawn for agriculture. Only a few industrialized countries in central Europe (for example France and Germany), Russia, and Canada use less than 25% of the total water they withdraw for agricultural purposes. These nation have two things in common: a boreal geographical location and a very small primary sector.

The opposite occurs for countries in Sub-Sahara, the Arabian Peninsula and South East Asia. The economy in most of these countries is less developed, what means that a huge part of the population works within the primary sector (the agricultural sector). Also, due to their location between the equator and the tropic of Cancer these regions suffer aridity for most months.

Most of the Freshwater is used for Irrigation.

Source

As it was already mentioned in some of the videos I posted so far, most of the freshwater worldwide is used aggricultural: 70% of the water is used for irrigation. That is why milk is so expensive in terms of water. 22% is used industrial (the jeans, you remember). The water we use at home only makes 8% of the overall freshwater consumption.

Source

Humans use blue water agricultural, industrial and municipal. The global water withdrawal in total has increased clearly since the 1950. Whereas from 1900 to 1950 the amount of withdrawal has roughly doubled, from 1950 to 2000 the amount has nearly quadrupled. And the graph shows no sign of stagnation whatsoever.

Suddently I feel bad about drinking milk. And bad about eating burgers (old feeling, but new reason).

In a day, 

Europeans use about 50 gallons of water. 

Americans use 100 gallons of water. 

The people living in Sub-Sahara-Africa use 2-5 gallons of water.

It takes

10 gallons to make a single slice of bread.

713 gallons to produce a cotton T-shirt.

1000 gallons for just one gallon of milk.

and 634 gallons to produce one burger.

Where Water is hidden. It ins in your Jeans. And the Plastic you use. And in other places you would not expect.

In average, 99% of the population of Developed Countries have Access to Safe Drinking Water. In Sub-Saharan Africa this applies only for 61%.

Source

As we can see above, the access to safe water is unequal distributed in the world. In Sub-Saharan Africa fewest people have access to safe drinking water. But also in South Asia and Latin America & Caribbean a bigger part of the human population is suffering from water scarcities.

The biggest difference between the regional average and the lowest is within the Developed Countries. Whereas the group average is that 99% of the population have access to safe drinking water, in Romania it applies only for 57%.

In 2015, more Countries will be effected by Low Water Availability than back in 1980

Source

This map illustrates the development of the world water availability per country from 1980 to 2000 to the 2015 estimate. The red colored countries are the ones, where the water availability is catastrophically low. 

The overall tendency of the picture is clear: Within 35 years, the number of countries that have to suffer from below average water availability has increased. Even for the United States the estimated water availability in 2015 is low. However, the most affected are nations in Africa and South-East-Asia.

1 in 6 People in the World have no Access to Safe Water

Source

 Did you know this? That 11% of us live without access to water? I did not.

Source

When it comes to safe water, even less people have access: only one in six.

Especially in Africa the access to safe water is limited. As you can see in the picture, there are a lot of nations in which more than every second person has no access to safe water. In Ethiopia it is only 22% of the population.

But also tropical regions like Cambodia or Papua Newguinea are affected. Whereas in Africa in most cases safe water is limited, because water in general is scarce, I could imagine that in South-East-Asia the lack of safe water may be caused by limited technology to clean the water.

For Everybody who is interested in the World Water Cylce

Only 2.5% of the World's Water is actually Freshwater

We all know that there is A LOT of water on our planet. But the problem is: most of this water is saltwater, which means that we can not drink it. Only 2.5% of the overall water is freshwater. Most of this water is stored in glaciers and permanent snow cover, the rest is stored in groundwater. Only 0.3% of the Freshwater comes from lakes and rivers.

Source: United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP) (2008): A world of salt. 

But the saltwater plays a big role in the world water cycle. When the water in the oceans and seas evaporates, saltwater is becoming freshwater. Vaporized into clouds, the water gets transported all over the world. Precipitation brings the freshwater down to the earth's surface again, where it infiltrates into the ground or the lakes and rivers – with the exception of glacial regions. In this areas, that are either in great heights or close to the north or south pol, the water changes its aggregate state to solid. It is not infiltrating into the ground anymore. As the fist image shows, glaciers are the biggest freshwater accumulators. 

Source: United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP) (2008): The water cylce.

Can Water be the Cause of States going to War?

The aim of this blog is to inform about the relationship between access to water and conflicts. Is there a chance, that we will one day have wars over water? Climate change increases the world's temperature. Human population is expanding. The access to water in arid regions of the world is already limited. Taking this general knowledge as a starting point, the blog claims to go deeper into this field, considering political, geographical, social and scientific discussions about water conflicts.

One year ago a group of former world leaders was calling on the UN to make water a topsecurity concern. They argued that water crisis threatens political stability and economic development in a number of developing and emerging markets and therefore has an implication for global peace.

Fabrice Renaund from the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn said: “Water resources worldwide are under increasing pressure through a combination of factors that include population growth, pollution and the consequences of climate change. In some regions of the world, acute stresses could be magnified or become the norm, and many academic, political and media circles predict that this will inevitably lead to violent conflicts.”

To find my answer to the big question of this blog “Can water be the cause of states going to war?”, I have to start with finding answers to basic questions.

The first question, that I am asking myself is: How much drinkable water is there in the world? How big are our water resources?

Source:

John Blau.Water could spark future conflicts, leaders warn. 18.09.2012. www.dw.de