Yes, water may cover 70% of our planet but freshwater (the water that we use to drink, irrigate and bathe ourselves in) is only 3% of that 70% water reserve. And 66% of that 3% of freshwater is not even accessible to us at this time as it is stored in frozen glaciers and other natural means of water storage. To summarise the maths simply, only 00693% of our planet is accessible freshwater... this is a very small amount and it is depleting at a rapid rate everyday.
Water Scarcity is an issue prevalent in society and every continent, it already affects around 2.8 billion people at least one month per year. It already prevents access to clean drinking water for over 1.2 billion people in the world. This means that over 1.2 billion people are unable to attain a basic human need. By 2025, nearly 2/3 of the world's population may face water shortages which will lead to increased health deficiencies and ecological impacts.
Water Scarcity involves three elements: Water Stress, Water Crisis and Water Shortage or deficits. There are also two mechanisms of water scarcity and as it is such a prevalent issue in our lives, it is recognised by the UN (as per its importance) and reduction of water scarcity is a goal of many countries.
Although the idea of Water Stress is relatively new, it is one of the most prominent elements of water scarcity. Water Stress is the difficulty of obtaining sources of fresh water during a period of time which may result in further depletion and deterioration of available water resources.
These water shortages (which cause water stress) are mainly caused by climate change. Climate change can lead to altered weather patterns and this sets a precedent for increases in droughts and floods (waste of natural resources). A key cause of climate change is increased pollution, and this taints water – causing it to be unusable without proper procedures to cleanse the water. Water pollution occurs when pesticides/fertilisers or toxic materials from industrial processes infiltrate water reserves which makes it toxic. Not even groundwater is safe from pollution as many pollutants can leach into the groundwater.
Another cause for water shortages is the increase of population in our world. Our population is growing at roughly 1.09% per year which is causing our demand for water to increase exponentially along with our rate of water wastage. This rapid population growth is occurring in tandem with exponential economic growth and is causing massive industrialisation and a transformation of our water ecosystems and biodiversity. Currently, nearly 41% of our world's population live in river basins that are under water stress.
The increase in pollution and carbon emissions along with our population growth (in the past 50 years, the human population has doubled) is leading to incredible levels of water and resource scarcity.
A Water Crisis is when the demand for clean water is higher than the supply. To put it more logically, it is a situation where the available unpolluted, drinkable and safe water within an area is not enough to meet the demands of the area.
As a whole, Water Scarcity is being increased drastically by the increase of freshwater usage (increase in population) and the depletion of freshwater resources (climate change). However, there are also two mechanisms, as mentioned above, which causes water scarcity:
Economic Water Scarcity: This is caused by the poor management and distribution of the available, clean, water resources to citizens and entities. One could dub this issue as an aspect of market failure intertwined with climate change as, due to scarce resources, it is becoming increasingly difficult to allocate resources (ie. clean and sanitary water) in an equitable manner to every person in world.
Physical Water Scarcity: PWS is a result of insufficient and inadequate natural water resources to supply a nation's demand for water; this can lead to a Water Crisis.
The reduction of water scarcity is a goal for not only countries but also the UN and the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) has established that the EWS (Economic Water Scarcity) is the most prominent reason for Water Scarcity, the UNDP is currently working towards removing this issue. The UNDP believes EWS is the largest contributing factor to the issue as most regions do have enough water to meet all needs but the government/providers are unable to distribute it in an accessible manner.
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Key Terms:
Scarcity – the state of being scarce or in short supply; shortage.
Water Scarcity – the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region.
Sources:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/water-scarcity;
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300;