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Water

Lack of water


(By Hélène, Atharsan, Richard)




Water has always been a vital resource. But water shortage has henceforth become a problem of global scale. As 783 million people have no access to water in the World, more than 3, 4 million die each year from water or hygienic sanitation causes. Solely in Africa, 345 million people cannot drink safe water, in Asia and Oceania, it is even worse: 396 million people. Nowadays, fresh Earth’s water only represents 2,53 % of all the seas and oceans. Nevertheless, contrary to what people might think, if there is an alarming water crisis, it is not owing to its scarcity, but to its access. If Israel and Cameroon have the same water poverty index, Cameroon is in a situation of abundance while Israel is a semi-arid region. All the difference is made on the way Israel operates its water.
Nowadays, 2 billion inhabitants survive with less than 5 litres of water each day, and it is called “water stress”. It is indeed impossible, in these conditions, to have a good hygiene and to live in opulence. Fresh water is thus a rare commodity for billions of inhabitants. Even western megalopolises will be concerned by the lack of water in a few years.
Besides, the water crisis has staggering impacts on economy and above all, health. 88% of global cases of diarrhoeal diseases are due to unsafe water, or inadequate hygiene. As incredible as it may seem, only 1 single dollar can supply drinking water for a child for a whole year (in developing countries).
Reasons of the lack of water
What are the different ways of using water at home? Shower-bath, cooking, dish washing, laundry… But there is another question: What are the different ways of wasting water? Continuous open-faucet, leak… We are wasting water, an occidental way of life, for our comfort and pleasure. For instance an American swimming pool owner will change the water, exhausting hundreds of liters of water. Can we forget this mind, in order to keep our children’s heads “underneath” the water?
Lead by developed countries, the ranking of domestic water waste is different from the industrial water waste. Touristic countries have to face an important issue: a visitor uses 300 liters each day by living in such places. Indeed, sunny places have to maintain the fields of mini-golf, the green-spaces, and the swimming pool(s). Otherwise, they couldn’t fulfill the tourists’ needs. Sociology proved that when a person is not at home or at a relative’s, he does not care about his water consumption, or not as much as he does in his own house.
In any case, one major problem still remains: farmers and countrymen water use. We can’t blame them for making our vegetables grow faster and in bigger proportions but they could of course reduce it by different means. In order to make a foreign country’s vegetables in your own country you have to recreate their environment, and their “natural” water consumption which is very probably high.


The dire consequences
Water is in desperately short supply and the lack of water engenders terrible damage… Since water consumption has increased twice as much as the population growth in the world, during the 21st century, it leads us to question ourselves about the future of our planet as regards the lack of drinking water. Indeed if a country suffers from lack of water, it won’t feed its population and won’t develop anymore. The investment in safe drinking water contributes to the economic growth of a country. Currently 780 million people don’t have access to clean water. We cannot imagine the dire consequences that the lack of water may engender. If drinking water runs out, the toll on children will become high and the poor will be hard hit.
On the contrary in developed countries, overconsumption of drinking water will empty aquifers and the price of running water will be increased as well. This issue has been brought up again and again by environmentalists. All the more so since climate changes (due to the lack of water) lead to droughts which will have an impact on agriculture and endanger many species and the wildlife. Several countries are already facing this issue.
Little by little people are becoming aware that the lack of water may jeopardize life on earth. Yet we must not forget that if water runs out and that water is about common resources between countries, it may lead to open wars between them. For instance, Egypt threatens to wage war in these riparian countries, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Men have fought for strategic islands or for oil (“black gold”), they shall soon fight for "the blue gold" if each person does not share the resources and does not reduce his water consumption.


The solutions

Despite what people might think there are still good news! As almost 40 gallons of water are used when we take a bath instead of 25 gallons maximum for a 5-minute-shower, let’s take a shower! A simple leaky faucet wastes 100 gallons per day… Just by leaving the water running while we are brushing our teeth, we can waste up to 5 gallons of water. That is not much, but if everybody does the same, it becomes quickly 20, 100, 1000 gallons! Rather utilize a dishwasher, which uses 10 to 14 gallons of water, that our hands, as hand washing can waste 20 gallons!
Waste of water is not unstoppable: by running the dishwasher only when it is completely full, buying low-flow faucets, taking showers instead of baths, watering the lawn less often but more heavily, being careful about closing the valve after using it, we all are contributing to the reduction of ecological footprint, and thus of the lack of water… If we really want to stop the damage caused by the human kind, we all have to make some efforts. Actually, there are many ways to reduce our water use. For instance, if someone prefers taking a bath at the end of the week after an exhausting day, it is not really catastrophic if on the other hand he waters his lawn just once a month and buys a low-flow faucet!

To conclude: at last but not least, the experts estimate that in 2025, 17 other countries, including Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Peru will be added to the list of countries in lack of water. China and Pakistan will approach the state of water stress. Water shortage has become such a priority that the number of wars to obtain it has considerably increased since the beginning of the water crisis. However, there are solutions we should not forget, by making efforts on your own and warning your relatives of the danger of water shortage, you are taking part in the fight against the lack of water !



 Bibliography :



WATCH IT!!!!









                                                                                                                                                      


Water Pollution
(Samson, Alexandre, Ilies & Thomas)




Water is as necessary as deadly. Preserving life, water is everything for our system. It is the resolution of the complex equation of Humanity. What does it really mean?
But for centuries people have never stopped taking this resource for their own interests, breaking the by dumping waste into the sea or oil spills. Human influence has had a devastating environmental impact and has turned water into a dangerous resource, as a deadly liquid « drinking water » is now as scarce as gold.
However, this pollution doesn't come from nowhere, what are its causes and consequences? What are the solutions? Is drinking water still available in a World supporting seven billions humans?
Questions requiring answers...


Nowadays, a lot of our daily actions and practises are harmful for our sources of water.
Firstly, the principal factor of water pollution is urbanization. Indeed, the increasing of water supplies and its treatments are partly responsible for this pollution since towns and cities aren't ready yet to practise waste water treatment resolutions. Therefore it is one of the main causes of water pollution.
The industries are also involved in water pollution by producing industrial wastes which pollute rivers and sources of fresh water.
However the most polluting sector is agriculture. The main cause of water pollution is the use of pesticides and fertilizers. These improper agricultural practices pollute waters and make them totally unsafe to drink.
Surprising though it may seem, religious practices are also harmful for waterways. Sacrifices are sometimes done in rivers and body ashes are flung into the rivers. Mass baths during religious feasts like in the Ganges for the Hindus is also a polluting practice. Moreover, water pollution can also be caused by natural facts like animal's droppings or acid rain caused by gases which dissolved in rainwater.
Eutrophication is also a cause of water pollution. It is caused by agriculture and is the natural nutrient enrichment of streams and lakes. It causes a growth of algae which amplify the growth of bacteria.
Yet, one of the most important causes of water pollution is the lack of awareness of humans. That's why environmentalists are spreading their ideologies to reduce the humanity ecological footprint on water.


The consequences of dirty water are numerous and disastrous. Today, almost 2 billion people cannot drink or use clean water just because of its pollution. Indeed, drinking unclean water has terrible consequences on health, like vomiting, diarrhoeal, cancer, reproductive and developmental problems. Children are the major victims of this pollution: 6,000 of them die every day because of diarrhoeal diseases. The poorest countries are evidently the most stricken.
But the fauna and flora are also threatened by water pollution. Many species like coral reefs could disappear if they aren’t protected. Oil spills accentuate this phenomenon: in 1989, an enormous pool of oil (which had the size of 125 Olympic swimming pools) killed 250000 shorebirds, 28000 sea otter and 300 seals.
Almost the half of the rivers are polluted in the world. The Ganges is a good example to illustrate the gravity of the situation. Indeed, it is one of the most polluted in the world, because of industry but also because of the bad influence of local populations. A lot of dangerous chemical products are rejected in this river, like chromium or arsenic, and it flows 400000 litres of sewage every day. But the Indian government doesn't react, concentrating on economical development in spite of the environment.
Another example is The Pacific Trash Vortex, also known as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch which has been discovered by the skipper and oceanographer Charles J. Moore in 1997. This Vortex consists in an enormous area of detritus. The size of this island is estimated between
700000 square kilometers to 2 million square kilometers. 267 species are affected by this “8th continent”.


Water pollution becomes one of the major issues for almost all the governments of the world and especially in the Third World. That’s why more and more initiatives are taken in order to control and reduce it.
One of the most effective way to reduce our ecological footprint on water is therefore to prevent its pollution, by not littering in the sink or even in the toilet, as well as in rivers, lakes or seas, by using pesticides, fertilizers and toxic household products as less as possible or even by having more plants in our garden for preventing polluted water to run off into water sources.
The law aims at avoiding useless water pollutions as well. In Europe, for example, dumping of nuclear waste is forbidden since 1986, one of industrial waste since 1989 in North-Western countries. Yet the fight for water quality protection is also and mostly led by agencies and organisations like Greenpeace, WWF, Wetlands International and Marine Conservation Society.
The main mean to reduce water pollution is still the water treatment plants construction, which makes us remove solid particles, inorganic, organic and chemical waste, mostly by the use of filters.
Nevertheless other ways are intended for water pollution reducing as septic tanks which let us treat sewage locally. One of the water treatment plants which is being more and more used is yet less known: the Ozone waste water treatment. It uses a generator which transforms oxygen into ozone; ozone then oxidizes bacteria and all types of waste present in the water and destroys it.
Even though all those means are very efficient, they wouldn’t be useful without the rise of an environmental consciousness. That’s why today the principal way of protecting water quality is to spread ecological ideas and living practices.


We saw the impacts and consequences that unclean or polluted water could have on Earth and society. Killing people every day, or just unavailable in parts of the World, water has become a geopolitical issue. Trying to preserve the future, green agencies or environmental organisations have sprouted all around the planet in order to suggest solutions in a World which doesn't want to change its way of life and overconsumption problems. Yet, in the meantime, flora and fauna gradually disappear. Time passes and solutions are still missing (even if few solutions are easy to find) for a World whose population will reach a nine billion limit in 2050 with inefficient accessibility to water.



Bibliography :

  • MARINE CONSERVATION SOCIETY. Marine conservation society, [online]. Page updated in 2013. Page consulted on 16/04/2013.
    URL : http://www.mcsuk.org 
  • WETLANDS INTERNATIONAL. Wetlands for water and life, [online]. Page updated in 2013. Page consulted on 17/04/2013.
    URL : http://www.wetlands.org/
  • UNICEF. Water, environment and sanitation, [online]. Page updated in 2013. Page consulted on 18/04/2013.
    URL : http://www.unicef.org/     

 

   Perfect World
Land of prosperity, filled with adventurers
Witness of History, You've lived all the ages
Harvest of the angels, symbol of all wonders
You were the fire and the light on their faces

Seas of brotherhood, you made the last sacrifice
Seas of humanity, of our spirit you're made
Seas of simple beauty and balance of my life
I cry for you today, can you just feel my pain?

You've been lured, you've been raped, losing your purity
And while Human beings are giving up their respect
For the human downfall, forever I'll feel guilty

My old friend, can you hear the sound of the waves?
From dark shallows only shrills the echo of treason
It is the conquest of sea by human pollution.




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