70% of the Earth is made of water but even in this setting, people still experience water crises. World Wide Fund has reported that there are 1.1 billion people who do not have access to water and 2.7 billion people experience scarcity of water supply for a month each year.
Being one of man's basic needs, water is essential to one's daily life to survive. This goes beyond serving as a refreshment and an answer to thirst. Water is also being used for hydrating livestock, sustaining crops and plantations, for cleansing or washing, as the main component for a hydropower plant, and for many other functions.
Water scarcity is an issue that bears a huge impact not only on the parts affected by it but the whole world as well. The following scenarios are the predicted outcome of a world plagued with water shortage.
First, the lack of clean water means exposure to water-borne illnesses. The lack of clean water gets worse as the global population balloons and the water supply continues to shrink.
Water crisis will also cause an inevitable imbalance in nature. Looking at Imperial Valley in California as an example, the sinking terrain ushered in by excessive and continuous extraction of groundwater leads to an increased risk for earthquakes in the area.
Shortage in water can also mean a shortage of food production. As previously established, water is essential in agriculture. In turn, if there is less water supplied to farms for animals and crops, then there would be a lower number of healthy produce.
Water scarcity will cause an energy shortage as well because some of the energy production processes require freshwater resources. This will put two of man's needs in peril.
Lack of water supply can also lead to an economic slowdown. Research from the United Nations puts an estimated half of the global population to possibly move to areas where water is available by 2030. This will put a limit to the production of water-intensive goods, including food and medicine. This chain includes increased illnesses and increased costs of water.
The worst prediction of all is the possible war rising from fighting over the shrinking supply of water.
Research scientist Essam Heggy looks into the possibility for a type of water education that the whole world can benefit from. According to the research scientist, the two possibilities that the world should be wary of is the need to migrate constantly and the arising conflict between the inhabitants.
