Water is vital necessity of human life. Nowadays, the world is incurring a serious problem like shortage of water. Britain's chief scientist John Beddington (2010) claimed that if in the coming decade the rate of population growth climbs, the scarcity of drinkable water will become the urgent problem for all humanity. Unfortunately, lack of potable water has bad influence on people’s health and may lead to international conflicts. Because of the shortage of water people use water from unsafe sources. It also means that people can not properly wash, clean their clothes and houses. It is obvious that poor quality of water and violation of sanitary standards can cause serious diseases. Furthermore, today there is competition for water between …show more content…
If agriculture and industry decreased waste of water, it is clear that it would help to conserve potable water. So, it would be a good decision to use recycled water in these spheres because they do not require fresh water. Moreover, the price of recycled water is cheaper than imported water and desalination. Contorer (2010) believes that when the cost of potable water rises, the price of recycled water will go up more slowly than both imported water and desalinated water in spite of external factors. Also modern technology makes it possible to get safe drinking water satisfying all sanitary requirements as a result of disinfection with ultraviolet light. These two advantages related to safety and availability make recycling of water effective to use. Today Singapore has five treatment plants, which produce ultra-clean, high-grade Newater and able to meet 30 percent of total national demand. (Government of Singapore 2010)
Actually, freshwater is a small amount of the world’s water. Furthermore, all resources of drinkable water are not available to use.
Therefore, it would be an advisable solution to desalinate seawater in areas of drought. This method is widely used only in countries which are situated on islands or having access to seawater. For instance, the largest desalination plant in the world is in the United Arab Emirates. Jebel Ali is capable of desalinating 300 million cubic meters of water per year. ( Desalination n.d)
The first method, distillation, is the process of heating water to its boiling point, collecting the steam, and condensing the purified water vapor. The process is usually repeated a few times to ensure success in purification (Ocean Water Desalination). Distillation uses the property of higher boiling points in salts than in pure water. Possible contaminants that require removal for safe water consumption could include bacteria, lead, mercury, sodium, and chlorine. After boiling the water, water vapor moves through a series of tubes to a separate container where the heat source is removed, and the water is able to condense, now purified. Some strengths of distillation include the removal of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury, the removal of hardening agents such as calcium and phosphorus, and the removal of bacteria from water by heating. This elimination of bacteria is especially helpful in developing countries due to the increased risk of contamination because of unsanitary conditions. In this process, consideration needs to be given for adequate resources and infrastructure to deliver purified water to the general population of underdeveloped areas. A few disadvantages exist in that distillation does not remove chlorine and is relatively ineffective as the input is about five times the output (Water Treatment Alternatives -
There is a water crisis which faces many parts of the world and it is a threat to survival of human beings since humans are primarily dependent on water. Shortage in drinking water is beginning to show its effects in first world countries, but is a current major problem facing lesser developed countries which have not taken drastic steps to harvest water and purify it to make it safe for human consumption. In developed countries the population growth has strained available water resources and stretched the ability of governments and private firms to provide safe drinking water to the vast majority of the population. Seventy one percent of
Actually, only one percent of the world's water has the capability of being used by us. About ninety-seven percent is salty seawater, and two percent is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. That only leaves one percent of the precious water that is to be used by not only people, but used by animals, plants, and food. Dehydration, which is the lack of water, will kill us faster than starvation, which is the lack of food. Since the plants and
Water may be a renewable resource, but the world’s supply of drinkable fresh water is being consumed more rapidly than ever before, and most importantly, more rapidly than it can be replenished. Only 2.5% of water on Earth is fresh
Incredible water shortage in the Middle East region has compelled countries to reuse this water for many purposes. Treated wastewater can be used in agriculture, industry, recharging aquifers (Middle East Water Shortage). This method leads to conservation of traditional sources of water which further can be used “for meeting the demand for higher-quality water such as that for drinking, or for high value-added industrial and agricultural uses.” Also the climate fickleness’ influence will lessen by means of reuse. But there are few problems connected with leading treatment into usage. One of them are health and environmental risks (Baroudy 2005, 25-35). Purified in such way water contains bacteria, viruses and parasites (Middle East Water Shortage). Use of treated water can cause different infectious and gastrointestinal diseases. According to Baroudy even contact with this water sometimes can cause allergies and other dermatological illnesses (2005, 25-35). Another problem is that this water has some biological and chemical matter dissolved in it, which can obstruct soil pores. Clogged soil has less ability for leaking which leads to bad irrigation efficiencies (Middle East Water Shortage). But, of course, some standards with the purpose to limit these effects were elaborated. Toughening standards require financial investments (Baroudy 2005, 25-35). Process of waste treatment requires special equipment and construction of special water treatment
Desalination is one of the more popular options being considered to attempt to terminate the drought. Desalination is a process through which salt water is pumped from the ocean in to a treatment facility, and then the salt is extracted to make it possible to be used domestically. This is a long drawn out process, which involves seven different steps. The steps of desalination include the
In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrote an essay about population growth that reflects a pessimistic view to future economic development. This essay was a result of his discussion with positivists that tend to praise perfectibility of the man and knowledge diffusion as a source of prosperity for future generations. Malthus essay about population growth based on observing 17th and 18th century US population data.
Falling in love with psychology was a bit of an accident. It started my junior year, one of the most stressful years of my life. I was having my academic conference with my counselor who I had just met for the first time. I had a multitude of classes to choose from, but despite all of my options, I couldn’t choose. My conference was coming to a close; therefore, my counselor urged me to choose a class. She pointed out Advanced Placement Psychology, “Lots of my students say this class is interesting...they typically come out of it loving it or hating it on a rare occasion.” I decided to give it a shot, hoping that the odds were in my favor with this class that I let a stranger pick for me.
As the worlds population grows, it is forced by circumstances that it has created to face the limitations of the worlds resources. Most people in the US have always been fortunate enough to have enough of whatever they wanted. When something they like breaks or wears out, they throw it away or buy a new one, and they often don’t even make an attempt to repair an item. They neglect basic maintenance until they damage their belongings beyond repair, and expect that they’ll always have enough. But some things are beyond their control, beyond there power or financial ability to replace or repair. The world’s drinking water supply is one of these without concern, without attention, without preventative maintenance and reclamation and
It is an essential resource for sustaining life as well as central to agriculture and rural development, and is intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of people across the world. According to the World Bank, (2010) report, water is a scarce resource with multiple interwoven uses that range from drinking water, energy, irrigation, manufacturing things, transport of people and goods among others. The report further states that, more than one-sixth of the Worlds’ population does not have access to safe drinking water, with 80% living in rural areas thus access to water cannot not be guaranteed globally.
Water is considered as an essential for human existence. We all can survive without food for some day but no one can live without water at least two days. Human body consists of 70% percent of water and our globe is covered by 69.9% percent of water. But unfortunately the useable fresh water is just 2.5% out of it. Water is a social good, water is an economic good, water has ecological value and water has religious, moral and cultural value.
Desalination continues to assist various countries such as Saudi Arabia in increasing their supply of freshwater to the public. In his report, Alghariani (2003) suggests that the expense of spare parts, maintenance and training costs, as well as the difficulty of some processes involved, has lead to the low production volume from desalination techniques, however, Lisa Henthorne of the International Desalination Association, claims that as of 2009, there were 14,451 desalination plants with a combined production volume of 59.9 million cubic metres per day, indicating an increase in the supply of freshwater. Although seawater desalination removes most of the contaminants in the water, and not all, it still provides means for utilizing the ocean, which is the world’s main water resource, and this continues to deliver high quality water, which is suitable for human consumption, therefore making significant contributions to the supply of water to arid regions.
Access to clean water is a basic human right and yet people around the world don’t have that right and they struggle to survive without it. The many uses of clean and potable water include water for drinking to cooking other daily purpose. It is reported that over 1.1 billion people lack access to an improved water resource and three million individuals, and majority of them children, suffer and die from water-related disease. The need to improve water quality and providing clean water should be major project for developed countries like the US and so called “well developed countries”.
Although 70% of the surface of our planet is cover by water only 2.5% is fresh water. Most of this fresh water is inaccessible for human consumption with most of it being trap in glaciers or underground (Fry, 2005).
Water has always been an important part of life. Without it man cannot survive after just a few days. Yet we use water as if it was an infinite resource, allowing it to go down the drain without a care in the world. What happens when we finally run out of water? When the last drops dry out? Should we wait for it?