Water Shortage Problem and Solution

Categories: Water

Nowadays, the world’s population is facing a huge crisis which is the water shortage. People’s access to clean or freshwater is becoming very limited. Thus, many problems occur due to this serious issue as water is one of the essential aspects and needs to a living thing’s life. Apart from that, it must be known that the shortage that is there in water, or lack of having enough fresh water, in general, is affecting both humans and the environment.

On the water.org website, they concluded that 1 out of 9 people lack access to clean water due to the water shortage crisis. As it was previously mentioned, the environment as well gets affected by the same cause for the increase of pollution and poor irrigation processes that might occur. In order to address this major problem and seek finding methods towards solving it, one must be aware of how serious and dangerous it is not to have access to the amount of water that one needs daily.

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Raising awareness to such an issue is of big importance for those people who tend to forget about other people who are desperately in need of fresh water. Not only people but also other living organisms and the entire environment as well. Thus, raising awareness to this concern and seeking ways to solve it is very important for a better environment.

The first solution that can help solve this issue is very common and widely known. It is known for how good it conserves the storing of water.

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On a further explanation, this solution is based on a person’s storing of water for future usages rather than unintentionally wasting it. An individual can store water in many different methods for several benefits. Those methods mainly depend on reducing the amount of water consumed as much as you can. To illustrate more, for example, one can make sure that the water faucets do not experience any leakages, fill the sink instead of keeping the water running while doing the dishes, or other similar ways to ensure that water is not being wasted on nothing. This way of reducing water wastage will ensure that water is being conserved and thus help in avoiding any water shortage problems. In addition to that, this will be one of the great factors to drought mitigation. It will also act as a great factor for drought mitigation. Drought mitigation techniques such as soil and water conservation and efficient irrigation can greatly reduce the effects of water scarcity (Three Issues,n.d). As much as this solution can be deceiving, it has its consequences. The consequences would mainly be water contamination as a result of trying to reduce it. Thus, a person’s health would get affected in such a case. Several factors are known to affect the contamination of water at home, such as the transfer of water between containers (Lindskog, 1998), hand-to-water contact and dipping of utensils (Hammad and Dirrar,1992; Trevett et. Al, 2005), and bacterial regrowth within the storage container (Momba and Kaleni, 2002).

Another way to help solve this problem of water shortage could be through enhancing the infrastructure. It is highly important to have an efficient water infrastructure for better control and management of the water element itself. Moreover, improving the infrastructure will not only reduce the amount of clean water being wasted but will also help reduce the number of persons constantly searching for clean water on a daily basis (EPA,2018). Thus, an efficient infrastructure can do many things apart from solving the water shortage crisis. For example, it can help in improving the landscape and agriculture of a country. The better infrastructure that a country could have, the better water distribution it can get to serve the farmlands that require water usage for growing crops. another advantage for enhancing the infrastructure is how much it can increase the economic value of a country. This point relates to the fact that any country with high agricultural value has higher chances to grow economically. Apart from all of those advantages to the infrastructure solution, there must be some disadvantages that would most probably come up in the way. The disadvantage here would be that such a solution is not cost-efficient; in addition to that, it consumes a good amount of time. The statistics have shown that global estimates range from USD 6.7 trillion by 2030 to USD 22.6 trillion by 2050 (Winpenny,2015). Thus, it cannot be regarded as the best solution to the water shortage crisis.

The third and last solution that can be used to solve such issue is relatively one of the best solutions to be discussed. This solution is using the method of rain harvesting, or in other words the catchment of rainwater. Being one of the main sources of water that the rain is, makes it very useful to take advantage of such source. The harvested rainwater can undergo treatment and then get supplied (Maxwell-Gaines, 2018). Collecting the water from rain could be handy in various tasks that require the use of water. For instance, it can be used in farming, cooking, or in doing house cleaning chores. Additionally, it is very safe to drink without having to boil it or whatsoever. Many people nowadays are installing systems in their roofs for rainwater catchment and harvesting (Castelo,2018). In addition to all of that, rainwater can be used to enhance the vegetation and landscape in a society.

When comparing the problem and solution with the third, or the best solution, several inferences can be made. They are nearly the same; however, they have some slight differences. Both of them function as solutions to store water for future uses. However, the key difference between them is that the type of water being stored is different between the two of them. Storing rainwater is very different from storing the dispensed water at one’s home. The rainwater, as it was previously mentioned, is safe to be consumed by humans and living organisms, since it is not contaminated as the water stored at home could be. For instance, you can use rainwater to brush your teeth; however, you cannot use the water that you keep stored at home since it might be contaminated and hence affect your health negatively.

The second and third solutions as well have some differences that require further notice and discussion. To get started with, both of them are efficient solutions that contribute to solving the water shortage crisis. Additionally, both of them help enhance the agriculture and irrigation systems in an economy. Despite the fact that both of the solutions help in benefitting the welfare of raising crops and improving vegetation, the second solution is relatively known to be time and money consuming. Hence, it is less likely to be favored as the best solution.

After drawing inferences on how everything has its advantages and disadvantages, it can be drawn as well that the last solution does too. The disadvantages of the last solution were not discussed as the advantages were. In this case, the disadvantage would be that in order to avoid disruptions with the rainwater, some precautions must be taken. Firstly, rainwater harvesting systems are subjected to being invaded by lizards, mosquitos, or insects in general. In addition to that, they might be prone to growing algae, which will later on contaminate the water. If the system is not well-designed and maintained regularly, all of these problems could arise. Not to mention the fact that the filters installed in the system are the main element that is responsible for the contamination that might occur to the water being harvested.

Every problem must have a solution. Although the rain harvesting method might cause the rainwater to become contaminated, this issue could be avoided. If the installed system is designed efficiently, the consequences of water contamination could be eliminated. To illustrate this more, the system is made of filters, gutters, pipes, tanks, and pumps. Those are the key elements to the entire system, where each of them functions differently. However, all of them are responsible for keeping the water clean. For this particular fact, it is highly important to ensure that they are always in good condition, get regularly checked, and replaced when needed. If so is done, the water collected from the rain will definitely remain in its best condition.

Bottomline, the water shortage crisis affects living things and the economy of a nation. It is so because there is a huge lack of information from people on how severe it is. That is why it is highly important to raise awareness to such concern in order to preserve the water on planet Earth. In addition to that, people are not very aware of the causes to this issue, unlike the effects that it has. More than a billion people worldwide do not have access to safe or clean water. Not to mention the fact that many of the undeveloped countries spend a big amount of time looking for clean sources of uncontaminated water. This would bring up the importance of educating one’s self through reading, studying, and doing some research on how severe the water shortage crisis is becoming in modern-day. Hopefully, as it was previously mentioned, this crisis is pretty much solvable only if people start seeking ways to efficiently cut it out.

References

  1. OJOS. “Drought Facts.” Drought Facts, Drought, Drought Mitigation, Drought Preparedness, Drought Impacts, Drought Characteristics, 2017, threeissues.sdsu.edu/three_issues_droughtfacts04.html.
  2. United Nations. “Water Infrastructure and Investment .” Sustainable Development, 2017, sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/hlpwater/08-WaterInfrastInvest.pdf.
  3. Levy, Karen, et al. “Following the Water: a Controlled Study of Drinking Water Storage in Northern Coastal Ecuador.” Environmental Health Perspectives, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Nov. 2008, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2592274/.
  4. Impulse, Solar. “Solutions to Water Scarcity: How to Prevent Water Shortages?” Fondation Solar Impulse, Solar Impulse Foundation, solarimpulse.com/water-scarcity-solutions.
  5. GreenSutra, Team. “What Are the Disadvantages of Rainwater Harvesting ?” GreenSutra, Publisher Name GreenSutraPublisher Logo, 26 Sept. 2018, www.greensutra.in/question/what-are-the-disadvantages-of-rainwater-harvesting/.
  6. Castelo, Jeremiah. “9 Viable Water Scarcity Solutions for the 21st Century.” World Water Reserve, 15 Nov. 2018, worldwaterreserve.com/water-crisis/water-scarcity-solutions-for-the-21st-century/.
  7. “Water Crisis - Learn About The Global Water Crisis.” Water.org, water.org/our-impact/water-crisis/.
  8. “Servicing & Maintenance Of Rainwater Harvesting Systems.” Rainharvesting Systems, 11 May 2017, rainharvesting.co.uk/servicing-maintenance-rainwater-harvesting-systems/.
  9. Walton, Brett, et al. “Experts Name the Top 19 Solutions to the Global Freshwater Crisis.” Circle of Blue, Brett Walton Https://Www.circleofblue.org/Wp-Content/Uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.Png, 5 Oct. 2018, www.circleofblue.org/2010/world/experts-name-the-top-19-solutions-to-the-global-freshwater-crisis/.
Updated: Feb 02, 2024
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Water Shortage Problem and Solution. (2024, Feb 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/water-shortage-problem-and-solution-essay

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