How To Avoid A Water Crisis?
Water, called blue gold, is the most important resource for our civilization. The distribution of our water consumption is as follows: 70% agriculture; 20% industry; 10% domestic.
Our planet (nicknamed the blue planet), is composed of more than 70% of its surface. However, we only use fresh water for our needs.
Fresh water represents 3% of the water on Earth, knowing that 2/3 of it is present in the ice form (like glaciers, thus inaccessible). This leaves only one percent that can be exploited by humans to thrive.
These waters are surface waters such as lakes, rivers and springs, but especially groundwater, captured by drilling.
Fact: All waters are salty, a water qualified as “fresh” is a water whose salt concentration is < 1% (less than one gram of salt for 1L of water).
Why salt water is not drinkable
The salt water problem is that it doesn’t hydrate (annoying for water). Its salt concentration is too high compared to the water in our body. It will have to eliminate the excess salt, and thus expend more energy than it will recover. We see the snowball effect and why you should never drink sea water if you are shipwrecked.
Another reason is the microscopic flora and fauna present in the sea. Drinking this water can allow all kinds of bacteria to infiltrate your body. We can add to this the microplastics due to the pollution of the oceans.
In short, drinking sea water isn’t a good idea. We understand that to use it, we would have to:
- Treat the water; purify plastics and bacteria. This is already done for the water we drink, so it is not a problem.
- Desalinate the water, but how ?
Desalinate the sea water
There are already 19,000 factories in the world that carry out this process. The process is quite simple, seawater passes through a filter whose mesh is fine enough to retain the salt molecules and let the water molecules pass through.
A rule to know that can be used in your life: Any technical problem can be solved, but it costs more or less. And in the case of seawater desalination, it costs a lot. Capture/transport/treatment/transport
$2.7/m3 vs $1.4/m3 for rainwater treatment
Quick calculation:
1 American needs 0.5m3/day. Over a year :
Salt water = $493/year * 331 M (number of Americans) = $163 billion Rainwater = $256/year * 331M = $84 billion
Someone will have to pay the difference, and it will be either the households from their pocket (increase of the water bill), or the State, thus the taxes and indirectly, us…
The second problem concerns the remaining salt, what to do with it? It isn’t possible to reject it in nature. The salt is polluted by the treatment product and would disturb the ecosystem by increasing the salt concentration in the area.
What are we risking if we do nothing?
The problem is that the solution of water desalination will have to be thought of at some point. And it will be necessary especially to implant these factories in the underprivileged zones which don’t have the financial means to pay them…
If we do nothing, here are some possible futures:
- Groundwater drying up; By pumping too much into the groundwater, the soil under our feet becomes less consolidated, and the creation of earthquakes is favored. (Ex: California)
- The Water War; Let’s not fool ourselves. Mankind has always been at war over precious resources. When a powerful country doesn’t have enough water, will it let its population die without doing anything?
- Famine; And of course, when we fight for water, countries that don’t have the financial/military means to get it, will eventually not be able to feed themselves.
Let’s finish this article on a positive note with some examples of water protection associations:
I only know associations based in my country and working internationally, feels free to add yours in the comment section!
- SURFRIDER: protection and enhancement of lakes, rivers, ocean, waves and coastlines. It currently has over 18,000 members and operates in 12 countries through its volunteer branches.
- TARA OCEAN; Their floating laboratory, La Goélette Tara has already traveled nearly 570,000 kilometers since 2003, stopping in more than 60 countries during 12 expeditions conducted in collaboration with laboratories and international organizations of excellence (CNRS, CEA, EMBL, PSL, MIT, NASA …). Its partner laboratories have produced over 200 publications in internationally renowned scientific journals.
- THE SEA CLEANERS: They develop innovative solutions for the collection and recovery of plastic waste at sea, with the lowest possible environmental impact.
Thank you for your time!
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