A Day With No Fresh Water.
Think about how often you utilise fresh water in your daily lives. Not just consume the recommended eight glasses of water per day, but really utilise the availability of a non-contaminated supply of h2o to your premises.
We tend to believe our water supply is an infinite system of continuous liquid nourishment with no real consequences for over-consumption. Sure, we occasionally shower a couple minutes beyond the recommended time limit, or accidentally leave the kitchen tap running overnight. These minute tendencies won't really disrupt to our water supply, right? You're just a cog in an otherwise indestructible system.
Well, here are the facts:
97-97.5% of earth's water is salt water, leaving only 2.5-3% fresh water, i.e. safe for human consumption. [1]
Only 0.014% of earth's water is easily accessible [2]
Globally, humans consume over 4 trillion cubic metres of fresh water per year [3]
This rate of consumption compared with our available resources for sustaining earth's fresh water supply is proving catastrophic for the human race, with reports suggesting that demand vs supply will outweigh by 40% as early as 2030 [4].
So let us picture a world in which we no longer have clean water. What would our daily routine look like? Let's take the average American household as an example.
For starters, personal hygiene would certainly take a hit. The average American uses 17.2 gallons of water per shower, running at an estimated 8.2 minutes. That's 2.1 gallons of water per minute [8]. Using salt water from our oceans might provide an excellent exfoliate for the skin, but it will no doubt leave our bodies dehydrated and craving proper moisture.
What about something as simple as flushing a toilet? Guess what. Over 47% of the average water use in the American household comes straight from flushing. Nearly half [9]. If septic tanks were replaced with contaminated waters, you'll likely see a spike in disease such as Typhoid and Dysentry.
This may seem like an exaggerated possibility, but waterborne diseases kill more than 3.4 million worldwide per year according to the World Health Organisation [10]. The sole reason that such a statistic seems foreign to majority of the world is due to the abundant accessibility of fresh water in first world countries, or so it may seem.
Now let's have a look at our second most important fuel source: food. The food we ingest accounts for approximately 20% of our total daily water intake. The remaining 80% isn't even straight up water, it's a combination of beverages such as coffee, soft drinks, energy drinks and even alcoholic beverages [11]. You may not be too invested in consuming your recommended two-litres of water per day, but imagine a world where beer or vodka was no longer on the menu. I'm sure a lot more people would be up in arms wanting to find a solution.
Agriculture in the United States makes up for roughly 80% of the country's total water consumption [12]. This isn't merely from the nourishment required for feeding the plants and animals. 'Virtual Water', the water simply used for the production of food and resources, is essential for ensuring quality ingredients for cooking. Even rice, arguably the cheapest consumable in the world, requires vast amounts of fresh water for growth. Although this water is void in the end product, if it were missing from the production line, these consumables would cease to exist.
Do you enjoy taking walks through lush gardens or vibrant park lands? Well say goodbye to your vivid natural colour palette and hello to an enticing spectrum of dust, dirt and dread. You might be used to throwing non-palatable water onto plants, but saltwater is a whole different ball game. Fresh water generally travels down the soil and into the roots via osmosis, essentially a natural filter slowing down the plant's consumption of salt in fresh water. Salt water contains, well, far too much salt, which instead sucks out the moisture from the plants, killing them [13].
Sound like a pretty terrible existence? Sadly, this isn't a distant reality. We have already entered an unprecedented water crisis which is affecting cities around the world:
In Cape Town, South Africa's second largest city, residents are counting down the days before the dreaded 'Day Zero', the day in which their country reaches 0% fresh water capacity [5]. A combination of obsolete infrastructure and disappointing rain fall has resulted in the city's farmers need to contribute 10 million litres of private water to flow into the cities dam, yet this has only delayed their Day Zero until 2019. [6] [7]
The residents of Cape Town have become accustomed to the rationed lifestyle of water shortage, with taps and water mains to homes being switched off at the source for extended periods of time, usually allowing only a few hours of flowing water per household, per day. Unfortunately, residents have been forced to line up overnight to collect fresh water from their dwindling supplies, as the demand for alternative sources of clean water rises [5].
São Paulo, Brazil, has recently experienced similar infrastructural issues to Cape Town. The city uses a whopping 180 litres of daily water per person, 50 percent higher than Germany. Residents have been forced to purchase expensive water from tank trucks, or drill wells to collect groundwater [15].
United Arab Emirates, one of the richest countries in the world, is also among the world's ten most arid states, yet accounts for 15% of the worlds desalinated water consumption [14]. Despite the country's wealth, the lack of water is a growing concern. Without focus on sustainability, the lack of water could soon cripple the country's economy.
We are in desperate need of a solution. Mit-Ra Industries is working hard to revolutionise the way we think about water consumption. Our state-of-the-art technology converts non-palatable saltwater into fresh, consumable water, bringing us one step further to solving an international water crisis. Personal hygiene, food production and general water consumption can continue to be a part of our daily lives by tapping into the renewable resources we have on earth to provide a better tomorrow.
But there is more to it than that. We need to be conscientious of the way we utilise our water. Be considerate of that leaky tap, or those extra minutes in the shower. All of these factors add up to a far greater cost to our environment. Together, we can build a world that knows no bounds for proper water consumption and continues to foster pure hydration for generations to come.
References:
[1] https://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01001395/Centricity/ModuleInstance/17064/Water_Resources.pdf
[2] http://www.ncdo.nl/sites/default/files/Globaliseringsreeks%203%20Water.pdf
[3] http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/average-daily-water-usage
[4] https://www.processingmagazine.com/global-demand-for-water-to-outstrip-supply-by-2030-report-warns/
[5] https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/world-water-day-water-crisis-explained/
[6] https://qz.com/africa/1201156/farmers-now-accustomed-to-a-drying-climate-are-donating-water-to-cape-town/
[7] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-drought/cape-town-day-zero-pushed-back-to-2019-as-dams-fill-up-in-south-africa-idUSKCN1HA1LN
[8] https://www.home-water-works.org/indoor-use/showers
[9] https://www.conserveh2o.org/toilet-water-use
[10] https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2005-03-17-voa34-67381152/274768.html
[11] http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2004/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-Water-Potassium-Sodium-Chloride-and-Sulfate.aspx
[12] https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/irrigation-water-use.aspx
[13] http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar97/853362106.Bt.r.html
[14] https://www.thenational.ae/uae/government/water-shortages-now-a-huge-concern-for-uae-says-energy-minister-1.712884
[15] http://www.humanosphere.org/environment/2015/12/water-crisis-brazil-largest-city-americas-drying/
