The Global Water Crisis: What You Need to Know
A detailed overview of everything you need to know about the relationship between climate change, water scarcity, and globalization.
In an age of awareness, technology and a countless number of informative platforms, claims and statements are often misconstrued and conflicting. Combining the different aspects of the global water crisis and climate change, here’s what you need to know —
Climate change is real
Climate change, defined as any process that modifies our climate system, is now used to refer to any man-made process that brings about variability in the weather. The most prominent of these is global warming. Global warming is causing sea levels to rise, glaciers to retreat, seasons to shift, wildlife to migrate and often become endangered, and temperatures to steadily rise. Despite only a relatively small amount of global warming having occurred thus far, the effects and impacts it has on our ecosystem are quite drastic. We can expect at least a 2–3 degree Celsius rise in global temperature over the next few decades, and this will no doubt make conditions worse. Many have argued for ‘global cooling’, but scientific research has revealed that any drops in temperature are merely short-term fluctuations and that the overall temperature of the planet is in fact on the rise. The UN established The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to evaluate the science of climate change, and NASA regularly provides detailed projections of its outcomes. One of the major outcomes is the greenhouse effect, a phenomenon that several international treaties and protocols have been created to combat.
The greenhouse effect refers to a process by which radiation from the sun is trapped by certain gases (like carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere, resulting in warming of the earths atmosphere above normal levels. Water vapor is the biggest contributor to the greenhouse effect. Water vapor cycles through the atmosphere rapidly, coming from oceans and rivers and being returned to the earth in the form of rain and snow. As temperature rises, evaporation increases, causing greater amounts of water vapor in the air and more warming. Warming causes evaporation, which causes further warming, which in turn results in more evaporation. This loop is the most important in climate change as it results in an increase in climate sensitivity. Our water reserves, thus, play a crucial role in climate change.
There is more stress on our water reserves than ever before
Increased evaporation has led to increased rainfall in certain areas, and a complete lack of rainfall in others. While this may sound like it is not an issue since we are still able to get water through rainfall, the rising temperatures of the earth have placed heavy stress on them. Our population and its needs are growing exponentially. A larger population means greater agricultural and energy demands. Both of these sectors are extremely water-dependent. With groundwater being depleted way faster than it is replenished, meltwater from glaciers being insufficient to replenish this groundwater, and rainfall patterns changing such that once monsoon-rich areas are now facing drought while relatively dry regions are scrambling to prepare their infrastructure for heavy flooding, our water reserves are under tremendous stress. I focus here on groundwater because it comprises 1% of the 2% freshwater that we have access to, and also because this small 2% is used for 50% of our total water needs. Between depletion, changing water cycles, and contamination of sources, even earlier untouched sources are now being dipped into. From the perspective of a growing population, the demands and inequities are only going to grow. Already, 1.2 billion people live in water-scarce regions and 1.6 billion cannot afford water. This leaves a significant proportion of our population exposed to unsanitary conditions and unsafe drinking water, resulting in cases of cholera, typhoid and other water-borne diseases. Diarrhea due to unsafe drinking water takes the lives of about 2 million children every year. Over the next 10 years, the number of people surviving with water inadequacy is expected to be close to 4 billion. All this, while our water reserves continue to be exploited by humans and altered by climate change.
The effects of climate change and water scarcity are visible in the developed and developing word
The effects of climate change and water scarcity are visible everywhere. The effects vary in intensity from place-to-place, but they have reached a point where they are visibly bad even in the most developed countries. Places like Africa, India and China have already been suffering from resource scarcity, inequality, and economic dependency for a while. Now, even the United States is suffering from flooding, droughts, economic losses and water and energy cuts as the result of climate change.
As one can see above, even the United States has a significant region in the red, or high depletion, zone; thereby joining Africa, India, Child, and parts of the Middle East and Australia.
The severity truly comes to light if one looks at India’s current water crisis. Many have described it as India’s worst water crisis yet. Earlier in the year, a massive power plant that harvested water from the Ganges river was found to have shockingly low water levels. This led to heavy power cuts and water shortages. Over 1000 families ran out of water, and the entire region surrounding this power plant lost energy entirely for 10 days. Further, the state made a big loss from having to transfer packaged drinking water to its residents. This all occurred because water levels in the river and dropped by over a quarter of its original volume. This water source, by nature of an agreement, provides water to parts of India and Bangladesh. It has now dried up to such an extent that it cannot even replenish groundwater reserves anymore. Additionally, most of the groundwater and river water has been polluted by arsenic and fluoride from industrial run off. Emmanuel Theophilus, a man documenting his travels around the world with his son, went kayaking in the Ganges recently. He claimed that the “river was so dirty it stank.”
“river was so dirty it stank.”
Many other states are also facing similar issues. Punjab and Maharashtra are currently in legal battles over ownership and rights to water resources while Orissa, an agriculture-heavy state sees scanty rainfall and many farmer suicides every year. Fishermen are unable to do their jobs since many water bodies are now devoid of any marine life. When there is not even water to drink, is it really surprising that there is no water for sanitation either? These are the kinds of conditions faced by populations in India, China and most of all in Sub Saharan Africa. The economic losses are equally severe. America is not far from facing this kind of inconvenience, with California and the Great Plains regions already facing massive water shortages.
Climate change has both positive and negative outcomes
Climate change is scary, but with its outcomes becoming so visible and the world becoming increasingly connected, word has spread enough to result in some groundbreaking solutions and response-actions. From social innovation and corporate response to unifying treaties and agreements and thorough research, action is finally being taken and progress is finally being made. The short-term benefit of increased rainfall may be great for certain areas, but it means reduced rainfall and drought in others. There are a range of negative effects that are more long-term as well. Infrastructure originally created for certain climatic conditions (such as scarce rainfall) has to be adapted to the new weather patterns in the region (such as flooding). A major change that researchers have found is the change in tornadoes and hurricanes. While tornadoes are not expected to change in intensity or severity, there is an entirely new list of high-risk regions for tornadoes that did not to worry about this natural disaster before. Hurricanes, on the other hand, are expected to increase in intensity, leaving many areas at risk of expensive and morbid damage. While steps in a sustainable direction have been made and rainfall is still plentiful, if emissions continue to increase and greenhouse effect continues to get worse, even the megacities of the world like New York and London face the risk of submergence due to rising sea levels. In the long run, climate change will cost us billions in not only money, but more importantly lives and quality of life.
It is too late… Except it isn’t
The harsh nature of the outcomes of climate change often make it sound like a lost cause; like there can’t be anything done and that there is no point in even trying. This is the furthest thing from the truth. Yes, climate change has come too far to be reversed now, but it is still in its early stages. It is still early enough that with the right combinations of social initiatives, resource-sharing and distribution treaties and policies, international cooperation and action, and groundbreaking sustainable innovation and reform, it can be slowed down significantly enough to be a smaller threat to our ecosystem. Several targets for mitigating the effects of climate change have already been set. These include reversal of certain depletion trajectories, conservation of water resources, sustainable action at a global scale, and reduction in emissions that increase global warming. There is a long way to go. Even after years of debating, world leaders have still been unable to arrive at a unanimous agreement on the sharing of the emission and greenhouse gas burden. The same is the issue when it comes to agreements on sharing water reserves. Slowing down climate change will give us more time to prepare for the infrastructural and economic burden that we will have to face as a result of it (climate change). According to a Stern review on the economic impacts of climate change, slowing down the process can actually save us billions. While climate change has already come a long way and affected us extensively, it isn’t too late for response action to be effective and beneficial.
