Water scarcity

Research Reports IWMI's mission is to contribute to food security and poverty eradication by fostering sustainable increases in the productivity of water through better management of irrigation and other water uses in river basins. In serving this mission, IWMI concentrates on the ...

The Bundelkhand region in India has been dealing with a severe water crisis for the last two decades. This water crisis has received a significant amount of attention from the central government, media and academics. However, although multiple policies and acts have been passed, and extensive resources distributed, there has not been much improvement on the ground. This thesis analyzes the reasons behind ineffective water governance and implementation at all levels of government, and concludes that over-centralization of planning, crisis-response rather than long-term planning, and a lack of pragmatic planning are key to understanding the current situation. More generally, the disjointed nature of water governance in India has made it difficult for the public sector to carry out cohesive planning approaches. We suggest reforms that can be adopted, and consider the possible consequences to water management and planning if Bundelkhand were to become a separate state.

Large-scale anthropogenic changes to the natural environment, including land-use change, climate change, and the deterioration of ecosystem services, are all accelerating. These changes are interacting to generate five major emerging public health threats that endanger the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of people. These threats include increasing exposure to infectious disease, water scarcity, food scarcity, natural disasters, and population displacement. Taken together, they may represent the greatest public health challenge humanity has faced. There is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the dynamics of each of these threats: the complex interplay of factors that generate them, the characteristics of populations that make them particularly vulnerable, and the identification of which populations are at greatest risk from each of these threats. Such improved understanding would be the basis for stepped-up efforts at modeling and mapping global vulnerability...

Merely “surreal” might describe the interview given by Aqua America’s CEO, Nick DeBenedictis, to Crissa Shoemaker DeBree did the fact that he is lying not portend such devastating consequences for so many people. The security of the nation’s water supply is an important, but often silent, priority for water companies, said the head of Aqua America. The worldview evinced in DeBenedictis’ brief interview with DeBree is not, in fact, surreal; it’s not even “merely” self-deluded. Rather, it epitomizes the “up is down,” “true is false,” “the sky is pink” (thanks Josh Fox) propaganda promoted by the hydraulic fracturing corporations and their associates in order to justify the construction of 200,000 fracked wells, their attendant compressor stations, water withdrawal depots, freshwater impoundments, and “produced water” deep injection disposal wells. For DeBenedictis, the sky is pink—and water is the green of a big fat dollar bill.

SUMMARY - It is nowadays widely accepted that the increasing concentration of the so-called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is altering the Earth's radiation balance and causing the temperature to rise. This process in turn provides the context for a chain of events which leads to changes in the different components of the hydrological cycle, such as evapotranspiration rate, intensity

The year 2005 marks the beginning of the "International Decade for Action: Water for Life" and renewed effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) to reduce by half the proportion of the world's population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. Currently, UNICEF and WHO estimate that 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supplies and 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Providing safe water and basic sanitation to meet the MDGs will require substantial economic resources, sustainable technological solutions and courageous political will. We review five major challenges to providing safe water and sanitation on a global basis: (1) contamination of water in distribution systems, (2) growing water scarcity and the potential for water reuse and conservation, (3) implementing innovative low-cost sanitation systems, (4) providing sustainable water supplies and sanitation for megacities, and (5) reducing glob...

Food security is a high priority issue on the Chinese political agenda. China’s food security is challenged by several anthropogenic, sociopolitical and policy factors, including: population growth; urbanization and industrialization; land use changes and water scarcity; income growth and nutritional transition; and turbulence in global energy and food markets. Sustained growth in agricultural productivity and stable relations with global food suppliers are the twin anchors of food security. Shortfalls in domestic food production can take their toll on international food markets. Turbulence in global energy markets can affect food prices and supply costs, affecting food security and poverty. Policy safeguards are needed to shield food supply against such forces. China must make unremitting policy responses to address the loss of its fertile land for true progress towards the goal of national food security, by investing in infrastructure such as irrigation, drainage, storage, transport, and agricultural research and institutional reforms such as tenure security and land market liberalization. The links between water and other development-related sectors such as population, energy, food, and environment, and the interactions among them require reckoning, as they together will determine future food security and poverty reduction in China. Climate change is creating a new level of uncertainty in water governance, requiring accelerated research to avoid water-related stresses.

Rezaei Kalvani et al:Assesing ground and surface water scarcity indices using ground and surface water footprints in the Tehran province of Iran-4985-APPLIED ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 17(2):4985-4997. Abstract. Water consumption is increasing at an alarming rate all over the world. Iran is currently facing high water stress as a consequence of mismanagement. The aim of this study is to evaluate the agricultural ground and surface water footprints in the Tehran province of Iran in order to establish agricultural ground and surface water scarcity indices. Blue and green water footprints were evaluated based on the water footprint method. The volume at which ground and surface water is generated was obtained via fieldwork and GIS (Geographic Information System) data for the first time. In addition, an indicator for evaluating the agricultural ground and surface water scarcity index was established. The total groundwater footprint for the production of crops in Tehran was half of the total water footprint in 2014-2015. The results showed very high agricultural groundwater stress and moderate surface water stress. Groundwater abstraction for the agricultural sector was more unsustainable than surface water. Besides, agricultural ground and surface water scarcity indices are more suitable than existing indicators because they disclose environmental impact of crops production and help stakeholders to assess groundwater and surface water management policies. The agricultural water footprint should be reduced to sustain agricultural water consumption in Tehran.

Nowadays the humankind is urgently invited to make available for potable use satisfactory quantities of good quality water to its increasing population. There is a big effort by the water treatment specialists to analyze the solutions the humankind has at its disposition to respond to these risks. The contribution of water reuse (WR) would be great in the humankind's water tomorrow. This review aims to discuss the growing WR technology as a future solution for water supply issues. WR is broadly applied by industries to decrease the consumption of clean water. WR process should employ treated wastewater mixed with surface water at a certain proportion depending on the degree of purity of the treated water and assuring the dilution effect. WR should not employ at any case only wastewater, for safeguard reasons and psychological effects. WR should be obviously more sophisticated than both water treatment and wastewater treatment since pathogens contamination and chemicals presence can be there most elevated. Since pharmaceutical products and cosmetics substances at trace levels are found in tap water, should we assist to a new formulation of water treatment technology? This will be feasible if water treatment/wastewater treatment/WR would be merged in a super and highly standardized water/wastewater treatment technology, as a future trend.

This is the Draft Table of Contents for my forthcoming book (Lexington--hopefully December 2016): Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse.

I post it here to give my readers--for whom I'm tremendously grateful--a preview of the book's themes and argument.

During the ’90s, water privatization was a popular trend in the Global South. Strongly inspired by neoliberal thinking and promoted by international development agencies, it was seen as a comprehensive solution for water issues. However, this tendency was based on some misconceptions and unfounded assumptions and did not manage to show their intended benefits. Thus, water privatization in the Global South started to decline after the 2000s. Conversely, in Chile, a broad process of water neoliberalization imposed under the military dictatorship of Pinochet persisted over the years, evidencing the underlying power relations it maintains and generating unjust social results. Nowadays, the neoliberal water model remains almost unchanged: while it has fostered the economy and benefited the countries’ elites, it has also created and worsened water scarcity and dispossessed communities from this resource. As will be seen in the emblematic case of Petorca Province, this has primarily affected peasants, rural populations, and indigenous people, ultimately altering local identities and social relations.

Water is one of the most essential element for survival for all forms of life. Almost 71% of the earth's surface is covered by water. But inspite of the large amount of water present on the surface of the earth only 3% of the total water available is fresh water. Out of this 3%, only 0.4% usable and drinkable water is available to us which is to be shared by 7.7 billion inhabitants. Due to unequal water distribution naturally, we see very wet and very dry geographic regions across the globe. The increase in freshwater demand in the recent years due to industrialization and human needs is leading to water scarcity. There are several geographical regions where adequate drinking water is not available. There is also a huge depletion of ground water. Proper measures if not taken may lead to severe water shortage by the 2050. The researcher wants to understand the gravity of water scarcity in India with a focus on north east India, the water sources utilized by inhabitants and the ground water condition.

Water scarcity is one of the utmost issues and challenges of the 21st century. It is not only thequantity aspect causing the main problems, but furthermore the quality, distribution and thewasteful management. Estimated climate change, population growth and economicdevelopments further strain available water sources. As the Middle East and North Africa is aregion of great interest to me, this paper presents an overall introductory on the watersituation in Egypt. Basic country and water characteristics are presented, followed by someproject examples and current solutions.