Water - Growing Global Demand for Scarce Resource

Shannon DeWitt
9-13-10
10:19 AM

This article discusses the growing demand of water resources in countries all over the world. With global warming and population increases, more and more people need the water that is already scarce for the existing population. Since rainfall amounts have decreased, people are turning to ground water as their main water source. “The Stockholm-based International Water Institute estimates a fifth of the world’s population now draws upon ground water sources,” as stated in the article. This is a problem because of the high risk of pollution in the water. The article states that two million tons of human wastes are discharged into ground water worldwide each day. Also, seventy percent of untreated industrial waste is dumped directly into water in developing nations.

In this article, I would have liked to have read some more about what solutions might be proposed to deal with this situation. The dumping of untreated industrial waste directly into water sources in developing nations is extremely disturbing and should be treated as a priority by nations all over the world. All water eventually makes its way into the ocean which means the pollution can be carried by currents to all parts of the world. So often, the most powerful nations, such as the U.S., ignore serious issues such as this one because they are not a direct threat to its own citizens, but pollution issues should be taken much more seriously as they pollution will continue to grow and contaminate water on a larger scale if not dealt with immediately.

http://www.euronews.net/2010/09/08/growing-global-demand-for-scarce-resource/