Blog 9: Tackling water inequality: can we avoid a global crisis?

This article discusses our world’s fresh water supply and if action is not taken place now, the fresh water that we will essentially need in the future will become similar to the gasoline fuel of the present. Just like gas prices continue to go up and we never truly know if prices will ever go back down, our water supply for our future is also being questioned.  Just like the article states, water scarcity already exists within some regions of the northern hemisphere and almost every country in the southern hemisphere faces issues and problems relating to water inequality. There are also many states in America that face water scarcity and there are competitions and struggles among them for access to clean water from rivers and lakes. In the United Kingdom there are already issues concerning an available water supply because they face such severe droughts and this will continue to be a major concern to worry about within the next two decades.  The key problem and issues is water management. Overall everyone is not using their water supply efficiently. Humans are wasting away water not knowing that in the future having fresh, clean water could potentially be a major crisis. The article also states that we need to educated citizens and government policies and also develop an ethos for responsible water consumption and local water management. We also need to ask ourselves what are our responsibilities as water users are and how can we encourage more sustainable forms of water consumption?

Overall this article really brings up some extremely crucial questions. We all need to ask ourselves do we really need to take a thirty minute shower or do we really need to wash our car every month. Even the simplest of things and bringing awareness to these issues can help us prepare for the future. Knowing that water is something we need to survive, we all need to start taking precautions and learning how we can tackle inequality and just like the article says, avoid a global crisis. Raising awareness of this issue is most certainly a key component and the elite and those living in the higher, industrialized countries need to not take for granted their fresh water supply, because perhaps in 20 or 30 years clean water might not be available. Right now, there are about one billion people who live without clean drinking water and this number continues to rise. This is very important and valuable information and everyone needs to be aware of these statistics and what could happen in the future if we are not careful.

http://www.scienceomega.com/article/972/tackling-water-inequality-can-we-avoid-a-global-crisis

Meredith Casacchia
4-9-2013 12:50pm