GLOBAL: Poverty and Lack of water access: Inextricably linked
STATISTICS:
● 1.1 billion people on the planet live in an area with water scarcity and
improper sanitation.
● 2.6 billion in the world lack basic sanitation.
● Every 15 seconds, a child dies of a preventable disease caused by lack of
water.
● The government in Uganda spends $20 million per year to overcome
poverty.
● 440 children in Uganda die every week due to waterborne diseases.
● 250000 children in Pakistan die each year from waterborne diseases that
could’ve been prevented.
● 90% of wastewater in Africa is untreated.
HOW IT IMPACTS PEOPLE:
● Lots of time is spent trekking to to find water, when that time could’ve
been spent doing other activities such as working for income, or receiving
an education.
● The water is often contaminated, which causes diseases and sometimes
death.
● Improved sanitation and water would increase productivity and the
country’s economy.
● Low water causes people to live in poverty, which leaves people to
contaminate the vulnerable environment. This can trigger natural
disasters such as floods, droughts, and landslides to occur.
HOW WOULD LESS WATER CHANGE MY LIFE:
● Less water for agriculture, so less food and less business for farming.
● Fishing is huge in Nova Scotia, so less water would damage our economy.
● Boats and ships would be affected.
● All these would lead to poverty, and less money as those greatly affect our
economy.
WHAT WE LEARNED:
1. Water shortage affects people in extreme ways (disease, death, etc.)
2. It is happening now in many different countries around the world, most being
poor areas.
3. It isn’t expensive to provide clean water to countries that are in need.
The Humanitarian Impact of the Global Water Crisis.
1. -Tsunami of December 2004 claimed more than a quarter-million lives.
- For the first time in human history, a smaller proportion of the global population
now lives in rural areas, according to UN statistics from June 2006.
- today a global withdrawal of 600-700km3/a ( cubic kilometers per year ) makes
groundwater the world’s most extracted raw material.
- January 2003 70 % of piped water supply in the European Union and effectively
supports rural communities across large areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
- A smaller proportion of the global population now lives in rural areas, according
to UN statistics from June 2006.
-Resource available for human consumption every year is approximately 14,000
sqkm, but only represents 0.03 percent of all Earth’s water.
2. The issue we have is that someday we literally may not have water in the
future to come, and people are over using our water resources, faster than it can
sustain itself. “In 2050 water resources will likely become more valuable than oil”,
which could cause wars over water, which would affect people, and Canada has
the most fresh water as of now, so this could cause a huge problem here.
3. Personal hygiene would be directly affected, and the foods we are accustomed
to eating would be changed, there would be no fresh produce, it would be more
processed foods.
4. We should watch our water usage, because it may come to a near end quicker
than we think. We are very fortunate to have as many water resource
as we do, and that we are a developed country, so we can access our water. We
also learned that it is estimated that one needs 1,000 cubic metres of water to
grow one tonne of grain, which is alot.
Water Crisis Impact
1.
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what are some statistics you found have found in your article?
only 2.5% of earth’s water is fresh and only 0.01% is accessible.
70% of water consumption is for agricultural use.
only 8% of consumption is for household use.
50% of the world’s population has running tap water.
95% of the world’s drinking water is in public hands but only 83% of the world’s
population has access to improved water supply.
2. Describe your issue and how it impacts people.
● The issue is that governments are privatizing water. This issue impacts people
because the poor people who can not afford water will not be able to have water
at all. Therefore the poor get poorer and the people who are fortunate enough to
get water get all the benefits.
3. If you were experiencing issues of water scarcity, how would your life be
changed?
● Water scarcity could affect every aspect of a person’s life.
● Their hygiene would not be as good as it is now.
● the food we eat would be different because of the amount of water we use in our
food.
4.what are 3 things you have learned from this article?
● we are fortunate to live in a place that has accessible water.
● privatization can work if it is done in the right way. It needs to be enforced by the
government with strict rules and punishments.
● Many Countries suffer from their government privatizing water mostly because
they can’t afford it.
● United Nations World Health Organization and the Unicef children’s agency are
helping the fight to get poor people water.
Water and Conflict
What are some statistics you have found in your article?
-By 2025 world population would increase to 2.6 billion more than the present day
-Water demands would exceed availability by 56%
-Currently 263 rivers and countless aquifers that either cross or demarcate international
political boundaries
-Each person in a country has access to less than 1500 cubic metres of water each
year
-Water scarcity refers to situations in which each person in a country has access to less
than 1000 cubic metres of water per year
-Since 1950 approximately 80% of all violent disputes over water resources globally
have occurred in the Middle East
-Globally, there are some 263 river basins that span across international borders
-These international river basins cover almost one half of the Earths land surface and
are also home to approximately 40% of the world’s population. These rivers generate
60% of fresh water flows around the world
-Aaron Wolf stated that by 2013 nearly three billion (or 40%) of the world’s population
will be living in countries that have difficulty mobilizing enough water to meet their
domestic needs
Describe your issue and how it impacts people
The world population is going to keep increasing, so water shortages will become more
common, and there will be more conflict over water, especially because it is such a vital
resource to human survival. This will be seen more in areas that are already in water
shortages, as they will only get worse
If you were experiencing issues of water scarcity, how would your life be
changed?
Since water is such a vital resource your life would begin to be based around it, you
would have to abandon whatever you usually do to search for a water source, a water
shortage is different from a famine because we can survive longer without food than
water, so it would be more extreme. There would likely conflicts based around water
shortages and there would be cases of water hoarding, while others were dying of thirst.
Three things I learned from this article
-Most disputes over water occur in the Middle East.
-Even though rural farms and livestock are the ones in need of water, it’s the urban
areas that are in such a high disproportionate demand for water.
-Its predicted that by 2015, India will run out of the majority of its water due to its already
short supply of the resource.
Water and Conflict Pt 2
1) -By 2025 world population will increase by 2.6 billion and water demands would
exceed availability by 56%
-there are currently 263 rivers and countless aquifers that either cross or
democrat
international policies.
-90% of countries in the world must share these water basins with 1 or 2 states.
-each person in a country has less than 1500 cubic meters of water each year.
-two thirds of the world's population will live in areas with acute water by 2025.
-since 1950 80% of violent disputes over water occur in the middle east.
-there is 263 river basins that span across international waters. Europe has 67,
africa has 59, asia has 57, north america has 40, and south america has 38. These
cover ½ of the earth and 40% of them are polluted and 60% are freshwater.
2) The main issue is a general lack of accessible water that is leading to
international disputes and deaths. This has a large impact on people because it will
cause people to leave their homes or to stay and fight for their rights for water.
3) Not having water would impact my personal life because I wouldn’t be able to
stay hydrated during sports, we wouldn’t be able to shower or wash our clothes. We
also wouldn't be able to clean dishes and water our lawns/gardens. Agriculture would
also be greatly impacted because farmers wouldn't be able to hydrate their fields and
we will lose a lot of crops.
4) From reading the article three things that out group learned would be:
- Countries have already gone to war over water.
-Egypt uses the majority of the Nile river's water even though 85% of it is
generated from Ethiopia.
-Since 1950 approximately 80% of all violent disputes over water occurred in the
middle east.
Water and Conflict Article Discussion
1. What are some statistics you have found in your article?
● by 2025 the population will increase to 2.6 billion more than the present day and
water demands will exceed availability by 56 percent
● There are 263 rivers and aquifers that either cross or demarcate international
political boundaries. 90 percent of countries in the world must share these water
basins with at least one or two states
● It is estimated that two thirds of the earth's population will live in areas of acute
water stress or water scarcity by 2025 (>1000 cubic meters available to a person)
● since 1950, approximately 80% of all violent disputes over water resources
globally have occurred in the middle east
● Ethiopia produces 85% of the total Nile waters
● of the 263 shared water basins through international borders, Europe (67) Africa
(59) Asia (57) North America (40) South America (38)
● these river basins cover almost one half of the earth’s land surface. They are
also home to approximately 40% of the earth's population and these rivers
generate 60% of freshwater flows around the globe.
● At Least 90% of water resources are situated under several sovereign nations
2. The issue presented in this article revolves around the conflict of a decreasing
worldwide water supply. The article is full of scattered statistics that explain how the
conflicts around water are resulting in deaths all across the globe. For example, water
related violence occurred in Bangalore where 25 people died. This water conflicts are
resulting in displacement of populations, deaths and even more water shortage.
3. Our lives would be changed if we were experiencing water scarcity in ways such as
our diets could be changed as produce requires high amounts of water. Household uses
of water would also be given more thought and done less frequently.
4. We have learned that the earth’s water supply is rapidly decreasing, freshwater
supplies are shared by many countries and this will cause many violent conflicts in the
near future and that water is considered scarce if a person in a country has access to
less than 1000 cubic meters.
Water and Poverty 2
Q. What are some statistics you have found in your article?
A. approx 250,000 children in Pakistan die each year from waterborne diseases that
could have been prevented.
B. Every 15 seconds a child dies of a preventable waterborne disease, amounting
to 2 million children annually.
C. 1.1 billion people who live around the world lack access to safe water
D. by 2035, 2 billion people who currently live in severe water scarcity areas, like
Africa, middle east or south asia, will have NO access to safe water.
E. Latin America, Approx 76 million people, 15% of the population do not have
access to safe water
F. 90% of wastewater in Africa is untreated, degrading the environment and
endangering people’s lives.
G. 39.4% of the country population has access to water, only 28.9% has access to
basic sanitation.
Q. Describe your issue and how it impacts people
A. The issue in our article is the lack of water which causes severe health issues,
sanitary problems, and even causes death. There is no clean water, meaning
there is no clean drinking water, no clean showers. Our issue would impact
people because without clean water and sanitation would become more prone to
waterborne diseases which causes them to get sick and die. The freshwater
resources are diminishing especially in developing world.
Q. If you were experiencing issues of water scarcity, how would your life be changed?
A. the lives of people around here would change because we have pretty much an
unlimited source of water. we would be going from bathing everyday to barely
having enough drinking water to survive. We would have to use our water
sustainably and not waste any like filling our pools or taking 3 hour long showers.
Q. What are three things you have learned from reading this article?
A. We learned that we are very fortunate to have the amounts of water we have
because a little over 1/7th of the world live with water scarcity.
B. We figured there is more poverty in the world than we thought.
C. we learned that there has been many problems globally involving water, we have
made improvements. 83 percent of the world’s population (5.2 billion) have
access to safe drinking water.
Water and Poverty 3
1) Some statistic we found in the article are that 1.1 billion people on the planet live
in an area with acute water scarcity. Approximately 250,000 children in Pakistan
die each year from waterborne diseases, according to the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID). 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation
and every 15 seconds a child dies of a preventable waterborne disease. This
amounts to 2 million children annually. 15% of the total population does not have
access to safe water and about 116 million people do not have access to
sanitation. In Ethiopia only 39.4% of the country’s population has access to water
and only 28.9% has access to basic sanitation. In China there are 39 million
people who are without safe water access.
2) The issue that was described in our article was that freshwater resources in the
world are dwindling and accessible water is getting harder to come by. This
impacts people because without clean water, there can be no escape from
poverty and waterborne diseases are increasing. People have either no access
to water at all, or only access to dirty water.
3) If we were experiencing issues of water scarcity, our lives would be changed
because our hygiene would be awful due to no water to shower with. We wouldn't
have any water to drink so everyone would be dehydrated. We wouldn’t be able
to swim. We wouldn’t be able to grow any fresh fruits or vegetables. Eventually
we’d all die.
4) We have learned that water is a very important necessity for all living things. We
have also learned that water is naturally distributed around the world in different
ways. Which can make it either really easy, or really difficult to have access to
water. It is imperative that the areas of the world that have the largest supplies of
water are able to learn how to manage water usage properly and try to discover
new ways to share our water with other countries which are less fortunate.
Gender and Water
1. A 2003 study by Unicef, the UN children’s agency, of households in 23 countries
in sub-Saharan Africa found that 25% of the women surveyed spent between 30
minutes and one hour each day collecting and carrying water; 19% spent an hour
or more.
2. The issue is that women are not paid for collecting and carrying water all day,
and are not being involved in the decisions around water management. This
issue impacts people because women are busy collecting water instead of being
able to work, look after children, cook, or do other household tasks. Also, girls
are spending their days collecting and carrying water instead of attending school
and getting an education.
3. We would have to conserve the water we use, as well as spend time travelling to
get water. This means that we may have to give up hobbies, school, or even
work.
4. a) Women in underdeveloped countries have to go through many obstacles, just
to provide water for their families.
b) Women are not being involved in water-management discussions.
c) Modernization of water supply disempowers women because as water
production becomes more industrialized, the power shifts to local institutions, which are
dominated by men.
Gender 2
A 2003 study by Unicef, the UN children's agency, of households in 23 countries in subsaharan Africa found that 25% of the women surveyed spent between 30 minutes to an
hour each day collecting and carrying water. 19% spent an hour or more. Another
statistic is that at the time of the article, the goal of the decade was to halve the number
of people without safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
Describe your issue and how it impacts people.
The issue that the women have is that they spend a large portion of the day collecting
and carrying water back to their homes. This impacts the women because the time they
take to collect water could be used to be educated and get a proper schooling. If women
arent denied an education that is, An example of someones life that was affected is
Mwango, she says “Normally, the girl would have to wake up get the water and so arrive
at school late. Or she would be so late she wouldn’t go to school at all. [...] Women and
girls spend a lot of time going far away to look for water.”
If you were experiencing issues of water scarcity how would your life be changed.
if you were experiencing water scarcity your life would be changed because everything
you do everyday with water you wouldn’t be able to anymore like you wouldn’t be able
to take a shower or flush the toilet because you wouldn’t want to use all your water for
that and if you wanted to cook something you wouldn't be able to depending on how
much water you had.
4. 1- Women can’t get an education because they need to get water.
2- The UN wanted to halve the amount of people without clean water by 2015
3- 3rd world countries don’t have as much access to clean water as 1st world countries
Privatisation
Global: Water Privatization: a profitable commodity or basic right?
Stats
Water Availability
2.5% of the water is fresh
0.01% of water is easily accessible in lakes and rivers
0.77% is available in in groundwater, needs investment for drilling of wells for access
50% of the world has tap water
An additional 33% have an “improved water supply” (public access to safe water)
17% of people with tap water have potential health risk involved
In 2002, 72% of rural population have improved water supply. 27% with a house
connection
Global water supply:
70% agriculture
22% agriculture
8% household
The right to water
2003 UN stated affordable, clean water is a right
Issues and Impacts
Governments started privatizing water distribution and filtration
Making it harder for people in poverty to get access to water
Anti-Privatization activists believe water should be totally free
Not discriminated based on wealth
Water Scarcity
70% of water used for agriculture
Only 10% for domestic uses
Negative economical effects due to scarcity
Water scarcity related to food production
Facts Learned
1. People don’t want the privatization of water
2. Privatization sparks technological development
3. UN countries have to give affordable water
4. Keeping water public is counterbenifial to countries’ economies
Statistics;
- 263 rivers and basins that span across the world, europe has the
greatest number of internal basins (67), followed by africa (59), asia
(57), north america (40), south america (38), and they cover one half
of the earth’s land surface, which is approximately 40% of the world’s
population countless aquifers
- by the year 2025, the world population would increase to 2.6 billion
more than it currently is, and water demands would exceed
availability by 56%
- 2.5% is freshwater
- 50% of the world’s population have tap water in their homes or
grounds
- sometimes the poor have to pay 10 or 20x more than their well off
neighbours
- we generate about 85% of the total nile waters
- 95% of the world’s drinking water is in public hands but only 83% of
the world’s population has access to an improved water supply
- agricultural use of water amounts to 70% of total water consumption,
22% is used by the industrial sector, and only 8% by households
Issues
- not everyone can afford to pay for water
- free in nature, so people shouldn’t have to pay for it
- water is a necessity of life
- water resources are critical for domestic, industrial, agricultural and
environmental use, by controlling water resources a country has an
ability to control the economy
- in Mexico, water is sometimes so expensive that children drink
cheaper bottled soft drinks instead
- in some countries it’s not safe to drink water