Water is the foundation of human and ecological health and covers 70% of our world. It is essential for agriculture, sanitation, industry, recreation, energy, and maintaining natural ecosystems. However, what is little understood by people at large is while the Earth’s surface is two-thirds covered by water, nearly 98 percent of this water is UNDRINKABLE.
3% of all water on Earth is freshwater, and 65% of this was tied up in glaciers. Rivers, streams, lakes, and dams that hold freshwater contain 1% of potable water while groundwater counts for 0.3% of fresh water on the planet. There is also water beneath the aquifers which have stored water underground for millennia but that water is simply too far to be considered reachable at our current level of technology.
Generally, the public understands how important water is, and its necessity for life. However, too often water is considered a limitless resource. There is a disconnect between understanding its importance and managing it sustainably. This lack of sustainable use planning, combined with population changes and climate change, has led to a lack of sufficient water supply to meet the water usage demands for different areas in the United States. This is water scarcity.
Zero-Day, the day when you open your tap and NOTHING comes out but air and missed opportunities, is coming soon to a village, town, or city near you. Was this avoidable? You betcha. Are we doing anything to prevent it? Not a chance. Why? Because, at least in the United States, infrastructure doesn’t matter. American infrastructure is rated a D- and despite the struggles of Americans across the country lacking water, sewage, electrical and technological support, infrastructure funding hasn’t been agreed upon for more than thirty years leaving America to watch its infrastructure capacities crumble under the ravages of use, time and lack of maintenance.
You may be one of the people who believe this will never happen in the United States. You would be wrong. Water scarcity in the United States has predominantly been a Western issue, most severely impacting the Southwestern region. The Southwest region is home to 60 million people and has a population that’s growing 30% faster than the rest of the United States.
What are other countries doing about this challenge?
Depending on the country, they are focused intently on the problem either because they recognize the problem or don’t have the resources to deal with the challenge in terms of what is available to them. In some cases, the water dried up before anyone realized it was ever going to be a problem. Cities like Chennai on India’s south-eastern coast infamously ran dry in the summer of 2019. With 11 million people without water, the city was forced to transport water by rail from over 200 kilometers away.
One of the greatest challenges to Human survival on this planet is in its disregard for the necessity to provide water for billions of people on the planet. This is a problem so great, almost no other has the scope or potential to destabilize the world so completely as lack of available water.
Climate Change by the Elements
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Thursday, July 22, 2021 5:00 pm PDT – 8:00 pm EDT
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This post is republished on Medium.
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