Liquid Gold

#1 More than two-third of the Earth surface is covered by water. It is estimated that the total amount of
this water is roughly1,260,000,000,000,000,000,000 liters. Although most of this water cannot be
used by people as drinkable water because most of it is saline (97%) and most of the fresh water (a
little less than 3%) is hard to access, that still leaves lots of water for everybody. Specifically, if this
water was properly used and fairly shared between all the people on Earth, there should be about
8.4 million liters of water for each person. Nevertheless, many people suffer from water scarcity for
various reasons.
Wasted Water
#2 First, lots of the available fresh water is wasted because of bad infrastructures. For an efficient use
of water, it is necessary for this water to be transported, treated after use, and sent back to the
environment. Many of the water infrastructures used to do this, including treatment plants, pipes,
and sewer systems, are in a serious need of repair, and lots of water is wasted as a result. For
example, in the United States, 6 billion gallons (22.7 billion liters) of treated water are lost per day
from leaky pipes alone (Schleifer). Fixing water infrastructures – or building new ones – is
extremely expensive, which means that many cities put off fixing bad infrastructure until a major
disaster happens – like a main water line bursting and flooding streets.
#3 Furthermore, agriculture, which uses 70% of the accessible fresh water, also wastes about 60% of
what it uses. To begin with, agriculture requires a lot of water; however, the biggest problem is that
irrigation systems used in agriculture are wasting too much water. According to Dr. Ute Collier
(who was Programme Manager Dams and Hydropower for WWF International from 2002 to 2006),
“We can't afford to waste water in irrigation systems that are 30 to 40 percent efficient.” He adds,
“If we could get that part of the equation done, we could probably cut down the number of dams
we're building by half, at least” (qtd. in "Farms Waste Much“). In other words, so much water is
wasted because of bad irrigation that twice as many dams are required to collect enough water for
farming. Then, too many dams put a strain on the natural water systems, drying out rivers, lakes,
and underground water tables. In the end, bad irrigation simply wastes lots of fresh water.
#4 Besides using too much water, agriculture also pollutes water by using pesticides. One of the biggest
problems resulting from the use of pesticides in agriculture is that this not only pollutes water in
great quantity but it is also hard to treat the water (remove the pollution from the water). Whereas
water used at home can be treated before it is sent back to the environment, this is not so easy for
water used in farming. Pesticides are usually spread on crops; then water is sprayed over the crops,
and it absorbs the pesticides. This mixture of water and pesticides then enters the ground and mixes
with underground water, which eventually runs to rivers, lakes and so on. That is, pesticides used in
farming make their way to rivers and lakes, polluting them, and contaminating our sources of fresh
water. Thus, increasing the efficiency of farm irrigation and reducing the use of pesticides in
agriculture can help save water.
Increasing Water Demands
#5 Another important cause of water scarcity is related to population growth. It's only logical. As the
number of people on Earth increases, more people are using water. The world's population, which is
now about 7.8 billion, is expected to reach 10 billion by 2057 (World Odometer). More people not only
means that more water will be directly used by these new people (for drinking, showering, etc.) but
also that more water will be needed to produce more food to feed these people. And since it is clear
that food production (through farming) requires lots of water, it becomes even clearer that more people
means that lots more water will be needed to keep these people alive.
#6 To make things worse, not only the number of people using water increases, but also the amount of
water that some people use increases. As the living standards of more and more people increases, more
people can afford products that require the use of a lot of water for their production. Everything we buy
requires some water for its production, whether it's food, clothes, cars, etc. With
the rising number of people with higher income increasing, it means that these people buy more
food, clothes, and maybe even a car when they didn't used to have one (gasoline cars are
notoriously bad for water since producing 1 liter of gasoline requires the use of 3-6 liters of water).
Not everyone with more money buys a car, but most people with more money will end up buying
more clothes, which can also require lots of water to produce. For example, making a cotton shirt
requires 2,700 liters of water, and making a pairs of Jeans requires 8,000 liters! In the end, with an
ever increasing world population, it is essential to be more careful to use water resources
efficiently.
Changing Environment
#7 Climate change also plays an important role in how much water is accessible to people. However,
this role is not always clear since climate change sometimes brings droughts, and it sometimes
brings floods. Overall, climate change is warming the whole world, and as a result, places that are
already very hot are becoming scorching hot. This is true mostly for areas near the equator, such as
sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. This change in weather conditions resulting from a
warmer planet can be explained by a phenomenon called Hadley cell expansion1. Essentially,
Hadley cells are massive circulations of air bringing warm air from tropical regions towards the
poles on upper air current and bringing cool air from the poles towards the tropics on lower air
current. These circular patterns of airflow cause warm air and cool air to interact, creating weather
systems that influence whether some areas get sunshine or rain. As global warming heats up the
atmosphere, Hadley cells are expanding further towards the poles; this enlarges subtropical areas
that get little rain, and further decreases the low amount of rain that falls in these areas.
#8 Paradoxically, climate change is also increasing precipitation in other areas, and this increases the
risks of river flooding. Not only does the probability of flooding increases but also the magnitude
of flooding increases. For example, Bangladesh, which experienced the “worst floods in years” in
summer 2019 (Al Jazeera), is a typical victim of climate change, which has disrupted weather
patterns. For one thing, the warmer temperatures have lead to a melting of glaciers in the
Himalayan Mountains; and this combined with precipitations that are heavier than usual has caused
bigger than usual flooding – the kind from which the land can't recover. Bangladesh is not the only
country facing climate-change fueled floods; other countries including India, China, Vietnam,
Indonesia – and cities such as Venice – are in danger. In the end, climate change causes problems
with access to clean water since it messes up weather patterns, causing droughts and floods, which
means not enough water or too much (dirty) water.
#9 Water is the most important resource that humans need to live. It is necessary not only because it
sustains life itself in the form of drinkable water but also because it is the basic element necessary
to many other human activities including agriculture, industry, washing, etc. Thus, it is important
to recognize that humans have to learn to better manage and protect this precious resource.
Specifically, we need to avoid wasting water, to look for more efficient ways to use water
(especially in the agricultural and industrial sectors), and to do our best to reduce climate change.
In the end, proper management of water resources is probably the most important step for sustained
development, and for the survival of humans on Earth.

Works Cited
"Farms Waste Much of World's Water." Wired. Condé Nast., 19 March 2006, www.wired.com/
2006/03/farms-waste-much-of-worlds-water/.
Schleifer, Leah. "7 Reasons We're Facing a Global Water Crisis." World Resources Institute, 24
August 2017,
https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/08/7-reasons-were-facing-global-water-crisis.
1 Hadley cells, named after the English physicist and meteorologist George Hadley who published
in 1735 a paper discussing this phenomenon, play an important role in weather patterns.