Water Chaos
Issue about the water resources and their usage does not take a huge place in political perspective. Issues on oil and gas resources and nuclear developments are more popular issues to argue for in the political agenda. When statistics considered about water issue, there is not so much to argue or discuss. Statistics show that freshwater stockpile of the earth is decreasing and world population is increasing, logically this will lead world to a chaos, you may think that this is a simple logic and anybody can tell it so the chaos is inevitable. Actually issue is not that simple. If you analyze the distribution of population and distribution of water resources some world regions are very close to the water chaos. Look at the statistics.
Waters' percent of 97 are salty ( in oceans and seas) and the percent of 3 are fresh waters on earth.
Freshwaters
79% is the icecaps (2.39% of all water sources )
20% is the groundwater (0.6% of all water sources)
1% accessible waters ( 0.03% of all water sources )
Accessible Sources
%52 Lakes (0.015% of all water sources)
%38 Humidity on earth ( 0.010% of all water sources )
8% water vapor in the atmosphere (0.002% of all water sources)
1% water of the living creature's organisms (0,0003 % of all water sources )
1% the rivers and resources (0.0003% of all water sources)
The water sources that are available constitute an integral part of this amount.
The available water sources on earth are like an unbalanced picture when looking at the distribution.
Distribution of Water Sources on earth (according to UN data)
Continents as % of Population , as% of Water Resources
North America 8% of world population and %15% of world water resources
South America 6% of world population and 26% of world water resources
Europe 13% of world population and 8% of world water resources
Africa 13% of world population and 11% of world water resources
Asia 60% of world population 36% of world water resources
Australia and the Islands 1% of world population 5% of world water resources
Water pollution is increasing rapidly in the departments that are rich in water sources. Available water sources are running out. The cost of water is increasing,amount of per capita water is decreasing. Between March 16-23, in '' Third World Water Forum '' that was in Kyoto and in '' World Water Development Report '' that was prepared by head of ''World Water Assessment Programme'' Gordon Young,a similar reviews took place in. In the report that Gordon Young presented, the polluted rivers and underground water sources,used as drinking water,has threatened thousands of people's live everyday and every year 200 million people are caught to diseases due to dirty water and 2,2 million of these people are dying. Today, approximately %20 of 6 billion world's population are deprived of safe water sources. Again in this report,it is stated that the world's population that is expected to reach 9,3 billion when it is 2050,due to the climate changes,7 billion people in 60 countries will face to water scarcity ( drought ). Water sources on Earth are effectively polluted,being destroyed and consumed not only in our country but also in many parts in the world due to the primitive agriculture, uneven settlement, industrialization and lack of infrastructure.
One of the world's largest sources of fresh water Aral Sea is almost completely dried up. Currently Kazakhstan is producing large projects by pulling a set to Aral Sea's gulf for this environmental disaster remaining from the Soviet Union,at least to create a small lake in this area. Almost all of Central Europe is polluting Danube River.Coastak aquifers,especially North Africa were salted in many parts in the world. At the beginning of the main factors that make the problem of water sources' depletion is the rapidly continuing of population growth.
In 1950,the world's population was 2,7 billion, and it increased by two times, in 1990,reached 5,29 billion,and it is estimated that in 2050 it will reach to 9,3 billion. Increased population,along with it, increases the use of water in some sectors. For example, when we look at 20th century, ten-fold increase is seen between the era of beginning and ending.
Looking at the water use chart,the biggest increase is in agricultural water use. Irrigation water in Asia,82% of the total water, 41% of in U.S and in Europe it consists of 31%.
According to UN 1/6 of the world population cannot reach drinkable freshwater today and 2/3 of the world population will face water shortage in 2025. Human should find a solution to distribute water resources to the world population equally also a solution should be created for water saving to have water until the end. Maynard of Tool is right with this lyric of Aenima: Do not call me a pessimist, just try to read between the lines.
