Water

APART FROM the looming power crisis brought about by lack of foresight or sheer idiocy, another crisis is brewing in the horizon.

In its fact sheet, UN Water stated: “With expected increases in population, by 2030, food demand is predicted to increase by 50% (70% by 2050) (Bruinsma, 2009), while energy demand from hydropower and other renewable energy resources will rise by 60% (WWAP, 2009). These issues are interconnected—increasing agricultural output, for example, will substantially increase both water and energy consumption, leading to increased competition for water between water-using sectors.

“Water availability is expected to decrease in many regions. Yet future global agricultural water consumption alone is estimated to increase by ~19% by 2050, and will be even greater in the absence of any technological progress or policy intervention.

“Water for irrigation and food production constitutes one of the greatest pressures on freshwater resources. Agriculture accounts for ~70% of global freshwater withdrawals (up to 90% in some fast-growing economies).

“Economic growth and individual wealth are shifting diets from predominantly starch-based to meat and dairy, which require more water. Producing 1 kg of rice, for example, requires ~3,500 L of water, 1 kg of beef ~15,000 L, and a cup of coffee ~140 L (Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2008). This dietary shift is the greatest to impact on water consumption over the past 30 years, and is likely to continue well into the middle of the twenty-first century (FAO, 2006).”

UN water added that climate change would also impact the global water situation: “The IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] predicts with high confidence that water stress will increase in central and southern Europe, and that by the 2070s, the number of people affected will rise from 28 million to 44 million. Summer flows are likely to drop by up to 80% in southern Europe and some parts of central and Eastern Europe. Europe’s hydropower potential is expected to drop by an average of 6%, but rise by 20–50% around the Mediterranean by 2070 (Alcamo et al., 2007).

“The cost of adapting to the impacts of a 2°C rise in global average temperature could range from US$70 to $100 billion per year between 2020 and 2050 (World Bank, 2010). Of this cost, between US$13.7 billion (drier scenario) and $19.2 billion (wetter scenario) will be related to water, predominantly through water supply and flood management.”

Locally, water supply is decreasing and without a sewage system, greywater cannot be reused for agriculture purposes. Of course, establishing a sewage system would entail considerable costs and our local water utility is not built for this as it barely surviving with giving local residents an efficient supply of water.

Be that as it may, the only recourse left for us would be to save water and for all of us to be more prudent in doing our laundry, dishwashing and watering our gardens. And since we do not have the proper water system, ordinary individuals should take it upon themselves to reuse greywater for flushing toilets and watering our garden.

Most of us have not yet come to terms with the impending impact of climate change. And as much as we imagine our world becoming something similar to the “Waterworld” movie, we may have a submerged world without any potable water in sight.

And with government—both national and local—not really ready and focused on this, we, the people, may have no other recourse but to take steps towards conservation of this precious resource.