Last Name 1

Student’s Name

Professor’s Name

Course Number

Date

Waters Analysis Lab

Research the worldwide availability of clean drinking water and discuss challenges

faced

Even when the Earth’s surface is 70% water, only 0.5% is accessible to or usable by

humans, as much of it is inaccessible located in glaciers and other places. (Baker et al.,

2016). Unfortunately, the high demand, continued misuse, and uneven distribution of

resources represent a significant challenge to rationing the small percentage of water

worldwide. Over 80% of the total drinkable water is in only nine countries. Evidence shows

that only 10% of the renewable water is used by people, exposing 80% of the world’s

population to high levels of water insecurity (Qiao et al., 2021). According to different

sources, the scarcity of water is calculated in 1000 m3/person/year, considered the limit of

high-water shortage, and when considering water stress and shortage, 3.8 billion individuals

suffered some degree of water scarcity in 2005 (Qiao et al., 2021). Since the 1900s, the

increase in population led to total water consumption of 1500 km3 yr−1 in the 2000s

(Kummu et al., 2016); this is of great concern because it is expected that by 2050 the world

will require to provide resources for 25 billion people, increasing, even more, the water

demand.

Understanding water scarcity is critical to acknowledge as it is heavily linked with

other issues, such as water quality, food security, and the sustainability of native

biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems (Liu et al., 2017). For example, food and nutritional
 Last Name 2

insecurity are expected to persist in water-scarce regions leading to a structural food supply

deficit and the requirement of trade arrangements. This will heavily affect millions of

people's health, especially in vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, pregnant

women, and areas where water resources are already scarce. For example, nutrients,

pathogens, hormones, heavy metals, microplastics, and pharmaceuticals have been

identified in the water, leading to cancer, diarrheal diseases, and even neurological

disorders (Mitiku, 2020). This is critical because water-associated infections remain a

leading cause of child death, with an increasing rate of 50% from 2000 to 2013 (Francis et

al., 2015). Similarly, water scarcity can affect other activities, such as agriculture, leading

to increased malnutrition in areas where water is already scarce.

Additionally, energy production, its great use, and demand must be considered

when attending to new challenges regarding water, as these elements are rarely integrated,

and the production of energy can lead to water shortages (Cosgrove & Loucks, 2015).

Finally, the overexploitation of water resources can severely endanger the environment,

affecting biodiversity and even disrupting the food chain. These alterations can be observed

in how microplastics have been detected in seafood and then bioaccumulated through the

food chain, even reaching pregnant women and fetuses through the placenta (Smith et al.,

2018). Therefore, the pollution of water and the adverse effects this supposes endanger the

safety of water consumption, making it less accessible as further treatment is needed to

ensure its quality.

A topic linked to pollution is global warming, and when acknowledging the

challenges of this issue, we find that climate change constitutes a significant concern as

water resources are highly sensitive to the variability linked to climate change. In the near

future, it is expected to increase global temperature by 1.5-2.0 °C, leading to changes in

precipitation and alterations in the hydrological cycles (Qiao et al., 2021). Therefore,

adapting to these changes and mitigating climate change plays a relevant role in ensuring

water availability.

The greatest challenge to increasing clean drinking water availability is the

importance of water security to improve water quality. Pollution is the primary barrier to

safe water, and it increases the vulnerability of human populations, the loss of ecosystems,

and the degradation of human health (Tundisi et al., 2015). Therefore, nations must adopt

measures to reduce water pollution by regulating the industry’s waste or developing

advanced green technical methods to treat wastewater. Additionally, to ensure water

quality, nations must strengthen their treatment strategies and parameters to ensure the

safety of this resource’s consumption.

It is expected for water scarcity to reach at least two-thirds of the global population

in the couple following decades. Globally, the United Nations Millennium Development

Goals and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) have acknowledged the

necessity for measurement, which established goals to increase access to safe drinking as

the water supply crisis is considered the top 1 high-impact risk (Hecht, 2004; Liu, 2017).

The current goals for 2030 include achieving universal and equitable access to safe

drinking water, improving water quality by reducing pollution, and enhancing water-use

efficiency in all industries. Additionally, these goals consider the critical role of

international cooperation and the full involvement of local communities in reaching the

objectives.

The management of water technology for its efficient use and conservation must

consider two approaches, individual and organizational, recognizing the direct use of water

in drinking, cooking, and other activities and indirect in water used in products consumed
 Last Name 4

(Baker et al., 2016). Individual approaches to conserve water include implementing

reduction practices and efficiency management through recovery systems, the improvement

of appliances, and improving consumer choices. At an industrial level, the industries must

acknowledge they constitute the primary source of pollutants in all environments.

Therefore, the sector must develop new supply-enhancing technology and reduce the costs

of existing technologies, such as wastewater treatment, desalting technologies, and

recovery schemes (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2001).

The cooperative actions of individuals and industries can lead to more effective water

management and, therefore, an increase in its availability.

Finally, it is essential to consider the social and economic dimensions of drinkable

water availability. For example, water scarcity can lead to trade policies considering the

uneven distribution of this resource; however, these policies would avoid incentivizing high

water use for low-value purposes that can vulnerate groups and difficult access to this

resource. Here is where the challenge of water ethics is relevant, as water is the most

essential substance, and life depends on it. Its management supposes to consider

fundamental principles such as human dignity, common good, transparency, and universal

access to information.
 Last Name 5

Works Cited

Baker, B., Aldridge, C., & Omer, A. (2016). Water: Availability and use. Mississippi State

University Extension, 2016, p3011.

Cosgrove, W. J., & Loucks, D. P. (2015). Water management: Current and future

challenges and research directions [https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016869]. Water

Resources Research, 51(6), 4823-4839.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016869

Francis, M. R., Nagarajan, G., Sarkar, R., Mohan, V. R., Kang, G., & Balraj, V. (2015).

Perception of drinking water safety and factors influencing acceptance and

sustainability of a water quality intervention in rural southern India. BMC Public

Health, 15(1), 731. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1974-0

Hecht AD. Meeting the Global Water Challenge. In: National Research Council (US)

Chemical Sciences Roundtable; Norling P, Wood-Black F, Masciangioli TM,

editors. Water and Sustainable Development: Opportunities for the Chemical

Sciences: A Workshop Report to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable. Washington

(DC): National Academies Press (US); 2004. 1. Available from:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK83739/

Kummu, M., Guillaume, J. H. A., de Moel, H., Eisner, S., Flörke, M., Porkka, M., . . .

Ward, P. J. (2016). The world’s road to water scarcity: shortage and stress in the

20th century and pathways towards sustainability. Sci Rep, 6(1), 38495.

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep38495

Liu, J., Yang, H., Gosling, S. N., Kummu, M., Flörke, M., Pfister, S., . . . Oki, T. (2017).

Water scarcity assessments in the past, present, and future. Earth's future, 5(6), 545-

559. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016EF000518
 Last Name 6

Mitiku, A. (2020). Water Pollution: Causes and Prevention. 94-101.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2001. Envisioning the

Agenda for Water Resources Research in the Twenty-First Century. Washington,

DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10140

Qiao, C., Ning, Z., Wang, Y., Sun, J., Lin, Q., & Wang, G. (2021). Impact of Climate

Change on Water Availability in Water Source Areas of the South-to-North Water

Diversion Project in China [Original Research]. 9.

https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.747429

Smith, M., Love, D. C., Rochman, C. M., & Neff, R. A. (2018). Microplastics in Seafood

and the Implications for Human Health. Current environmental health reports, 5(3),

375-386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-018-0206-z

Tundisi, J., Matsumura-Tundisi, T., Ciminelli, V., & Barbosa, F. (2015). Water availability,

water quality water governance: the future ahead. Proceedings of the International

Association of Hydrological Sciences, 366, 75-79. https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-

366-75-2015