Farmers can use seeds that require less water and improve their irrigation techniques by using precision watering rather than flooding their fields. Financiers can provide capital for water productivity investments, while engineers can develop technologies that improve efficiency in agriculture.
And consumers can reduce food loss and waste, which uses one-quarter of all agricultural water. Treat, reuse and recycle: We need to stop thinking of wastewater as waste. There are also useful resources in wastewater that can be harvested to help lower water treatment costs. For example, plants in Xiangyang, China and Washington, D. The data is clear: There are undeniably worrying trends in water. But by taking action now and investing in better management, we can solve water issues for the good of people, economies and the planet.
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Home Water Facts Scarcity. UN-Water Water scarcity can mean scarcity in availability due to physical shortage, or scarcity in access due to the failure of institutions to ensure a regular supply or due to a lack of adequate infrastructure. Another 1. Water scarcity is among the main problems to be faced by many societies and the World in the XXIst century.
Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, and, although there is no global water scarcity as such, an increasing number of regions are chronically short of water. Water scarcity is both a natural and a human-made phenomenon. There is enough freshwater on the planet for seven billion people but it is distributed unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed.
The way water scarcity issues are addressed impacts upon the successful achievement of most of the Millennium Development Goals:. Hydrologists typically assess scarcity by looking at the population-water equation. An area is experiencing water stress when annual water supplies drop below 1, m3 per person. When annual water supplies drop below 1, m3 per person, the population faces water scarcity, and below cubic metres "absolute scarcity".
Source: World Water Development Report 4. Water scarcity is defined as the point at which the aggregate impact of all users impinges on the supply or quality of water under prevailing institutional arrangements to the extent that the demand by all sectors, including the environment, cannot be satisfied fully.
Water scarcity is a relative concept and can occur at any level of supply or demand. Scarcity may be a social construct a product of affluence, expectations and customary behaviour or the consequence of altered supply patterns - stemming from climate change for example. January This publication examines desertification as a cause of global conflict and instability and calls for urgent action to support communities in crisis.
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