World water shortage

Although we have the common sense that water is an essential substance that for the survival of life, we know that the 71% of The Earth surface is covered by water. Therefore, it seems we should not too worry about one day there is no enough water for human.

But the fact is that 97.5% of the earth's water is saltwater, only less than 0.5% is usable, unpolluted clean water. Due to the overpopulation, mass consumption, misuse and pollution, severe water crisis exists in many regions in the world-wide. It becomes a major global problem existing in not only poor developing countries, but the rich developed countries such as Australia, Spain, UK and US are suffering from such water scarce. There are about 1 billion people are routinely drinking unhealthy water and more worse, every year there are 5 million deaths because of the polluted drinking water.

In China, The Yellow River which is providing water to 12 percent of China's population, is facing contamination from industrial, farm and household waste; more badly, it falls to its lowest level in 50 years. As a result, millions of people in Northern China face water shortages this summer. In order to solve such problem, Chinese government spends a lot of money on water treatment and in addition, they raised a new law which will facilitate better management of the water resourse and reduce certain conflicts over water from the Yellow River in related regions. What is more, such law will impose sanctions or fines on officials who violate regulations.

In America, within the next five years, at least thirty-six U.A. states will face water shortage due to the result of global warming such as climate change and the rising of sea level.

In Middle East region, nine countries: Israel, Egyptian, Jordan, Turkey, Uganda, Morocco, Oman, Palestine and Syria with some of the highest birth-rates in the world share one water resource - the Nile River. Even worse, as there is no adequate international law to define and regulate how to share water resources, there are conflicts arisen, even worse, some experts predict that possible wars may happen as each country wants to protect their own water resources.

According to FAO’s prediction, by 2030, one in five developing countries mainly the Near East, North Africa and parts of Asia will face water shortage, and such water crisis can cause food crises as the biggest and most important water user is agriculture. Hence, it is undoubted that the water shortage is highly related to the social and economic concerns.

Thus, it is absolutely essential for government to find solutions for water scarcity to deal with the ageing infrastructure, contaminants and inefficient irrigation. Besides, it is also absolutely necessary for government to guide the public to save water in their daily lives.

Let’s act from now to save our Earth, our lives!