Water Supply / Sustainability

• • As population grows, the demand for clean, safe drinking water is increasing - as demand for water increases, risk of water shortages also increases.
• • Shortages of water arises when there is more demand than supply of water - factors contributing to this include increasing population, expanding industry and climate change.
• Ways of decreasing our use of water:

  • Shower instead of bath
  • Using wastewater for washing cars and watering garden
  • Only using dishwashers and washing machines when full
• To avoid water shortages, can look at three main aspects of our water supply chain:

  • Abstraction
  • Distribution
  • Consumption
• ABSTRACTION

  • Ways in which water is collected from natural sources - possible to collect water directly from naturally occurring water sources (rivers, lakes), but humans developed methods for collecting water from sources that don’t occur naturally, like a reservoir.
• Reservoirs - man-made lakes, made using a dam to block a river and flood the area of land, usually at the bottom of a valley - this method drastically transforms landscape but a lot of effort is made to protect natural environment around newly formed reservoir and minimise impact on animal habitats.
• DISTRIBUTION

  • After water has been treated it must be distributed to homes and businesses through network of pipes - to preserve drinking water, thus pipe network must be constantly maintained and any leaks must be repaired quickly, minimise loss of clean drinking water.
• CONSUMPTION

  • After water is distributed to homes and businesses, it’s confined (used) in a number of different ways, like drinking, use in industrial chemistry.