water

• Resource


  A product that is valuable to living
• Essential global resources


  • Food
  • Water
  • Energy
• Water is important for human life, as it is essential for humans to survive to drink clean water daily
• Water is used in business and food production
• Water consumption in everyday items

  • Cars require 76,000 litres of water
  • Jeans require 8,000 litres of water
  • A barrel of beer requires an additional 6000 litres of water
• Water is used in

  • Cooling materials down
  • Producing electricity
  • Diluting waste products
• Water consumption in food production

  • To produce 1kg of beef requires 15,500 litres of water
  • To produce 1kg of olives requires 4,400 litres of water
  • To produce 1kg of chocolate requires 24,000 litres of water
• Water surplus


  The supply of water exceeds the demand for water
• Water deficit


  The supply of water is less than the demand for water
• Water stress


  There could be a large enough volume of water to meet demand, but not enough clean, good quality water is available or the water is inaccessible

  
• Newly industrialised countries have the highest levels of water stress
• MEDCs have medium levels of water stress as they have a high demand for water for consumable goods, but the efficiency of their industries has also improved
• LEDCs have smaller scale industries and tend to conserve water, using only what they need to use
• Water security


  To have a clean, reliable source of water that meets demand throughout the year
• Countries will suffer from water insecurity if their water source is contaminated or polluted, locals cannot clean/purify the water before drinking it, or the volume of water varies over the year due to drought, lack of rain or the water freezes
• Water insecurity can lead to water stress, when the volume of clean water falls below 1700m cubid per person per year
• The amount of clean water across the world is decreasing, whilst the consumption of water is greatly increasing
• Climate change is reducing the amount of rainfall in hot climates and also increasing the frequency of weather hazards, which can damage clean water supplies and increase water insecurity
• Impacts of water insecurity

  • Water-borne diseases
  • Impacts on food and agriculture
  • Conflict over water supplies
• Water-borne diseases can be fatal, resulting in 829,000 deaths around the world in 2016
• Droughts can have a direct consequence in causing crop failures and reduces the yield produced, which in turn increases food insecurity in the world
• Conflict can occur over water supplies when the supply cannot meet the demand for a region
• Conflicts over water


  • The Nile is the source of conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia
  • In 2000, violent protests in Bolivia resulted in nine people being killed over a private company taking control of the country's water supplies
• Strategies to increase water supplies

  • Underground storage
  • Dams and reservoirs
  • Water transfer schemes
  • Desalination
• Underground storage


  • Reduces water loss due to evaporation, which could supply extra houses
  • Works for infrequent rainfall, so water can be stored for times of no/little rainfall
  • Expensive to construct and run constantly
  • Are there any environmental problems with forcing water underground (tremors, similar to fracking)?
• Dams and reservoirs


  • Dams control the river flow, and can reduce the risk of flooding downstream
  • Electricity can be generated using the dam, through hydroelectric power
  • Some villages and towns must be flooded to create the reservoir, meaning locals lose their homes
  • Reservoirs can lose water from its surface through evaporation. This makes them unsuitable for hot climates
• Water transfer schemes


  • Supplies large urban cities, were there isn't room to build large reservoirs
  • For countries with surplus water supply, water trade can be very profitable (for example, Lesotho)
  • Very expensive to construct
  • Risk of leakages, which would waste water and lose money. Because pipelines can be hundreds of kilometers long, it's difficult to find where the leak is
• Desalination


  • Increases the volume of freshwater available, especially in coastal areas where there are few lakes and freshwater stores
  • New research uses graphene to make small scale desalination filters for households
  • Desalination requires energy, which adds cost to cleaning water
  • The waste brine is very concentrated, which could be hazardous when pumped back into the sea
• The strategies to increase water supply tend to involve large concrete constructions, which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and any habitats or wildlife must migrate away from construction
• Governments wish to look into more sustainable strategies, which are also ideal for smaller towns and villages
• Reverse osmosis


  Process of converting water into fresh water
• Sustainable water supply strategies

  Increase the supply of water for areas of high demand
• Sustainable water supply strategies tend to be used for major cities, where there is a high population and existing water supplies are under high demand
• Most sustainable water supply strategies involve large concrete constructions, which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and any habitats or wildlife must migrate away from construction
• Governments wish to look into more sustainable strategies, which are also ideal for smaller towns and villages, who couldn't afford a reservoir or transfer scheme
• Water conservation


  Easy and cheap strategy to reduce the demand for clean water
• Groundwater management


  • Using laws to manage the number of water pumps to reduce the risk of over extraction from aquifers
  • Reduces the risk of water being consumed and not replaced naturally (known as recharge)
  • Reduces the risk of contamination. The lower the water levels in aquifers, the higher the risk of salt or pollution contaminating it
• Water recycling


  • Re-using domestic or industrial water, after treatment, in industrial cooling plants
  • Sewage can be used in agriculture and farming
• The UK has a rainy maritime climate, but the rain does not fall on the entire UK evenly
• Factors such as the growing population and water-intensive appliances that we use in our house means that some areas do not have enough clean water