Zusammenfassung der Ressource
A2 Geography Edexcel-Water Conlicts
- Water Scarcity Hotspots
- Egypt- exports 50% of food due to scarcity.
- Ogallala Aquifer- provides 1/3 of Us irrigation water
- Aral sea - irrigation to cotton farms
- River Ganges - pollution and over extraction.
- Initiatives
- United Nations - Water for Life
- 2005-2015
- Water and Gender
- Involving women increases the effectiveness of water projects by 7 x
- Women and girls spend up to 6 hours everyday fetching water
- Reducing water distance by 15 mins increases female school attendance by 12% (Tanzania)
- Water and Urbanization
- Every second, the urban population grows by 2 people
- More than half the world's population lives in cities.
- There is better access to water in urban areas
- Water Quality
- 80% of untreated sewage is discharged into water bodies
- 3.5 Million people die/year from inadequate water and sanitation
- Freshwater biodiversity has degraded more than any other ecosystem
- Water and Food
- It takes 70 litres for one apple to grow and 2025 litres for 150g of beef
- 70% of water withdrawal is from agriculture
- Water and Energy
- 2.8 billion people live in water scarcity and 2.5 billion have unreliable access to electricity
- Water and Sustainable Development
- More than 1.7 billion people live in river basins where use exceeds natural recharge
- Unsustainable due to agriculture, energy and industry, cities
- Human right to water
- In 2010 the UN declared access to water and sanitation a human right
- Access to Sanitation
- Every 20 seconds a child dies from poor sanitation.
- access has risen from 49% (1990) to 67% (2015)
- CASE STUDY: Gaza
- Location
- Eastern Med coast between Israel and Egypt
- Physical factors
- low, unpredictable rainfall. Rely on one winter rainfall on a 2 year cycle.
- seawater incursion
- 61% lost to evaporation. 2.5% to surface run off
- Importance of population
- 1.4 million people. 3,889 people/ sq km.
- Strains on water and space, affects living conditions
- Migration is large, 1/3 live in UN refugee camps
- Structural scarcity: When water is controlled with unequal distribution
- E.G. Israeli's living in Jewish settlements have no restriction
- Coastal aquifer problem
- Over pumped to meet demand
- Israel, takes the majority
- supply induced scarcity: a decrease in a renewable source from degradation and unsustainable use
- Sea water incursion (saline): damage crops
- sewage (broken pies from conflict) and fertillsers from agriculture
- CASE STUDY: Aral Sea
- Location
- East of the Caspian sea, central Asia. The borders of Uzbekistan and Kazakstan
- History
- Controlled by the soviet union. The water was irrigated to feed agriculture, such as cotton field (white gold)
- used to be the 4th largest inland sea
- 1989 it reduced by 50%
- Problems caused
- Damaged fishing industry
- high salinity
- reduced water quality
- Environment loss
- infant mortality doubled due to liver and kidney disease and cancer
- ammonia is common
- Restoration
- Saxa plant helps keep dust grounded
- 2005 restoration projects set for the North but the South was left
- Building a dam- Dike Kokaral
- Transboundary water
- Water that crosses over different country boundaries
- For example: Mekong, Danube, Nile, Ganges, Amazon, Rhine, Aral sea
- Hydropolitics: politics of sharing water supply between counrties
- Issues with different users
- Demand rising
- Population increase
- Demand generally
- Industrial use is rising
- Agriculture
- Supply is diminishing
- Climate change
- Quality reduction
- Abstracting
- Ogallala Aquifer USA
- 1930s excessive farming lead to a dust bowl, severe drought
- Located over borders of South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico
- provides 20% US agriculture
- 1950 was when it was mostly exploited
- Drilling from the Aquifer began in 1940
- 'right of capture' policy, if it is under your land then you can extract as much as you like, at any time
- Responses
- Dryland farming methods
- Planting cotton and sorghum for oil and ethanol for fuel is less water consuming
- Leave to return to grassland
- Use canopies or technology to prevent evaporation loss
- When rainfalls they should capture it.
- development new irrigation technology that saves drops.
- technologies that measures water usage