Water supply problems

Secure water supplies are essential to economic development. They are needed to support irrigation and food production, manufacturing and energy generation.
However, the development, extraction and use of water resources can lead to envi- ronmental and supply problems, and can have negative impacts on both economic activity and human welfare.
During its ‘Green Revolution’ programme to increase food production, India put 45 million hectares of land into irrigation.
The negative consequences of this were depletion of underground aquifers and salinisation of the soil.
Perhaps the most severe example of damage inflicted by irrigation programmes can be seen in the large-scale diversion of rivers which once flowed into the Aral Sea
The Aral Sea
1. Once the world’s fourth largest inland sea (68,000 km2), the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s.
2. In the late 1950s the Soviet government diverted much of the water from the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which fed into the Aral Sea, for irrigation of agriculture.
3. By 2007 the sea had declined to just 10% of its original size and split into separate lakes, and its level had fallen by up to 40 m
4. This is an environmental catastrophe.
5. The Aral Sea crisis has involved several stake- holders:
  1. The former Soviet government. Communist leaders began an ambitious irrigation scheme designed to develop fruit and cotton farming in what had been an unproductive region and create jobs for millions of farm workers.
  2. The fishing community. A once prosperous industry that employed 60,000 people in villages around the lakeshores has collapsed. Unemployment and economic hardship are everywhere. Ships lie useless on the exposed seabed
  3. Local residents. Health problems are caused by wind-blown salt and dust from the dried- out seabed. Drinking water and parts of the remaining sea have become heavily polluted as a result of weapons testing, industrial projects, and pesticide and fertiliser runoff. Infant mortality rates are among the highest in the world, with 10% of children dying in their first year, mainly of kidney and heart failure.
  4. The Uzbekistan government. The irrigation schemes based on the Aral Sea allow this poor country, with few resources, to remain one of the world’s largest exporters of cotton. It also hopes to discover oil deposits beneath the dry seabed.
  5. Scientists. Only 160 of the region’s 310 bird species, 32 of the 70 mammal species and very few of the 24 fish species remain. The climate has changed too, making the area even more arid and prone to greater extremes of temperature.
  6. Kazakhstan farmers. Irrigation has brought the water table to the surface, making drinking water and food crops salty and polluted.
  7. International economists. People in the region may no longer be able to feed themselves, because the land has become so infertile. Up to 10 million people may be forced to migrate and become environmental refugees.
  8. Water engineers. Inspections have revealed that many of the irrigation canals were poorly built, allowing water to leak out or evaporate. The main Kara Kum Canal, the largest in central Asia, allows perhaps 30 to 75% of its water to go to waste.

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Water supply problems

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	Created by Jodie Goodacre over 10 years ago