Water scarcity
Water scarcity refers to the lacking of sufficient and available water resources within a specific region.
All of the continents are affected by this kind of problem. Every year more than 1.2 billion people are suffering from not drinking clean water. Eventually, water scarcity involves many types of issues such as water shortage, water crisis, and water stress. Water stress is relatively a very new concept. It refers to the difficulty in obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time.
There are some regions in the world where it is too much hard to get pure drinking water. Eventually, more than one person in every six in the world cannot drink pure water (According to the estimation of the United Nations).
Water Scarcity and Climate
There are some meaningful reasons for what water scarcity has happened throughout the world. One of the important reasons is Climate change. The climate of the world is changing day by day. The amount of available freshwater is also decreasing for changing climate gradually. Because of changing the climate the receding of the glaciers has also occurred. Shrinking lakes and ponds are also occurred because of climate change. There are more than 30 largest aquifers throughout the world. But the level of water in the aquifers is decreasing gradually. Many aquifers have been over-pumped. But the matter of sorrow is that the water is not recharged equally because of not having good drainage conditions. Even, the total amount of fresh water is also not used up, much has become polluted day to day. The salinity rate is also increasing because of decreasing the amount of freshwater.
Water Scarcity on Human Health
The impact of water scarcity cannot be described in a word. Mainly, human health is affected by this kind of problem. There are so many people who are affected because of drinking polluted water. They can not drink safe and clean water which is very needed for their healthy life.
Effect of Water Scarcity on Environment
The environment is affected because of water scarcity. All of the elements including lakes, ponds, rivers, wetlands, and other sources of freshwater are affected because of it. The quality of soil nutrients is diminished. More than half of the earth’s wetlands have been destroyed and have disappeared over the last hundred years. The wetlands are very important not only as the habitats of numerous inhabitants, for example, mammals, fishes, amphibians, birds, and invertebrates but also for growing many kinds of crops such as rice and other food crops. Even, the wetland acts as the water filtration naturally.
There are so many resources in the freshwater that are affected because of water scarcity. The ecosystem can not remain as good as before. The biodiversity throughout the earth is changing day by day because of the water crisis.
Water Scarcity and Waterborne disease
Waterborne disease is caused by a low level of sanitation. For children under age five, waterborne diseases are a leading cause of death. According to the World Bank, more than 87 percent of all the waterborne diseases are occurred by polluted drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene.
Conclusion
we have to be mindful of the issue named water scarcity. We can take our personal steps for not wasting the water resources. We have to come forward for saving the natural resources of water. The government of every nation can enact some rules for saving water resources.
Author:
Md. Nayem Hasan Munna
Soil and Environmental Sciences,
The University of Barishal,
Barishal, Bangladesh.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.nayemhasanmunna.info