Will we be short of fresh water by 2025? Some part of the world are already short of fresh water, and yes, the problem is going to increase over the years…
At the current rate of population growth, it’s calculated that people in some regions will be short of water by 2025. This will be worse in overpopulated regions that already suffer from poorer access to usable water than people in Europe and North America.
This is an area where we all need to make an effort to use this absolutely essential resource well. It seems hard to believe, but it’s not an endless resource and future generations will have problems if we are not careful.
There won’t be less water in the world as a whole but there may certainly be a shortage of drinking water. Global warming has meant that we’ve been getting more weather extremes so droughts, flooding etc. Obviously during dry times there will be a shortage of water and one of the probalems with flooding is that because there is such an excess of water we don;t always have the capacity to store it – i.e. the reservoirs aren’t big enough to hold it.
Increased pollution also means that fresh water sources are becoming increasingly contaminated and thus unfit for human consumption. Also, water can build up in rocks – these are called aquifers – and these are an important source of drinking water. One of the major sources of drinking water in the London area is from an aquifer in a layer of chalk rock a few km’s under the ground. We have to be very careful not to contaminate this natural source of water through pollution or make it inaccessible by building entirely over the top of it.
I hope not! But it is a possiblity. There is technology to take the salt out of seawater to make it drinkable or to filter waste water but these are still quite expensive. Hopefully, this technology will get cheaper (or new technology will be invented) and there won’t be a water shortage.
Comments
rebekah commented on :
thank you
Paula commented on :
You’re welcome, rebekah!
Nathalie commented on :
Most welcome 😉