It's worrisome that we are speaking about a water crisis when 2/3 of our world is made up of water. Out of the majority of water on earth, only 2.5 percent is fresh and ideal for human and agricultural use. Just one percent of freshwater is accessible to the almost 7 billion people around the world. This small fraction of freshwater is unevenly dispersed through the world. Many people have a lot, while others have almost none. Every year, about 3.5 million individuals die from water-related illnesses. Millions of people die worldwide from poor sanitation and contaminated water.
Growing population
Over a 3rd of the world's population is seriously impacted by water and sanitation crisis. While the world's population tripled in the twentieth century, the use of sustainable water resources has grown six-fold. Inside the next half a century, the human population will increase by another 40 to 50%. This population growth, coupled with industrialization and urbanization, may result in an increasing need for water and may have serious consequences for the population. One out of every six Individuals lacks access to safe drinking water, which translates to 1.1 billion people. Unfortunately, 3900 children die each day from water-borne diseases.
Poor conditions
These figures represent individuals that live in very poor conditions. Over 260 river basins are shared by a couple of states. When theses states start major projects without local cooperation, they can create turmoil, and heighten regional instability. Due to the pressure on the Aral Sea, a great part of the water has evaporated. It isn't that we don't have enough water, but rather an emergency of bad administration of water. There's an increasing consciousness that our freshwater resources are limited and need to be protected.
Government makes it harder
Even in these hard times, we have the government telling citizens they are not allowed to collect rainwater. Not only that, some of our fresh water has been studied and found out to contain pharmaceutical drugs and other harmful chemicals. Even bottled water isn't as healthy as people think. It is unfortunate we live in this situation and I can see it becoming worse as time goes on.
Everyone is in trouble
This water challenge affects not only the water community but every human being. Regardless of the utilization of freshwater, large saving of water and increasing of water management is possible. Almost everywhere, water is wasted, and so long as people aren't facing water deficiency, they believe access to water is definitely an obvious and natural thing. With urbanization and modifications in lifestyle and perspective, water consumption is bound to improve.
