Around the world, people are having a harder time getting fresh water because demand is higher than supply. The U.N. predicts that by 2025, almost 1.8 billion people around the world will live in countries or areas where there is no water at all. In this article, I will discuss the world water crisis. And how It is important to adopt zero-waste water practices and conservation methods to ease the strain on limited reserves.
The world’s freshwater shortage is getting worse.
list of content
- 1 The world’s freshwater shortage is getting worse.
- 2 Hard facts about the World water crisis
- 3 How much water do we waste in the shower?
- 4 Facts About Showers
- 5 Use the WaterSense label To Reduce Water waste!
- 6 Key Causes We are Lossing Freshwater
- 7 Grave Effects of Not Doing Anything
- 8 Areas that are already under a lot of water stress
- 9 How to stop water waste?
- 10 Bonus tips for saving water to tackle the world water crisis
- 11 How to Make the World Water-Safe
- 12 Frequently Asked Questions About Saving Water
- 13 In conclusion
- 14 Useful Resources
Already, billions of people around the world don’t have access to clean water and toilets. Goal 6 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Plan is to make sure that everyone has access to clean water by 2030. We will not be able to meet this goal, though, at the current rate of use and waste.
Hard facts about the World water crisis
- Over 2 billion people around the world don’t have access to drinking water sources that are safely controlled (WHO/UNICEF 2019).
- At least 4 billion people have serious problems with not having enough fresh water at least once a year (U.N., 2022).
- UNESCO 2017 says that 80% of wastewater is dumped back into the earth without being cleaned.
- According to estimates, 700 million people around the world may have to leave their homes by 2030 because of severe water shortages (U.N. Water, 2014).
- The important Ogallala Aquifer in the U.S. Great Plains has dropped more than 300 feet in some places because farmers are taking too much groundwater for farming (USGS 2020).
How much water do we waste in the shower?
If you want to know how much we waste water in long showers, then read this section below.
Facts About Showers
We can clean up, cool off, get ready, or unwind after a long day in the shower. We waste a lot of water and energy there, though! Think about this:
- Most people take an eight-minute shower. Most showerheads flow 2.1 gallons of water per minute, which means that each shower uses over 16 gallons of water!
- It takes more than a trillion gallons of water to take a shower every year in the United States.
Use the WaterSense label To Reduce Water waste!
Do not worry! You and your family can still use less water and power. With the WaterSense label, you can find showerheads that use less water but still give you a great spray when you shower. Every time your family takes a shower with a WaterSense-labeled showerhead, you’ll save enough electricity to run a 60-watt light bulb for almost 7 hours. You’ll save enough water each year to wash more than 88 loads of clothes.
Key Causes We are Lossing Freshwater
Rising demand, pollution, climate-related droughts, poor infrastructure in poor areas, and long-term resource mismanagement all strain the world’s limited freshwater sources.
Grave Effects of Not Doing Anything
Lack of water will cause serious public health crises, lost agricultural production, habitat and wildlife destruction, possible civil wars over resources, and millions of people being forced to leave their homes because of the environment. Don’t wait any longer to act; the effects will not go away.
Areas that are already under a lot of water stress
The World Resources Institute says that areas where people have access to less than 1,000 cubic meters of freshwater per year face high baseline water stress. These are some of the countries that are under the most stress:
1. Water Crisis in The Middle East
People in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and other Gulf countries have very little drinking water available per person. Research by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development found that desalination plants provide about 90% of the drinkable water in these countries.
Desalination plants need a lot of energy to take salt out of ocean water to make it safe to drink. Another problem is that too much groundwater leaks out and gets wasted. The limited water and the need for desalination continue to be a major issue in these countries.
2. North Africa’s water Crisis is getting worse
Libya and Algeria have severe droughts that happen often and are made worse by overusing their limited resources. Nearly 80% of the water that is accessible is used for farming, and the World Resources Institute says that over 10 million people in North Africa do not have access to clean drinking water.
3. India’s Water Crisis
In India, more than 200 million people don’t have clean water close to their homes. The country is constantly dealing with terrible droughts, reservoirs that are running dry in big towns like Chennai, and civil wars that break out between states over access to scarce river water. The government think tank NITI Aayog says that 21% of all diseases in India are caused by drinking water that isn’t clean.
4. Australia is hit hard by the world water crisis
Multiple reports from the national government say that Australia is very likely to have severe water shortages in the future because of long droughts, heavy use by agriculture, urban distribution systems that leak up to 95 trillion liters of water each year, and reliance on unpredictable rainfall.
Because of climate change, there is more variation in the amount of rain that falls and less normal rainfall in some places. For example, in southwest Western Australia, the amount of rain that falls has been going down since the 1970s. Water companies all over the country are looking for ways to save money and get more water to people.
5. United States Water Reserves Are Running Low
New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Colorado are the four states that are most often found to have high to extreme water stress. Frequent droughts, pollution from farming and factories, growing populations, and the effects of climate change are some things that put pressure on limited resources. Most of the problems are in the dry western part of the country.
How to stop water waste?
Here, you will find the solutions to saving water.
1. Putting zero-waste water strategies into action
As the world’s water shortage gets worse, every drop saved is important. Homes and businesses that use efficient methods and zero-waste water management techniques help protect this valuable resource while cutting down on chemical use and utility costs.
2. Tips for Saving Water Indoors
Install toilets, faucets, and showerheads that are approved by the EPA’s WaterSense Program to use less water. These low-flow taps cut water use by 30 to 60 percent while keeping the same level of performance.
- A five-minute shower is better than a twenty-minute one. Baths need up to 70 gallons of water, while showers only need 10 to 25 gallons.
- Turn off the water when brushing your teeth, washing your hands, shaving, rinse your dishes, or cleaning fruits and veggies. Do not leave it going for no reason.
- In dryers and washing machines, you should only run full loads, never half loads. The number of gallons used per load is cut down.
- Fix any taps, showerheads, or toilet valves that leak right away. Over the course of a year, even small drips of 1/32 inch can waste a lot of water.
3. Getting the Most Out of Outdoor Work
Smart irrigation controllers or moisture monitors that connect to WiFi can adjust the amount and timing of watering based on the weather and soil conditions. When you overwater plants outside, you waste a lot of water.
Pick plants from your area that have done well in the past in the conditions you live in. You can help the soil hold on to water better by adding more compost to it. These two methods both cut down on the amount of water essential.
Install a rain barrel to store rainwater from roofs. You can then use this water for gardening, compost piles, and other non-drinking purposes. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that a 1-inch rainstorm drops more than 700 gallons of water on a 1000-square-foot roof every year.
Do not use a hose to clean the driveways, paths, and patios. Instead, sweep them. Use nozzles and brushes with high pressure and low volume when you need to wash something.
4. Reusing Greywater
Greywater recycling devices collect wastewater from sinks, showers, washing machines, and other places so that it can be filtered and used to water plants. Studies show that reusing graywater can meet 30–60% of the watering needs of homes.
5. Conservation for Businesses and Institutions
Most pre-rinse spray valves use 10 to 20 gallons of water per minute, but commercial kitchens can get low-flow valves that use less than 1 gallon per minute. Water recovery can also be done in laundry rooms. Cooling systems can switch from using a lot of water to using air or geothermal energy instead.
Bonus tips for saving water to tackle the world water crisis
- Don’t bring more water than you plan to drink to places. Ask for no automatic refills or ice unless you really need it.
- If you don’t want to wash your car at home with a running hose, take it to a professional car wash that recycles wash water.
- Get rid of trash disposals that waste a lot of water for no reason. Put food waste in compost instead.
- Instead of thirsty and hard-to-take care of grass gardens, try xeriscaping with rocks, gravels, mulch, and decorative elements.
How to Make the World Water-Safe
Initiatives that are badly needed are:
- Better water and wastewater treatment facilities include sewer pipes, purification plants, and water distribution lines. World Bank has estimated that more than 1.5 billion people live in homes that don’t have good drainage.
- Precision agriculture technologies, such as hydroponics, moisture sensors, and drip watering, should be widely used to grow more food with less water. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says that farming uses about 70% of all rainwater from the ground.
- Faster development of large-scale desalination systems that power green energy sources instead of fossil fuels. Desalination technologies are now used in more than 150 countries, and as the technologies get better, prices keep going down.
- Wetlands, forested watersheds, floodplains, and other natural infrastructure that is important for gathering, storing, and cleaning freshwater should be better protected by the law. Nature-based solutions are often the best and most long-lasting ways to handle things.
- Big efforts to teach people how to save water at home and at work with best practices. Having partnerships with neighborhood leaders and civil society groups can help get the word out and get people involved.
- Fair allocation policies and governance systems for managing groundwater and surface water resources that cross borders. This lowers conflicts over bodies of water that are shared between countries.
With quick new ideas, teamwork, and political will, the world can become water-safe in a way that can support growing populations.
Frequently Asked Questions About Saving Water
Most old showerheads use between 2.5 and 4 gallons per minute. Models that are WaterSense-approved must use less than 2 gpm. A new 8-gpm showerhead can save more than 15,000 gallons of water a year.
Toilets, faucets, showerheads, supply lines, and appliances like dishwashers are all common places where water comes from. A tiny 1/32-inch drip lets 3,000 gallons of water out every year.
Keep an eye on your home’s water meter even when no water is being used; movement means there is a leak. Make sure there is no water under the sinks or around the toilets, and look for condensation or damp floors.
Studies by Colorado State University found that xeriscaping can reduce the amount of water used for watering lawns and gardens by 60%. Xeriscaping uses native plants that don’t need much watering. Compared to thirsty grass lawns, xeriscaping can cut the water used for landscaping by up to 75% in hot, dry desert cities like Phoenix.
It is estimated that around 70% of the world’s freshwater is used for crops and animals. About 40% of people in the U.S. have it.
In conclusion
As water shortages get worse in some parts of the world, switching to methods that use zero wastewater is important. We are all responsible for using this valuable resource in a way that doesn’t harm it.
Small changes you can make every day, like taking 5-minute showers, fixing leaks right away, collecting rainwater, putting WaterSense fixtures, not using garbage disposals, and reusing greywater, can save you a lot of money.
Smart water management policies and tools can make sure that everyone has enough fresh water, even if the population grows and the climate changes. But something needs to be done right away before the situation gets worse.
Useful Resources
Documentaries Available on YouTube
- Netflix Video Link: Brave Blue World: Racing to Solve Our Water Crisis
- DW Documentary Link: Our drinking water – Is the world drying up? | DW Documentary
Reports on the World Water Crisis
- World Resources Institute (Detailed report on Countries with High Water Stress)
- Save Water and Energy: United States Environmental Protection Agency.