05/06/2025
Water shortage
Imagine walking for hours just to fill one bucket of water. For millions, it’s not imagination-it’s reality. What would you do if clean water disappeared tomorrow? We can observe the rivers that used to be filled by water, but now they are dried out. Nearly half of the world’s population-3.6 million-experience water shortage for at least one month each year. This great deal of number is estimated to rise over 5 billion by 2050. Personally, I think water scarcity is more prone to caused by humans rather than natural factors, and I find this as a disastrous threat to all human beings. To discover more about the reasons of the water scarcity consider the following points.
Counties like Afghanistan, Syria, and Turkey are experiencing severe water scarcity due to the factors attributed to climate change, conflict, and unsustainable water usage. Moreover, regions like the Sahel, including Faso and Niger, are also confronting threats of drought and desertification. 1 in 3 people globally don’t have access to safe drinking water. What are the reasons for water shortage?
First, Climate change plays a major role in water shortage. There are different factors of climate change contributing to water scarcity. Melting glaciers is one of the main cause of water scarcity. When the air temperature rises, it causes more evaporation.UN experts, WMO, and the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) warns that many glaciers will not survive the 21st century. If all glaciers and ice caps are melted, global sea levels could rise about 70 meters (230 feet), destroying coastal areas. Moreover, unpredictable rainfalls and longer droughts is another major reason for water shortage. The more the soil experience droughts, the more the water falls down.
Second, population growth is another significant reason contributing to water scarcity. More people requires more demands for drinking, farming, and industry consuming a huge amount of water which causes water shortage. Additionally, when cities expand, it stresses local water supplies. This affects water to decrease. By 2050, it is estimated that there will be more than 9.7 billion people on earth, and this shows that we will encounter to a catastrophe of water scarcity.
Third, overusing water can be another crucial reason attributable to water shortage. Excessive irrigation in agriculture which uses 70% of freshwater globally endangers water cycle. In addition, wasting water in household and factories and uncontrolled water extraction from rivers and underground are altogether contribute water to decline.