Water scarcity is defined as the lack of freshwater resources to meet the standard demand for water. We are facing a crisis of water in the global scenario, although the earth’s surface is filled with over 75% of water, only around 5-10% of this water is fit for drinking. On top of this, the resources of water are unequally distributed i.e., one part of the globe has surplus resources and the other part has almost no resources. This uneven distribution is mainly caused due to the erratic climate change for which we are solely responsible. Further, the World Economic Forum in 2019, stated that in the coming decade the global risk is due to water. Droughts, famine, floods are going to be the future of our planet.
Major reasons for this everlasting scarcity are the geographic features and the increasing population of the world. Further reasons, can be improvising standards of living, everchanging consumer market and expansion of agriculture. These factors are currently uncontrollable, a government cannot force down people to compromise on their standard of living or control population, one must realize these effects and take up their measures.
There are many types of scarcity like Physical water scarcity, economic scarcity and water stress. Let’s briefly see all these different types of scarcity; Physical scarcity is the type where there isn’t any water to meet the demands of a particular region. This type of scarcity usually occurs due to inadequate sources of water or poor management of the available sources. This can be tackled by constructing projects like dams, canals and irrigation tanks to store water.
Coming to economic scarcity, this type of scarcity usually occurs when the country is going through an economic crisis or war is going on a neighboring nation. Over 20% of the countries in the world are going through an economic scarcity of water. This can be overcome by accepting aids from foreign countries and even taking a loan from the world bank.
Whatever the scenario of a country, whether it is experiencing a scarcity or not. In the coming future, every country will face a crisis if the resources are not maintained and the population is not kept under control. Hence we must stand together in this fight to save water.
