Water Scarcity As A Threat To Global Food Security

A lack of water can have a major economic consequence, there are many sectors which rely on water for there operations. Two of these large sectors include the mining industry and the agricultural industry, who both rely heavily on water and have been having trouble in drought.

The tourism industry is also set to have difficulties due to a lack of water and there are many obvious economic factors of water scarcity, but what about social factors?

Water is crucial for good hygiene, which is crucial to health and our health often deteriorates in situations where there is a lack of water and this often affects communities more than we realize. When there is a lack of water food prices also increase which can affect vulnerable members of a community drastically.

One of the impacts of water scarcity which can be seen in Africa is malaria, when there is not enough water for sewage to flow mosquitoes breed on the still dirty water and can start to form and process malaria. This can have a drastic affect on whole regions as malaria is very dangerous and can cause up to death.

There is one main reason that water scarcity is a threat to global food security, all crops need water to grow healthily and be good enough food for people to eat. this is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain due to the constant rise in demand for water, as well as the increasing price and decreasing supply as shown in this graph. The demand is increasing because of the rise in population, which creates a higher demand for food, drinking water, and all of our human needs. The freshwater supply is also constantly decreasing, this is because of human use which goes towards food, water and energy, it’s also decreasing because of the unsustainable rate which we pump water at. Our water demand is increasing so much that at this rate, We are set to double our water usage by 2025. The cost is also increasing at such a rate that some farmers have to stop farming because they can no longer afford clean water to grow there crops, this is starting to happen in many places around the world and one of the countries which it has affected is chile.

This graph here shows the increase of world water usage, if we keep at this rate it could be disastrous. Water scarcity occurs when there isn’t enough clean, safe, freshwater to meet the water demand. Water scarcity can often occur because of a lack of natural resources of water in the geographical location but it also occurs because of climate change and the ever increasing of demand due to population increase and urbanization. Water scarcity can be a huge problem because everyone needs water to survive, and water is used in everyday life. This graph shows a world map of countries which are currently experiencing or aproaching water scarcity. As you can see, it’s quite worrying.

When water scarcity is occurring, irrigation and agricultural land is often harmed in several ways such as nutrient pollution, increased salinity, or the loss of floodplains and wetlands. Over the past 100 years, more than half of earths wetlands have disappeared, this is not caused purely because of water scarcity, but that is one of the problems. This is a problem not just because of the many inhabitants of the land such as mammals, birds and fish, but also because they support the growing of rice and other food crops.

This graph shows the always decreasing supply of freshwater for each person.

In Yemen there is a large issue surrounding water scarcity. Yemen’s geographical layout doesn’t have many natural sources for water. Because of this, They often rely on aid and other sources for support. Normally this would be alright and Yemen could access enough safe water, However, because of Yemen’s current state at a civil war they can’t outgo the procedures needed to get the water. Leaving some of the thirstiest people Empty handed. According to the upi (united press international) , Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, is expected to be the first major city in the world to experience full water scarcity and run out of water. This would be a very significant problem and the issue needs to be sorted out.