How water stress can occur
- Created by: Amy Brown
- Created on: 08-06-14 09:23
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- How water stress can occur
- Water stress occurs when demand exceeds the amount available during a certain period or when poor quality restricts its use
- When a country's water consumption is more than 10% of its renewable rate it is said to be water stress
- During the 20th century water consumption has increased by 600% due to population growth and economic development
- Farming uses 70% of all water and in LEDCs this is up to 90%
- Industrial and domestic use has to compete with farming needs as a country develops
- Daily domestic water use on average is 47 liters per person in Africa, compared with 578 liters in the USA
- This has led to the development of a world water gap with 1.4 billion lacking clean drinking water and 12% of the pop. consuming 85% of the worlds water
- Agriculture
- Some forms of farming are less water efficient than others e.g. kg of beef is 10X more water costly than kg of rice
- 17% of the global area used for growing crops is irrigated
- Industry
- 21% used for industry but rapid growth expected since the development of countries such as India and China
- Industry is generally more efficient than agriculture
- Domestic
- Only 10% of the worlds water is used for this purpose but this varies from country to country
- Domestic demand seems to be doubling every 20 years
- Examples
- India
- 4% of the worlds freshwater but 16% of the population
- Demand will exceed supply by 2020
- Water tables are falling rapidly as 21 million wells are used
- China
- 8% of the worlds freshwater but 22% of the population
- 2/3rds of cities do not have enough water all year round
- Stress levels expected by 2030
- Annual population growth rate is about 2.5% in Beijing
- Water table has been lowered in some areas by 40m
- India
- Water stress occurs when demand exceeds the amount available during a certain period or when poor quality restricts its use
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