Water Conflicts

Geographical Controls

• Moutain chains run parallel to coast so prevent moist air
• Most rainfall on coastal zone
• Extended droughts mean that groundwater levels are low

Threats

• Precipitation - 65% of precipitation lost through evaporation, 50% of rainfalls between march-november = seasonal shortages
• Population - grown from 2 million to 37.7 million, demand exceeds natural supply
• Spatial imbalance - 3/4 of demand comes from south whereas 75% of rainfall in North

Problems

• Polluted pathways
• Increasing in salinity
• Fish stocks depleted
• Wetlands have been drained
• Groundwater over extraction

Climate

• Regions near equator recieve high levels of annual precipitation
• Equatorial areas such as Amazon have 2 distinct periods of wet weather per year
• Moonsoon areas of Asia have 1 very wet season

River Systems

• The worlds largest major rivers store large quantities of water and transfer it across continents
• River flow increases downstream as more tributaries feed into the main river

Geology

• Where rocks underlying a river basin are impermeable water will remain on the surafce creating a high drainage density
• Aquifers can store huge amounts of water underground

Human Factors

• Rainfall - Moonsoon climate=high humidity, June-Sept highest amount of rainfall, Jan-May lowest rainfall
• Population - demand outstrips supply, not enough water to recharge aquifers, 2011=1.1billion, demand from population exceeds input into water systems
• Agriculture - more agriculture due to population rise, heavily dependent on water, wells source of irrigation but groundwater is depleting
• Desalination plants - opened in 2010, 100million litres of water per day to city, reverse osmosis, 237million litres of seawater per day
• NGO Wells for life - constructed over 400 wells, provide safe clean water, without it the rural population would not have access to water

Physical Factors

• Temperature - High temperature=high rate of evaporation, rapid rainfall decline from sept-october but increase in temperature, more evaporation = water deficit
• Physical geography - smaller rivers in south means water flows into oceans quickly, fewer tributaries, major rivers transfer west to east and east to west not to the south

Water Scarcity

• Annual water supplies drop below 1,00m3 per person
• 20 developing countries classified as water scarce
• Economic scarcity - cannot afford the water 
• Physical scarcity - demand exceeds supply

Index

• Resources - quality + quantity of water
• Access - time and distance involved in obtaining water
• Capacity - how well it is managed
• Use - how economically water is used
• Environment - ecological sustainability

Canada

• Population 30 million
• Each household uses 800 litres per day
• Used for lawns, parks and pools
• GNI - $33,170
• Water use (domestic) - 20%
• Water use (agricultural) - 12%
• Water use (industrial) - 69%
• Water poverty index = 78

Ethiopia

• Population 62.9 million
• Each person uses 1 litre per day
• Water fetched from shared resource
• GNI - $170
• Water use (domestic) - 1%
• Water use (agricultural) - 93%
• Water Poverty Index - 45

Causes

• Soviet central Government decided to make soviet union self sufficient in cotton
• Large dams built across both rivers supplying the sea
• 850 mile centrak canal with far reaching systems of feeder controls was created

Impacts

• Water level dropped by 16 metres
• Volume reduced by 75%
• Shrunk to 2/5 of its original size
• Drinking water is contaminated with pesticides
• Fishing Industry ruined
• Respitorary illness from dust with toxic chemicals

Players

• Soviet Government
• Fishing industry
• Local residents

What

• Kazakhstan Government secured a $126 millio loan from world bank to save the northern part
• Build a dam to bring back water into the deserted part of the Aral seas
• New loan after the previoulsy secured one

Positives

• Rain has returned
• Fisherman have been able to resume fishing

Negatives

• Some waters are controlled by other countries
• Southern part is still shrinking

Aims

• $132 billion project to address droughts

What?

• 22 dams
• 19 HEP plants
• Irrigate over 1.7 million hectres
• Will dam Euphrates and Tigris

Concerns

• Syria and Iraq are unhappy as rivers provide most water
• Flood nearly 800,000
• Dam was proposed but could not get funding because of impact

Future

• Water released to help Syria but not Iraq
• New plans to build Cizre dam from Tigris which will annoy Iraq + Syria

Past

• 1967 - 5 day war over Syrian attempt to divert river Jordan
• 2005/6 - Litoni river disputes between Lebanon + Israel, Lebanon bombed water pipeline

Water

• 25% natural
• Sea of Galilee
• Mountain aquifers 80% Israel 18% Palestine
• Coastal aquifer 90% Israel

Problems

• Coastal aquifers have been overpumped
• Mountain aquifers in west bank also over pumped led to pollution
• Dead sea drying up
• Mistrust between Israel and Palestinians - dividing wal

What

• Worlds largest hydraulic engineering scheme
• Transfer water from Yangtze basin to the arid North
• 3 lines of canals to run across eastern, middle and western parts of china and link 4 rivers
• Cost $62 billion and will take 50 years to complete

Benefits

• Water conservation, improved irriagation and pollution treatments
• Will supply big cities like Beijing
• Central government to pay for 60% of the cost
• Transfer 44.8 billion m3 per year

Costs

• Will take 50 years to complete
• Significant ecological and environmental impacts 
• Resettlement of people will be needed
• Declining of water quality

What

• Worlds largest HEP system
• Along the Yangtze river
• Clean alternative to coal

Benefits

• 18,000 mw of electricity generated
• Will supply water to region responsible for 22% of chinas GDP
• Flood protection will save lives and cut financial losses
• Develop chinas interior 

Costs

• Important heritage sites will be lost
• Ecological impacts on fishing and habitats
• Dam failure, earthquakes could cause serious issues
• Pollution increases as abondoned mines and factories are flooded
• 1.9 million people will be displaced

The Good - Sustainable Water

• Reduction in global water consumption
• River flows could increase
• Global rain fed yeilds increase due to sustainable farming techniques
• Agriculture and omestic water prices double
• Food production could increase slightly
• Investment in crop research and technology would increase

The Bad - Do Nothing

• Water scarcity reduces food production
• Water consumption up 50%
• Household water consumption up by 70%
• Developing countries reliant on imports and malnutrition occurs widely
• Grain Imports more than triple in Africa
• In USA and China water will be pumped faster than it can be recharged

The Ugly - Water Crisis

• Global water consumption will increase 
• Demand for domestic water will fall
• Demand for industrial water will be up by 33%
• Food production will decline and food prices increase
• Malnutrition and food security becomes rife
• Aquifers in India and China will fail
• Conflict over water will increase

Hard Engineering

• Build dams such as the 3 gorges
• Has ecological, social costs
• Provide HEP and flood protection

Wetland Restoration

• Local Scale involve restoring meanders and replanting vegetation e.g River Kissimmee
• Use sustainable methods

Water Conservation

• Reducing amount of water used e.g efficient irrigation and water harvesting
• Sweden - national pee outside day
• UK - turning off taps
• Ogallala aquifer - infra red sensors

Water Collection

• Catching rain water and building small dams

Desalination

• Removal of excess salt and other minerals from water
• Most countries involved are well off e.g. Saudi Arabia
• Technologically advanced
• Two methods - filtering and reverse osmosis

Virtual Water

• When water is traded as goods that need water in their production
• 1 kg of wheat costs 1,330L water
• 1 kg eggs costs 3,300 water

Settlement Design

• Bedzed, Surrey - water efficient housing estate most rain falling is collected and reused
• Dongtang, China - housing estate has 2 water collection systems for clean and grey water
• Decentralized systems separate urine from faeces then use them as crop fertilisers

Global

• NGO's - water aid
• WTO's and TNC's
• World Bank fund projects
• G8 Summit

National

• NGO's - water aid
• Government owned water companies 
• TNC's - FDI to developing countries

Local

• 7 billion consumers

What

• 225km pipeline
• 16 dams 
• 7 power stations and 1 pumping station

How?

• Water collected and diverts it so it can be used to power power stations tp create electricity
• Flows to Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers
• Used to irrigate farms in NS Wales

Advantages

• HEP clean and efficient source of energy
• 3,700 megawatts of energy provided by the scheme

Disadvantages

• Conflicts between city dwellers and farmers
• Storage lakes have destroyed valuable wildlife habitats