Water world

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  • Created by: Holly45
  • Created on: 18-03-15 14:21

Water on the planet

  • lakes and rivers: 0.3%
  • groundwater: 30.8%
  • glaciers: 68.9%
  • saltwater: 97.5%
  • freshwater: 2.5%
  • water stored in the earth is called the hydrosphere
  • water is part of a closed system and there is an infinite amount of water on earth
  • the recycling process is known as the hydrological cycle
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Impacts of climate change on vulnerable regions

  • likely to bring more rain to some areas but less to others
  • temperature may change in a way to increase rates of evaporation
  • however global warming could reduce rainfall
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Quality not quantity

  • water pollution in the developing world is almost always due to untreated sewage
  • over 5 million people die each year as a result of water borne disease

PLANT FERTILISERS:

  • nitrates run off into rivers and lakes causing eutrophication which kills off animals because they are deprived of oxygen

RADIOACTIVE WASTE:

  • nuclear waste can remain dangerous for many thousands of years.
  • storing it deep in the ground in risky because of both the time involved and the chance of leaks
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Human interference

DEFORESTATION:

  • in Kahama 80% of people are farmers and deforestation has occured for timber and land for tabacco
  • many floods have increase because interception from trees has decreased
  • cholera and diarrhoea have increase because theure struggling to find clean water
  • without trees, surface runoff increases and infiltration decreases

OVER ABSTRACTION OF GROUNDWATER:

  • farmers constantly pump water using pumps powered by cheap electricity provided by the government
  • in some parts of the North- west India water tables are falling by 4m every year as more water is taken than returned
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Large scale water management projects

  • controlling water flow by reducing flooding or increasing flow in dry periods
  • generating hydroelectric power
  • storing water in a reservoir

HOVER DAM:

  • cost over $850 million to build
  • Mexico's water supply reduced
  • river ecosystem declined
  • water levels reached low in 2010
  • generates 2 GW of enery
  • major tourist attraction

THREE GORGES DAMN:

  • genarates 22.4 GW of electricity
  • animals like the river dolphin become extinct
  • cost $26 billion to build
  • polluted and dirty
  • over 1 million people relocated
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Small scale solutions to water management issues

  • bottom up projects controlled by local communities
  • easy to maintain

RAINWATER HARVESTING:

  • each jar costs about £35 and can supply 4 families
  • the NGO WaterAid trains villagers in Uganda to build them
  • jars made from local materials such as sand and mud
  • the jar collects and stores run off water
  • helps families get through the dry season

LIFE STRAW:

  • the Swiss company Vestergaard Frandsen makes LifeStraw, a plastic tube that uses nano-filteration to clean dirty water
  • they come in individual and family sizes
  • new technology removes 99.9% of bacteria which saves lives
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