What happens when there is no water? Most of us do not realise just how much we are dependent on water until there is a water shortage or there just is no water.
Apart from the fact that we need water for our bodies to be able to function, we also need it for sanitation, personal hygiene, transport, industry, energy, agriculture and many more reasons.
What Happens When There is No Water?
São Paulo’s 20 million citizens, who are suffering a historic water crisis due to the worst drought in a century, may be able to answer that question for you.
A drought in a generally lush country that is home to 12% of the world’s freshwater is a strange concept, but although South America’s largest city does not look as bad as California, which is also experiencing a record drought does, the city’s reservoirs are at historic low levels and could well run completely dry by August.
The drought is due to a combination of a soaring urban population, pollution of local streams, large-scale weather patterns, an inadequate and leaky infrastructure, lack of planning and deforestation, which has changed cloud formation resulting in a change in the water cycles in Brazil.
Some areas of the city still have a reasonable amount of water while in others residents have gone without water for days on end, or have had to buy water from tanker trucks. Some areas have only one tap to an entire apartment building and have suffered intermittent water service since September 2014.
Being without water or with very low water levels has led to:
- Protests in the streets because citizens feel that the government did not take enough measures to avoid the crisis;
- Some areas having been without water for as long as a week at a time;
- A threat to the country’s energy sector as around 80% of Brazil’s electricity comes from hydropower;
- Reservoirs at a mere 15% of their capacity;
- The storage of water in containers could lead to major health problems and the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes;
- Lack of water means unhygienic and unsanitary conditions which breed disease;
- Agriculture is badly affected which means a deficient diet and possible illness from undernourishment
- Industry is affected which will affect the economy; and many more problems
Let’s face it, we cannot do without water, so the human race needs to learn very quickly how to make the best of what we have and look after nature so that we do not one day sit entirely without life-sustaining water.
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