Let’s face it, most of us waste water every day in a variety of ways, but that is most probably because most of us live in countries where we can open a tap and fresh water runs out whenever we want it. To those living in undeveloped countries where there are often water shortages due to droughts or where water is scarce and can only be obtained by walking for kilometres and carrying it back, wasting water is a cardinal sin.
In a world where we abuse water by wasting it by not fixing leaky taps and broken pipes, using millions of litres for fracking for gas, high irrigation water demand, surface flow diversions, unprecedented industrialisation, and extraneous groundwater extraction, efficient water management does not really exist.
I think that most people waste water because they do not really realise how precious this life-giving and life-sustaining commodity is, and that we cannot survive without it. We do not realise that by wasting water we are disturbing the ecosystems and creating major socio-environmental consequences that amplify existing economic, political and ethnic tensions all over the world.
The abuse of water resources, together with the effects of climate change, for instance, is worsening the situation of the largely drought-stricken hypersaline Urmia Lake in Iran, according to researchers from Wageningen University who did a study which was published in the Science of The Total Environment journal on 15 April.
The Urmia Lake, located in the North-West of Iran near the Turkish border, used to be the second largest hypersaline lake in the world, home to many different species, and supports a variety of agricultural production systems and activities as well as livestock. The surface area of Urmia Lake has declined by 80% over the past two decades, and this has resulted in thousands of individuals who lived there abandoning the area.
When we abuse water, it is not generally us that suffer, but those who live in areas where there are already water shortages. South Africa, for instance, which is an arid country that has not kept up maintenance on its water infrastructure and loses billions of gallons of water via broken pipes and taps annually, recently realised the folly of this when it recently suffered the worst drought in decades; people and livestock died, farmers were unable to plant new harvests; edible plants that should have been harvested were basically non-existent, and the prices of everything is still going up, making it even more unaffordable for the poor to eat.
So, the message is “Do not waste water!â€
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