Water

=__Water Deficits __=

** What is the problem? **
 *  //**Provide a summary of the issue here**.//

Water is a scarce resource, which means that there will not be enough potable water for living organisms, (including humans) to drink. This is an important issue that cannot be ignored since water is running out, and fast. Even though planet earth is 70% water, only less than 1% is suitable for us to drink! Where will we get the potable water once the remaining 1% runs out?, and how will we do it in a sustainable way?

 Many people have been working hard on this issue and had proposed different methods to obtain potable water, one of those being the use of desalination plants. Currently, treatment plants are being used in large cities since the waste of water is immense, which proves to be sustainable and very effective. However, constant use of chemicals to disinfect contaminated water might cause new problems such as new diseases like kidney cancer.

 To solve this problem we have to make desalination plants. the problem is that not much countries have enough money to buy these desalination plants for example Africa they will not get enough water so they in china there is already a water crises, because it is a poor country and they are too poor to afford desalination plants etc. //What it is and what impact it is having in the world?//  water deficits is when a country city town or village or any place has a shortage in water it is kind of like a drought and there enough water for everyone and this happens in many places such as places like in china they are currently going through a water crises.the impact is like dying of thirst. Its impact is that so many of the rivers have shrunk to sizes that are much smaller than their original, like Lake Chad shrunk to one twentieth of its size in 1960, I wonder what it is now.... This is actually a VERY serious issue.

** Why is this a problem? ** This is a problem because so many of the places in this world are getting drier and drier, and after about 10 years everyone will die of thirst and just imagine what the poor peopl e now will be like then, water will be more expensive and hard to get, therefore this issue is even worse than global warming, probably there won't be anyone alive because they all would have died of thirst. A 1999 map of the stress on water deficits the blue are people who are not stressed about water shortage. [] Who is affected?
 * ** //Detail people who will be most affected by this issue and explain in what ways// **
 * ** //Explain how the issue affects you, your city, your country, the wo// //rld?// **

 The people that are affected are actually everyone, and this is worse than global warming because global warming might happen in another 40 years but the shortage of water might happen in 10 years only ( I don't think this statement might be true because: *Some scientist argue that global warming is a cycle that happens every couple million of years. * However, it is clear that CO2 (carbon dioxide) is affecting our environment by creating green houses gases, therefore global warming is already happening. Just check the statement where you said that global warming might be happening in 40 years *Also, if global warming is really affecting the way we live, then global warming is influencing water scarcity around the globe. You can not separate global warming and water deficits since the two concepts can have a strong link to each other.Research, how is global warming affecting our water resources. , then everyone will start to die of thirst. the people that are most affected are the people living in Africa because it is really hot there and they never really had much water in the first place and now with the droughts, hotter weather and the water deficits more children are dying from thirst and huger because they cant grow anything anymore because the land is always dry and isn't fertile. also many other countries with a similar climate to the places in Africa are going through a similar situation. also Africa is one of the poorer countries thus the government there cant really afford to get water and even though it is surrounded with water the water is sea water thus its salty. the only way they can make it drinkable water is by desalinating it but desalination plants are very expensive and thus they cant afford them (you can also get water from underground. Desalinization is not the only way of extracting)

__ What will happen if issue is not addressed? __  If this issue is not addressed then all the poor people especially will die because the water will be expensive, and they will die of thirst, and this is not just a problem for poor people, it is really for everyone because there will be a time where no one will be able to afford water, and ALL the people will die of thirst.
 * ** //Consider the future and the implication if this issue is not addressed// **


 *  Possible Solutions **
 * ** List possible solutions that people could take on (include links to web sites where action is already underway)  **
 * 1. People could harvest rain (extend dams) and keep it so that they can use it later, even though that may cause some problems, but that might control the water crises problem. **
 * 2 . Also people could try to save their water by not using it for unnecessary uses. **
 * 3. And they should make more desalination plants. **



** Practical Solutions  **
 * ** one solution could be having plants and grass in your lawn that don't need a lot of water. Sure, the lawns will not look as nice but it will be worth it.  **
 * ** Another solution is to have recirculating water system for our showers because currently we wast 5 to 6 gallons of water per minute every day when we shower. We could simply decrease that in a very simple way  **
 * ** Finally i would like to mention the water wasted when people brush thier teeth the simple solution to that is to raise awarness and educate the family's of the solutions to that. **

My Story
http://20globalissues.wikispaces.com/Water_stories

** umema's ppt: ** 

Sources for pictures

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[|http://www.flickr.com/photos/fire_brace/118132105/]

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Source: WaterGAP 2.0 - December 1999 Sources for Information: [|http://www.planmygreen.com/conservation/critical-water-shortages/]

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Abdulaziz Al Thani: This wiki page is very good I have learnt a lot from your information and it was very colorful and had very nice images you also have added a bibliography.