10 SURFACE and GROUND WATER: Distribution, Livelihood & Scarcity Concerns

Dr Soma Sarkar

Learning Objectives:

After studying this unit you should be able to:

• Explain basic concept of water scarcity.
• Understand the status and trends of water scarcity with reference to at global and regional perspective,
• Explore major emerging issues related to surface and ground water, and
• Identify the major internationally accord goals towards water theme and identify gaps.

KEYWORDS

   Water scarcity, water demand, water security, water quality, contamination

10.1 Introduction

Since some time now issues related to water have risen in prominence. Huge proportions of people are struggling for sustainable access to safe drinking water. This scenario points towards the growing need for analysing the water’s centrality and identifying the management gaps. Contrary to the static land resource, water is a very complex resource. It occurs in a very dynamic cycle of rain, runoff and evaporation. This is characterized by great temporal unpredictability, spatial variability and qualitative variations. All theses govern its worth to human and ecosystems. Escalating urbanization, unsuitable farming practices, pollution and deforestation are threatening the environment’s capability to offer ecosystem services, including clean water. Globally water resource exploitation and unprecedented demand is mainly subjected to population growth, food and energy security policies, urbanization, changing diets, increasing consumption and macro-economic processes such as trade globalization. UN Water report, 2015 predicts that “by 2050, global water demand is projected to increase by 55%, largely due to growing demands from manufacturing, thermal electricity generation and domestic use.” Groundwater supplies are also under stress. About 20% of the world’s aquifers currently over-exploited. Importunate poverty, unjust accessibility to water and sanitation services, insufficient financing and information gaps about water resource status, competition and multi-sectoral demands impose great constraints on water resources management. This also hinders its ability to achieve sustainable development goals. Therefore, an understanding of water scarcity is highly essential. The knowledge affects the views of both users and policy-makers on the necessity to tackle the water crisis issue, and their outlooks on the most efficient policies to tackle it.

10.2 Defining water scarcity

If a person does not have access to clean and affordable water to satisfy her or his basic needs (drinking, washing or their livelihoods), such persons called water insecure. When in an area, a large population are water insecure for a substantial time period, we can call that area water scarce. Between 2000 and 2050, water  demand in manufacturing sector is likely to surge by 400 per cent globally. According to Frank R. Rijsberman of the International Water Management Institute, “there is no commonly accepted definition of water scarcity, Whether an area qualifies as “water scarce” depends on: a) how people’s needs are defined – and whether the needs of the environment is taken into account in that definition; b) what fraction of the resource is currently available, or could be made available, to satisfy these needs; c) the temporal and spatial scales used to define scarcity.” Similarly, the UN’s website on the global water outlook claims:

“Water scarcity is among the main problems to be faced by many societies and the World in the 21st century. Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, and, although there is no global water scarcity as such, an increasing number of regions are chronically short of water.”…..”Water scarcity is both a natural and a human-made phenomenon. There is enough freshwater on the planet for six billion people but it is distributed unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed.”

Water quality is another assessment factor of water scarcity. For instance, fresh water as it flows downstream may become polluted, and becomes unusable. But such polluted water can be treated and used. Thus some contests that it is a concern weather to call water scarce or not. Thus question arises on, weather to measure the contaminated water (after treatment) as part of the resource? Or left it out for consideration and presume that there is water scarcity? Therefore, water scarcity scenario requires an enquiry of how much water (specified usable quality) is required versus how much is currently available, or from where and when it can be made available.

10.3 Status and trends of water scarcity

Water scarcity is an ever increasing threat to the human health, economic growth, energy security, environment, and the global food supply. According to “2030 Water Resources Group’s” report on “Charting Our Water Future Economic Frameworks to Inform Decision-making By 2030”, the gap between demand and supply of water will reach 40%, leading to a rise in physical water scarcity in regions such as Southern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Asia; and likewise, central, eastern and western parts of Africa and Oceania will experience economic water scarcity.

10.3.1 Human-environment competition for scarce water resources

Ecosystems, which provide life-supporting goods and services, competes with human water demand with respect to multiple pressures. Such pressure also includes the need for adequate quantity and quality as well as appropriate biophysical flows of water. The amount of surface water and groundwater spent in relation to the viable water availability for human use, ‘after accounting for environmental flows’, was represented through “blue water scarcity” (Figure 10.1), by Hoekstra and Mekonnen, 2011. The study shows that “out of 424 of the world’s major river basins, containing a population of 3.9 billion people, environmental flow requirements were violated in 223 basins containing 2.67 billion people, facing severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year”.

Figure 10.1. Major River basin-wise annual average water scarcity, 1996–2005. (Source: UNEP-GEO5)

10.3.2 Water demand

As per ‘2030 Water Resources Group’, UNESCO 2009, “global withdrawals have tripled over the last 50 years to meet the demands of a growing population with increasing wealth and consumption levels. While water supply over this period has remained relatively constant, the concern is, demand now exceeds sustainable supply in many places, with serious long-term implications.” According to Wada et al. 2010, “between 1960 and 2000, global groundwater withdrawal increased from 312 km3 to 734 km3 per year, resulting in groundwater depletion increasing from 126 km3 to 283 km3 per year. Many globally important agricultural nations are particularly dependent on groundwater, including northwest India, northeast Pakistan, northeastern China, California’s Central Valley, and the western United States. Agriculture accounts for 92 per cent of the total global water footprint; livestock and related products alone account for 27 per cent.” (Figure 10.2)

Figure 10.2. Global annual groundwater depletion, 2000

10.3.3 Water use efficiency and water trade

Solution towards water scarcity be dependent mainly by decreasing water demand by enhancing efficiency and minimizing water consumption. All user (Agriculture, domestic, environmental and industrial) demands must be considered together. Enhanced strategies and technologies advancements have created proficiency in all sectors in few areas. Still the need and potentiality exists for greater enhancement to guarantee the prosperity of a growing world population, while limiting the effects on ecosystems. The need and potential for improvement is greatest in the agricultural sector. It has been projected that by 2050 nearly 70 per cent more food will be required to meet the current trend of demands of growing population and dietary changes. Accordingly, water allocation may also change. Thus to ensure sustainable, equitable and economic water use better water allocation efficiency is essential at the river-basin level.

10.3.4 Regional perspective

The challenges in terms of water and sustainable development vary regionally. Increasing resource use efficiency, choosing appropriate technologies, influencing consumption patterns, and reducing waste and pollution, are the main challenges face by developed countries like Europe and North America. While, in Asia and the Pacific region, sustainability is closely related with the improvement in access to safe-water and sanitation; better management of groundwater; fulfilling multiple user’s water demands, mitigating the coexisting pollution-loads; and enhancing pliability towards water-related disasters. Regarding the other developing and under-developed nations, the United Nations world water development report 2015 states that, “Arab region, where unsustainable consumption and over-abstraction of surface and groundwater resources, contributes to water shortages and threaten long-term sustainable development, options adopted to enhance water supplies include water harvesting, wastewater reuse and solar energy desalination….A major priority for the Latin America and the Caribbean region is to build the formal institutional capacity to manage water resources, and bring sustainable integration of water resources use and management into socio-economic development and poverty reduction. While, the fundamental aim for Africa is to achieve durable and vibrant participation in the global economy while developing its natural and human resources without repeating the negatives experienced on the development paths of some other regions.”

10.4 Major issues related to water

A. Water security and human health:

It has been found that regional differences occur for both water accessibility and the limitations arising out of scarce infrastructure. Regardless of developments, lack drinking water accessibility of satisfactory quality and quantity remains the greatest problems towards human health globally. According to GEO5 “inadequate water supply is an inherently regional phenomenon, however, caused by basin-level water scarcity, inadequacies of infrastructure and governance, regional water quality, cultural perspectives and inequitable water pricing”.

B. Water security:

World Water Council 2000 states that ‘the Ministerial Declaration of the Hague defines water security with the aim of providing every person with access to enough safe water at an affordable cost to lead a healthy and productive life, as well as protecting vulnerable communities from water-related risks and hazards.” Because infrastructure progress often happens at the expense of aquatic biodiversity and ecological quality, therefore, investments must be tied with adequate institutional capacity. The council further put forward that ‘’about 80 per cent of the world’s population lives in areas with high water security threats, the most severe category encompassing 3.4 billion people, almost all in developing countries.”

C. Equitable access to improved drinking water

Access to clean water and sanitation was declared as a human right by the UN General Assembly in July 2010. However the right is not yet recognized in many nations. Recent data suggest that the drinking water target of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) was met in 2010 (Figure 10.3). Development towards attaining MDG mainly reveals better use of technology and infrastructure to remove the hurdles of poor water quality or water scarcity.

Figure 10.3. Population without access to improved drinking water, 1990–2015

D. Water-related diseases

Water-related diseases, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), “include those caused by microorganisms and chemicals in drinking water; diseases like schistosomiasis. Poor in developing countries and rural areas, communities that have experienced natural disasters are most vulnerable community. Global health statistics indicate that Africa and South Asia contain the areas that are most severely affected by waterborne disease” (WHO 2004). Water-related diseases are a continuing public health problem in developing countries. These nations are lacking access to sufficient drinking water and sanitation.

E. Water quality and contamination

A 2012 study of global groundwater depletion published in Nature estimates that, “ the size of the global groundwater footprint is currently about 3.5 times the actual area of aquifers and that about 1.7 billion people live in areas where groundwater resources and/or groundwater-dependent ecosystems are under threat. That said, 80 per cent of aquifers have a groundwater footprint that is less than their area, meaning that the net global value is driven by a few heavily overexploited aquifers.” Analysing the situation GEO5 put forward a number of reasons to wards groundwater contamination. It says that, “In groundwater nitrate concentrations are increasing, especially in areas of rapid urbanization, inadequate sanitation and/or heavy agricultural fertilizer use. Salinization of overexploited aquifers, especially in coastal areas, is another serious concern, particularly for communities dependent on groundwater for drinking. Groundwater contaminated with arsenic from natural geologic sources affects 35–75 million people. Surface water pollution in some regions has led to the development of groundwater as a source of drinking water, resulting in inadvertently exposing people to these natural sources of arsenic. Using domestic sewage collection and treatment as a proxy, microbial contamination has decreased over past decades in most developed countries, whereas microbial pathogens are often the most pressing water quality issue in many developing countries. Eutrophication, resulting from excessive nutrient pollution from human sewage, livestock wastes, fertilizers, atmospheric deposition and erosion, is a continuing, pervasive water quality problem. Under severe eutrophic conditions, algal blooms can produce hypoxic conditions, causing fish kills in lakes, and dead zones in coastal areas. Hypoxia has become a significant and increasing problem in lakes and rivers, estuaries and coastal areas around the world.”

F. Water-energy-climate nexus

Water, energy, economic growth and climatic change are co-dependent. Energy demands are driven by increase in human population. In other words, per-person energy consumption related to economic progress are on rise. Thus pressure on hydro-power generation is accelerating. Meanwhile greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil fuel energy contributes to climate change. These have adverse effects on water, including water scarcity, loss of ice cover, extreme weather events, and sea level rise. As per UNEP, “although there is considerable uncertainty regarding projected impacts on the specific water systems, climate change has the potential to seriously affect water management. At the same time, however, local and regional efforts to increase protection against floods and other extreme events are likely to have significant negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems themselves.”

G. Melting ice sheets and sea level rise

The sea level rise is exceeding the rise predicted by climate models. .Measurements from 1993 to 2008 point out that sea level is already rising twice as fast as in prior decades. If present trends stay, melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have turn out to be the major contributors to sea level rise. Moreover it is predicted that it remain dominant throughout the 21st century. Small island developing nations and deltaic areas, are particularly vulnerable. Most of these nations have limited capability to acclimatize to the rising sea levels or recover from related losses. As per World Bank 2010, “The estimated costs of coastal adaptation range from US$26 billion to US$89 billion per year by the 2040s, depending on the magnitude of sea-level rise”.

H. Impacts of energy development on water resources

Although there is inadequate global data related to the energy sector, it is believed that approximately 40 per cent of total water extractions take place in the United States and European Union (EU). Water requirements for energy generation in these nations vary from processing and extraction of raw materials, to driving hydropower turbines and cooling thermo-electric plants, including nuclear. Water quality is seriously affected by the fossil fuel extraction too. There are cases in South and South East Asia where nearly half of planned or existing capacity for major power companies are located in water stress area, and thus, water scarcity is already a-ffecting energy production.

3. International agreed goals

Freshwater has been “a priority issue in all UNEP GEO-5 regional scoping consultations, with most nations identifying Paragraph 26c of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation as the most important freshwater goal”. Where the paragraph says that, “Improve the efficient use of water resources and promote their allocation among competing uses in a way that gives priority to the satisfaction of basic human needs and balances the requirement of preserving or restoring ecosystems and their functions, in particular in fragile environments, with human domestic, industrial and agriculture needs, including safeguarding drinking water quality.” Although limited by global-scale data gaps, the point upto which water-related multilateral agreements on environment have been addressed should be focused to understand the current international agreed goals scenario.

Geo5 states that goals were identified “on the basis of their policy relevance and their ability to illustrate intergovernmental cooperation since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 and earlier” (Table 10.1).

Table 10.1. Selected internationally agreed goals and themes related to water (Source: UNEP GEO5)

    7.  Outlook and gap

In achieving goals directly related to human well-being and economic development has progressed since 1990. This also includes access towater supplies and decline of certain toxic contaminants threatening human and environmental health. Rural areas of developing countries, however, require increased attention due to water-related diseases and water supply

With the development of trans-boundary water agreements and integrated water resource management plans, there has also been progress on water governance. However, there is a need for their appropriate implementation, adequate financing and enforcement to improve the sustainability of life-supporting goods and services.

Absence of suitable indicators or goals for many socio-economic, environmental, and governance goals makes growth towards achieving water-related objectives and viable aquatic ecosystems specifically challenging.

Other major barriers include limited access to technological advancements and financing, knowledge and data gaps, inadequate capacity, and lack of quantifiable targets. More importance should be focused to obtaining consistent data on the effects extreme weather events on human health and well-being, and on ecological integrity.

Finally, analysis of the status and trends regarding the multilateral environmental agreements indicates a systematic and persistent need for policy development, research, and implementation on the national and international level.

SUMMARY

Water demands need sustainable development. Water contributes towards food and energy security to man and ecological health, enhancements in social well-being and comprehensive growth, affecting the livelihoods of billions.

Macro-economic processes like trade globalization,  changing diets and increasing consumption, are equally responsible with population growth, urbanization, food and energy security policies for influencing global water demand. There exists competition for water − between water ‘uses’ and water ‘users’. This amplifies the threat of localized conflicts and inequities in access to services. It also has significant impacts on local economies and human well-being.

With an estimated 20% of the world’s aquifers currently over-exploited, the groundwater supplies are diminishing. Interference of ecosystems continues through urbanization, unsuitable agricultural practices, deforestation etc. They are some common factors challenging the environment’s ability to offer ecosystem services, including clean water.

Importunate poverty, inequitable access to water and sanitation services, inadequate financing, and deficient information about the state of water resources impose constraints on water resources management and its ability to help achieve sustainable development objectives as presented in major internationally accord goals towards water theme.

REFERENCES

1. 2030 Water Resources Group (2009). Charting our Water Future: Economic Frameworks to Inform Decision-Making. http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Reports/Water/Charting_Our_Water_Fu ture_Full_Report_001.pdf
2. FAO (2008). FAO-Aquastat: Proportion of Renewable Water Resources Withdrawn (MDG Water Indicator). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/globalmaps/index.stm
3. IUCN (2000). Vision for water and nature: A World Strategy for Conservation and Sustainable Management of Water Resources in the 21st Century. (IUCN, Gland, Switzerland).
4. IWMI (2000). World Water Supply and Demand in 2025. In: FR Rijsberman, ed. World Water Scenario Analyses. (World Water Council, Marseille).
5. IWMI (2000). World Water Supply and Demand in 2025. In: FR Rijsberman, ed. World Water Scenario Analyses. (World Water Council, Marseille)
6. Pereira, L.A.S., Cordery, I. and Iacovides, I. (2009). Coping with Water Scarcity: Addressing the Challenges. Springer Science Report. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris. http://webworld.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr3/tableofcontents.shtml
7. UNESCO (2006). Water: A Shared Responsibility. 2nd United Nations World Water DevelopmentReport. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris. http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr2/
8. Wada Y, Van Beek LPH, Van Kempen CM, Reckman JWTM, Vasak S, et al. Global depletion of groundwater resources. Geophysical Research Letters. 2010;37:L20402.