SQ3R in reading passage

“The Water Crisis”

Clean, fresh water is essential to life, and the earth provides abundant supplies of such water. Even though 97 percent of the planet’s is in the ocean, there is still, in theory, enough fresh water for every person on the planet today. Each year approximately 110,000 billion cubic meters of water falls to the land as rain or snow. Of this, humans use less than 10 percent for agriculture, industry, and personal use, and most of this water is eventually returned as part of the water cycle. Since this is the case, why is there insufficient water in areas of the world where billions of people live? Moreover, why do many experts believe the next wars may be about water, not oil? The answer lies not in the amount of fresh water, but in its unequal availability.

Three geographical factors determine water availability. First, global atmospheric conditions create areas of high pressure and low precipitation. Next, proximity to water also influences the amount of rain since prevailing winds bring moist air from large bodies of water to the land. The farther a country is from large bodies of water, the drier it is. Finally, topography has an important effect on rainfall. High mountains act as water catches, trapping rainfall on one side of the mountains, but leaving the other side dry in the rain shadow. In most parts of the world, all three factors influence rainfall. In addition to these factors, periodic droughts can also dramatically reduce the water supply within a specific region. These factors lead to some countries being water-rich while others are water-poor.

Human activity also plays an important role in fresh water availability. Population growth, urbanization, and farming can strain existing water supplies, reducing both the amount and quality of water available. Underlying the problem of water availability is the fact that most population growth occurs in developing countries, areas already short of water. Wells and piped water and sanitation systems are expensive to build and to maintain. As the population continues to growth in these less developed regions, and as more people move to urban areas, the World Bank estimates that the cost of supplying water will be triple today’s costs. The United Nations warns that two thirds of the world’s population will live in countries experiencing water shortages by 2025.

Water shortages have critical effects on individuals and nations because more than any other resource, water is essential for human activity. It is used in agriculture, industry, and domestic use, that is, for daily living. Of other uses, agriculture accounts for by far the biggest use of water. Irrigation can quickly turn dry dirt into farmland, but it is costly in terms of water. It takes 634 gallons of water to produce a hamburger, 37 gallons for a cup of coffee, 650 gallons for a pound of rice, and 265 gallons for a glass of milk – statistics that highlight the hidden costs of food production. The environmental effect of agriculture is also significant. Farming depends on the use of fertilizers and pesticides. However, irrigation causes runoff of these chemicals, thereby contaminating local supplies of drinking water, and exacerbating water shortages. In the last 50 years, the use of fertilizers has more than tripled in the United States, and as demand for food increases with population growth, the increased use of fertilizers is likely to continue.

With such reliance on water, it is not surprising that many regions worldwide face serious water shortages, including in both developed and developing nations. However, it is in developing nations where water shortages is critical. According to the United Nations, half of all people in developing countries have no access to clean water. In rural areas of these countries, woman walk as many as 4 hours a day to collect water. In urban areas, water may be more easily available, but a price. Because water is not piped into slum areas, people there have to buy water in containers. They often have to pay 5 to 10 times more per gallon than other people living in the same city because those people have access to piped water. This combination of poverty and lack of fresh water is deadly, causing high mortality rates, particularly for children. Each year, 5 times as many children die from water-borne illnesses than from HIV/AIDS.

This human crisis is also an economic crisis. The United Nations estimates that lack of access to clean water and sanitation costs developing nations a staggering 170 billion U.S. dollars a year. This estimate was determined by looking at the cost of health care from treating water-borne illnesses, and the time lost through walking long distances to collect water. For example, it is estimated that in Sub-Saharan Africa, women spend 40 billion hours per year collecting water. This is equivalent to the total of all the hours worked by the French workforce.

Solutions to the water crisis can be classified into two broad approaches: high impact and low impact. High impact solutions include damming, altering the natural course of rivers for irrigation, and desalination – a process of converting seawater to fresh water. Countries across the globe are using these approaches, even though they come at an economic, human, and environmental cost. The Aswan High Dam in Egypt was built to irrigate thousands of acres of farmland. The Colorado River was dammed to provide water to California. China is investing $62 billion to pipe water from the Yangtze River to its dry cities and farmlands in the north. The desert-dry country of Saudi Arabia relies on the technology of desalination. More than 120 desalination plants in the Persian Gulf Region provide much of the water to North Africa and Middle Eastern countries.

Unlike high impact solutions, low impact solutions are usually on a local scale and are more ecologically sensitive. The emphasis tends to be on improving the efficiency of water use rather than seeking new supplies. For example, some cities in water-scarce areas in the United States subsidize the use of sanitation systems, which requires less water and recycle more. Another important emphasis is the increased understanding of the role of wetlands in water management. These important ecological areas naturally filter and clean runoff water, allowing this water to return to rivers and reenter the water cycle. The Nakivubo Swamp in Uganda’s Kampala district is a good example of this process. For years, this extensive wetland has received contaminated water from surrounding settlements, which lack proper sanitation. The wetland naturally purifies this water, returning it to Lake Victoria, where local people can use it more safely for their drinking water.

The solution to the global water crisis is the responsibility of all nations. In 2010, the United Nations passed a resolution that recognized clean drinking water and adequate sanitation as a basic human right. While this resolution has no enforcement power, it does clearly illustrate the fact that many countries understand water is not just a valuable resource; it is also essential to human life.