At present, 17 countries in the world are "extremely short of water resources". At the same time, climate change is causing more rain in humid areas and more drought in arid areas--
Earth sends out water shortage alarm
Recently, the World Resources Institute, a non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington, USA, released a report that at present, 17 countries in the world are in a state of "extreme shortage of water resources", and their population accounts for a quarter of the world.
In recent years, water resource crises have occurred in many parts of the world. The release of this report has once again aroused public concern about the current situation and future of the earth's water resources.
The most serious natural disaster
According to the standards set by the World Resources Institute, the countries listed in the report as "extremely short of water resources" consume more than 80% of the total available water every year.
According to the report, 12 of the 17 countries with extreme water shortage are located in the Middle East and North Africa. However, even in countries with low overall pressure on water resources, individual regions may still encounter extreme water shortage.
In fact, similar warnings have been heard all the time in recent years.
In May, the first United Nations International Water Resources conference co sponsored by UNESCO and the global energy Internet development cooperation organization was held in Paris, France. More than 1000 representatives of governments, enterprises, academic institutions and international organizations from 37 countries attended the conference.
"Water resources are crucial for sustainable development and poverty alleviation". In his opening speech, UNESCO director general azulei stressed that the management and governance of water resources are related to the health of human beings and ecosystems. At the same time, it also reflects the situation of regional education, culture and ecological diversity, and it is very important to promote sustainable water security and peace.
The total amount of the earth's water resources is about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers. However, most of them cannot be used directly by humans - seawater accounts for 96.5% of the earth's total water resources; Among the remaining 3.5%, about 68% are glaciers and ice sheets at the north and south poles, 30% are groundwater, and less than 2% of the water is on the surface, which can be easily used by humans.
In the case of limited total amount, the distribution of available water resources around the world is still very uneven.
According to a study, 65% of the world's drinking water is concentrated in 13 countries, while nearly half of the world's population lives in water deficient areas.
According to the 2018 World Water Resources Development Report released by the United Nations last March, by 2050, more than 5 billion people in the world will face water shortage.
Due to factors such as population growth, economic development and changes in consumption patterns, the global demand for water resources is growing at a rate of 1% per year, which will be greatly accelerated in the next 20 years.
At the same time, climate change is causing more rain in humid areas and more drought in arid areas.
It is estimated that by 2050, floods will affect 1.6 billion people worldwide, accounting for about 20% of the total population. The number of people affected by land degradation, desertification and drought is about 1.8 billion.
From the perspective of death toll and per capita GDP socio-economic impact, this is the most serious natural disaster.
'unfit for human habitation'
Behind reports and data sets is the grim reality of the global water shortage in many places in recent years.
During the rainy season in Namibia this year, the rain did not arrive as scheduled, and most rivers have dried up, further exacerbating the worst drought in the West African country in nearly 90 years.
Sarah middot, Prime Minister of Namibia; Kugonggeluwa amatila announced in May that the country had entered a state of natural disaster and that "the livelihood of the vast majority of people, especially those who live on agriculture, was threatened."
Human beings are not the only ones affected by water shortage. In 2018, more than 60000 animals died of drought in Namibia, a paradise for wild animals.
In order to avoid a repeat of the tragedy, the Ministry of environment decided to sell 1000 rare wild animals to hunting grounds with breeding conditions from June 17 this year.
India is originally a country rich in water resources, but in recent years, affected by factors such as drought, aggravation of water pollution and lack of government protection of water resources, the frequency of water shortage is becoming higher and higher.
India's national transition Commission reported in May that India is experiencing the most serious water crisis in history, and about 600 million people across the country are facing varying degrees of water shortage.
Due to insufficient water supply or water pollution, an average of 200000 people die from 'water' every year.
This is not the first time India's national transition Commission has issued such an early warning. According to the data of the Committee in 2018, the groundwater of 21 cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad may be exhausted by 2020.
On March 15, 2018, the South African cabinet issued a statement saying that the drought in some parts of the country has entered a state of national disaster and triggered a water crisis.
The drought affected several provinces in South Central Africa, the worst in 23 years.
Western Cape Province is the hardest hit area of the drought, and the drought in Cape Town is "once in 400 years". The drought for three consecutive years has made the reservoir water level low for a long time.
In response to the water crisis, Cape Town once imposed strict water restrictions, with 50 litres of water per person per day, and the use of groundwater and outdoor irrigation are also limited.
The Cape Town Municipal government even once announced that when the reservoir dried up, it would implement a "zero water day" to stop the supply of tap water, and citizens would queue up at the designated water distribution station to get water.
Cape Town would have become the world's first city without water if the subsequent rains had not alleviated the drought.
Try every means to get out of trouble
The earth's water crisis has not been a day. People have come up with many ways to deal with water shortage.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the driest countries in the world. According to the British Daily Mail on July 8, the UAE inventor and entrepreneur Abdullah & middot; To this end, arsehi has formulated an ambitious plan to drag icebergs into water.
According to his plan, he hopes to find suitable icebergs from the ocean surface of Antarctica, trap them with ropes and nets, and transport about 8800 kilometers to the United Arab Emirates by boat. Then the icebergs are chopped with special instruments, put into giant cans, and then processed and filtered.
A similar scheme was proposed when the drought in South Africa was the worst in 2018.
Even as early as the 1970s, Saudi Arabia and other countries did similar experiments. But so far, the idea of hauling Antarctic icebergs has not been put into practice due to the huge technical difficulties and high cost in engineering operation.
More than 60% of Israel's land area is desert and dry land. It is one of the countries with the most scarce freshwater resources in the world. Israel continues to explore ways to develop new fresh water resources, improve the utilization efficiency of water resources and avoid water pollution and waste. It has gradually become one of the most successful countries in the development and management of water resources in the world.
Israel has a complete set of water resources management regulations with the water resources law as the basic law, which provides a relatively perfect legal guarantee for water resources management and protection.
While ensuring the system, the Israeli government also attaches great importance to the cultivation of the public's comprehensive water-saving awareness. The Israeli water authority and the Israeli Ministry of environmental protection actively build a water-saving society.
These water-saving measures have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people due to the long-term guidance of the government, making Israel one of the countries with the strongest water-saving awareness in the world.
In addition, relying on scientific and technological innovation, Israel has made great efforts in the recycling of water resources and the development of new water sources.
At present, Israel's sewage recovery and utilization rate is basically the highest in the world. The scale of seawater desalination capacity is expanding and the cost is decreasing. Desalinated seawater resources occupy an important position in the fields of agriculture, industry and domestic water, and even begin to recharge freshwater lakes to realize the sustainable development of freshwater resources.