Definitions for water scarcity
wa·ter scarci·ty

WikipediaRate this definition:3.2 / 42 votes

1. Water scarcity

   Water scarcity is the lack of fresh water resources to meet water demand. It affects every continent and was listed in 2019 by the World Economic Forum as one of the largest global risks in terms of potential impact over the next decade. It is manifested by partial or no satisfaction of expressed demand, economic competition for water quantity or quality, disputes between users, irreversible depletion of groundwater, and negative impacts on the environment. One-third of the global population (2 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year. Half a billion people in the world face severe water scarcity all year round. Half of the world’s largest cities experience water scarcity.A mere 0.014% of all water on Earth is both fresh and easily accessible. Of the remaining water, 97% is saline and a little less than 3% is hard to access. Technically, there is a sufficient amount of freshwater on a global scale. However, due to unequal distribution (exacerbated by climate change) resulting in some very wet and some very dry geographic locations, plus a sharp rise in global freshwater demand in recent decades driven by industry, humanity is facing a water crisis. Demand is expected to outstrip supply by 40% in 2030, if current trends continue.The essence of global water scarcity is the geographic and temporal mismatch between freshwater demand and availability. The increasing world population, improving living standards, changing consumption patterns, and expansion of irrigated agriculture are the main driving forces for the rising global demand for water. Climate change, such as altered weather-patterns (including droughts or floods), deforestation, increased pollution, green house gases, and wasteful use of water can cause insufficient supply. At the global level and on an annual basis, enough freshwater is available to meet such demand, but spatial and temporal variations of water demand and availability are large, leading to (physical) water scarcity in several parts of the world during specific times of the year. All causes of water scarcity are related to human interference with the water cycle. Scarcity varies over time as a result of natural hydrological variability, but varies even more so as a function of prevailing economic policy, planning and management approaches. Scarcity can be expected to intensify with most forms of economic development, but, if correctly identified, many of its causes can be predicted, avoided or mitigated.Some countries have already proven that decoupling water use from economic growth is possible. For example, in Australia, water consumption declined by 40% between 2001 and 2009 while the economy grew by more than 30%. The International Resource Panel of the UN states that governments have tended to invest heavily in largely inefficient solutions: mega-projects like dams, canals, aqueducts, pipelines and water reservoirs, which are generally neither environmentally sustainable nor economically viable. The most cost-effective way of decoupling water use from economic growth, according to the scientific panel, is for governments to create holistic water management plans that take into account the entire water cycle: from source to distribution, economic use, treatment, recycling, reuse and return to the environment.

WikidataRate this definition:4.4 / 105 votes

1. Water scarcity

   Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region. It already affects every continent and around 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of every year. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. Water scarcity involves water stress, water shortage or deficits, and water crisis. While the concept of water stress is relatively new, it is the difficulty of obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time and may result in further depletion and deterioration of available water resources. Water shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather patterns including droughts or floods, increased pollution, and increased human demand and overuse of water. A water crisis is a situation where the available potable, unpolluted water within a region is less than that region's demand. Water scarcity is being driven by two converging phenomena: growing freshwater use and depletion of usable freshwater resources. Water scarcity can be a result of two mechanisms: physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity, where physical water scarcity is a result of inadequate natural water resources to supply a region's demand, and economic water scarcity is a result of poor management of the sufficient available water resources. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the latter is found more often to be the cause of countries or regions experiencing water scarcity, as most countries or regions have enough water to meet household, industrial, agricultural, and environmental needs, but lack the means to provide it in an accessible manner.

How to pronounce water scarcity?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

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   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

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   Zira

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   Oliver

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   Wendy

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   Fred

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   Tessa

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How to say water scarcity in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of water scarcity in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of water scarcity in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of water scarcity in a Sentence

1. Martin Halle:

   A few things are very clear: the demand for food is going up tremendously because of population growth, [Food production] is becoming more unstable because climate change is affecting production, in the context of growing land and water scarcity. There's very little leeway between supply and demand.

2. Tin Maung Swe:

   If we cannot clean the ponds in time, the locals will face drinking water scarcity in the hot season.

3. Tin Maung Swe:

   We need to pump floodwater out of these ponds. Only then can we use them to store rainwater in the remaining monsoon period, if we cannot clean the ponds in time, the locals will face drinking water scarcity in the hot season.

4. Bhagwati Agrawal:

   In many parts of the world, you never think of water. In other parts, you think of water day and night, my mission is to end water scarcity, not only in India, but globally.

5. Pete Johnson:

   It's clear that water scarcity is only going to increase, and we think that there will be a several-year investment cycle as homes and businesses look at ways to maximize the water they do have.

References

1. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Scarcity
2. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=water scarcity