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Clean, safe drinking water is scarce. Today, nearly 1 billion people in the developing world don't have access to it. Yet, we take it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic bottles.

Water is the foundation of life. And still today, all around the world, far too many people spend their entire day searching for it.

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Water Scarcity in Africa | The Water Project

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Water scarcity affects more than 1 billion people on a global scale. Learn more about water scarcity, the importance of water and how your donation can help.

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It Already Effects 1.2 Billion People Around the World...

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It Already Effects 1.2 Billion People Around the World...

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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 (absolute) 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.

The reduction of water scarcity is a goal of many countries and governments.

The UN recognizes the importance of reducing the number of people without sustainable access to clean water and sanitation.

The Millennium Development Goals within the United Nations Millennium Declaration state that by 2015 they resolve to "halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water."

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water; drought research; environmental issues; resource shortage; world development; environmental policies

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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.

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What are The Causes of Water Scarcity!? Cause and Effect

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What are The Causes of Water Scarcity!? Cause and Effect

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Advertisement

Dear EarthTalk: I saw a cover line on a magazine that said, "The next world war will be over water." Tell me we're not really running out of water!
-- Nell Fox, Seattle, WA

Today fully one-sixth of the world's human population lacks access to clean drinking water, and more than two million people-mostly kids-die each year from water-borne diseases. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an independent organization that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States, predicts that by 2025, one-third of all humans will face severe and chronic water shortages.

Needless to say, water is of primary importance to our survival, and protecting access to and the quality of fresh water supplies will likely become more and more of a challenge in the coming years. According to the non-profit World Water Council, the 20th century saw a tripling of the world's population while freshwater use grew by a factor of six. With world population expected to increase as much as 50 percent over the next half century, analysts are indeed worried that increasing demand for water, coupled with industrialization and urbanization, will have serious consequences both for human health and the environment. Access to freshwater is also likely to cause conflicts between governments as well as within national borders around the world.

According to USAID, the world's "water crisis" is not so much an issue of scarcity as it is of poor management and inequitable distribution. The hardest hit regions have been countries in the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide demand for water is presently doubling every 21 years.

Water-related problems are not the sole purview of the developing world though. We here in North America have polluted and diverted our fresh water supplies far beyond nature's capacity to restore the flows, notably in the West where sprawling, thirsty metropolises have grown up in deserts where the only way water can be provided is to siphon it from other regions.

So how do we fix the world's water woes? The key lies in using water more efficiently-especially in agriculture and industry, which together account for over 90 percent of the world's total freshwater use. But changing the practices of millions of farmers and businesses around the world is a Herculean task.

Irena Salina, director of the award-winning documentary film, FLOW, about the world's dwindling water supplies, thinks it can be done if world leaders, international banks, the United Nations and other governmental organizations establish cooperative agreements for the use of bodies of water, including groundwater, and economic mechanisms to make sure those who need access to water can get it.

As for the developed world-where we use 10 times the water as do developing countries-Salina remains pessimistic. "If our own leaders were serious about solving problems, we would not allow corporations to discharge pollutants into our water sources," she says. "Instead of spending billions on technologies that clean up pollution, we would be using resources to prevent water pollution in the first place."

For more on the water crisis see our in-depth report

CONTACTS: World Water Council, www.worldwatercouncil.org; USAID, www.usaid.gov; Flow the Film, www.flowthefilm.com.

EarthTalk is produced by E/The Environmental Magazine. GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

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Dear EarthTalk: I saw a cover line on a magazine that said, "The next world war will be over water." Tell me we're not really running out of water! -- Nell Fox, Seattle, WA Today fully one-sixth of the world's human population lacks access to clean drinking water, and more than two million people-mostly kids-die each year from water-borne diseases.

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I believe that we need to take action for water loss. or more people will be affected by WATER LOSS! Because I read that 2 to 3 billion people were affected by water loss.

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I don't think it's the scarcity. Humans are BAD AND DUMB and we steal the water from other people and then we use too much of it. We take 70% of the world's accessible fresh water, and yet 60% of it is wasted.

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The problem isnt scarcity there is lots of water on the world the problem is we arent using it correctly human population triples thats 3 times as many but we use water 6 times more we need to use it correctly and we need to keep our water clean millions of people die each year from water borne diseases thats alot of people and if we keep polluting the water the amount will only keep increase and access to fresh water is likely to cause conflicts between governments as well as withing national borders in north america their water supplies have been polluted beyond natures capacity to restore.

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In my opinion, it's NOT scarcity that's the issue it's HUMAN'S!! Us human's waste water and make water that's fresh and clean, dirty. we make water useless and we waste it. In conclusion, It's us humans that makes water a waste.

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water-born diseases are killing many people and the government needs to take it more seriously.

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in the 3rd article i read it said that 2 million people mostly kids from  diarrheal diseases alone.

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As we can see from the quots below these kids need to ''fetch their water''. From this we can tell that these people need help.In addition,a different person talked about haw a water pump braught their place joy.From this we can tell that water pumps made these peoples lives much easier.

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humans don't take water problems seriously and take long showers[like me], leave the sink running, or even just dumping water out

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SO i feel like humans use WAY to much water. About allot of gallons are used per min. So how much would toilets use? I think i read in a book a single flush uses 5 gallons. Government do something without taking 10 years to mine a single piece of ore. Water. Its purpose is to keep us alive. But people use way to much. Then the government must do something but it takes them forever to decide what to do so the citizens help. Comment below your support.

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i think that the issue isn't
that water is running out, but instead that us humans use to much water.

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Think about this,the problem with water is its a scarce resource that we need and use everyday but, did anyone ever ask why its so scarce? The reason is us humans; we pollute our water nearly everyday and now every continent and over  2.8 billion people are affected by water scarcity and, more than 1.2 billion dont have clean drinking water. This isnt even the worst part,we arent the only ones affected by water scarcity,the animals that live and drink the water are affected too. So,i personally believe that we need to stop poulting

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Garland Harrison  science daily water scarcity

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Garland Harrison  science daily water scarcity

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the text teaches  that there is a big problem in are world and it is killing people water scarcity.
a example of this is when the text says water scarcity effects 2.8 billion people around the world

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PEOPLE R DYING BECAUSE THE REGIONS ARE RUNNING OUT OF WATER AND 😭😭😭😭

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I beleive

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we s

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I THINK THAT WATER ISN'T SCARCE IT JUST GETS SPOILED BY OIL AND OTHER CHEMICALS SO IT JUST DOESN'T GET USED.

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SO PEOPLE HAVE one THING thAt they realy need. WaTer. Water is the one thing PeoPLE neED in thIS woRLD. BUTT PEOPLE MISSUSES IT. THEY NEED TO STOP. LOng showers are MaiNLy the reason why. BUT oTHer ReasonS ArE TO BlaME sUch AS EvapORatiON. MaNY PeOPles DoNT HAve aCCess TO the Pure WAter tHAt theY NEEd. So MAinlY NatURle occurences ARe To blame. NatURE yOU kILL Over 2 billION PeoplES. That IS NoT OkS.

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water scarcity already effects every continent, more than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, the UN recognizes the importance of reducing the number of people without sustainable access to clean drinking water and sanitation. this needs to be fixed so many people are dying and if this doesn't get fixed more and more people will die later on from water-born sicknesses

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I THINK THAT WATER ISN'T GOING AWAY BUT PEOPLE, HUMANS ARE 'ACCIDENTALLY' PUTTING OIL INTO THE WATER AND THEN PEOPLE DON'T USE IT. THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS TO BE THOUGHTFUL AND TO BE HUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Don't use too much water because f the 2.8 billion(sad number(☹☹😭☹)) people that die from no water. WHY HASN'T HUMANITY UNLOCKED THE SECRET TO INFINITE RESOURCES HUMANS HAVE UNLOCKED ALL SECRETS BUT THAT. ITS NOT FAIR.

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Its not the scarcity its the fact that humans use to much water and as a result of that others wont have water. Humans waste water by taking long showers leaving the sink on while brushing their teeth. 3% of water is drinkable and we waste two thirds of that! Humans should use less water.

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https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140819-groundwater-california-drought-aquifers-hidden-crisis/