essay on water loss

9 – Addressing Water Losses

Water is a fundamental cornerstone of life, the health of our ecosystems, and the smooth functioning of economies worldwide. Its finite nature, coupled with the escalating pressures of population growth, industrialization, and climate change, poses increasing challenges for sustainable water management.

Within this intricate landscape, water losses emerge as a pivotal concern, demanding a nuanced, multifaceted strategy for effective mitigation. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the types of water losses, their economic and environmental ramifications, and the diverse array of regulatory tools—both economic and non-economic—that can be employed to tackle this issue.

Understanding Water Losses

In a technical context, water losses are defined as the discrepancy between the volume of water introduced into a distribution system and the volume that is ultimately billed to consumers. These losses can be bifurcated into two main categories: physical and non-physical losses.

• Physical or real losses manifest through leakages across the distribution networks, reservoirs, and pipe connections. Such losses are often triggered by a range of factors, including ageing infrastructure, wear and tear, suboptimal pressure management, and external interferences such as road works or construction activities. Extreme events like earthquakes or floods can exacerbate these losses by causing severe damage to water infrastructure components.
• Non-physical or apparent losses , on the other hand, arise from water theft, unauthorized consumption, meter inaccuracies, and data handling errors. While they don’t represent an actual loss of water from the system, they do lead to a loss of revenue for the utility. Causes may include a lack of effective enforcement mechanisms, outdated metering technologies, administrative inefficiencies, and corruption.

Identifying the Origins of Water Loss: The Complexity of Subsurface Utilities

Water loss is inherently elusive; its causes and locations are often hard to pinpoint because most of a utility’s infrastructure lies underground. This makes it challenging for utilities to accurately identify the causes and allocate resources for preventive action. Often, repair efforts focus solely on the most visible issues, such as major water main breaks.

To begin isolating the problem, utilities can start by mapping out meter readings and pressure gauge data from key locations and distribution points within the system. By comparing this real-world data against theoretical water use models based on engineering studies, utilities can at least identify which sections of their network may be problematic. Armed with this approximate data, utilities are better positioned to target their remediation efforts.

The Financial Trade-offs of Managing Non-Revenue Water Loss: Is the Investment Justified?

It’s crucial to acknowledge that a completely leak-free water distribution system is an ideal that may not be achievable. There’s a point where the costs of reducing water loss yield diminishing returns. This concept is captured by the Economic Level of Leakage (ELL), a term defined by the International Water Association. ELL refers to the point where the cost of implementing measures to control leaks matches the cost of the lost water itself. It signifies the most cost-effective level of real losses, balancing the value of the lost water against the costs involved in minimizing those losses.

Economic and Environmental Impact of Water Losses

Water losses carry both economic and environmental repercussions. On the economic front , these losses translate to a direct operational cost to water utilities, representing wasted water, energy, and chemicals used in the water treatment process. Furthermore, there’s an opportunity cost in terms of foregone revenue, as the lost water could have been sold. Replacing ageing infrastructure compounds the financial burden, often requiring substantial capital investment.

Environmentally , water losses contribute to depleting water tables and exacerbate water scarcity, particularly in regions already under water stress. Such scarcity has far-reaching ecological consequences, affecting everything from aquatic life to broader biodiversity. Combined, these economic and environmental impacts make a compelling case for implementing a robust set of regulatory measures that are both economic and non-economic in nature.

The Role of Economic Regulation in Addressing Water Losses

Water Regulators have a vast array of tools that can be used to address water losses. These tools are to be divided in two groups, regulatory and non-regulatory tools.

Regulatory tools are more formal mechanisms that have enforceable power, often dictated by legislation. They typically involve economic measures such as tariffs and performance benchmarks to guide water utility behaviour. On the other hand, non-regulatory tools are softer mechanisms which aim to influence water management through public awareness, stakeholder engagement, and voluntary compliance. These categories are not mutually exclusive and often work best when applied in tandem for a holistic approach to water loss management. Below we explore these different tools in more detail.

Regulatory tools

• Setting Performance Standards. One of the cornerstones of economic regulation in the water sector is setting enforceable performance standards. Regulatory agencies can create benchmarks derived from best industry practices and key performance indicators (KPIs). These standards offer an empirical basis for evaluating utility performance in water loss management. Utilities that are underperforming can be identified through comparative performance reviews and incentivized to improve through economic penalties or public reporting. This competitive pressure fosters a culture of continuous improvement within the sector.
• Implementing Tariff Structures . Tariff structures are another potent tool in the economic regulatory arsenal. By designing tariffs that increase with the volume of water consumed—known as increasing block tariffs—regulators can nudge utilities to minimize their water procurement costs. Alternatively, regulators could design tariffs that fully account for the social and environmental costs of water supply, encouraging utilities to take comprehensive measures to reduce losses, lest they find themselves uncompetitive in the market.
• Promoting Investment in Infrastructure . Regulatory frameworks can facilitate capital flow into infrastructure development. By allowing utilities to include capital expenditure in their rate base, regulators can ensure that utilities have the necessary resources to invest in the upgrading and modernization of infrastructure. This is crucial for implementing state-of-the-art leak detection technologies and rehabilitation of deteriorating pipes and equipment.

Non- Regulatory Measures

• Public Awareness and Education . One non-regulatory strategy is the use of public awareness campaigns designed to inform and engage the consumer base about the importance of water conservation. While it’s essential to tackle water losses on the supply side, demand-side awareness can catalyse broader community action and public scrutiny, providing a complementary angle to more formal, economic, and regulatory efforts.
• Stakeholder Engagement . Multi-stakeholder engagement forms another vital component of non-economic regulation. By involving local governments, non-profit organizations, the private sector, and community bodies, a more holistic and integrated approach to water management can be developed. This inclusive framework often results in more innovative and context-sensitive solutions, bridging gaps that might be left unaddressed by a purely economic regulatory approach.

Financing Mechanisms to Address Water Losses

While economic regulators wield specific tools like tariffs and performance standards, policymakers create the legislative backdrop that either facilitates or impedes these regulatory efforts. Clear policies that prioritize water conservation and penalize wastage provide a robust legal foundation for regulation.

• Traditional Financing Mechanisms: Bonds and Loans . The most traditional approach to finance infrastructural improvements includes municipal bonds and bank loans. However, these are often fraught with bureaucratic delays and high interest rates, especially in economies with high inflation rates. Economic regulators can play a role by endorsing such bonds, offering partial guarantees, or streamlining the approval process to make these traditional methods more efficient.
• Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) . Economic regulators can facilitate Public-Private Partnerships to attract private capital into the water sector. Private entities often bring not only funds but also technology and expertise to manage water losses more effectively. However, the regulator’s role becomes pivotal in ensuring that the terms of the PPP protect the public interest, particularly in maintaining reasonable water tariffs.
• Performance-based Contracts . These contracts directly link financial compensation to performance metrics related to water loss reduction. Regulators can set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and incentivize utilities through contractual obligations. By making a part of the utility’s revenue dependent on performance in reducing water losses, these contracts motivate utilities to be more proactive in loss reduction.
• Tariff Structuring . Economic regulators can restructure water tariffs to include the costs associated with water loss reduction. An increasing block tariff, for example, would charge consumers progressively higher rates as their consumption increases, thus incentivizing lower water use and generating additional revenue for loss prevention measures.
• Grant and Subsidy Programs . National and international grants and subsidies are often available for sustainability projects, including water loss reduction. Regulators can aid utilities in applying for these grants and ensure that these funds are allocated efficiently. These grants often come with the stipulation that the utility adopts international best practices, thus serving the dual purpose of funding and technology transfer.

As guardians of both public interest and market efficiency, economic regulators occupy a crucial role in mitigating water losses. While traditional financing mechanisms like bonds and loans still have their place, innovative solutions like Public-Private Partnerships, performance-based contracts, and targeted tariff structures offer promising avenues for loss reduction. However, the role of economic regulators extends beyond mere financial engineering; they must also act as facilitators, standard-setters, and sometimes educators to foster a holistic approach to water loss mitigation. As the global water crisis intensifies, the onus is on regulators to leverage every tool at their disposal, financial or otherwise, to steer utilities and consumers toward a more sustainable water future.

The challenges posed by water losses are complex but not insurmountable. With a meticulously designed suite of regulatory tools—both economic and non-economic—backed by solid policies, behavioural insights, and a well-planned financing strategy, the water sector can drastically reduce these losses. This multi-pronged approach ensures the sustainable use of this invaluable resource, benefiting both current and future generations and fostering ecological and economic resilience at a global scale.

This article is a part of the ‘ Water Basics Series ,’ a collection of pieces designed to shed light on the water sector and water regulation. To learn more about this vital sector, you can return to the main page of the series and explore other articles.

Stay updated with the latest articles in this series by following WAREG on  LinkedIn  and  Twitter , and consider registering to WAREG’s  monthly newsletter . By doing so, you’ll be among the first to know when new pieces are released, allowing you to continue expanding your knowledge about the water sector.

Water Basics Series

References and Suggested readings

Non-Revenue Water Loss: Its Causes and Cures

Understanding and managing losses in water distribution networks

Evaluating the economic impact of water scarcity in a changing world

Three Essays on Water Economics

Water Stress: A Global Problem That’s Getting Worse

• Foreign Affairs
• CFR Education
• Newsletters

• Climate Change

Global Climate Agreements: Successes and Failures

Backgrounder by Lindsay Maizland December 5, 2023 Renewing America

• Defense & Security
• Diplomacy & International Institutions
• Energy & Environment
• Human Rights
• Politics & Government
• Social Issues

Myanmar’s Troubled History

Backgrounder by Lindsay Maizland January 31, 2022

• Europe & Eurasia
• Global Commons
• Middle East & North Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa

How Tobacco Laws Could Help Close the Racial Gap on Cancer

Interactive by Olivia Angelino, Thomas J. Bollyky , Elle Ruggiero and Isabella Turilli February 1, 2023 Global Health Program

• Backgrounders
• Special Projects

United States

CFR Welcomes Daniel B. Poneman Back as Senior Fellow

News Releases July 11, 2024

• Centers & Programs
• Books & Reports
• Independent Task Force Program
• Fellowships

Oil and Petroleum Products

Academic Webinar: The Geopolitics of Oil

Webinar with Carolyn Kissane and Irina A. Faskianos April 12, 2023

• State & Local Officials
• Religion Leaders
• Local Journalists

NATO's Future: Enlarged and More European?

Virtual Event with Emma M. Ashford, Michael R. Carpenter, Camille Grand, Thomas Wright, Liana Fix and Charles A. Kupchan June 25, 2024 Europe Program

• Lectureship Series
• Webinars & Conference Calls
• Member Login

Water Stress: A Global Problem That’s Getting Worse

• Water scarcity happens when communities can’t fulfill their water needs, either because supplies are insufficient or infrastructure is inadequate. Today, billions of people face some form of water stress.
• Countries have often cooperated on water management. Still, there are a handful of places where transboundary waters are driving tensions, such as the Nile Basin.
• Climate change will likely exacerbate water stress worldwide, as rising temperatures lead to more unpredictable weather and extreme weather events, including floods and droughts.

Introduction

Billions of people around the world lack adequate access to one of the essential elements of life: clean water. Although governments and aid groups have helped many living in water-stressed regions gain access in recent years, the problem is projected to get worse due to global warming and population growth. Meanwhile, a paucity of international coordination on water security has slowed the search for solutions.

Water stress can differ dramatically from one place to another, in some cases causing wide-reaching damage, including to public health, economic development, and global trade. It can also drive mass migrations and spark conflict. Now, pressure is mounting on countries to implement more sustainable and innovative practices and to improve international cooperation on water management.

What is water stress?

• Food and Water Security
• Energy and Environment
• Infrastructure

Water stress or scarcity occurs when demand for safe, usable water in a given area exceeds the supply. On the demand side, the vast majority—roughly 70 percent—of the world’s freshwater is used for agriculture, while the rest is divided between industrial (19 percent) and domestic uses (11 percent), including for drinking. On the supply side, sources include surface waters, such as rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, as well as groundwater, accessed through aquifers.

Daily News Brief

A summary of global news developments with cfr analysis delivered to your inbox each morning.  weekdays., the world this week, a weekly digest of the latest from cfr on the biggest foreign policy stories of the week, featuring briefs, opinions, and explainers. every friday., think global health.

A curation of original analyses, data visualizations, and commentaries, examining the debates and efforts to improve health worldwide.  Weekly.

But scientists have different ways of defining and measuring water stress, taking into account a variety of factors including seasonal changes, water quality, and accessibility. Meanwhile, measurements of water stress can be imprecise, particularly in the case of groundwater. “Any numbers out there have to be taken with a grain of salt,” says Upmanu Lall , a Columbia University professor and water expert. “None of these definitions are typically accounting for groundwater usage, or groundwater stock.”

What causes water scarcity?

Water scarcity is often divided into two categories: physical scarcity, when there is a shortage of water because of local ecological conditions; and economic scarcity, when there is inadequate water infrastructure.

The two frequently come together to cause water stress. For instance, a stressed area can have both a shortage of rainfall as well as a lack of adequate water storage and sanitation facilities. Experts say that even when there are significant natural causes for a region’s water stress, human factors are often central to the problem, particularly with regard to access to clean water and safe sanitation. Most recently, for example, the war in Ukraine damaged critical infrastructure, leaving six million people with limited or no access to safe water in 2022.

“Almost always the drinking water problem has nothing to do with physical water scarcity,” says Georgetown University’s Mark Giordano , an expert on water management. “It has to do with the scarcity of financial and political wherewithal to put in the infrastructure to get people clean water. It’s separate.”

At the same time, some areas that suffer physical water scarcity have the infrastructure that has allowed life there to thrive, such as in Oman and the southwestern United States.

A variety of authorities, from the national level down to local jurisdictions, govern or otherwise influence the water supply. In the United States, more than half a dozen federal agencies deal with different aspects of water: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces regulations on clean water, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) prepares for and responds to water disasters . Similar authorities exist at the state and local levels to protect and oversee the use of water resources, including through zoning and rehabilitation projects.

Which regions are most water-stressed?

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the worst off in terms of physical water stress, according to most experts. MENA receives less rainfall than other regions, and its countries tend to have fast-growing, densely populated urban centers that require more water. But many countries in these regions, especially wealthier ones, still meet their water needs. For example, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) imports nearly all of its food, alleviating the need to use water for agriculture. The UAE and other wealthy MENA countries also rely heavily on the desalination of abundant ocean water, albeit this process is an expensive, energy-intensive one.

Meanwhile, places experiencing significant economic scarcity include Central African countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo , which receives a lot of rain but lacks proper infrastructure and suffers from high levels of mismanagement.

Even high-income countries experience water stress. Factors including outdated infrastructure and rapid population growth have put tremendous stress on some U.S. water systems , causing crises in cities including Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey.

How is climate change affecting water stress?

For every 1°C (1.8°F) increase in the global average temperature, UN experts project a 20 percent drop in renewable water resources. Global warming is expected to increase the number of water-stressed areas and heighten water stress in already affected regions. Subtropical areas, such as Australia, the southern United States, and North African countries, are expected to warm and suffer more frequent and longer droughts; however, when rainfall does occur in these regions, it is projected to be more intense. Weather in tropical regions will likewise become more variable, climate scientists say.

Agriculture could become a particular challenge. Farming suffers as rainfall becomes more unpredictable and rising temperatures accelerate the evaporation of water from soil. A more erratic climate is also expected to bring more floods, which can wipe out crops an overwhelm storage systems. Furthermore, rainfall runoff can sweep up sediment that can clog treatment facilities and contaminate other water sources.

In a 2018 report , a panel consisting of many of the world’s top climate researchers showed that limiting global warming to a maximum 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels—the aim of the Paris Agreement on climate—could substantially reduce the likelihood of water stress in some regions, such as the Mediterranean and southern Africa, compared to an unchecked increase in temperature. However, most experts say the Paris accord will not be enough to prevent the most devastating effects of climate change.

What are its impacts on public health and development?

Prolonged water stress can have devastating effects on public health and economic development. More than two billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water; and nearly double that number—more than half the world’s population—are without adequate sanitation services . These deprivations can spur the transmission of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, polio, hepatitis A, and diarrhea.

At the same time, because water scarcity makes agriculture much more difficult, it threatens a community’s access to food. Food-insecure communities can face both acute and chronic hunger, where children are more at risk of conditions stemming from malnutrition, such as stunting and wasting, and chronic illnesses due to poor diet, such as diabetes.

Even if a water-stressed community has stable access to potable water, people can travel great lengths or wait in long lines to get it—time that could otherwise be spent at work or at school. Economists note these all combine [PDF] to take a heavy toll on productivity and development.

Living in a Water-Stressed World

A housing development lies on the edge of Cathedral City, a desert resort town in southern California, in April 2015.

Eleven-year-old Chikuru carries water in a plastic jerrican, which weighs about forty pounds when full, to her home in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, in September 2019.

The water level at Camlidere Dam in the Turkish capital of Ankara is low due to seasonal drought and high water consumption amid the COVID-19 pandemic, November 2020.

A young boy washes a cooking pot in a pool of rainwater outside a slum where members of the Muhamasheen minority group live in Sanaa, Yemen, July 2020.

Abdel-Shaheed Gerges, a farmer, touches water flowing through a government-developed irrigation channel in Esna, Egypt, in October 2019.

Summer Weeks bathes her two-year-old daughter, Ravynn, outside their home in the Navajo Nation in Arizona, September 2020.

A worker waters turf at a sprawling horse-racing facility in Dubai in March 2021.

A woman collects water from a well dug in the Black Umfolozi Riverbed, which is dry due to drought, outside of Durban, South Africa, in January 2016.

The shadow of a girl who fled Raqqa is cast on the wall of a water spigot at a camp for internally displaced people in Syria, August 2017.

Kevin Dudley carries his daughter, Katelyn, and bottles of water to his apartment amid weeks-long water outages across Jackson, Mississippi, in March 2021.

A woman uses swamp water to wash clothes in northern Jakarta, Indonesia, in March 2018.

The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the need for safe water access. Handwashing is one of the most effective tools for combating the coronavirus, but health experts noted that three in ten individuals —2.3 billion people globally—could not wash their hands at home at the pandemic’s onset.

How has water factored into international relations?

Many freshwater sources transcend international borders, and, for the most part, national governments have been able to manage these resources cooperatively. Roughly three hundred international water agreements have been signed since 1948. Finland and Russia, for example, have long cooperated on water-management challenges, including floods, fisheries, and pollution. Water-sharing agreements have even persisted through cross-border conflicts about other issues, as has been the case with South Asia’s Indus River and the Jordan River in the Middle East.

However, there are a handful of hot spots where transboundary waters are a source of tension, either because there is no agreement in place or an existing water regime is disputed. One of these is the Nile Basin, where the White and Blue Nile Rivers flow from lakes in East Africa northward to the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt claims the rights to most of the Nile’s water based on several treaties, the first dating back to the colonial era; but other riparian states say they are not bound to the accords because they were never party to them. The dispute has flared in recent years after Ethiopia began construction of a massive hydroelectric dam that Egypt says drastically cuts its share of water.

Transboundary water disputes can also fuel intrastate conflict; some observers note this has increased in recent years , particularly in the hot spots where there are fears of cross-border conflict. For example, a new hydropower project could benefit elites but do little to improve the well-being of the communities who rely on those resources.

Moreover, water stress can affect global flows of goods and people. For instance, wildfires and drought in 2010 wiped out Russian crops, which resulted in a spike in commodities prices and food riots in Egypt and Tunisia at the start of the Arab uprisings. Climate stress is also pushing some to migrate across borders. The United Nations predicts that without interventions in climate change, water scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions will displace hundreds of millions of people by 2030.

What are international organizations and governments doing to alleviate water stress?

There has been some international mobilization around water security. Ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) , a sweeping fifteen-year development agenda adopted by member states in 2015. Smart water management is also vital to many of the other SDGs, such as eliminating hunger and ensuring good health and well-being. And while the Paris Agreement on climate does not refer to water explicitly, the United Nations calls [PDF] water management an “essential component of nearly all the mitigation and adaptation strategies.” The organization warns of the increasing vulnerability of conventional water infrastructure, and points to many climate-focused alternatives, such as coastal reservoirs and solar-powered water systems.

However, there is no global framework for addressing water stress, like there is for fighting climate change or preserving biodiversity . The most recent UN summit on water, held in March 2023, was the first such conference since 1977 and didn’t aim to produce an international framework. It instead created a UN envoy on water and saw hundreds of governments, nonprofits, and businesses sign on to a voluntary Water Action Agenda, which analysts called an important but insufficient step compared to a binding agreement among world governments.

Some governments and partner organizations have made progress in increasing access to water services: Between 2000 and 2017, the number of people using safely managed drinking water and safely managed sanitation services rose by 10 percent and 17 percent, respectively. In 2022, the Joe Biden administration announced an action plan to elevate global water security as a critical component of its efforts to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives. But the pace of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have presented new challenges. Now, many countries say they are unlikely to implement integrated water management systems by 2030, the target date for fulfilling the SDGs. 

Still, some governments are taking ambitious and creative steps to improve their water security that could serve as models for others:

Green infrastructure . Peruvian law mandates that water utilities reinvest a portion of their profits into green infrastructure (the use of plant, soil, and other natural systems to manage stormwater), and Canada and the United States have provided tens of millions of dollars in recent years to support Peru’s efforts [PDF]. Vietnam has taken similar steps to integrate natural and more traditional built water infrastructure.

Wastewater recycling . More and more cities around the globe are recycling sewage water into drinking water, something Namibia’s desert capital has been doing for decades. Facilities in countries including China and the United States turn byproducts from wastewater treatment into fertilizer.

Smarter agriculture . Innovations in areas such as artificial intelligence and genome editing are also driving progress. China has become a world leader in bioengineering crops to make them more productive and resilient.

Recommended Resources

The Wilson Center’s Lauren Risi writes that water wars between countries have not come to pass, but subnational conflicts over the resource are already taking a toll.

CFR’s Why It Matters podcast talks to Georgetown University’s Mark Giordano and the Global Water Policy Project’s Sandra Postel about water scarcity .

The World Economic Forum describes the growing water crisis in the Horn of Africa, while National Geographic looks at how the prolonged drought is pushing wildlife closer to towns.

The World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct maps the areas facing extremely high water stress.

The United Nations shares facts about water and its role in all aspects of life.

BuzzFeed News interviews residents of Jackson, Mississippi , who lost access to safe water after freezing temperatures wreaked havoc on the city’s decaying infrastructure.

• Sustainable Development Goals (UN)

Emily Lieberman contributed to this Backgrounder. Michael Bricknell and Will Merrow helped create the graphics.

• What are its impacts on health and development?
• What is being done to alleviate water stress?

More From Our Experts

How Will the EU Elections Results Change Europe?

In Brief by Liana Fix June 10, 2024 Europe Program

Iran Attack Means an Even Tougher Balancing Act for the U.S. in the Middle East

In Brief by Steven A. Cook April 14, 2024 Middle East Program

Iran Attacks on Israel Spur Escalation Concerns

In Brief by Ray Takeyh April 14, 2024 Middle East Program

Top Stories on CFR

Will Maduro Hold on to Power in Venezuela’s 2024 Election?

Expert Brief by Shannon K. O'Neil and Julia Huesa July 16, 2024 Latin America Studies Program

International Law

Trump v. U.S.: Has the Supreme Court Made the Presidency More Dangerous?

Expert Brief by David J. Scheffer July 10, 2024

Election 2024

Meet J.D. Vance, Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate

Blog Post by James M. Lindsay July 16, 2024 The Water's Edge

How Climate Change Impacts Water Access

The water cycle is part of our everyday lives, but climate change may have dire consequences for everyday water access.

Biology, Health, Conservation, Earth Science

Herder Collecting Water

Climate change is already hurting water access for people around the world. Here, a Samburu herder collects water for his flock in Sahara Conservancy, Kenya.

Photograph from the National Geographic image collection

Climate change is already affecting water access for people around the world, causing more severe droughts and floods. Increasing global temperatures are one of the main contributors to this problem. Climate change impacts the water cycle by influencing when, where, and how much precipitation falls. It also leads to more severe weather events over time. Increasing global temperatures cause water to evaporate in larger amounts, which will lead to higher levels of atmospheric water vapor and more frequent, heavy, and intense rains in the coming years.

Climate scientists predict that this shift will lead to more floods since more water will fall than vegetation and soil can absorb. The remaining water, or runoff , drains into nearby waterways, picking up contaminants like fertilizer on the way. Excess runoff eventually travels to larger bodies of water like lakes, estuaries, and the ocean, polluting the water supply and limiting water access for humans and ecosystems .

When fertilizers from farming wash into lakes and the ocean, they promote the rapid growth of algae. These resulting algal blooms clog coasts and waterways with clouds of green, blue-green, red, or brown algae. The blooms block sunlight from reaching underwater life and diminish oxygen levels within the water. Toxins from the blooms can kill off fish and other aquatic animals, make people sick, and even kill humans. These toxins are especially dangerous because they can survive purification processes, making tap water unfit to consume once contaminated. Algal blooms also impact industries that rely on the water for business, and often cause local waterfronts to shut down during blooms. As the climate warms, harmful algal blooms happen more often and become more severe.

As the ocean warms, freshwater glaciers around Earth begin to melt at an unsustainable rate, which results in rising sea levels. The freshwater from the melted glaciers eventually runs into the ocean. With the rising of sea levels, salt water can more easily contaminate underground freshwater-bearing rocks, called aquifers. A process called desalination removes salt from salt water, but it is a last-resort, energy-intensive, costly process for places where there are persistent droughts and freshwater is lacking. The Middle East, North Africa, and the Caribbean use desalination to produce freshwater out of necessity.

In the Northern Hemisphere—where snow, a freshwater source, typically accumulates—warmer temperatures mean less snowfall, which leaves less water available in local reservoirs after winter. This negatively impacts farmers, who are left without enough water to irrigate their crops in the growing season.

There are many things that everyone can do to lessen the impact of climate change . Some measures include growing your own fruits and vegetables or buying locally grown produce, since produce is often transported to grocery stores from far away by trucks, which add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere . You could also walk or ride a bike instead of driving a car. On a larger scale, industries that are dependent on fossil fuels need to make the switch to renewable, cleaner energy sources to influence our planet for the better.

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Production Managers

Program specialists, last updated.

January 26, 2024

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service .

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.

Related Resources

• Global Warming

Water Crisis

• Biodiversity Loss
• Causes and Solutions
• 50 Year Progress
• Environmental Legislation
• International Cooperation
• Environmental Setbacks
• Biodiversity Loss Quiz
• Climate Change Quiz
• Climate Change: Fact or Fiction Quiz
• Ecosystems Quiz
• Everyday Environmental Tips
• Meet the Organizations
• Meet the Environmental Activists
• Student Center >
• Space Exploration >

Unlimited access to clean, safe water is taken for granted in many places, but water scarcity is a growing concern worldwide. Overuse, increasing demand, pollution, poor management, lack of infrastructure, and changes in weather patterns due to global warming are key stressors that affect the availability of fresh water. 

Water is essential to life.

Many major cities across the globe are at risk of a water crisis, and water stress is projected to increase in most countries in the coming decades, threatening regional stability and raising the possibility of forced migrations. In addition, the issue of water availability is not just a human problem—our demands on lakes, rivers, and streams can dramatically harm ecosystems and the natural processes that require water.

Learn about the problem of water scarcity and the major threats to our water, and dive deep into some of the diverse solutions that exist to conserve, protect, and equitably manage Earth’s water resources for human and nonhuman life.

Know the problem

Water scarcity is a growing concern worldwide. Unsustainable and ever-growing demands on our freshwater resources have taxed aquifers and surface waters in many places, harming ecosystems and threatening future economic growth. A regional water crisis, often triggered by drought, can result in famine, forced migration, and other humanitarian emergencies. Explore the critical problem of water scarcity and some of its associated effects.

Drought is often a driver of serious water crises that can result in famine, forced migration, and regional conflicts over remaining water resources.

Water scarcity can affect local food production and cause devastating famines. Learn more about their causes, effects, and relief efforts.

7 Lakes That Are Drying Up

Lakes can be sensitive to changes in precipitation and water withdrawals from human activity. Learn about seven lakes that are drying up.

Complex Humanitarian Emergency

A water crisis can potentially escalate into a complex humanitarian emergency. Read about these complicated disasters.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO LACK ACCESS TO SAFE AND RELIABLE DRINKING WATER AT HOME

ONE-THIRD OF THE WORLD’S LARGE AQUIFER SYSTEMS ARE IN DISTRESS.

Know the Causes

There are numerous threats to our water resources. Human demands often exceed sustainable water consumption levels, and the pollution we generate harms aquatic systems and renders the contaminated water unsafe to use. In addition, global warming increases the likelihood of extreme weather events, including drought and excessive heat, and is expected put additional stressors on water availability and global distribution. Read more about the causes of our global water crisis.

Water Pollution

Water pollution interferes with the functioning of ecosystems and the human uses of water.

Fracking for natural gas and crude oil consumes and dirties large amounts of water and can contaminate aquifers.

Environmental Infrastructure

Aging and mismanaged environmental infrastructure wastes and contaminates precious water resources.

Industry claims vast amounts of freshwater resources and is also responsible for significant amounts of water pollution.

Editor's Answers

Popular questions.

Have a question of your own? Britannica's Beyond question and answer platform is ready for your questions.

Agriculture, industry, and municipalities are the three largest water consumers worldwide.  Read more.

Less than one percent of Earth’s water is available fresh water.  Read more.

Overuse, water pollution, lack of infrastructure, and changing weather patterns due to climate change are some of the drivers of water scarcity.  Read more.

Rainwater can be used for non-potable uses, including watering plants, which reduces the demand on municipal systems.  Read more.

Domestic sewage is a major source of plant nutrients, mainly nitrates and phosphates. Excess nitrates and phosphates in water promote the growth of algae, sometimes causing unusually dense and rapid growths known as algal blooms. When these blooms die, the process of decomposition uses up dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats.

Did you know?

About 2.6 billion people around the world have gained access to clean water in the last 25 years!

Know the Solutions

One of the best ways to address water scarcity is to conserve water and treat it as something truly precious. Beyond that, there are a number of technological, ecological, and economic solutions that can help ensure that humans and natural systems have sufficient access to safe water. Dive into some of the solutions, and get inspired by the possibilities!

Desalination

Desalination renders salty, unusable waters fit for human consumption, irrigation, industrial applications, and various other uses.

Rainwater Harvesting

Rainwater harvesting systems can supply households and businesses with water for use in dry seasons and lessen the demand on municipal water supplies.

Ecological Restoration

The restoration of ecosystems that naturally collect, filter, store, and release water, like wetlands, is a key strategy in reducing water scarcity.

Contour Farming

Contour farming has been proven to reduce fertilizer loss and erosion, increase crop yields, and help absorb the impact of heavy rains.

Take Action

The issues facing Earth are big, but imagine the difference we could make if we all took steps to address them. Learn about the small but important changes you can make in your daily life to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, save water, help wildlife, and limit pollution.

Essay on Water Conservation and Management

Students are often asked to write an essay on Water Conservation and Management in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Water Conservation and Management

Introduction.

Water is a precious resource that sustains life on earth. However, water scarcity is a growing issue due to population increase and climate change. Therefore, water conservation and management is crucial.

What is Water Conservation?

Water conservation involves using water efficiently to reduce unnecessary water usage. It can be as simple as turning off the tap while brushing your teeth or using a rain barrel to collect rainwater for garden use.

Water Management

Water management includes strategies and activities to manage water resources. It involves planning, distributing, and optimizing the use of water resources to meet human and environmental needs.

Importance of Water Conservation and Management

Conserving and managing water ensures a sustainable future. It reduces water stress, protects the environment, and saves energy. It also promotes health and well-being by ensuring access to clean water.

250 Words Essay on Water Conservation and Management

Water is a fundamental resource for life, yet its availability is increasingly strained due to population growth, climate change, and pollution. This necessitates effective conservation and management strategies.

Understanding Water Conservation

Water conservation refers to the careful use and preservation of water resources. It involves both the strategies and activities to manage fresh water as a sustainable resource to protect the environment and meet current and future human needs. This includes practices like reducing water usage, recycling water, and improving water management systems.

The Need for Water Management

Water management is crucial to ensure the equitable distribution of water, maintain its quality, and balance its availability amidst seasonal variations. It includes the planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. Effective water management can prevent conflicts over water scarcity and ensure that all sectors of society have access to this vital resource.

Strategies for Conservation and Management

Strategies for water conservation and management can range from individual actions to large-scale policy initiatives. On a personal level, individuals can conserve water by reducing consumption and recycling water. On a larger scale, governments and organizations can implement policies promoting water conservation, invest in infrastructure to reduce water loss, and engage in international cooperation to manage shared water resources.

In conclusion, water conservation and management are critical for sustaining life, maintaining ecological balance, and ensuring social equity. By understanding and implementing effective strategies, we can ensure the preservation of this vital resource for future generations.

500 Words Essay on Water Conservation and Management

Water conservation refers to the efficient use and preservation of water resources. It involves strategies and activities to manage freshwater supply, preventing water pollution, and reducing water consumption. Conservation is essential because only about 2.5% of the Earth’s water is fresh, and less than 1% is accessible.

The Importance of Water Management

Water management is a broad concept that encompasses the planning, development, distribution, and optimization of water resources. It involves a multitude of activities, including irrigation management, flood control, supply forecasting, and water quality assurance. Effective water management can help mitigate the impacts of water scarcity, ensuring equitable and sustainable use of this precious resource.

Water Conservation Strategies

Water management techniques.

Effective water management requires a combination of traditional practices and innovative technologies. Techniques like rainwater harvesting, watershed management, and aquifer recharge can help increase freshwater availability. On the technological front, advanced hydrological models, remote sensing, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can enhance water resource planning and management.

Role of Policy and Legislation

Governments have a significant role in water conservation and management through policy-making and legislation. Policies should promote sustainable water use, protect water rights, and regulate water pollution. Legislation can enforce water-saving measures, penalize wasteful practices, and incentivize water-efficient technologies.

The Future of Water Conservation and Management

Water conservation and management is a pressing issue that requires immediate attention. As we face a future with potentially severe water shortages, it is essential to adopt effective strategies for conservation and implement robust water management techniques. By doing so, we can ensure a sustainable and equitable distribution of water resources for future generations.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• The Water Crisis

The power of water

Water connects every aspect of life. Access to safe water and sanitation can quickly turn problems into potential – empowering people with time for school and work, and contributing to improved health for women, children, and families around the world. 

Today, 2.2 billion people – 1 in 4 – lack access to safe water and 3.5 billion people – 2 in 5 – lack access to a safe toilet. These are the people we empower.

Learn more about the global water crisis >

Learn more about the global sanitation crisis >

A women's crisis

Women are disproportionately affected by the water crisis, as they are often responsible for collecting water. This takes time away from work, school and caring for family. The lack of water and sanitation locks women in a cycle of poverty. 

Empowering women is critical to solving the water crisis. When women have access to safe water at home, they can pursue more beyond water collection and their traditional roles. They have time to work and add to their household income. 

Learn how the water crisis affects women >

Women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection.

A health crisis

The water crisis is a health crisis. More than 1 million people die each year from water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases which could be reduced with access to safe water or sanitation. Every 2 minutes a child dies from a water-related disease. Access to safe water and sanitation contributes to improved health and helps prevent the spread of infectious disease. It means reduced child and maternal mortality rates. It means reduced physical injury from constant lifting and carrying heavy loads of water. Now more than ever, access to safe water is critical to the health of families around the world.

Read why the water crisis is a health crisis >

A children's and education crisis

Children are often responsible for collecting water for their families. This takes time away from school and play. Access to safe water and sanitation changes this. Reductions in time spent collecting water have been found to increase school attendance, especially for girls. Access to safe water gives children time to play and opportunity for a bright future.

See how the water crisis affects children and their education >

Reductions in time spent collecting water increases school attendance, especially for girls.

An economic crisis

Time spent gathering water or seeking safe sanitation accounts for billions in lost economic opportunities. $260 billion is lost globally each year due to lack of basic water and sanitation. Access to safe water and sanitation at home turns time spent into time saved, giving families more time to pursue education and work opportunities that will help them break the cycle of poverty.

Learn more about how the water crisis is an economic crisis >

A climate crisis

Water is the primary way in which we will feel many of the effects of climate change. Millions of families in poverty live in regions where water access is limited, temporary, or unstable. They are less prepared to face the effects of climate change like temperature extremes, floods, and droughts. Access to sustainable safe water and improved sanitation solutions can support climate resiliency for the people who need it the most.

Read more about the connection between climate change and water access >

By 2025, 50% of the world’s population is projected to live in water-stressed areas as a result of climate change, with low-income families bearing the greatest burden of this crisis.

• World Health Organization and UNICEF. (2023). Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene 2000-2022: Special focus on gender.
• World Health Organization and UNICEF. (2020). Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Schools: Special focus on COVID-19.
• UN-Water. (2019). Policy Brief on Climate Change and Water.
• World Health Organization and UNICEF. (2020). State of the World's Sanitation: An urgent call to transform sanitation for better health, environments, economies and societies.
• Hutton, G., and M. Varughese. (2020). Global and Regional Costs of Achieving Universal Access to Sanitation to Meet SDG Target 6.2.
• World Health Organization. (2019). Burden of disease attributable to unsafe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene.
• World Health Organization, UNICEF, and World Bank. (2022). State of the world’s drinking water: an urgent call to action to accelerate progress on ensuring safe drinking water for all.
• WaterAid. (2021). Mission-critical: Invest in water, sanitation and hygiene for a healthy and green economic recovery.

The water crisis affects millions around the world. Make an impact today.

About . Click to expand section.

• Our History
• Team & Board
• Transparency and Accountability

What We Do . Click to expand section.

• Cycle of Poverty
• Climate & Environment
• Emergencies & Refugees
• Health & Nutrition
• Livelihoods
• Gender Equality
• Where We Work

Take Action . Click to expand section.

• Attend an Event
• Partner With Us
• Fundraise for Concern
• Work With Us
• Leadership Giving
• Humanitarian Training
• Newsletter Sign-Up

Donate . Click to expand section.

• Give Monthly
• Donate in Honor or Memory
• Leave a Legacy
• DAFs, IRAs, Trusts, & Stocks
• Employee Giving

Ten causes of the global water crisis

Mar 22, 2022

Nothing survives without water; it’s the most basic fact of life. Humans need a steady and clean supply of H2O to live, something which is becoming more and more difficult to come by.

Water affects our lives in countless ways . We use it to eat, to fuel our businesses, to keep our homes (and hands) clean… But less than 1% of the world’s water supply is usable to us. The rest is saltwater, ice, or underground. And we have to make that <1% last for 7.9 billion people. The global water crisis is proof that we’ve come up dry: The latest reports from the WHO and UNICEF show that over hundreds of millions of people are caught in a cycle of thirst — one that feeds into the cycle of poverty .

The Global Water Crisis At A Glance

• According to UN-Water 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries
• According to UNICEF, 1.42 billion people – including 450 million children – live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability
• 785 million people lack access to basic water services
• The WHO reports that 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water
• Two-thirds of the world’s population experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year
• The Global Water Institute estimates that 700 million people could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030
• 3.2 billion people live in agricultural areas with high water shortages or scarcity
• Approximately 73% of people affected by water shortages live in Asia
• The global water crisis is a women’s issue : In what UNICEF calls “a colossal waste of time,” women and girls spend an estimated 200 million hours hauling water every day
• Diarrhea kills 2,195 children every day—more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined—and can be caused by lack of access to clean water and sanitation services

Add Impact to Your Inbox

Learn more about Concern's response to the global water crisis.

What’s Causing The Global Water Crisis?

There are a number of root causes for our current water crisis, which in turn affect everything from harvests to public health. By addressing these causes, we can do better with the 1% we have.

1. Climate Change

Unsurprisingly, climate change is one of the main reasons behind the global water crisis. The areas most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as Somalia’s decade-plus of drought or increasingly severe monsoons in Bangladesh , are often water-stressed to begin with. As the climate crisis continues to deepen, those resources become all the more scarce. One of the main causes of climate change, deforestation, leads to “heat islands” that impact the surrounding land. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 80% of farmland has been affected by soil degradation due to climate-related droughts. On the opposite end of the spectrum, rising sea levels are salinating freshwater sources, meaning that they’re no longer potable as-is.

2. Natural Disasters

Whether related to climate change or not, according to one UNICEF report nearly 75% of all natural disasters between 2001 and 2018 were water-related. This includes droughts, but also floods — which can destroy or contaminate clean water sources for communities. This not only cuts people off from clean drinking water, but also opens up the risk for waterborne diseases like diarrhea. The frequency of these events are expected to increase as we continue to feel the effects of climate change.

3. War and Conflict

The ongoing crisis in Syria has led to a well-developed middle-class country lapsing into a water crisis thanks to the destruction of its infrastructure. This poses a serious threat to public health for the millions of Syrians still living inside the country. Another protracted conflict in the Central African Republic has seen armed groups target village water-points and wells — much like hunger as a weapon of war , water can also be leveraged in times of violence.

4. Wastewater

Let’s talk about contaminated water and the role it plays in the global water crisis: Sometimes water can be plentiful in an area. But whether that water is safe to drink…that’s another story. Many areas of the world have poor systems for dealing with wastewater — water that is affected by human use, like washing dishes at home or used in an industrial process. At a global scale, 44% of household wastewater is reused without being treated, and 80% of wastewater overall flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, which by the UN’s numbers leaves 1.8 billion people using water that can be contaminated by feces, chemicals, or other contaminants that can prove toxic. Wastewater is one of the leading causes for many of the world’s most pervasive diseases, including cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio.

The average family can waste 180 gallons per week, or 9,400 gallons per year, due to household leaks.

5. Water Waste

Different from wastewater, water waste is what happens when we ignore dripping faucets, over-water our lawns, or ignore the free tap water served to us at a restaurant. Some of these may seem like minor inconveniences, but they add up: Speaking with VOX, water management expert Shafiqul Islam estimates that these minor annoyances can account for anywhere between 30 and 40% of a city’s lost water. The average family can waste 180 gallons per week, or 9,400 gallons per year, due to household leaks. Add this all up and we’re looking at roughly 900 billion gallons of water lost annually.

In 2018, Cape Town managed to avert “Day Zero” — the day in which the city would need to turn off all water taps for its 4 million residents — by limiting water use and focusing on the necessities first.

6. Lack of Water Data

We know that data is never the most exciting entry on a list, but it’s still key: UN Water reports a lack of water quality data for over 3 billion people around the world. These are usually in areas where other factors on this list are at play, meaning that they’re at a credible risk for using non-potable water. Knowledge is power, and the only way we can ensure that we have a handle on the global water crisis is by ensuring that we know the health of all the world’s rivers, lakes, and groundwater reserves.

7. Lack of International Cooperation On Shared Water Sources

Many bodies of water sit across two or more countries, meaning that they’re effectively the subjects of joint-custody between nations. However, according to the latest update from the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals , only 24 countries report that all internationally-shared rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources are covered by cooperative arrangements. This means that, if one country is following all of the protocol necessary to keep its side of a lake clean, that may be irrelevant if the waters on the opposite shore are not being treated with the same degree of care.

8. Lack Of Infrastructure

It’s not that countries willingly mismanage their water supplies. Whether through deliberate destruction or unwitting mismanagement, many governments lack the infrastructure to properly invest in their water resources, allowing clean water to reach those that need it most. Losses related to water insecurity cost the US an estimated $470 billion per year . While water infrastructure is a resource that has high financial implications, the value of water is taken for granted. As the UN notes in its High Level Panel on Water, water “is typically capital intensive, long-lived with high sunk costs. It calls for a high initial investment followed by a very long payback period.”

Countless water points were left unusable due to violence, disrepair, and overuse in the Central African Republic with some water sources purposely contaminated by armed groups. Fortunately solutions don’t necessarily need to be high-tech. We’ve brought clean water solutions to villages using manually operated “village drills,” removing the need for electricity. They’re also 33% cheaper than typical mechanized drills, and can be transported to remote areas and assembled on site.

People power brings clean water to Central African Republic

Years of conflict have decimated wells in Central African Republic, putting the population at risk of disease from drinking dirty water. But with a little bit of innovation — and a lot of people power — communities in the Kouango region are finally getting access to clean water.

9. Forced Migration and The Refugee Crisis

Even before the crisis in Ukraine uprooted 10 million people, we were facing unprecedented levels of displacement. In many of the world’s largest host communities , informal settlements for refugees create high-density areas of people, and can put pressure on available infrastructure. In many cases, people will cross the nearest open border to flee conflict or other crises, which often leaves them in areas that face similar climate events, or have similarly stressed resources. This is why water trucking — which is, effectively, exactly what it sounds like — is one of the key elements of Concern’s emergency response plans.

10. Inequality and An Imbalance of Power

Even in high-income countries, water management isn’t a priority as seen in budget allocations. It’s not the most photogenic issue, especially when you’re showing solutions in action, and “emergency food distribution” is a much easier concept to grasp compared to “watershed management.” This has led to an unacceptable imbalance between those setting federal and local government budgets — and foreign aid budgets — and those who are in the direst need of clean water and adequate sanitation. In 2015, the UN reported that, underlying all of the barriers to solving the water crisis, was one simple fact: “The people suffering the most from the water and sanitation crisis — poor people in general and poor women in particular — often lack the political voice needed to assert their claims to water.” This disparity in power and lack of representation has widened that chasm. Closing it is a critical step to ensuring clean water for all.

“The people suffering the most from the water and sanitation crisis — poor people in general and poor women in particular — often lack the political voice needed to assert their claims to water.”

The Global Water Crisis: Concern’s Approach

Ensuring access to clean water and sanitation and providing hygiene information and training are key aspects of Concern’s work, with active water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs in 18 countries.

Over the last 55 years, we have dug, drilled, and bored thousands of wells in remote and vulnerable communities across dozens of countries, and built countless latrines in their schools and health centers. The hours saved and the illnesses prevented make it one of the most effective things we do.

When drought or displacement prevent access to clean water supplies, we do what it takes to connect communities, including trucking water to temporary tanks and installing pumps in camps. We work hand-in-hand with communities to help them assess the longstanding challenges they face, change behaviors, and ensure water and sanitation infrastructure will be maintained for the long term. And we foster a sense of ownership, build sustainable maintenance practices, and create transparent financial management systems that benefit the community.

One example of our approach can be seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo , where Concern has been the lead partner in a consortium that has already achieved some extraordinary results. Over the course of six years, our teams worked closely with 600 of the country’s most isolated communities to help them achieve sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions. This program has reached over 650,000 people in a country that has faced 40+ years of protracted crisis .

Support Our Work

Timeline: Breaking down more than a decade of drought in Somalia

Ten countries with water stress and scarcity — and how we're helping

With nearly 75% of Bangladesh underwater, can crisis be avoided?

Sign up for our newsletter.

Get emails with stories from around the world.

You can change your preferences at any time. By subscribing, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Earth's Water Is Rapidly Losing Oxygen, And The Danger Is Huge

Supplies of dissolved oxygen in bodies of water across the globe are dwindling rapidly , and scientists say it's one of the greatest risks to Earth's life support system.

Just as atmospheric oxygen is vital for animals like ourselves, dissolved oxygen (DO) in water is essential for healthy aquatic ecosystems, whether freshwater or marine. With billions of people relying on marine and freshwater habitats for food and income, it's concerning these ecosystems' oxygen has been substantially and rapidly declining.

A team of scientists is proposing that aquatic deoxygenation be added to the list of ' planetary boundaries ', which in its latest form describes nine domains that impose thresholds " within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come ."

So far, the planetary boundaries are c limate change, o cean acidification, s tratospheric ozone depletion, i nterference with the global phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, r ate of biodiversity loss, g lobal freshwater use, l and-system change, a erosol loading, and c hemical pollution.

A team led by freshwater ecologist Kevin Rose from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US is concerned that this list overlooks one of the Earth's most important limits.

"The observed deoxygenation of the Earth's freshwater and marine ecosystems represents an additional planetary boundary process," the authors write , "that is critical to the integrity of Earth's ecological and social systems, and both regulates and responds to ongoing changes in other planetary boundary processes.

"Relevant, critical oxygen thresholds are being approached at rates comparable to other planetary boundary processes."

The concentration of dissolved oxygen in water drops for a number of reasons. Warmer waters can't hold as much dissolved oxygen, for instance, and with greenhouse gas emissions continuing to raise air and water temperatures above their long-term averages, surface waters are becoming less able to hold on to this vital element.

Dissolved oxygen can also be depleted by aquatic life faster than it is replenished by the ecosystem's producers. Algal blooms and bacterial booms triggered by an influx of organic matter and nutrients in the form of agricultural and domestic fertilizers, sewage, and industrial waste, quickly soak up available dissolved oxygen.

In the worst cases, the oxygen becomes so depleted that the microbes suffocate and die, often taking larger species with them. Populations of microbe that don't rely on oxygen then feed on the bounty of dead organic material, growing to a density that reduces light and limits photosynthesis to trap the entire water body in a vicious, suffocating cycle called eutrophication.

Aquatic deoxygenation is also driven by an increase in the density difference between layers in the water column. This increase can be attributed to surface waters warming faster than deeper waters and melting ice decreasing surface salinity in the oceans.

The more distinctly defined those layers are, the less movement there is between those layers of the water column, which the vertical strata of underwater life relies upon. These density fluctuations power the movement of oxygenated surface water into the deep, and without this temperature-powered freight, ventilation in the lower depths of aquatic environments grinds to a halt.

All this has wrought havoc on aquatic ecosystems, many of which our own species rely on for our own food, water, incomes, and wellbeing .

The paper's authors call for a concerted, global effort to monitor and research deoxygenation of the 'blue' parts of our planet, along with policy efforts to prevent rapid deoxygenation and the associated challenges we are already beginning to face.

"Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient runoff and organic carbon inputs (for example, raw sewage loading) would slow or potentially reverse deoxygenation," they write .

"The expansion of the planetary boundaries framework to include deoxygenation as a boundary [will help] to focus those efforts."

This paper was published as a Perspective in Nature Ecology & Evolution .

• Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
• Climate Change
• Policy & Economics
• Biodiversity
• Conservation

Get focused newsletters especially designed to be concise and easy to digest

• ESSENTIAL BRIEFING 3 times weekly
• TOP STORY ROUNDUP Once a week
• MONTHLY OVERVIEW Once a month
• Enter your email *
• Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Water Shortage: Causes and Effects

Climate change, coupled with water mismanagement and overconsumption, is causing droughts and water shortages across many parts of the globe. Aside from the obvious threat to public health, the subsequent effects of water shortage can vary from food insecurity to increased human conflicts, highlighting the importance of protecting global water resources and using them sustainably. Here are the main causes and effects of water shortage and what we can do about it.

It is increasingly evident that droughts around the world are becoming more frequent and intense, as well as are occurring at progressively prolonged periods of time. This is most demonstrable by the ongoing megadrought in the western regions of the US, where it is in the midst of its driest conditions in history . 

No continent on Earth has been untouched by water scarcity, and an increasing number of regions are reaching the limit at which they can provide water services sustainably, especially in arid regions. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s population is predicted to face water shortages by 2025. This worrying trend is causing many to pose the question: “ are we running out of water ”? 

The short answer is yes, primarily driven by climate change and global population growth. We explore what other causes are there and the major effects of it around the world. 

Causes of Water Shortage

Droughts and Climate Change

Water shortages occur due to a number of factors; one of the biggest drivers of water scarcity is drought. Drought is a natural phenomenon in which dry conditions and lack of precipitation – whether it is rain, snow or sleet –  occur over certain areas for a period of time. 

While the amount of rainfall can naturally vary between different regions and times of year, climate change and rising global temperatures are altering rainfall patterns, which in turn, impact the quality and spatial distribution of global water resources. Warmer temperatures mean that moisture in soil evaporates at faster rates, and more frequent and severe heat waves exacerbate drought conditions and contribute towards water shortages. 

These conditions also create the perfect breeding ground for wildfires, further fuelling drought season and water stress. In the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report , climate scientists say that groundwater stored in aquifers, which provides 36% of the world’s domestic water supply for over 2 billion people, is highly sensitive to future climate change. They also concluded that wet regions are expected to get wetter while dry regions will get drier. 

In China for example, the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers are two major water resources that support the country. They rely on the glacial meltwater from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Global warming, where temperatures in the glacial region rose by 3- 3.5C over the past half-century, has produced less snow and ice mass , causing glacial run-off into the Yangtze to be reduced by 13.9% since the 1990s. 

Poor Water Management and Growing Demand

Today, the world’s population is just short of eight billion people, which translates to a growing demand for water amid water stress from climate change. Urbanisation and an exponential increase in freshwater demand for households are both driving factors behind water shortages, especially in regions with a precarious water supply. 

For example in 2018, Cape Town, South Africa experienced a water crisis and became the first modern city to effectively run out of drinking water as a result of extreme drought, poor water resource management and overconsumption. 

Likewise, China is also at risk of running out of water due to poor water management. Each year, total renewable water resources per inhabitant is estimated at about 2,018 cubic metres , which is 75% less than the global average, according to the World Bank.

Water Pollution

Contaminated and unsafe water is another contributing factor of water shortages. Water pollution already kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined. As we only have less than 1% of the Earth’s freshwater accessible to us, human activity is actively threatening our own water resources. Water pollution can come from a number of sources, including sewage and wastewater – more than 80% of the world’s wastewater flows back into the environment without being treated, and agricultural and industrial runoff, where pesticides and toxic chemicals leach into the groundwater and nearby freshwater systems. Consequently, precious water resources get contaminated, resulting in less freshwater and drinking water available. 

You might also like: 4 Countries with Water Scarcity in 2022

Effects of Water Shortage

The United Nations states that having free access to freshwater is a basic human right. And losing that access to drinking water can be detrimental to human health and lives, as we all need water to survive. However, water scarcity and shortage can lead to other serious impacts on the environment and threaten global peace and security as well. 

Food Insecurity 

We need water to produce food that we eat. Today, around 70% of freshwater withdrawals go into agriculture, from irrigation and pesticide to fertiliser application and sustaining livestock. As the global population continues to grow, agricultural production is required to expand by another 70% by 2050 to keep up with demand, thereby redirecting even more freshwater resources. 

In February 2021, the UN World Food Program reported that severe drought caused by record dry conditions has left an estimated 13 million people facing hunger in the Horn of Africa. Intense and prolonged droughts have decimated food crops and caused high rates of livestock deaths, causing food prices to soar. Families are struggling to buy and secure food as a result, while high malnutrition rates are occurring across the region. The UN warns should the situation worsens, it will spark a humanitarian crisis. 

You might also like: Water Crisis in South Africa: Causes, Effects, And Solutions

Increased Human Conflicts

One of the biggest effects of water shortage is that it prompts increased competition between water users, thus potentially sparking conflicts, which could potentially put millions of lives at risk. 

In India, drought has triggered serious conflict between water users at the local level, many of whom depend on water for their livelihoods. At a broader level, India has been in conflict with its neighbouring country of Pakistan over water disputes, among other political issues. The two nations have clashed over the control of upstream water barrages and infrastructure projects for decades, which regulated water flow into Pakistan. Water mismanagement and climate change are exacerbating these diplomatic tensions; The Himalayan Glaciers, which feed the Indus Basin, are predicted to diminish further in the coming year and deplete groundwater recharge in the long run.

Similarly, in Egypt, its water supply is being threatened by the development of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the upstream stretch of the Nile River. Though the dam brings huge economic and social benefits for Ethiopia and generate energy to two-thirds of the population, Egypt could potentially lose as much as 36% of the total water supply as the dam reduces water flowing downstream. Egypt could resort to military action to protect its water resources. 

You might also like: The Looming Colorado Water Shortage Crisis

Water Is Now Traded as a Commodity 

Water has recently joined gold, oil and other commodities that can be traded on Wall Street , prompting fears that the market could dramatically further exacerbate the effects of water shortage and increase competition. 

The US’s water trade market, the first of its kind, was launched in 2020 with USD$1.1 billion in contracts tied to California water prices. It allows farmers, hedge funds, and municipalities to hedge against future water availability in California. While this could clear up uncertainty around water prices, treating water as a tradable commodity puts basic human rights in the hands of financial institutions and investors.

This story is funded by readers like you

Our non-profit newsroom provides climate coverage free of charge and advertising. Your one-off or monthly donations play a crucial role in supporting our operations, expanding our reach, and maintaining our editorial independence.

About EO | Mission Statement | Impact & Reach | Write for us

About the Author

15 Biggest Environmental Problems of 2024

What Are the Countries Most Prepared for Climate Change?

10 Deforestation Facts You Should Know About

Hand-picked stories weekly or monthly. We promise, no spam!

Boost this article By donating us $100, $50 or subscribe to Boosting $10/month – we can get this article and others in front of tens of thousands of specially targeted readers. This targeted Boosting – helps us to reach wider audiences – aiming to convince the unconvinced, to inform the uninformed, to enlighten the dogmatic.

The Economics of Biodiversity Loss

We explore the economic effects of biodiversity loss by developing an ecologically-founded model that captures how different species interact to deliver the ecosystem services that complement other factors of economic production. Aggregate ecosystem services are produced by combining several non-substitutable ecosystem functions such as pollination and water filtration, which are each provided by many substitutable species playing similar roles. As a result, economic output is an increasing but highly concave function of species richness. The marginal economic value of a species depends on three factors: (i) the number of similar species within its ecosystem function, (ii) the marginal importance of the affected function for overall ecosystem productivity, and (iii) the extent to which ecosystem services constrain economic output in each country. Using our framework, we derive expressions for the fragility of ecosystem service provision and its evolution over time, which depends, among other things, on the distribution of biodiversity losses across ecosystem functions. We discuss how these fragility measures can help policymakers assess the risks induced by biodiversity loss and prioritize conservation efforts. We also embed our model of ecosystem service production in a standard economic model to study optimal land use when land use raises output at the cost of reducing biodiversity. We find that even in settings where species loss does not reduce output substantially today, it lowers growth opportunities and reduces resilience to future species loss, especially when past species loss has been asymmetric across functions. Consistent with these predictions of our model, we show empirically that news about biodiversity loss increases spreads on credit default swaps (CDS) more for countries with more depleted ecosystems.

Stefano Giglio, Theresa Kuchler, Johannes Stroebel and Olivier Wang declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

Download Citation Data

More from NBER

In addition to working papers , the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter , the NBER Digest , the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability , the Bulletin on Health , and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship  — as well as online conference reports , video lectures , and interviews .

Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

SMITHSONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER

Wait, the Ocean Is Losing Oxygen? Q&A With Denise Breitburg

Marine ecologist Denise Breitburg explains how oxygen loss is crippling our oceans, and why it needs to be included as the tenth “planetary boundary”

Mona Patterson

Oxygen is a vital element for virtually all animals on Earth and many microbes. But oxygen concentrations are falling in some of the most valuable ecosystems on the planet. According to a recent paper, the number of freshwater and coastal water bodies with little to no oxygen has increased in coastal areas, with hundreds of regions affected worldwide. Meanwhile, in the open ocean, oxygen-deficient waters have increased fourfold since 1960.

In the  new paper , published in  Nature Ecology & Evolution,  researchers around the globe are urging leaders to acknowledge the ocean’s oxygen loss as a new “planetary boundary.” Planetary boundaries are global thresholds for major Earth systems, beyond which humanity cannot safely operate. The  nine existing boundaries  include climate change and freshwater. In this Q&A, we spoke with co-author Denise Breitburg, a scientist emerita at the  Smithsonian Environmental Research Center , on why ocean oxygen should become the 10th planetary boundary. Edited for brevity and clarity.

As the concentration of oxygen in our oceans continues to change, how is life in the ocean responding?

Oxygen affects everything. Animals use oxygen to transform food into energy. When oxygen is insufficient, they don’t have enough energy for basic biological processes ranging from growth to reproduction. It really changes food webs. Sometimes the kind of animals that can do really well under low-oxygen conditions, things like jellyfish, can become more dominant in food webs….Animals have a behavioral response to oxygen. They can follow an oxygen gradient and move out of areas that are low in oxygen to areas that are higher in oxygen. So the distribution of animals, and their abundance within food webs and importance as predators, can really change.

What’s different about oxygen loss in the ocean now, compared to other times in Earth’s history?

If you look at many millions of years, the Earth has gone through periods where oxygen in the ocean has been a bit lower than it is now, as well as long periods where it’s been fairly stable. But since the middle of the 20th century, two things have been happening. We developed and put into widespread use artificially produced fertilizers, and that has been an incredible benefit to humans in terms of producing food to support human populations. But they’ve also resulted in fertilizing coastal water. Since the middle of the last century, more and more areas along coasts, bays and estuaries have been essentially fertilized, and oxygen declined.

Over the same period of time, we’ve had the emergence of problems related to climate change, and especially warming….Warmer water simply can’t hold as much oxygen….But then the warming ocean [also] has affected the circulation and mixing of the water in the oceans. And that reduces the reintroduction of oxygen from the atmosphere and also from the surface layer into deeper water.

“I always fall back on the old American Lung Association motto, which says, ‘When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.’”

How concerned should the global community be about the impact of oxygen loss in our oceans?

I would say that, in specific areas that are being affected, we should be very worried, especially in places where people are dependent on waters for use for aquaculture and for local fisheries. It can have really big impacts on local economies.

But another reason we should be very worried about this issue is that, in addition to oxygen being very important to the animals in the ocean, it has really important biogeochemical feedbacks. When oxygen is low or absent, it can increase production of greenhouse gases…and so it can actually contribute to climate change.

In general, I sort of always fall back on the old American Lung Association motto, which says, “When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.” And that pretty much sums it up….We’re completely altering these incredibly important ecosystems that Earth depends on. And in many ways, we just don’t know all the consequences of doing that.

What are planetary boundaries? Why is it essential to include ocean oxygen levels as one of them?

One of the reasons that we think it’s important to include ocean oxygen in this mix of planetary boundary processes is really to give it the attention it deserves. The planetary boundary framework has been very effective at focusing policy and public attention on some of the major environmental problems our Earth is facing. It’s important that the loss of oxygen is included among those variables that we pay attention to.

You’ve been part of the  Global Ocean Oxygen Network , or GO2NE, since 2016, offering insights on ocean oxygen loss and advising policymakers and stakeholders. Why are networks like GO2NE important for this conversation surrounding oceanic oxygen depletion?

We’ve been successful at incorporating it [ocean oxygen loss]…in things like the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, because of its potential importance in fisheries and aquaculture….By having this group that includes researchers from all over the world, with all different kinds of specific expertise, we have been able to work with UNESCO and with the U.N. to increase recognition of this problem and better incorporate it in the way we look at the issues we need to be concerned about in our oceans.

The original scientific article, led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is available in Nature Ecology & Evolution at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02448-y . A plain-language summary from Rennselaer is available here .

Mona Patterson is a science writing intern with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and a rising senior at Chapman University. She is studying broadcast journalism and documentary film, with a minor in environmental science, and hopes to pursue a career as a science journalist.

Loss of Oxygen in Lakes and Oceans a Major Threat to Ecosystems, Society, and Planet

Rensselaer researcher links aquatic deoxygenation with the broader stability of earth’s systems.

July 15, 2024

Oxygen is a fundamental requirement of life, and the loss of oxygen in water, also referred to as aquatic deoxygenation, is a threat to life at all levels. In fact, in research recently published in Nature Ecology and Evolution , Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Associate Professor Kevin Rose, Ph.D . and his collaborators describe how ongoing deoxygenation presents a major threat to the stability of the planet as a whole. 

Previous research has identified a suite of global scale processes, referred to as Planetary Boundaries, that regulate the overall habitability and stability of the planet. These processes include things such as climate change, land use change, and biodiversity loss. It has been argued that if critical thresholds in these processes are passed, then major ecological, economic, and social challenges are likely to result. Importantly, Rose and collaborators argue that aquatic deoxygenation both responds to, and regulates, other Planetary Boundary processes. 

“It’s important that aquatic deoxygenation be added to the list of Planetary Boundaries,” said Rose. “This will help support and focus global monitoring, research, and policy efforts to help our aquatic ecosystems and, in turn, society at large.”

Across all aquatic ecosystems, from streams and rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and ponds to estuaries, coasts, and the open ocean, dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations have rapidly and substantially declined in recent decades. Lakes and reservoirs have experienced oxygen losses of 5.5% and 18.6% respectively since 1980. The oceans have experienced oxygen losses of around 2% since 1960 and, although that number is smaller, it represents a more geographically and volumetrically extensive mass. Marine ecosystems have also experienced substantial variability in oxygen depletion. For example, the midwaters off of Central California have lost 40% of their oxygen in the last few decades. The volumes of aquatic ecosystems affected by oxygen depletion have increased dramatically across all types.

“Aquatic deoxygenation is closely linked to changes in climate and land use,” said Rose. “It is caused by decreases in the solubility of oxygen in water resulting from increasing temperatures, reduced deep-water ventilation due to stronger and longer stratification, and increases in oxygen-consuming respiration linked to both elevated temperature and enhanced inputs of nutrients and organic matter. Global warming and pollutants are disrupting biogeochemical processes in aquatic ecosystems and it is adversely affecting both freshwater and marine organisms.”

Species experience physiological effects and entire food-webs can be transformed when deoxygenation occurs. Individual organisms often experience reduced sensory abilities, growth, body size, and reproduction. Low oxygen can also lead to widespread death and ecological impairment. Aquatic habitats with low oxygen levels are commonly referred to as “dead zones” because of their loss of life, which threatens ecosystem services like fishing, aquaculture, tourism, and cultural practices. Deoxygenation can also induce aquatic ecosystems to transition to alternative and undesirable states, characterized by harmful algal blooms and widespread anoxia, or lack of oxygen.

“We are approaching critical thresholds of aquatic deoxygenation that will ultimately affect several other Planetary Boundaries,” said Rose, “DO regulates the role of marine and freshwater in modulating Earth's climate. Improving DO concentrations depends on addressing the root causes, including climate warming and runoff from developed landscapes. Failure to address aquatic deoxygenation will, ultimately, not only affect ecosystems but also economic activity, and society at a global level.” 

“Aquatic deoxygenation trends represent a clear warning and call to action that should inspire changes to slow or even mitigate this Planetary Boundary,” said Curt Breneman, Ph.D., Dean of Rensselaer’s School of Science. “Professor Rose’s work will pave the way for further research and open the door to new regulatory actions.”

Rose was joined in research by Erica M. Ferrer of the University of California Santa Cruz and University of California San Diego, Stephen R. Carpenter of University of Wisconsin, Sean Crowe of University of British Columbia, Sarah C. Donelan of University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Véronique C. Garçon Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales and Institut de Physique du Globe, Marilaure Grégoire of  University of Liège, Stephen F. Jane of Cornell University and University of Notre Dame, Peter R. Leavitt of University of Regina, Lisa A. Levin of University of California San Diego, Andreas Oschlies of University of Wisconsin and GEOMAR Helmholtz-Centre for Ocean Research, and Denise Breitburg of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Try AI-powered search

• Shallow thinking about water imperils the planet

Two new books warn of battles over ocean management and freshwater supply

Your browser does not support the <audio> element.

The High Seas: Greed, Power and the Battle for the Unclaimed Ocean. By Olive Heffernan. Greystone; 352 pages; $32.95. Profile; £22

The Coming Storm: Why Water Will Write the 21st Century. By Liam Fox. Biteback; 368 pages; £25. To be published in America in October; $29.95

W HAT WOULD summer be without water: without frolicking on a beach, fishing in a lake or savouring a novel poolside? And yet, for anyone who cares about the health of the world’s oceans, 2024 has been a bleak year. Mass fish deaths , driven by drought and heat, have been reported on opposite sides of the world, in Vietnam and Mexico. Most of the world’s coral reefs have bleached , a process in which unusually warm water temperature makes coral brittle, bone-white and susceptible to disease and possibly death.

Nor is the news much better for people. In March the UN reported that around half the world’s population experiences “severe water scarcity” annually. Drought has caused one of Mexico City’s main reservoir systems to run dry, and population growth has led the city to overtax its water table, leading it to gradually sink—a similar fate to Jakarta, which is subsiding so quickly that Indonesia is building a new capital on a different island. Humanity, a species nurtured on a watery planet, is struggling to manage its most abundant resource, as two new books highlight.

Olive Heffernan’s “The High Seas” is the more compelling and better reported of the pair. It focuses on the 64% of the world’s oceans that are outside the control of any country and cover around half of the Earth’s surface. She argues that the world is witnessing a saline tragedy of the commons on a vast scale. Oceans are Earth’s greatest carbon sink, having absorbed roughly one-third of all carbon emissions since the dawn of the industrial age. Phytoplankton—tiny flora and bacteria—take in about as much carbon as all plants and trees on land combined. Oceans also provide around one-sixth of the world’s animal protein eaten by humans.

Countries and companies, all making individually rational decisions, risk doing irreparable damage to both of those functions. Sometimes these decisions are legal: no law stops Russia from sending its decommissioned satellites to rest in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, despite risks to the marine ecosystem. But often they are not: some Chinese fishing vessels, for instance, use illegal nets, seize protected fish such as sharks near the Galapagos and lie about their catch.

Nowhere is this tension between rationality and risk clearer than in people’s quest to fish the ocean’s mesopelagic zone , the region between where photosynthesis stops (around 100 metres below the surface) and the part entirely devoid of light (which starts at around 1,000 metres down). This area is home to some odd fish, including the siphonophore, a tentacular colony of stinging creatures, and slender snipe eels with 750 vertebrae (most adult humans have 24). Mesopelagic creatures account for 95% of the ocean’s fish by weight; every day they complete the largest animal migration in the world, rising from the depths to feed at higher levels.

Several countries have tried and failed to fish the mesopelagic zones, citing high costs and low catches, but Norway is making a more sustained effort, processing unappetising creatures into fishmeal for its thriving (and lucrative) salmon farms . But mesopelagic fish play a vital role in the ocean’s carbon-sequestration cycle, and nobody knows the effects of thinning them out—whether the zone can be sustainably fished or whether it could quickly become as overfished as the surface. (As one researcher explains, “If this works, it will be an opportunistic fishery…you’ll have to go and get as much as possible before it disappears.”)

This speculation about short-term benefits versus unknown but plausibly catastrophic long-term harms crops up throughout the book. The seabed is rich in minerals, including valuable ones such as gold and platinum, and although no one has yet found a way to mine them cheaply, efforts are intensifying. Some of these minerals may help the world get greener, but disturbing seabeds creates plumes of sediment that smother creatures below and cause lasting damage to biodiversity.

Sometimes Ms Heffernan’s concerns descend into excessive hand-wringing. Marine life offers immense commercial potential. AZT , an HIV drug, and Remdesivir, the first approved covid treatment, came from compounds found in sponges. Some 34,000 marine compounds have been found suitable for a range of products including cattle feed, ice cream and virus tests. Once scientists harvested these compounds from marine life itself; today they can use genetic information uploaded to online databases. Ms Heffernan asks whether using digital gene-sequencing amounts to “biopiracy”, but precisely what is being stolen and from whom is unclear.

Overall, however, her book is admirably clear-eyed, refusing the easy consolation of toothless treaties and mollifying pabulum from politicians. Just as Saudi Arabia is building a greener economy while also positioning itself to be “‘the last man standing’ when it comes to oil extraction”, she notes that many countries likeliest to ratify a treaty intended to protect the high seas will keep polluting and overfishing.

Whereas Ms Heffernan crossed the globe and plumbed the depths to write her book, Sir Liam Fox, a former Conservative politician, appears to have plumbed Wikipedia’s depths for his almost comically fact-rich tome. He wrote it “to join the dots” and explain why water— battles over access, climate-driven threats and maritime conflicts—will prove as much a flashpoint in this century as oil was in the 20th.

His reasoning is sensible: in the coming decades much of the world’s population growth will take place in African and Asian countries that already struggle to provide their citizens with fresh water. Countries’ water management can affect their neighbours, stoking the prospect of conflict. Strife can also erupt over access to shipping channels, as the low-level conflict in the South China Sea demonstrates. Failure to provide citizens with clean water can also lead to malnourishment and disease. And abundance can quickly turn to scarcity: “Today’s flooded will become tomorrow’s thirsty,” Sir Liam argues.

Yet despite (or perhaps because of) Sir Liam’s worthy concerns and puppyish enthusiasm, his book reads like a school report. Declaring that it “is difficult to precisely predict the effects that climate change…might have in the future on human health” wins zero points for bravery.

Still, Sir Liam’s book has value. It is alarming but not alarmist and compiles a tremendous amount of water-related information. Neither book offers concrete recommendations beyond heightened concern. But if, over the course of this century, water and the life it sustains grow scarce or imperilled, conflict and privation seem not just possible but inevitable. ■

For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist , our weekly subscriber-only newsletter

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Fluid thinking”

Culture July 20th 2024

Taking on the global brotherhood of despots, why american sports teams switch cities so often, the largest sting operation you’ve never heard of, plenty of words have no clear origin.

From the July 20th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

More from Culture

The wonderful world of Ireland’s greatest sports

Gaelic football and hurling are loved by millions across the island. And nobody gets paid

Packing for your summer holiday? Take these books published in 2024

The best titles of the year to date

A new book investigating strange etymologies reads like a detective story

How autocrats collaborate, and how they fall

A new book looks at Anom, a messaging app started by the FBI to catch criminals

And why fans outside America should fear being similarly jilted

Old pipes cause Texas cities to lose tens of billions of gallons of water each year

The lost water costs the cities millions and heightens the state’s water supply challenges.

Sign up for The Brief , The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Texas’ most populous cities lost roughly 88 billion gallons of water last year because of aging water infrastructure and extreme heat, costing them millions of dollars and straining the state’s water supply, according to self-reported water loss audits.

The documents show that bigger municipalities are not immune to water issues often seen in smaller, less-resourced communities around the state. All but one big city saw increased water loss from last year's audits.

While cities are losing water because of inaccurate meters or other data issues, the main factors are leaks and main breaks.

Here's how much each of Texas' biggest cities lost last year, according to their self-reported audits:

• Houston: 31.8 billion
• San Antonio: 19.5 billion
• Dallas: 17.6 billion
• Austin: 7.1 billion
• Fort Worth: 5.9 billion
• El Paso: 4.8 billion

Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso must submit water loss audits to the Texas Water Development Board yearly. Other water agencies must do audits only every five years, unless the city has over 3,300 connections or receives money from the board.

“What we have right now is not sustainable [or] tenable,” said Jennifer Walker, National Wildlife Federation’s Texas Coast and Water Program director.

The cities of Houston and Dallas saw the biggest increase in lost water reported. Houston saw a 30% jump from last year's audit, while Dallas saw an increase of 18%.

Houston is the largest populous city in the state, home to roughly 2.3 million Texans; it lost around 31 billion gallons of water last year.

Houston Public Works blames the region's long drought from June 2022 to December last year for the increase. Droughts cause clay in soil to dry up and shrink, stressing older water lines and making them more likely to break and leak. Officials said this, combined with aging infrastructure, led to a significant increase in water leaks across the city.

“HPW will continue to pursue all funding options available to help replace aging infrastructure,” the Houston spokesperson said.

Aging infrastructure isn’t only a Houston problem. Dallas officials said they only expected a roughly 4% increase in water loss in 2023. They saw a double-digit increase instead.

A Dallas Water Utilities spokesperson said the city is investigating the cause of the increase and “reviewing records to ensure all allowable unbilled/unmetered authorized uses were properly accounted for in the 2023 calculation.”

On the other side of North Texas, Fort Worth saw an increase from 5.6 billion gallons lost in 2022 to 5.9 billion gallons in 2023, losing Cowtown more than $8 million.

Walker, from the National Wildlife Federation, said numbers are also rising because cities are getting more accurate in reporting water loss.

Fort Worth has a “MyH2O program” that replaced all manual read meters with remote read meters and implemented a Real Water Loss Management Plan in 2020 to focus the city efforts related to leak surveys, leak detection and the creation of district metering areas.

“It is actually a testament to how we are using available data to make better decisions and improve reporting with a higher level of confidence,” said Fort Worth Water Conservation Manager Micah Reed.

Last year, voters passed a proposition that created a new fund specifically for water infrastructure projects that are overseen by the Texas Water Development Board.

The agency now has $1 billion to invest in projects that address various issues, from water loss and quality to acquiring new water sources and addressing Texas’ deteriorating pipes. It’s the largest investment in water infrastructure by state lawmakers since 2013.

Walker calls the $1 billion a “drop in the bucket.”

Texas 2036, an Austin-based think tank, expects the state needs to spend more than $150 billion over the next 50 years on water infrastructure.

While some of the Texas Water Fund must be focused on projects in rural areas with populations of less than 150,000, Walker said the bigger cities could also receive some funding.

In San Antonio, the San Antonio Water System isn’t “waiting for [the state] to come and tackle the problem for us.”

The city lost around 19 billion gallons of water in 2023 and has seen an increase over the last five years .

“We're in a state that doesn't even fund public education,” said Robert Puente, president and CEO of the San Antonio Water System. “So good luck to us getting some money from the state on these issues.”

Earlier this week, the SAWS board of trustees unanimously approved a new five-year water conservation plan.

The city of Austin lost around 7 billion gallons of water in 2023.

Austin has hired a consultant to review it's water loss practices and metrics, according to city officials. The capital city is also in the process of replacing water mains around Austin.

Walker said while Texas lawmakers should invest more money in water infrastructure, city officials also need to hire more staff and better planning to address water loss.

The one city that lost less water in 2023 was El Paso, which reported losing 475 million fewer gallons last year. Since El Paso is in the desert, water conservation and having a “watertight” infrastructure is the city's main focus, said Aide Fuentes, El Paso Wastewater Treatment Manager.

“That makes us a little bit different from the rest of Texas in that sense,” Fuentes said.

El Paso Water officials aim to reduce water loss by 44%.

Walker said the data shows that cities should make the case to state lawmakers to continue addressing water infrastructure in the next legislative session. She added this issue isn’t going away.

“We really need [to] try to live with what we have and not lose the water that we already have in place and make sure that it's reaching its intended destination,” Walker said.

Disclosure: San Antonio Water System and Texas 2036 have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here .

Just in: Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney , R-Wyoming; U.S. Sen. John Fetterman , D-Pennsylvania; and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival , Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!

Correction, July 8, 2024 at 5:50 p.m. : A previous version of this article incorrectly reported how much El Paso aims to reduce the city's water loss. The goal is to cut water loss by about 44%.

Texans need truth. Help us report it.

Independent Texas reporting needs your support. The Texas Tribune delivers fact-based journalism for Texans, by Texans — and our community of members, the readers who donate, make our work possible. Help us bring you and millions of others in-depth news and information. Will you support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation of any amount?

Support independent Texas news

Become a member. Join today.

Choose an amount or learn more about membership .

Information about the authors

Juan Salinas II

Reporting fellow.

[email protected]

Learn about The Texas Tribune’s policies , including our partnership with The Trust Project to increase transparency in news.

Explore related story topics

Environment Water supply

Talk to our experts

1800-120-456-456

• Water Scarcity Essay

Essay on Water Scarcity

Water is the basic necessity of every human being, but water scarcity is a major issue that is rising very rapidly in India nowadays. The problem has become so severe that in many states the groundwater has almost dried up and people have to depend on water supply from other sources. In addition, water is one of the most misused natural resources that we still waste. It is the central point of our lives but unfortunately, not our priority concern. 

Earlier, people understood the value of water and planned their lives around it. Moreover, many civilizations were born and lost around water, but today, in spite of having knowledge, we still fail to understand the value of water in our lives. 

Reasons for Water Scarcity

Mismanagement of water and the growing population in our country are the two main reasons for water scarcity. There are also a number of other man made disturbances that continue to rise. Besides this, some of the reasons for water scarcity are:  

Wasteful Use of Water for Agriculture  

India, an agricultural country, produces a huge quantity of food to feed its population. The surplus that is left, gets exported outside. 

It is not unknown that producing this much food requires a lot of water too. The traditional method of irrigation wastes a lot of water due to evaporation, water conveyance, drainage, percolation, and the overuse of groundwater. Besides, most of the areas in India use traditional irrigation techniques that stress the availability of water.

However, the technique of irrigation has changed during modern times and we provide water to plants using a sprinkler or drip irrigation.

Reduction in Water Recharges Systems  

Rapid construction that uses concrete and marbles may not let the rainwater get absorbed in the soil, but still, we install some mechanism in our houses so that we can hold the rainwater. Then we can recharge the groundwater.

Lack of Water Management and Distribution

There is a need for an efficient system to manage and distribute the water in urban areas. The Indian government also needs to enhance its technology and investment in water treatment. Besides, we should ensure optimization at the planning level.

Solutions to Overcome this Problem

Close the running tap.

 During dishwashing and hand washing people often let the tap run. These running taps waste thousands of liters of water per year. Therefore, closing the tap will reduce this problem.

Replace Dripping Taps  

In India, it is commonly seen that most of the houses have taps or faucets that go on dripping water even when they are closed. This running tap wastes up to 30,000 liters of water that nobody bothers to change. So, we should replace these taps immediately.

Brief on Water Scarcity  

Water is a basic necessity for every living being.  Life without water is impossible, not just for us humans, but for all plants and animals too. Water scarcity is an issue of grave concern these days as water scarcity has become very common. Water is one of the most wasted natural resources and corrective measures should be taken before the water scarcity situation becomes worse. In spite of being aware of the implications, not much is being done today. 

In India, and across the world, it has been recorded that about half a billion people face a shortage of water for about six months annually. Many well-known cities around the world are facing acute scarcity of water. Many facts and figures are available to know about the water scarcity problem, but what are the reasons for this scarcity? 

With the growing population, the use of water has increased manifold. The lack of more freshwater sources and the increase in population is a major reason for this scarcity. The lack of proper Water management systems and proper drainage systems in India, especially in the urban areas is a major cause too. Kitchen wastewater should be able to be recycled but due to a poor drainage system, this is not possible. An efficient water management system is required in order to distribute water in urban areas.

Another major issue is Deforestation. Areas with more greenery and plants are known to have good rainfall.  Industrialisation and urbanization are two major factors here. Due to Deforestation, and cutting down of trees, rainfall has become an issue too.

Rivers are a major source of fresh water in India. Today we see a lot of industries that have come up and all of them are mostly near the rivers and these rivers become highly polluted as a result of all the industrial waste.

Effect of Global Warming and Climate Change

Global Warming and Climate Change are also responsible for the scarcity of water. The melting of icebergs into the sea due to the rise in temperatures is a reason as to how salty water is increasing day by day instead of freshwater. The percentage of rainfall has decreased drastically these days. Climate change along with the decrease in rainfall percentage has greatly affected freshwater bodies. 

Water scarcity has become a major problem and an alarming issue these days, and we must consciously strive to work together to find some solution to this issue of water scarcity. The Indian government today has formulated and come up with many plans on how to tackle and solve this problem.

To conclude, water scarcity has become an alarming issue day by day. If we do not take the problem of water scarcity seriously now, our future generations are going to suffer severely and may even have to buy this necessity at a high cost.

FAQs on Water Scarcity Essay

1.  What are the reasons for Water Scarcity?

The lack of proper Water Management and proper Drainage system plays a major role. Many other factors and reasons can be held responsible for the scarcity of water. Some of the major reasons are Global Warming and Climate Change; Pollution of the rivers due to industrialization; Deforestation and the cutting down of trees is another reason; Reduced percentage of rainfall due to the climate change pattern; Increase in the population which leads to increase in the use of water.  Learn more about water scarcity on Vedantu website helpful for long-term.

2. What is meant by the scarcity of water?

The scarcity of water means a shortage of water and not being able to manage the demand and supply of water. Water scarcity refers to the lack of freshwater bodies to meet the standard quantity and demand of water. Unequal distribution of water due to factors like Climate Change and Global Warming. Water Scarcity is also due to pollution and lack of rainfall. Water scarcity means a scarcity due to some physical scarcity or scarcity due to the lack of regular supply.

3. What are the two types of water scarcity?

Physical water scarcity is the result of regions' demand outpacing the limited water resources found in that location. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, about 1.2 billion people live in areas of physical scarcity and many of these people live in arid or semi-arid regions. People who are affected by this Physical kind of water scarcity are expected to grow as the population increases and as the weather patterns keep changing as a result of climate change.

Economic water scarcity is due to the lack of proper water infrastructure and a proper water management system or also because of poor management of water resources. The FAO estimates that more than 1.6 billion people face economic water shortages today. Economic water scarcity can also take place because of the unregulated use of water for agriculture and industry.

4.  How can we solve the problem?

Conscious awareness is required to deal with and understand the problem of water scarcity. We can start off by consciously saving water in our homes and surroundings.  Small easy steps like taking care when washing hands, or when working in the kitchen, have to be taken. The running water taps are a major reason for losing hundreds of liters of water on a daily basis. And we should be careful not to waste this water. Conscious decision to save and the need to understand the problem of water scarcity is of utmost importance.

5. How do we waste water?

Water is wasted in ways we do not even realize, in our homes and in our workplaces. When we brush our teeth, when we shave or when we wash the dishes, one of the most common things we do is to keep the water running, especially when running water is available. As soon as we begin cleaning or washing, we do not think of the water that is being wasted. While washing hands, we leave the water tap on, which results in wasting water too. Small things like these should be kept in mind and this could be our small step towards preserving water.

• Cathedral City
• Crime & Courts
• Environment
• Desert Hot Springs
• Indian Wells
• Palm Desert
• Palm Springs
• Rancho Mirage
• National Politics
• Homeless in the Valley

California's heatwave evaporates billions of gallons of water from reservoirs

California's current record-breaking heat wave in July has caused hundreds of millions of gallons of water in Lake Shasta and other major reservoirs in Northern California to disappear into thin air.

During the first nine days of July, 3,392 cubic feet per second of water — or about 2.2 billion gallons — turned into vapor and floated away into the atmosphere off the man-made Lake Shasta. During just one day — July 3 — 288.8 million gallons of water alone evaporated.

That is a substantial amount of water, said Don Bader, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages Shasta Dam. For comparison, he said that is more than the amount of water flowing down Clear Creek south of Redding.

"It affects where our projected reservoir levels will be at the end of the season," he said.

How has the California heat wave affected reservoirs?

Higher evaporation levels are expected during the summer, Bader said. This year, though, with temperatures breaking all-time-high records in Northern California, the evaporation has risen, Bader said.

"We haven't seen weather like that in a long time," Bader said.

The National Weather Service recorded a high temperature of 119 degrees at the nearby Redding Regional Airport on Saturday, July 6. According to the weather service, this was the first time Redding had ever endured a temperature over 118 degrees.

Lake Shasta isn't the only North State reservoir being robbed of water by the heat. During the first nine days of July, 828.5 million gallons of water evaporated off Trinity Lake near Weaverville, and Keswick Lake near Redding lost 47.1 million gallons to evaporation, according to the bureau.

Evaporation is not an issue in the winter and spring, when lakes are filling with snow melt and rain, Bader said. "In the wintertime we get the really cold days. You don't get any evaporation because the ambient temperature is so cold and the water's cold," he said.

The bureau does not measure the water evaporation from the Sacramento River, which flows some 380 miles from its source near Mount Shasta to the Bay Area.

Where does the water stored in Shasta Lake go?

Shasta Lake's primary function is storing water for irrigation for farmers in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley. That water is shipped up to 450 miles to the San Joaquin Valley for the 250 members of the Central Valley Project.

Shasta Dam, which results in Shasta Lake, also generates vast amounts of electricity, helps protect against floods downriver in wet years, and prevents saltwater intrusion into the Delta in dry years.

Shasta Dam was constructed between 1935 and 1945 across the Sacramento River. Shasta Lake was formed in 1948. The reservoir submerged the Pit and McCloud rivers and several smaller tributaries.

It is the largest man-made reservoir in California, with 365 miles of shoreline. The lake offers multiple recreation options , including renting houseboats, jet skis, inner tubes, and fishing boats.

How is water evaporation measured in California's reservoirs?

The bureau measures evaporation by placing water in a cylinder and measuring the amount of water lost over a 24-hour period, Bader said. The amount of evaporation in the cylinder is extrapolated to water in the lake, he said.

Could water evaporation in California's reservoirs be slowed during the summer?

The issue of freshwater evaporation has been studied for many years. In 2015, the University of Colorado published a report noting water loss in reservoirs throughout the West was a growing concern as droughts became more intense and frequent.

While covering reservoirs such as Lake Shasta might not seem feasible, some have considered such proposals.

"Proposed 'geo-engineering' techniques for reducing reservoir evaporation include covering surface water with thin films of organic compounds, reflective plastics or extremely lightweight shades. Other proposals include moving reservoir water underground into new storage areas or aquifers or relocating or building new storage reservoirs at higher elevations where less evaporation occurs," the University of Colorado report says.

During the 2015 drought, the city of Los Angeles experimented with reducing evaporation by covering reservoirs with plastic balls to reduce the heat over the water. However, having ping-pong balls in the water did not become a long-term solution.

Covering Lake Shasta with any material could be difficult, considering the size of the reservoir, which is the largest man-made lake in California, Bader said.

Reporter Damon Arthur welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834, by email at [email protected] and on Twitter at  @damonarthur_RS .

share this!

July 15, 2024

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

peer-reviewed publication

trusted source

Loss of oxygen in bodies of water identified as new tipping point

by Maike Nicolai, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Oxygen concentrations in our planet's waters are decreasing rapidly and dramatically—from ponds to the ocean. The progressive loss of oxygen threatens not only ecosystems, but also the livelihoods of large sectors of society and the entire planet, according to the authors of an international study involving GEOMAR published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution .

They call for the loss of oxygen in water bodies to be recognized as another planetary boundary in order to focus global monitoring, research and political measures.

Oxygen is a fundamental requirement of life on planet Earth. The loss of oxygen in water, also referred to as aquatic deoxygenation, is a threat to life at all levels. The international team of researchers describes how ongoing deoxygenation presents a major threat to the livelihoods of large parts of society and for the stability of life on our planet.

Previous research has identified a suite of global scale processes, referred to as planetary boundaries, that regulate the overall habitability and stability of the planet. If critical thresholds in these processes are passed, the risk of large-scale, abrupt or irreversible environmental changes ("tipping points") increases and the resilience of our planet, its stability, is jeopardized.

Among the nine planetary boundaries are climate change , land use change , and biodiversity loss. The authors of the new study argue that aquatic deoxygenation both responds to, and regulates, other planetary boundary processes.

"It's important that aquatic deoxygenation be added to the list of planetary boundaries," said Professor Dr. Rose from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, lead author of the publication. "This will help support and focus global monitoring, research, and policy efforts to help our aquatic ecosystems and, in turn, society at large."

Across all aquatic ecosystems, from streams and rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and ponds to estuaries, coasts, and the open ocean , dissolved oxygen concentrations have rapidly and substantially declined in recent decades.

Lakes and reservoirs have experienced oxygen losses of 5.5% and 18.6% respectively since 1980. The ocean has experienced oxygen losses of around 2% since 1960. Although this number sounds small, due to the large ocean volume it represents an extensive mass of oxygen lost.

Marine ecosystems have also experienced substantial variability in oxygen depletion. For example, the midwaters off of Central California have lost 40% of their oxygen in the last few decades. The volumes of aquatic ecosystems affected by oxygen depletion have increased dramatically across all types.

"The causes of aquatic oxygen loss are global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions and the input of nutrients as a result of land use," says co-author Dr. Andreas Oschlies, Professor of Marine Biogeochemical Modelling at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.

"If water temperatures rise, the solubility of oxygen in the water decreases. In addition, global warming enhances stratification of the water column, because warmer, low-salinity water with a lower density lies on top of the colder, saltier deep water below.

"This hinders the exchange of the oxygen-poor deep layers with the oxygen-rich surface water. In addition, nutrient inputs from land support algal blooms, which lead to more oxygen being consumed as more organic material sinks and is decomposed by microbes at depth."

Areas in the sea where there is so little oxygen that fish, mussels or crustaceans can no longer survive threaten not only the organisms themselves, but also ecosystem services such as fisheries, aquaculture, tourism and cultural practices.

Microbiotic processes in oxygen-depleted regions also increasingly produce potent greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and methane, which can lead to a further increase in global warming and thus a major cause of oxygen depletion.

The authors warn: We are approaching critical thresholds of aquatic deoxygenation that will ultimately affect several other planetary boundaries.

Professor Dr. Rose states, "Dissolved oxygen regulates the role of marine and freshwater in modulating Earth's climate. Improving oxygen concentrations depends on addressing the root causes, including climate warming and runoff from developed landscapes.

"Failure to address aquatic deoxygenation will, ultimately, not only affect ecosystems but also economic activity, and society at a global level."

Aquatic deoxygenation trends represent a clear warning and call to action that should inspire changes to slow or even mitigate this planetary boundary.

Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution

Provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Explore further

Feedback to editors

Researchers zero in on the underlying mechanism that causes alloys to crack when exposed to hydrogen-rich environments

8 hours ago

International study highlights large and unequal life expectancy declines in India during COVID-19

11 hours ago

Global study demonstrates benefit of marine protected areas to recreational fisheries

Killifish can adjust their egg-laying habits in response to predators, study shows

Enhanced information in national policies can accelerate Africa's efforts to track climate adaptation

Innovative microscopy reveals amyloid architecture, may give insights into neurodegenerative disease

12 hours ago

Study deciphers intricate 3D structure of DNA aptamer for disease theranostics

13 hours ago

Gold co-catalyst improves photocatalytic degradation of micropollutants, finds study

How mantle hydration changes over the lifetime of a subduction zone

14 hours ago

New dawn for space storm alerts could help shield Earth's tech

Relevant physicsforums posts, the secrets of prof. verschure's rosetta stones.

Jul 18, 2024

More Consequences of Warming Oceans

Sea stacks - scotland, ireland and elsewhere.

Jul 17, 2024

Should We Be Planting More Trees?

Jul 15, 2024

Learning a New Soil Test Method by Myself

Jul 9, 2024

Mag 3.4 Earthquake under Lake Ontario, 15 km SW of Henderson, New York

Jul 8, 2024

More from Earth Sciences

Related Stories

From the coast to the deep sea, changing oxygen levels affect marine life in different ways

Apr 23, 2024

Rivers are rapidly warming, losing oxygen: Aquatic life at risk, study finds

Sep 14, 2023

Scientists develop novel model and dataset for ocean dissolved oxygen monitoring

Jul 10, 2024

Climate change has likely begun to suffocate the world's fisheries

Feb 1, 2022

Ocean biodiversity could be protected with green hydrogen byproduct, study shows

Jan 22, 2024

World's lakes losing oxygen rapidly as planet warms

Jun 2, 2021

Recommended for you

Working to strengthen Pacific Northwest defenses against wildfires and wildfire smoke

Studies find China-based emissions of three potent climate-warming greenhouse gases have spiked in past decade

Q&A: Creators of first-ever hurricane evacuation order database say it may hold keys to future readiness

Mathematicians team up with geophysicists to improve models that predict changes in sea ice

Tool predicts rogue waves up to five minutes in advance

Let us know if there is a problem with our content.

Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form . For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines ).

Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request

Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.

E-mail the story

Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form.

Newsletter sign up

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.

More information Privacy policy

Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience

We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account.

E-mail newsletter

Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Water Pollution — The Causes and Solutions for the Problem of Water Pollution

Water Pollution: Problem and Solution

• Categories: Water Pollution

About this sample

Words: 749 |

Published: Nov 6, 2018

Words: 749 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Water pollution: causes and effects, solutions to water pollution, works cited.

• United Nations Environment Programme. (2016). Freshwater pollution: A hidden crisis. Retrieved from https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/water/what-we-do/ freshwater
• National Geographic. (n.d.). Water pollution. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/water-pollution/
• United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2018). Causes and effects of water pollution. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/npdes/causes-and-effects-water-pollution
• World Health Organization. (2019). Water pollution and health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/water-pollution
• United Nations. (2018). Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/
• Johnson, S., & Morrisey, J. (2008). The economics of water pollution: An overview. Water Policy, 10(S1), 3-14.
• Environmental Defense Fund. (2021). Water pollution: Everything you need to know. Retrieved from https://www.edf.org/water/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know
• Bhutta, M. N., & Raza, S. A. (2019). Impact of water pollution on human health and environmental sustainability. Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences, 14(4), 1-11.
• Blumenthal, U. J., & Peasey, A. (2002). Critical review of epidemiological evidence of health effects of wastewater and excreta: A call for more research. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 7(11), 1047-1053.
• Chen, X., Li, Y., & Lü, C. (2016). The impact of water pollution on economic development in China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112(3), 3520-3528.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Environment

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 1164 words

5 pages / 2287 words

2 pages / 779 words

1 pages / 654 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Water Pollution

India has to take urgent steps to manage its water resources in scientific and efficient way otherwise there will be very adverse effects on all sectors which include agriculture, industries, health sectors etc. More than half [...]

Water pollution occurs when contaminators are disposed into water sources and thus causing environmental degradation. Continuous pollutants disposal not only affect the marine ecosystem but also the biosphere surroundings (Nanda [...]

Everybody knows humans need pure drinking water to sustain life. But are Brisbane residents drinking clean water? The water pollution problem in Brisbane is beginning to get out of hand. If something is not done soon, it will be [...]

In March 2000, Coca Cola, under its Indian subsidiary Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCBPL), commenced operations at its bottling plant at Plachimada, in the southern state of Kerala. Over the next few years, [...]

California is sucking millions of gallons of water from the ocean. The purpose of this is for a process known as desalination. The basis of the process of desalination is to get clean drinking water in places where there are a [...]

Littering and pollution is a major issue around the world today. It affects all of our lives, and will affect us for years to come. Littering and pollution play a major part in our lives. Everywhere we walk and drive there is [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Importance of Water Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on importance of water.

Water is the basic necessity for the functioning of all life forms that exist on earth . It is safe to say that water is the reason behind earth being the only planet to support life. This universal solvent is one of the major resources we have on this planet . It is impossible for life to function without water. After all, it makes for almost 70% of the earth.

However, despite its vast abundance, water is very much limited. It is a non-renewable resource . In addition, we need to realize the fact that although there is an abundance of water, not all of it is safe to consume. We derive some very essential uses from the water on a daily basis.

Significance of water

If we talk about our personal lives, water is the foundation of our existence. The human body needs water for the day to day survival. We may be able to survive without any food for a whole week but without water, we won’t even survive for 3 days. Moreover, our body itself comprises of 70% water. This, in turn, helps our body to function normally.

Thus, the lack of sufficient water or consumption of contaminated water can cause serious health problems for humans. Therefore, the amount and quality of water which we consume is essential for our physical health plus fitness.

Further, our daily activities are incomplete without water. Whether we talk about getting up in the morning to brush or cooking our food, it is equally important. This domestic use of water makes us very dependent on this transparent chemical.

In addition, on a large scale, the industries consume a lot of water. They need water for almost every step of their process. It essential for the production of the goods we use every day.

If we look beyond human uses, we will realize how water plays a major role in every living beings life. It is the home of aquatic animals. From a tiny insect to a whale, every organism needs water to survive.

Therefore, we see how not only human beings but plants and animals too require water. The earth depends on water to function. We cannot be selfish and use it up for our uses without caring about the environment.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

A world without water

Water is not only required for our survival but for a healthy and happy life as well. Everyone has seen the scenario of water-deprived countries like Africa, where citizens are leading a miserable life. It is time for everyone to wake up and realize the urgency of conserving water.

In other words, a world without water would make the human race impossible to last. The same can be said for all the animals and plants. In fact, the whole earth will suffer without water.

Firstly, the greenery will soon diminish. When earth won’t get water, all the vegetation will die and turn into barren land. The occurrence of different seasons will soon cease. The earth will be caught in one big endless summer.

Furthermore, the home of aquatic animals will be taken from them. That means no fishes and whales for us to see. Most importantly, all forms of living organisms will go extinct if we do not conserve water right away.

In conclusion, unnecessary usage of water must be stopped at once. Every single person must work to conserve water and restore the balance. If not, we all know what the consequences are going to be.

{ “@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@type”: “FAQPage”, “mainEntity”: [{ “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “Why is water important?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “Water is essential for survival for all living organisms. We need it to lead a healthy and happy life.” } }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “What will happen to earth without water?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”:”Without water, the earth will turn barren. The vegetation will die and so will the living organisms including humans, plants and animals.”} }] }

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

Quantifiying Biodiversity Loss Risk

Biodiversity intactness indices

Quantifiying Biodiversity Loss Risk Biodiversity intactness indices

28 Pages Posted:

Imène Ben Rejeb-Mzah

Bnp paribas, nathalie jaubert, affiliation not provided to ssrn, hatim mrabet.

CentraleSupélec

Alexandre Vincent

Date Written: July 08, 2024

This research paper investigates the pros, cons and use cases of three selected biodiversity indices that assess in three different ways a given ecosystem biodiversity loss :  Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII), Mean Species Abundance (MSA), and Potentially Disappeared Fraction (PDF). The MSA measures the relative abundance of species that are present in the reference state of the considered site compared to their current abundance. The BII introduces a more complex formula that penalizes the appearance of new invasive and opportunistic species. It provides a more comprehensive measurement of biodiversity loss than MSA. Last but not least, the PDF, focuses on species  disappearance in diversity estimates. In this paper, we explore the respective strengths and limitations of each index, emphasizing the importance of context-specific evaluations. We also delve into their modelling considerations. By critically assessing these biodiversity indices, this study aims to contribute to the refinement of ecological assessment tools and guide researchers and finance practitioners in selecting appropriate metrics for their use cases including their financings’ biodiversity footprint measurement.

Keywords: Biodiversity indices, Biodiversity footprint, Quantifying biodiversity disturbance, Biodiversity Intactness, Mean Species Abundance, Biodiversity Intactness Index, Potentially Disappeared Fraction, PDF, BII, MSA

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Imène Ben Rejeb-Mzah (Contact Author)

Centralesupélec ( email ), bnp paribas ( email ), do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on ssrn, paper statistics, related ejournals, risk management ejournal.

Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic

Risk Management & Analysis in Financial Institutions eJournal

Sustainability & economics ejournal, environmental economics ejournal, environmental data analysis ejournal.

• Growth & Development
• Play & Activities
• Life Skills
• Play & Learning
• Learning & Education
• Rhymes & Songs
• Preschool Locator

Essay On Water Pollution – 10 Lines, Short And Long Essay For Children

Key Points To Remember When Writing An Essay On Water Pollution For Class 1, 2 and 3

10 lines on water pollution for kids, a paragraph on water pollution for kids, short essay on the topic ‘water pollution’ in english for kids, long essay on water pollution for children, interesting facts about water pollution for kids, what will your child learn from writing about water pollution.

Water is crucial for the sustainability of life on earth. An essay on water pollution for classes 1, 2 and 3 will teach kids about this important issue.

Almost all the essential physical and natural activities of all living beings are dependent on water in some ways. Moreover, our climate and global temperature depend on the availability of water on land. Our atmosphere controls its temperature because of its physical property to change states. We all how crucial water is for life on earth. Therefore, we must preserve water, prevent pollution and reduce its wastage. In this article, we will write a water pollution essay in English to emphasise its importance.

When writing an essay for lower classes, your goal should be to deliver the basic knowledge efficiently. Here are some key points for writing an essay on water pollution.

• The introductory paragraph of the essay should talk about the importance of water.
• Write the definition of pollution. Talk about other types of pollution too.
• Dedicate a portion to the water cycle.
• Explain the properties of water to help kids understand how contaminants are introduced into natural resources.
• Dedicate a short paragraph to the causes of pollution.
• Next, write a short paragraph on the adverse effects of water pollution.
• Lastly, conclude by mentioning a few ways to reduce water pollution.

When writing an essay for classes 1 and 2, you should have a knack for keeping it plain and simple. It is better to engage kids in writing in points and simple sentences to understand the basics of pollution. Here are 10 lines on water pollution for kids:

• Water is important for sustaining life on earth.
• It is essential for humans, animals, plants and all living beings for life and survival.
• 71% area of our planet is covered in water. However, only about 3% of that water is fit for use.
• Pollution is defined as the adverse physical change in natural resources due to the introduction of contaminants
• Water Pollution refers to the phenomenon where chemicals and other contaminants pollute freshwater.
• It is difficult to treat severely polluted water, which leads to wastage, and this is the primary cause of water scarcity in most parts of India.
• When sources of water like rivers, seas, and oceans get polluted, it makes survival difficult for fish and other marine lives.
• The water cycle is the phenomenon by which nature regulates the supply of freshwater and controls the temperature of the surface.
• The water cycle includes evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and infiltration.
• Some common causes of water pollution include sewage, sediments, toxins, petroleum oil pollution, and thermal pollution.

When writing informative essays for lower classes, it is crucial to stick to the facts. Avoid too many technical details. Here is how to write a paragraph on water pollution for kids.

Water is crucial for the sustenance of life on earth. Living beings consume water to regulate their body temperature and facilitate digestion. Roughly 60% of our body is made of water, which is central to our survival. However, consuming polluted water can lead to severe health issues. Therefore, we must try to keep our freshwater sources clean. Pollution occurs when there are contaminants in natural sources that cause adverse physical changes. It also adversely affects the marine life. Some common causes of water pollution are industrial chemicals, sewages, thermal pollution, and petroleum oil pollution. We can reduce water pollution by bringing strict regulations and imposing hefty penalties on water-polluting industries.

A short essay on water pollution for kids should contain all the basic details like what is water pollution, the water cycle, the causes of water pollution, and the effects of water pollution. Here is an essay on water pollution in 150 words.

Water is one of the primary reasons that earth sustains life. Roughly 60% of the human body is made of water too. Moreover, 71% of our planet is also covered in water, but only about 3% of that is potable or fit to use. This limited supply of potable water is also known as freshwater, and it is crucial to preserve freshwater if we want to ensure sustainability. However, freshwater reserves have depleted due to the mass wastage of water and water pollution. This has led to critical problems in many parts of the world.

Water pollution means introducing contaminants in freshwater resources that cause adverse physical change. Primarily, water pollution is caused by sewage, plastic, toxins, industrial waste, and petroleum waste. When these contaminants seep into the freshwater sources, they cause health issues to people who consume them directly or indirectly. Water pollution affects the lives of fish and other marine animals. 

We can educate ourselves on preserving water resources by not throwing plastic waste in rivers during picnics and trips. Try to never drain fat and grease to avoid polluting sewers which ultimately land in the natural resources. 

Water is crucial for all the life forms on earth. Roughly 60% of our body has water, which means we can’t ignore the physiological importance of water for survival. Also, water is equally crucial for nature because that’s how nature controls the temperature and seasons and ensures livable conditions for us. Here is an example of how to write an essay for class 3.

Around 71% of the earth is covered in water, but we can’t consume all of the water available on the earth because approximately 97% of this water is saline and not fit for consumption. This makes it very important to save the limited freshwater resources. We use freshwater for important tasks such as cooking, agriculture, washing, drinking, etc.

What Is Water Pollution And The Water Cycle?

Water is said to be polluted when there are traces of dissolved toxins found in it, making it harmful to one’s health. Now, let’s look at the details of the water cycle to understand the adverse physical change caused by water pollution. It is pertinent to note that the physical property of water allows it to change states like solid, liquid and gas. Here are the processes involved in the water cycle:

• Evaporation:  This is the first step in the water cycle. The water on the surface of large water bodies heats up due to the sun and rises to form vapours.
• Transpiration:  Plants and trees also lose water in the atmosphere, in a process called transpiration. Transpiration is the main cause of rain in the Amazon rainforests.
• Condensation: The water that rises in the form of vapour due to heat begins to cool down eventually to form clouds. This is known as condensation.
• Precipitation:  When the winds blow profusely, the water-laden clouds collide, leading to rainfall. This phenomenon is called precipitation.
• Infiltration:  When the rain falls on the earth, the water either flows back into the water bodies or gets absorbed by the soil. This phenomenon is known as infiltration.

Common Causes Of Water Pollution

Some common causes of water pollution are:

• Domestic Sewage Containing Pathogens  

Domestic sewage is full of harmful chemicals like phosphorus and mercury, and this sewage sometimes is released directly into a water source without any treatment.

• Toxins From Industrial or Factory Waste  

Chemical waste from the industries is one of the common causes of water pollution. Such waste is produced in high volumes, which pollutes the nearby water source.

• The Frequent Oil Spills in Seas and Oceans  

Petroleum and other related products are traded via sea routes. The ships carrying these products often fail the safety measures and spill the oil on the seas. The oil forms a thin layer on the surface and suffocates marine life.

Major Effects Of Water Pollution

• Climate Change  

Water pollution leads to climate change and water scarcity. It is crucial to recycle water and reuse it if we want to ensure sustainability.

• Causing Disease  

When people consume polluted freshwater, they become susceptible to terminal diseases. Diseases like cholera, typhoid, etc., are common among people living near a polluted freshwater source.

• Endangering Marine Life  

Several marine species and fishes have been pushed to extinction due to water pollution. The most common example is the bleaching of corals in Australia.

Ways To Prevent Water Pollution

• Legislative Measures

Government must bring laws to keep a check on industrial and agricultural waste. Stringent laws are the need of the hour, and hefty penalties can add a deterring effect and cause a behavioural change.

• Agricultural Measures

Farmers must be encouraged to use organic fertilisers. Fertilisers have harmful chemicals that are washed down during irrigation, and these chemicals enter the lakes and rivers and cause water pollution. Hence, we must encourage farmers to use organic fertilisers.

There is no alternative to education. Therefore, we must raise awareness about this issue via modules and public seminars. 

Here are some interesting facts on the issue of water pollution for kids:

• One out of three people globally doesn’t have access to safe drinking water.
• Chlorination of water is the most common method of water purification.
• The Yamuna is the most polluted river in India.
• Several marine species have been pushed to extinction because of plastic waste dumping in water bodies.
• BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) is the indicator of water pollution.

This essay highlights the definition of water pollution and articulates several facts related to it. Your child will learn how to structure an essay and include all the relevant points. This essay will teach your kid about the importance of water in our lives.

Which River Is The Most Highly Polluted in India?

River Yamuna is India’s most highly polluted river.

Why Is It Important For Us To Prevent Water Pollution?

Water is the most crucial for all life forms on earth. We use water to hydrate ourselves and carry out other routine tasks such as cooking, washing, etc. It is important to prevent water pollution because polluted water can lead to terminal diseases and adversely affect life on earth.

Our water bodies call for help, and we must come forward to take a step toward saving them. Dealing with water pollution has to be a group effort in which people from across the globe have to give their due contribution.

Essay On Air Pollution For Kids Essay On ‘My Village’ For Classes 1, 2 and 3 For Children Essay On A Rainy Day For Classes 1, 2 And 3 Kids

• Essays for Class 1
• Essays for Class 2
• Essays for Class 3

How Your Screen Time Directly Impacts Your Child?

13 helpful tips to get your child to listen to you, how to build a healthy relationship with food for your child, leave a reply cancel reply.

Log in to leave a comment

Most Popular

Why playing alone is recommend for kids, recent comments.

FirstCry Intelli Education is an Early Learning brand, with products and services designed by educators with decades of experience, to equip children with skills that will help them succeed in the world of tomorrow.

The FirstCry Intellikit `Learn With Stories` kits for ages 2-6 brings home classic children`s stories, as well as fun activities, specially created by our Early Learning Educators.

For children 6 years and up, explore a world of STEAM learning, while engaging in project-based play to keep growing minds busy!

Build a love for reading through engaging book sets and get the latest in brain-boosting toys, recommended by the educators at FirstCry Intellitots.

Our Comprehensive 2-year Baby Brain Development Program brings to you doctor-approved toys for your baby`s developing brain.

Our Preschool Chain offers the best in education across India, for children ages 2 and up.

©2024 All rights reserved

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Welcome to the world of Intelli!

We have some FREE Activity E-books waiting for you. Fill in your details below so we can send you tailor- made activities for you and your little one.

Parent/Guardian's Name

Child's DOB

What would you like to receive other than your Free E-book? I would like information, discounts and offers on toys, books and products I want to find a FirstCry Intellitots Preschool near me I want access to resources for my child's development and/or education

Welcome to the world of intelli!

FREE guides and worksheets coming your way on whatsapp. Subscribe Below !!

THANK YOU!!!

Here are your free guides and worksheets.

Ashley Judd: I'm calling on Biden to step aside. Beating Trump is too important.

My folks are not bad people, in spite of what you may now think of them. they are facing bad options. we must give them a different choice..

Wednesday evening, I was visiting, as we say in the South, with some of my beloved chosen and biological family. These folks are my roots, my sense of belonging, and meet many of my most intimate human needs.

And some of them, remarkably, feverishly love Donald Trump.

And I love these Trump folks as if my life depended on it, and at times, it literally has. I do not love the beliefs they believe and cling to.

And Wednesday, as I listened to one of my dearest people share some of those beliefs and thoughts, it hurt. I was shaken. My body felt like it was on fire. The words activated in me profound alarm in the aftermath of the recent debate at which President Joe Biden, a deeply decent man, was incapable of countering Trump, while he, unchecked, gushed a firehose of galling lies.

“Those people pouring over our border are less evolved than we are. They are naturally less intelligent. They have criminal natures. They are incapable of respecting the rule of law and order.”

“Men must be strong. They cannot be weak.” We were talking about the wish for boys and men to experience a full range of human emotions without shame or punishment. “It is dog-eat-dog and men will get eaten if they show any weakness. China has a massive, 2-million-man army. They aren’t teaching DEI. Good men must be willing to kill at any moment, but just know how to control that impulse.”

And Trump folks can act on those beliefs. Another one of my closest people, upon arriving at our local mall, came across Black youth hanging out, laughing, sitting on the hoods of cars. She went inside the mall to notify the security person on duty that Black kids were menacingly loafing and up to no good. The security person called the police.

I do not necessarily think all Trump supporters believe, feel, act and speak like this. I know Donald Trump himself does. That is critical. That is why I have come to realize that my private, personal belief is one I should no longer just keep to myself.

And so, I now ask President Joe Biden to step aside.

It's time for Joe Biden to leave the 2024 race

The defense of our cherished rights and freedoms, the moral imperative that we do better by more people, and our bodies, cannot be left to voters who see and are frightened of the consequences of President Biden’s obvious limitations , or who are now not going to vote. We take the risk of an off night and minimize the warning signs at our gravest peril.

You may judge me or be baffled by how and why I can continue to live with and love people who feel and act upon the same harmful beliefs that Trump espouses. And, of course, I wholly realize they feel my beliefs and positions are equally odious. I am humbled and grateful they neither exile me from our family nor allow our significant differences to taint their love for me.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store .

As Father Richard Rohr has written, we live in a " mixed reality ." I forgive reality for being so mixed. And I do not choose to sanitize reality or my life. I trust real, however messy it is, and however much it hurts to hold this complexity.

My deal breaker is not with my loved ones who are thrilled by Donald Trump. I cannot change them. I tried that, failed at that, damaged our relationships by trying that, and I have had enough loss in my life. I neither want to nor will I lose any more of my folks, especially over politics. My deal breakers with Donald Trump are many, but after listening Wednesday night in that living room, what is searing me is the cruelty. It cannot be America’s future.

Ashley Judd: We have the power to help women and girls caught in crises. Why won't we?

We can't risk a Trump presidency

I feel immense, bereft sadness at the beliefs Donald Trump holds, and that his supporters endorse. But that sadness is trivial compared to the hurt, devastation and loss millions will feel if Donald Trump is reelected. He would wield the power of the presidency with unprecedented, incalculable cruelty and unfairness.

Especially disturbing is his distortion of Christianity, the force of Christian Nationalism advancing him, and the risks for anyone who diverges from that.

Biden? Harris? I don't care. Stopping Trump and Project 2025 is all that matters.

This is not something I wrote easily, quickly or for political convenience. My belief in what President Biden has done for our country runs deep. My hopes for the next term run high. My investment is personal. I bring my body. I show up. I am a Democrat who relishes traveling up to Wisconsin for early voting, bringing coffee and doughnuts at 6 a.m. to first-time voters who have slept overnight on the sidewalk outside their polling place, so eager to cast their ballots for an inaugural experience.

Showing up publicly can cost me, and it absolutely will for far too many if Trump is reelected. When I read the “I am a Nasty Woman” poem at the Women’s March in 2017, I quoted Donald Trump. I was fired for doing so, by a company with whom I had an endorsement.

Trump said it . He was elected. I quoted him, I lose a life-altering paycheck. That is the double standard of American life for women under Donald Trump. And for all who disagree with him.

And writing this essay will cost me. Some, perhaps many, people will scorn me (and worse). Their outrage at me is insignificant compared to the harm that is assured under a second Trump term for, say, our LGBTQ+ families.

With Donald Trump in leadership, speech is chilled. Dissent is punished. Sharing your truth about your life in America can risk your livelihood. When a man raped me in 1998, I was able was have a safe, legal abortion that was accessible right where I live in Tennessee.

We already know many states ban abortions and 10 states have no exceptions for rape and incest , even for adolescent girls. This is reality for girls and women under Donald Trump and it must be the principle on which President Biden chooses to voluntarily, gracefully step aside.

Voters deserve a real choice on the Democratic ticket

Much has been said and printed about the historic progress of this Biden administration. Historic job creation . Visionary investment in America that future generations will feel. I have a deep appreciation and fond regard for him.

Equally, much has been said and printed about what Donald Trump has done and will do. I have been watching and listening.

As my mom’s dear friend Dr. Maya Angelou said , “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Donald Trump, I see you, and I believe you.

Thus, because of the very real hurt millions of people would feel when he is president again, the Democratic Party must not delay in thanking President Biden and supporting a talented, robust Democrat to be our party’s nominee. We do not have another day for distraction or division among ourselves.

Some in Washington may want to wait for the next week, the next press conference, the next network interview. Here, where I sit in rural Tennessee, it is clear that Americans have already made up their minds against President Biden, on top of the majority who love to vote for Donald Trump.

My folks are not bad people, despite what you may now think of them. They are facing bad options. We must give them a different choice from our Democratic Party for president of the United States.

Ashley Judd  is a humanitarian, writer and actor.

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page , on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter .