Physical Water Scarcity: Where the demand for water is greater than the supply of water. Physical water scarcity does not have to be an arid environment, because there demand for water in arid environments (deserts) is not normally low meaning that there is no shortage.
Economic Water Scarcity: Where there is water available, but for some economic reason it is not possible to fully utilise the source of water. This might because extraction or transportation costs are too high, or because the water is polluted and it is not possible to treat it.
Water Stress: When the demand for water exceeds supply during a set period of time leading to shortages.
Safe Drinking Water: Water that is safe for human consumption. The water must be free from harmful pollutants and bacteria that could make people ill.
Distribution of Water Resources
Only about 2.5% of the world's water is fresh and the majority of that is frozen or under the ground making it very hard to access. The reaming freshwater that is easy to access is not distributed evenly across the world. The map to the right shows that the area with the smallest water supplies are in North Africa, Southern Africa, The Middle East, South Asia and East Europe. However, it must be remembered that just because there is a shortage of water it does not necessarily mean that there is economic and physical water scarcity. This is because many areas with water shortages are very sparsely populated.
The second map highlights the areas with physical and economic water shortages. Most of the northern hemisphere including North America, Europe and Russia have no water shortages. Areas with physical water scarcity include North Africa (Sahara Desert), the Middles East (Arabian Desert), Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India and Northern China (Gobi Desert).
The areas with economic scarcity include Central and Southern America, Central Africa, SE Asia and Australia. It is interesting to note that according to the first map, most of these areas have an abundant supply of water, but for some reason are not able to access it properly.
The WPI was developed by the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. It looks at the five variables below to assess a country's water poverty.
Resources: This looks at the amount of groundwater and surface water available per person in a country or region. Access: This looks at the time and distance involved in citizens collecting the water e.g. does everyone having running water in their house or do they have to walk to a well. Capacity: This looks at how the community manages and uses its water. Use: This looks at how the water is used, is it used in industry, agriculture or for domestic use. Environment: This looks at the sustainability of use e.g. are rivers and aquifers being used sustainably or is too much water being taken.
As can be seen from the map to the right Europe, the Americas and Australia score very well on the WPI, but many African , Middle Eastern and South Asian countries score very badly.
Water shortages can be divided into a number of categories. As mentioned above, physical water shortages is when there is not enough surface or ground water to meet the demand for it. Economic water shortages is when water exists, but for some reason it can not be fully utilised, maybe because extraction and piping is too expensive or treatment of polluted water is too expensive and the technology does not exist.
Population Growth: As with many of the world's resources, they are coming under increasing pressure as the world's population grows. The world's population now stands at about 7 billion, all of whom are placing increasing on water resources as they develop and get richer.
Pollution: As the world's population grows so does the demand for agricultural and industrial products. Our thirst for agricultural products is increasing the use of fertilisers and pesticides which often run off into rivers and lakes or leach down to groundwater stores. Like wise our increasing demand for industrial and at times relaxed environmental regulations mean more chemicals and metals are being released into our water sources. Sewage treatment also often lags behind population growth so increasingly our rivers and lakes are being polluted by sewage.
Domestic Demand: The demand from households is not only increasing because there are more households in the world, but also because the amount of water they want is increasing with development. For example as peoples income increases and they move into permanent residences, they demand flush toilets, bath/showers, washing machines, dishwashers and green gardens, all of which use large amounts of water.
Agricultural Demand: As can be seen in the graph below, agricultural places by far the biggest demand on water. With a growing population, global warming and the movement in to less favourable agricultural regions, the demand from agriculture is only likely to increase in the future.
Industrial Demand: As the world's population grows and becomes richer our demand for industrial products grows. Many industrial products, particular things like processing metal use huge quantities of water and place increasing demand on resources. Also mining for the raw materials used in manufacturing use large quantities of water.
Sewage: With rapid urbanisation taking place in many cities around the world, infrastructure often does not keep up with new arrivals. The growth of informal settlements without proper sewage treatment can mean that human waste is often pumped directly into water sources. However, this is not only a problem in LEDCs, in London the sewer system can not cope and an estimated 39 million tonnes of sewage are dumped in the River Thames annually.
Climate Change: Climate change is impacting the availability of water in many ways. Global warming maybe releasing freshwater from glaciers and ice shelves,but unfortunately much of it is running directly into the oceans. The subsequent rising sea levels are threatening many coastal freshwater wetlands as well as increasing the risk of saltwater intrusion into aquifers. Warmer temperatures are increasing the amount of evaporation from rivers and surfaces stores.
Political: In many countries or regions, water sources are shared e.g. the River Nile flows through eleven countries. At times some countries control large percentages of the shared resource, leading to shortages for other countries. Follow the link and read how Egypt and the Sudan control the majority of the Nile's water. (Conflicts at the international scale)
Mismanagement: If water is not used sustainably or inappropriately then water shortages can occur. One of the most famous examples is the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea is located on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Water was taken from the two rivers that fed the Aral Sea to irrigate the desert and grow cotton. Unfortunately so much water was needed to grow cotton in the desert, that no water reached the Aral Sea and it began to dry up, causing huge water shortages. For more details about the case study, following the link (Irrigation and agriculture).
Groundwater Depletion: If water is used unsustainably i.e. more is taken out than is being recharged then aquifers can suffer from salinisation and saltwater intrusion. If you increase the concentration of water it can become too salty for human use. Also if you drain aquifers near coastal areas, then they can become full of saltwater, again making them useless (see: Groundwater management)
Energy Production: Although HEP is the most obvious form of energy that uses water, this water is released into rivers once it has passed through the dam. Other types of energy that uses large amount of water for cooling e.g. coal and nuclear power, may pollute water or see it evaporated removing it from local use.
Domestic Water Use in Australia
Problems Caused by Water Shortages and Water Pollution
Drought: If there are economic or physical water scarcity and water stress exists then drought can occur. Drought is below average supply of water over a prolonged period. Because drought is below average supply of water, even relatively wet country's like the UK can suffer from drought.
Crop Failure: If there is a shortage of water and farmers can not irrigate their crops then they begin to die.
Livestock Deaths: If livestock don't have enough water to drink they will begin to die.
Famine: If cops are failing and livestock are dieing then people will become undernourished and suffer from famine.
Groundwater Depletion (subsidence and saltwater intrusion): If aquifers begin to dry up or are used unsustainably, then the ground above can subside (collapse) or the aquifer can suffer from salinisation or saltwater intrusion. Subsidence is a problem common in parts of Mexico City.
Conflict: If there is a limited supply of water and water resources are shared conflict can arise. Many of the ongoing border disputes between Israel and Palestine are blamed on water shortages (see: Conflicts at the local or national scale)
Refugees: If there is drought and famine then people are forced to relocate or face death. Unfortunately many of the countries that suffer from drought and famine have poor neighbours so refugees will be arriving in countries that are least able to cope.
Disease: Dirty water can attract mosquitoes which can increase diseases like dengue and malaria. Dirty water can also cause the spread of diseases like hepatitis A and typhoid as well things like diarrhea.
Eutrophication: Run-off from farms containing fertiliser can lead to eutrophication. Eutrophication is the excess growth of algae causing water to not oxygenate properly or receive enough light. This can cause plants and animals to suffocate and die.
Biodiversity Loss: Dirty water and eutrophication can cause loss of biodiversity in wetland environments, but also just like humans can die of thirst and starvation, so can plants and animlas. Big animals like elephants which require large amounts of water often die in African droughts.
Lake Biwa, Japan
Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan, covering an area of 670km2. It is located on the island of Honshu, north east of the cities of Kyoto and Osaka.
After the end of World War II Japan demilitarised and concentrated on rebuilding its economy and population. Between 1945 and 2010 Japan's population grew from 72 million to 128 million. Japan's economy was regarded as an economic miracle, growing at 10% a year in the 1960's and 5% a year in the 1970's. Japanese companies like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Sony and Toshiba started to grow rapidly. The area around Lake Biwa became one of the most densely populated and most industrialised in the country. Osaka on its own contains about 2.7 million people. As well as population and industrial growth, agriculture was also having to grow rapidly to meet growing demand for food.
The rapid growth meant that a lot of land reclamation took place around Lake Biwa in order to accommodate new factories, growing cities and to create new farmland. During this period of economic growth, the economy was more important than environment so household, industrial and agricultural waste was allowed to run-off into the lake. These pollutants caused a series of problems including:
In the 1960's agricultural chemical poisoned and killed aquatic life
In the 1970's heavy metals poisoned and killed aquatic life
Also in the 1970's agricultural fertilisers caused eutrophication to take place.
Eutrophication is an ecosystems response to large quantities of phosphates and nitrates being added. In Lake Biwa it caused rapid growth of algae, which prevented sunlight from reaching the lake and prevented proper oxygenation. This caused widespread death of aquatic plants and animals.
There have been a number of responses to the pollution including:
1960's - "Direction for Safe Use of Agricultural Chemicals'' - this meant that chemicals could not be used within 6km of the lake.
1969 - "Pollution Control Ordinance" - introduction of strict effluent controls
1970's - Japanese housewives started an organisation to eliminate synthetic detergents.
1979 - "Ordinance Relating to the Prevention of Eutrophication in Lake Biwa"
In reality for much of the time that Lake Biwa was being polluted, economic growth was much more important and it was not until the economy started to grow, people had secure jobs, growing incomes and increased leisure time, did people start thinking about the environment.
Solutions to Ending Water Stress
There are many solutions to improving the both the quality of the water (reducing pollution) and the amount of water available to people, agriculture and industry. Below are some solutions starting with four short videos on how Japan has tried to reduce pollution and eutrophication in some of its water sources.
Sewage Treatment
This is the removal of contaminants from waste water and household sewage. It requires physical, chemical and biological processes to remove all the contaminants and make safe. The primary treatment of sewage just allows the waste water or sewage to sit in a large basin, where solids settle on the bottom and oil, grease and light solids float to the surface. The settled and floating material can then be removed. Secondary treatment involves removing suspended and dissolved biological matter using micro-organisms. The final tertiary treatment involves cleaning with chemicals. Even though it is possible to treat water so it is immediately drinkable, only Singapore do this on a large scale.
Many products (agricultural and industrial) use large amounts of water to produce. For example it is estimated that 4500 litres are needed to produce just one beef steak. It has therefore been suggested that arid countries should specialise in producing products that need less water, while countries with an access of water should produce products that need a lot of water to produce. The products cold then be traded between each other, so instead of water been traded, products with large amounts of water used in their production are being traded - this is virtual water.
Desalination
With the growing shortage of freshwater, attempts have been made to desalinate seawater more efficiently. Traditionally the process has involved the evaporation of water to remove salt (thermal desalination), but increasingly reverse osmosis is being used to forces water through semi-permeable membrane to remove salts. Although the second process uses less energy, both are energy intensive and require high levels of technology so have been criticised and have not been widely adopted yet.
Residents and water users can be educated about basic conservation methods which can reduce water wastage. Basic conservation methods may include:
Half flush toilets
Showering instead of bathing (as long as the shower is short)
Watering the garden at dusk to prevent evaporation
Recycling grey water (shower water, etc).
Collecting rainwater to use on the garden.
Using appropriate plants for the climate
Using drip irrigation rather than sprinklers
Charities are also helping many LEDCs with the provision of water. One of the most famous charities helping to reduce water shortages is Wateraid. Charities can do an number of things to improve the provision of water including:
Irrigation Projects: Countries that have regional shortages of water or variable rainfall can use irrigation systems to redistribute water and water the land. The largest and most famous irrigation project been undertaken is Libya's man-made river scheme which aims to turn parts of the desert green. The water is being accessed from under the ground and redistributed around the country. (see: Irrigation and agriculture)
Reduced Leakage: Leakage is a huge problem, especially in countries with old pipe networks. One water company in the UK is estimated to lose 295 million litres a day (the equivalent of 120 Olympic size swimming pools). In the UK there are targets for water companies to reduce leakages, unfortunately many companies are currently missing these targets.
Dam Construction: Dams are controversial because they can bring many disadvantages as well as advantages (see Dams and Reservoirs) but if they are built sustainably they can create artificial stores that can collect water in rainy seasons and distribute during drier periods.
Water Metering: Charging people per unit of water used, rather than charging a flat fee can drastically reduce wastage and make people consider how and when they use water.
Construction of Wells: Many countries cannot afford to have piped water to every residence so wells become important in accessing groundwater supplies. As long as wells are used sustainably they can be a vital source of water in many LEDCs and arid countries.
International Cooperation: When water is shared, it is necessary to have sustainable policies to reduce the tragedy of the commons, when all countries or regions take water for their needs and forget about the overall impacts. The countries along the Nile are trying to create such agreements, but Egypt is hostile to any plans to redistribute (see: Conflicts at the international scale)
Water and Change
Physical Water Scarcity: Where the demand for water is greater than the supply of water. Physical water scarcity does not have to be an arid environment, because there demand for water in arid environments (deserts) is not normally low meaning that there is no shortage.
Economic Water Scarcity: Where there is water available, but for some economic reason it is not possible to fully utilise the source of water. This might because extraction or transportation costs are too high, or because the water is polluted and it is not possible to treat it.
Water Stress: When the demand for water exceeds supply during a set period of time leading to shortages.
Safe Drinking Water: Water that is safe for human consumption. The water must be free from harmful pollutants and bacteria that could make people ill.
Distribution of Water Resources
Only about 2.5% of the world's water is fresh and the majority of that is frozen or under the ground making it very hard to access. The reaming freshwater that is easy to access is not distributed evenly across the world. The map to the right shows that the area with the smallest water supplies are in North Africa, Southern Africa, The Middle East, South Asia and East Europe. However, it must be remembered that just because there is a shortage of water it does not necessarily mean that there is economic and physical water scarcity. This is because many areas with water shortages are very sparsely populated.
The second map highlights the areas with physical and economic water shortages. Most of the northern hemisphere including North America, Europe and Russia have no water shortages. Areas with physical water scarcity include North Africa (Sahara Desert), the Middles East (Arabian Desert), Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India and Northern China (Gobi Desert).
The areas with economic scarcity include Central and Southern America, Central Africa, SE Asia and Australia. It is interesting to note that according to the first map, most of these areas have an abundant supply of water, but for some reason are not able to access it properly.
Map Details of Global Water Stress - BBC article
Water Poverty Index (WPI)
The WPI was developed by the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. It looks at the five variables below to assess a country's water poverty.
Resources: This looks at the amount of groundwater and surface water available per person in a country or region.
Access: This looks at the time and distance involved in citizens collecting the water e.g. does everyone having running water in their house or do they have to walk to a well.
Capacity: This looks at how the community manages and uses its water.
Use: This looks at how the water is used, is it used in industry, agriculture or for domestic use.
Environment: This looks at the sustainability of use e.g. are rivers and aquifers being used sustainably or is too much water being taken.
As can be seen from the map to the right Europe, the Americas and Australia score very well on the WPI, but many African , Middle Eastern and South Asian countries score very badly.
Water Policy Fails World Poor - BBC article
Causes of Water Shortages
Water shortages can be divided into a number of categories. As mentioned above, physical water shortages is when there is not enough surface or ground water to meet the demand for it. Economic water shortages is when water exists, but for some reason it can not be fully utilised, maybe because extraction and piping is too expensive or treatment of polluted water is too expensive and the technology does not exist.
Population Growth: As with many of the world's resources, they are coming under increasing pressure as the world's population grows. The world's population now stands at about 7 billion, all of whom are placing increasing on water resources as they develop and get richer.
Pollution: As the world's population grows so does the demand for agricultural and industrial products. Our thirst for agricultural products is increasing the use of fertilisers and pesticides which often run off into rivers and lakes or leach down to groundwater stores. Like wise our increasing demand for industrial and at times relaxed environmental regulations mean more chemicals and metals are being released into our water sources. Sewage treatment also often lags behind population growth so increasingly our rivers and lakes are being polluted by sewage.
The death of China's rivers - Asia Times
Domestic Demand: The demand from households is not only increasing because there are more households in the world, but also because the amount of water they want is increasing with development. For example as peoples income increases and they move into permanent residences, they demand flush toilets, bath/showers, washing machines, dishwashers and green gardens, all of which use large amounts of water.
Agricultural Demand: As can be seen in the graph below, agricultural places by far the biggest demand on water. With a growing population, global warming and the movement in to less favourable agricultural regions, the demand from agriculture is only likely to increase in the future.
Industrial Demand: As the world's population grows and becomes richer our demand for industrial products grows. Many industrial products, particular things like processing metal use huge quantities of water and place increasing demand on resources. Also mining for the raw materials used in manufacturing use large quantities of water.
China Faces Tough Choices on Water (Agriculture or Industry) - Guardian article
Sewage: With rapid urbanisation taking place in many cities around the world, infrastructure often does not keep up with new arrivals. The growth of informal settlements without proper sewage treatment can mean that human waste is often pumped directly into water sources. However, this is not only a problem in LEDCs, in London the sewer system can not cope and an estimated 39 million tonnes of sewage are dumped in the River Thames annually.
David Walliams given River Thames sewage warning - BBC article
Climate Change: Climate change is impacting the availability of water in many ways. Global warming maybe releasing freshwater from glaciers and ice shelves,but unfortunately much of it is running directly into the oceans. The subsequent rising sea levels are threatening many coastal freshwater wetlands as well as increasing the risk of saltwater intrusion into aquifers. Warmer temperatures are increasing the amount of evaporation from rivers and surfaces stores.
Political: In many countries or regions, water sources are shared e.g. the River Nile flows through eleven countries. At times some countries control large percentages of the shared resource, leading to shortages for other countries. Follow the link and read how Egypt and the Sudan control the majority of the Nile's water. (Conflicts at the international scale)
Mismanagement: If water is not used sustainably or inappropriately then water shortages can occur. One of the most famous examples is the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea is located on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Water was taken from the two rivers that fed the Aral Sea to irrigate the desert and grow cotton. Unfortunately so much water was needed to grow cotton in the desert, that no water reached the Aral Sea and it began to dry up, causing huge water shortages. For more details about the case study, following the link (Irrigation and agriculture).
Groundwater Depletion: If water is used unsustainably i.e. more is taken out than is being recharged then aquifers can suffer from salinisation and saltwater intrusion. If you increase the concentration of water it can become too salty for human use. Also if you drain aquifers near coastal areas, then they can become full of saltwater, again making them useless (see: Groundwater management)
Energy Production: Although HEP is the most obvious form of energy that uses water, this water is released into rivers once it has passed through the dam. Other types of energy that uses large amount of water for cooling e.g. coal and nuclear power, may pollute water or see it evaporated removing it from local use.
Problems Caused by Water Shortages and Water Pollution
Drought: If there are economic or physical water scarcity and water stress exists then drought can occur. Drought is below average supply of water over a prolonged period. Because drought is below average supply of water, even relatively wet country's like the UK can suffer from drought.
Crop Failure: If there is a shortage of water and farmers can not irrigate their crops then they begin to die.
Livestock Deaths: If livestock don't have enough water to drink they will begin to die.
Famine: If cops are failing and livestock are dieing then people will become undernourished and suffer from famine.
Groundwater Depletion (subsidence and saltwater intrusion): If aquifers begin to dry up or are used unsustainably, then the ground above can subside (collapse) or the aquifer can suffer from salinisation or saltwater intrusion. Subsidence is a problem common in parts of Mexico City.
Conflict: If there is a limited supply of water and water resources are shared conflict can arise. Many of the ongoing border disputes between Israel and Palestine are blamed on water shortages (see: Conflicts at the local or national scale)
Refugees: If there is drought and famine then people are forced to relocate or face death. Unfortunately many of the countries that suffer from drought and famine have poor neighbours so refugees will be arriving in countries that are least able to cope.
Disease: Dirty water can attract mosquitoes which can increase diseases like dengue and malaria. Dirty water can also cause the spread of diseases like hepatitis A and typhoid as well things like diarrhea.
Eutrophication: Run-off from farms containing fertiliser can lead to eutrophication. Eutrophication is the excess growth of algae causing water to not oxygenate properly or receive enough light. This can cause plants and animals to suffocate and die.
Biodiversity Loss: Dirty water and eutrophication can cause loss of biodiversity in wetland environments, but also just like humans can die of thirst and starvation, so can plants and animlas. Big animals like elephants which require large amounts of water often die in African droughts.
Lake Biwa, Japan
Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan, covering an area of 670km2. It is located on the island of Honshu, north east of the cities of Kyoto and Osaka.
After the end of World War II Japan demilitarised and concentrated on rebuilding its economy and population. Between 1945 and 2010 Japan's population grew from 72 million to 128 million. Japan's economy was regarded as an economic miracle, growing at 10% a year in the 1960's and 5% a year in the 1970's. Japanese companies like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Sony and Toshiba started to grow rapidly. The area around Lake Biwa became one of the most densely populated and most industrialised in the country. Osaka on its own contains about 2.7 million people. As well as population and industrial growth, agriculture was also having to grow rapidly to meet growing demand for food.
The rapid growth meant that a lot of land reclamation took place around Lake Biwa in order to accommodate new factories, growing cities and to create new farmland. During this period of economic growth, the economy was more important than environment so household, industrial and agricultural waste was allowed to run-off into the lake. These pollutants caused a series of problems including:
Eutrophication is an ecosystems response to large quantities of phosphates and nitrates being added. In Lake Biwa it caused rapid growth of algae, which prevented sunlight from reaching the lake and prevented proper oxygenation. This caused widespread death of aquatic plants and animals.
There have been a number of responses to the pollution including:
In reality for much of the time that Lake Biwa was being polluted, economic growth was much more important and it was not until the economy started to grow, people had secure jobs, growing incomes and increased leisure time, did people start thinking about the environment.
Solutions to Ending Water Stress
There are many solutions to improving the both the quality of the water (reducing pollution) and the amount of water available to people, agriculture and industry. Below are some solutions starting with four short videos on how Japan has tried to reduce pollution and eutrophication in some of its water sources.
Sewage Treatment
This is the removal of contaminants from waste water and household sewage. It requires physical, chemical and biological processes to remove all the contaminants and make safe. The primary treatment of sewage just allows the waste water or sewage to sit in a large basin, where solids settle on the bottom and oil, grease and light solids float to the surface. The settled and floating material can then be removed. Secondary treatment involves removing suspended and dissolved biological matter using micro-organisms. The final tertiary treatment involves cleaning with chemicals. Even though it is possible to treat water so it is immediately drinkable, only Singapore do this on a large scale.
Thames super sewer plans unveiled - BBC article
Virtual Water
Many products (agricultural and industrial) use large amounts of water to produce. For example it is estimated that 4500 litres are needed to produce just one beef steak. It has therefore been suggested that arid countries should specialise in producing products that need less water, while countries with an access of water should produce products that need a lot of water to produce. The products cold then be traded between each other, so instead of water been traded, products with large amounts of water used in their production are being traded - this is virtual water.
Desalination
With the growing shortage of freshwater, attempts have been made to desalinate seawater more efficiently. Traditionally the process has involved the evaporation of water to remove salt (thermal desalination), but increasingly reverse osmosis is being used to forces water through semi-permeable membrane to remove salts. Although the second process uses less energy, both are energy intensive and require high levels of technology so have been criticised and have not been widely adopted yet.
Desalination is not the solution - BBC article
Conservation Methods and Water Charities
Residents and water users can be educated about basic conservation methods which can reduce water wastage. Basic conservation methods may include:
Charities are also helping many LEDCs with the provision of water. One of the most famous charities helping to reduce water shortages is Wateraid. Charities can do an number of things to improve the provision of water including:
Super Sand to help clean up dirty water - BBC article
Other Possible Solutions
Irrigation Projects: Countries that have regional shortages of water or variable rainfall can use irrigation systems to redistribute water and water the land. The largest and most famous irrigation project been undertaken is Libya's man-made river scheme which aims to turn parts of the desert green. The water is being accessed from under the ground and redistributed around the country. (see: Irrigation and agriculture)
Reduced Leakage: Leakage is a huge problem, especially in countries with old pipe networks. One water company in the UK is estimated to lose 295 million litres a day (the equivalent of 120 Olympic size swimming pools). In the UK there are targets for water companies to reduce leakages, unfortunately many companies are currently missing these targets.
Six Water Companies Fail to hit Leakage Targets - BBC article
Dam Construction: Dams are controversial because they can bring many disadvantages as well as advantages (see Dams and Reservoirs) but if they are built sustainably they can create artificial stores that can collect water in rainy seasons and distribute during drier periods.
Water Metering: Charging people per unit of water used, rather than charging a flat fee can drastically reduce wastage and make people consider how and when they use water.
Construction of Wells: Many countries cannot afford to have piped water to every residence so wells become important in accessing groundwater supplies. As long as wells are used sustainably they can be a vital source of water in many LEDCs and arid countries.
International Cooperation: When water is shared, it is necessary to have sustainable policies to reduce the tragedy of the commons, when all countries or regions take water for their needs and forget about the overall impacts. The countries along the Nile are trying to create such agreements, but Egypt is hostile to any plans to redistribute (see: Conflicts at the international scale)
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