Water a Precious Resource

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Water - a Precious Resource Water Transfer Schemes Why is there an increasing demand for water? As one of life's essentials water increases in demand as the population, that are reliant on the single source of fluids, increases. The table below shows how the population has increased and how it is predicted to increase in the future. This shows that the population has more than doubled in the past sixty years and the amount of water they need, will have increased as well. Source 1 In some areas there are places of high density populations and these cities need a greater supply of water to sustain the demands of the people living there. Water transfer schemes help in these situations as they allow water to be moved from areas with surplus supply to areas under greater amounts of water stress. The map below shows areas around the world that have a water shortage and without proper management those areas would suffer greatly for the lack of water. For example this map shows that places such as North Africa are short of water and this means that many have little if any clean water to drink. This reduces the population and has serious effects on the country as a whole so a water transfer scheme may be beneficial. Source 2 The life styles that people are now living also affect the level of water scarcity as more people, especially in MEDCs, have more diverse diets, and as a result far more water must be used in the production of their food. This is shown in up to 100,000 liters of water being needed to produce just 1kg of beef (3). This increases the demand for water while the supply is shrinking. The population of MEDCs has become used to a life style where water is freely available at the turn of a tap. The showering, diet and over all life style of MEDCs puts a huge strain on water supplies. The
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