water cycle exists in nature, which replenishes water on earth". why do we still suffer from scarcity of water

Answer 1

majority of the water is salt water.only 2% of fresh water is available in earth in which 1% is locked in glaciers.if we use all the available ground water,it will take millions of years to replace it.this denotes water scarcity

Answer 2

A simple answer would be because many areas have lower average precipitation rates that are exacerbated by the recent rise in local temperatures.

Places like California, which are HUGE guzzlers of water for their agriculture, showers, drinking water, etc, take water from surrounding areas because they are pretty much still in the desert on the eastern side. The link I gave has a picture of California.

http://education.usgs.gov/california/maps/california_precipitation&relief1.htm

A more complicated answer involves the changing of the water cycle (other than through precipitation lessening) by both humans and the shifting of plants an animals due to climate change. All of these things affect how the water cycle will work and it's a very complicated issue to discuss on yahoo answers. If you are interested in better answers, start looking at websites like this:

http://www.ucsusa.org/gulf/gcimpactwater.html

Answer 3

Actually, it has more to do with climate conditions and location and air masses. In places like deserts clouds literally dries up before they can be heavy enough to drop andy precipitation. Humid areas help clouds collect water droplets and gain the weight needed to fall. This is also way deserts usually expand eastward with the airflow currents in the northern hemisphere (although they can expand in other directions for other reasons too).

Global warming is going to expand this problem. As the Earth warms it evaporates more water into the sky. Drier areas are hotter and therefore lose what moisture they have and sometimes dry up the clouds too. Whereas, this added moisture in the air will cause more flooding because more will also fall.

Also, we can only postulate as to what the melting of the north pole will do to thermaline belts of the oceans and our jet streams. This is theorized to cause very definite changes in local climates. Areas such as Minnesota are expected to become more like Wyoming and the Dakotas; whereas, Wyoming may become more like New Mexico or even Arizona. Meanwhile, parts of the southeast may become more like parts of Mexico and Brazil.

This is accounting for any part of the Greenland or Antarctic Ice Sheets melting. They are land based ice that would cause a change in sea level and add more water to the air.

Answer 4

Want a simple, honest answer?

Okay, here goes...

Less than 1% of all water on Earth is freshwater. Kind of an important point there. Next, increased pollution reduces the total volume of available freshwater. Finally, and this is hugely important, unrestricted population growth puts ever greater demand on the water supply.

So, add it up. Little freshwater to begin with, continually reduced available freshwater, and finally, ever increasing use of the little water we have. The net result is less and less freshwater, EVEN with natural recycling.

Just FYI, we now the use the expression "mining of water" to describe our water use patterns. This is because we're removing water SO much faster than it can be replaced by nature, so it's like mining coal, or metal ores now.

Kinda depressing really.

Answer 5

Because people don't always like to live where the fresh water is. You don't see that many people living on glaciers and ice bergs. Mountain tops are pleasant, but transportation and commerce are difficult. And places with water and all the other goodies have population explosions until there isn't enough of anything.

Answer 6

We do not suffer from lack of water, we suffer from a lack of clean water. This is a big difference. Natural processes will "clean" water, unfortunately our rate of use of clean water is much greater than the rate the earth can clean the water.

Answer 7

Because we are starting to use "fresh" water faster than the "water cycle" can replenish it.
And sufficient drinking, or "potable" fresh water has always been a problem.

Answer 8

because of the global warming more water evaporates and it stays as a gas in the air instead of pouring down as rain