What are some reasons for water shortages?

Question

What can be done to conserve water?

Answer 1

That is 2 questions.

Reasons are wasteful use combined with population growth.

What can be done is to conserve and limit population.

Answer 2

Looks like the common theme is to kill off half the population and then ration water to the remainder.

Maybe if there was a major public works project that tapped the melting glaciers and piped that water to the arid regions of North America the additional plant growth would sequester a percentage of the excess CO2, feed the masses and provide the potable water that is needed for sustainable population growth.

Answer 3

70% of water use in California is by farming. Most farming is already done with the utmost of water conservation, but not all. Trees in orchards are watered individually in many. One huge waste in California and elsewhere are the number of swimming pools which are only a 'feature' to look at and are never used.

Answer 4

Water shortages are caused by people using too much water.

You can save water by filling a bucket/bottle while you wait for water to run hot.
You can have a water butt which stores rainwater for later use; e.g. for watering plants.
You can take showers instead of baths as they use less water.
You can put those fake bricks into your toilet tank so you use less water on each flush.

Answer 5

Limit population? We should just go on random shooting sprees to reduce population? Nice answer. I don't know how there is a shortage, most of the world is water.

Answer 6

We dont actually have water shortage, i mean we have rivers, lakes, streams and rain water. the problem we are facing is that our water is polluted causing the shortage. Who are we going to blame? of course we have to blame ourselves. Did we ever put a stop in controlling water pollution?

In case you have no idea, but there are many causes of water pollution, including sewage, manure and chemical fertillizers. oil spills that is so hard to clean up. mining process exposes heavy metals and sulfur compounds resulting in acid mine drainage. huge pools of mining waste are often stored behind contaminant dams, if a dam leaks or burst, water pollution is guaranteed.

When forests are "clear cut," the root systems that previously held soil in place die and sediment is free to run off into nearby streams, rivers, and lakes causing water pollution.

Almost all bodies of water in the world have some level of pollution from chemicals and industrial waste. Whenever we use personal-care products and household cleaning products—whether they be laundry detergent, bleach, or fabric softener; window cleaner, dusting spray, or stain remover; hair dye, shampoo, conditioner, or Rogaine; cologne or perfume; toothpaste or mouthwash; antibacterial soap or hand lotion—we should realize that almost all of it goes down the drain when we do laundry, wash our hands, brush our teeth, bathe, or do any of the other myriad things that incidentally use household water. Similarly, when we take medications, we eventually excrete the drugs in altered or unaltered form, sending the compounds into the waterways.

Wastewater is discharged directly into rivers and streams without treatment. Even in modern countries, untreated sewage, poorly treated sewage, or overflow from under-capacity sewage treatment facilities can send disease-bearing water into rivers and oceans..

POLLUTION CAUSES WATER SHORTAGES, IF WE CAN STOP WATER POLLUTION THEN WE CAN DEFINITELY STOP WATER SHORTAGES!!!

Answer 7

PERMACULTURE ANSWER ON WATER HARVESTING AND CONSERVATION
WHY SHOULD WE HARVEST WATER
because there is so little that we can use

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25% of the planets surface is land
75%of the surface is water and it is rising

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97%of the Earths water is salt

fresh water is only 3% of all the Earths water
most of it is beyond out reach

now much ice is melting and running into the seas fresh water lost for ever.

STORAGE or Location of % of the fresh water
ice and glaziers 74%
groundwater 800 meters + 13.5 %
groundwater less than 800meters 11.o%
Lakes 0.3%
soils 0.006%
Atmospheric in circulation 0.0035%
rivers 0.03%


frozen land or permafrost is not included and represent an unavailable storage of 40%

so of the 3% about 11.6 ,is easily available to us ,in rivers, lakes and ground water surface aquifers,more and more of this is becoming contaminated

overpopulation of an extra 70 million people a year (increasing all the time )and expanding agriculture ,which uses 70% of available potable water supplies ,has brought the good(sweet) water supplies to critical levels ,some countries have been in trouble already quite a while .

Now climate change and desertification, because of irresponsible agriculture ,overgrazing and deforestation is damaging world fresh water production .

It is a good reason for concern and if we do not rectify matters by changing agricultural methods ,reforest ,
AND
Stop deforestation(producers of potable water),
Become more economic with water use ,
Stop producing more people ,
Stop wasting and contaminating water,
Stop over pumping aquifers especially the carbon ones

we will be in serious trouble all round
and could end up looking like Mars

And these are some of the things we can do
tp conserve water use

EFFICIENT WATER USE

IN THE HOUSE
one can connect the sink straight to the toilet cistern and so use the water twice ,first to have a shave and then to flush the toilet
also if you bend the ball valve you can regulate the level of the cistern

Always have your Grey water and Black water separate,so that the sink and shower water goes directly into the garden saving on irrigation and at the same time ,making the sewage smaller and easier to deal with ,

This also goes and irrigates the garden but via a cistern of two compartments and a French drain ,on which you plant trees,

ON THE LAND
Economic systems of irrigation, like drip irrigation
and water harvesting design, using a lot of stone walls ,that condense water in the night
and planting leafy plants ,for the same purpose,

Building wind breaks ,to counter act the drying effects of the wind and farm towards Aggro forestal ,using as many trees as possible to limit evaporation .
Using shade nets before we have tree cover

and use MULCH

By cutting down the weeds before they produce seeds and leave them where they fall.
They will cover the ground add even more organic matter on top,(you can use saw dust,leaves green or dry),

And when you plant make a little space and plant in the mulch.this is the easiest quickest and by far most beneficial way(for the quality of you soil)to prepare the land for planting.

To prevent weeds from coming all you have to do it turn out the lights,you can even use cardboard or black plastic(this is good for strawberries because they will rot if they touch humid ground,and the bugs can get to them).

Mulch is organic material green or dry that covers the ground,the thicker the better the composting process will turn it in to black topsoil

The humidity is preserved underneath and promotes the development of worms(there exists no better compost than their excrements)and a variety of micro biotic life which together within the mulch produce more topsoil.

The mulch also keeps the ground temperature even and guards against the impact of the rain ,which would other wise brings salt to the surface if on unprotected land.

Mulch also prevents the soil from drying out because of the sun and,wind erosion.

WATER HARVESTING

As far as catching rain is concerned ,we do this all the time ,and have done so already since Babylonian times,and is a part of the more advanced Agriculture,that existed with the Egyptians,,Moors, Arabs and probably many more

Central ,and South American indigenous people had this idea coupled to their pyramids ,catching the water of the slopes and leading it into tanks or onto the fields .

And many others ,today we call this WATER HARVESTING.

Only Modern Man is totally extravagant with the rain water given ,and complains of the wetness ,letting it run off into the rivers lost forever ,With out even attempting to hold on to it .

And then later complains of not having water ,when times are dryer


In Permaculture the rule is to harvest water to the point of Zero runoff.
This means that all of the rain that falls on an area is absorbed by the terrain and not a drop leaves it.

By building dams,ponds or Swales, with inter connecting ditches,

If there are enough of these ;the places ,where before ,the rain water ran over the ground into the rivers and on to the sea ,in a matter of hours or days.

It now runs into absorbent dams or Swales and saturates the ground and eventually reaches subterranean water deposits ,taking many months to do so.

Or it fills up ponds that can be used for Aquaculture.

And so a convex situation that repels water is transformed in a concave ,absorbent one and turning the area in to a sponge.

In Spain and Portugal ,which still display many examples of the conquering Moorish influence one can find many remnants of Water harvesting,such as Aqueducts and tanks underneath the patios ,which collect the rain water from the roofs ,to be used in dryer times.

In Arabia ,on a large scale ,land has been shaped to catch and lead,rain water into sandy areas or to agricultural lands.sand is almost as good as dams because it absorbs water and holds it.

Here in Mexico we collect the rainwater in our school for sustainable agriculture,but it is too near Acapulco to trust the rain water for drinking ,and this holds true for most places ,so we use it for irrigation.
the rain water from a gutter runs via a filter into a tank.
In Europe in my parents house ,when i was young ,we had a rain barrel,where the water from the gutter ended up .
this was usual in those days ,but i have seen few in modern times.

We can use this action also in other ways ,
for example the roof water via a ditch can run trough the chicken house ,cleaning it and end up fertilizing the vegetable plot(this is called the creation of energy flow.

this water used to be Ok in times gone by before Air pollution ,
Today i would recommend it only for washing and irrigation

links on Permaculture
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Alqk3gR4q41Icf7XK3_Y7Afsy6IX?qid=20070815183923AA8E0NK

for more information on Water Harvesting
read The Permaculture designers manual by Bill Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get,on Environmental design,.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail])