Question

What are the main causes of water scarcity?

Answer 1

Hint: Water covers 70 percent of our planet out of which only 3 percent is freshwater, of which two-thirds is stuck in the glaciers or is unavailable for our daily use.

Complete Step by Step:
Water scarcity is the shortage of freshwater resources in an area or an imbalance between demand and supply of the human and environment, either due to low rainfall or improper sanitation. Improper sanitation results in water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea from which millions of people, especially children, die each year.

The main causes of water scarcity are as follows:
1. Global warming results in climate change, thus making the earth’s surface warm and making dry areas drier. At the same time, the process of precipitation is becoming more variable and extreme as the clouds are moving away from the equator towards the pole, depriving the equatorial regions of access to rainwater.
2. Natural calamities such as floods or drought reduces the availability of freshwater resources due to contamination.
3. With the increase in population and economic growth, there is a global rise in freshwater demand. In other words, more people lead to more money, thus resulting in more supply of water.
4. The amount of freshwater that lies underground in aquifers is getting depleted with the daily consumption of water for agricultural and industrial purposes.
5. Improper infrastructure facilities such as leaky pipes, improper sewer systems, also result in water scarcity.
6. Overuse and wastage of water in household work also result in water scarcity.

Note: There are two types of water scarcity - physical and economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity refers to excess in demands and outsourcing of limited water resources available in an area. On the contrary, economic water scarcity refers to poor management of water resources or improper water infrastructures.