0.18 Natural capital: water  (Page 3/11)

A World Bank report on climate change in 2011 maintains that 68% of the freshwater resources of the world comes from glaciers. While the author is somewhat skeptical at this statement, he has personally observed Glaciers melting rapidly over the last two decades in Alaska, Chile, Peru and the Himalayas. This has further endangered water supply especially in Peru, India and Pakistan for certain.

The global picture

Consider again Figure 18-1, which shows water stress around the world. Note that stress is high in parts of the U.S. (plains, Florida, Texas) in Europe especially in southern half of Australia, not to mention the Sahara. Also, stress is very high in India, Pakistan, Mexico and China. The costs of reducing global water stress will be very high between $7 trillion and $10 trillion. The costs will include expenses of building dams, canals, aqueducts and pipelines, and above all increased conservation of scarce water, primarily through higher prices charged for water, especially in agriculture.

It is very important that we understand that global water issues are not separable from energy issues (Chapter 17), or from global warming problems (Chapter 18), or fisheries issues (Chapter 20).

Growing concerns about fresh water are beginning to shape serious discussion of energy use. There are only small water requirements with solar or wind energy, but there are very large water requirements in coal and in shale, oil and gas extraction and especially nuclear power generation, where steam is made to turn turbines. Nuclear power plants require much more water to produce a kilowatt hour of power, relative to other forms of steam generation such as coal. In Chapter 17, we cited the immense amounts of water required to frack each well, and noted that the single factor most likely to limit fracturing worldwide is probably lack of water, especially in nations with the largest shale deposits, including China and Mexico. In the U.S., the electric power industry now accounts for about half of all water withdrawals.

Water: sustainable and unsustainable use

Earlier, it was stated that according to the U.N. the minimum amount of water a person requires for drinking, hygiene and growing food is 1,000 M3 per year. This is about 2/5 the size of an Olympic size swimming pool.

We have seen that dozens of nations already face serious water shortages; several others are steadily moving from chronic to acute water problem.

The Himalayas and Northern India is where three of the world’s greatest rivers rise, all within a 100 km area: the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra rivers. Absent major changes in patterns of water use, the day may soon arrive when the Ganges, worshipped by 800 million people, becomes an annual, not a perennial river.

However, all of India, not just the North is short of water (220 million Indians lack safe drinking water). An examination of India’s water use in the last 50 years is instructive. In 1960, the water table in many parts of India was only 7 to 8 feet deep. Then, a farmer could sink a very shallow well to obtain water. By 2013, in the same places a farmer must go down 100 to 200 feet or more to find water.