Peak water
Peak water is a concept that underlines the growing constraints on the availability, quality, and use of freshwater resources.
M. King Hubbert created this measurement device in 1956 for a variety of finite resources such as coal, oil, natural gas and uranium.
Less than 1% of this water on Earth is accessible to humans, the rest is contained in soil moisture or deep underground.
[14] The amount of available freshwater supply in some regions is decreasing because of (i) climate change, which has caused receding glaciers, reduced stream and river flow, and shrinking lakes; (ii) contamination of water by human and industrial wastes; and (iii) overuse of non-renewable groundwater aquifers.
Although the total freshwater supply is not used up, much has become polluted, salted, unsuitable or otherwise unavailable for drinking, industry, and agriculture.
The largest total use of water comes from India, China and the United States, countries with large populations, extensive agricultural irrigation, and demand for food.
Rice farmers in India typically get less than half the yield per unit area while using ten times more water than their Chinese counterparts.
Economic development can make things worse because as people's living standards rise, they tend to eat more meat, which requires much water to produce.
Rivers and lakes are dead and dying, groundwater aquifers are over-pumped, uncounted species of aquatic life have been driven to extinction, and direct adverse impacts on both human and ecosystem health are widespread and growing.
In western China's Qinghai, through which the Yellow River’s main stream flows, more than 2,000 lakes have disappeared over the last 20 years.
[20] Global climate change is responsible for the reduction in flow of the (Huang He) Yellow River over the past several decades.
[24] The Ogallala Aquifer in the southern high plains (Texas and New Mexico) is being mined at a rate that far exceeds replenishment—a classic example of peak non-renewable water.
The inability to sustain groundwater withdrawals over time may lead to adverse impacts on the region's agricultural productivity.
The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a 336-mile (541 km) long canal that diverts 489 billion US gallons (1.85×109 m3) a year from the Colorado River to irrigate more than 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) of farmland.
[27] The Ipswich River near Boston now runs dry in some years due to heavy pumping of groundwater for irrigation.
In drought years like 1999 or 2003, and on hot summer days the region consumes up to 85 percent of the river's flow.
[17][31] The two rivers feeding the Aral Sea were dammed up and the water was diverted to irrigate the desert so that cotton could be produced.
Saudi Arabian food production has been based on "fossil water"—water from ancient aquifers that is being recharged very slowly, if at all.
[43][44] Pakistan has approximately 35 million acres (140,000 km2) of arable land irrigated by canals and tube wells, mostly using water from the Indus River.
"Infectious waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid, and cholera are responsible for 80 percent of illnesses and deaths in the developing world, many of them children.
Inorganic contaminants include toxic metals like arsenic, barium, chromium, lead, mercury, and silver.
[48] In West Africa and other places like Nepal, Bangladesh, India (such as the Ganges Delta), and Peru, major changes in the rivers generate a significant risk of violent conflict in coming years.
[57] The Christian Science Monitor has also reported on arguments that higher water prices curb waste and consumption.
[58] In his book The Ultimate Resource 2, Julian Simon claimed that there is a strong correlation between government corruption and lack of sufficient supplies of safe, clean water.
[citation needed] Extensive research has shown the direct links between water resources, the hydrologic cycle, and climatic change.
As climate changes, there will be substantial impacts on water demands, precipitation patterns, storm frequency and intensity, snowfall and snowmelt dynamics, and more.
Evidence from the IPCC to Working Group II, has shown climate change is already having a direct effect on animals, plants and water resources and systems.
Loss of biodiversity can be attributed largely to the appropriation of land for agroforestry and the effects of climate change.
[66] In 2008 after being desalinized at Jubail, Saudi Arabia, water was pumped 200 miles (320 km) inland though a pipeline to the capital city of Riyadh.
Using this method, small communities on the edge of deserts can get water for drinking, gardening, showering and clothes washing.
