Hydrological Cycle - Physical & Human Causes of Water Insecurity

  • Water insecurity occurs due to a lack of access to safe, clean and efficient supplies of water
  • Increasing mis-match between supply and demand
  • Demand is greater than supply = deficit.
    • Currently Cape Town in South Africa is going through this
  • Main factors which lead to water insecurity: Climate, population and development.
  • Factors which increase water insecurity: more water needed, over-consumption, less stores, more droughts, development and pollution.
    • Development: Having more reservoirs and dams
    • Over-Consumption: Fountains in California – what is the need for this?
    • Pollution: The Yellow River in China, erosion at the Three Gorges Dam. This is the biggest problem.
  • You need to be sustainable in order to have no water insecurity like Sweden.
Analysing The Graph: Water Insecurity:
  • Places like Australia and Indonesia have no insecurity because they have lots of rainfall
  • Canada: Lots of freshwater and glaciers. A lower population density
  • North Africa: Less rainfall
  • UK: Population increase on a small island. Demand is increasing. Lots of irrigation from farmers.
  • India: Seasonal rainfall but not continuous rainfall. High population leads to more demand
  • Australia: Small population with deserts but they have lots of groundwater and it is not enough for the small population in a hot climate.
Evaluation: What Causes Water Insecurity:
Physical Factors:
Human Factors:
Drought periods
Increasing use of water
Seasonal rainfall
Over-abstraction
Depliction of groundwater
Pollution from industry
Chemicals
Development level
Low precipitation – biggest factor
Rapid population growth – biggest factor e.g Brazil which has not been governed well.

Global Water Use By Sector:
  • Agricultural: Irrigation, farm-land is decreasing and farmers have better irrigation techniques
  • Industrial: China + India with the use of factories
  • Domestic: Increasing use of appliances e.g washing machines, more toilets