Citing a number of contemporary issues, evaluate pressures on water and discuss the means by which the resource might be better managed in the future.
Citing a number of contemporary issues, evaluate pressures on WATER and discuss the means by which the resource might be better managed in the future. Water, after air perhaps, is the most precious resource available for use. Humans cannot survive much more than 5 days without drinking water, we need it to grow crops and feed animals, for cleaning and cooking, and for processing all man made goods and the provision of services. Although water is abundant on earth 96.5% of the water is saline (Pennington & Cech, 2010) which is undrinkable and unsuitable for agriculture and industry. A further 1.7% is stored as frozen water. So when discussing water as a resource, in this case, it is the 1.7% that exists as groundwater, in rivers, lakes, wetlands and soils that is being referred to, although not all of this is accessible. Currently the population of the world is over 6.8 billion (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010) and population growth worldwide is about 1.17% per year (Google, 2008). Life expectancy is increasing and coupled with these population factors are advancements in human society which are increasing our demands on water resources. In 2005 it was estimated that 48.6% of the world's population lived in urban areas (Encyclopedia of Earth, 2009) with this number constantly on the rise. Urban water provision usually depends on inefficient infrastructure which is susceptible to