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Other parts of the world lack water, but not due to the lack of freshwater sources. I live, and have lived in numerous places that have a lack of water. Water

Other parts of the world lack water, but not due to the lack of freshwater sources. I live, and have lived in numerous places that have a lack of water. Water restrictions are commonplace in Australia - most major cities are facing the real prospect of running out of water. In many cities you can't water your lawn, wash your car, fill your pool, etc, etc. Some smaller town and regions are already in total crisis. When I mention the Murray-Darling Basin in my other comment - that's a big issue. The federal government basically had to step in and take over the control of water from the states. This might not sound like a lot, but it was a big deal, one of the biggest uses of federal muscle in Australia's history. Even in the UK and New Zealand -- which you'd imagine as having a lot of water -- have issues with water infrastructure and population. I've heard the Bay Area is also facing the prospect of water restrictions... If you do a search on "water restrictions" it doesn't look like this issue is unique: http://www.google.com/search?q=water+restrictions&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a http://www.google.com/search?q=water+restrictions&ie=utf... Technologies such as desalination don't necessarily solve the issue. It's simply not economic or feasible in most parts of the world. Australia is already heavily invested in water saving technologies - low flow showerheads, low volume toilets, grey-water, rainwater tanks. There are large areas of Australia that have had their ground water massively overused - causing massive issues with salination (in some places you literally have salt forming on the ground). The fresh water sources in these regions is totally collapsing. Sorry to go on about it. But where I live, water is a real issue. I can completely imagine it becoming an issue great enough for a country to war over.

Zev 18y ago
Perhaps we're having a slight misunderstanding as to what we mean when saying "lack of water." By that, I don't mean having to limit showers to 5 minutes or not being able to wash your car every week. I mean not having the bare minimum amount of water to drink and keep from dying of dehydration. There's very few countries that have water problems that are that serious.
- jwilliams 18y ago
  No, that's exactly what I'm talking about.
  - Zev 18y ago
    People in Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand can't get 25oz (minimum needed to survive) of water a day? Even with water restrictions, I find that hard to believe.
    - jwilliams 18y ago
      That's (apparently?) the minimum amount of clean water for a person to survive a single day. Water contributes to long term survival in so many other ways. You need water to cook, grow food, maintain basic hygiene by washing you hands. You need water to clean a wound. You need water for sanitation. You need water for industry, so you can actually work. Even in the most basic circumstances, this is a lot more than 25oz (many, many times more). In urban circumstances it's vastly greater. And this isn't even accounting for losses, contamination, interruptions in supply. Anyway, I can see we're not going to convince each other either way. I'd encourage you to do a search around on the topic though -- there is a lot of material on the issue.
streety 18y ago
Any issues in the UK definitely fall under the umbrella of "but not due to the lack of freshwater sources." Building on that do you have any sources for problems in the UK. I can recall a couple of occasions, perhaps in the last decade or so, when hosepipe bans were either considered or implemented but I don't recall it having any effect on our quality of life.
gaius 18y ago
Water restrictions are commonplace in Australia A big part of Australia's long-term viability problem is too much water. Your farmers over-water their fields, washing out the nitrates into the sea, leaving the fields useless for growing crops and killing coral. Farming in Australia is more like mining, strip the resource then move on. Australia's problem is that it's bad at managing water, not that it has too little (as you later say). In the UK our problem is that our water infrastructure was built by the Victorians, who were excellent engineers, but what they built has been badly maintained (to the extent that it was maintained at all) and we lose >25% of our water through leaks.

Zev 18y ago

Perhaps we're having a slight misunderstanding as to what we mean when saying "lack of water." By that, I don't mean having to limit showers to 5 minutes or not being able to wash your car every week. I mean not having the bare minimum amount of water to drink and keep from dying of dehydration. There's very few countries that have water problems that are that serious.

jwilliams 18y ago
No, that's exactly what I'm talking about.
- Zev 18y ago
  People in Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand can't get 25oz (minimum needed to survive) of water a day? Even with water restrictions, I find that hard to believe.
  - jwilliams 18y ago
    That's (apparently?) the minimum amount of clean water for a person to survive a single day. Water contributes to long term survival in so many other ways. You need water to cook, grow food, maintain basic hygiene by washing you hands. You need water to clean a wound. You need water for sanitation. You need water for industry, so you can actually work. Even in the most basic circumstances, this is a lot more than 25oz (many, many times more). In urban circumstances it's vastly greater. And this isn't even accounting for losses, contamination, interruptions in supply. Anyway, I can see we're not going to convince each other either way. I'd encourage you to do a search around on the topic though -- there is a lot of material on the issue.

streety 18y ago

Any issues in the UK definitely fall under the umbrella of "but not due to the lack of freshwater sources." Building on that do you have any sources for problems in the UK. I can recall a couple of occasions, perhaps in the last decade or so, when hosepipe bans were either considered or implemented but I don't recall it having any effect on our quality of life.

gaius 18y ago

Water restrictions are commonplace in Australia A big part of Australia's long-term viability problem is too much water. Your farmers over-water their fields, washing out the nitrates into the sea, leaving the fields useless for growing crops and killing coral. Farming in Australia is more like mining, strip the resource then move on. Australia's problem is that it's bad at managing water, not that it has too little (as you later say). In the UK our problem is that our water infrastructure was built by the Victorians, who were excellent engineers, but what they built has been badly maintained (to the extent that it was maintained at all) and we lose >25% of our water through leaks.