Water

Question 1

What are the two main sources of freshwater on land?

Answer 1

• Surface water, obtained from rivers and lakes
• Ground water, from underground layers of porous rocks

Question 2

How much of all water is fresh?

Answer 2

2.5%

Question 3

Where does most of our water demand come from?

Answer 3

Depends on country. eg UK - Mainly industry, then domestic. Malawi - Mainly agriculture.

Question 4

Why is demand increasing?

Answer 4

• Population growth
• Growth of middle class (NEEs)
• More tourism and recreation going on
• Urbanisation, as urban areas require investment in water and sanitation facilities
• Climate change
• Consumer culture

Question 5

What are the two types of water scarcity?

Answer 5

Physical - where water demands exceeds the supply eg Qatar being hot, desert climate, only few sources of water.
Economic - where water is available locally but not accessible for human, institutional or financial reasons eg Central Africa, where many have access to water but it contaminate and often causes diarrhoea and cholera.

Question 6

What are the factors affecting water supply/demand?

Answer 6

• Importance of agriculture
• Temperature and amounts of evaporation
• Level of economic development
• Population density
• Presence of water bearing rocks
• Proximity to rivers
• Amount of precipitation

Question 7

Why is water quality declining?

Answer 7

• Agricultural and industrial activities causing eutrophication,and fertilisers polluting water with nitrogen and phosphorus.
• Inadequate sanitation in LICs, such as open sewers, rivers polluted by industrial waste etc, eg in Ethiopia.
• Deforestation, as soil erosion is more likely.
• Salinisation (eg from dry climates and low precipitations meaning excessive salts are not flushed and from sea level rise).eg Qatar.