Water crisis in the South Asian Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Water crisis in the South Asian - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the world is facing severe water crisis and the developing world is suffering an acute shortage of fresh water supply even today. Water is required for a number of daily activities besides drinking and a shortage of water can ultimately lead to food scarcity in certain populous countries of the developing world. The population explosion and lack of planning in the developing world are among the core causes of this rampant situation. According to UN Water, some 1.3 million people are without the access to clean water and certain regions of the world face a threat of water wars. Water scarcity is most pronounced in North America, Middle East, and South Asia. India and Pakistan in South Asia have already fought a war over water supply issues. The cost of drinking water is more than that of gasoline in some of the Middle Eastern countries. This overview of the situation shows that water scarcity is perhaps the most important issue faced by the planet. The freshwater is present mostly in the form of groundwater aquifers. The water in streams and rivers forms a lesser portion of the available water resources. Almost 11 trillion cubic meters of freshwater is available in the world for drinking and other uses, however, this enormous supply of water is not uniformly distributed across the planet. Moreover, the availability of water also varies across the different seasons of the year. Some of the regions in the world receive as low as 500 cubic meters of water per capita per annum of water supply and are labeled as water stressed.