Water Availabilty
Picture:
This shows a picture of two African kids that have finally found freshwater to
water and are being satisfied.
Summary:
The freshwater is unevenly distributed across. Fertile areas
such as western Africa and central Africa have greater precipitation than
northern Africa, the Horn of Africa and southern Africa. Therefore Western and
Central areas get more water availability. The average water availability per
person in Africa is 5,720 m3/capita/year compared to a global average of 7,600
m3/capita/year. Problems with freshwater availability in Africa are further
complicated by highly variable levels of rainfall. As a result, large numbers
of people are dependent on groundwater as their primary source of freshwater.
In Algeria, for example, more than 60% of people get groundwater for their main
source of water and, in Libya, 95% of people get groundwater for their main
source of water. Severe droughts were experienced in 1973 and 1984, when almost
all African countries suffered reduced rainfall. Even with the reduced rainfall
lakes and rivers are being evaporated. In Africa Lake Chad had shrunk 5% which
has caused many people to be affected. Africa has the highest population growth
in the world and is affected the most by extreme climate changes. To the increase
of drought and flooding scientists predict that 25 African countries will
experience water scarcity in the next 20 to 30 years. Some of Africa’s water cannot
be drunk because of bacteria and pathogens in the water. They need to purify
and treat before giving it out.
Opinion/Reaction:
This topic didn’t surprise me that
much because I knew that Africa didn’t have a lot of resources such as water.
It is still sad to know that kids have to probably walk miles to receive fresh
water for their family to drink. We learned in Social Studies that nations and
tribes in Africa do not treat each other very nice. People in Africa will not
receive any help from other people who are not in the same tribe for in their borders.
Water seems like you have to fight for it and if you don’t win then you will
have to find another lake or river. Water availability is not a problem in the
U.S as far as I know. In this country all you need is money to get the
resources you need. In Africa there isn’t an abundance of freshwater nor in the
world. Out of the 75% of water in the world about 3% is fresh and most of that
is in the ice caps. Water is considered a limited resource to us and I believe we
could run out of it.
Questions
1) Do you believe that the water should
be evenly distributed across Africa? Why or why not?
2) Do you think water is considered a
limited resource in today’s world?
3) How do you think people get there
water when there has been no rainfall for a while?
Opinion:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Austin that it sadly does not surprise me that people living Africa do not have access to fresh drinking water. Everyone always says how lucky we are to have water at the touch of a button; I can barely imagine how it would feel to walk countless miles just for a drink of fresh water. I beleive that in some ways it is the people's own fault that they have to walk so far to reach the water... why don't they just live on a river bank or within veiw of water? However, it is sad to think that we are living in luxury while so many people have to go through the daily life struggle of obtaining clean drinking water for the day.
Question 3:
If there hasn't been rainfall in awhile, then the small streams people go to get their water from may be empty. They may have to venture out farther into territories they do not know as well just so they can bring fresh water home to their begging families.
OPINION
ReplyDeleteI think that water is a limited resource that we will not have forever. Like austin said, only 3% of the world's water is fresh, and most of that is in ice caps. It seems to me that until we figure out a way to use salty ocean water for drinking, we need to conserve the water we have. I can relate to this by the fact that many people use excessive amounts of water for no reason. This shows the ignorance of many people in developed nations.
QUESTION #1
I think that it would be a bad idea because it will only allow for Africans to get very small amounts of water. Since there is such a small amount of water in Africa, if everyone got the same amount it seems that many would die rather than live. Also, this would interupt the process of natural selection. If you give something to someone, they will become dependent on it. And once you can no longer give it to them, they wont know what to do.
Opinion: I agree with Allison. It's sad to think that many of the kids in Africa are walking miles and miles a day to be able to get fresh drinking water and all we have to do is turn on the faucet. However, I don't think that we will run out of water, atleast anytime soon. Mrs. Simon said the other day that the same water that is on Earth now, is the same water that's been on the planet for decades. Our population is getting to high, and soon enough they're won't be nearly enough water to go around.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: Yes, water should be distributed equally arcoss Africa. Many people in Africa don't know when the next time they'll have a meal let alone clean drinking water. And with the lakes and rivers evaporating, people could travel those countless miles to get their supply of drinking water, and they could get there and there could be no water. It has been proven that humans can survive longer on water than they can on food, over 70% of the human body is water to being with. If water was evenly distributed through Africa, that could be the start of other changes throughout the country.