Research Paper on Clean Water: A Precious Resource for Human Survival

Introduction

Water is a fundamental human need whose absence can be catastrophic to the existence of people and other living organisms on earth. Despite the most substantial part of the earth's surface covered by water, it's still a rare commodity to most countries in the world. Clean water is paramount for keeping hygiene and avoid related pandemic caused by lack of it or contaminated portion of it. The available water needs critical handling since any misappropriation in terms of use can result in an escalated spread of diseases like cholera, which can cause a lot of deaths avoided. Water is not only essential to people but animals and plants too. All creatures require clean water for body nourishment and also other uses like washing. Sources of water occur naturally unless they are human-made like dams.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Countries around the world share sources of water, for example, R. Nile cuts in most countries in Africa, and it supplies freshwater to land inhabitants surrounding it. The clean water sources are present in most countries around the universe, but their hygienic conditions are affected by the surrounding human activities and other environmental causes. Around 2.2 billion people around the world lack access to clean water for drinking and other uses (World Health Organization, 2019). The paper will review why most of the earth's surface covered by water tables, but access to clean water is still a problem for most countries around the world.

The Threat to Clean Water Sources

Human activities are the principal causes of dirty sources of clean water supply. "Agriculture is a primary user of freshwater on a global scale and major cause of clean water pollution" (Galadima, 2011). The growth in science and technology has brought with it unorthodox methods and elements that replace the natural ways of doing things. For instance, farmers traditionally used manure to grow their plants, but the introduction of inorganic fertilizer that leaches harmful chemicals into the soil add impurities into water sources. The chemicals used for farming add pollutants that interfere with the standard content of water that makes it pure for consumption and domestic use. Most farms exist within a river source that supplies water to people for drinking and other household use. When the chemicals released on the soil surface, they leach via infiltration underground while some washed by surface runoff by the rain waters. Still on agricultural practices, undiluted animal waste has a high chemical concentration that adds impurities to clean water sources when dumped into the soil (Galadima, 2011). They contain living organisms that should not be introduced into water sources. When left openly on the ground, the waste can be washed into open streams polluting them. Therefore, human activities like the use of inorganic agricultural inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides lead to a lack of access to clean water around the world.

Home-related unhygienic lifestyle by most people around the world adds waste into sources of fresh water make it difficult to access clean water for use. Poor sanitation associated with mismanagement of waste products within human beings residential areas results in pollution of freshwater. According to statistics by the World Health Organization, "more than five percent of the human population in the world still practice open defection" in 2017 high numbers recorded in Africa (World Health Organization, 2019). Most developing and developing countries have not achieved the art of proper sewer systems both in their urban and rural areas. As a result of the inhabitants carelessly dispose of matter substances such as human waste products in the environment. Untreated human waste contains organisms and other elements that are harmful to water sources. The unmanaged waste washed to water sources like streams by running rainwater. Residents of most underdeveloped countries still acquire their drinking water from open wells and rivers due to a lack of resources to build treatment plants to remove the impurities. For instance, waste from slum areas washed into clean water sources like the nearby river due to weak drainage system polluting it. Therefore, poor waste management by human beings is a causal agent to lack of access to clean water by some countries.

Aside from home-based mismanagement of waste, urban pollution has become a hazard to the safety of freshwater supply around the world. Non-biodegradable waste introduction into the environment results in waterlogging as well add harmful substances into water sources (Galadima, 2011). Mismanagement of plastic waste results in clogging of natural waterways blocking in-flow and out-flow of water sources. For water to maintain fresh quantity, there should be no restriction whatsoever that will hinder water movement. The water stagnation due to non-decomposing waste provides habitat to harmful micro-organism that makes the water toxic for human consumption. The mismanagement of non-decomposing waste by most countries in the world leads to global warming affecting the earth's ozone layer. Pure air is a component of clean water since it ensures aeration of the water sources. With the escalation in global warming, the oxygen supply to water sources reduced make scarce availability of freshwater in some parts of the world.

Gas and oil industry is a significant agent of underground water pollution in the fields where the resource mines exist. The leakage of oil-spills into the soil reintroduced into the water sources pollutes and makes them unfit for human consumption and other domestic uses (Sidhu, 1987). Oil spillage in minefields blocks the underground paths that ensure a free flow of water by sources like rivers making it scarce or reduce its inherent quality. The oil and gas pollution occur as a result of poor maintenance of the manufacturing technology. In developing countries like Nigeria, the oil must be transported at any cost endangering the safety of clean water sources (Galadima, 2011). The manufacturing industries emit harmful gases into the atmosphere making rainwater toxic. When the gases emitted into the atmosphere, they condense with the water to form acidic rain, which is very harmful when consumed by people or used by other living organisms. When it rains, the acidic rain may be swept into open freshwater sources contaminating them. The issue of acid rain is also a product of industrialization where other elements like motor vehicle omissions avail it into our water sources. Oil spillage is shared with countries bordering the coastline, and the problem persists due to human greed to make a profit rather than caring for the ecosystem destroying the clean water sources in the process. "Illegal fuel siphoning escalates several pipeline explosions along the coastline," increasing water pollution making scarce the availability of freshwater in some oil-producing countries (Galadima, 2011).

Governance Issues Resulting in Scarcity of Clean Water

Most developing countries lack the resources to improve water purification technology that will avail clean water for their citizens. Countries experience a shortage of freshwater supply have financial difficulties in initiating useful technological innovations that will purify water polluted by climatic changes as a result of human activities (Gupta, 2013). With the industrial revolution, the atmosphere filled with different chemical additives that pollute clean water sources. For instance, industrial gases contain carbon elements that are toxic when they come in contact with clean water. Developed countries water treatment plants that purify contaminated water by removing the chemicals. Lack of funds and resources to establish such treatment schemes have led to difficulty in accessing clean water in some countries. The water may be available, but in the unclean state hence the need for governance initiative to institute cleansing programs whose absence results in lack of sufficient clean water in some countries (Gupta, 2013).

Policies surrounding the supply of clean water by some states around the world make the resource unavailable to people. The global water governance recognizes clean water as a basic human need at the same time a trade commodity on high demand whose significance can increase economic development if efficiently utilized (Gupta, 2013). Water is central to financial programs of most countries, making it a scarce commodity or impure for consumption. For example, water for irrigation and power generation development activities that belong to the governance strategy of the country's policymakers. Some ruling regimes prioritize the economic benefits of water against its essentiality as a fundamental need for people. Improving living standards through changing access to clean water by the government threatens the sustainability of clean water sources making scarce in some countries (Gupta, 2013). For example, directing most of the water from a river or a dam for the production of electricity result in lack of access to clean water by people of such states.

Conclusion

In summary, "lack of access to clean water is a global problem," affecting most countries of the world. Human activities have led to the addition of impurities to water sources, making it unfit for consumption and other domestic uses. Polluting the environment around us directly impacts to the scarcity of water for human beings and other living organisms. Some governments have enacted policies that prioritize water usage for commercial purposes endangering the sources for freshwater supply. Therefore, human beings need to protect water sources to prevent their extinction for a sustained ecosystem.

References

Galadima A, Z. G. (2011). Domestic water pollution among local communities in Nigeria- causes, and consequences. European Journal of Scientific Research, pp. 592-603. https://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.htm.

Gupta, Joyeeta, A. A. (2013). Policymakers' reflections on water governance issues. Ecology and Society, Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05086-180135Sidhu, Amarjit, W. J. (1987). Water pollution from oil and gas recovery in Eastern Kentucky watersheds. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, pp. 943-953. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1987.tb02974.x.

World Health Organization. (2019, June 18). One in three people globally do not have access to safe drinking water- UNICEF, WHO. Retrieved from World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/18-06-2019-1-in-3-people-globally-do-not-have-access-to-safe-drinking--water-unicef-who.