1. Chapter 15
Emerging Water Issues

2. Chapter Headings Future global water management issues
Future global water management solutions
Recent developments
Conclusions

3. Future Global Issues
Anyone who solves the problem of water deserves not one Nobel Prize but two – one for science and the other for peace
President John F. Kennedy
Future issues include
Population and water quantity
Water quality
Environmental degradation

5. Population and Water Quantity

6. Population and Water Quantity
Current population is about 7 billion
Population will continue to grow
World’s freshwater supply will remain relatively constant
Severe problems now with distribution
Competition between agriculture and cities (and aquatic biota) will intensify

7. Population and Water Quantity

8. Water Quality
As population increases there will be more waste with potential to pollute
Nearly half the world population lives without basic household sanitation
Sewer systems, septic systems, or latrines
Table 15.2
More than 5 million people die each year from water-borne diseases

11. Environmental Degradation
As population grows loss of habitat for endangered species will be more of a problem
More pressure to develop wetlands
More demand for allocation surface water to other than environmental flows
More mining of groundwater

12. Chapter Headings Future global water management issues
Future global water management solutions
Recent developments
Conclusions

13. Future Solutions Privatization of water treatment and delivery
Groundwater recharge
Water conservation
Dam construction
Water education

14. Four Possible Scenarios
Scenario 1: Business as usual
Scenario 2: Technology saves the day
Scenario 3: Global warming floods the world
Scenario 4: Space is the answer

15. Business as Usual World population continues at current rate
Thousands die in the Sudan and Ethiopia due to prolonged drought
Tens of thousands die annually in Bangladesh due to flooding
In Africa millions of infants die annually from waterborne diseases
Drinking water becomes scarce in U.S. cities

16. Technology Saves the Day
Improved desalination methods generate massive amounts of affordable drinking water along coasts
Desalination is also used to provide irrigation water in coastal northern Africa, Middle east, and western U.S.
Cheap methods are developed to create water molecules from H2 and O2 gas
World’s water problems are solved!

17. Global Warming Floods World
Water World scenario
Global warming raises temperatures
Polar ice caps and glaciers melt
Mean sea level rises 10 ft
1 billion people forced to relocate
US builds dikes relying on Dutch engineers

18. Space is the Answer Blade Runner scenario
Humans escape to other worlds that have plenty of water
Only human misfits and robots are left on earth to deal with polluted water and atmosphere

19. Chapter Headings Future global water management issues
Future global water management solutions
Recent developments
Conclusions

20. Klamath Project
In 1905 Congress authorized USBR to develop Klamath Project
Delivers irrigation water to dry lands in southern Oregon for agriculture
Area in rain shadow of Cascade Mountains (12-14 in)
210,000 acres of irrigated alfalfa, barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, and sugar beets

22. Klamath Project In 2001 a severe drought occurred
USBR announced due to Endangered Species Act it would have to limit irrigation water to users for the benefit of endangered salmon and other species
Federal officials stated that ESA took precedence over long-standing irrigation policy in the area
Caused outrage among water users
USBR put guards and surveillance cameras at irrigation headgates
Crops lost due to lack of water

24. Klamath Project Drought continued in 2002
USBR lowered the minimum required flow to allow diversion of water to irrigation users
Near record low flows in river resulted
Above average populations of salmon entered the river to travel upstream and spawn
September there was a fish kill: 34,000 adult salmon and steelhead
Attributed to crowding of fish and elevated temperatures which made fish susceptible to disease

25. October, 2009

35. Conclusions
Conclusions from 2000 UN General Assembly World Day for Water:
Water will be scarce
Water will be under increasing threat from pollution
We may suffer from increasingly severe periods of flood and drought
Safe and adequate water supplies should be the concern and responsibility of all