In a publication made by the Geopolitical Monitor on Jan. 7, 2013, it exchanged dialogue with FLOW Program Manager Nancy Goucher. She expressed how there are pressing water shortage issues in regards to the Canadian nation.
Goucher gives a low down on the global water crisis in that there's serious concern in the world situation. Factors at play include the population explosion, increasing demand of water, and climage change.
At this point, there are 780 million people globally without access to sanitary drinking water and an additional 2.5 billion of those without sanitation. Those two deadly combinations leave 3.4 million deaths per year. By the year 2030, global demand will outdo the demand for water by 40%.
The truth about Canada's abundance of water
It is thought that Canada, being the large land mass that it is, makes up of one-fifth of the world's fresh water. When in fact, Canada actually comes in at third place, tied with the United States when you figure out the refresh rate of the Canadian water supply and one does the math of water usage, Canada doesn't have as much water as one may think. In fact, the country only has 2.6% of the world's water supply.
So this "myth of abundance" that Canada contains has created a lot of issues. In fact, Canadians tend to use vast quantities of water with weak water pollution regulatory policies. Also, the data contained about their water resources is quite out of date.
What is Canada going to do to take action?
Some territories in Canada are taking a water stewardship strategy that aims at rather ambitious water management methods. They mention that they would like to ensure that waters remain "substantially unaltered in quality, quantity, and rates of flow".
Unfortunately, there's not much the Canadian government is doing to take an interest in it's own water crisis. Federal water programs had been cut or downsized. Especially when it comes to science and policy. Thus priorities are not in the best interest of the environment.
Degrading water quality
Though one might think that there's more concern about water quality or even shortages in third world countries, even rich countries are suffering with water issues. In the United States, one out of three lakes are unfit to swim in. This is usually due to run off from fertilizer discharge from farms, septic discharge, and other pollutants.
For instance, in the San Francisco Bay area, there are signs on the piers warning people if they fish in those waters, the fish eaten from that bay, may be hazardous to your health.
Climate change impacting water crisis issue
There's also a great concern for reduction in the size of ice glaciers, more instances of flash floods, gully washes, timing of rivers and streams, and larger prevalence of droughts.
Other areas that are suffering from a water crisis
South Florida, as reported on CNN, is under a water restriction policy. With the lack of rain in that area, it is causing the major, natural water tank, Lake Okeechobee to recede itself. Typically, the main freshwater supply for Florida is the underground system of aquifers and are usually recharged by routine rainfalls, but at this point, Lake Okeechobee has been replenishing the aquifers instead. Thus the low lake levels.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency for the northern part of the state when drought related conditions left them in a serious water crisis. However, the Army Corp of Engineers denied the fact of it ever being a water crisis.
Regardless, Perdue signed an executive order in the direction of President Bush to ease the diversion of Georgia's water supply towards Alabama and Georgia. He also asked that 85 counties in the state to be declared as natural disaster areas.
There is some law in the books in regards to Georgia requiring them to divert 3.2 billion gallons of water a day downstream to the corresponding states.
"The actions of the Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife Service are not only irresponsible, I believe they're downright dangerous and Georgia cannot stand for this negligence," Perdue said.
News regarding different areas of the world in regards to the water crisis continue to be reported.
History channel's "Profits of Doom" discusses the impending issues facing the future of the world
There was a show on the History Channel called "Profits of Doom" that address the issues of "how the world would end" as well as how government powers choose to ignore the impending crisis situation.
For the purpose of this article, John Cronin, the author of "The River Keepers" and the Director of the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, explains how we are currently in a water crisis situation.
Cronin has been actively monitoring the water pollution situation in the United States and is coming up a network that would be able to monitor water quality in real time. He expresses that it's the foundation for survival. He also expresses, with all the alternatives one may have to other resources that are on the horizon for depletion that there is no "alternative water". Basically, once the water is depleted, there is no substitute and thus the exhaustion of our water supply.
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