Global river channel fragmentation and flow regulation (unfragmented depicted in green, moderately fragmented in orange, and highly fragmented in red).
Presently, one billion people lack access to clean drinking water.[1] This isn’t because we have an actual shortage of freshwater, but because we aren’t storing and using it carefully.[2] Throughout the world, it has nowbecome common practice for water to be sold as a commodity.[3] If we continue as we have been, we are going to continue to see vast worldwide water shortage problems.
We have deforested vast areas of the planet, depleted aquifers, and now must dig deep wells to suck out even more water. The amount of aquifer depletion varies greatly across the globe, but experts believe that groundwater depletion is a fact for most nations. In the U.S. alone, groundwater depletion exceeded replacement by 21 billion gallons a day, and since this was measured in 1993 this disparity has greatly increased.[4] The water in the North China Plain is being depleted at a rate of 37 billion tons of water a year.[5]
Groundwater is vital to maintaining abundant surface waterways; it is the sustaining source of river flows. In fact, the amount of water in the soil is about fifteen times the amount held in the world’s rivers.[6] In addition, not all aquifers can be recharged; some aquifers like the Ogallala aquifer in the U.S. are called fossil aquifers and when they dry up they are gone forever.[7] For agricultural regions that rely on this water source, the dry aquifer means the end of local farming unless an alternate water source can be found. Water is vital to our continued existence on earth; 70% of the fresh water used on Earth is used to irrigate crops so water shortages will necessarily lead to food shortages.[8]
Earthworks, such as swales, dams, and small ponds are one of the simplest, cheapest, and most locally self-reliant methods of water conservation. If cities, rural communities, and farms maximized earthworks to capture and hold rainwater we could capitalize on this abundant water resource. Otherwise, clean water will necessarily become a rare commodity that will lead to increased illness, drought and fires across the world. [9]
[1] “Clean water: 1 billion people are dying for it,” Biosandfilter.org, http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/
[2] Mollison, Bill. Permaculture : A Designer's Manual. Minneapolis: Tagari Publications, 1997. p. 153
[3] Mollison, Bill. Permaculture : A Designer's Manual. Minneapolis: Tagari Publications, 1997. P. 152
[4] Johnson, Otto, The 1993 Information Please Almanac, Mariner Books, 1992.p. 340-341
[5] Brown, Lester, “Water Deficits Growing In Many Countries, Water Shortages May Cause Food Shortages,” Great Lakes Directory, (2002) available at: http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/zarticles/080902_water_shortages.htm
[6] Chorley, R.J. (ed.), “Water, Earth, and Man,” Methuen and Co., London, 1969
[7] Brown, Lester, “Aquifer depletion,” Encyclopedia of the Earth, February 12, 2007
[8] Id.
[9] Mollison, Bill. Permaculture : A Designer's Manual. Minneapolis: Tagari Publications, 1997. p. 165
