Water Is Life
Water is Life
Part 1
We are running out of water. The surface of the Earth is covered with water, but we don’t have enough drinking water for much of the world. It is our own fault.
Where does drinking water come from? We get water from surface sources, think of rivers and lakes and reservoirs, or we get it out of the ground. We dig wells to water found in underground aquifers.
It is not coincidental that the world’s first major cities grew up around rivers. The fertile crescent was fertile because of relatively abundant water. London, Paris, Rome, Beijing, ancient cities in Central America, all were established near reliable sources of water. Water is life. Rome became dependent on aqueducts, which brought water from sources in the mountains. The lead in their pipes is fodder for another article. Civilization sprouted and grew because the reliable water cycle of the Nile made agriculture possible. Water is life.
In the modern world, water is more often pumped out of the ground, via wells. Agriculture and industry have sprouted in the deserts of the world, allowing agriculture in otherwise barren land. The Israelis have created very productive farms in the Negev Desert. (https://www.israel21c.org/why-the-future-of-agriculture-lies-in-israels-desert/). In Arizona, alfalfa has been a booming industry, contributing a lot to the Arizona economy. (https://www.azfb.org/Article/Understanding-the-Economics-of-Arizona-Alfalfa)
If the desert can bloom and agriculture thrive, why isn’t that happening in Africa? Why is famine happening there? If fact, why is there famine happening anywhere, or more correctly, everywhere? (https://www.wfp.org/global-hunger-crisis)
There are politically driven famines, of course. Think of the great famine in India in the late 1800’s. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_India). In 1932 & 1933, when Stalin’s collective farms failed, there was an engineered famine in Ukraine, known as Holodomor. ( https://www.britannica.com/event/Holodomor ). Again and again, there have been famines in North Korea, a major one happened when the Soviet Union collapsed and aid to North Korea ceased, at the same time as the country experienced a major collapse of the agricultural production.
But such famines are each the result of political events, over-population, mismanagement and all the poor judgement man is heir to. They will be subjects for another article.
Today’s article is about water, not famine. There is famine in Africa, because there is no water. There is no water because of political failings and because of historical forces and because of drought associated with climate change. Water is life. Water is disappearing. Where water sources fail, people die. Civilizations can fall. Drought and inadequate water supplies result in social disorder, war, and revolution.
Why is there not enough water in today’s world? We have wells. We have abundant energy. We have the resources to go get it. The answer is that the wells are running dry. We are pumping more water out of the ground every year, faster than it can be replenished. Water tables are falling. Wells are drying up. Only the richest countries can drill new wells.
How significant is the issue? Depletion of groundwater is not a possible crisis. It is happening now. Just, not at Wall Street or Fleet Street, 5th avenue or Mar A Lago. World governments and scientific organizations are consistently documenting the severity of the problem.
Here is the USGS water depletion map, showing excessive water pumping and aquifer depletion in the USA since 1900. Hint: red is bad.
Please note the entire southern ½ of Arizona is red. Of note, Arizona has cancelled leases to a Saudi Arabia owned farm, which allowed unfettered pumping of ground water for the alfalfa crop. ( https://apnews.com/article/arizona-groundwater-fondomonte-fc4e94a2b6b782d46f8ba3afb25548f5 ). Recently, similar farming operations in California have drawn more scrutiny.
Ground water levels in aquifers all around the world are falling. Mexico City is in danger or running out of water, this summer. Some neighborhoods in the Phoenix area can no longer get water from the Phoenix system and must truck water in. But Phoenix is still growing. I write this sitting in Sky Harbor airport, and I could see the construction areas from the air, as our plane descended.
In Iran, a recent article documents “overdrafts” in 77% of the country, resulting in failing water supplies and increasing salinity, as water seeps in the from the ocean. That’s right, Iran’s groundwater is turning into salt water, in parts of the country. (Nature journals https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88522-y) Groundwater wells all over the world are running dry. Now. Not in the next century, but now. (https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6540/418/suppl/DC1)
Crops are failing. People are starving. Just not in the major cities of Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Russia, or Brazil. Not yet.
With climate change, loss of recharging of the aquifers from rainwater and run off from the ice melt on the mountains and glaciers, the water levels keep falling.
This is happening now.