Water scarcity

Water scarcity is acute drought conditions and dwindling natural water resources are focusing more
attention on what continues to be a worldwide problem: a lack of access to fresh, potable water for
drinking and sanitation.Water scarcity can be defined as a lack of sufficient water, or not having access
to safe water supplies.Water scarcity is a major problem in many parts of the world.

A child helps his father carry water containers as they fetch drinking water in Bangladesh. Because the
area is surrounded by saline water, scarcity of drinking water is a major problem.

Water is a pressing need in many areas of the world. That scarcity is spreading as water is needed to
grow and process food, create energy, and power industry for a continually growing population. Climate
change is a key contributing factor.

Clean, potable water is an essential ingredient of a healthy human life, but 1.2 billion people lack access
to water according to recent estimates from the International Water Management Institute cited in The
World’s Water: Volume 8, edited by Peter H. Gleick. By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may
be facing water shortages, according to World Wildlife Fund. Available freshwater supplies worldwide
continue to dwindle. By 2030, water demand is forecast to increase by 40 percent, according to Even
Kuross, a management consultant based in Oslo, writing in Fair Observer. The world population is
expected to reach 9 billion, placing pressure on water supplies.

Physical Water Scarcity

Physical water scarcity occurs when there isn’t enough water to meet demand. Roughly 20 percent of
the world’s population now lives in physical water scarcity, which The World’s Water: Volume 8 defines
as areas in which water withdrawals exceed 75 percent of river flows. Another 500 million live in areas
“approaching physical scarcity.” This could be the result of dry or arid local conditions, but distribution
also plays a role. The Water Project points out the Colorado River basin as a prime example “of a
seemingly abundant source of water being overused and over managed, leading to very serious physical
water scarcity downstream.
Water scarcity in Indonesia
Indonesia is an island nation with a rich and diverse society and culture that is also suffering from a
desperate water situation. This situation can best be described in one word, pollution. It is known that
pollution is a major problem in Indonesia, however, it is difficult to know the depth of the problem due
to a lack of regulation, monitoring, and oversight around pollution. The effects of this crisis are already
being felt through the high rate of children's deaths due to Indonesia's high waterborne illness rates.
More than 100,000 children dying of diarrhea and other water born illnesses is just one of the symptoms
of the crisis. In a country where modern sanitation is rare, and 13% of the population make less than a
dollar a day, getting clean water is extraordinarily difficult. When the fish in your river have been
replaced with trash, there should be no question as to whether or not there is a water problem.

The source of Indonesia's water crisis is not from water scarcity, but from a lack of access to affordable,
clean water. Much of the surface water suffers from heavy pollution stemming from multiple sources
across Indonesian society. To obtain water, the public has the choice to buy it, a luxury many in the
impoverish nation can hardly afford, or take and use it from the heavily polluted surface waters.

Our team has been researching and exploring the problems and issues that the nation of Indonesia has
with their water resources. We have been investigating the sources and factors that contribute to the
water crisis and possible goals, objectives and solutions for beginning to solve the problem.