The recent and ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan draws attention to an issue that has affected and continues to affect people across the world: access to clean/safe water. This crisis began when the source of water supply to Flint was changed from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to the Flint River to save money. Among those affected are the marginalized and particularly the poor (Subramaniam 2016). The right to clean water is a demand of people not only in Flint, but of people across the world. To make sense of the water crisis, scholars and policy makers have considered the role of the government in promoting privatization directly or indirectly, the economic costs and benefits of promoting efficient systems of managing water use and allocation, and the role of the community that represents race and class differences in negotiating and resisting the privatization of water resources that are largely perceived by the community as common property resources (Olivera 2014; Moyo and Liebenberg 2015; Subramaniam 2014; Mullin 2014; Breakfast et al. 2014; Johnson et al. 2016, among others). Communities struggle as ground water levels deplete and the contamination of water adversely affects the lives of people, particularly, marginalized people.
In this chapter, I provide an overview of the water crisis and also include a discussion of the early approaches to studies about water. I cover three main issues. First, among the environmental specters confronting humanity in the twenty-first century, shortage of water is at the top of the list. Providing details of the estimates of water availability and uses will provide a reader with an overview of the landscape of concerns with water: an overview of the worldâs water resources . I incorporate details of depletion and management of water resources as reported by various institutions such as the United Nations , the World Resources Institute and the World Bank among others. Second, the water crisisâand particularly access to and control over water resources âspans across the developed and developing world. Concerns about access to clean water and citizens â control over water are unique to a specific locale or region of the world (Loftis 2016; Subramaniam and Zanotti 2015; Akiwumi 2015; Boelens and Zwarteveen 2005; Olivera 2004; Snitow and Kaufman with Fox 2007). Third, those most affected by the shifts in the control over water resources and the privatization of water supply mechanisms are the marginalized and the poor. In addition to a review of past work, I include an overview of the three cases and transnational forums that are examined in the following chapters. This is followed by the sources and typesâprimary and secondaryâof data that I use for the analysis. In the last section of this chapter, I provide an overview of the following chapters in this book.
Water Resources: Availability and Use of Water
Among the environmental specters confronting humanity in the twenty-first century, shortage of water is at the top of the list, particularly in the developing world. According to the World Resources Institute, more than a billion people currently live in water-scarce regions and as many as 3.5 billion could experience water scarcity by 2025. Moreover, if consumption patterns continue at current rates, 2.7 billion people would face severe water shortages by 2025 (Montainge 2002). Increasing pollution degrades freshwater and coastal aquatic ecosystems. 1 And climate change is poised to shift precipitation patterns and speed glacial melt, altering water supplies and intensifying floods and drought. The bleak future is also attributed to the projected growth of the global population, from more than six billion today to an estimated nine billion in 2050. Yet the amount of fresh water on earth is not increasing.
Several countries around the world are facing a severe water crisis. Water-abundant regions have become water-scarce, and water-scarce regions face water famines. It is important to consider both supply and demand factors, combined with the effects of neoliberal policies, in order to understand the water crisis. While knowledge of patterns of water use is scattered, it is estimated that about 4000 cubic kilometers of fresh water are used each year globally. Irrigation for agriculture accounts for about 70% of this usage, industrial use consumes 20%, and domestic use accounts for the remaining 10%. About 20% of this water is drawn from groundwater sources, the use of which increased fivefold in the twentieth century (World Water Assessment Programme 2009).
Groundwater plays a substantial role in water supply, ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Worldwide, 2.5 billion people depend solely on groundwater resources to satisfy their basic daily water needs, and hundreds of millions of farmers rely on groundwater to sustain their livelihoods and to contribute to the food security of so many others (UNESCO 2012). Groundwater reportedly provides drinking water to at least 50% of the global population and accounts for 43% of all water used for irrigation (Groundwater Governance n.d.). Groundwater also sustains the base flows of rivers and important aquatic ecosystems. Uncertainty over the availability of groundwater resources and their replenishment rates pose a serious challenge to their management and, in particular, to their ability to serve as a buffer to offset periods of surface water scarcity (Van der Gun 2012). Overuse of groundwater resources has led to a rapid drawdown of aquifers in some areas, and the sustainability of such usage has become the focus of much international attention (World Water Assessment Programme 2009).
Overpumping of aquifers and falling water tables have affected northern China. India , Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Mexico , and Pakistan, as well as California in the United States , also face major water shortages (World Water Assessment Programme 2009). The overpumping of aquifers may be for agricultural or municipal use. US farmers are withdrawing water from the Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies the Great Plains, at an unsustainable rate, with a third of the Texas portion already significantly depleted. The water table under the North China Plain, which produces about half of Chinaâs wheat and corn, is steadily dropping (Montaigne 2002).
Water use patterns vary by region. In Africa, most of Asia, Oceania, Latin America, and the Caribbean, agriculture accounts for the majority of usage, while in Europe and North America, industry and energy-related usage are far more significant. In 2006, 87% of the worldâs population had access to improved drinking water sources, leaving Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania as the only regions not on target for the United Nation sâ Millennium Development Goals drinking water recommendations. However, this amounts to more than 800 million people without access to suitable drinking water and if current trends continue, 2.4 billion people will still be without access to basic sanitation in 2015 (World Water Assessment Programme 2009).
As the population continues to grow and increasing demands are placed upon already unstable water sources, the threat of conflict over water increases. India and Pakistan, for example, have experienced significant tensions over the use of the Indus River, as both rely upon its waters for hydroelectric power and irrigation. In southern Ethiopia, water and pasture-related conflicts between competing culture groups have led to hundreds of deaths and the forced departure of thousands of people from their lands (Waititu 2009a). Similar conflicts rage elsewhere on the African continent, as deforestation, climate change, and inefficient management have contributed to the dwindling of shared lakes and rivers. In the last half-century, total water withdrawals have tripled globally (Waititu 2009b). Droughts and increased use of as well as demand for water can cause desertification. According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification is âland degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas [drylands] resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activitiesâ (UNCCD 1994).
Water shortage addressed in scholarly work is focused broa...