Water Scarcity Crisis
13 June 2019
We must act responsibly to protect our waters, as increasing pollution is jeopardising our dwindling stores of freshwater. The famous Manneken Pis statue in Brussels has now gone on strike: it will no longer pee fresh water, so as to save water and to focus attention on the tremendous quantity of drinking water we waste each and every day.
Officials of the city were surprised to learn recently that the popular statue has been peeing 1,000 to 2,500 litres of drinking water straight into the sewers. A channel was then constructed to gather the water and send it back to the statue.
“We thought it was a closed circuit and that he wasn’t consuming anything,” said Callens, who looked at data from a water meter installed on the statue which nobody had paid any attention to previously.
A channel has been put in place to return water to the statue, and a permanent circuit will be fitted at
a later date to circulate all the water the statue uses.
The popular fountain with a 61 cm naked little boy is the work of the baroque sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy, and one of the popular tourist attractions of the Belgian capital. The original, made in 1619, is now in a Brussels museum, and a copy is in place next to the Grand Place, in the mediaeval centre of the Belgian capital – we learnt on The Guardian website.
Many studies warn us that rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels is making the oceans grow acidic, a major threat to marine life. Comparatively less attention has been paid to freshwater ecosystems from that perspective...
In Northern India, temperatures reached astonishing peaks in the last few days, in excess of 50 degrees Celsius. The heat, which is making millions suffer, has also caused a number of deaths. The situation is rendered worse by water restrictions introduced as wells, lakes and rivers dried up.
The effects of climate change are becoming increasingly perceptible: fertile land turn into desert and water reserves run out fast. This has grave consequences, as many millions of people will be forced to leave their homes, and increasing numbers of climate refugees will migrate to Europe.
Climate change doesn’t only threaten surface waters: according to a study by Nature Climate Change, groundwater shortages could also cause major problems for future generations. In the next century, it is expected that only half the world’s groundwater reserves will still be replenished.
Laguna de Aculeo was one of Chile’s most popular bathing destinations, less than a two-hour drive from the capital. In April 2019, NASA published shocking photos of the drastic change that the lake has undergone over the last five years.
A number of signs indicate that water levels of the Rhine will drop significantly in the near future, which is worrying news not only for the river’s ecosystem – it may also have a major impact on the German economy.
Australia has had a number of unusually arid months, the reservoirs of its major cities have lost significant amounts of water, with many dams below 50% by early May. Water restrictions may have to be introduced in Sydney, Darwin, Brisbane and Melbourne, too.
Almost two million people are starving in Somalia due to a lengthy drought – the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reports. Hundreds of thousands of children are already suffering from malnutrition in the East African country, and millions have left their homes due to food shortages.
The consequences of climate change are around us already – and increasingly ominous warnings are published one after the other about the future of the world. Britain, for instance, could face water shortages within 25 years due to its increasing population and global warming.
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Of the total stock of Earth’s water, only 0.007 percent is on the surface, that amount is easily accessible, not excessively polluted and ready for almost immediate use. That’s what we call the hydrological James Bond ratio, said Csaba Kőrösi, who also spoke about Hungary’s water shortage on World Water Day 2019.
