As part of Design & Technology I will be carrying out an individual research assignment. As part of this, I will be investigating a topic of social, environmental or cultural impact and, through reflection, I will be drawing critical evaluations and my own viewpoints about the subject. This will be communicated through this blog and a final Pecha Kucha presentation next month which involves 20 slides each for 20 seconds. I wanted to investigate a global topic that would allow a breadth of research into a problem and future design solutions. Sustainability within design interests me and is something that I feel passionately about but I was hesitant to choose a specific topic. I was concerned with looking at sustainability as a topic that must be solved with new products; in many ways this can be counter intuitive and simply enables more production of soon-to-be obsolete products. Water is often overshadowed with concerns over other resource shortages; fossil fuels, forestry and metals; or discussions over climate change and plastics filling our oceans. Therefore, after compiling a competitive shortlist of topics I finally selected: ‘The World’s Water Crisis’. What I mean to do is understand how we use it, why we are running out and how we can manage it better to ensure that everyone can access it for centuries to come.
Research began by watching the ‘The World Water Crisis’ episode of Netflix’s ‘Explained’ series (S1: EP19). This mini documentary was packed with facts and figures to introduce the topic. It was an intense and shocking 18 minutes that painted a damning picture of humanities future as it reminds the viewer that water is a finite resource and one, that we as a species, we need to respect. Some of the headline figures included [US Geological Survey 1993]:
Our planet has approximately 26 million trillion gallons of water – 97% saltwater, 2% ice, 1% freshwater
The majority of freshwater is stored naturally underground in aquifers, which we have got very good at accessing to heavily supplement surface water particularly in drier regions. NASA has been able to detect a 29 trillion gallon reduction in Indian aquifers in the last decade. The World Bank has stated that; “if current trends continue, in 20 years about 60% of all India’s aquifers will be in a critical condition”. For a country with over 1.3 billion people who rely on groundwater for 85% of their drinking water and 60% of the agriculture irrigation, that prediction becomes a very scary prospect. Yes, this is an extreme example; India is the largest groundwater user in the world, but that doesn’t undermine a condemning reality.
In September 2015, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations released the following data:
The vast majority of the world’s water is used for agriculture and industry. It’s clear to see that in warmer regions a significantly larger proportion of water is used for agriculture, whilst in Europe industry accounts for a whopping 57% of water usage. For some perspective; in 2018 the World Bank estimated that on average 8% of our annual water is personal use, e.g. drinking, cleaning, flushing the toilet etc. This data can also be represented over time:
This shows an international seven fold increase in total water consumption over the 20th century. Global populations continue to rise and with that, every aspect of water use increases too. Now if we remember that there is only so much water on the planet, it doesn’t take a mathematician to understand that meeting that threshold will put a strain on freshwater supplies everywhere. This is already the case in many countries across the world due to a range of contributing factors; low rainfall per capita, inefficient irrigation, perceptions of water as an infinite resource, and less stable rain distribution due to climate change.
In 2015, the World Resources Institute released an article examining which regions of the world be worst affected by water shortages by 2040:
The article predicts that 33 countries will “face extremely high water stress in 2040”. Many of these countries appear in the Middle East and North Africa where water is already insecure and groundwater or desalination are heavily relied on. Water insecurities have already been the source of conflicts across the world and as pressures grow, tensions in these regions will continue to rise. For instance, some experts suggest that a major contributing factor to the Syrian conflict initiating and the mass migration of refugees was the mismanagement of water resources. An article from 3013 in the Smithsonian Magazine reads:
“Since 1975, Turkey’s dam and hydro-power construction has cut water flow to Iraq by 80 percent and to Syria by 40 percent… a devastating drought beginning in 2006 forced many farmers to abandon their fields and migrate to urban centres. There’s some evidence that the migration fuelled the civil war there, in which 80,000 people have died”
Rural farmers are the first to suffer from shortages, many were forced to leave their lands and move to urban areas within Syria. The Tigris-Euphrates Basin, which is shared by Turkey, Syria, Iraq and western Iran, closely follows India in the race to finish their aquifer as between 2003 and 2009 approximately 144 trillion litres of groundwater was removed. Unfortunately, Syria is not alone in this category. Yemen has only 86 cubic metres of freshwater available per capita per annum, for context the UK’s is 2,262, making it one of water-scarce countries in the world [World Bank]. A 2015 Newsweek article explains that:
“Government officials estimate that local disputes over land and water already lead to 4,000 deaths every year”
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has gained significant support from villagers in the region for installing desperately needed wells and infrastructure; they identified the importance of support from locals and are using water as tool to exploit them. Similarly in Sana’a, Yemen’s largest city, lack of water has caused has displacements as 2.6 million residents rely on water deliveries to rooftop cisterns. Whilst there are many other factors in the conflict, undoubtedly water can escalate tensions and be used as a weapon to control a population. These images were taken from the Newsweek article previously mentioned and show the devastating clean water shortages in Yemen whilst there's flooding on the outskirts of Sana'a:
Clearly water is being abused and undervalued across the world. When I first selected this topic I thought I would be mainly investigating future impacts and what a water crisis ‘could’ look like; yet, initial research has shown it to be upon us already. Everyone sharing this planet has the same human right to clean drinking water and sanitation [United Nations, 2010]. It is an essential and unique ingredient to our life on Earth. Filmmakers have shown us on screen what a world where water equals power looks like in the form of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. It is a dark and twisted post-apocalyptical world governed by warlords who retain power by hoarding water.
I want to delve deeper into how we are using the water we have, how water-stressed regions are adapting, and how design can (hopefully) give us new solutions. If what I have discussed is of interest I would highly recommend the Netflix 'Explained' series (S1 EP19) for an overview of the issues discussed or consult some of the sources I used to write my post:
UN Water Withdrawals and Uses (graphs): http://www.fao.org/aquastat/en/overview/methodology/water-use
Indian Aquifer statistics: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/03/06/india-groundwater-critical-diminishing
World Resources Institute (map): https://www.wri.org/blog/2015/08/ranking-world-s-most-water-stressed-countries-2040
Syria Conflict Article by the Smithsonian: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/is-a-lack-of-water-to-blame-for-the-conflict-in-syria-72513729/
Yemen Article by Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/2015/01/30/al-qaida-plans-its-next-move-yemen-300782.html
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