”I guess I can expect some people to be skeptical about the shortages of fresh water we are facing even if our population doesn’t increase.”
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”As long as you’re going to approach your quest with reason, you’d better be prepared for any skeptics, I guess I mean ‘many’ skeptics. Here is one tidbit. Did you know that 15% of India's grain harvest is produced by pumping groundwater. Those wells are rapidly going dry. 130 million Chinese are facing the same problem of the depletion of groundwater. So are Pakistan, Iran, Yemen and many other countries.
“You know that 70% of our Earth’s surface is water, but only 3% is freshwater,
and only 1% is readily available in streams, lakes, aquifers, and rivers. The rest of
freshwater is in ice. And not all of the fresh water is clean. In the more primitive areas of
the world where people live by rivers, those at the source may get clean water but then
they excrete into the water so that the next town or village will be drinking somewhat dirty water. And so forth all the way down the river to the mouth. In an advanced society that drinking water would be treated before it is drunk, and the sewage would be purified before it was sent down the river to the next town.
“Water is not dispersed equally across the globe. A country like Norway with its small population, its long snowy winter, its rainy summers, and its many mountains and rivers, has no problem. But countries in the Mideast, like Israel or Saudi Arabia, get little rainfall so have major problems in providing water for their populations. It has been
estimated that it takes a minimum of 12 gallons of water to provide for the drinking needs, the food production, and the sanitation needs of a person every day. The average American uses about 160 gallons daily.
"If we remember Maslow's priority of needs, remember that water is second only to the air we breathe in our human physiological priorities. So if we can’t provide water for everyone we are certainly going to have trouble, and I mean trouble on an international scale.
DRINKING WATER
“When governments have the money they can treat the sewage and reuse the water for farming. This is a so-called ‘gray’ water. Some areas, like Los Angeles, are even working on projects to make sewage water drinkable. Those living near salt water can desalinize it, but it is very expensive. Southern Spain and the Canary Islands, because of
their tourist trade, can profitably desalinize water and pass the costs to the tourists.”
IRRIGATION
"And Gulliver Returns" Book 1 Reversing Overpopulation--The Planet's Doomsday Threat Page 31