Talk:Water scarcity/Archive 4

Some uncorrected vandalism in this article

This article was apparently vandalized two months ago, but the vandalism has not yet been undone. Should we peer-review this article to prevent this from happening again? Jarble (talk) 03:59, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Standard section headings

Hi, anyone watching this page? I was working on the article Water scarcity in Africa which actually has a better structure than this one. I plan to apply some "standard headings" to this article, like Causes, impacts, approaches etc. Just wondering if anyone has tried this in the past, any suggestions? EMsmile (talk) 03:59, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Removed unsourced content

I have removed this unsourced content because it was a bit unclear and had no references. If it should go back in please provide references and context. "Climate change: Aquifer draw down or over drafting and the pumping of fossil water increases the total amount of water within the hydrosphere subject to transpiration and evaporation processes, thereby causing accretion in water vapour and cloud cover, the primary absorbers of infrared radiation in the earth's atmosphere. Adding water to the system has a forcing effect on the whole earth system, an accurate estimate of which hydrogeological fact is yet to be quantified." EMsmile (talk) 14:31, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

Removed more content

This content doesn't fit for this high level article. It is also full of opinions and has not enough references. Perhaps something can be salvaged from it, but right now I can't see what: +++++++++++++ "Role of corporations: The actions of corporations have historically posed a significant threat to clean and affordable water, with Onondaga Lake, the most polluted lake in America, serving as a prime example. During the late 1800s, people began building near the lake for the beautiful scenery and natural water that it provided. As the area began to develop, a sewage treatment plant was built as well as multiple industrial chemical plants. Because of the lack of environmental protection controls, the industries began to dump waste and chemical byproducts into the lake. The practice continued for years until the lake was closed to swimming in 1940 and closed to fishing in 1970. It was not until 2015 when the lake was reopened for swimming, at a combined cost of "$1.1 billion in public and private money."

Wind and solar power such as this installation in a village in northwest Madagascar can make a difference in safe water supply.

Construction of wastewater treatment plants and reduction of groundwater overdrafting appear to be obvious solutions to the worldwide problem; however, a deeper look reveals more fundamental issues in play. Wastewater treatment is highly capital intensive, restricting access to this technology in some regions; furthermore the rapid increase in population of many countries makes this a race that is difficult to win. As if those factors are not daunting enough, one must consider the enormous costs and skill sets involved to maintain wastewater treatment plants even if they are successfully developed.

Reducing groundwater overdrafting is generally politically unpopular, and can have major economic impacts on farmers. Moreover, this strategy necessarily reduces crop output, which has been argued to be impractical given the current population.

At more realistic levels, developing countries can strive to achieve primary wastewater treatment or secure septic systems, and carefully analyse wastewater outfall design to minimize impacts to drinking water and to ecosystems. Developed countries can not only share technology better, including cost-effective wastewater and water treatment systems but also in hydrological transport modeling. At the individual level, people in developed countries can look inward and reduce over consumption, which further strains worldwide water consumption. Both developed and developing countries can increase protection of ecosystems, especially wetlands and riparian zones. There measures will not only conserve biota, but also render more effective the natural water cycle flushing and transport that make water systems more healthy for humans.

A range of local, low-tech solutions are being pursued by a number of companies. These efforts center around the use of solar power to distill water at temperatures slightly beneath that at which water boils. By developing the capability to purify any available water source, local business models could be built around the new technologies, accelerating their uptake. For example, Bedouins from the town of Dahab in Egypt have installed Aqua Danial's Water Stellar, which uses a solar thermal collector measuring two square meters to distill from 40 to 60 liters per day from any local water source. This is five times more efficient than conventional stills and eliminates the need for polluting plastic PET bottles or transportation of water supply. " ++++++++++++++ EMsmile (talk) 11:05, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

References

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Some Proposed Changes

Hello, I am employed by Boston University's Fineman & Pappas Law Libraries. After reviewing this Wikipedia page, I believe that information from one of our faculty's scholarship might provide a valuable addition to this page. I would appreciate it if this requested edit could be reviewed.

Addition to section on Africa:

Africa

Some countries in Africa have attempted to address issues with water scarcity by instituting a water permit system. Under such a system, local rules are used to grant users access to a certain amount of water at certain locations. However, such systems sometimes result in additional issues, as water rights can be monopolized by large-scale irrigators at the expense of smallholder farmers in the region.

Cf2022 (talk) 04:08, 6 January 2021 (UTC)Cf2022

Hi @Cf2022: Please proceed with your suggested edits above. Thank you! Orville^talk 06:23, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

I have removed this addition of text because the same content was already added in water scarcity in Africa. Does not need to be included in both pages. EMsmile (talk) 01:17, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Written like a persuasive essay

I just checked one citation from the lede, for "Humanity is facing a water crisis" and the source cited doesn't even say that. They ask the question "Is humanity sleepwalking into a crisis?". This article is written like an opinion piece, asserting controversial things without proper citation. Gigs (talk) 23:13, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

Hi Gigs, thanks for pointing this out. Let's fix it. The article is currently part of a student assignment. Would be great if student editor User:AndrewTRTL23 could improve that. Do you have further examples where you noticed persuasive or essay-like language? EMsmile (talk) 03:25, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

Removed further reading list

I have removed this "further reading" list. If any of these are very important, please add them as in-line citations instead:

• An International Food Policy Research Institute book about the intersection of water policy, globalization and food security: Ringler, C., Biswas, A., and Cline, S., eds. 2010. Global Change: Impacts on Water and Food Security. Heidelberg: Springer.
• Steven Solomon (2010). Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization. Harper. p. 608. ISBN 978-0-06-054830-8.
• Alexander Bell (2009). Peak Water : Civilisation and the world's water crisis. Edinburgh: Luath. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-906817-19-0.
• Peter H. Gleick, ed. (2009). The World's Water 2008–2009: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Washington D.C. : Island Press. p. 402. ISBN 978-1597265058.
• Maude Barlow (2007). Blue covenant : the global water crisis and the coming battle for the right to water. New York : New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton. p. 196. ISBN 978-1-59558-186-0.
• Richard Heinberg (2007). Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines. Gabriola, BC : New Society Publishers. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-86571-598-1.
• Larbi Bouguerra, Mohamed (2006). (3 October 2006). Water under Threat. Fernwood Publishing. ISBN 9781552662021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Engelbert, Ernest A.; Ann Foley Scheuring, eds. (c. 1984). Water Scarcity: Impacts on Western Agriculture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Jameel M. Zayed. "No peace without water: The role of hydropolitics in the Israel-Palestine conflict". London.

EMsmile (talk) 07:42, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

Review by content expert (Aug 2021)

I am currently involved in a 2-year project where we contact content experts and ask them to review selected articles in relationship to SDG 6, SDG 13 and SDG 14 (more information here). When reaching out to people I am in particular looking for textbook authors who might enjoy teaching others and parting with their knowledge. For this article I have approached Mesfin Mekonnen who kindly provided a review which I have copied below. (Mesfin was a co-author of Arjen Hoekstra - a world expert on water scarcity who passed away in 2019). I plan to address Mesfin's comments in the next few days. If anyone has any reactions at this stage, please feel free to comment below.

–        Introduction

• The current definition of water scarcity/stress provided refers to “water scarcity” and excludes the water stress component, which needs to be improved. Please see the Pacific Institute’s brief definition
• I see you have a separate page on economic water scarcity. I think this should be merged and discussed together. Please refer to Comprehensive Assessment and the Volume 1-Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk.pdf WWDR4
• Second line “ ….. plus a sharp rise in global freshwater demand in recent decades driven by industry” Agriculture is the primary driver of water demand, not industry. In the second paragraph, you clearly stated the main drivers of rising demand: population growth, income growth, changes in consumption patterns, and so on. Please revise the opening paragraph.
• Paragraph 3 – I agree that supply-side and big infrastructure thinking is a problem. However, the text appears to blame infrastructure without providing context or connecting the need for supply and demand side management. The previous paragraph stated that there is enough water on an annual and global scale, but the issue is more of a temporal and spatial variation. If that is the case, how do you address the temporal and spatial variations in the absence of reservoirs and pipelines? It is necessary to have a well-planned infrastructure with demand side management. Both supply-side and demand-side management have advantages and disadvantages.

-         Terminology

• Economic water scarcity misses reference – Please add reference to Comprehensive Assessment and the Volume 1-Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk.pdf WWDR4
• Water crises – the crises are not only due to quantity but quality also matters.

-         Water stress and indicators – lacks substance.

• There are many water scarcity indicators. Each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Please highlight some of the indicators: Falkenmark’s Water Stress Index, withdrawal-to-availability ratio, consumption to availability ratio. A good review is available here Rijsberman (2006) and  Liu et al (2017)  
• The text reads indicators are used to rank countries. Indicators are used to measure the extent of the water scarcity not to rank countries.

-         Approaches – Virtual water trade is one means to address water scarcity. Please add reference to the virtual water page EMsmile (talk) 03:55, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

Merge economic water scarcity to here

I am suggesting to merge economic water scarcity to here. I think this should be merged because that page has remained small and insignificant (low pageviews) for many years now and is unlikely to ever be developed into a fully-fledged article. This is also in line with the reviewer's comments above who said: "I see you have a separate page on economic water scarcity. I think this should be merged and discussed together. Please refer to Comprehensive Assessment and the WWDR4". EMsmile (talk) 12:52, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

I've completed the merger now. EMsmile (talk) 04:07, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

I'd like to also merge physical water scarcity to here. EMsmile (talk) 07:39, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

I'd say go for it-- it'd definitely receive more attention under this page's umbrella. TijlBogaerts (talk) 14:31, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Done (last week), I just forgot to close the loop and mention it here. Thanks for reminding me, TijlBogaerts. EMsmile (talk) 14:37, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Cheers, thanks, EMsmile! TijlBogaerts (talk) 14:40, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 19 January 2021 and 6 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): AndrewTRTL23.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:48, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2021 and 20 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mtorre2vu, AOCHEFU, Hwasnak, Kolvera, Carson2019, Fikiki123, Mkerns11.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:48, 18 January 2022 (UTC)