Water Scarcity and the Importance of Water

Clean, safe drinking water is scarce. Today nearly one billion people in the developing world don't have to access to it. Yet, we take it for granted and we waste

Water is the foundation of life. And still today, all around the world, far too many people spend their entire day searching for it. In places like sub-Saharan Africa, time lost gathering water and suffering from water-borne diseases is limiting people's true potential. Education is lost to sickness. Economic development is lost while people merely try to survive.

What is Water Scarcity?

Simply put, water scarcity is either the lack of enough water (quantity) or lack of access to safe water (quality).

It's hard for most of us to imagine that clean, safe water is not something that can be taken for granted. But, in the developing world, finding a reliable source of safe water is often time consuming and expensive. That is known as economic scarcity.

Egypt (NAYD Egypt Records)

A common questions asked by visitors to Cairo is "Can I drink the tap water?" Many locals have no problems with drinking the tap water. The Nile River is Cairo's main source of water and begins in Burundi and Uganda passing though the Sudan, where it joins up with the Blue Nile, whose origins are in Ethiopia before flowing onto Egypt. How pure is the water once it reaches Cairo?

While Cairo's tap water is heavily treated, the issue is Egypt's wastewater and it's treatment, as wastewater is dumped into the Nile. The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation's web site concedes reducing effluent will be one of its greatest challenges for the future.

External Factors

Upstream of Cairo (i.e to the south of the City) the Nile receives large flows of mostly untreated domestic, agricultural and industrial wasterwater.
Between the Aswan High Dam and Cairo, 43 towns with populations exceeding 20 million and approximately 2,500 villages discharge their waste into the Nile.
Most of the residents in the region depend on irrigated agricultural for the livelihood and 2.9 billion m3 of drainage water loaded with fertilizers, pesticides and organic material is returned to the Nile annualy upstream of Cairo.
More then 50 major factories discharge more than 250 million m3 per year of industrial waterwater with little treatment.
Internal Factors

Contempory rapid and almost chaotic growth of Cairo makes accessing the drinking water and wastewater networks difficult. Expansion of water supply networks without the parellel construction of sewage systems, or the rehabilitation of existing systems has lead to serious water pollution problems.
Arctic Blue Waters mission is to harvest pure bulk Arctic water and transport it by good-grade to ships to regions of the world where drinking water has become polluted or depleted.
If you would like more information about Arctic Blue Waters or a quote for a Bulk Water shipments please contact us on 01277 232223 or email us.

Image above form frbiz.com