The Consequences of Wasting Water

The consequences of wasting water are many and troubling. Human developement depends on water. It is predicted that in the next few years, there will be a worldwide water shortage. In the next few years the world population will grow and there will be more industries which will put a strain on the earth's water supply. This would could eventually cause death, drought, and hundreds of factories having to close down which would put thousands of people out of work. However, this is only in the most extreme case.

Currently we are not being as conscientious about our water usage as we could be. This has already had some effects on various bodies of water and on various ecosystems as well.Ponds, rivers, and lakes all over the world have dried up (like the one above) because their water supply has been used up by extensive farming and (in certain very warm regions) of severe droughts. In Ontario, we have a large amount of freshwater but in the Prairies, there is hardly any. A major concern is that when this worldwide water shortage begins, what will people who live in places with little freshwater do for drinking water and water for their crops? This could be a huge problem for the Prairies because on of their major sources of revenue is agriculture. With less water, there would be more of a chance of their crops failing. This would kill the economy in the Prairies. Alberta also uses a lot of water to refine their oil and if there was severe water rationing, then they would have a hard time refining as much oil as they do today, which means of course, less revenue. Already China has said that "over 300 of their cities are running short". This is partly due to the fact that China's rivers are severely over polluted but this is also due to the countries naturally small water supply, overusage and 1 billion people who use water everyday.

It seems to me that most people just shake their heads and think that the water is fine for now and all these catastrophes will happen somewhere down the line. Unfortunately, experts predict that our children's generation should see water shortages. If you think of it that way, the horrific consequences of water shortages seem a lot more real and not so far off at all.