Water Crisis

Millions if not billions of people do not have access to clean drinking water and are forced to drink contaminated water. In California it is estimated that if a different source of water is not found by 2020 there will be a shortage of water that is equivalent to the amount they consume now. Also there is some concern that the Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035. The Himalayan glaciers are the source of Asia's biggest rivers, the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, and others. Even cities in the USA, like Atlanta, are facing water crisis.
One of the ways that people are using to get more drinking water is called desalination. Desalination is the process of taking water (like sea water) and removing salt and other minerals from the water to make it drinkable. This method is good for countries that are next to the sea, but don't have any fresh drinking water. Israel is a leader in the field of water desalination. The Hadera seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in Israel is the biggest seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in the entire world. Israel has 3 desalination facilities in operation right now and 2 more on the way.

One way we can help stop conflicts over water is to use methods like desalination to make

more drinking available to more people. In the Middle East lives 5% of the world's population,

but they only have 1% of the world's fresh water. Israel and other countries are thinking of ways

to solve this problem. As mentioned earlier, one way the create more available drinking water is

desalination.

There are many simple ways we as a class can conserve water. We could all bring water

bottles to school instead of drinking water from the fountain, because that wastes water. If you do

drink from the fountain though, make sure to let go of the button when taking breathes in

between drinking the water. Also turning off faucets when you see that it isn't fully turned off, and

also to tell maintenance if you see a leaking faucet, that can save 3000 gallons of water a year.