A PRECIOUS RESOURCE

Although water covers about two-thirds of the Earth's surface, one person in five has no access to safe water. So how did this happen? Water has been the Earth’s most precious resource since the beginning of human civilization but now we are facing a global water crisis, which needs an urgent solution.

There are several reasons for the water crisis. One is the simple rise in population, and the desire for better living standards. A bathtub contains 150L water however, lots of poor people cannot obtain even 30L water just for their daily needs. Moreover, an American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day. Another reason is the wrong policies. For example, the Aral Sea, which is in the center of Asia was turned into a lake. In 1900 the Soviet Union cut the connections of rivers which provide water to the Aral and used that for growing cotton in desert areas of Asia. There are lots of examples of wrong policies all around the world that brought us to where we are today. Thirdly, pollution is making more of the water that is available to us unfit for use. An estimated 700 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrheal sickness every day. All in all, there are various reasons which have brought us to this situation.

Mankind has created the water crisis and therefore should find solutions to stop it. First of all, rulers should enlighten people to make them understand the urgency of this problem. Secondly, governments should provide credits to farmers for establishing a water friendly solution which is called the drop system. The drop system gives plants water drop by drop and it does not waste a single drop. Thirdly, more serious precautions are needed for population. For example punishments should be higher for a factory which has not got a waste treatment facility. I have just found three solutions however, if all people think seriously on this topic I am sure we can solve this problem.

To sum up, we have a history of meeting great challenges using imagination and our great capacity to adapt. We must use our knowledge, experience and institutions to catch up with the overwhelming progress of science and technology, and learn how to become both good neighbors for each other and good guests of the natural environment.




Elif Tahmiscioğlu
11 TMA 21