ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE: WATER SCARCITY

Environmental Issue: Water Scarcity

Environmental Issue: Water Scarcity

Introduction

Water is recognised as a vital resource to any land and people living there as it fulfils their requirement in various ways. However, it is also a fact that shortage of water not only in the United Kingdom but also throughout the world has indicated for the emergence of water crisis at a global scale (Chin, 2012). It would not be wrong to say that shortage of water is affecting both the developing and developed countries like United Kingdom. It can be seen that water is available to every region in the country but despite of this huge water supplies, Wales region is facing an increasing shortage in relation to its growing population. Studies show that consumption of water by Wales' residents is more than 7.3 gallon per day (Postel, 2002). This means, residents of Wales do not receive water supply like their country fellows in other regions just because of the considerable water crisis in the region.

Similarly, the demand of water has been significantly increased in the region and scale of water demand also affected the hydrologic cycle that plays an important role to administer the supply of fresh water in the Wales region. There is no doubt about the fact that growth in Wales's population has brought impacts not only on water but on other land resources and overall environment including the land, climate, forests, animals, air and residents (Chartres & Varma, 2010). It is also important to discuss that role of green house effects cannot be avoided in this regard as it also contributes in the scarcity of resources in any region. In addition, there are various earth properties and the amount of energy that directly comes from the sun also affects the environment (Postel, 2002). In fact, these can be seen as major factors that bring warming effects to this earth and affect the warming level of this planet. This plays a vital role in lowering the level of lakes and rivers in arid areas of Wales. This paper aims to understand the scarcity of water, its quality, and availability in relation to growing population of the Wales region in the country.

Discussion

Wales Region and Water

In current geographical and ecological situation, water can be seen as a most scarce resource in the Wales region where different stressors contribute in shortage of water. These stressors are demands in energy, change in climate, agriculture irrigation, economic condition and increase in the variability of hydrologic (Chartres & Varma, 2010). However, growing population in the nine-county Wales region has been identified as a major factor that has significant impact on the shortage of water. It has been seen that population, industrial and business growth drives the development of land and demand of water in this region (Postel, 2002). It is also essential to discuss that population growth creates demand for the water as existing water availability only meets the requirements of a certain amount of ...