Chapter 4- Human Dimensions of Water for Food Production (original) (raw)
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Water Scarcity- Challenging the Future
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The latest world water development reports (UN-Water, 2009) observe how the various global crisis reported recently-in climate change, energy, food security, economic recession and financial turbulenceare related to each other and have impacts on water. Water Scarcity is a growing threat to our global economy, society and even to the survival of human beings. The crisis that we face today is mainly due to water pollution especially in the field of agriculture. Pollution can be anything from oil, to carcasses, to chemicals and to fecal matter, whatever the cause it majorly affects the global population. The world is moving towards a direction where water is becoming costly hence not affordable by the majority of people. As far as India is concerned it is gifted with many water bodies but due to improper management and unscientific industrial development. We are staring at the increase in the death of rivers. Erratic development plans mean our future generation is in major threat, sustainable development plans mean our future generation is saved from such major threat, sustainable development is the hour of need. Apart from government policies, the change needs to come from the grass-root level. This paper deals with water use and savings for the future. It also highlights the importance and threats of water scarcity and the challenges that will be faced by future generations. Highlights m Erratic development goals have endangered the future generation. m Threats of water scarcity and its challenges.
Global Water Issues and Insights
2014
The economics of water concerns the measurement and effective management of the trade-offs across its many competing uses (and non-uses) over time and in different locations. Measurement requires estimation of the costs, benefits and risks associated with alternative uses of water. For example, these alternatives could be: (i) keeping water in the river to support ecosystem services, (ii) extracting it for a town's water supply, or (iii) using water to irrigate a rice crop. Effective management ensures that society's objectives for water use (for example, environmental sustainability, sanitation and waste disposal, or food production) are achieved by supporting methods to allocate water that favours higher value uses (including non-uses) and ensures that basic water needs are met. Measuring the value of water The challenge of measuring the value of water across different settings is that it is used as an input or intermediate good in many production systems and, thus, has multiple and possibly competing values as a factor of production. But water can also be a final product, such as drinking water, washing, or waste disposal, and also has value in situ, such as when water is not extracted from a river to generate or retain ecosystem services and benefits. The market benefits of water in production processes or direct use can be determined from market transactions, such as the price at which water is traded in a market or water's derived demand in the production of a crop or product.