Water Case

WATER CASE IN THE WORLD

Water resources have always played an important role in history of

civilizations. Today water gains ground as a vital part of life and the ecosystem.

Water is a source for sustainable agriculture, energy generation, industry and

tourism, besides being a main human need. Water, a vital source for human

beings and other living organisms is a limited source. The availability of

utilizable water in nature changes in time and with location. In other words the

amount of water is constant but the distribution of water resources over the

world is unbalanced.

Total quantity of water in the world is around 1.4 million km3 and 1.365 million km3 of which is saline water (% 97,5) and 35 million km3 is fresh water (% 2,5). 97 % of this fresh water is found as underground water. Utilizable amount of fresh water found in lakes, rivers, dams‟ reservoirs constitute only

0.3 % of total fresh water and 90 % of fresh water resources are found at

poles and underground, which shows us the scarcity of fresh water available.

The distribution of water resources in continents with their population

percentages are given in the table below.

In the last century world’s population increased three times whereas the

demand to water increased seven times. According to the results of the studies

carried by UN, World Bank and some other water institutions in 2000‟s, 50 to

100 milliard dollars is needed to decrease the number of people to half, having

no access to clean water resources. It is expected that more than 3 milliard

people will face water scarcity upon 2025.

WATER CASE IN TURKEY

Turkey is a water stress country in terms of its water resources.

Renewable water resources of Turkey is decreasing in quantity, when

increasing consumption due to the facts of population growth, urbanization

and industrialization, is considered.

Annual precipitation amount is 501 milliard m³ 37 % of which (186 milliard m³) is surface runoff and 95 milliard m³ of its is economically utilizable. The renewable water potential is 234 milliard m3 and 41 milliard m³ of its is underground water and 193 milliard m³ is rivers. The economically and technically utilizable under ground water potential is 12 milliard m³ annually. 8.8 milliard m³ of its is allocated by DSI and 6 milliard of its

is recently used. 95 milliard m³ of the utilizable underground and surface

water potential of Turkey is obtained from national rivers and 3 milliard m³

from neighbouring rivers making in total 98 milliard m³. The underground

potential is 12 milliard m³ . However these resources are distributed unevenly.

Turkey is not a rich country in terms of

existing water potential. Turkey is a water stress country according to annual

volume of water available per capita. The annual exploitable amount of water

has recently been approximately 1,500 m3 per capita. Turkish Statistical

Institute (TURKSTAT) has estimated Turkey's population as 100 million by 2030.

So, the annual available amount of water per capita will be about 1,000 m3 by

2030. The current population and economic growth rate will alter water

consumption patterns. As population increases, annual allocated available

amount of water per person will decrease.

WATER FOODPRINT

For nearly all human purposes, we need freshwater as it occurs on land.

Salt water as it occurs in the ocean is not useful for drinking, washing, cooking,

field irrigation or for most applications in industry. Salt water can be

desalinized,but this is a costly and energy-intensive process.

In short, humans mainly depend on freshwater as it occurs on land. Although water forms a cycle, so that freshwater on land is continuously replenished, its availability is not unlimited. Per year, people need a certain volume of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes, which cannot exceed the annual replenishment rate. The major question is therefore: how much freshwater is available over a certain period and what is man’s actual appropriation of this flow in this period? Water footprint accounting provides the data for answering the second half of the question. The water footprint basically expresses human appropriation of freshwater in volume terms. Comparing man’s water footprint with the actual freshwater availability is part of a water footprint sustainability assessment

The water footprint is an indicator of freshwater use that looks not only

at direct water use of a consumer or producer, but also at the indirect water

use. It means that every product such as meat, egg, T-shirt, boots…etc. needs

water in the process of producing. Water is not visible but it’s needed to

produce food, goods and services thay you consume every day. Water footprint

measures the volume of freshwater used along the entire food chain from

production to waste disposal. It is given water footprints of some products in

the following list:

Water foodprints of some products

A portion of red meat (200 gr) 3.100 liters

A portion white meat (200 gr) 780 liters

A sliceof bread 40 liters

A cup of coffee 208 liters

A glass of tea 30 liters

A glass of milk (It is five times more than powder milk.) 200 liters

A portion rice 150 liters

A cube sugar 7,5 liters

A portion cheese ( 75 gr) 375 liters

A packet of potato chip (200 gr) 185 liters

A glass of beer bira 75 liters

A glass of wine 120 liters

A hamburger 2.400 liters

An orange 50 liters

A glass of orange juice (200 ml) 170 liters

A A4 paper10 liters

A pair of leather shoes 8.000 liters

Shared responsibility

One can argue that consumers are responsible for what they consume,

so they are also responsible for the indirect resource use related to their

consumption pattern. In this sense, consumers have responsibility for their

water footprint and should undertake action to ensure that their water

footprint is sustainable. Finally, water is a public good, so governments cannot

withdraw from their responsibility to put proper regulations and incentives in

place to ensure sustainable production and consumption. It will be maintained

here that consumers, producers, investors and governments all have a shared

responsibility. From a global point of view, reducing the water footprint has a

vital importance for the humanbeings.

Consumers can reduce their direct water

footprint (home water use) by installing water-saving toilets, applying a water-

saving showerhead, turning off the tap during teeth-brushing, using less water

in the garden and by not disposing of medicines, paints or other pollutants

through the sink. The indirect water footprint of a consumer is generally much

larger than the direct one. A consumer can basically change the consumption

pattern by substituting a specific consumer product that has a large water

footprint by another type of product that has a smaller water footprint.

Examples include: eating less meat or becoming vegetarian, drinking plain

water instead of coffee, or wearing less cotton and more artificial fibre clothes.

This approach has limitations, because many people do not easily shift from

eating meat to being vegetarian and people like their coffee and cotton.

However every person has something to reduce consumption of water as

an individual. Every day you can do something and you can choose to reduce

consumption. By reducing consumption by 2500 liters, each of us can

contribute to the water nedded for 50 people. Reduce waste! Remember:

whenever you throw away a slice of bread you are wasting 40 liters of water,

whenever you throw away an apple you are wasting 70 liters of water,

whenever you throw away an egg you are wasting 135 liters of water.