"Inequality in Water Distribution" by Andrew An

More than 70% of the Earth is covered with the Earth, and there are a lot of fresh water bodies around us. This abundance of water makes a big discrepancy with the global water crisis happening right now. This is because of the bad distribution of fresh water. Although there is a sufficient amount of water for everyone to live, it is not accessible for some people. While some people are going to water parks and luxury resorts, other people are walking for an hour to reach the water fountain on the other side of the fountain. Some teenagers are not even able to attend school since they should go and get some water for their family. Although it is important to increase the total amount of water available on Earth, the unequal distribution of water is the problem that should be solved before that.

There are two types of water scarcity: physical water scarcity and economical water scarcity. Physical water scarcity occurs when the demand for water outstrips supply, often due to arid climate and low rainfall, while the economic water scarcity is where water is available but people can’t afford it or the infrastructure is inadequate. Both times are caused by the unequal distribution of the water. Physical water scarcity is caused mostly due to the region that they are living in. If the drought occurs frequently in that specific region, there is a high probability of people living there suffering from the water scarcity. Economical water scarcity is a more severe issue since it is more prevalent. According to FAO, approximately 1.6 billion people face economic water shortage every year. This is either because they are not able to afford for water as an individual or because the country does not have money to build infrastructure required for providing freshwater to their citizens. 

Access to fresh and clean water is part of our human right, regardless of the economic status of the country that they are living in. This is because clean water is essential for every human to live. The scientists state that people are not able to survive more than three days without water, and contaminated water can cause life-threatening waterborne disease. Another problem is that LIC does not have a medical technology to cure people from these waterborne diseases, and a lot of people are actually dying from it. Owing to these regions, distributing water equally around the world is even more important. 

The effort to solve this problem can simply start from changing daily habits to save water. For instance, simply taking a shower for a shorter time or putting bricks in the toilet tank. By decreasing the amount of wanted water, we can increase the water available for other people. Although this will be of minor impact, this can make a significant change if a lot of people work together. Developing scientific technology is also key in addressing this issue. The technology to purify water at a cheap cost is required to provide freshwater to more people around the world.