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Chapter 18: Water Use and Management

• Water Resources• Major Water Compartments• Water Availability and Use• Freshwater Shortages• Increasing Water Supplies• Water Management and Conservation

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Water Availability and Use• Worldwide: 69% agriculture, 25% industry, 6% domestic

Similar to Fig 17.12

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Notice huge difference between low and highIncome countries!!

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Freshwater Shortages

• 1 billion people without safe drinking water

• Groundwater sources being mined

–Rivers dry up

–Land subsides

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Increasing Water Supplies

• Storing and moving water (Dams, etc.) –

– Benefits• Power generation

• Flood control

– Drawbacks• Decreasing somewhere?

• Environmental costs

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Similar to Fig. 17.15

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Similar to Fig. 17.13

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Water Management and Conservation

• Conservation Equivalent to New Supply!!– Every gallon saved is equivalent to a new gallon

supplied– Example from movie?

• What is the best way to get people to conserve water?– Price at true value cost

• Cost of supply– Cost of US water should double to ensure supply for growing

population

• Scarcity value

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Movie: Cadillac Desert, Last Oasis (on reserve in library)

• America’s big dams – everybody wants them– INDIA Namadar River– CHINA Three Gorges Dam

• Freshwater sources for large populations in dry areas• Conservation?

– MEXICO Mexico City, class inequities– MIDDLE EAST– AMERICAN WEST

• Critical Thinking Question:– Is there a shift in a country’s approach to water resources that

accompanies the shift from developing to developed?

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Water flows across national borders!!

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Privatization of Water

• Water rights owned by private corporation instead of municipality– Promoted by World Bank– Isolated cases in USA

• Benefits? Drawbacks?– Read handout on privatizing water in

Cochabomba, Bolivia

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The End.

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